Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to faithful word Baptist Church. Very good. See you all here for our Sunday morning service
Find your seats, please and take a hymn. I'll go to him
374 will begin this morning hymn number
374
374 send the light hymn number 374
There's a call comes ringer the restless wave him number
374 sing it out on that first together now
There's a call comes ringing or the restless wave send the line
Send the line
There are souls to rescue there are souls to save send the line
Send the line
The blessed gospel lie, let it shine From shore to shore, send the light
The blessed gospel lie, let it shine Forevermore
We have heard the Macedonian call today Send the light, send the light
And the golden offering at the cross We lay, send the light
Send the light, send the light
The blessed gospel light, let it shine
From shore to shore
Send the light, the blessed gospel light
Let it shine forevermore
Let us pray that grace may everywhere all bound
Send the light, send the light
And the Christlike spirit everywhere be found. Send the light, send the light, send the light.
The blessed gospel light, let it shine from shore to shore.
Send the light, the blessed gospel light, let it shine forevermore.
In the work of love, send the lie, send the lie Let us gather jewels for a crown of love
Send the lie, send the lie, send the lie The blessed gospel light, let it shine from shore to shore
Send the lie, the blessed gospel light, let it shine
forever more. Amen. Good start to our singing this morning. We're gonna go
before Lauren has his blessing on the service so I've asked for the Jason
next side if we would listen for it please. Dearly Father Lord, thank you for
allowing us to be in church. Please bless the music as we sing praises unto you
and please fill Pastor Anderson with the Holy Spirit. As can Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen. Hymn number 228, number 228.
I love to tell the story, hymn number 228, 228 begins.
I love to tell the story of unseen things above.
Let's let our voice together now.
On that first hymn number 228.
I love to tell the story of unseen things above.
I said
To tell the old old story of Jesus and his love
I want to tell the story
He's a sad beautiful
All the last
Thank you for watching.
All right, at this time, we'll go through our announcements
together. If you don't have a bulletin,
slip up your hand nice and high and we'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service times.
Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at six.
Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study.
We'll be back in the book of Psalms this Wednesday
with Psalm 74.
It's really a great section of the book of Psalms,
the Psalms of Asaph.
And there are just a lot of really great truths
in these passages.
So I'm looking forward to preaching through those
in the coming weeks.
Below that, we've got a list of the soul winning times,
salvations, baptisms, and then we had another cruise
missions trip this week.
This was just myself and Pastor Shelley,
and then we also teamed up with Kenton
when we were in Nassau, so three of us total,
and we had 76 salvations for the week,
so it was a really big success.
So, thank you for your continued support on that.
And I know you guys heard a great sermon from Pastor Russell on Wednesday night from Straight Paths Baptist Church down in Tucson.
And then keep praying for our expectant ladies that they will have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
The food donations, of course, typically on Wednesday nights, we have a lot of good stuff.
And then on the back, mark the calendar for the annual
Mother-Daughter Tea Party at the Spicery.
Two dates are available.
You've got to RSVP before the slots fill up,
because when they're gone, they're gone, gone, gone.
So you have to make sure that you sign up
because these do typically tend to fill up.
And usually we have three dates,
but just because of timing and logistics, only two dates.
We usually have three, there's only two this year,
so gotta make sure that if it's important to you
that you get in there.
Don't RSVP though unless you're serious. It's totally free as all of our church activities
But obviously somebody's got to pay for it
So I want to be a good steward of those funds by taking your RSVP
seriously and then
Yeah, just make sure that you also when you do RSVP either by emailing the church or using the Facebook members only group
That you give details such as this is who's going this is how old they are and stuff like that
Not just like I'm interested or something, you know
You need to say like it's three people going one adult two children. These are their names
You know just give us a little bit of data to work with so that we can get the seating arrangements figured out and
know how many people to expect.
And then below that, other upcoming events.
Of course, the Brother Segura-led
cruise missions trip is going to be leaving
a week from today.
I'm not going to be on that trip.
I'm going to be here preaching,
but Brother Segura is going to be leading a crew
of about 25 people.
So, you know, I'm really excited to see
what God's going to do with that many people
in such a receptive place of Nassau.
Freeport, Bimini, a lot of great soul winning opportunities.
So I think that's gonna be a huge mission strip.
I'm super excited for the results of that one.
And then Pastor Mejia is preaching for us
next month, April 9th,
KJV conference up in Portland, Oregon
on May 15th through 18th,
and that's about it for announcements.
So let's go ahead and sing our next song, come lead us.
All right, you should find the instrument
from your hymnal with the hymn titled,
be thou my vision.
If you don't have an answer, please raise your hand and you'll receive one.
We'll sing it on that verse together.
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart.
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence, my life, Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word.
I ever with Thee, and Thou with Me, Lord.
son.
Thou with me dwelling, and I with me one.
Be thou my battleships, or more.
Thou be Edward, O power of my power, Riches I keep, not more than empty praise, Thou mighty inheritance, Thou and always, Thou and always.
My treasure thou art, I think of heaven, my victory won.
May I reach Heaven's door.
Hey man, good singing everybody. Take your hymns down and turn to hymn number 106, hymn number 106.
Abide with me, hymn number 106.
Sing it on that first together, abide with me, fast, falsely, even time, hymn number 106.
As
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Man, good singing this morning.
All right, at this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles
to 2 Corinthians, chapter number four.
2 Corinthians, chapter number four.
As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter,
beginning in verse number one.
Follow along silently with Brother Dan as he reads.
2 Corinthians, chapter four, beginning in verse number one.
2 Corinthians 4 the Bible reads,
for we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
We are troubled on every side yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
for we which live are always delivered unto the death for Jesus' sake,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
So then, death worketh in us, but life in you.
We, having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore
have I spoken, we also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the
Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you.
For all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving
of many redown to the glory of God, for which cause we faint not, but though our outward
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
While we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Father in heaven, thank you for your son Jesus Christ who died to pay for all of our sins and then he rose from the dead
I also thank you for the earnest of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all your children
And I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson as he preaches your word so that your children not just in this congregation
But elsewhere in the world will also be blessed and Jesus name I pray man
Man, the title of my sermon this morning is We Preach Not Ourselves, We Preach Not Ourselves.
This is taken from 2 Corinthians chapter 4 in verse number 5 where it says,
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
Now I'm going to back up though to the beginning of the chapter and we're going to go through most of this chapter.
on this idea of we preach not ourselves.
The first thing I want to bring out of this passage
is that number one, we preach the gospel
because we have received mercy.
Look at verse number one.
It says in verse number one,
therefore seeing we have this ministry.
as we have received mercy, we faint not.
And the idea here is with mercy,
it's basically not getting a punishment that you deserve, right?
So you've committed crimes, we've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God,
and we deserve the wages of sin, the punishment for our sin,
but we've received mercy.
And so now we have this privilege
of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
that we don't really deserve.
Not only do we not deserve to be saved,
We don't really deserve to be ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ representing the most powerful
creator of the universe, right? Jesus himself. And we're ambassadors of Christ. We don't deserve
that. We've received mercy. And here's the thing about that is that because we've received mercy,
we don't faint. And in the context of preaching the gospel to other people, the idea here is
It shouldn't just be like, oh, well, great, I'm saved,
my sins are forgiven, I'm not going to hell,
but I don't really care about everyone else.
Like, I've received mercy.
Paul is saying here that it motivates him not to faint because he doesn't want to quit on other people, right?
Other people are relying on us to get the gospel to them.
How can we quit on other people when we've received such great mercy?
And this idea is found in verse 3. It says,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God
should shine under them. And so, according to verse 3, when we don't preach the gospel, if we hide the gospel under a bushel,
then it's other people who lose. You know, if our gospels hid,
it's hidden to them that are lost. And so, because we've received mercy,
we faint not because we want other people
to receive mercy. It made me think of that Old Testament Bible story. We don't have to turn there for sake of time.
But if you remember the city of Jerusalem had been besieged and so no one has any food
Everybody's starving and people are just eating all kinds of gross things and just anything that they can find
Well, there are these four lepers who pretty much just had nothing to lose because they're dying of leprosy anyway
And so these four lepers they are just so starving and hungry. They just decided to just turn themselves into the enemy
because they said if the enemy kills us, then we'll die.
Well, you know, we're dying anyway.
We're already starving anyway.
We already have leprosy anyway.
And then maybe they might even give us a little food
before they kill us or something,
or maybe, you know, they'll make us slaves,
but at least they'll feed us.
So these four lepers,
they end up going into the enemy camp
to just turn themselves in.
But when the four lepers get to the enemy camp,
they find it just completely deserted and abandoned.
And so God had performed a miracle where he caused them to hear this other huge army coming and get scared and run away.
And so because they fled, they left a bunch of their stuff behind.
So basically these four lepers are just walking into the tents and just finding everybody's lunch and just eating food.
They're just having a veritable smorgasbord of just meal after meal and they're just eating and chowing down.
But then after doing that for a few minutes or hours, they said, hey,
We do not well, this isn't really right for us to just be chowing down and feasting and partying
when we know that everybody in that city is starving, nobody has any food,
and then the four of us are just here just whining and dining.
This isn't right, we do not well, we need to tell other people about this, okay?
So then they go back into the city and they tell
the king and at first the king and the citizens don't believe them.
They think it's like an enemy trick and that they've been sent to trick them.
But then sure enough they verify it and yeah the camp's empty
and then everybody's chowing down, everybody's feeling great and happy
and you know God ended up blessing and they ended up winning the war.
But the idea here is that we have been saved.
We're like those four lepers where we have gotten this amazing bounty
And if we just keep it to ourselves, that'd be wrong for us to do that.
You know, and we should want to share the wealth.
and share the salvation with other people.
And so he's saying, look, we've received mercy,
and so therefore we faint not.
And so thinking about the fact that we've been saved
should make us want to get other people saved as well.
And obviously it can be exhausting,
it can be tiring, the Christian life can be exhausting,
problems, and maybe persecution can wear you down.
Why do we keep, what keeps us going for six months, a year, five years, ten years, 20 years of soul
winning? What keeps us going? Well, you know what? It's because we've received great mercy.
And that's why we faint not because of the fact that God has blessed us. And so remember the title
of the sermon is, We Preach Not Ourselves.
It's not that we're so good, we're so great, hey, let's go promote ourselves.
No, here's what it is.
It's that we don't even deserve to even be here.
We don't even deserve to be saved.
We don't deserve to represent Jesus Christ, but we've received that mercy.
He gave us something that we didn't deserve.
He cut us some slack.
He gave us a break.
And because of that, we want to get other people that same forgiveness.
And so that's why we don't faint.
We keep going.
you know, and just enjoy it for ourselves, right?
It'd be super selfish.
People are relying on us and if our gospel is hidden,
it's hidden to them that are lost.
That's point number one.
Point number two is that we sincerely preach
the truth from the heart.
And what do I mean by that?
We don't have an ulterior motive for preaching the gospel.
We're not preaching ourselves, and we're not preaching for ourselves, okay?
We don't have an ulterior motive.
The motive is preach truth.
Get the gospel out there.
Look at verse number two.
It says, we have renounced, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth
commending ourselves to every man's conscience
in the sight of God.
So he's saying, when we preach the gospel,
there's nothing dishonest about our preaching.
There's nothing crafty.
We're not handling the word of God deceitfully,
as many people do.
We're not twisting scripture.
But we are honestly, from the heart,
preaching what we actually believe.
We really do believe it.
And we're trying to preach that to other people
for their benefits that they can be saved.
And so that Christ can be glorified
and that Christ kingdom can be advanced.
We were out soul winning this week in the Bahamas,
and we're at the University of the Bahamas,
and there was another group that just happened to be there
at the same time as us from the Church of Christ.
And if you know anything about Church of Christ,
there's sometimes called Campbellites,
and it's a totally heretical cultic group
following this Campbell guy,
and they believe that there's seven steps to salvation.
So it's not salvation by faith alone, it's repent of your sins, give baptize, speak in tongues and they believe you can lose your salvation and just totally the wrong doctrine.
So I walked up to these two girls that were sitting at a picnic table and it was a white girl and a black girl.
It turned out that the white girl was from this Church of Christ group. I didn't realize that.
The black girl was a local, you know, student of the university and so I walk up and I say
Do you know for sure if you died today you're going to heaven and the white girl jumps in like oh, yeah
I know for sure. I said, what do you think it takes together? Oh, you know repentance and baptism
You know she's giving all the wrong answers of a of a works-based salvation
And so I said to her I said well, you know what actually I said we believe
Something totally different than that
So we believe that salvation is by faith alone.
Are you open to that idea at all of salvation just being by faith?
And she's like, no, I'm not at all open to that.
I've studied it out, you know, I'm super confident in what I believe.
And so I was just like, okay, no problem, you know.
See you later.
And she goes, but hey, I just want to really thank you guys, though, for being here and
preaching the gospel on the campus.
Keep up what you guys are doing.
Just keep doing what you're good.
And I'm thinking to myself, I just finished telling you that I'm preaching the exact opposite
message of what you're preaching.
I'm literally telling people not to believe in your stupid lies,
and then you're going to be like, hey, thanks for doing that.
And it's funny, I told that story in a video that I made about the soul-winding trip,
and then one of my Facebook friends comes on in comments,
and he says, yeah, he says, I have an aunt that's Pentecostal,
and she actively goes around telling people that I preach a wrong gospel,
and that I'm preaching false doctrine,
but then she comes to me and thanks me,
says, hey, thank you for sharing the gospel. Thank you for preaching lies. Thank you for
preaching false doctrine, right? From their perspective.
And you know what? That tells me, it just tells me that these people don't, in their heart, actually really believe anything.
They have some other reason for preaching the gospel. They have some other ulterior motive.
It's not about truth. It's not about enlightening people with the real Word of God. I don't know what they're doing,
but why in the world would I, let it be like if a Jehovah's Witness can write,
hey, thanks for, you guys are lying and you're going to hell, but hey, thanks for doing this, guys. Good job preaching heresy.
It's madness, but I'll tell you why it's because they don't really believe anything
And out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh
I'm not gonna thank people for preaching the opposite of what the Bible says
The Bible says let them be accursed if they preach a false gospel and guess what we can't both be right here
One of us is teaching salvation by faith another teaching salvation by works. They're not both right and of course
We're right and they're wrong and so I just thought that was just so telling
about how insincere these people are,
which is they're gonna flatter us and thank us
and say how wonderful we are,
even though we just finished talking about the fact
that she is not even open to what I'm preaching at all
because she just thinks it's 100% wrong
because she's in the candlelight cult.
Number three, so number one, we said,
we preach the gospel because we've received mercy.
Number two, we sincerely preach the truth from the heart.
We preach not ourselves, but we preach Christ.
And the doctrine comes from the Bible.
It's not from our own heart.
We don't have an ulterior motive.
It's about Jesus being glorified.
Number three, the gospel is about Jesus, not you.
The gospel is about Jesus, not you.
Look what the Bible says in verse five.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord,
and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ."
So notice what the Bible is saying here in verse 6,
that the knowledge of the glory of God is found in the face of...
Jesus Christ, right?
So that's how we give the light of the knowledge of the gospel.
It's about Jesus, not about ourselves.
We preach not ourselves, we preach Christ Jesus our Lord.
What is the power of God unto salvation?
Romans 1.16, one of the most famous verses.
For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
So the power of God unto salvation to everybody who believes is the gospel, okay?
What is the gospel?
Well, a very narrow view of what the gospel is would be like 1 Corinthians 15's definition
that says that the gospel is that Christ Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures
and he was buried
and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures, right?
So, in its narrowest view, the Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But in a broader view, the Gospel is also just referring to basically the entire story of Jesus
Christ. You know, this is his birth, his sinless life, his death, burial, resurrection, his ascension,
just the whole story of redemption, salvation by grace through faith as a free gift through
Jesus, you know that'd be the broader view of what gospel means the narrower view would be death barrel and resurrection of Christ
If you want to write it on the back of a postage stamp, but the bottom line is
that it's about Jesus.
That's where the power is.
The powerful message is not,
here let me tell you my life story.
Or let me show you what a great person I am.
You need to get to know me
and I'm going to win you to myself.
No, it's about Jesus, right?
The gospel is about Jesus.
Focus on Jesus.
Focus on the word of God.
Focus on the gospel.
And look, we go out and we do this successfully.
I mean, we were out this week, right?
Pastor Shelley, myself, Brother Kenton,
of course people from our church
are out doing this every week.
We're out there and what do we do?
We're not going around telling people about ourselves.
You know, a lot of times we could have a whole big conversation with somebody,
preach the gospel to them, win them to Christ, get them saved and walk away
without virtually telling them anything about ourselves.
I'm not telling them, hey, this is where I'm from, this is where I grew up,
this is what I do for a living. You know, sometimes those things come up.
But guess what, a lot of times they don't.
because it's not a big infomercial about you as a person or me as a person.
It's really about the gospel of Jesus. That's where the power is.
And, you know, we do sometimes hang out and get to know people,
maybe after we preach them the gospel and chat and talk about just fun things.
But at the end of the day, though, you know, the gospel message, we don't preach ourselves.
We preach Jesus. That's what the Bible is saying, right?
And here's why this is so important, and this is my fourth point.
preaching the gospel as an imperfect person
does not make you a hypocrite.
It does not make you a hypocrite
because this is where a lot of people get mixed up.
They say, well, you know what, I'm backslidden
or I'm living a sinful life
or I'm not a very good Christian.
Therefore, I don't think I'm a good representative of Jesus.
Like, I don't think I should be preaching the gospel.
And you know what I say? That's hogwash.
Okay, and here's why that's hogwash is that you're never a hypocrite when you're preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ unless you're teaching works based salvation.
Now if you're teaching works salvation and you're going out and telling people to work
their way to heaven and then you're not doing the work, that would make you a hypocrite,
wouldn't it?
If you said, hey, you got to turn from all your sins to be saved and then you didn't
turn from your sins, that'd be hypocritical.
But what is the gospel message? The gospel message is that we've all sinned
Okay, so let me ask you this if you're a sinner and then you tell everybody hey, we've all sinned
Are you being a hypocrite?
Quite the opposite aren't you if you tell people hey the Bible says all liars shall have their part in the lake
Which burneth with fire and brimstone
Which is the second death. I've lied before. Have you lied before?
Yeah, so we've lied before. You know, the Bible says all liars are going to hell.
Am I a hypocrite for preaching that message?
It's the opposite, right?
I often tell people when I'm out so many that the thought of foolishness is sin
and that even just thinking something stupid is a sin.
And so we probably all sin every day, just from thinking something stupid.
Hey, the Bible says to him that knoweth to do good and do with it not, to him it is sin.
How many good deeds do we skip in a day?
How many opportunities for serving God,
or reading our Bibles, or praying,
or preaching the Gospel, do we skip in a day?
None of us is perfect.
We've all sinned, we all come short of the glory of God,
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
So if I preach that, I'm a hypocrite
because I'm not living good enough?
Does that make sense?
See?
But people will sometimes get hung up on this like oh, I need to really clean up my life first
I really need to you know
Be a really good Christian before I can share the gospel
You know so that I'm not being a hypocrite, but here's the if the message is we're all sinners
How is that a hypocritical message?
Okay, what's the next part of the message is that Jesus died for our sins that he was buried there was good when we
explained to them the life and work of Christ
How can that be a hypocritical message when it's not even about us at all?
We're just telling about Jesus.
And then when we get to the part about what you have to do to be saved,
we're telling them that it's all by believing in Jesus.
Now let me ask this, do you believe in Jesus?
Then you're qualified to tell other people to believe in Jesus.
You believe in Jesus.
You're telling them to believe in Jesus.
How could that be hypocrisy?
It can't.
Is everybody following the logic here?
Then, when you explain to them how we can't lose our salvation, because if we sin on this
earth, we'll get punished on this earth, whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth, and scourges
every son whom he receiveth, and we're preaching to them how we will get earthly chastisement,
but he will never leave us nor forsake us, because nothing can separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Oh, how dare you preach that when you're backslidden.
Folks, the whole message is that even if you're backslidden, you're still saved.
And that's what you're telling them.
So even if you were backslidden, you'd just be living proof of what you're saying.
Now look, obviously I'm not saying it's good to be backslidden.
You shouldn't be living a worldly life, a sinful life.
I want you to be living a godly life, right?
That's what Christ wants, that's all.
Keeping the commandments, living a good life, going to church,
reading our Bibles, praying, keeping ourselves pure,
singing hymns of praise to God and being filled with the Spirit of God.
Yeah, that's what God wants.
That's going to make us an effective preacher of the Gospel.
It's going to be making us more effective.
But what about getting started?
Do we have to wait until we get mature to get started?
No, it's nonsense.
Don't let the devil put that thought in your ear
of oh, you're too sinful, you're too bad,
you're too backslidden, don't go soul winning.
Don't present, no, you are ready to go soul winning.
As long as you're saved, you're ready.
Now, if you would go to John,
keep your figure there in second, Corinthians.
But John 15 is another place that we could look at if you want to flip over there
And this is where Jesus is giving the parable where he says that he's the true vine and his father's the husband man
And this is where he talks about how without Jesus Christ you can do nothing
Right so in order to be successful as a Christian
You've got to abide in Christ right that so in the long run you want to be a successful Christian
You want to be successful at winning people to Christ? You got to abide in the vine
You got to abide in Christ in order to be successful. Okay, but look what he says in verse 2
He says every branch in me. This is John 15 to every branch in me that beareth not fruit
He'd take it away and every branch that beareth fruit. He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit, okay?
So purge, a very similar word to purge is purify, right?
These are kind of synonymous in many ways, okay?
Etymologically, almost the same.
They both start with P-U-R and they're related.
And so the idea here is that the biblical order is not,
get your life all cleaned up and then go soul-winning.
That's not the biblical order.
No, the biblical order is go bring forth some fruit.
Number one, right out of the gate.
Bring forth fruit that is step one not step two step one is bring forth fruit after you're saved
Step number two is God
Purifying you purging you making you a better Christian a better servant of God so that you can step three bring forth more fruit
So it's not like okay. Let me clean up my life. Then I'll go soul winning. No, here's the order go soul winning
Get some results. Amen
Then get purified then get bokeh results
That's the order right bring forth fruit get purged bring forth more fruit get purged again
Bring forth more fruit get purged again, but what is the starting point? Who does God even purge?
Oh wait, let me get clean up guys. I've been purging you because you're not even bringing forth fruit
He's just he doesn't have time for you
You're not even producing
Okay? You've got to start by bringing forth fruit.
You know, look at the woman at the well, right?
The woman at the well is living in fornication.
She's living, she's already had five husbands
and now she's living with a dude that she's not married to.
Right? That's a pretty messed up situation.
And yet, what does she do?
The first thing she does is she just goes out
and starts telling people about Jesus
and a whole bunch of people get saved as a result.
So was she qualified?
Was she a bad ambassador for Jesus
when she went from the well to the town
and told everybody about Christ
and brought people to Christ?
Was she a bad testimony, bad witness, bad example?
And you know what's so funny?
And look, I am 110% for
us having a good testimony.
We should all strive to have a good testimony.
We should all strive to live as clean of life.
You understand what I'm saying, though.
What I'm saying though is if you have sin in your life don't add another sin by not witnessing
That's just sin on top of sin if you got sins in your life. Okay. Well at least get one thing right preach the gospel
Here's one thing you can do right even if you're on your sixth husband or whatever
You know bring people to Jesus at least do that right
And so look, I'm obviously not saying,
hey, your testimony doesn't matter.
No, but here's what I am saying though,
is that the testimony is overemphasized by some people
as basically just an excuse for their lack of fruit production,
lack of soul winning,
or to try to discourage people from soul winning.
And here's what I mean by that.
They'll make this big deal about oh, you know, you guys aren't perfect. So you're turning people away from Christ
And you know what I'm thinking to myself is is you know, are you are we sending them from hell number one to hell number two?
Is that what's going on like everybody was heading to hell number one?
And then we offended everybody and now they're going to hell number two look mostly people getting offended or not saved
Anyway, they were already going to hell before we came along. They'll already be going to hell after we're gone
Okay, so it's funny our church goes out and just gets tens of thousands of people saved and then this preacher whose church has
Zero soul winning. I'm not even going to say his name because he's not even worth mentioning
Because he has his church has no soul winning program
Not even one soul winning time on the calendar. His church does not have an organized soul winning program
Not in it doesn't believe in
Dordard or soul winning the way that we do it at all
100% non-soul winning bro, and here's what he said well
Yeah, you know faithful word won a lot of people to Christ, but how many people do they turn away from Christ hmm?
And the idea here is it's like so weird we're just getting tens of thousands of people saved
Oh, but we sent some people from hell number one to hell number two over like do you really think that there's all these people in the world
They're like you know I was gonna believe in Jesus, but Steven Anderson exists therefore
Not gonna believe in Jesus
And here's the thing, let's say there were like one or two people like that, or three people like that,
and then we're over there just winning tens of thousands of people.
Meanwhile, you're doing Jack Squat!
Right?
You're doing Jack Squat!
And what does the Bible say?
He that gathereth not with me, scattereth!
So who's scattering the flock?
Who is scattering?
It's the one who's not gathering with Jesus!
And so everybody's just worried about, hey, we don't want to offend this world.
Hey, we got to make sure the world thinks we're good.
Hey, the world's going to hate you.
The world hated Jesus.
You're not going to make this world so happy that they just come to Christ by osmosis.
No, they're going to come to Christ when you preach Christ.
Oh, we're not perfect.
Oh, we offended people.
Oh, we said some stuff that, you know, hey, here's the good news.
We're not preaching ourselves.
We're preaching Christ.
If we're preaching Christ, we're not preaching ourselves, then, hey, it is what it is.
And you know what, yeah, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
You know, but I'd rather be doing something when in somebody or a bunch of somebodies than
to be a nothing sitting by the sideline just criticizing someone who's doing something.
And look, we got some great soul winners in our church.
We got some movers and shakers in our church, and you know what, if you wanted to, you could
you could pick some of the people in our church,
Faith Forward Baptist Church,
who do some of the most soul winning,
who are spending hours and hours
putting in a bunch of time and effort
and getting a bunch of people saved.
And if you wanted to,
if you pulled out the magnifying glass,
you could find everything wrong with those people
and tear them down and pick them apart.
But you know what, that just makes you a big loser
if you do that.
Because I'd rather just say, hey, the work is awesome.
You know and look obviously that doesn't mean we're going to turn a blind eye to gross sin or something, right?
Obviously look if somebody's out there drinking committing fornication those things have to be dealt with
But I'm just talking about imperfect people and
And you're gonna sit there and just pick apart good people good so you know and just say you take a magnifying glass to me
Yeah, you're gonna find problems with me too
You know because we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none, right? Just no not one including this preacher
I am also imperfect and if you examine me and you you know just just
Scrutinize me. You're always gonna find something wrong
Okay, and that's just the way it is, but you know what it just makes you a big loser for just
criticizing people who are doing stuff
Just to make yourself feel better about the fact that you doing almost nothing
It's a really bad way to live your life.
You know, and here's the thing, you know, God wants us to bring forth fruit so that
we can become a better person.
Not become a better person and then now you've achieved, you know, achievement unlocked ability
to give the gospel.
No, that achievement is unlocked the moment that you're saved.
The moment you're saved, you're ready to tell other people how to be saved.
And so don't get this backwards.
We want to become fruits or we don't want to become fruit.
We already are fruit, okay?
But what we want to do is we want to become fruitful
so that we can become a better person.
And here's the thing, what you'll find,
people who do put in a lot of effort of soul winning,
they do put in a lot of time,
they do put in a lot of hours and effort
out there preaching the gospel, they become better people.
Why?
God's purging them so that they can bring forth more fruit.
God does purify those people. It's a symbiotic thing though.
It's a back-and-forth of you bring forth fruit, you get purged, you bring forth fruit,
you get, you know, and it's just a kind of a give-and-take and the two things are working together,
not like you get one totally done and then you do the other, right? We do both at the same time.
We don't just go soul-winning all week.
We don't just go soul-winning every day.
I mean, someone from our church is out soul-winning every day.
But even people who go soul-winning a lot,
they typically aren't going to go every single day.
What are they doing on the other days?
You know, they're working on themselves.
They're working on other things.
They're reading their Bibles.
They're spending time with their families.
They're praying.
They're working a job, right?
We're doing all kinds of stuff in our lives,
and it all happens at the same time.
So don't make this prerequisite for getting to a certain level
before you're ready to share the gospel.
No, you need to get into that ASAP.
Get into it start open in your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel
So just a super quick review number one. We preach the gospel because we've received mercy
Right. It's mercy. It's grace. It's not our birthright. It's not something that we would deserve by our own goodness
number two we
Sincerely preach the truth from the heart
It's God's message, not our message, and we don't have an ulterior motive.
We do it for Jesus, not ourselves.
Number three, the gospel is about Jesus, not you.
We don't want to overemphasize ourselves when we're preaching the gospel.
We want to focus on Jesus and the gospel because that's where the power is.
Number four, preaching the gospel as an imperfect person does not make you a hypocrite.
Okay, back in 2 Corinthians 4.
This is one of my favorite soul winning verses,
2 Corinthians 4-7.
I don't use it out soul winning.
I think about it when I go soul winning.
And I remember back 20 years ago,
I had a soul winning partner named Brother Reggie, okay?
And Brother Reggie and I would go soul winning together.
20 years ago, not different Reggie.
But anyway, Brother Reggie and I would go soul winning
and we would literally
Every Saturday when we would go soul-winning, we would read this verse every Saturday.
It was a ritual that we did.
We would literally go to 2 Corinthians 4-7 and we would read it or we would quote it.
We would pray this to God.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of
God and not of us.
And every single time we went soul-winning, we said, God, it is not us.
The Excellency of the power, it's not of God, excuse me, it's not of us.
Gotta get that right.
The Excellency of the power, it's not of us, it's of God.
And we would always just remind ourselves of that.
We would remind God of that and we would say, look, without you, I can do nothing.
The Excellency of the power, it's of God.
It's not of us, you know, and I think about that when I preach a sermon.
But I mean when I go soul winning this is like this is one of my kind of like theme verses for soul winning second Corinthians
47 and it has been for like 20 some years and
So being an imperfect person doesn't make you a hypocrite. You're an earthen vessel
Okay, you know in the modern version we have this in jars of clay
I think it's like a rock band called jars of clay or something, you know
And that that's where this comes from like a wrong version of this, you know
But we're in an earthen vessel and if you think about an earthen vessel
It's not it's not even necessarily gold or silver or Nate, you know, it's kind of just a really basic kind of earthy
primitive
piece of pottery an earthen vessel
So we have this treasure, this amazing treasure of the gospel in like a cheap container.
Be like, we have the gospel in a Tupperware or something.
You open a Tupperware, and it's filled with diamonds and rubies and stuff.
You open one of those Styrofoam to go packages that you get from a fast food place, like
the Panda Express two-item combo or whatever plate, and you just kind of open it up.
It's full of necklaces and jewels and precious stones, right?
That's what it's saying.
It's like we have this treasure of the gospel in an earthen vessel, in a clay pot, right?
Why?
is of God, not of us, okay?
And so again, being an imperfect person
and preaching the gospel doesn't make you a hypocrite.
We should all do the best that we can,
but step one is to get out there
and start preaching Christ.
But number five, we sacrifice ourselves
for the sake of others and the gospel.
And this also goes back to what we said earlier.
You know about the fact that we don't have some ulterior motive where we're doing it for ourselves
Like like these but because there's a thing when people are going out and preaching a false religion
They must have an ulterior motive
Just just stop with me for a second, and I hope that you heard my sermon some of you Sunday morning glories
I hope that you heard my sermon from last Sunday night, even if you weren't here
I hope that you tuned in or download it and if you haven't I
Highly recommend why because of the fact that the main point of that sermon was this
Liars believe lies
wicked people believe lies, okay, and that
Believing lies is wicked just like lying is wicked so is believing lies
That's wicked too according to the button
I you know I showed you all the scriptures and not gonna repreach that sermon, but here's the idea here
You got Mormon missionaries going out and preaching the gospel
No, they're not are they they're going out and preaching lies
They're preaching garbage. They're preaching their weird Joseph Smith bring him young colt
Yeah, I said bring him young not bring him young
But you got, you know, it's lies, so stop thinking about it.
Are they sincere?
Oh, they're so sincere, they just really love Jesus, they just really love the Lord.
You know, are they though?
Are they though?
I mean, what does the Bible teach that false prophets are sincere?
I mean, does the Bible teach that, you know, false prophets are sincere but they're sincerely wrong?
Look, there are a lot of religious people out there that are sincere and they're sincerely wrong.
That's why we're out, you know, trying to get them saved.
But when you cross the line from just being a victim of a false religion
to being a purveyor of a false religion,
when you're like spending years of your life to go out and spread your false religion,
sorry, you're no longer a victim anymore, you're the perpetrator now.
And the Bible talks about people preaching false gospels and preaching, you know, lies that they're wicked people.
And the Bible, you know, and if you need proof on that, read the chapter 2 Peter chapter 2 and the entire Epistle of Jude.
It makes it super clear that false prophets are usually reprobates.
Okay, they're evil, they're wicked, bad people who are out doing...
It's not like the Pope is just this really nice guy and, you know, he's just got confused
about which religion is the right religion.
No, he believes lies because he's wicked.
And so here's the thing therefore when these people why are they going on their two-year mission?
Are they going on a two-year mission because they just love God so much love Jesus so much just want to they just love
The truth so much they just want to spread truth
You know I don't really know what their motive is but whatever their motive is
It's trash and their works are trash and their motives trash
You know and maybe I don't know if it's just to fit in in their religion or what you know to get whatever
Accolades they get or you know, maybe they just want to see the world or get money or get accolades
I don't really know what's in it for them. I don't really care. All I know is they're not serving God
They're not serving Jesus Christ. They're serving their own bellies. That's what the Bible says about these wicked false teachers
Their God is their belly
They're serving their own interests
They're not serving Jesus Christ
And so we have the right motive if we're preaching the right gospel and it says, you know, here starting in verse eight, the point is we sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others and the gospel.
Look at the Bible says in verse eight, we're troubled on every side.
yet not distressed, were perplexed but not in despair,
persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
For we which live are all way delivered unto death for Jesus' sake
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh
and then look at the Cudei Gras here in verse 12,
And what's he saying here?
Death worketh in us, but life in you is that as preachers of the Gospel, we're kind of
quote-unquote taken one for the team.
We're taken one for the team, right?
We get maligned, slandered, persecuted, attacked.
Many Christians have over the years been thrown in jail, beaten, whatever, right?
Hebrews chapter 11, sawn asunder, you know, tortured, whatever.
The apostle Paul said,
yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,
I joy and rejoice with you all.
You know, I'm going to be sacrificed so that you can be saved.
Right? Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake
that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
He's saying, look, I do it so that people can get saved.
I'm doing it for them.
If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost.
And he says, look, we're perplexed.
We're troubled on every side.
We are persecuted.
We're always, verse 10, bearing about in our body
the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body,
for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake.
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
But he's saying, look, we're not just doing it for Jesus, we're also doing it for you.
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
He's saying, I'll die to get other people eternal life.
I'll lay my life down so that other people can have eternal life.
So think about this, when we go out soul-winning, there's two things going on. Number one, it's our love for Christ that's constraining us.
And number two, it's our love for other people that's constraining us.
And a lot of people say,
well, you guys go soul-winning because you love God,
but you guys just don't love people.
That's impossible because the Bible literally says
that if you don't love your brother whom you have seen,
how can you love God whom you've not seen?
If anybody says, I love God and hate his brother, he's a liar, the Bible says.
So it's like, you can't say like, oh, this person just super loves God, but they just don't love other people.
They don't love the lost. They don't love their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Impossible!
Because it's impossible to separate loving God from loving others.
These two go hand in hand. People who love God the most love others the most.
People who love others also love God.
or else they're not truly loving others because love is of God and everyone that
love it is born of God and know with God.
And so the idea here is that we are motivated
both by love for Jesus Christ and also love for other people
so death worketh in us but life in you.
We're perplexed, we're distressed, we're persecuted, we're always bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus
so that Jesus can be glorified and so that you can go to heaven. So you can be saved. So soul-winning, preaching the gospel,
witnessing for Jesus Christ is
taken one for the team, as it were.
Sacrificing your time, your energy,
and doing it for other people, and frankly,
opening yourself up to criticism, attacks, and persecution,
because the Bible says,
yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
You don't want to be persecuted, then don't do anything.
You know, if you start winning people to the Lord,
you start preaching the gospel,
you start witnessing to friends and family,
expect there to be a little bit of pushback.
You're not just going to just get away with it.
You know you're gonna get punished for doing that for preaching, but it's worth it
You know you got you open yourself up to persecution so that people don't go to hell
You know and I think about all the the garbage that I've been through in my life
And it's like well if I could push a button and undo bad things that have happened to me
But then these people over here would go to hell for eternity. I'll never push that button
I'd rather just my life just completely go down the toilet and just circle the drain and get sucked down into the toilet
if it means other people going to heaven.
Because even if I live the most, you know, just dismal life on this earth, I'm going to heaven for all eternity.
Whereas people who aren't saved, you know, whatever I go through like on my worst day on this earth is not as bad as going to hell.
You know what I mean? Like whatever they're going through is so much worse. You know, this kind of I didn't have this in my nose
But this is kind of popped into my mind
You know we're on a hiking trip one time and one of our friends got hurt and I had to and we're you know
We'd already been hiking throughout the day
We were like really tired and I had to hike out to try to get help for our hurt friend
And I was like trying to jog this uphill
trail and it was really hard because even just hiking this trail is hard and I'm
trying to like jog it and stuff and I remember just you know my sides hurting
you know you get the stitch in your side and I mean my legs are hurting my
feet are at my side and I'm all out of breath and then I'd start you know I'd
go back to walking and then I'm just thinking like he's in more pain than I
am
He's the one who's injured like I would much rather feel the way I'm feeling than the way he feels because he's actually hurt
And then I'm like trying to push myself harder push myself again
But here's the thing frankly though, even though I always had that thought in my mind
He's in more pain than I am
There were times when I slowed the pace because I'm just like dang this hurts man. I need I gotta slow down a little and
Part of me is like yeah, but he's hurting more
And then, you know, I got the shoulder angel telling me,
like, he's hurting more, go, push yourself.
The shoulder devil's like, dude, this hurts.
Let's just, you know, stop and take a drink of water
for a minute here.
And I'll be honest with you, it's kind of a mix of both.
You know, sometimes I was pushing myself hard.
Other times I was just like, well, sorry, man,
this is all I can do.
And you know, that's kind of our lives, right?
We're living our lives.
And sometimes we're pushing ourselves hard for God,
saying, well, you know what?
No matter how much persecution I endure,
whatever sacrifices I make,
if I give up houses, lands, mother, father, brother, sister,
wives for the gospel, say, you know,
if I give up those things,
You know, it's a small price to pay to get people out of hell
But then other times we're just like yeah, but I just really want to have that that nice car
I really want to have that I really want everybody to like me though
You know or whatever and I think that none of us is good is gonna be
Perfectly on the side of just always
Sacrificing our own personal comfort and personal agenda always for Christ
You know if I got up here and just said hey, I'm just always
Maximum, sacrificing everything for Jesus.
I'm always sacrificing my own,
obviously that wouldn't be true, would it?
You know, it's kind of like we're sacrificing
and we're not sacrificing.
But the more that we think about Christ
and what he did for us,
the more that we're filled with the Spirit,
the more that we love other people,
the more we're going to put aside our own agenda
and do what?
Push ourselves a little bit.
For God and look let's face it getting started out. So when it can be a little bit nerve
You know you can be nervous. It could be awkward. Maybe you're a little embarrassed a little bit shy
I've talked to some people that said well, I'm afraid to go so many because I'm afraid I'm gonna run into someone
I know
But the good news is we're in a city of like five million people here the chances of that are so super slim
You know and and you know if it happens. I'm sorry
You know you run into like your boss at work or something
You're your first time soul in a and you knock the boss's door, you know
Just go to neighborhoods where you know your boss doesn't live because those are the more receptive areas anyway, right?
Go to those poor areas where your boss doesn't live and then you'll be fine
But the point is that yeah, you know, there's or witnessing to family
or inviting a friend to church,
inviting a family member to church.
You know, you get scared, your heart's pounding,
you're nervous, you're shivering,
and you're thinking like, oh man,
I'm so embarrassed to do this.
But you know what?
Why don't you get out of your comfort zone a little bit
because Christ got out of his comfort zone
when he died on the cross for you.
Yeah, that's right.
Right?
I mean, you've not yet resisted
under blood striving against sin.
He's out of his comfort zone and
Unsafe people are dead sure going to be out of their comfort zone when they split hell wide open
And so therefore we should be willing to take one for the team because look our lives are so good anyway
Our eternity is so good. We're dialed in. Hey, it's worth it to take one for the team
Sacrifice a little bit so that other people can be saved and that's what Paul's saying here death work within us
But life in you
And so here's the conclusion of the whole sermon.
Do not be focused just on yourself all the time.
Be a part of something that is greater than you.
Be a part of something bigger than you.
And here's the thing, if you're a part of faithful word Baptist church.
Obviously, we want you out there, you know, preaching the gospel, soul-winning.
We'd love to see you on mission strips.
We'd love to see you show up at a soul-winning time.
We'd love to see you get involved and get your hands dirty actually doing the work.
But you know what?
At least even just by being a member of Faithful Word Baptist Church and just coming here, supporting
our ministry and being a part of the team in any capacity.
at least you are a part of something greater than yourself.
I'm a part of something greater than myself
because this is a killer team that is out there
tearing it up, preaching the gospel, winning souls, doing stuff.
So like being a part of this church is like,
man, I'm a part of something big,
part of something where there's action.
People are getting saved.
Look, other churches, sorry,
but you go there for years and people aren't getting saved
and nothing's really happening a lot of the time.
Say whatever you want, but our church like stuff happens here
things happen
You know, and it's like you're part of something big. It's exciting to be a part of something big
But you know when you just go through life just kind of focused on yourself
It can get depressing
Even if you get everything you want it can still get depressing just being focused on yourself will depress you like nothing else
Be a part of something bigger be a part of something greater than you and you know what that is
It's the work of Christ
Because you know, it's even bigger than our church is just even broader than just our church is just being a part of
Getting the gospel to the world
Which all Christians should be part of even even outside of our church lots of other churches are involved as well
Be in part be a part of that
greater pursuit of getting people saved, okay?
And here's the thing, preaching the gospel
out of all the pursuits that we could have in our life,
preaching the gospel is the ultimate pursuit.
Okay, look what the Bible says in verse 17,
I'll close on this thought.
It says, for our light affliction,
so all the persecution, distress,
all the bad things that we go through,
all the sacrifices we make,
maybe getting made fun of, maybe losing a job,
getting criticized online, whatever.
to having friction with family or friends.
That's light affliction,
because you've not yet resisted under blood striving against sin.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment in the scheme of things, right?
Because, you know, life is long and eternity is even longer.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us, and don't miss this phrase,
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Now, think about the glory that's going to be revealed in us
as servants of Christ.
The Bible says, I reckon that the sufferings of this life
are not worthy to be compared with the glory
that's going to be revealed in us.
And we think about the weight of that glory, okay?
You put it in a scale whatever glory you could earn by becoming an actor actress rock star athlete
Famous entrepreneur millionaire billionaire, whatever and then you put the glory of
Being a part of this team preaching the gospel winning souls
This is a far more exceeding weight of glory like it's not like which way is it gonna go? It's just like
The whole scale just tips over and breaks
because it's just such a far more exceeding weight of glory
than even people that are the most famous people
in the world right now, 1,000 years from now,
2,000 years from now, that won't be the case.
Who is the top musical artist in the 15th century?
Name any musical artist, 15th century musical artists.
Let's go, 1400s.
What were the big hits?
Nobody's sure, okay. Now let's go back 8th century BC.
Nobody knows, right? Okay, who was
named the pharaohs of Egypt, most powerful nation in the world at that time?
Let's go back to like pharaohs of Egypt, you know, for
300, Alex. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, like, you know, pharaohs of Egypt
when, you know, let's go 1500 BC.
Let's go, you know, maybe, you know, you can name three of them or four of them or five of them, you know
If you're if you're into it, but what about the other like 50?
Yeah, Ramses, Khufu, Kaffrey, Tide, okay
But you know what that's like a tiny percentage of how many pharaohs ruled in Egypt over the course of the century
How many pharaohs were like the most powerful political leader like you know right now everybody knows who Donald Trump is
Right now, right?
Everybody knows who Putin is.
Everybody knows who Zelensky is, right?
Because these are kind of the characters
that people are talking about right now.
But what about 100 years from now?
You know, there are some presidents where you're like,
what, there was a president named Franklin Pierce?
Wait, Mount McKinley was named after a president?
There's a president McKinley?
You know, like, obviously, again, if you're into it,
if you're into history, you could,
I know you can rattle off all the presidents, okay?
But what I'm saying is most people
would look at these presidents,
some of them be like, Grover Cleveland?
You know, who's he?
What did he do?
I don't know.
But man, there was a time when he was a really important guy.
Fast forward 500 years,
nobody's gonna care about Grover Cleveland.
They're just not.
But at the time, he was super important.
So here's the thing, not only is it a far more exceeding,
and these are like glories that the average person is never going to reach anyway,
being the president of the U.S. or something,
being the top musician or whatever.
But even if you did reach those levels,
serving Christ is a far more exceeding weight of glory,
number one, but number two, it's also a far more exceeding weight,
it's also an eternal glory.
It's eternal glory.
You earn a reward in heaven that fade if not away.
And this is why serving Christ is the ultimate pursuit.
Preaching the gospel of Christ is the ultimate pursuit.
Evangelizing and spreading the word of God is the ultimate pursuit.
And I'm not just talking about as a pastor or as an evangelist.
I'm just talking about as a Christian.
Because here's the thing.
Not everybody is cut out to be a pastor or an evangelist.
You know, we don't want to have all chiefs and no Indians.
And so, a lot of people are going to serve God by just being a great wife, a great mother,
a great father, a great church member.
But you know what?
While you're a great mother, also win souls to Jesus Christ.
While you're a great plumber, while you're a great carpenter, while you're a great computer
programmer, while you're a great electrician, also win souls to Jesus Christ, okay?
Because at the end of the day, that is the ultimate pursuit.
Because hey, if it makes me a little uncomfortable,
take a little of my time, little of my money,
little of my energy, well, you know what?
Hey, other people are going to hell.
You're going to heaven.
Can you help, can you help them out a little?
You know, basically like you're sitting on the lifeboat
and you're just like spreading cheese on your crackers
and like everybody around you is drowning.
and you've got like a stack of life preservers in the boat
that you could be like throwing to people,
but you're just like, well, no,
because I'm really hungry.
You don't understand how long it's been since I've eaten.
I've got to spread this cheese on these crackers
and I got to eat this,
and this guy's just going to have to drown
because I'm hungry.
I mean, a guy's got to eat.
And again, I think that we all do that a little bit
to an extent, but you know what,
at least some of us do spend part of our time
hurling life vests.
to the drowning man of this world.
Yeah, we spread cheese on crackers as well,
but other times we're hurling that life vest.
You know, and then you got 99.999% of Christians
who never will touch the life vest.
And they just, when they're done spreading cheese
on crackers, they're just gonna take a nap.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory
Well, we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen for the things which are not seen or temporal
But things which are the things which are seen or temporal but things are not seen or eternal
So we need to get eternities values in view
Right. We need to think eternity
How do you think that way?
Well, you know, being in church will remind you that,
because like when you woke up this morning,
maybe you weren't thinking about heaven and hell,
maybe you weren't really thinking about winning the lost,
maybe you weren't really thinking about evangelizing,
but now you are, because you came to church.
So this is what reading the Bible will do for you.
Coming to church, getting around other Christians,
it's to remind you of what we're supposed to be doing here.
and get you ready to make some sacrifices for the team.
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.
The message is not us.
The worthiness is not us, you know, and it's not for us.
It's us actually sacrificing for the team.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
We thank you for your unspeakable gift of salvation.
And Lord God, I pray that we would share that
with other people.
and that we would never listen to the devil's lie
that somehow we're not good enough, we're too back-slidden,
and that we're pushing more people away from Christ, because of course we know the true story is
that the number one way to push people away from Christ is just by not witnessing.
That's the number one way. And so help us not to be guilty of that, Lord.
Help us to open our mouths boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Amen.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, take your handles.
Please go to hymn 384, hymn 384.
In the service of the king, hymn number 384.
Be on that first together.
I am happy in the service of the king, hymn number 384.
Sing it out now.
I am happy in the service of the king.
I am happy, also happy.
I am peace and joy that nothing else can bring.
In the service of the King, in the service of the King
Every talent I will bring
I am peace and joy and blessing
In the service of the King
I am happy in the service of the King
I am happy, oh so happy
Through the sunshine and the shadow I can sing
In the service of the King
Every talent I will bring
I have peace and joy and blessing
In the service of the King
I am happy in the service of the King, I am happy, oh so happy,
All that I possess in Him I gladly bring, In the service of the King, in the service of the King,
Every talent I will bring.
High at least and joy and blessing in the service of the King.
Amen. Good singing this morning. We are dismissed.