All right, thank you, brother. Okay, so keep your Bibles open there in Galatians 4, and
the unthinkable has happened to this church, right? As we were reading that about the Galatians,
hey, this is a true church of Christ, of course. These people were saved, but if you were following
along with the chapter there, certain people had crept in unawares into that church and
had brought them back into bondage. They were messing up the Gospel, you know, they were
bringing them back into the bondage of the old covenant, the things that were meant to
picture Christ, the things that were meant to represent Christ and point you to Christ,
they'll say, no, you've got to go back to those things. You've got to go back to those
weak elements, right? You've got to go back to the Sabbath days and keeping the laws and
all those things, and it was messing up the church. Now, why did this happen? Well, look
at verse number 16. Galatians 4, 16, it says, am I therefore become your enemy because I
tell you the truth? So Paul's trying to clean up house here. He says, look, I'm telling
you the truth. You've got a problem. You've got to fix this up. But what happened? Look
at verse number 17. They, they're speaking about the false prophets, speaking about people
coming in, creeping in. It says, they zealously affect you, but not well. Okay? So this church
had allowed certain people to creep in. Hey, they were full of zeal. They were full of
excitement. They looked like they were great people, but they had caused this church to
get into a really bad place, mixing up the gospel with works or with the commandments.
And then it says this, yea, they would exclude you that ye might affect them. So once they
creep in, once they're given some influence in the church and they exclude those that
actually know the gospel well, okay, look at verse number 18. But it is good to be zealously
affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. So Paul is saying,
it's good to be zealous, but instead of you being influenced, instead of you, your zeal
pouring out on the church, you've allowed the wicked to come in. You've allowed those
that have a false gospel to come in and zealously affect you. Okay? So what do we learn in that
passage? That zeal is good. You know, we ought to be people that have zeal. Paul says, look,
have some zeal, not just when I come and visit you, you should be a church that's zealous
for the things of God. Because if you're not zealous for the things of God, you're going
to allow someone else to come in who's zealous, and they're going to bring in their false
doctrines. They're going to, you know, they're going to influence the church in a negative
way. Why am I talking about this? Because in Isaiah 59 verse 17, it says, speaking of
God, for he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head, and
he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. All right,
so we're up to the final sermon on the armor of God. And when we saw, you know, we've gone
through Ephesians six, but there were two more parts that are in the armor that we read
about in Isaiah 59. Number one was the garment of vengeance. And you've seen that already.
And that's a piece of clothing that only God can wear. Vengeance belongs to God. But then
we see this other piece that he was clad with zeal as a cloak. So not only does God have
the armor on, he's got a cloak on. He's got like a cape on as well. Okay. And that cloak
represents zeal. Okay. It represents zeal. So the title for the sermon tonight is clad
with zeal. Clad with zeal. Now the dictionary definition of zeal is great energy or enthusiasm
in pursuit of a cause or an objective. Now brethren, we have a cause. Amen. We have an
objective, the great commission, or then how should we act toward it? We should have zeal.
We should have great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of this cause, in pursuit of this
objective. Now what's going to happen naturally as you live out the Christian life, you're
going to have times when you are full of zeal and you're excited and you're just, you know,
just desiring to serve God with all your might. And there'll be other times that the zeal
will be gone. Like you're just not going to have that zeal. And you're hoping there'll
be someone else in the church that will, you know, influence you in a positive way,
that will provoke you onto love and good works. And you know, we need to understand, you know,
it's not always easy to be full of zeal all the time. It's not like I wake up in the morning
and I can't wait to read my Bible. I'm going to read my Bible for two hours and then I'm
done. I'm going to go soul winning for five hours and then I'm going to come and I'm going
to prepare the sermon. I'm going to come to church Wednesday night and preach a powerful
sermon and then I'm going to go to sleep and I pray and I'll read another hour of the Bible
and I'm going to wake up Thursday morning and I'm just going to do it all over again.
I wish I could do that brethren. But listen, if that's the Christian life, just full of
zeal constantly, you're going to burn out. Alright, so we need to manage the zeal. Now
please go to 2 Samuel chapter 21. Let's have a look at a story here. 2 Samuel 21, we're
going to Old Testament Israel when David was the king over Israel. Of course, he was the
king before David, it was King Saul. Alright? And the problem is King Saul had done something
wicked during his time and it was having an effect during David's time. Okay? And so David
goes to the Lord to inquire why is this going on? And look at verse number 1, 2 Samuel 21,
2 Samuel 21 verse 1. Just give me a moment to turn there. 2 Samuel 21 and verse number
1, it says, Then there was a famine in the days of David three years. Okay, so the Lord
sends a famine during the time of King David for three years. Then look at this. Year after
year and David inquired of the Lord. Says, Lord, what's going on? Right? And the Lord
answered, It is for Saul and for his bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites. Now
this is interesting about the Lord. The Lord, our God, is a God of justice. Okay? But he's
also long suffering. You know? And sometimes he just waits and waits and waits and then
eventually sometime down the track, you know, his judgment falls. And his judgment for this
wicked act by Saul where he had slain the Gibeonites was, you know, the consequence
of that was affecting David's kingdom. Alright? Look at verse number 2. And the king called
the Gibeonites and said unto them, Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel,
but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn unto them, and
Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah. So what are
we looking at here? We're looking at misplaced zeal. Now listen, the Gibeonites were enemies
of Israel. Okay? But what do we see here? That they had made, they had sworn something
unto them, right? The children of Israel had sworn unto them. They had made a promise
to the Gibeonites. You say, what was that promise? You don't need to turn there. But
back in Joshua days, right, back in the book of Joshua chapter 9 verse number 15, it says,
And Joshua made peace with them and made a league with them to let them live and the
princes of the congregation swear unto them. So the Israelites, instead of destroying the
Gibeonites, they made a promise to say, look, we'll let you live, we'll let you stay
on this land, and they make an agreement with them, right? Now this was 400 years before
King Saul went to slay them. Alright? And so God has this memory, right, this long memory,
hey 400 years ago, you made an agreement and you broke that agreement and you went to slay
those Gibeonites. Okay? That was in the time of King Saul. But again, why did King Saul
do it? What did it say there? At the end of verse number 2, it says, And Saul sought
to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah. So why did he do this? Hey,
he was full of zeal, but it was misplaced zeal, right? He did it to appease the people.
He did it to show off to the people, to the children of Israel and of Judah. Hey, look
how great of a king I am. I'm going to finish off those Gibeonites. And he steps in full
of zeal, you know, probably thinking he's doing the will of God. He slays them, but
the Lord remembers the promise that they made, that Israel made 400 years ago. And now King
David's kingdom is suffering for that. You know, the famine for three years. And so what
we learn here is that, yeah, zeal is good, but it also can be very damaging. Okay? If
you don't put it in the right place, you don't channel your zeal in a productive or positive
way, that same zeal can be very destructive. All right? Now, this is important because
you can see that King Saul sought to please the people. Okay? And he's the king. And you
know what? If you are a pastor, you're going to become a pastor one day, or you take on
a position of leadership, you know, even me as a pastor, I do want to please you guys.
Like I want to make you guys happy. I want you to be happy with me as a pastor, but I
can't revolve my ministry around that. You know, I've got to be zealous for the Lord.
I've got to make sure he's happy. And I hope by doing that, you guys can also be pleased
by, you know, in that process. But you can see that King Saul compromised, wanted to
please the people rather than please the Lord, and his zeal was misplaced. He had done extreme
weakness. So this is a warning to pastors or anyone that takes on a position of leadership.
You need to remember, your zeal needs to be toward God. You know, not in a destructive
way. Please the Lord. And if people like it or don't like it, it doesn't matter. You're
doing it to serve the Lord, right? That's why we come to church. I don't come to church
for my, to make you enjoy me or, you know, to be positive minded toward me necessarily.
We come here to worship God. And the only way we can worship God is in spirit and in
truth. And so we have to do things correctly. That's how the Lord receives worship. Okay?
You know, what else, what other stories do we have in the Bible of misplaced zeal? Well,
when Paul the apostle speaks of himself, remember before he became an apostle, before
he met Jesus Christ, he was persecuting the church. All right, remember that? And Paul
says about himself in Philippians 3, 6, concerning zeal. He says, look, I had zeal before I got
saved. Concerning zeal, this is this, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law blameless. And then he says this, but what things were gained to me, those
I counted lost for Christ? Listen, and the unsaved out there, they have zeal, all right?
They have zeal for their religion. They have zeal for the things they believe, right? And,
you know, this is, when you go door to door soul winning, sometimes you see that, right?
The hardest person I believe to get saved when you go door to door soul winning is the
guy that's zealous for their faith. That's zealous for their religion. That's zealous,
well, I know I'm saved because I can speak in tongues. I'm so sure of it, I have zeal
for it, but it's a misplaced zeal. And they have to come to the point like Paul and says,
but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Okay, sometimes it's
hard to let go of the things that you've been zealous about. And, you know, that's
just life. There are going to be times in your life that you're zealous about something,
then you kind of lose interest. I'm not talking about spiritual things, I'm just talking
about any, maybe hobbies, you know, things that you might be studying or reading about.
There are times that you just really have a zeal to learn, and then other times you
say, ah, I've kind of lost interest in that, right? I mean, as you mature and grow,
grow just, you know, from a child to an adult, there are things that my children are very
zealous about. But I know when they become adults, they're going to be like, why do
we waste so much time, you know, playing with those things or, you know, making up those
stories or whatever it is that they do, right? Because, you know, we need to make sure that
our zeal is just put in the right place. And then when it comes to Old Testament Israel,
or not really Old Testament Israel, but when it comes to Israel, you know, of the Jewish
faith, those that rejected Christ, in Romans chapter 10, verse number one, Paul says about
them, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved,
for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God. They have a zeal of God, wow, that's
good. No, then this is this, but not according to knowledge. They've got a zeal, hey, it's
an emotional thing. It's a traditional thing, but it's not something according to knowledge.
How can we be sure that our zeal is right? Well, it's got to be according to knowledge.
And you know, this is the knowledge, okay, this is the book of knowledge, that we need
to make sure when we're zealous for something, it lines up with what we see in the Word of
God. That's how we know. And then he says about these unsaved Jews, he says, for they
being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Hey, who else is very hard to get
saved? Those that are trying to establish their own righteousness. I am going to heaven
because I'm a good person. I've not done anything horrible. You know, I'm true to myself, whatever
that means, right? I treat others like I would like to be treated, you know, they're very
hard to get saved because they're full of righteousness. They can't see their sin. They
don't realise that God sees that the one life that they made, you know, the one sin they've
committed is enough to make them deserving of hell. And so there is misplaced zeal, okay.
And we had a look at, you know, obviously Saul, he was a saved man, but we also looked
at, you know, Paul before he was saved, and the Jews that are not saved here. And look,
saved people can have misplaced zeal, and obviously the unsaved people have misplaced
zeal, all right? So I want us to be careful. I want you guys to be zealous. I want you
to be enthusiastic for everything that we do in this church, how you serve the Lord,
but I want to make sure that your zeal is in the right place. Now let's have a look
at some places that our zeal should be at, okay? You guys go to John chapter 2, go to
John chapter 2 verse 15, John chapter 2 verse 15, and I'm going to read to you a portion
in Psalm 69 verse 9, which reads, for the zeal, there it is, the zeal, of thine house
have eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. Some
of you guys might know what that reference is about, okay? But there's a zeal for thine
house, and of course the house is the temple, the Old Testament temple, but when it comes
to the New Testament, it's the local church, okay? So we should be zealous for church.
We should be enthusiastic about church. I can't wait whether, yeah, I had a hard day
of work, I could stay home and listen to the live streaming maybe, but I'm going to be
there in the house of God with a brethren, I'm going to worship God, I'm going to sing
praises to Him. Hey, that's having a zeal, you know? It's just knowing that you guys
are here tonight shows me that you have a zeal for God. You have a zeal for His church.
Now where does this passage come up? It comes up in John chapter 2 verse number 15, very
famous story that we all love to read about. It says here, and when he had made a scourge
of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured
out the changer's money and overthrew the tables. And he said unto them that so doves,
take these things from hence, make not my father's house and house of merchandise.
Verse number 17, and his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house
have eaten me up. Hey, how zealous was Jesus for the house of God? Hey, he made a whip,
he drove out those money changers, he drove out those that were making the house of God
a house of merchandise. You know what? The house of God ought to be a place where we
drive out wicked people. Now I'm not necessarily going to get a rope out and make a whip if
someone comes in and they're wicked, but we've had wicked people come and they've gone.
We've used the sword of the word of God to drive them out. But I just want to show you
the passion, the enthusiasm that Jesus Christ had for the house of God. And Jesus of course
knows that a lot of those religious leaders serving in the temple were corrupt and wicked.
Hey, but it's still the house of God. He had a passion for the house of God. Now the other
place I want you to turn to is go to Revelation chapter three verse 17. We're still on the
topic here of being zealous for the house of God. So much so we don't want this place
to turn into a house of merchandise. I never want you to buy and sell in this place, please.
If there is an exchange that you guys need to make, we're always doing things like that,
right? Not in the house of God, but if there's something, do it outside, do it after the
service, do it in your own time even. I'd rather you do it there, not in the house of
God. I don't want Jesus coming in with a whip here. And in Revelation chapter three verse
number 17, now we have the church here of Laodicea and we've gone through this a few
times now, but I just want you to think about this once again because this church, they
thought they were a great church. They thought they were just serving God faithfully, right?
And Jesus says about them in verse number 17, Revelation chapter three verse number
17, it says, because they are sayest I am rich and increase with goods and have need
of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
You know, a church of Christ can get to a point where we're wretched, poor, naked,
and we're thinking we're fine, we're doing right, we're just serving God faithfully
and Jesus saying, no, you're very poor at the moment, okay? This could happen at New
Life Baptist Church. These things are in the Bible, so we hopefully don't become like
this or if we are in a state like this that we can wake, you know, whoa, what does the
Bible say? We're like this, we need to fix this up, all right? But then look at verse
18, it says, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. So look, they weren't
even laying up treasures in heaven. They weren't accessing the gold that Jesus would give them.
He says, look, start laying up treasures in heaven that thou mayest be rich, that's rich
in heaven, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, hey, that's having a close walk
to Jesus, you know, ask him to cleanse the sins and being in fellowship with the Father
and then it says here, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint
thy eyes with eyes of that thou mayest see. Hey, you guys are blind, you can't even, you
know, see anymore, you don't realise the position you're in, you can't understand the Scriptures,
you're not teaching the Scriptures the way you ought to. And then it says in verse 19,
as many as I love, I rebuke and chase them, but look at this, be zealous therefore and
repent, be zealous therefore and repent. What is this teaching us? That if we lose the zeal,
if we lose the enthusiasm, we could become a church that becomes wretched, naked, poor
and blind, okay? So we can't lose the enthusiasm, we can't lose the zeal. Have you ever been
to a church that has no zeal? Oh man, I have. Right, you walk in, everyone looks dead, no
one's happy, no one's got a smile, you sing the hymns like this, amazing grace, how sweet
the sound, right, just dead. And then the preacher gets behind the pulpit, maybe even
using a modern version, right, instead of the King James Bible, just spiritually dead,
but I bet you if you ask them, they think they're doing great. They think they're just
serving the Lord faithfully and Jesus saying no, you know, you're wretched, you're poor
and you're blind because they've lost the enthusiasm, they've lost the zeal, okay? So
one thing we must have in this church, brethren, is a zeal for the house of God, okay? What
else can we have a zeal for? Can you please go to 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Corinthians 14,
verse 11, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 11, because part of the zeal, part of the things that
gets us excited about church, you know, one of the most significant ministry of the church
when we gather together, of course, is the preaching, okay, the preaching of God's Word,
right? So we ought to be, my point is, we ought to be zealous for preaching, all right?
And if you're a preacher, hey, get some zeal into you, you know, show some enthusiasm,
show some passion, so people can, so, you know, the listeners can say, hey, that man
knows, you know, believes what he's saying, that man is sure, that's what the Bible says
and he's preaching that with zeal, okay? Look at 1 Corinthians 14, verse 11. Now, the context
of this is speaking with tongues. We know that was one of the spiritual gifts, but let's
just take the principle here in verse number 11. It says, therefore, if I know not the
meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian and he that speaketh
shall be a barbarian unto me. So Paul is saying, look, if someone comes in speaking another
language, preaching another language in the church, he's like a barbarian to me and I'm
like a barbarian to him, we can't communicate. That's the Pentecostal church. It's the barbarian
church. They're all talking in some gibberish, no one understands what's going on. It's worse
than a barbarian. At least a barbarian, you get a real translator, you eventually understand
what he's saying. These guys are making it up or they're demon possessed or something,
all right? But then look at verse number 12. Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous
of spiritual gifts, shall we be zealous for spiritual gifts? Yeah. Seek that ye may excel
to the edifying of the church. Why should we be zealous for spiritual gifts? So we can
edify the church. Let's keep going, verse number 13. Wherefore, so this is the context
of that, the edifying here, wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray
that he may interpret, okay? So he's saying, look, if you have someone with another language,
they can't speak Greek or whatever it would have been in that time, okay? Make sure there's
an interpreter. Why? Because you want to edify the church, okay? The preaching of God's word
is a spiritual gift and it's for the edifying of the people of God, okay? And so what I'm trying
to say to you, brethren, is that you ought to be zealous for preaching. Yes, to sit down and
listen to the preaching of God's word, but for the preacher himself to say, hey, I want to edify
this church. I come behind the pulpit to preach, to edify them, not to edify myself, not to lift
myself up, but to give the church, you know, some spiritual food, to help them grow, to help them
mature, and that ought to be a attribute of you as a preacher. And listen, you know, we all need
experience. We all need the opportunity to get behind the pulpit, study, and do it, but I want
you as preachers, as you have more opportunities to preach behind the pulpit, I want you to work
on your zeal. I want you to say, God, give me some of that zeal, give me some of that passion,
give me, give me, you know, it can be uncomfortable, especially if you're not, you know,
someone that's necessarily charismatic. I'm not talking about the charismatic church, but, you
know, you know, maybe, you know, you're a little bit more reserved, maybe a little bit more quiet,
but you need to understand that being zealous for these spiritual gifts is important, okay? It
really helps the listener absorb the word of God, you know? Now, go to 2 Corinthians, chapter 7,
verse number 10, 2 Corinthians, chapter 7, verse number 10. The next point I have here, brethren,
is that we ought to be zealous for overcoming sin, zealous to overcome sin, okay? Not to get
to a point where, oh, I'm a sinner, I'm not going to, whatever, I'm going to sin tomorrow,
I'm going to sin the next day. Hey, we have to be saying, hey, God, give me the power,
give me the strength, I really want to defeat this God. Listen, if you're full of zeal to
overcome sin, don't you think God's going to help you a little bit more? If you're like,
oh, I don't know, I kind of enjoy this sin, actually. God's not going to give you that
strength, right, to overcome those things. Look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 10. The context
of this is the man that was kicked out of the church in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, and then
he's been, you know, the church had done wrong, they had allowed him to continue in the church,
and Paul had to say, hey, you got to kick this guy to church, all right? And then, so they did,
and this is what Paul is writing about here, in verse number 10, it says,
for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of,
but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Oh, man, see, you've got to repent of your sins
to be saved. A bit off topic, of course not, that's not what he's teaching. These guys are
saved. The salvation here is the salvation of the church. If you did not kick that guy out,
a little leaven would have leavened the whole lump. You would have destroyed yourself, okay?
This is what he's talking about. Look at verse 11, it says, for behold, this selfsame thing,
that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you,
yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear,
yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge in all things you have approved
yourselves to be clear in this matter. It says you kicked him out, good work,
you've cleared yourself of the matter, because you had zeal, okay?
Because what else, you had a vehement desire, that's another way of saying zeal,
being zealous, vehement desire, you wanted to get right with God,
you wanted to clean this up in your church, and you did it, and you saved the church.
You guys repented of keeping this wicked sinner in the church, you got rid of him,
and you've done well, okay? So, we need to be zealous for overcoming sin,
getting rid of the sin, and understanding there are certain sins, there are certain wicked people,
yes, saved wicked people, that are stuck in certain sins, that are not to be allowed in the church,
okay? Drunkard, drunkards, covetous, railers, extortioners, what's the other one?
Fornicators. Fornicators, have I gone through the list?
I think that's the general list there, right there, okay? So, what's that?
Idolators. Idolators, that's right, idolators, I missed that one, amen.
Alright, now, if you could please go to Numbers 25 verse 6. Numbers 25 verse number 6.
So, we ought to be zealous for getting sin, not just out of our lives, but even out of our church,
okay? And in Numbers 25 verse number 6, another famous story here, I love this story,
there's so many great things about this story, but it's about Israel,
a lot of the children of Israel got into fornication, alright? And the Lord cursed them,
and in Numbers 25 verse number 6, it says, And behold, one of the children of Israel came
and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman, in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the
congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation. So, this guy does not care, he's committing fornication, he takes this woman,
doesn't care who's seeing this, he's open and proud about his sin. And verse number 7, it says,
And when Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among
the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent,
and thrust both of them through. He gets that javelin, and he stabs them both through,
in the middle of their whoredoms, okay? Think about that, think about what he's just done,
he's just killed these people, alright? It says, and took, sorry, what am I up to guys?
Eight, I'll read verse 8, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of
them through the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly, so the plague was stayed from
the children of Israel, okay? So God had cursed them with a plague because of their whoredoms,
and Phinehas steps in, takes care of it, okay? Now what do people say about him? Verse number 9,
And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand, and the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest,
have turned away my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous
for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
Wherefore say, behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it,
and he see it after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood,
because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
So Phinehas, hey, he was zealous for the Lord, he was so zealous, he said,
we can't have this sin in our congregation. He takes the javelin, and he murders that man and
woman, and the Lord's wrath was appeased. The Lord lifted the plague, he did not allow any more to
die, and he received the special covenant, you know, of the lineage of the priests, obviously,
in the Old Testament days there. But I want you to notice that, you know, that he loved the Lord
so much, he hated sin, you know, and he steps in, he says, look, I'm going to be zealous for
the right things, all right, I'm going to serve the Lord, do something quite horrific, you know,
take that javelin killing two people in one thrust, and yet you see why he did it, because
he had a great zeal, all right. So as a church, you know, talking about overcoming sin, yes,
in our lives, but I'm thinking about our church, you know, if someone comes in that's wicked,
who's got wicked sins, listen, brethren, we need to take that javelin, spiritually speaking,
and cast them out, okay, and we do, why do we do it? Because we have zeal, because we want to
please the Lord, and if we don't carry out church discipline, when the need, you know, if the need
is there, then expect the plague, expect something to happen to the church, where we're being
negatively affected because of whatever, because we're trying to please men, once again, you know,
our zeal being misplaced. Now zeal, when you talk about the topic of zeal though,
I've come across a lot of zealous people, and you know, in my spiritual life, there's been times
that I've been very zealous, other times that zeal has dropped off a little bit, and you know,
it comes back and kind of goes, and sometimes I'm more zealous than other days, sometimes I get up
to church to preach, I'm a little bit more zealous than other days, things like that,
the one thing I learned, that for you to be a stable Christian, for you to see out, you know,
many years of Christian life, for you to be faithful to the end, you need to tamper your
zeal with patience, okay, you need to temper your zeal with patience. Now the reason for this,
brethren, is because, as I said, it's not realistic just to wake up in the morning,
just be on fire for God to the day, you know, to the night, you know, to put your head down
on the pillow, and just continue that day after day after day, it's not doable, you're going to
burn out, okay, just being on fire all the time, non-stop, you're going to burn out, and it's sad
because I've seen people who've been zealous for God, and you know, just you think this person's
going to serve God, this person may even become a pastor one day, be a missionary, do great things
for God, and then they're not even in church, it's like they just forgot all about God,
they've lost the zeal, they had the zeal, what happened, you know, we've had people come through
this church who are full of zeal, and where are they now, some of those people, not even in
church, not serving God, they've lost the zeal, okay, now please go, I'll tell you to turn to,
let's see, go to Romans chapter 12, go to Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12,
and while you're turning to Romans chapter 12, I'm going to read to you from James chapter 1 verse
3, James chapter 1 verse 3 reads, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience,
okay, patience is an important attribute that you must have in your Christian life,
it's important, okay, then in verse number 4 it says, but let patience have her perfect work,
that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing, what does patience give you,
gives you satisfaction, it gives you contentment, makes you say yes, I'm happy with what I've got,
I'm happy with what God's given me, I'm serving the Lord, I'm content with what I've been able
to achieve, that's what patience gives you, now zeal is the enthusiasm to do things for the Lord,
right, some people can be so zealous, so enthusiastic and know patience, right,
and they turn the marathon, the race to serve the Lord is a marathon, it's your whole life,
and they turn it into a sprint, okay, and yeah, you know some of that starts to sprint,
they're going to run faster, they're going to accomplish more, at the very beginning they're
going to do so much more than you, if you're just running a marathon, but at some point they're
going to realise, boy, I've been running so hard and so fast, and they give up, okay, and they can
burn out, and burn out to the point where they're out of the race completely, and the one that stays
consistent is the one that took the marathon approach, and says no, look, I need to reserve
my energy from time to time, yes, there are times when I run the marathon and I can be full of zeal
and I can run hard, but there are other times I need to slow down, you know, reserve my energy,
keep going forward, listen, the spiritual life isn't about how fast and how hard you're running,
the spiritual life is about just running forward, just keep running, even if it's a pace, even if
it's just a walk, at least if you're going forward you're doing something for God, and if you're
going forward sometimes you can run, sometimes you can jog, sometimes you can slow down, but it's a
marathon, okay, and you need to make sure that you temper your zeal with patience, it's a marathon,
it's your whole life, okay, your whole life serving the Lord, you're in Romans chapter 12,
look at verse number 11, it says, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, hey, that's not
the way of saying zeal, like being zealous, fervent in spirit, should we be excited, yes,
serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, look, patience in tribulation, continuing instant in
prayer, should we be fervent in spirit, yes, should we be zealous, yes, but don't forget
the patience, patience in tribulation, because if you haven't got the patience and the tribulation
comes, the difficulty comes, and you've just been focused about being passionate and excited and
enthusiastic and things get hard, you're going to give up, because you haven't got the patience,
you're going to be thinking, well, why, why am I going through this difficulty, hey, this isn't
right, I'm just trying to serve the Lord, and you give up, no, if you had the patience, you say,
well, now, hey, I'm in tribulation, I need to slow down a little bit, as long as I'm going forward
for the Lord, I need to take that back a little bit, hey, right now is not the time to be full
of zeal, right now is not the time to be on fire, I need to take a step back and deal with tribulation
in patience, and then when the tribulation has been dealt with, now I can get back on board and
go 100 miles per hour for a period of time for Jesus Christ, hey, because you've got the big
picture in your mind, I've got to serve the Lord to the day that I die, I want you to be
zealous, I want you to be zealous for the Lord, but I want you to temper it with patience,
okay, be careful, I don't want you to burn out, you know, serving the Lord, you know,
and becoming weary and well doing. Now, you know, some pastors don't like it,
when a new person walks into their church, and they're full of zeal, it's like, pastor,
can you show me how to go slow winning, you know, pastor, can you teach me something,
can you show me the Bible, can you teach me more, some pastors don't like people with zeal,
now look, I love zeal, I love zealous people, but I know why some pastors don't like zealous people,
because again, if it's misplaced, they can be destructive, okay, but I'd rather take that
person with zeal, I don't want to take that zeal away, and I just want to help that person in
patience point that zeal into a productive area, okay, instead of coming in and saying, hey,
I know more about the Bible than you do, pastor, hey, you told something wrong there, pastor,
I need to correct you, you know, you're brand new in the church, the pastor's been serving for
who knows how many years, you know, listen, I like the zeal, I like the zeal, especially if
they're right, but I'd rather take that person and say, look, you're new, you need to learn patience,
you're a babe in Christ, you're just at the beginning of your spiritual walk,
let's point it in the right way, let me help you, let me help you understand, let me take you soul
winning, all right, let me show you how to go soul winning, hey, you try now, actually, you need to
slow down a little bit, there's some things that we need to fix in your life, okay, there are some
things we need to fix in your presentation, there are some things we need to fix when it comes to
talking to that person at the door, okay, because we saw that we have to be zealous for preaching,
right, and we talk about preaching in the local church, but when we go door to door soul winning,
we also need to be zealous when we go knock on someone's door, you need to be enthusiastic,
right, you need to show that person that you have passion to win them to the Lord,
that you have passion for the message that you're trying to tell them at the door,
people can pick up whether you actually believe what you're doing or you don't,
you know, whether you're just doing it out of whatever, you know, you got nothing else to do,
you know, you're doing it out of just, just, what's the word I'm looking for,
I don't know, out of compulsion, all right, we need to be zealous, okay, and listen,
being zealous is not about telling someone at the door, hey, you're going to hell if you don't
listen to me, hey, being zealous is loving that person and saying, hey, this is a soul that Jesus
died for, hey, I want to show myself friendly, I want to try to communicate to that person,
I want them to know that I'm no threat to them, I'm coming with a wonderful message that I believe
in, hey, sir, how are you, you know, are you sure today that you'll be going to heaven,
or has anyone ever shown you from the Bible how you can be 100% sure, hey, man, I can take five
minutes of your time very quickly to show you what the Bible says, you know, just showing that
enthusiasm will open up doors for you to give people the Gospel, okay, enthusiasm, but we need
to point it in the right way, okay, not zeal where they reject you, go to hell then, that's zeal
that's misplaced, okay, babes in Christ are like that, and we need to make sure we temper our zeal
with patience. Now, when it comes to the topic of zeal, there is one passage that we need to turn to,
but I'm going to get you to turn to Matthew chapter 5, actually, go to Matthew chapter 5,
and, you know, the famous words of King Jehu, you know, in 2 Kings chapter 10 verse 16,
he says, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. I want you to think about that,
come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. You know, when a baby in Christ has great zeal,
and they should, okay, and it's misplaced, and they're not right with God, it's in the
wrong place, they're not going to say, come and see my zeal for the Lord, they're going to say,
hey, why aren't you as zealous as me? I've seen that, I've seen people full of zeal,
look down at other Christians who may not have the same level of zeal as you do,
or maybe they did have the same level, and because it's a marathon, they've had to slow down a little
bit in life, all right? Say, well, how come you're not serving God as much as I am? How come you're
not so willing as much as I am? Hey, instead of you saying, hey, come and see my zeal, hey,
let me help you, you know, maybe some of my zeal can rub off onto you, that's how a leader should
be, maybe some of my zeal can rub off on others, you're like, hey, putting other people down
because they haven't got the same level of zeal. That's a babe in Christ, okay? That's misdirected
zeal. I don't want you to be that way. And I was talking to you about how a babe in Christ can
attempt to run that sprint, and just burn out. Yeah, accomplish a lot for the Lord at the
beginning, but then where are they? There's so many people in my life that I can think of like
that. And the saddest thing is when they come through this church and that happens to them,
and they're full of zeal, and then, hey, now where are they? It's so sad, right? Because in
Matthew chapter 5 verse 13, Matthew chapter 5 verse 13, the saddest thing about being burnt out
and staying burnt out is you can end up being like Matthew 5 13, where Jesus says,
ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?
It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men.
Do I want you to be zealous, brethren? Yes, I do. I want you to be enthusiastic for the work of God,
but I don't want you to misplace your zeal. I don't want you to burn out. I don't want you
to become salt that has lost its savour and is no more used to God. How many people do I know
like this, brethren? I know too many. It's so sad. Too many people that maybe were even an
encouragement toward me. They got me excited to serve the Lord, and now they've lost their savour.
Now they're not serving the Lord. Maybe they're even against the works of God sometimes.
Zeal can be misdirected, and we need to be careful that in our pursuit for zeal that we
are not, that we haven't misplaced it, that we put it in the right place that God wants us to have.
Now, as I said to you, this piece of armour is not in Ephesians chapter 6,
just like the Garments of Vengeance, and I gave the reason why the Garments of Vengeance aren't
there because it belongs to the Lord, right? And I kind of got thinking, why is the cloak of zeal
not mentioned in Ephesians chapter 6? Let's have to think about a cloak, right? So if you're part
of an army, like a Roman army or something back in those days, you'd have your soldiers, they'd
be decked out in their armour, but do you think all of them wore a cloak? Did they all wear a
cloak? No. I don't know if you've ever seen like pictures or maybe a movie of old-fashioned armies
and stuff like that. Sometimes, yeah, there would be certain people that would wear a cloak
on top of their armour, and generally speaking, they were the leaders. They were the military
leaders, right? They were the generals. And it's important for them to wear a cloak so they can be
in the fog of battle that when the military leaders trying to issue a command, trying to
direct the forces, trying to give direction, people could make out, hey, that's the leader.
Look at his cloak. He's got his cloak on. Here's the one that's passing direction during the time
of war where things become confusing. You might even be fighting your own men sometimes, things
like that. Hey, when the leader is passing instruction, you want to hear what they have to say
and they would wear a cloak to stand out to the others, all right? So I got thinking about that.
Well, maybe this is teaching us that because our Lord God, hey, the Lord God is our King of Kings.
You know, here's the, what's the term? He's the commander in chief, all right? We're fighting
the battle, the spiritual battle that God wants us to fight. He's helping us along. He's fighting
with us. He's the one that's giving us direction. He's wearing the cloak. But what I got out of that,
Brevin, is that if you're a leader, if you're a pastor, okay, you're a deacon, you've got a position
of leadership in a church, you need to make sure you put that cloak on. You need to have that cloak
of zeal because as a leader, you have an effect on others. You know, come and see my zeal for the
Lord. And if you haven't got the zeal, the people won't have the zeal. And when you don't have the
zeal, we're going to allow the church to fall apart. You allow wicked people to come in with
false doctrines. They're going to be zealous for their false doctrines, just like we saw in
Galatians chapter four, and affect our church in a negative way. And so what I'm trying to say is
that, you know, the cloak was generally reserved for military generals. So it's important for
pastors and deacons to have zeal. You know, as I was putting this sermon together, I was like,
man, do I have the zeal? You know, I hope I'm wearing that cloak of zeal. I hope it's obvious
to all that I'm the leader of this church, and that I want to serve the Lord and I want to
influence you guys in a positive way. Okay, but deacons as well. Hey, what's a song leader? Song
leader. If you come up and you'd be the song leader, I want you to put that cloak of zeal on.
Hey, have a passion for the songs that we're singing, right? You know, get excited. Hey,
we're going to sing this hymn. Let's sing it up to the Lord. Let's praise the Lord. Have a smile
on your face. Show that zeal. I promise this as a song leader, if you show yourself full of zeal,
you're going to influence the others to sing it up for the Lord. Okay, we need to have that cloak of
zeal. The soul winner coordinator right now, it's brother Michael. I know brother Michael's
got a zeal for soul winning. Praise God. You know, he's the right person, in my opinion,
to be coordinating the maps and things like that, because I can draw from his zeal sometimes
myself to get out there. You know, why am I on day 11 of my 40-day soul winning,
my own personal soul winning marathon, so I can show you my zeal for soul winning?
Do I need to do it? Do I really need to do it though? Not really. I mean, I should be soul
winning, but of course as a church for, was it six weeks? We went, or maybe more, we weren't able
to go soul winning. All right. And so I wanted to say, you know, I didn't want anybody to think,
well, maybe pastor Kevin has stopped soul winning because he really doesn't like it after all.
And maybe he's actually against it. And you know, the COVID-19 restrictions has just, you know,
it's landed for him just in time. And now he's, you know, turning his back on soul winning. So
for me, it was like, you know, I understand, you know, I don't think anybody's thinking that,
but you know, for me, it's like, well, I better show people a zeal for the soul winning, right?
I'm trying to show you guys some photographs every day of the soul winning, trying to keep
you guys updated with what's going on, because I want you to know that I'm zealous for winning
souls. I'm zealous for this church. I'm zealous for the rewards that God has in store for us
in New Life Baptist Church. The cloak of zeal. We need to make sure we temper it with patience
though. You know, make sure that we're zealously serving God the way he wants us to serve him,
having an enthusiasm. You know, I hope you guys never lose the enthusiasm for New Life Baptist
Church. You know, I hope your desire, you know, will never be, or we just watch the live stream
tonight, or we watch, you know, live stream this Sunday instead of actually being physically in
church. That was my biggest worry when we, you know, when we started the church. I didn't want
to go live stream because I thought, well, maybe people just stay home, right? It kind of was kind
of comfortable, right? During the lockdown to, you know, just listen, watch the church on YouTube,
because we couldn't meet or whatever. But no, we need to be zealous for the house of God.
We need to have a passion, enthusiasm for this place. You know, I just want you to know,
as the pastor of this church, you know, I do have an enthusiasm for you, for the Lord, this church.
You know, I hope, my goal is to grow in that zeal, right? To place it in the right place
and help you guys to make sure that you also have a zeal for the Lord. Okay, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord,