Amen.
The part of the chapter we're going to focus on is found in Isaiah chapter 55 verse number
9 where the Bible reads, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud, then it may give seed to the sower,
and bread to the eater.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
And the title of my message this morning in reasons why our message is void.
Reasons why our message is void.
And the part of that section that we just read that I really want to focus on is found
in verse 11 where it says, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, the Bible says, okay?
Now when the Bible says void, it means empty, okay?
And what the Bible is saying there is that when the word of God goes out, it's going
to produce something.
It's going to accomplish something.
You know, and we should never think that when we preach in the gospel, and I'm getting ahead
of myself, or when the word of God is going out, then nothing ever is going to happen.
Or if you don't see the immediate results that, you know, it's void, or it was meaningless,
or it was in vain, or when we go out sowing, we don't see people saved, it's in vain.
No, the word of God never comes back void, okay?
But we're going to talk about reasons why our message is void.
Now before we get into that, by way of introduction, I want to just make some comparisons here
because the Bible often will compare the word of God to specific things to give us an understanding
of the ability of God's word, okay?
For example, go to Jeremiah chapter 23, Jeremiah chapter 23.
And I like when God uses illustrations to really expound upon what the word of God is,
and its ability, its character traits, its power, because it gives us an understanding
and confidence of how wonderful the word of God is.
Now when we talk about the word of God, we're not just talking about any word of God, okay?
So called, right?
We're talking about the King James Bible, all right?
And the Bible says here in Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 28, the prophet that hath a dream,
let him tell a dream.
He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord?
Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in
pieces?
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophet, saith the Lord, that steal my words every
one from his neighbor.
Behold, I am against the prophet, saith the Lord, that use their tongue and say, he saith.
So here we see that God is comparing his word to fire, okay?
And throughout the word of God, you'll see that common comparison.
For example, Jeremiah when he was discouraged and he didn't want to preach the word of God,
the Bible says that his word was within his heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones
and he could not stay, right?
You think about the disciples who were on the road to Damascus and when Jesus Christ
came unto them and he expounded the word unto them beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
what did they say?
He said, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us and while he opened
to us the scriptures?
And it goes without saying that when we read the word of God, the real word of God, our
heart burns.
Why?
Because the word is like a fire.
But not only that, we know that the word of God, it purifies us, okay?
It acts like a fire that will come into our soul and it'll purge us of sin and that's
why we need hard preaching, right?
That's why we need to read the word of God on a daily basis.
Why?
Because we're sinners.
We have bad habits, bad ideologies, bad things that God is not pleased with and what does
the Bible do?
It purifies us.
And in fact, the Bible says in Acts chapter 2, verse number 1, and when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting
and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the
Spirit gave them utterance.
And of course, we know it's referring to the word of God, right?
They're preaching the word of God.
But it says that it's like fire, the Bible says.
And look, some of the most boring preaching that you will ever hear is something that
doesn't come from this book right here, okay?
Some of the most boring preaching is from the liberal fund centers.
It has no fire.
It's just watered down, right?
Which is the opposite of what the word of God is.
It's fire.
And what does it do?
It doesn't accomplish anything.
It goes out and it comes back void, whereas the word of God, because it's like fire, it
does accomplish something.
Look, you either get right or you'll get offended, but it's gonna do something, amen?
But not only that, the Bible compares it to a hammer.
Now what does a hammer do?
It says, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.
Well, a hammer does just that.
It just breaks stuff, okay?
Now it could either break something or fasten a nail in place, right?
And I'm thankful that the word of God has the power and the ability to just break false
doctrines left and right.
If you ever want to make sure, if you wanna prove all things, hold fast to that which
is good, use the word of God.
And I love how the word of God just smashes the preacher of doctrine.
It just smashes Zionism.
It smashes this whole thing that sodomites can be saved.
You just need to use the word of God and it just breaks it to pieces, to smithereens.
Nothing can stand up against, look, the Bible says you can do nothing against the truth
before the truth.
The truth is powerful.
But not only that, it reinforces our beliefs.
It just puts a nail in its place.
You know, something that you may already believe, whether it's beliefs about end times, beliefs
about the Jews, or beliefs about sodomites, or beliefs about anything, salvation.
You may believe them, but you know what, when you hear preaching from God's word, it just
hammers that point to the point where those beliefs become reinforced in you even more.
You learn about more verses in the word of God that reinforce what you already believe,
right?
The word of God is powerful.
And the Bible says in Matthew 21, verse 44, and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall
be broken, but on whosoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
And of course, we know that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.
Jesus Christ is the Word of God who can smash any false doctrine to smithereens, amen?
So it's compared to fire, it's compared to a hammer, it's also compared to bread.
Now go with me if you went to John chapter 6.
This is all introduction here.
Where is David?
Is David around here?
David, can you?
Thank you.
John chapter 6, I'm going to read to you from Matthew chapter number 4, we'll read
John 6 first.
Verse 51 says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give is
my flesh which I will give for the life of the world, and of course, he's referring
to salvation, correct?
When we eat of the bread, we receive salvation.
But obviously, we know that even after salvation, man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceed out of the mouth of God.
And we have to constantly on a daily basis, read the word of God, read it, give attendance
to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
We can't let days go by when we don't touch the word of God, we don't read it.
We're dependent upon it, okay?
We need to read it on a daily basis so we can grow thereby.
The Bible says in Psalms 104 verse 15, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and
oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
And of course, that's referring to a physical bread that can strengthen our heart physically,
but the spiritual aspect is there as well.
You know, when we read the word of God daily, it strengthens our heart.
When you become discouraged, when you become, when you slip into depression, you know, when
you get discouraged or whatever, maybe you have anxiety, what happens?
You read the word of God and it reinforces your heart, it strengthens it, it helps you
to go forward for him.
So it's compared to bread, it's compared to fire, to hammer.
Go to Psalms chapter 19.
It's also compared to light.
And there's so many comparisons, we're not going to go over all of them this morning,
this is just the introduction.
Psalms 119 and verse 105, the Bible reads, thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light
unto my path.
Psalms 19 verse 8 says, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandment
of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
And so we see that the word of God, it enlightens us, it helps us to have a better perspective
of things.
A biblical perspective at that, right?
And sometimes in life, there's things that are just unclear.
We don't know what's going to happen, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, we're
going through trials, but you know what?
The word of God is like a lamp unto our feet, it guides our way, okay?
When the culture is just messed up and it doesn't make any sense and the world's going
to hell in a handbasket, we can have the confidence that we can read the word of God and it never
changes.
It can guide our steps, even in a corrupt and perverse generation as what we're in today,
amen?
So it's like a light, but not only that, it's compared to milk.
Go to 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter number 2.
Now why is it compared to milk?
Well, you think about children, okay, who still, who still, you know, mothers who still
give suck, correct?
And they can't eat a In-N-Out burger yet, you know what I mean?
They can't have steak or filet mignon or tacos or, you know, birria and all that, the goods,
they can't have all that yet, okay?
They need milk, you know?
And in fact, the Bible says in 1 Peter 2 verse 1, Wherefore, laying aside all malice and
all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire
the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby, if so be they have tasted the Lord
as gracious.
So what does milk do?
It causes the babes to grow and that's on a physical level, but it's also on a spiritual
level.
You know, when you're a babe in Christ, you need the milk of the word, obviously, right?
And that can be broken into two categories, in other words, you get little teachings here
and there, someone's feeding you from the pulpit, correct?
That's the milk where the preacher's feeding you, but it's also can be compared to milk
as in, as in doctrines that are just very basic, right?
You can't understand, a brand new Christian's not gonna understand end times like right
off the bat, okay?
They're gonna be like, whoa, what?
You know?
They won't understand, they need to understand the basics of the Christian life, the fundamentals
of the faith, correct?
That's like the milk.
But you know what?
This book, as deep as it is, can feed a babe, okay?
And when people tell me, yeah, that book is too hard to read, they're full of nonsense.
It's not too hard to read.
Get them started on the book of John, get them started on Proverbs, get them started
on very simple books in the Bible, they can start growing right away.
And they can make their way to Matthew, they can make their way to Psalms, they can make
their way to, eventually to Revelation, correct?
They can make their way to the Old Testament, but this book is able to feed even the most
babe in Christ, okay?
And it can feed them, help them to grow in the Lord.
It's also compared to meat.
So after you're a babe, Lord willing, right?
You start growing, because you can't be a babe in Christ forever, all right?
And here's the thing.
He's like, well, I'm a babe in Christ.
Well, amen?
We all started off as babes in Christ, okay?
But eventually you gotta grow.
Eventually you gotta mature.
You gotta grow up, okay?
You gotta become a spiritual adult eventually, okay?
I mean, physically, that's just the outcome of having a child.
That child's gonna grow.
Well, spiritually, that should be the expectation for every Christian as well.
You know, you can't be a babe in Christ for 10 years, or for 20.
I mean, I'm a Christian.
And look, by the way, the length of time you've been in church does not equal your spiritual
growth.
Well, I've been a Christian for 30 years.
You just showed me that you're still a babe in Christ, okay?
Because it doesn't matter how long you've been in church.
You could have been in church, in the liberal church, for 30 years, you're not gonna grow.
Or maybe you're in an independent fundamental Baptist church, but you're not reading your
Bible.
You're not confessing your sin.
You're not going soul-willing.
You're not taking care of the basics, and therefore you remain a babe.
But the Bible teaches us that it's also compared to me, and the Bible says in Hebrews chapter
6, verse 12, for when the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you
again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have
need of milk, and not strong meat.
For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of, excuse me, of righteousness,
for he is a babe.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
You know what the strong meat is when we talk about end times?
Strong meat is when we hit a point, and we hit it hard, and you don't like what we're
saying, that's a strong meat.
Strong meat is when we hit on your sin.
You know, because we like it when we hit on everyone else's sin, right?
Like, yeah, get that.
Get those old eye of beers, you know what I mean?
Get those pre-tribbers and those Zionists, but when we start hitting on your sin, when
we start stepping on your toes, you know, that separates the boys from the men.
Because the boys will get offended.
The men will say, you know what, I need that.
You know what I mean?
So it doesn't feel good, but hey, it's going to yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness
in my life, so I'm just going to go ahead and accept it.
But it's also compared to rain.
In Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse number 1, you can turn it if you like, or you can write
it down.
The Bible says, Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words
of my mouth.
My doctrine shall drop as the rain.
My speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the
showers upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness
unto our God.
And of course, as we read in Isaiah chapter 55, verse number 11, excuse me, verse number
10 says, For as the rain cometh down in the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither,
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud that I may give seed to the sower,
and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I pleased, and it shall
prosper unto the thing whereto I sent it.
So it compares it to rain.
And one of the reasons it compares it to rain is because when rain falls, we don't see the
immediate results.
You know, when it falls on crops or seeds or anything like that, you're not gonna come
out the next day and just see a full-blown tree, right?
It takes time.
So there's things, there's attributes within the Word of God that when it goes out, we
will see immediate results.
I mean, I've had people just get up and walk out of the service when I'm preaching here.
That's an immediate result, amen?
They get offended, like, I'm not even gonna let you finish the sermon, I'm just walking
out.
Hey, that's an immediate result, okay?
There's immediate results when we go out and preach the Gospel and someone just gets
saved right there, amen?
But there's times when we're sowing the Word of God, when the Word of God is going out,
you will not see immediate results.
Because it has the attribute of rain that when it falls, it takes time.
In fact, you gotta water it over and over and over again and have this character quality
of patience to wait for it, okay?
But just know this, it won't come back void.
You see, a lot of people, they get discouraged, and I'm getting ahead of myself again, but
they get discouraged when they're witnessing to their families, their friends, or they're
trying to teach another Christian a doctrine and they're not receiving it, or they don't
understand it, we get frustrated with them, right?
You gotta understand, the Word of God is like rain, and sometimes it just takes time.
And I'm not talking about the stubborn fools out there who, when we show them the Word
of God, they're just rejected completely, they're just spiritually stupid, and they
don't wanna get the Word of God, they reject it, that's a whole nother category, okay?
Those are stubborn and stiff-necked people who just need to get right with God and just
believe the Word of God for what it says, okay?
I'm talking about people who just need time to grow, all right?
But it will prosper in the thing where too we send it, it will never come back empty,
it will never come back void.
Now, here's the thing, with the modern versions of the Bible, it will always come back void.
You will get a bounce check.
You know, you put that thing out there, you owe something after you read that thing.
You get nothing out of it, nothing.
You know?
Oh, but they're easier to read.
You know what?
First of all, they're not easier to read, most of them, but some of them, they are easier
to read, but you know what?
And this is harder to read, you know why?
Because this is God's Word, and God is not dumb.
So He writes excellent things, He writes things that have knowledge, and you have to
have smarts to be able to read it, okay?
And it can teach you, it can make you smarter.
So that ought not to be a reason why we don't read the King James Bible, okay?
You know, it was funny, years ago, there was a guy who used to read NASB, okay?
And he, of course, obviously he was a Calvinist, that's like their go-to Bible there.
And you know, I was telling him, I was like, you need to get on the King James.
You know, the King James, the NASB is a false version, and you know, we went back and forth
or whatever, and then he said this, he goes, okay, look, Brother Bruce, look, I respect
the King James Bible.
I mean, it's a great Bible.
He goes, but that's not how you start off Christians with, you see, he said the King
James Bible is a higher caliber book, you know, like a gun.
He goes, so you have to start someone on a lower caliber, you know, to move them up there.
I say, you just admitted, I said, why would you want to give someone a Super Soaker for
spiritual battles instead of like a, instead of an AK-47?
You know what I mean?
I was like, you just proved my point.
So it goes without saying that, yes, this is a higher caliber Bible, but it's the only
caliber Bible, amen?
Now go with me, if you went to Psalms 126, let me give you some points here before we
get into the crux of the message.
There's a lot of thoughts I want to give you this morning.
Just remember this is that when we get the Word of God out there, it never comes back
void.
It never comes back void in soul winning, and I know I've already hit on that point,
but I want to expound on that a little more.
Psalms 126, verse 6, the Bible says, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious
seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him, okay?
So the Bible tells us that we will doubtless come back, seeing people saved, amen?
We will doubtless come back with souls, okay?
And the reason I say that is because sometimes we can get discouraged when we go out there
and we're preaching the gospel and we're not seeing people saved, okay?
And you're like, man, I don't, I mean, is this, does this really work?
And here's the problem with not just the old IFB, but just churches in general, who used
to preach the gospel, okay?
When they would do their outreach, they used to preach the gospel, one of the reasons they
stopped preaching the gospel is because they were going out there and they weren't seeing
the results.
So what happens?
You don't see the results, then you begin to question the method of soul winning.
Well, maybe this doesn't work.
Maybe preaching the gospel doesn't work.
Maybe soul winning door to door doesn't work.
I got an idea.
Why don't we do tracks, track drops?
Why don't we do door hangers?
Why don't we do, you know, evangelistic services?
Why don't we do all these things instead of soul winning because I don't think soul winning
works?
But see, that's, you're leaning on your own understanding at that point.
And you're not understanding that there's times when we go out soul winning that the
Word of God is like rain and it takes time.
You know, look, a couple weeks ago, we hit an area and it was like the worst area I've
ever been to.
I was like, man, today was bad.
I mean, I don't know how many of us went out, like six, six of us?
And none of us saw it, but we all had the same story.
Like, people were like, uh-huh, yeah, I get that, okay, no, I'm not, I'm good.
You know, they didn't want to trust Christ.
And I told the guys, I was like, maybe this area hasn't really even been hit.
So this is the first time seeds are even being sown here, and it's going to take time for
them to get it.
Now, I guarantee you in a year, if we go back there, they'll receive it.
I guarantee you if we go back there in six months, there'll be people who can get saved
there.
Why?
Because the Word of God never comes back, boy.
It wasn't in vain to even give the gospel to all those people who we gave it to because
a lot of them will get saved.
And when we go out soul winning, we need to have the mentality, and look, it's awesome
when we go out there and it's just like, I saw 10 people saved, you know.
I saw five and 20 or whatever, you know.
I saw all these people, that's great, but there's going to be times when they're like,
yeah, I just, I got one, you know.
And then I gave the gospel to like seven of them, and no one accepted, no one trusted
Christ as your Savior.
But you know what?
That wasn't in vain.
Because if you gave the gospel to them, you preached the gospel, you sowed a seed, and
the Word of God never returns back void.
Now, I understand, some of those people will never get saved, okay.
They reject it, whatever.
But we're talking about the people who will, okay.
The Word of God never comes back void.
Go to Luke chapter number 8.
I'm going to read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 6 where it says, I have planted
Apollo's water, but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that plantseth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own
reward according to his labor.
Look, we're going to reap the benefits of even going out there and preaching the gospel.
So don't think it's going to be, it's in vain, don't think it's empty, and we should
never get to a point where we think sowing doesn't work at all.
Let's create some liberal method, let's do something that, you know, well the liberals,
they got big churches.
They got all kinds of people in their church, well most of those people aren't even saved.
So that's not even success in God's eyes.
Just stick to what the Word of God says, understand the attributes of the Word of God is that
it's like rain, and when it goes, it won't produce immediate results sometimes.
And that requires maturity.
You know, we live in a microwave society, we want everything just now.
Got drive-throughs, microwaves, and everything in between.
We want everything now.
You know, when we go out and preach the gospel, it's like, no, I want to see someone saved.
And that's a good attitude to have, but if you don't, don't think it was in vain.
You still preach the Word of God, you're getting the work done, and it will produce results.
Look what the Bible says in Luke 8 verse 11, now the parable is this, the seed is the Word
of God.
Those by the wayside are they that hear, then cometh the devil, and taketh away the Word
out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
They on the rock are they which when they hear receive the Word with joy, and these
have no root, which for a while believe in a time of temptation fall away.
And that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are
choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard
the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
So look, don't even get discouraged if somebody doesn't even come to church.
Because here we see that a seed was sown to four different people, one didn't get saved,
three of them did, two didn't pan out, and one did.
That's just the law of numbers right there.
You go out, you won't see someone saved, but you know what?
Three other people will get saved, two of them won't even live for God, but one of them
will come and they'll actually start producing some fruit.
Got that perspective in mind, okay?
Don't think that everyone you witness to is going to come to church too.
Now look, bring people to church.
And we need to start bringing people to church, amen?
We need to start going out there with the purpose of not only just seeing them saved,
we want them to get baptized, right?
Now thankfully, of course, the ordination service is on the 15th, after that, we're
dunking, okay?
But here's the thing is, we ought to have that goal, you know?
You got baptized, why not someone else who gets saved, right?
Someone challenged you to get baptized, someone taught you about that, you should do the same,
you know?
Or you know what?
You have the King James Bible, you have a great church, you have all these resources
at your disposal, they should have that opportunity too, okay?
And we should go out there, look, sowing is easy, but it's hard work, obviously.
The word comes in when we start doing some follow-up and saying, hey, I want to encourage
you to come to church because the Bible says you need to get baptized.
Don't be scared like they're going to think baptism is a part of salvation.
If you give a good presentation of the gospel, they're not going to think that, okay?
And sometimes we lean into our own understanding and say, well, I don't really, you know, I
try not to talk about baptism because then they start wondering it.
No, if you give a clear presentation of the gospel, they're not going to wonder that,
okay?
Just explain to them, just show them from the word of God why they need to get baptized,
why they need to be in church, why they need to do the things that they're doing, and you
know what?
Just let the chip fall where they may and just go out there and try it.
Well, you ought to bring people to church to bring forth fruit, but don't get discouraged
if they don't.
Go to Jeremiah chapter number one.
So soul winning, the word of God never comes back void in soul winning.
Man, I had a really good time soul winning yesterday.
I saw two Vietnamese kids get saved, amen?
And that's my fourth Asian person that I've seen saved.
And they're all kids too.
Two of them were Chinese a couple weeks ago.
These two were Vietnamese.
And one of them's name's Ryan, he was 12 years old.
He was the most innocent, just good little boy.
He's just like untainted from the world and was willing to listen and just received the
word of God with all readiness of mind.
And he got saved.
And then I said, is there anybody else in your house that you think would want to get
saved?
He goes, I got my sister.
Let me go bring her.
And he grabbed, he took his sister, she was like 11, and he said, stand right here.
And she stood and he goes, and she kind of backed up, he goes, no, no, no, no, stand
right there.
Listen.
And then as I was giving her the word of God, you know, I was talking about believing, he
was just like, you know, he was kind of like looking at her.
And then when she was ready to get saved, you know, he was like really excited about
it.
And I gave him both some DVDs.
And then afterwards I was about to leave and he said, thank you so much for coming to talk
to us.
We're really thankful.
Those are the stories we like, but it's not always going to be that way, right?
And I think God maybe throws those in every once in a while to show, hey, it's not in
vain, you know, it's not in vain.
But you know, there's times when people are just like, nope, you know, just close the
door.
No, they don't want to hear it.
It's still not in vain because the word of God never comes back void, okay?
But not only that, it never comes back void in soul winning, but it also never comes back
void in preaching.
Okay.
Now, obviously this would apply obviously to myself, but just preaching in general,
okay?
Maybe you bring someone to church and you're wondering, man, are they going to get it or
are they listening?
Look at Jeremiah 1, 7 says, but the Lord said unto me, say not, I am a child for thou
shall go to all that I shall send thee and whatsoever I command thee, thou shall speak.
Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee, say the Lord.
Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth.
And the Lord said unto me, behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
Now this would apply to churches just in general.
Where the pastors need to recognize, hey, don't worry about what the people may think
about you if you preach the truth.
The word's never going to come back void.
And look, don't think that, look, obviously some people are going to get offended, but
not everyone.
In fact, pastor, recognize this, there's probably some people in your church that would appreciate
if you rip their face off and they're more likely to stay if you rip their face off.
If you preach hard, if you slap your thigh, if you clap your hands, if you lift up your
voice like a trumpet, they're going to want to listen to that because look, people are
coming to church because they want the word of God.
They're not coming, I mean, obviously in different churches, they're not independent Baptist,
they come because they want to hear something that will help them.
But you know how you help people?
By ripping face.
That's how you help.
Exhort, obviously, but sometimes you just got to rip face.
Some of the greatest decisions I've ever made is when my pastor ripped my face off.
My face got red, I became embarrassed.
I thought, who told him, you know, it's just like, you wonder and you get it right.
Be not afraid of their faces.
But you know, we have a lot of pastors today that are afraid.
They'll say something, you know, the congregate will like, look, but I'm not, I mean, you
know, I'm not talking about that though, you know, and you know, God is love and everything
and they're afraid to lose their people because of that.
No, just by faith, preach the word of God, it won't come back void.
And look, if they, if they squirm at you, if they make a face, it means the word of
God is doing its job.
It's not soothing them.
It hurts, but they will appreciate it, okay?
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved is the power of God.
And we have to realize that when we preach the word of God, it never comes back void.
It always produces something, it produces something good, okay?
Now go to Jeremiah chapter 15.
Not only that, but the word of God never comes back void in your daily Bible reading, okay?
I'm a strong believer that every Christian ought to read their Bible every single day
of their life.
I came from a church where that was heavily emphasized.
They would pass out calendars and the pastor would talk about it every single service,
how you're supposed to read your Bible every single day.
He would share what he got out of the word of God from the pulpit every Sunday, and that
was heavily emphasized.
Why is that?
Because it's an important aspect of the Christian life.
You know, if we're not careful, we depend too much on YouTube, we depend too much on
just coming to church and hearing the word of God.
We're listening to good preaching, and it's just like, well, I don't have to read my Bible.
I already got something good.
No, no, no.
You need to read the word of God.
And it doesn't come back void.
And look, there's going to be times when you read portions of the Bible that you're not
going to understand.
It's still profitable.
Okay?
Like, I don't understand Leviticus too much or Numbers or, you know, the genealogy.
I don't know.
Just read it.
It will never come back void.
Jeremiah 15, 16 says, the words were found, thy words were found, and I did eat them.
And thy word was unto me, the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by thy name,
O Lord God of hosts.
You know, there's some times when you have to eat the things that you don't want to eat.
Your veggies.
You just eat it and you don't savor it, just eat that thing.
But it's good for you.
Right?
And there's times when you're going to have to read the word of God when you're lazy or
you don't want to read that specific, you know, it's easy to read the book of John.
It's easy to read through the New Testament, the Old Testament, when you start getting
into like the minor prophets and stuff, and you're like, whoa, what's going on, you know?
When you start getting into Habakkuk, when you start getting into just different books
that are not very common to sermons that you hear, whatever it may be, it gets a little
more difficult.
Okay?
And you're like, I'm not really getting anything.
You are getting something.
Okay?
Because as you're consuming the word of God, you don't know this, but your brain is retaining
some things.
And the Holy Spirit will bring those.
And here's why it's important to read everything, the entire counsel of God.
If you're only sticking to one portion of the Bible, you will have an imbalanced perspective
of doctrine.
Because you don't know what the whole entire counsel of God says.
You see, the way the Holy Spirit teaches us is as we read the entire word of God, it compares
scripture with scripture for us.
Okay?
That's why you got to read everything.
But it's profitable.
The Bible says, my doctrine shall drop as the rain.
My speech shall distill as the dew.
Distill means to purify.
So as you're reading the word of God, it's cleaning you up.
Okay?
It's removing the ideologies that you have.
I've already mentioned that.
We're going to continue to go forward.
Go to Acts chapter 16.
So the word of God is powerful.
We need to recognize that it will never come back void.
It will always produce something.
But this is the main point that I want to get at right here.
Recognize that the word of God never comes back void when you give it to your family.
Okay?
Because look, here's the thing is, some of the easiest people to win are those you don't
know.
Right?
I mean, it's easy to go out slowly.
Because you're knocking on that door.
They don't know who you are.
They think you're some man of God, woman of God.
You've been a Christian for decades on end.
And it's easy to win them.
You know the hardest people to win are those who know you best.
Right?
Those who've seen you when you were drunk or when you're stoned or when you're involved
in X, Y, and Z sins.
Those are the hardest people to win.
And sometimes what happens is we just, because they're harder to win, we just kind of like
neglect them and say, well, they're reprobate or whatever, you know.
That's a common, that's easy to say, especially within our movement.
They're just reprobate.
No.
Not everyone's a reprobate, okay?
You just need to realize when you're giving the word of God to your family, it doesn't
come back void.
It's like rain.
And sometimes it just takes time.
And here's like, the part of the message today is just don't give up on your family, okay?
It's easy to go out there and win scores of people to the Lord that you've never met and
we hear the stories and the Vietnamese and the Chinese kids being saved.
But what about your family?
What about those whom you knew and loved before you became a Christian or even after?
They need the Lord too, right?
And sometimes it's easy to just like, nah, they're not going to get saved.
You know what?
They will get saved or they will learn these doctrines, they just need patience.
Now here's the thing.
Maybe you have people in your family who are saved, but they're just not seeing your point
of view or the Bible's point of view of the doctrines that you believe, right?
Whether it's the reprimand doctrine, whatever it may be, be patient, okay?
Be patient with them.
I'm not talking about people who just reject the word of God.
I'm talking about the people who just like, they just don't understand, you know?
And I'm going to explain why sometimes the, well let's just read the scriptures here.
Acts 16 verse 27 says, and the keeper of the prison awakened out of his sleep and seeing
the prison doors open, he drew out a sword and would have killed himself supposing that
the prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here.
Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved in thy house.
And they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house.
And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized
he and all his straight way.
Now that doesn't mean that when he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, that the
kids got saved as well just through him believing.
It means that it applied to them too.
Right?
And here's the thing, and thy house.
How's your house today?
Because you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but what about your house?
Okay.
Because the promise is still to them as well.
Salvation is for them as well.
We're the chosen generation, but that doesn't mean like we're some sort of club where we
don't want anyone else to be a part of this generation, right?
Your house.
What about the people you know?
What about your aunt?
What about your cousins?
What about your sister, your brother?
Those who you love.
And by the way, here my sisters are my brother and my mother, right?
Those who do the will of God, but the Bible still gives commands, honor thy father and
thy mother.
And it's not talking about, okay, I need to honor like all my fathers and mothers spiritually.
No, it's talking about the physical father and mother.
And we ought to, I think we need to get a burden again for our families.
Those who are not saved, you know?
And I'm going to read to you from John chapter one, verse 40 says, one of the two which heard
John speak and followed him, it was Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother.
He first went to the soul when he made a marathon.
No.
No, he first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, we have found the Messiahs,
which is being interpreted to Christ.
He's like, man, I need to get my brother on this, you know?
And I think the natural inclination for any Christian or person who gets saved is they
want to give it to their family sometimes too.
And here's the thing is, if you're anything like me, and I'm probably the only one who's
ever done this, okay?
You know, because I was just like a terrible born again Christian when I first got saved.
I was really rough with my family.
I'm sure no one's ever done that here, right?
I was terribly rough with my family.
And here's the thing, it was at a zeal, but it was a zeal not according to knowledge.
And out of a desire and out of a love and out of a fear that when my family would die
and go to hell, I was a little too rough with my family.
You know?
And I think some of my family members, I turned them away a little bit because of my disposition.
And so, you know, when we go out there, it's different than when we actually witnessed
our own family members, okay?
Sometimes it might take years for your family members to get saved, you know, and it's for
different reasons.
Now, I'm going to give you some reasons why, okay?
So obviously, we spent the majority of the message talking about why the Word of God
doesn't come back void.
So you can never blame the Word of God for being void because you're giving it to your
family members and they're not getting saved and all these things.
No, sometimes it has to do with us, okay?
The Word of God never comes back void, but sometimes the message is void, not because
of the message, but because of us, okay?
Now, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
I'm going to give you some reasons why.
And when you get these reasons, look, just apply them.
Get it right, repent if you're guilty of it, and apply them to your life, get a burden
for your family again.
And look, sometimes we try to avoid thinking about this subject right here, right?
Because it's uncomfortable for us to even think about, right?
We just like to live in candy land, just think that everything's honky-dory.
Sometimes we just need to get back on this track and say, look, I have a mom who's not
saved that they can just die at any moment, you know, and get that burden again.
And don't let your heart grow cold for your family who are not saved.
It ought to break your heart.
You ought to, there ought to be times when you worry about these things because it'll
move you to take action.
So reason number one, why our message is void, we lack charity.
We lack charity.
Look at 1 Corinthians 13 verse 1, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge
and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and have not charity, I am
nothing.
So here it gives a bunch of qualities.
I mean, prophecy, they understand all knowledge, they understand the seven seals, they understand
the trumpets and vials, the timing of the rapture, they know how to give the gospel
well, but if they don't have charity, it's like, I'm like, nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned
and have not charity, it profit of me nothing.
Charity suffers long and is kind.
And that's a quality we need, just being kind, okay, not kind to false doctrine.
We'll get that, we'll rip on that, we'll bring the hammer down on that.
But look what it says, charity suffers long and is kind, charity envieth not, charity
vonteth not itself is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not our
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in
the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,
charity never, faileth, so on and so forth.
So, you know one of the reasons why sometimes our families are turned off to us in our message
is because we just don't have like some genuine love.
And look, don't get me that the liberal fund centers have genuine love, their love is fake.
It's as fake as the day is long, it's superficial, it's artificial, it has no substance to it,
they just want to get you in there to build up their churches, pay their bills, and that's
it.
So it's not, there's no substance to that, cause they would look at us and say yeah that's
one thing you guys like is charity, shut up, you like charity too.
Okay, I can tell by the fact that there's unsafe people in your church, how much do
you love them?
You're willing for them to come, you're willing to bring them on the bus day in and day out,
all these kids, you don't care if they're saved or not, you just want to mark them up
on the wall just to get a number.
Okay, I'm talking about genuine charity that cares and wants people to be saved, but specifically
in the context of talking about our families, you know, and the Bible says there, just
think about this word, kind.
You know, we ought to be sensitive around our families.
You know, if you have this tendency to be just very abrasive, you know, maybe that's
how you're built to speak or talk or behave yourself, do it here, okay?
You know, obviously we don't want you to do it at all, but if you need to let that out,
do it here.
Amen?
But with your family, you ought to be very meek and fearful, not abrasive, kind, meek.
We say, why is that?
Because look, obviously there doesn't have to be a difference when we get saved to be
saved, right?
But there should be a difference for the sake of others, because here's the thing, people
look at the change in our lives and it kind of piques their interest.
They wonder what happened to this guy, what happened to this girl, you know?
Or even a change in your personality, a change in your behavior, in your speech.
That speaks volumes.
And a lot of reasons why people don't want to listen to, look, not because the message
is not right, the message is right, it's because the messenger got no charity, okay?
And don't get so hard-hearted, look, sometimes because we're battling all the time, we've
just got this fight spirit, and don't ever lose that, but learn when to kind of switch
it when you're talking to your family.
You need to get right with God!
You need to come to church, KJV, you know, it's like, whoa, you know, why don't you show
some love towards your family instead?
No, they're just, you know, they're stubborn, you know, stiff neck.
No, maybe you're the one who's stubborn and stiff neck.
That's why they don't want to listen to you, okay?
And look, again, it's easy to win souls out there for people who don't know our flaws.
It's a different story when we're talking to our families.
The Bible says in Ephesians 4.15, but speaking the truth and love may grow up into him in
all things, which is the head, even Christ.
Speak the truth and love.
That means the Word of God, it's truth, but speaking in love, speaking with fear.
So sometimes the message just comes back void, not because the message is not effective,
it's always effective, it's because we don't have any charity, okay?
And look, obviously that comes with maturity, that comes as you grow, that comes as you
have patience.
And look, you say, well, that just makes me so angry.
Well, look, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that takeeth the city,
or he that ruleth the spirit, then he that taketh the city.
And so the Bible teaches us that it's not bad to be angry, it's like, how easily are
you provoked though?
You know, it's just like, they say one thing, you're just like, you're just like, the monster
comes out of you, and you start throwing after the tribulation, and marching the Zion
at them, and you know?
Or are you patient, fearful, meek, because look, and by the way, let me tell you this,
arguing with your family doesn't help anything.
You may think you're accomplishing something because you got the point across, or because
you won the debate, but it doesn't help.
In fact, it turns them off even more to it.
You know, you need to have charity and be meek, and if you see that the conversation
is escalating a little bit to the point where they don't want to listen, then you need to
back off a little bit, okay?
And by the way, I didn't add this to here, but what about prayer?
When was the last time you prayed for your family?
Look, I've heard testimonies of people who, they've been witnessing to their mom for a
long time, and they don't have a Christian background, and they witnessed them recently,
and they got saved, amen?
Thankful for that, you know?
And don't lose hope that your family can no longer be saved, or that they can get saved,
you know, you just need to apply these things.
Have some charity in your life.
Now go with me if you went to James chapter number two.
So why is the message void?
Well, it's not because it's a message, it's because sometimes we just lack charity.
And look, if you have a husband that's not saved, you need charity, okay?
You need to make sure you love on your husband as much as you possibly can to win them over,
or vice versa.
If you have a wife who's not saved and you're saved, you need to have charity.
I mean, obviously you gotta be praying from day in and day out, but you gotta make sure
that you're putting the effort, 110%, to show charity towards your spouse, to win them over
fast, do whatever you possibly can.
If I found out, if for some reason, you know, obviously if this wasn't the case, but if
my wife was not saved, man, I'd be doing everything in my power to make sure that she
could say, I would fast, I would pray, I would love her up and down, I would do everything
I can to get the message across.
How bad do you want it?
That's the question.
But not only that, we lack work.
James chapter two verse 15 says, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily
food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, notwithstanding,
you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit?
And so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone.
Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
Now we use this verse, this chapter, to debunk the fact that salvation cannot be lost, right?
Or yeah, that's right.
To show, look, salvation is by grace through faith, it's not by works.
We like to go through this chapter.
But the crux, even in this passage right here, is to show obviously that we can have faith
without works, but here's the thing, we should have works, accompanied with our faith.
Not for salvation, but for the sake of others.
For the sake of your family.
You know?
Because if not, well, yeah, what does it profit?
What does it profit them?
How is it gonna help your family if you're just saved, you come to church, you're part
of the movement, you got every doctrine right, but you don't have any works to be accompanied
with that.
You know?
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven.
Some people just lack work, okay?
Putting in the work to make sure that you're validating the message, all right?
Go to Matthew chapter seven.
Matthew chapter number seven.
Here's a big one right here.
Why is the message void?
Not because of the message, but because of the messenger.
We lack holiness.
What does that mean?
Not just separation, obviously, from the world, but sometimes from sinful habits, okay?
And look, obviously, our salvation is not based upon, I think we've already cleared
that up, right?
It's not based upon the things that we do.
But after salvation, we ought to clean up our lives, okay?
Matthew seven, verse one says, Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment
you judge, you shall be judged, and with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to
you again.
Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider'st not the beam
that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold,
a beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see
clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Now look, two categories here, for you it may apply for the fact that someone's not
saved in your family, and you gotta get them saved, but for others, they may be saved.
But they don't wanna join you, they don't wanna believe the things that you believe,
it bothers them, or whatever it may be.
But look, if you're not cleaning up your life, if you're still drinking, and by the way,
if you're drinking, let's talk after the service, right?
If you're still drinking, you're still listening to the worldly music, you haven't cleaned
up your life, it's not validating the message.
If you're still smoking pot, you know, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved.
That's not good.
You're a hypocrite.
Okay?
Listen that up, because you're given just a bad representation of the message.
And look, they may not say it, but they look and they're like, okay, just pass it, you
know?
They're not gonna listen to you, don't try to witness to your friends or your family
when you're drunk, and you're high on pot, and you're smoking, and you're doing all these
worldly things, you say, oh, but then you listen to the word of God, brother, yeah,
but you know what?
You're the messenger.
Okay, you're the ambassador, the Bible says.
You're representing, so they have a higher standard of you.
Their expectation is a lot higher.
Is it right?
No, obviously it's not right, they just ought to believe the message, because that's what
it says.
But we're talking about from the perspective of the person, if you're involved in sin,
you're involved in wickedness, don't try to expect for them to adhere to what you're saying
if you haven't cleaned up your life.
And look, we're not expecting, God's not expecting for you to be perfect, obviously.
But without spot and without wrinkle, there shouldn't be something that they can point
at and say, okay, look, I know you're trying to take the mode out of my eye, but you got
a beam in yours, okay?
I know you know a lot about end times and Zionism and all this stuff, but here's the
thing, though, you're still smoking pot.
Here's the thing, though, you're not obeying me as a wife.
Here's the thing, though, you haven't taken me out.
Those are the things they care about.
And sometimes, look, if you take care of those things first, the practical aspects of marriage
or for your family, they'll readily accept the other stuff, like post-trib or whatever.
You got to make sure you're fulfilling your responsibilities as your role in the home.
Deal with other stuff later.
Deal with the reprobate doctrine later.
Deal with that stuff later.
They need to get the message first by your life.
Look, start living a holy life.
If you got a bad habit and you know it's bad, get rid of it.
You know, you say, yeah, but you know, I just can't kick the habit.
Look, for the sake of your family, kick the habit.
Aren't they worth it?
To adorn the doctrine of God, isn't it worth it?
Yes, it's worth it.
Will it cost you something?
Yes, but it's worth it.
Just do it.
It's not worth blemishing the message because of your bad habit.
Just clean it up.
You know, throw away the rap music.
Throw away all the garbage and the filthy music that you listen to when you're in the
car with them because they're listening to like, I thought you liked the old-fashioned
hymns and then you're throwing on Tekashi 6ix9ine.
You know, you're throwing in country music and all this other crap.
They may not say, but they're thinking about it.
And they go like this and then they go like that.
You know, we need to make sure we're cleaning up our lives.
And not have one foot in the world and one foot in the church, okay?
The Bible says that the fountains send forth at the same place, sweet water and bitter.
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine, figs?
So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
But not only that, you know, when the righteous fall before the wicked, it's like a corrupt
spring, the Bible says.
They pay attention to those things.
Now, look, if they come to you like, you're not even saved, okay, disregard that, obviously.
They don't know any better, okay?
We obviously know it's not about that.
But we want to make sure that when we deliver the message to our family, to our friends,
we got to make sure we're ambassadors, okay?
We got to make sure we're representing well, all right?
Now, look, if you smoke, obviously the person you're witnessing to that they don't know
you, they may think like you're the pastor or something, you know?
And they're like, they're just going to entrust you with what you're telling them.
But we're talking about people who know you, you know?
And a prophet is not without honor saving his own country.
So you know what that means?
We got to try extra hard, okay?
We got to clean up the message, our lives a little better.
Go to Proverbs chapter 19, Proverbs chapter 19.
So the word of God never comes back void.
But why does it come back void?
Well, it's not because of the message, it's because of the messenger sometimes.
Why?
Because we lack integrity as well.
Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 19, one, better is the poor that walketh in his integrity
than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.
You know, sometimes people don't want to listen to us who are families because we're just
not honest.
We lack integrity, okay?
They see you doing some tranzas, they say in Spanish, or you know, some tricky stuff
or whatever with business, and that kind of puts a blemish on your testimony.
We're talking about our testimony obviously, right?
And so we got to make sure that we're people of integrity, that we're honest in what we
do.
Really if you got saved later on in life, you know, people knew you when you were a
gang banger or something like that, or they knew you when you used to run with thugs or
whatever it may be.
You know, we got to, for our families, say we got to put the effort to like really step
it up in our Christian life, you know, because the difference is what piques the interest
of your family.
I've had people tell me like, you know, their families are like, wow, I don't know what
happened to this guy.
I just, but I'm interested in what's going on.
My son, he changed.
I don't know what's going on.
He's just changed, you know.
I've had someone tell me, they came to church, they got saved because their son used to smoke
pot, do all kinds of crazy stuff, and then he just like, after he got saved, he just
cleaned up his life.
He just started doing right, and it piqued the interest of his mother, and his mother
came and she said, I don't know what happened to this guy, but I want it.
You know, and she was full-blown Catholic and all this stuff, and she got saved, and
she was very much thankful that her son got saved, and he started changing his life, cleaning
up his life, or whatever, and look, obviously, if he would have just gotten saved and not
changed anything, he would have still been saved, amen?
But you know what?
His mom was watching.
She was watching.
She watched him because she lives with him, right?
And so that helped a lot, but integrity.
Go to Exodus chapter 11, Exodus chapter number 11.
You know, along with that is just consistency, right?
Sometimes we lack consistency.
You know, you're in and out of church, or you're in and out of the world, or you're
in and out of this.
You know, that affects your testimony as well, when you're not consistent.
In fact, the Bible says this, confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like
a broken tooth and a foot out of joint.
You know, if they see you just in and out of things of the Lord, but then you're trying
to preach to them, it's like, man, you can't even make it to church on Sunday.
You know?
You're watching the Super Bowl with me.
The Super Bowl's today, right?
Isn't it?
Don't act like you guys.
You know you guys are going to go check it out afterwards.
I don't even know who's playing.
I never like football, but you know what, you're like, yeah, man, you need to be in
church.
You're like, dude, church is today.
You're not even there.
You know, be faithful, be consistent.
Be consistent to the services.
Be consistent to your spiritual responsibilities.
That adds to your testimony.
Excuse me.
Where do I have you turn?
Exodus chapter 11.
And lastly is this, we lack distinction.
And this goes with some of the other points, but if you're just worldly, that affects
the message sometimes.
You know, because they can't distinguish, you know, what you are and what you're
preaching about.
Look at the Bible says in Exodus chapter 11 verse 7, but against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast, that ye may know how
that the Lord put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.
Spiritually speaking, obviously, the Egyptians will be those who are unsaved, the world.
Israelites obviously, we're the true Israel, amen.
But here's the thing is, there's a difference between the two.
And they need to see that distinction.
They need to see that there's a difference between you and the world, okay?
But if you're doing worldly things and you're acting like the world, guess what?
Yeah, you're saved.
Yeah, you're in a Baptist church, but they're like, or why would I want to leave my liberal
fund center?
You know, if you're basically doing outside of church, what I do inside of church, you
know, because at the liberal fund centers, they do all that junk.
Why would they want to change?
Why would they want to believe what you believe?
There needs to be a distinction, there needs to be a difference there.
Jude 20 says this, but ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Ghost.
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ into
eternal life.
And if some have compassion, making a difference.
You know what makes the distinction is when we have compassion, okay?
When there's a difference being made, when there's a distinction between you and the
world.
Now, thank God that our salvation is not based upon that, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't
be a difference though.
There absolutely should be, for the sake of your family.
What's the message today?
The message is this, you have unsaved family members just like I have unsaved family members.
So I'm preaching to myself too, okay?
And obviously we want them to be saved, right?
I'm sure you love your family, okay?
Maybe it's a son, maybe it's a daughter, whatever it may be, but you know someone who needs
the message.
They're already saved, but they're just in a wrong type of sect of Christianity.
You know, you ought to care enough to make some differences in your life, to change some
things up, to win them over.
Don't just like, nah, they're good.
No.
Why don't you put in the effort to try to win them over?
You put enough effort and training to win people you don't know, that you've never met
in your life.
You're gonna win some people today after church who you've never met in your life.
And you're willing to go through training, sermons, you're willing to memorize scripture,
you're willing to sacrifice your Sunday afternoon, you're willing to do all these things to win
someone who you don't know.
What are you willing to do to win the people you do know?
The people you do love.
The mother that begat you.
The father who was there for you, who fed you, who provided for you.
The brother and sister that you grew up with.
What are you willing to do for them?
What about them?
It's easy to do this.
It's a lot harder to do this one because it requires you to change some things.
And some people are unwilling to change.
You know why?
You know what?
They're gonna remain that way because you're unwilling to change, okay?
Now, the Word of God never comes back void.
It never will, okay?
But we gotta make sure that when we're given that message, that everything's up to par.
Not perfect, but at least up to par so we can win them to the Lord, amen?
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word.
We're thankful that it's so powerful that we can rest assured that it never comes back
void.
And I'm sure that even the Word of God that we've given to our family members who maybe
we didn't have a good testimony at the time, that word will still not return back void.
It's in their hearts.
They know it's true.
And the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.
But we wanna make sure that on our part, we're doing our part to clean up our lives, to be
consistent, to be faithful, to be good messengers of the Word of God.
We're representatives of you and of your Word.
And I pray that you'd help us, Lord.
And I know there's times in my life when my heart grows cold towards even my own family,
my aunts, my cousins, and so many people who don't know the Lord and are not saved.
And I pray that you'd help me, Lord, to soften my heart and to think upon them more often,
to pray for them, to try to contact them, to see them saved, and also to be charitable,
to be meek.
Lord, we need to have the fighting spirit over the reprobates, over the false doctrines
that are being preached, over the terrible methods that are being practiced in different
churches.
But when it comes to those who are not saved, who are not reprobate, we ought to be fearful
meek, lowly, kind, and charitable.
And I pray that you'd help us to grow in that area.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.