It's always good to come back and see familiar faces, see new faces.
We got to meet a lot of the guys and get to know a lot of guys.
The cabin trip was a lot of fun, except for when Pastor Anderson tried to kill me.
It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad to be here.
I want to say thank you to Pastor Anderson's wife.
They're always very kind to us. They always treat us nicely.
He allowed me to preach this morning, and I'm very thankful for that.
I don't take it lightly. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Now, that might fall. I'm going to put it over here.
I want to make sure. Is that okay if I sit it here? Yeah.
Don't quite leave a ring.
All right, next is chapter number three.
If you don't know me, I introduce myself and my family.
We've been here many times. I see a lot of new faces, which is a good thing.
I don't know if you listen to the sermons online.
I've been here before. I've preached.
I'll tell Pastor Anderson. One of the families that was at the camp this week,
they don't attend the church, but they listen to the sermons online a lot.
He shook my hand, and I introduced myself. He said,
Oh, yeah, I listen to a lot of your sermons.
He looked at me, and he says, You sound taller.
I don't know if that was a compliment or a kiss.
You can't see me behind the pulpit. Just close your eyes.
Exodus chapter number three. We'll read the whole chapter.
The Bible says, Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law,
the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert,
and came to the mountain of God, even Torah.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire
out of the midst of a bush.
And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire,
and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight
why the bush is not burnt.
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see God,
he called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said,
Moses, Moses, and he said, Here am I.
And he said, Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction
of my people which are in Egypt,
and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters,
for I know their sorrows.
And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of the land unto a good land,
and a large unto a land flowing with milk and honey,
unto a place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites,
and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel is,
Come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression
wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh,
that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh,
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
And he said, Certainly, I will be with thee,
and this shall be a token unto thee,
that I have sent thee when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt,
ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them,
The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you,
and they shall say to me, What is his name?
What shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses, I am that I am.
And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
I am hath sent me unto you.
And God said moreover unto Moses,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
hath sent me unto you, this is my name forever,
and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Go and gather the elders of Israel together,
and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,
appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you,
and seen that which is done to you in Egypt.
And I have said, I will bring you up out of the afflictions of Egypt,
unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites,
and the Perizzites, and the Hittites, and the Jebizites,
unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
And they shall hearken to thy voice,
and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel,
unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him,
The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us.
And now let us go, we beseech thee three days,
and journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.
And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go,
no, not by my hand.
And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders,
which I will do in the midst thereof,
and after that he will let you go.
And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians,
and it shall come to pass, that when ye go, ye shall not go empty.
But every woman shall borrow of her neighbor,
and of her that sojourneth in her house,
jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment,
and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters,
and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you Lord so much for faithful Word Baptist Church.
Thank you for Pastor Anderson, his family, and everybody that's gathered here today.
Lord, there's not many churches like this.
There's not any church that's like this one.
Lord, I ask that you help us, help me.
I pray that the Spirit of the Lord will come upon me
as I attempt to preach these verses and these thoughts that you've given me.
I pray that you allow me to be used of you to help these people,
to challenge these people, and that they might learn and grow today.
Lord, thank you so much for everything you've done for us.
Thank you for our salvation.
In your precious name I pray. Amen.
Amen.
I want to preach a sermon this morning.
I've entitled, The Proper Response to God.
The Proper Response to God.
Moses was a great man of God.
I don't think any of us would disagree with that.
Moses was a great man of God.
We would all love to end our lives and have a testimony like Moses did.
I don't think anybody would disagree with that statement.
We would all love to end our lives
and be able to be looked at in the way that Moses was looked at,
to have the testimony that Moses had.
Let me just give you some real quick examples
of the relationship that God had with Moses,
what made Moses so special.
The Bible says that Moses spoke to God as a friend.
Exodus 33, 11.
You don't have to turn there. I'll read it to you.
If you'd like to turn there, that's fine.
The Bible says,
And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face,
as a man speaketh unto his friend.
And he turned again into the camp,
but if servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle.
So the Bible tells us,
Moses spoke to God as a friend speaketh unto a friend.
That's a common thing.
Most people, the Bible doesn't say that,
that anybody just spoke to God as a friend does,
but it says that about Moses.
Another example,
God personally, this really impressed me,
God personally stood up for Moses.
When Aaron and Miriam, Moses' siblings,
they were badmouthing Moses,
they were talking bad about him behind his back,
Numbers 12, 6 says,
and he said,
Hear not my words.
This is God speaking, he's rebuking Miriam,
he's rebuking Aaron,
and he said,
Hear not my words.
If there be a prophet among you,
I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision,
and will speak unto him in a dream.
So he says,
If there's a prophet among you,
if there's a preacher among you,
God says,
I'm going to speak to them in a vision,
I'm going to speak to them in a dream.
Verse 7 says,
My servant Moses is not so,
who is faithful in all mine house.
With him will I speak mouth to mouth,
even apparently,
and not in dark speeches.
And the symbol of the Lord,
shall he behold,
wherefore,
then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses.
Do you see that?
God doesn't just step in,
it's like a family quarrel,
it's a dispute,
his siblings are talking bad about,
and God takes the time to step in,
he says,
Hey look, if it was just a prophet,
I'll speak to him in a dream,
I'll speak to him in a vision,
but he says,
Moses is not so.
He said,
Moses, I'll speak to him mouth to mouth.
Moses is one of the few men in the Bible
that is referred to as the man of God.
Deuteronomy 33 one says,
And this is the blessing,
wherewith Moses the man of God,
blessed the children of Israel before his death.
I mean,
those are just some examples that I thought about,
a few things about,
that made Moses special.
Moses was,
he wasn't just the average Christian,
he was somebody different.
He was somebody who we would all love
to one day be like Moses,
all have the relationship with God that Moses had.
Now what was it that made Moses such a great man?
I believe that the answer is found
in Exodus chapter 3.
What made Moses different?
I believe the answer is found in the initial response
that Moses gave when confronted with God.
I think,
obviously you get saved,
and after you get saved though,
we have,
God speaks to you through the preaching,
through the Bible,
God confronts you,
and that response you give God
is going to determine how it is
that you live the rest of your spiritual life.
How it is that you end the rest of your life.
So,
let's go ahead and get started.
Number one,
obviously this is just common,
I'm going to go through this real fast.
Moses heard God's call.
Exodus 3 one.
Now,
Moses kept a flock of Jethro, his father-in-law,
the priest of Midian,
and he led the flock to the backside of the desert,
and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
And the angel of the Lord appeared under him in a flame of fire,
out of the midst of a bush,
and he looked, and behold,
the bush burned with fire,
and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said,
I will now turn aside and see this great sight,
why the bush is not burned.
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see,
God called under him out of the midst of the bush,
and said, Moses, Moses.
Let me just start by saying this,
it's kind of all introduction,
but God is always looking for a servant.
God is always looking for somebody.
And God needs somebody today.
Very one-on-one verse.
Ezekiel 22, 32 says,
And I sought for a man among them,
this is God talking,
he says,
And I sought for a man among them
that should make up the hedge
and stand in the gap before me for the land
that I should not destroy.
And he makes a very sad statement,
he says,
And I found, but I found none.
God is always looking for somebody.
God is right now looking for somebody.
God is not looking for somebody.
And it doesn't necessarily have to be a preacher,
it doesn't have to be a man,
it doesn't have to be a male,
it can be a woman, a lady, a child.
God is always looking for somebody to serve him.
He's always calling for somebody.
So when Moses heard God's call,
he makes two statements,
two real quick statements.
This is in a very long term.
Last time I was here,
I preached the sermon entitled,
The Rise of the Antichrist.
And the sermon,
I think it was 120 minutes,
or something like that.
It was a long sermon.
Look, I know you guys are used to that.
I don't usually preach that long.
What happened was I was sick.
It was the last camping trip.
My wife got sick on the way here.
And the rest of us got sick after that.
And the whole church was sick.
I didn't get it until Sunday morning.
And then it got worse and worse
progressively throughout the day.
Pastor Anderson and me preached Sunday night.
Literally 10 minutes before the sermon,
I was throwing up in the bathroom back there.
When you preach and you're sick,
you're unconscious.
Your mind is just foggy.
Here's the other problem.
I was preaching about the end times.
When you're preaching about the end times,
you've got tons of notes.
I couldn't really think straight,
so I was just going through my notes.
I didn't really think of the time.
At the end, it was 120 minutes later.
We were done.
We were all done.
Anyway, this is going to be a long sermon.
I'm going to let you guys early today.
I'm going to make up for it.
Moses made two statements.
Those are the two points I want to focus in on.
Point number one is Moses was available.
Look at verse number four.
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see,
God called unto him out of the midst of the bush
and said, Moses, Moses.
And he said, Here am I.
Moses was available.
If you say you're here today,
and I understand this is a Sunday morning crowd,
and there's a lot of buildings in town,
a lot of buildings across the nation
that are holding services that people go to.
Now, you're not going to the average church in America.
I don't know if you know that.
If you don't know that,
then just stop listening to what I'm saying.
But this isn't a normal church.
This is a different church.
This is an independent, fundamental Baptist,
King James, Bible-believing, soul-winning,
screaming, yelling, kicking, spitting type church.
If you don't know that,
you might as well just get used to it,
because that's where you're at.
And even for an independent, fundamental Baptist church,
this church is radically different.
It's just a little...
I think what Pastor Anderson is trying to do
is try to make a difference.
I think that's what he's trying to do.
I think he read that in June somewhere.
He must have heard a Christian around there.
But anyway, so if you're here today,
I just got to think to myself that you want to serve God.
I mean, otherwise you'd be at the neo-church down the street.
Otherwise, I mean,
unless I actually wanted to have a relationship with God,
unless I actually wanted to do something with my life,
I would not be here.
I'd be at home.
I'd be taking a nap.
I'd be cleaning up my stuff from the camping trip.
I'd be doing whatever.
But if you're here today,
if you're a faithful word Baptist church,
I just got to imagine that you're...
I mean, either you're a first-time visitor
and you're not coming back,
or you're here because you want to serve God.
And if you're going to serve God,
you've got to understand how to respond to God.
And the first thing that Moses said,
the first thing that came out of his mouth
when he heard God's call,
when God said,
Moses, Moses, Moses responded, Lord.
Well, he didn't say Lord,
but he said, here am I.
Moses was available.
Here's the question.
Have you made yourself available to God?
I know you're thinking to yourself, yes.
And many times we say, yes, we're available,
but it's not true.
Being available doesn't mean
that you're at Sunday morning service.
Being available doesn't mean
you're at Sunday night service
or Wednesday night service.
I'm not talking about being available
like you're coming to church.
I'm not talking about being available
like you're going to a camping trip.
I'm talking about being available
like maybe one day these young guys
have to go start a church somewhere.
They've got to pack up their stuff
and they've got to pack up their family
and they've got to go serve God somewhere.
That's what I'm talking about, being available.
I'm talking about being available
like maybe not being as big of a success
in your career as you hope to
or you dreamt to or your parents dreamt for you.
I'm talking about being available
like giving up your dreams and your aspirations
and your hopes to do the work of God.
I'm talking about being available
like sacrificing your life for God maybe literally.
See, Moses said, here am I.
He was available.
If God would have called Moses
and Moses would have been like,
what's up or what's going on or what do you need
or tell me God, what do you want me to do
and then I'll decide.
But that's not what Moses said.
Moses didn't say, hey God, what do you want
and then I'll let you know if I can do that.
I'll let you know if that's something I'm willing to do.
Moses said, hey God, here am I.
I'm here, I'm ready, I'm willing to serve.
Tell me what you've got for me, I'm ready to do it.
And if you're going to have a testimony,
if you're going to have a life,
if you're going to end your spiritual life in a way
where you're willing and you're happy like homeless
to go to heaven and meet God,
you're not going to get there until you get to the point
and you say, God, my life is available.
God, I'm here to serve you.
Moses could have said no.
Moses could have been in line.
I mean, I don't know this.
I don't think the Bible says it.
I've looked for it.
I've never seen it.
It doesn't mean it's not there.
I don't know this, but I don't know that it's not true also,
but Moses could have been in line for the throne in Egypt.
Have you ever thought about that?
Yes.
Moses, I mean, I don't know.
Maybe he wasn't.
And if I'm not, then I'm wrong.
But it'll make good preachers.
Let's go with it.
Moses could have been in line for the throne in Egypt.
Hebrews 11, 24 says, by faith,
Moses, when he was come to years,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather the afflictions with the people of God
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for his ease of season,
esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches
than the treasures in Egypt,
for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
Moses, I mean, could you imagine that?
Could you imagine being,
well, I'm sure you could imagine this
because you're in it,
but could you imagine being on the most powerful,
living in the most powerful nation in the world?
I mean, the leader of the world.
Financially, the Egyptians had it.
I mean, militarily, the power of the world.
At this time, they led the world.
And not only was Moses a citizen of this country,
he was in the royal family.
He was adopted into the Pharaoh's family.
He could have potentially had,
I mean, he could have definitely got a good government job, I'm sure.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, he was set.
He was ready.
But Moses, the Bible says that he refused to be called
the son of the daughter of Pharaoh.
And he decided, he said,
hey, I'm going to be available.
I'm going to serve God.
I'm going to give God my life.
It doesn't matter.
And see, the problem with Christians
and the problem with even good Christians,
even faithful word Christians,
even fundamental Baptists and saved people
is that many times we say God
and we bargain with God.
We say, God, I want to give you a little bit.
I'll give you my Sunday morning.
I'll give you my Sunday night.
He's preaching in Titus.
Okay, I'll give you my Wednesday night.
But you don't want to give God your life.
You say, I'll give you this area of my life.
And I'll give you this.
And you bargain and you say,
but this right here, this is mine.
This sin, whatever it might be,
this television, that's a little too much.
This program I watch or this, you know,
God, okay, I get it.
I won't drink alcohol every Friday night,
but a glass of wine at my dinner.
And you make bargains and you say,
God, I'm not willing.
Listen up, Moses was not bargaining with God.
When Moses heard God's call, Moses said,
hey, God, here am I.
I'm able, I'm ready, I'm willing,
tell me what you've got for me.
I'll go.
The question I got for you is,
are you, do you have the same attitude?
Would you say, God,
I'd be willing to lose everything to serve you?
I mean, would you be willing to say,
God, I'd be willing to serve,
I'd be willing to lose my family?
I've, in the last, I don't know, year or two,
I've led like four or five guys to the Lord
at my work and different areas that I know.
And it's really weird, my wife and I talk about this,
it seems like in our nation right now,
it seems like there's a lot of just like young guys,
like 22, an old man like Pastor Andrew, 28, you know,
like that range, there's a lot of just young guys
who are like getting excited about God,
they want to serve God,
but there's like, there's a lack of women
in the same range.
I mean, the girl, it seems like, I don't know why,
but it seems like you can't just get the females
in the same range to get excited like the guys are.
And I've led, I've led like four or five guys,
no, I'm being serious, I've led four or five guys
that are about my age, 23, 24, whatever,
to the Lord, they start coming to church,
they get excited, they start going soloing,
they're reading their Bibles, but their wives aren't excited.
Their wives, they're not mean, they'll come to church,
but they don't want to, they're not the here of my crowd,
they're not the, I'm available and I'm ready to go.
And I've seen, I mean, I've seen it,
just in the last two years,
I've seen these wives take these men and just stop it.
They were excited, they were getting excited,
they were writing sermons,
they were going to preach at men's preaching,
they were going soloing,
they were memorizing the Bible,
and then all of a sudden,
their wife just puts a stop to it.
And here's the thing, that's a sad thing,
but, you know, God is more important than your wife.
I don't know if you know that.
I mean, your wife is pretty important,
and I'm not telling you, you know,
don't walk out of here today and say that,
I told you to get a divorce,
because I didn't say that.
But if your wife says,
hey, you've got to choose between that church and me,
or God and me, or that Bible and me,
then you've got to decide, I'm going with God.
That's a hard choice.
You say, well, I can't do that.
I know, that's why America's dying to go to hell.
You say, well, I've got to decide between God and my work.
I've got to go to my job.
I know, that's why America's dying to go to hell.
You say, well, I love God, and I want to serve God,
but there are certain things I cannot give up.
There are certain things I cannot do,
and I can't quit that for God.
And I'm telling you, that's why we're in the state we're in.
That's why we don't have boaters just walking around.
That's why we don't have Elijahs and Pauls and Johns.
That's why, because we've got a whole lot of Christians
who say, I'll go to church, and I'll read the Bible,
and I'll go to the campus here,
but I'm not available to God.
You know, when you read some teenagers,
you're going to say, I'm available to God.
Here am I.
Isaiah 6, 8 says, go into Isaiah 6, 8.
Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8.
Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8 says,
also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
whom shall I send, and who will vote for us?
Then said I, this is Isaiah speaking,
here am I, say me.
And he said, go, and tell this people,
hear ye indeed, but understand not,
see ye indeed, but perceive not.
I didn't write this in my notes,
but I just thought about it right now.
When God calls you, and you make yourself available,
he's going to go.
You say, oh, I'm so depressed,
because I had a horrible upbringing,
and my mom and dad told me I was a horrible person.
Look, and they said, I can't be used to,
you know, they told me, my dad used to,
my dad is a great man.
Let me just make that disclaimer.
My dad is a great man, he's a great Christian.
I'm not, but my dad, and this is a Hispanic thing,
sometimes Hispanics are a little more brutal,
I guess, than the writers,
but he used to go and tell him,
you're worthless.
But he said, I love you.
You know what I'm saying?
And he'd be like, you're worthless.
Now look, the average person,
I mean, not the average, but a lot of people,
maybe you grow up being like, I'm worthless.
You know, you got like a,
I hate to use these terminologies.
You got like a self-esteem issue.
Self-esteem, that's not in the Bible.
The word self-esteem is not in the Bible.
The Bible says esteem,
it talks about esteeming others better than yourself.
But you know, you got these issues
where you're just like,
oh, you're saying my teenage daughter,
my teenage son, they got these issues,
they don't think much of themselves,
and maybe they're afraid to say,
well, if I give myself to God,
will God use me?
If I make myself available to God,
I'm afraid that God, you know,
cause I made myself available to my friends
and they dissed me and I made,
I wanted to help my mom and dad
and they kinda, you know,
told me I was worthless
and everything I try to do,
people don't want me.
Hey, let me tell you something.
God loves you.
God's gonna use you.
He says, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?
Then said I, here am I, send me.
And what does he say?
What does God say?
Go.
Does he say, well, get some training,
go to Bible college.
Is that what he says?
He says go and tell these people,
hear you indeed but understand not
and see you indeed but perceive not.
God used them.
And if you're afraid
and you got some sort of, you know,
issues with your parents or whatever,
and you say, well, I don't know,
God will use you.
But have you made yourself available?
I told you, I told you the sermon was short.
I'm already on the last point.
Number two, Moses was available.
Moses was humble.
Look at verse 11, Exodus 3, 11.
Exodus chapter number 3, verse 11 says,
and Moses sent him to God.
Who am I?
That I should go into Pharaoh
and that I should bring forth
the children of Israel out of Egypt.
And he said, certainly I will be with thee
and this shall be a token unto thee
that I have sent thee
when thou has brought forth
the people out of Egypt.
Ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
Now, I heard this passage preached a lot
growing up in church
and many preachers like to beat up
on Moses right here.
They like to say, you know,
Moses was putting up excuses.
Moses didn't want to serve.
Moses didn't want to go.
Moses, you know, he says,
who am I?
And he's just kind of putting up
all these excuses.
And there might be some truth to that,
I don't know.
But, you know, as I read that,
but more than just reading that,
as I see the life of Moses
and I see all that he put up with
and all that he endured,
I really don't think
that he's putting up an excuse
and he's just trying to get out of it.
If he's trying to get out of it,
I mean, there was a time
when God said to him,
you know, move aside,
I'm going to destroy this whole nation,
I'm just going to start over with you.
And he said, no, don't do that.
I mean, if he was trying to get out of it,
I think he had chances.
I think when Moses was confronted with God,
when Moses heard God call his name,
Moses, Moses,
and he responded, here am I.
And God explained to him,
hey Moses, this is what I've got for you to do.
This is what I've got for your life.
I need you to go to Egypt.
I need you to serve me.
I need you to preach for me.
I need you to set captives free.
And when Moses heard this great span
of what God had for him,
he could only respond with these three words,
who am I?
Who am I that I should go into Paris?
And that I should bring forth
the children of Israel?
Numbers 12, 3 says,
Now the man Moses was very me,
above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.
I think what we're missing in America,
in faithful word Baptist church,
is a whole lot of people who,
number one, haven't made themselves available,
but number two,
they haven't made themselves available because of pride.
Moses said, who am I?
Go to 2 Peter chapter number one, please.
2 Peter chapter number one.
See, we don't have the right vision of God.
And the truth matter is,
we don't have the right vision of ourselves.
We don't see ourselves the way we need to.
2 Peter chapter number one.
Verse five says,
And beside this, giving all diligence,
add to your faith virtue,
and to virtue knowledge,
and to knowledge temperance,
and to temperance patience,
and to patience godliness,
and to godliness brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you,
and abound they make you,
that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful,
in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but he that lacketh these things is blind,
and cannot see afar off,
and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins,
wherefore the rather rather give diligence
to make your calling election sure,
and if you do these things you shall never fall.
But look at the last little phrase
in verse number nine.
It says,
and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Now, I'm not,
I'm gonna take a drink of water.
That's alright.
Mmm, that's good.
I'm not one of these guys,
and I know your pastor's not one of these guys.
You should not,
and this is wrong,
you should not go around this type of person,
and I kind of preached this in Spanish.
I got to preach for the Spanish service,
the Spanish class.
You know, they got a Spanish class here,
and Pastor Anderson said,
hey, you speak Spanish.
You want to teach the class?
And then after talking for a little bit,
he determined that I don't know how to teach Spanish.
So he just decided I'm gonna preach,
and they don't understand,
but it's alright.
He understood,
and then there was a rage.
Some people said they understood like 70%.
I think they were lying.
You see, I was preaching,
and I could see the look on my face.
The look on my face was like,
you know, like,
the lights are on,
but no one's home type thing.
And my wife understood some,
but she doesn't count.
A man understood.
She did 1%.
I was impressed.
Anyway,
back to swimming.
A lot of people,
you walk around with this complex,
and you're like,
you don't know the type of life I bled.
You don't know the type of sin that I've been in.
You don't know the things that I've done,
and you shouldn't be that kind of person.
You shouldn't go through life
just always remembering your sin.
Look, when God saved you,
He saved you from your sin.
He purged you from your sin.
He separated,
the Bible says He separated you from your sin,
and that's your past sin,
the sins you're committing right now,
and the sins of the future.
You shouldn't go around just remembering
and defeating you,
because that's how sin wants to get you.
It wants to remind you of all your sins,
and when you want to do something for God,
you can say,
well, don't you remember you did this,
and don't you remember when you did that,
and don't you remember
when you filled God here?
I'm going to tell you something.
The grace of God is abundant enough
to cover your sin,
but you should have a healthy remembrance
of being purged from your sin.
The reason a whole lot of Christians
and a whole lot of people aren't humble,
or we're not humble,
or we get pride-filled,
is because we seem to forget
that even the preacher
and even the pastor,
and you say,
well, I've been going here for a long time,
and I'm on staff,
and I go soloing every day,
and whatever.
I've memorized so much Bible,
and I've done so much,
and you seem to forget
that you're still just a sinner
that was condemned to hell
that Jesus Christ saved.
And if you just remember that,
if you just remember
that if it wasn't for Jesus Christ,
you'd be on your way to hell.
If you got what you deserved,
you'd be burning in hell right now.
If you just have a healthy,
I'm talking about a healthy remembering
that one day you were purged from your safe,
that might keep you humble.
Because once you start thinking
a little bit more of yourself,
well, I'm the song leader.
Well, I go soloing.
Well, I wear a shirt and a tie,
and I got a black suit on,
and whatever.
Then you start thinking,
man, I'm a pretty good guy.
I forget which one of the guys
somebody was preaching about.
I think somebody was preaching
about being humble.
Somebody was preaching about being humble.
I don't know.
I must have been preaching
while they were preaching in my head.
We were talking about
somebody was saying,
I'm humble, and I'm proud of you.
And that's the answer they had.
You know?
You say, well, I'm a humble person.
But if you just remember,
because it says,
and hath forgotten
that he was purged from his old sins.
1 Peter 5 says,
Humble yourself therefore
into the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time.
Proverbs 16 and 18 says,
Pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit
before a fall.
We've got to be humble.
We've got to get
a right perspective
of ourselves to God.
America is the greatest nation
that's ever been.
If you disagree with that,
then you're an idiot,
because it's true.
There's been no nation
that has been freer than this nation.
There's been no nation
that's had the Bible
like this nation has had.
There's no nation
that has had it preaching
like this nation has had.
God has blessed America.
But I think what happens sometimes
is that because we're Americans,
and we have nice cars,
and we have nice buildings to meet in,
and we've got a copy of the Bible,
and we have the freedom to go soul winning,
and we have the freedom to preach,
and to go to camping trips,
and to be Christians,
and even though America's gone a long way
in just the last year,
even though we've gone so far,
we're still the greatest country
that's ever been.
I think a lot of times,
it's hard for us to remember
that we're nothing.
The Bible says,
I can do all things through Christ,
and we think,
I can do all things,
because I've got a GPS,
and I've got an iPhone,
and I've got a computer,
and I've got a laptop,
and I'm all powerful,
and I've got the money,
I've got the books,
I've got the cards,
I've got the clothes,
but you're nothing without God.
You're a sinner condemned to hell,
and if you forget that,
then you lose the attitude of who am I?
Because we start soul winning,
and we start getting people saved,
and people start growing,
and we start thinking that we're doing it,
and you're not doing it,
it's God doing it.
It's God using you,
and without God you couldn't do it.
Without God you couldn't leave somebody in the Lord.
Without God I couldn't preach today.
Without God you couldn't be here.
The only reason you're here
is because God allows you to.
But we forget that.
We think our kids aren't my kids,
and our stuff is my stuff.
And unless you get to a place
where you just look at God and say,
God, who am I?
Moses was a humble man.
Why is it that Moses,
I mean,
Moses was the greatest prophet that ever lived.
Moses was the,
he's probably one of the greatest Christians
who ever lived,
and he started out by saying,
God, here am I,
and then he says,
who am I?
Number one under this point,
you should have a very clear understanding
of who you are compared to God.
But number two,
we need to remember that
God is the main character in our lives.
I think a lot of times,
you grow up,
before you get right with God,
you grow up watching a lot of TV.
You know what I'm saying?
When I was a kid,
I watched a lot of TV.
I didn't have video games and Nintendo games.
I never had any of that
because we were too poor to have it.
But we had a little black and white TV,
and I watched it.
I watched a lot of it.
And I think a lot of times,
that generation of the kids
who watch a lot of TV,
play a lot of games,
play a lot of video games,
you kind of start thinking of your life
like a show,
like a TV show.
Like you're the main character in your show.
Am I the only one that thought that?
You know what I'm saying?
As you walk through life,
other people don't really matter.
Other things,
you're the main character in your show,
like your little drama,
like what's going on in your life.
That's all that matters.
Nothing else matters.
I mean, when life gets chaotic for you,
you shut down,
and you can't think of anything else
because you're the main character.
You know what I'm saying?
And you've got to remember that
God is the main character of your life.
John, let me give you an example.
John the Baptist,
another great man, God,
another great preacher,
was asked about his diminishing ministry
and Jesus Christ's flourishing ministry.
John the Baptist,
the Bible says that he came before Jesus
to prepare the way for Jesus,
and he was radically different than his society.
And you're sort of seeing,
you know, kind of like right now,
Pastor Anderson came to Phoenix, Arizona,
and there was nobody,
I mean, it was him and his family,
meeting in a house,
and how many years have you been here?
Three years?
Three and a half years later?
I mean, look at this.
You know, he starts doing something.
He started preaching,
and John the Baptist the same way.
People started following him.
People started getting saved.
People started getting baptized,
and he started doing something,
but then Jesus Christ showed up.
And all of a sudden,
that following that was following John the Baptist,
and everybody was going to,
not everybody was going to Jesus Christ's family tree.
Not everybody was going to Jesus's church.
And all these people started leaving him,
and his disciples started leaving him,
and they asked him,
they asked,
John, what do you think about this?
Man, look, your parking lot's empty,
and Jesus's parking lot over there is full,
and everybody's going to his church,
everybody's following him.
What do you think about that?
And I love the statement that John the Baptist says.
Go to John 3.
John chapter 3.
John chapter number 3.
Verse 26 says,
I'm still in Exodus.
All right.
John chapter 3, verse 26 says,
All men are going to Jesus.
John answered and said,
And just look at this.
I mean, you know John's just got to be a great preacher.
He just comes up with this.
I mean, obviously, I know the Holy Spirit of God gave to him,
but he says,
This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled.
And he gives this little kind of story.
He says, look,
because they're asking,
they're like,
are you upset about this?
This guy is baptizing more than you're baptizing.
You're John the Baptist.
It's in your name.
And he's baptizing more than you baptize.
People are following him.
What do you think?
Are you upset about it?
I mean, should we go anti-Jesus or what?
And he says to them,
look, I told you,
I'm not the Christ.
I'm here to prepare the way.
But I love this little story.
He says,
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.
So he says,
when you go to a wedding,
the bridegroom,
the guy that's getting married,
the guy that has the bride,
he's the bridegroom.
And he says,
but the friend of the bridegroom,
which standeth and heareth him,
rejoices greatly.
So he gives this little illustration.
He says, look,
imagine if you go to a wedding,
and there's a bride.
She's going to get married.
And there's a guy who's going to marry her.
It's all about them.
He's like,
if I'm the best man,
if I'm the friend standing far side,
I'll say, hey, I'm rejoicing.
I'm glad that they're getting married.
But it's all about them.
And he's saying,
he's saying, look,
yes, I'm a preacher.
Yes, I was sent before Jesus Christ.
Yes, I'm going out.
Jesus Christ is the bridegroom.
And the bride,
the Christians are going to be the bride of Christ.
He says, I'm just a friend.
I'm just the best man.
And I love it because he's saying,
look, this whole show,
I'm not the main character.
Jesus Christ is.
He says, in this life,
in this drama,
in my life,
it's not about me.
It's about God.
And then he makes the most beautiful statement
that you can think of.
He says, he must increase,
but I must decrease.
Amen.
That's good.
What is he saying?
He's saying,
I'm not the main character.
He says, Jesus Christ is the main character.
He says, this life is a wedding.
He's the bridegroom.
I'm just a friend.
Because these guys are following him.
And it's easy when you're a leader
and you've got people following you
to start thinking, that's all about me.
Hey, you young guys,
when you go start a church
and it starts growing
and you start preaching
and you're doing something for God,
keep in mind,
you're talking about you.
You're just a friend.
He must increase,
but I must decrease.
Is it a coincidence that Jesus Christ said about
down the Baptist,
verily, I say unto you,
among them that are born of women,
there have not risen a greater than John the Baptist,
notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven
is greater than he.
That's a great, that's a profound statement.
He said, among them that are born of women,
there have not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
Jesus Christ said of John the Baptist,
there is not a greater man on earth
than John the Baptist.
I wonder if it had something to do
with the fact that John understood
that he needed to be humble,
that it's all about God.
It's all about Christ.
Here's a question.
Here's a challenge.
Who's the main character in your life?
Who's taking the lead role?
Because if you're like,
let me tell you this right now.
If you're the type of person that,
you know, you hit and miss,
you know, you're,
our old pastor used to call them smoes,
Sunday morning onlies.
And you say, well, I come to church on Sunday morning,
but I've got things to do on Sunday night.
Then you're in charge of your role.
You see what I'm saying?
You say, well, I don't like that kind of preaching.
Hey, look, you're not faithful.
Good night.
If you say, well,
I make it to Wednesday night,
but sometimes I don't,
and I just, I've got so many,
I've got so many important things.
I've got, you don't understand.
I've got so many things.
I've got people that are relying on me.
I've got so many responsibilities.
All you're saying to me is,
all you're saying to me is,
you think you're in charge.
You think you're the main guy.
You say, well, you know,
I know they go so many, so much,
and I've been meaning to make it out to that,
but it's because you're in charge.
And we're not going to make a difference.
We're not going to change America.
We're not going to get people saved.
You're not going to impact this society,
and at least this community,
for God to get a group of people
who have been inside God.
Not only am I available,
but I understand exactly who I am.
I am here to serve God.
John the Baptist, the greatest man who ever lived,
said, he must increase,
but I must decrease.
And until you get the same perspective,
until I get the same perspective,
we are not going to do anything for God.
We need Christians who are being used of God
in a great way, like John the Baptist,
like Isaiah, like Moses.
Would to God we would have a generation of young men,
of young women, who would respond to God
in the way that Moses responded to God,
and say, God, here am I.
But not only that, who am I?
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Lord, I'm not anybody.
I'm not worthy to stand behind a pulpit
and read verses and expound upon your word.
Lord, I just ask that you help these people.
This wasn't anything they've already,
they've heard this, they know this.
But God, would you please help these people
to decide today that they're going to put you
number one in their lives?
Every choice they make will be dependent
on what you want, not what they want.
Thank you, Lord, so much for Faith Forward Baptist Church.
Thank you for Pastor Anderson and his family.
And thank you so much for the members of this church,
for the soul winning, for the preaching, the music.
We love you, Lord.
In your precious name I pray, Amen.