He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,
and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
These sayings saith the Amen, the Faithful, and the True Witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
I know thy works, thou neither cold nor hot. I would thou work cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,
and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich,
and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear,
and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame,
and am set down with my Father in heaven in his throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Let's pray. Dear Lord God, just thank you for this church, Lord,
and this seven years that we've had of this church being established, Lord, by you, Lord,
and just thank you for pastor as well, Lord. We just pray that you bless him right now,
fill him with boldness in the Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches unto us, Lord.
We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. All right. We're in Revelation chapter three.
And the time of my sermon this evening is how to stay on fire as a church.
How to stay on fire as a church. Obviously, we're celebrating seven years
today of great work that's been accomplished here.
Well, you know, in my experience and in the experience of others,
sometimes churches have a tendency to die down a little bit.
They lose their flame. They lose their passion.
They lose their zeal for the things of God, and they end up
dying out. And that's one thing that we want to avoid as a church, right?
We want to make sure that we keep the flame going.
You want to make sure you keep the flame going in your marriage,
keep the flame going in church for soul winning, for the loss, for the things of God.
And we don't want to become like what we see here in Revelation chapter three,
the Laodicean church, where we just become lukewarm.
Look at Revelation three fourteen says unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right?
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning
of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou are neither
cold nor hot. I would that thou were cold or hot.
So then because thou are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot,
I will spew thee out of my mouth. So the issue we see here
with the church at Laodicea was that they weren't necessarily
100% cold towards the things of God, but they weren't hot towards the things of
God either. They're just kind of apathetic. They are
lukewarm. And the reality is this is that God isn't pleased with that.
He's not like, well, they're lukewarm, so they're closer to being hot.
You know, they're forming to cut on some slack. Actually, he's like, I wish that
you were just completely apathetic. I wish that you were 100% cold so they
can be chastised and get right with God. But, you know, someone who's lukewarm
thinks that they're right with God. They think that they're doing God's service,
but they're actually completely out of the fight.
They've lost their flame. They've lost their fire.
And he says because they were lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee
out of my mouth. And I think one of the greatest examples of this would be
drinking lukewarm coffee. You know, coffee is great hot.
Coffee is great cold. Coffee is disgusting when it's lukewarm.
It kind of makes you want to spew it out of your mouth, right?
And God feels the same way regarding churches, congregations who are
essentially dying out, losing their flame.
And obviously we're still a young church, so the fire is still here.
The zeal is still there. But, you know, as we get older in age,
as we get older as a church, there is a temptation to lose that fire.
And once we begin to lose the fire for the things of God, we will begin to
regress as a church and eventually First Works Baptist Church will no
longer be. And we want to obviously avoid that as much as possible.
The Bible says in John 533, I like what it says about John the Baptist.
It says he sent unto John and he bare witness unto the truth.
But I received not the testimony for man, but these things I say that he
may be saved. He was a burning and shining light.
And you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
This evening, I want to give you a couple of things that will help us to
stay on fire for God and make no mistake about it.
There are a lot of churches out there that have completely lost the flame.
They've lost the fire, and they're just kind of going through the motions.
And obviously that can happen for individuals in a congregation
where you're just kind of going through the motions.
You're just coming to church. Maybe you just casually read the Bible.
That is a course of destruction for you as a Christian,
because God wants you to retain that fire.
He wants you to be zealous for the things of God, because that's one of the
things that will help you to stay in this thing for the long haul.
Stay in it for the long run, okay? Now turn with me, if you would,
to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. Let me give you a couple things
this evening on how to stay on fire as a church. Number one, fuel the flame
with fresh oil. Fuel the flame with fresh oil. The Bible says in Psalm 92,
you're in the book of Luke. I'm going to read to you from Psalm 92 verse 10.
But my horn shall exalt like the horn of a unicorn.
I shall be anointed with fresh oil. And obviously what that's referring to,
that oil is referring to the Holy Spirit, right?
But the Holy Spirit works in conjunction with the Bible.
And so it's important for us as Christians, if we're going to remain on fire for God,
this needs to be a major part of your life right here, okay?
Reading the word of God, not some devotional, not some commentary, not just online preaching,
you better make sure that you're actually reading the Bible itself.
You say, well, you know, I read the Bible, but, you know, I just,
you know, I think I already know everything that there is to know about the Bible.
I've already read it through cover to cover already this year, you know, or last year.
What is there more to learn? Folks, you'd be surprised over the fact that the Bible
is very much layered and will resonate with you throughout the seasons of life,
throughout things that you're experiencing.
And it'll create within you that fire to continue to go forward.
Look at Luke 24 verse 29, it says, but they constrained him.
They referring to the disciples, him referring to Jesus saying, abide with us.
For it is toward evening and the day is far spent.
And he went into Terry with them and he came to pass as he sat at me with them.
He took bread and blessed it and break and gave to them and their eyes were opened
and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight.
I want you to notice this.
And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us
while he talked with us, by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures.
And, you know, this is what I commonly call Christian heartburn, right?
Because he's saying when Jesus Christ was teaching us, when he was talking to us,
our hearts burn within us.
And it reminds me of Jeremiah, the prophet,
because Jeremiah had a ministry that was very difficult.
He was going against the grain and there came a point where he wanted to quit.
He's just like, I'm done preaching.
I'm done teaching people the word of God.
People aren't listening.
They're not repenting.
And he said this.
Then I said, I will not make mention of him nor speak anymore in his name.
Now that's a bold statement.
What is he saying?
I quit.
I'm done.
I don't want to make mention of him.
I don't want to speak on his name.
I don't want to say anything about him, but I want you to notice this.
But his word was within my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones.
And I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay.
What is he saying?
You know, I wanted to quit, but because I have the Bible in my heart, I can't quit.
It's in there and I want to talk to people about the Lord.
It's in there and I want to preach the word of God.
What is this showing us?
It's showing us that if we want to remain in this thing for the long haul, you got to
be on fire for God.
And the way you remain on fire for God is having the word of God in you, letting the
word of Christ dwell in you richly.
And make no mistake about it, folks.
One of the first things that goes out the window when you become apathetic towards the
things of God is your Bible reading.
You actually attend church without reading your Bible.
You'll actually possibly even pray without reading your Bible.
You might even go through a couple of days without reading your Bible.
Plain and simple.
You will do a lot of the other spiritual disciplines before actually reading the Bible.
That often is the number one thing that goes out the window first.
And I dare say, there might be someone in here who has not read the Bible in a couple
of days.
You're in danger of allowing your flame to go out, right?
We want to keep the flame going.
And one of the best ways to keep it going is making sure you're reading the word of
God consistently every single day, making it a spiritual discipline, memorizing scripture.
And one of the best ways to make sure the word of Christ is dwelling you richly is talking
about it.
And one of the best ways to make sure that you're talking about it is through soul winning.
You say, how can I keep the fire going for the word of God?
Go preach the gospel.
When you preach the gospel, you're kind of forced to be in a position where you're forced
to talk about the word of God.
And you know what?
Nothing will keep the flame going more than just preaching the gospel where you're constantly
confronted with new challenges.
You're preaching the word of God.
You're preaching the gospel.
It's like real life right there.
And I was reminded about this yesterday.
We had our soul winning marathon yesterday, and we had 22 people saved in North Long Beach.
And that was exciting.
And man, I had a bunch of stuff happen yesterday to me that I was just like, man, Christian
life is just exciting.
I was preaching the gospel to this lady, and she was a Catholic, and it was really hot.
It was really just warm yesterday, and I had my suit on and everything.
And I'm preaching the gospel.
I'm just like, man, it's so warm.
I was with brother Lucas.
And then I felt the drop on my forehead, and it was nice and cool.
I was like, oh, that was such a relief.
It was so cold, and it was so hot.
So then I kind of just wiped my forehead, and then I'm preaching the gospel, and I point
to the verse, and there's bird crap all over my hand.
A bird took a dump on me while I was preaching the gospel.
How humbling is that?
True story.
It really happened.
Chat, is this real?
Yes, it's real.
It actually happened.
So then she was like, I'm so sorry.
You want to grab your napkin?
I'm like, no, no, no.
Let me finish this, and then go grab me a napkin.
And then she ended up getting saved.
She called upon the name of the Lord, got saved, brought me a napkin, and then afterwards
she said, it's a gift, though, so you get to keep the napkin.
And obviously it was a double meaning.
She wanted to let me know that she understood eternal security, but she also wanted me to
let her know that she doesn't want a napkin with bird crap on it back either.
And so it gives you good source.
And then we talked to another lady, and this should have been on my other point, but I'm
just going to skip that.
But I was talking to this one lady, and she was really struggling with eternal security.
But this lady, and she was a black lady, too.
So she had that, she was just like, you know what I'm talking about?
Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
And so I was praying, and she's like, I believe you can lose your salvation, for sure.
And I'm just like, no, you can't.
And I'm giving her verses, and I'm just kind of going through the Rolodex in my mind of
scriptures and examples.
And she's just like, that's true, but I still believe in the Bible teaches that you can
lose it.
And I said, okay, let me just leave it with this example right here.
And when I was quoting some of the scriptures, she would finish some of the scriptures for
me.
So she knew a little bit of the Bible.
And I said, do you know who King Saul is?
She's all, yes, I do.
King Saul came before King David.
Ha!
And I said, yeah, that's right.
I said, do you know what happened to King Saul at the end of his life?
Yes, I do.
He fell upon his own sword.
He was wounded by the Philistines, and he didn't want to be abused by the Philistines,
so therefore he fell upon his own sword.
His armor bearer fell likewise.
And I was like, you know, I'm like, that's right.
So she's like, you know, she's answering all the questions, you know?
And I was like, and did you know what the prophet Samuel, who's already in heaven, said
to Saul?
She goes, yes, I do.
He said, tomorrow, thou and thy sons shall be with me.
And I said, that's right.
And she said, oh, oh, I see your point.
I see your point.
Amen.
She checked me, you know, by thy words thou shalt be justified, by thy words thou shalt
be condemned.
Now, she didn't get saved, but you know what?
I'm thankful for stories like that.
And you know what?
I love soul winning because it gives me new opportunities to be faced with challenges
that maybe I've never experienced.
You know, because it's like we have the skeleton of the gospel, but sometimes not everyone
follows the script while you're out door to door.
You know what I mean?
Sometimes they hit you with the different verses and concepts, and you're just kind
of freestyling it.
You kind of go in and it kind of helps you to basically go back and study some things
in the Bible so you can have an answer the next time you're confronted with that situation.
He said, what does that do to you?
It keeps me on fire for God.
Because it makes me go back, read the Bible, see what it says and say, I hope I get confronted
with that situation again, because I have an answer for that the next time.
You know, it makes the Christian life a real thing.
When you're actually studying the Bible, reading the word of God.
What I'm saying is, if you want to stay on fire for God, you got to make sure you're
anointed with fresh oil.
You got to make sure that you're reading the word of God.
You're studying the Bible, studying to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Did not our hearts burn within us while you talk with us, by the way, and while you open
to us the scripture?
Has your heart burned this last week?
Have you had a time throughout the month where you read a scripture and you're like, man,
my heart burns within me and I want to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Or it might not even be about the gospel.
You're just like, I can't wait to talk to another person about something I learned in
the Bible.
That's how you can stay on fire for God is reading the word of God.
And you know what?
You have a perfect place to execute that.
And that's here at the church.
You read something in the Bible, you learn about something, you learn something from
the Holy Spirit.
Bring that to church and say, Hey, look what I learned in the word of God today.
That's how you keep the fire going.
I'm all for listening to preaching online.
I'm all for saturating yourself a biblical preaching, but not as a substitute for your
own personal Bible reading.
Number two, how to stay on fire for God.
Got to stay in the fight.
What do I mean by that?
You got to hate what God hates.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter six, if you would.
1 Timothy chapter six, and then we're going to go to 2 Kings chapter 10.
We talk about how to stay on fire for God, how to keep the fire going as a church.
I'm going to tell you how.
We got to make sure we don't become a limp-wristed, sissy church that just wants no conflict whatsoever.
The Christian life is a fight.
You constantly have to fight.
You're constantly having to fight to keep your own walk with God.
You're fighting against the world, the flesh and the devil.
You're fighting false doctrine.
You're fighting to keep your marriage on board.
You're fighting to raise your children right.
You're fighting to keep God's hand of blessing on you.
You're fighting the devil.
You're constantly fighting.
The day you decide to stop the fight, that's when the flame goes out.
Stay in the fight.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter six and verse 11 says,
But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, patience, meekness.
Look what it says.
Fight the good fight of faith.
Lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou are also called and has professed a good profession
before many witnesses.
I want you to notice that when he says fight the good fight of faith,
it's in conjunction with verse 11 regarding the things you're supposed to follow after.
Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and meekness.
What does that mean?
You have to fight to stay right with God.
One of the best ways to stay on fire for the Lord,
to stay on fire as a church, is you keep the main thing the main thing.
You keep seeking after the kingdom of God and his righteousness so that these things
shall be added unto you.
You're making sure that you're making God a priority in your life.
And let me say this, that requires a fight.
Anybody who's put any considerable amount of effort to stay right with God knows it's hard to do.
It's hard to stay right with God sometimes.
It's hard to have these spiritual disciplines.
It's hard to seek after the kingdom of God.
It's a fight.
And you know what?
God expects for you to fight.
Stay in the fight as a Christian.
Stay in the fight repenting of those sins.
Stay in the fight to stay right with God.
Stay in the fight to keep reading your Bible, staying in church, keep that fight going.
But not only that, you know, there's a lot of things out there that this world is
constantly pushing that we got to fight against.
The culture is always pushing a bunch of crap and nonsense,
trying to get Christians to become diluted in their faith.
A lot of distractions out there that are seeking to what?
To douse your flame.
And you know, we have to fight to stay right,
but we also have to fight to keep that garbage out of here.
You know, one of the best ways to douse the flame is get into politics.
Right?
You're getting into politics, you're going to douse your flame.
Stay in the word of God.
Stay winning souls to Christ.
Stay fighting off the world, the flesh and the devil.
You know, it's important for us to know what's going on.
But here's the thing, folks, is that don't allow yourself to become
beared off the path of righteousness, fighting someone else's battle.
A superficial battle that will not that will yield no results.
This is the battle that you're supposed to be in right here.
OK, look at Second Kings Chapter 10.
Second Kings Chapter 10, if you would.
Now, we got a huge fight on our hands, though.
Let me say this in November.
Because Kamala becomes president, man, we're screwed.
This nation is cooked.
Not just because she's a Democrat, but just because she's a woman.
She's a woman Democrat.
And if she becomes president, let me just say this.
The fate of the United States of America as being judged by God is 100 percent sealed.
OK, now there's a good thing that could come out of her becoming president for me.
Say why?
I got a bunch of content to preach from.
Like I legitimately will preach if she gets voted in,
which there's a part of me that kind of hopes for just so I can preach this sermon.
But I'm going to preach a sermon called Kamala, the Whore of Babylon.
Be a great sermon.
Oh, why are you so contentious?
Because the Bible tells me that I need to be contentious against the evil,
evil things of this world.
I got to make sure I fight against the culture.
I got to make sure I fight against the wicked ideologies of this world.
I got to make sure that I fight the trends of this world that are seeking to cause Christians
to deviate from the past.
I have to make sure that I'm fighting against false doctrine and false prophets.
Got to keep it alive.
Amen.
Hey, we got to make sure that we fight against the enemies of God.
You know, my sermons, obviously we got to I got to preach edifying sermons and
sermons that will exhort you to continue in the faith.
But sometimes you got to hear sermons about Jews.
Right.
You know, you say, well, too much is too much, though.
Well, hold on a second.
We have a whole slew of fundamental Baptists out there that worship Jews.
You know what that tells me?
It tells me that somewhere along the line, a couple of maybe 20, 30 years ago,
someone stopped fighting that.
And now it just became the normal thing to do is to worship Jews in Israel and bless
them and dispensationalism and all that other nonsense.
Sometimes we got to preach on that.
We got to preach on end times Bible prophecy.
We got to preach against fags.
You're like, oh, man, I don't know if you should use that word, though.
That's because you got out of the fight.
So that word is like weird to you now.
But, you know, we got to fight against the trannies, the fags, the pedophiles.
We got to we got to make sure we continue to expose these things.
Well, I'm just hoping that we just take it easy, put it on neutral cruise control.
Then your flame has gone out.
Look what it says in Second Kings, 10, 15.
And when he was the part of sense, he lied.
He referring to Jihu on Jehonadab, the son of Rekab, coming to meet him.
And he saluted him and said to him, Is thine heart right as my heart is with thy heart?
And Jehonadab answered, It is if it be give me thine hand.
And he gave him his hand and he took him up to him into the chariot.
And he said, Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.
So they made him ride in his chariot.
So Jihu comes.
And if you know the context of the story, Jihu is anointed king of the Northern Kingdom
and basically is commissioned and is ordained to just go kill a bunch of people, a bunch
of God's enemies, just kind of wipe them all out.
The false prophets of Baal, all these people.
And so he stumbles upon Jehonadab.
And he's like, Hey, are you right with God the way I'm right with God?
And he's like, I am.
And he's like, All right, come on.
I'm going to show you zeal.
No, Pastor, you're misconstruing that they went to go have a Bible study.
They went to go, you know, have a prayer meeting.
Look at verse 17.
And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab and Samaria till he had
destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, which he spake to Elijah.
That's not a Bible study.
He's basically telling, Hey, you want to go do these hits with me real quick?
I got to go destroy the enemies of the Lord.
You down or what?
Which car we taking?
You know, it's like he's saying, Look, I'm going to go do a work for God.
I'm going to show you what zeal is.
And obviously this is not a New Testament thing.
We're out there whacking people or whatever.
But you know, in a spiritual sense, that's what we're doing, because we're destroying
the false prophets of this world by exposing them, by preaching against them, by fighting
against the principalities, powers and the rules of the darkness of this world, the spiritual
wickedness in high places.
That is the same thing that we're doing.
And you know what?
A lot of churches out there will look at us and say, Oh, no, you guys just want to be
controversial.
It's called zeal.
You might want to get some of it.
You know, instead of capitulating to all the false prophets of this world and saying that
Stacey Shiflett is saved, he's just a little mixed up.
Why don't you fight against him for preaching a false gospel?
I'll tell you why.
Because you have no zeal.
You've lost your zeal.
The Bible tells us we're supposed to fight against these people who have forsaken the
laws of God.
And yeah, but you shouldn't call people out.
Folks, the whole Bible just names everyone.
Everyone gets called out.
There's only a few times where someone doesn't get called out.
And it's like when the man of God is doing something great, he's just like not named.
God just chooses not to name.
But when there's like a wicked person, they're always named.
The Apostle Paul is always calling people out.
All they were during Asia have forsaken me.
Demons have forsaken me, having loved this present world.
Alexander the coppersmith, may the Lord render him according to his works, for he did me
much evil.
Whoa, Paul.
You know, you should have called him.
Paul, you should have called him.
This ain't it, Paul.
Paul, this ain't it.
You should have called them, talk behind closed doors.
No, Alexander needed to be called out.
You know, the point that I'm making here is that according to the Bible, one of the things
that will keep us on fire for God, keep our zeal going, is making sure you stay in the
fight.
You better hate false doctrine and false prophets as much as God does.
You better hate that which the Lord hates if you want to keep the flame going.
And you know what?
Here's a hate check for you.
How's your hate life?
Not your love life.
How's your hate life?
Are you sympathizing with the wicked of this world?
Are you sympathizing with the false prophets of this world?
Then you're part of the problem.
You've lost your zeal.
You know, we want to make sure that we don't have dissimulated love.
We want to abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good.
And make no mistake about it.
Here's the thing, folks, is that we're obviously supposed to love our enemies.
Bless those who curse us and do good to them to despitefully use us.
Things of that nature.
Obviously, we have personal enemies, and God wants us to be good into them, to heap
coals of fire on their head.
But make no mistake about it.
There are people in this world that, according to the Bible, hate the Lord, don't live in
a fantasy world.
The real world says that there's people out there that hate the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know, one of the godliest men in the Bible by the name of King David, a man after
God's own heart, the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate
thee?
And not I grieve with them that rise up against thee?
I hate them with perfect hatred.
I count them mine enemies.
And you know what?
The next verse doesn't say, And I was wrong about this because the Lord interfered and
told me by the Holy Ghost that I was not thinking straight.
God's like, beautifully written.
Let's put that in the Bible.
It's in the Bible.
He put it in the Bible.
Well, I just think that, you know, Gandhi was right.
You're in the wrong religion.
I just think that, you know, God is just a God of love.
No, he is love, but he's not just a God of love.
You see, I like all of God.
I like everything about him.
I like his love, his mercy, his judgment, his righteousness, his wrath.
I love it all.
And you know what?
God blesses those who recognize that, that they're just not like, why like half of what
God is.
I like the New Testament God more than the Old Testament God.
I love it all.
And you know, if you want to stay in this thing for the long haul, you want to keep
the flame going, you better check your heart.
Too many pastors are checking their heart to see where their love is.
Most of them need to check where their hate is.
Because you know what?
I don't want to be caught dead loving the things that God hates.
Shouldest thou help thee ungodly and love them to hate the Lord?
Therefore, wrath is upon thee from before the Lord.
I don't want God's wrath in my life.
I want to make sure that when God looks down on me, he recognizes that I love what he loves,
esteem what he esteems, exalt what he exalts.
And you know what?
Hate what he hates as well.
You know, you look at the Book of Revelation, he's doing it.
He's telling churches that.
Thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He's like commending them for calling out false prophets, false apostles, calling them
liars.
He says thou canst not bear them which are evil.
He's literally like commending them for that.
You want to keep the fire going, I'll tell you how to do it.
You got to keep hating what God hates.
You know what?
There is an obvious danger that the older you get, the more soft you become.
I hope to God that never happens to me.
It's true.
And you know what?
I hope to God that never happens to our church.
But in order for that to take place in my personal life, I got to make sure that I'm
reading the Bible and I got to make sure that I'm still continuing to hate false prophets
like Stacey Shiflett, like Stacey Shiflett, damning people to hell with this false gospel
and his stupid book Lamb among Wolves that he's trying to make merchandise off of people.
He's a fundamental Baptist, though.
You shouldn't call him out.
He's a phony.
He's parading as a fundamental Baptist.
That's what false prophets do.
Amen.
What's the point that I'm making?
The point that I'm making here is that we need to make sure that we keep the flame going.
One of the ways to do is to make sure that you hate the things that God hates and the
people that God hates as well.
You know what?
I'm going to preach against fags till the day that I die.
You know, trannies and fags, they all get it.
I don't like the word transvestite.
That's a that's a good term to use.
There's no we don't call it transgender here.
No one can change into another gender.
You know, all people do is cross-dress is what they do.
And we need to make sure we keep that on the forefront of our minds and not capitulate
and just fold to the world just because the world's constantly pressuring people
and constantly pushing that stuff down people's throats.
We need to make sure that we keep our minds and our hearts in the right place in regards
to those things and fight against them.
That's how you keep the fire going.
You say, well, I've gotten lax in that area.
This is what you do.
You pray, Lord, forgive me for having such a wimpy heart and for just kind of sympathizing
with wicked people.
God, help me to hate the things that you hate and keep that zeal going.
Help me to be like Jehu, the son of Nimshi, who just had that zeal for you to execute
the commandments of the Lord and expressed his zeal by doing so.
I want to remain that way.
Go to Lament Lamentations Chapter one Lamentations Chapter one.
Let me give you a few more points here.
How to keep the fire going.
Let me say this.
Keep a tender heart towards the loss.
I mentioned that already in the beginning, but you know, one of the best ways to keep
the fire going, keep soul winning.
We're First Works Baptist Church.
We place an emphasis on preaching the gospel, soul winning, training others how to do so.
And one of the best ways to stay on fire, according to the Bible, is you keep winning
souls to Christ.
And you know what?
I've been doing it for 17 years.
I never want to get over the excitement of getting a person saved.
It's always exciting that God would use someone like me.
God will use someone like you to lead someone to Christ and change their eternal destiny.
That's amazing.
You feel apathetic, do some soul winning and you know what will happen?
It'll it'll get you on fire for God.
You say, well, you know, I just I just kind of lost it, though.
You know, I just don't really feel the same way.
Well, look at Lamentations one, verse 12.
I love this statement here.
Look what it says.
Is it nothing to you?
All ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is
done unto me or what the Lord hath afflicted me in the days of his fierce anger.
I like what Jeremiah said.
Is it nothing to you?
You know, one of the best ways to get back on fire when it comes to soul winning?
Look in the mirror and say, is it nothing to you that people are going to hell?
Is it nothing to you that there's not enough preachers of the gospel out there?
One of the best ways to get yourself back on track is ask yourself that question.
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?
I want it to mean something to me.
And you know what?
When my heart grows cold and it does from time to time, I have to basically ask myself
that question.
Is it nothing to you, Bruce?
There's people out there just going to hell.
There's people who have died today without the gospel.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God
and not of us.
If our gospel be hid, is it to them that are lost?
Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God that speak this
to your shame.
Is it nothing to you?
And you know what that does?
That gets me back on fire.
It helps me to realize this is my destiny.
This is what I'm here for, to get people saved.
Oh, you're just being dramatic.
No, I'm just being on fire.
I'm not a Calvinist.
I'm not some reform Calvinist just sitting on his rear end, not even caring about the
souls that are going to hell out there.
I want to make sure I stay on fire by recognizing my responsibility.
Woe unto me.
Woe is me if I preach not the gospel of Christ.
Keep a tender heart towards the loss.
And I'm not saying that you have to be on soul wash 24 7.
But you know what?
Think upon the souls.
I pray virtually every week of my life.
Lord, please help me get someone saved this week.
Just one.
How many get someone saved?
Because I don't want to lose sight of that.
It's easy to be a Christian for so long that you kind of start, like,
fading out into that and no longer caring about the loss.
We want to make sure we keep the main thing, the main thing,
and keep that fire going by getting people saved.
Amen.
The Bible says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
Here's another thing to keep the fire going.
We're almost done.
Come to church ready.
What do I mean by that?
You know what?
Come to church expecting to get something from God.
Don't make church just this motion, the motion that you go through.
We just do this every Sunday.
Come expecting something from God.
Come recognizing I'm going to hear from the Lord today to the preaching of God's word.
It's something that I need to do something, something that I need to change,
something that needs to be added, something that needs to be subtracted.
The Bible tells us in James 1 19.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Go to 2 Peter, if you would.
2 Peter chapter 1.
I'm breezing through some of these, trying to shorten it up here.
Here's the next thing you could do to make sure you're on fire for God.
I hope you understand this.
Go through phases of bulking and cutting.
Now, obviously, that's a statement that's often used to describe people who
are losing weight and then trying to gain muscle, right?
You go through seasons of just gaining weight so you can move more weight and get stronger,
but then sometimes you get a little too fat and then you got to, like, cut a little bit.
You know, I'm currently in the cutting phase right now,
and this is why I'm miserable and mad and screaming and yelling.
But the bulk is coming.
The winter arc is coming soon.
But how do we apply this spiritually?
You know, there's seasons where you have to add to your life,
and there's other seasons where you have to subtract from your life as well.
And you have to have both to stay on fire for God.
What do you mean by that?
Look at 2 Peter 1.4.
It says, Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises,
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,
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.
What is Peter saying?
Add to your faith bulk.
Sometimes you got to go through seasons where you say, you know what?
I need to fix this part of my life, and I need to add soul winning to my life.
I need to add some extra chapters in my daily Bible reading.
I need to add some more time to my prayer life.
I need to add another service to my life. Amen.
You know, I've been coming Sunday morning, and I come Thursday,
but you know it's time to come Sunday night.
Or I'm coming Sunday morning, Sunday night, it's time to start coming Thursday.
Why? Bulk!
Get that volume in. Amen.
Bulk spiritually, add more content, add more preaching, add to your faith more.
You're like, well, I'm in maintenance mode right now.
Here's the thing is that, you know,
maintenance mode does exist in the real world when it comes to weight,
but not when it comes to spiritual things.
Can't just do maintenance mode.
God wants us to continuously add to our faith.
You know, he wants us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.
And so sometimes we need to go through phases of that where it's like, you know what?
It's time to stop messing around, and I'm going to start reading through the Bible twice this year.
You know, this year, I've been doing it once a year, and you know what?
God bless you if you've done that and praise God.
But you know what? Let me give you a little bit of a challenge.
Read through it twice.
Bulk! Add an extra meal in. Amen.
You know, guys who, which I have no idea how, what this is like.
You know, there's guys who just struggle to gain weight,
and so they have to eat a crazy amount to gain weight, and then they just don't.
I don't know what that's like, by the way, like,
I'm like, dude, if I ate everything that I saw, I'd just be like 600 pounds or something.
You know, but some people are like, and you know, some of you know what I'm talking about, too.
Okay. You don't know what that, if it's hard to gain weight or not.
But you know, some other people are just like, it's hard to gain weight, you know.
Well, and you know what they tell them? You got to add a bunch of meals.
You got to add a bunch of meals to gain that weight.
Well, you know what? The same goes for the spiritual things.
You know, if you want to increase in your spiritual life, you want to become more
valuable in the things of God. You want more opportunities.
Guess what? You got to bulk.
Add some more Bible, add some more prayer, add another service, add some more soul winning.
And you know, the volume may seem a lot,
but after six months or so, it just becomes the new normal.
Look at Hebrew chapter 12, if you would, Hebrew chapter 12.
Talk about staying on fire for God. You say, how does that keep you on fire for God?
Well, it basically prevents you from going on cruise control.
People on cruise control and maintenance mode,
they're going to lose their fire because it's not hard to maintain.
When you bulk spiritually, it requires effort.
Like you have to be aware like, okay, tomorrow I'm reading an extra chapter.
Tomorrow or this week, I'm going to go to the Thursday night service.
Hey, I'm going to try to finish up the Isaiah series with the church and with pastor.
I'm going to listen to these. You're adding to your faith
because you're recognizing this is important. But not only that, cutting is important too.
And people will tell you when they bulk, especially if they do like a dirty bulk,
basically like I'll gain weight by any means necessary.
McDonald's, Taco Bell, pizza, just all that delicious food.
Tubs of ice cream. Does anybody know what I'm talking about here?
Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about.
Can I get a witness? Thank you. You're just like dirty bulk. You're just stuffing yourself.
Well, then you take the bulk too far. And then you're like, I'm just fat now.
And typically you realize that you've taken the bulk too far because the clothes,
you don't fit them anymore. So what do you got to do? You got to cut.
Okay. Now, spiritually speaking, how can we apply this? Well, when you cut spiritually,
it's time to get rid of some bad habits, some areas that you need to shed off, right?
You need to get rid of, you know, Lord, search my heart of the play thing is going down.
Those built on the sand. You know, sometimes you got to say, Lord, search my heart.
What is it? What's an area that I need to just get rid of in my life?
Look at what it says in verse one of Hebrews 12, whereforeseen we are also
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us. The Bible tells us in Second Timothy chapter two, verse four, no man that warth
entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who had chosen him to be
a soldier. The point that I'm making here is that we should always go through these seasons.
You should not be in maintenance mode right now. What are you doing? You bulk into your cutting.
Are you adding to your life or you're working to get rid of some things in your life? Maybe you
need to get rid of some friends. Maybe maybe there's a girlfriend you got to get rid of
because she's not a Christian. She's not saving. If she is, she's not in church.
Maybe it's a cousin. You're hanging around too much and they're causing you to become
cold towards the things of God. Maybe you need to cut that out of your life. Amen.
Maybe you're listening to too many podcasts. Maybe you need to dwindle it down to The Baptist Bias.
Amen. A little shout out to The Baptist Bias here because I'm going to be on there in the
next couple of weeks. Amen. Or re-listen to the Rod of Iron episodes from years past.
Maybe you just need to cut out some social media.
Some things just need to be cut to improve the quality of your spiritual life.
You know what? Cutting is not fun because we're consumers. We just like to just eat and eat and
eat. Obviously, we're not preaching on that right now because we're going to eat again. Amen.
The point that I'm making here is that you should not be on maintenance mode. Improve your life.
Hey, better yourself. I'm here to challenge you to say, make yourself better.
Improve yourself. You have not attained. You have not arrived. You have not apprehended.
You're not the best Christian in our church. Sorry. Be better.
Oh, I don't want to hear that. I know you don't. So add to your faith. Cut. Make yourself better.
Amen. You know what? You may be a great Christian, but you could be better though.
We all can. Bulk and cut spiritually. Lastly, let me say this before we dismiss.
And this may seem simple. It may seem practical, but you know what? This is important.
Have a song in your heart. Talk about staying on fire for God. Have a song in your heart.
Forget Taylor Swift, that weird chick. Stop listening to that garbage.
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Whatever famous person you like to listen to,
cut that out. Have a spiritual song in your heart. The Bible says to speak to yourselves in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts into the Lord.
When you're in church, sing out. Just as loud as you would with your stupid Taylor Swift.
Yeah. Sing out into the Lord. When you're in church, sing it. And I know not everyone here
knows how to sing well, but that's okay. You can still belt it out.
Sing blessed assurance when we're here. Put a smile on your face when you do so.
You're like, oh man, it's just brother Ron just like holds out that note a little too long.
I know that's why he's out of breath when he's about to pray.
Hey, he's not doing it for dramatic appeal. He's like,
Lord, it's because he's putting in work. He's expanding that diaphragm.
And you know what? I'm there with him. I'm just like, man, I'm glad I'm not praying because
I probably just say in Jesus' name, amen. But you know what? Hold out that note.
This is my story. This is my song. Oh, that's embarrassing. Praising my savior all the day long.
Do it. I mean, you do it with your worldly songs. You do it with your country music.
You do it with whatever. Do it with the things of God. Have a song in your heart. You say,
well, you're just trying to add that point in there. No, it's an important point because
you know what keeps you on fire for God is having a song in your heart because it reinforces doctrine.
It keeps you excited about the things of God. And you know what? I'm excited that our church
is going to put out a hymn book. And we got men in the church who are former rappers who are writing
hymns now. They're writing hymns and we're singing the hymns. We need a new song, amen.
You say, why is that important? Because fundamental Baptists are getting all liberal
with their CCM garbage. All they want to focus on is that queer skinny jean music that they
got going on there. You know what we need? We need the old fashioned hymns again.
And you need to get excited about It Is Well With My Soul. Tearing up when you hear those songs,
amen. Tearing up about I'd Rather Have Jesus. Tearing up about Come Thou Fount.
Singing it out with your heart. You know, you sing all the other songs like, hey,
why aren't you seeing the things of God the same way? Psalms and hymns stir the heart, my friend.
You know, when I sing And Can It Be, it stirs my heart up. You say, why? Because it reminds
me when I first got saved. It makes the voice tremble. It puts that frog in your throat.
And it makes you, it reminds you like, man, I'm so grateful that I'm saved.
And can it be? That's how you stay on fire for God. Sing those songs, not just in church,
sing it in your car. Look all weird on the freeway. Who cares?
The point that I make, you say, well, I think you're just exaggerating. No,
you're just confusing it. I'm zealous for the things of God. Hey, why don't you come
and see my zeal for the Lord? Hop into the chariot and see my zeal for the Lord.
We want to remain zealous as a church, not a lukewarm Laodicean church. We want to make
sure we keep this fire going to the second coming of Christ. And these are the things
that we can do to maintain that fire. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word
and thank you for the fire that you placed under us, Lord. And our hearts do burn within us when
you talk to us, by the way, when you open to us the scriptures. Lord, may we maintain that fire
as the fire that was lit in the tabernacle, that it was to burn perpetually. Lord, may our flame
burn perpetually for you, that we may be a burning and shining light to the day that we die. And I
pray, Lord, that we would honor and glorify you in all that we do. Bless the fellowship to follow.
Thank you for seven wonderful years. Give us many more to come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.