- Good afternoon, everyone.
We're at Steadfast Baptist Church.
You'd all find your seats, we'll go ahead and get started.
Found a seat, go ahead and grab a hymnal.
We're gonna start in song number 84, my favorites.
Song number 84, Jesus is coming again.
Let's sing it out.
Great singing, everybody.
All right, let's go ahead and bow our heads
for a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day.
We thank you for all the members that are gathered here
and everyone that's visiting.
Lord God, we thank you for all the souls
who are one-out soul-winning.
We ask that you help guide them to a good church,
if not ours.
We ask the Lord that you fill Pastor Shelley
with the Holy Spirit so we can preach an edifying sermon.
We can walk out better Christians
than we came in for your honor and glory.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, next up we have song number 57,
When They Ring the Golden Bells.
Song number 57.
("When They Ring the Golden Bells")
Song five, seven, when they ring the golden bells,
sing it out on the first.
♪ When he will sing in the name ♪
♪ He shall still be on the stillness ♪
♪ He shall hold the blood ring ♪
♪ When they ring the golden bells to thee ♪
♪ Won't you hear the bells, you hear just the sound of ♪
♪ Ring the golden bells to thee ♪
- Sing it, everybody.
- Amen, thank you so much for coming
to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you didn't already get a bulletin, you would like one,
just lift your hand up real quick
and our ushers can come by.
We got some over here and over there.
They'll get you a bulletin.
We're working on a new Bible member passage,
Jude chapter one.
On the inside, we have our service soul winning times
and our church stats.
We're doing really good on that.
One thing I did want to mention,
I wish I'd mentioned this morning,
but Evangelist Urbanic had a service,
one of their first services
for a church plant in the Philippines.
I say today, but it's kind of like yesterday
because of the time change,
but they had their first Sunday services
and they had 38 in attendance
and they said they had 11 soul winners
and they had 18 salvations for the day.
So praise the Lord for that, yeah.
They also had the services at a Jollibee,
which I heard is just, you know,
that just makes it all the sweeter.
So there you go.
And I guess that's how you bring people out, right?
When you need to start a church, you just start at Jollibee.
That's where you really draw on the visitors.
But no, it really well.
And so that's very encouraging and that's great.
And so really continue to pray for,
Evangelist Urbanic and the work that they're doing
over there in the Philippines.
We have our list of expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for them.
Upcoming events, we have the Scott Baby Shower on the third.
We have Mother's Day Brunch on the 10th.
We have a couple of marathons at the end of May.
So make sure you participate.
And we have other soul-wanting marathons in June, July,
things like that too.
So we just kind of have this.
If you go to our website,
it pretty much has the whole calendar already planned.
So if you're curious about future dates,
you can check out the website, sbckjv.com.
Go to the events tab and you can see other stuff too.
Down below is the details about that baby shower
and we have our prayer list on the back.
Please be in prayer for our church family.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
So go ahead and sing our psalm,
our hymn psalm you have of the week
and for the rich lead us.
- All right, that's gonna be Psalm 139.
Gonna be in your binders.
Kind of near the front a little bit,
maybe closer to the middle.
Psalm 139.
Sing it out.
♪ Joy that's made the way ♪
♪ On the holy day ♪
- Buddy, as the offering plates are going around,
would you please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 23.
Luke chapter 23.
- Chapter 23, the Bible says,
and the whole multitude of them arose
and led him unto Pilate.
And they began to accuse him saying,
we found this fellow perverting the nation
and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar,
saying that he himself is Christ, a king.
And Pilate asked him saying,
art thou the king of the Jews?
And he answered them and said, thou sayest it.
Then said Pilate to the chief priest and to the people,
I find no fault in this man.
And they were the more fierce,
saying he stirreth up the people,
teaching throughout all Jewry,
beginning from Galilee to this place.
When Pilate heard of Galilee,
he asked whether the man were a Galilean.
And as soon as he knew
that he belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction,
he sent him to Herod,
who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time.
And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad,
for he was desirous to see him of a long season,
because he had heard many things of him,
and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him.
Then he questioned with him in many words,
but he answered him nothing.
And the chief priest and scribe
stood and vehemently accused him.
And Herod with his men of war set him at nought,
and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe,
and sent him again to Pilate.
And the same day Pilate and Herod
were made friends together,
for before they were at enmity between themselves.
And Pilate, when he had called together
the chief priests and the rulers and the people,
said unto them, Ye brought this man unto me
as one that perverted the people.
And behold, I, having examined him before you,
have found no fault in this man touching those things
whereof ye accuse him.
No, nor yet, hear it.
For I sent you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death
is done unto him.
I will therefore chastise him and release him.
For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.
And they cried out all at once, saying, away with this man,
and release unto us Barabbas, who for a certain sedition made
in the city and for murder was cast into prison.
Pilate therefore willing to release Jesus spake unto them.
But they cried, saying, crucify him, crucify him.
And he said unto them the third time, why?
What evil hath he done?
I have found no cause of death in him.
I will therefore chastise him and let him go.
And they were instant with loud voices requiring
that he might be crucified.
And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed.
And Pilate gave sentence that it should be done as they required.
And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder
was cast into prison, whom they had desired.
But he delivered Jesus to their will.
And as they led him away, they laid
hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country.
And on him they laid the cross that he
might bear it after Jesus.
And there followed him a great company
of people and of women, which also
bewailed and lamented him.
But Jesus turning unto them said,
daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me,
but weep for yourselves and for your children.
For behold, the days are coming in the which they shall say,
blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bear,
and the paps which never gave suck.
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, fall on us,
and to the hills, cover us.
For if they have done these things in a green tree,
what shall be done in the dry?
And there were also two other malefactors led with him
to be put to death.
And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary,
there they crucified him and the malefactors,
one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.
And they parted his raiment and cast lots,
and the people stood beholding.
And the rulers also with them derided him,
saying, he saved others, let him save himself,
if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
And the soldiers also mocked him,
commanding him and offering him vinegar,
and saying, if thou be the king of the Jews,
save thyself, and a superscription also was written
over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew,
this is the king of the Jews,
and one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him,
saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
But the other answering rebuked him,
saying, dost not thou fear God,
seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
And we indeed justly,
for we have received the due reward of our deeds,
but this man hath done nothing amiss.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, barely I say unto thee,
today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
And it was about the sixth hour,
and there was a darkness over all the earth
until the ninth hour.
And the sun was darkened,
and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice,
he said, father, into thy hands I command my spirit.
And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
And when the centurion saw what was done,
he glorified God, saying, certainly
this was a righteous man.
And all the people that came together to that site,
beholding the things which were done,
smote their breaths and returned.
And all his acquaintance, and the women
that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off
beholding these things.
And behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor.
And he was a good man and a just.
The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them.
He was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews,
who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.
This man went on to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus.
And he took it down and wrapped it in linen
and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein
never man before was laid.
And that day was the preparation and the Sabbath drew on.
And the women also which came with him from Galilee
followed after and beheld the sepulcher
and how his body was laid.
And they returned and prepared spices and ointments
and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the word of God.
I thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church
and everyone here.
Thank you for Pastor Shelley.
And I thank you for the sermons that he prepares for us.
Please help us to receive the word that you have for us.
Please bless Pastor Shelley as he preaches.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
A verse in this chapter really stuck out to me.
And I wanted to point it out in verse 26.
The Bible says, "And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian,
coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after
Jesus."
And that's really where I'm drawing the title of my sermon this evening, is bearing the
cross of Christianity.
Bearing the cross of Christianity.
Now, we understand that to be saved is a free gift.
The Bible makes it clear that all you must do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved.
There's a major difference between being saved and being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible makes it clear by contrasting it and saying being saved is free.
Being a disciple costs you everything.
Being saved means you go to heaven.
Being a disciple means you have rewards in heaven.
Now whether you are a disciple or not, if you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ you
are saved and you will go to heaven.
And to add anything other than belief to salvation changes the whole gospel message.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for us.
Jesus already paid all of our sins so we don't have to do anything to be saved except receive
his free gift of salvation by putting our trust in the gospel.
We believe the gospel and that's what saves us.
But the Bible then goes on and teaches that after salvation, after you've received eternal
life, after you've already trusted Christ and you become saved, that there is a cross
that we must bear as well.
And we bear the cross, notice this, after Jesus, did you see how it said that?
That he might bear it after Jesus, meaning that we're following in Jesus Christ's footsteps
and that there's a cross to bear.
Christianity is a cross to bear.
Many people think that Christianity is simply, what do I get out of it?
Or just joy and happiness and fun and I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.
But look, that's like more geared about salvation.
We have the joy of salvation.
We have the joy of going to heaven.
We have the joy of our Lord.
But Christianity, the religion of Christianity, true Christianity, is a cross that is born.
And there are people today that want a Christianity that does not bear a cross and let me tell
you something, that's just not Christianity.
True Christianity bears the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, otherwise it's just not Christianity.
And there's this idea out there that people think, oh man, I want to have my church be
different than putting burdens on people.
I want our church to just be taking a load off and, you know, making people feel comfortable
and have joy and just all this fun and love and happiness.
No, no, no, Christianity is a cross that needs to be born.
Now let's just see what the Bible has to say on this issue because it has a lot to say.
But I want to go to a lot of places, go if you would to Romans chapter 10.
I have six points about bearing the cross of Christianity.
Number one is that one of the crosses that we must bear is that of traveling, physical
travel.
This Simon the Cyrenian, he is not even from this area.
He's from a completely different area and then he has to show up.
You wanted to see Jesus, you had to travel to a different location in order to see Jesus.
But not only that, notice he had to physically travel with the cross.
He had to carry that cross a physical distance.
And you know what, many times in Christianity we have to travel.
We have to go out of our comfort zone.
We actually have to travel somewhere and go somewhere to do something for Christianity.
And especially when it comes to the gospel message.
Most people in your life will never come to you and ask you how to get saved.
You know how many times people have walked up to me out of nowhere and said, "Hey, Pastor
Shelley, tell me how to get saved."
Never, okay?
I mean, it's that much.
It doesn't happen.
Now, obviously when you're going soul winning or when you're already in an evangelistic atmosphere,
sometimes people might say like, "Hey, what are you all talking about?
I want to hear," or something like that.
Yeah, I've had a few encounters like that.
I've had a few encounters where I kind of initiated the conversation and they bring
it up and it's real easy to then bring up salvation.
But people aren't just walking up to me off the street and like, "There's something different
about you.
You're obviously saved.
Tell me how to get saved."
Now, some people say that's just because I'm not Christian enough for them or whatever,
right?
But you know what?
Even the most Christian person we've ever seen, I don't think people are just walking
up to them and just saying like, "Hey, get me saved right now."
It doesn't really happen and the Bible doesn't paint this picture.
The Bible paints the picture that you have to go to other people.
You have to actually travel.
You have to go somewhere to get people saved.
Now, look what it says in Romans chapter 10 verse 13, "For whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved."
What does that mean?
It means that, yeah, when you want to believe in Jesus, you call upon his name and you get
saved.
It's that simple.
A lot of people just change this into something weird.
Verse 14, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent?
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and
bring glad tidings of good things."
If you want to be a soul winner, if you want to be an evangelist, if you want to be someone
that preaches the gospel, you're going to have to be willing to go.
So many people want to have the ability to get a lot of people saved, but not bear the
burden of traveling.
This is called YouTube ministries.
And look, I'm not against the internet, and the internet has opened a lot of doors, and
the internet gives us the capability of reaching a lot of people without having to physically
travel.
But you know what?
I do not want to turn the New Testament church into a church that won't literally go, won't
physically go, but is going to limit itself to the internet.
Look, most people, honestly, you will never reach them on the internet.
Most people just aren't even on the internet or barely use the internet, and they're not
using the internet for purposes like YouTube or social media where you could even reach
them.
Yeah, there's a lot of people that do, and we can, but there's tons of people.
There's tons of people you knock on their door, older people, foreigners, whoever, they're
not using the internet to where they could discover you or your church or your videos.
You have to literally go knock on their door and give them the gospel or they're not going
to hear it.
We have to go to foreign countries and foreign places.
We have to go and to reach the dark areas of this world with the gospel, and we have
to be willing to actually use our feet.
God gave us feet for a reason to go and to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not just to throw footballs around, not just to play soccer, not just to play basketball,
not just to go swimming, not to just walk around shopping malls, but rather to go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
And let me tell you, one of the burdens of the cross of Christ is that you have to go
somewhere.
Some people travel just to go to church.
Some people travel across the country to go to church.
Some people travel from another country to go to a church.
Some people have traveled just from different states.
Some people travel, even right now, a pretty decent distance just to show up at church.
They may have to drive 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour.
I mean, who in here occasionally has to drive over an hour just to come to church?
Look at that.
That is a burden.
I'm not going to sit here and say that that's not a burden.
That is a burden.
That is a literal burden.
That is a cost to Christianity.
But you know what?
Hey, Christianity is not one of these things where there's no cost, where there's no
burden.
True Christianity, there is a cross to bear.
And I guarantee, how many of you though, on your journey to church, had to carry a physical
cross though?
Or did you get to ride in a car?
Do you think Simon the Serenian's little trip was a little harder than yours, having
to carry a physical cross?
Yeah, I bet it was a little bit harder.
Go to Galatians chapter number five, go to Galatians chapter five.
Why would I do that?
Why would I be, you know, sacrificing of travel?
Why would I go some distant land?
Why would I go to another country or something?
Well, another great point the Bible brings up is that essentially no prophet is accepted
in his own country or his own land or his own house.
You know, in many cases when we go into a foreign land, people are just more receptive
to us, not because we're necessarily American, but just because we're foreign.
Obviously being an American is good in some cases, in some cases it's not.
Some foreign countries would probably give us more respect because we're Americans.
Some countries may give us less respect because we're Americans.
But one thing just seems universal is that when you're a foreigner in general, people
just tend to want to hear your message just a little bit more.
You say, "Why?"
It's because they can tell that you're kind of committed.
They can tell that you've put a little bit of a cost into the situation.
There's been a burden here.
You've done something purposeful and they think, "Well, if this person's traveled
this far, you know, maybe I ought to give them a few minutes to hear what they have
to say."
So sometimes by traveling, you're going to get an opportunity to get more people safe.
You know, why travel to the Bahamas?
Well, you know what?
It's really receptive for us Americans.
Hey, it's really receptive for white people.
And hey, I'm white, you know?
And I go there and I stick out like a sore thumb, but at the end of the day, a lot of
those people want to listen to what I have to say and want to hear what I have to say.
Whereas I go to White Settlement in Fort Worth, and you know what, they call the cops on me
every single time.
When we were in Sanson Park and I would go so many in White Settlement, almost every
time the cops always stopped me and they always ran my license and they always harassed me
and it was just very annoying.
Whereas in the Bahamas, the cops have never been called on me, you know?
Sometimes when you go into a foreign land or you go into a foreign country, people are
just more willing to hear what you have to say.
Hey, I go into Mexico, they can tell I'm a gringo, especially if I say any words.
They can tell I don't have perfect grammar, but you know what?
They want to hear what I have to say.
You know, you go to the Philippines, many times they want to hear what Americans have
to say.
And you know what?
Even if you're just of average height in some of these foreign countries, you're actually
tall in some of these other places, and they just like to hear from an American.
They just want to hear from somebody that's different.
You know, use the skills and the talents and the abilities that you've been given.
You know, there's nothing special about height.
There's nothing special about skin color.
There's nothing special about being born in America.
But you know what?
If someone thinks it's special and it gives me an opportunity to give them saved, then
I ought to use it.
I ought to use the giftings and the talents that God has given me so that I can reach
different people going into Mexico, going to the Caribbean, going to the Philippines,
going wherever.
I know people have gone to Africa.
I've never been there, but I've heard that Africa is a very receptive place where there's
just, it's heavily populated, and you can get a lot of people saved in Africa.
And so hey, praise the Lord for people going there.
People are going all over the world, and you know what?
When you go overseas, when you travel to foreign countries, it just seems like we just get
huge numbers of soul winning.
I mean you could go soul winning in parts of America, like a couple times every week
for an entire year, and get less people saved than just one mission strip to a receptive
place.
So you should consider taking the opportunity to go to the Philippines, go to the Caribbean,
go to Africa, go to South America, go to Mexico, go to one of these places every once
in a while, because it'll just help your yearly soul winning total by itself.
And it's a great opportunity.
That's why we like to pursue these things.
And you know what, that's part of Christianity.
You say, well that's going to cost me something, I'm going to have to travel.
But traveling's not even necessarily always that fun.
It's not carrying a cross, but even just getting on a plane and all the just kind of little
intricacies of traveling.
Sometimes it's delayed or you have to sit by someone weird, you know, that happens.
It can just be just traveling in general, you can get that jet lag.
Sometimes the food is maybe something you're not used to or it's not something that you
prefer.
Obviously, you could just get sick.
I mean, traveling just exposes you to more opportunities to be sick or get headaches
or just, you know, be frustrated, take your time off work.
I mean, there's a burden to traveling.
Of course, the money aspect, too, and we'll get there in a second, but, you know, there
is a burden to traveling, but you say, why would I do that?
Why would I consider this?
Well, so that people will get saved, so that I can get more people saved.
And we go out and we must bear the gospel message.
The gospel, while we're traveling, if you think about this, the guy's traveling, he's
traveling with a cross.
So it's not only that he's traveling a distance, the experience also has a little bit of discomfort
to it.
And, you know, preaching the gospel can be a lot of fun, but there can also be a burden
to just preaching the gospel, because not everybody wants to hear the gospel.
Not everybody likes the gospel.
And the gospel can be very offensive.
Look at Galatians chapter 5 verse 11, "And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision,
why do I yet suffer persecution?
Then as the offense of the cross ceased."
So the Apostle Paul brings up this idea that, hey, if I just preach works of salvation,
no one's going to get mad at me because that's what everybody believes.
I mean, whether that be fake Christianity, Catholicism, Orthodox, why do you think it
is they can have a little council?
All of these religions and all these councils out there, you've got Islam, you've got some
kind of Buddhist representative, you've got a Catholic, you've got a Greek Orthodox,
you've got Protestants.
And now even Protestants and Catholics will say, "Yeah, you know, the Inquisition and
all that stuff, that was just kind of like a misunderstanding, you know, because really
at the end of the day, we both believe in works, don't we?"
And it's like, yeah, you know, that kind of tells me, and I, you know, we can all look
through history through a glass darkly a little bit, is that true Protestantism must have
been a lot spicier than the Protestantism of today, because they're not just burning
people at the stake and stuff, because they slightly differ on how they believe in works,
okay?
And William Tyndale, when they read the sentence of why they killed him at the stake, I mean,
he died.
It says, number one, first he maintained that faith alone justifies.
I mean, they weren't saying this guy believes in works too, they're saying this guy doesn't
believe in works, that's why we're killing him, let alone all the other accusations,
because he said, hey, if you just trust in the gospel, you're saved.
He obviously translated the Bible so that people could have the Bible and have the word
of God.
Now, this guy sounds pretty good, he doesn't sound like most Protestants I run into.
And you know what, that was a burden.
Of course, when we talk about us going out and preaching the gospel, you could get killed.
You go into an Islamic country and you preach the gospel just the way we do right now.
I mean, we just go running up and knock neighborhoods, we're handing out cards, the cops come and
say, what are you doing?
We're saying, we're going soul winning.
Hey, try that in Islamic country, and they'll just say, okay, let's drag him out and kill
him.
There are parts of this world, Hinduism hates Christianity.
True Hinduism will kill Christians.
There are African tribes and African religions where they will kill Christians if you go
out there and you preach the gospel.
There are parts of the world like China and North Korea, North Korea will kill you for
having K-pop, let alone the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ saying, hey, our leader
is a false God and you know, he's wicked and he's not the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, you preach that message about Kim Jong whatever it is anymore, I don't, ill,
they're always ill, you know, sick, whatever you want to call them next, then guess what,
they're going to kill you.
So just in the same way that Simon Serenius, he's traveling, he's traveling with a cross.
He's traveling with something that will offend many people.
Let's just be honest, most people don't even get saved.
We love, we love kind of like specializing in easy receptive areas, so maybe we get confused
about what the world's like, but make no mistake, many parts of this world do not want to hear
the gospel.
You bringing it is a literal cross.
That traveling out there is something that's offensive to many different people and it's
the offense of the cross because they believe in their works and we're hurting their pride
by saying no, it's a free gift.
Look at chapter 6 verse 12, "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised, only less they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh.
But God forbid that I should glory, saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world."
So the apostle Paul is bringing up this idea that there's these Judaizers that want them
to get circumcised.
They want Gentiles to get physically circumcised so then they can say, "Yeah, we believe in
works too."
So then the offense of the cross has ceased, that salvation is a free gift.
And think about it, why is that offensive?
Well it's offensive in the context of that they think the Gentiles are worse people than
them.
And they think like, "How in the world could you think that this person is saved and not
me?"
And you know what?
The same thing exists today with Calvinists and many churches that are very prideful.
They think if we go out to some neighborhood, some ghetto neighborhood, where all the people,
they're on welfare, they're on drugs, they don't even make an honest living.
They have beer cans in the front yard.
They're letting their kids run around and do whatever.
If we come up to that person and we say, "Hey, all you have to do is believe in Jesus Christ
and you're saved."
And they believe and they get saved.
But they never come to church, they think, "Oh, that person's not really saved."
Why?
Because that's offensive to them.
Because they think that they're better than other people and that they somehow deserve
the gospel a little bit more because of the works that they've done.
But let me tell you something, nobody is saved by their works.
You could be the most sinful person and if you believe in Jesus, you're saved.
And if you're the most pious, religious person, but you're not believing in Jesus Christ,
you will not be saved.
Because it's not about what we do that saves us, it's what Jesus Christ already did.
And that's offensive to the prideful person.
That's offensive to the person that thinks he's better than other people or more deserving
of heaven than other people.
No one deserves heaven more than another person.
We all deserve hell, period.
And so salvation being a free gift is an offense to many people.
And so the Judaizers want to essentially capitulate to a false gospel.
And the whole book of Galatians is written to a church that's mixed up on the gospel.
They've allowed that repent of your sins heresy into the church if you think about it.
In a sense because they're trying to say, "Hey, you've got to add something else to
the gospel."
No, you don't have to add anything to the gospel.
The gospel is free.
But at the end of the day, after we get people saved and they're right with God, we then
want to compel them to serve God, not to be saved, we want to compel them to serve God
to be rewarded by the Lord, and so that Christianity can go forward.
How do more people get saved?
If we do nothing, I mean if we have a religion of nothing, how is the next group of people
going to get saved?
Someone has to bear the cross.
Someone has to go out and do the work.
Someone has to open their mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
And that is why we even show up here.
Why are we even here?
I mean, think about it, if we're all going to go to heaven, think about it this way.
What I said, we're all going to go to heaven period, and we're all going to get the exact
same rewards no matter what we do.
Showing up here has no impact.
And in fact, the enemy might trick you by coming to church or it will ruin your life.
Why would we ever show up again?
Let's close the doors down right now.
Like what would be the point of going through all of this exercise and all of this work
and constantly reading the Bible and praying and doing this if it just doesn't even have
an impact?
No, it has a great impact because we get a bunch of people saved.
Show me another group that's reaching and getting as many people saved as we are.
Sam's Club, YMCA, Alcoholics Anonymous, I mean isn't there plenty of other groups?
There's plenty of other organizations.
There's plenty of other buildings, but you know what?
They're not getting a bunch of people saved.
Why?
Because that's not the biblical model.
The biblical model is the New Testament church where we come together and we rally and we
get on fire and we get zealous and then we go out into the highways and the hedges and
we compel them to come in, that we travel and we go out to them.
We travel to South Dallas, we travel to DeSoto, we travel to Duncanville, we travel down to
Mansfield, we travel to West Fort Worth, we travel to Richardson, we travel to Garland,
we travel to Shreveport, we travel to Mexico, we go out and we travel and we bring the gospel
message and hey, if they don't want to hear us, we'll just shake the dust off our feet
and we'll go to the next town, but you know what?
We want to see people saved and someone has to bear that cross because Jesus is not here
on the earth right now.
We have to pick up that cross and we have to carry it for him and we're bringing the
gospel message with us on our backs.
And you know what?
That is bearing the cross of Christianity is going out and preaching the gospel which
very few Christians want to do today because very few Christians are disciples.
Very few are saved, but even way less, less are the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, Peter is afraid of the Jews and that's why he gets mixed up on this stuff.
And how many Baptists today are mixed up and afraid of the Jews today and they're not really
serving God.
They're not really preaching, you know, with authority and preaching the hard messages
that need to be preached because they don't want to suffer something, persecution.
And look, there is a burden of persecution when it comes to Christianity.
Number one, we have to travel.
Number two, there is persecution.
Look at Second Timothy chapter number three, Second Timothy chapter number three.
Simon the Serenian had to bear this cross.
That was a level of persecution.
That's a level of pain.
We don't know what happened.
But I'm just assuming carrying a cross could cause you to get splinters.
It could cause you to like be sore at least, like maybe your back or your neck or your
arms or something.
You could pull a muscle.
You could, I mean, there's going to be some negative consequences to carrying a cross.
And so in the same way, when you go out and you serve the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're
trying to be godly, the Bible says you'll be persecuted, there'll be some pain that
comes along with it.
In Timothy chapter 3, look what it says in verse number 10, "Thus fully known my doctrine,
manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions,
which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me, yea, and all that
will of godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
We love that verse, but let's get the context.
The apostle Paul brings up his life, doesn't he?
He says, "Hey, you already know everything I believe.
You know my entire lifestyle.
You know what I'm like in life.
You know my entire purpose.
You know my entire faith.
You know all the longsuffering I've had to deal with.
You know all the charity that I've shown.
You know all the patience I've had to constantly endure.
You know about all the persecutions that I've had to go through.
You know all the afflictions that I had to go through.
You know, it kind of makes me feel like the apostle Paul.
It's like his entire life is just a spectacle to everybody else.
It's almost like he lives in a glass house.
He's in that animal cage where everybody's just looking into his life and everything's
just kind of exposed.
Where you get to just see all of it.
Good, bad, ugly.
Everybody's secretly recording him and uploading it to the internet, you know?
I mean this guy can't hide anything.
His public address has been put online.
His social security number has been put out online.
Just anything and everything.
I mean you just get to know everything about this guy.
But think about it.
In the same way, isn't it Simon the Cyrenian?
Isn't carrying the cross up the hill, isn't that a public spectacle?
I mean you can't really hide.
You're not hiding carrying a giant cross.
It's real obvious.
And everybody's looking, and everybody's paying attention to you.
And you know what?
You got people that are there shaming you, mocking you too, looking down upon you.
And I'm sure there's some people also that are positive.
I don't think everybody there.
Some people were bewailing and lamenting what was happening to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not everybody was there against him, but the vast majority were.
And in the same way, when you're a Christian, when you're going to serve God, when you're
going to be on the front lines, often your life will be a public spectacle.
They're going to see all the things that are going on.
They're going to see the afflictions.
They're going to see the persecutions.
They're going to see what's going on and they're going to attack.
Why?
Because carrying the cross is a public thing.
Carrying the cross church is a public thing.
So winning is a public thing.
Preaching is a public thing and they're going to see it and they're going to attack and
you will suffer persecution.
The apostle Paul, he is for peace but when he speaks there for war and he shows up into
a town, he's just trying to get people saved but boy does the drama follow and the drama
follows hard.
They're encircling them, going to the houses, trying to pull them out, beating people up,
dragging them to officers, stoning people, I mean all kinds of just crazy drama happening
in the Bible because you know what?
You start preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, people get mad.
People get angry fast.
There is a burden there.
And you will be a public spectacle in many cases.
Look at chapter 2 right there and look at verse 8, "Remember that Jesus Christ at the
seat of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as
an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."
Notice that the apostle Paul says, "I suffer trouble as an evildoer."
It's like I have to go through all kinds of problems as if I was a bad person but I'm
not a bad person.
And you know, when you serve the Lord Jesus Christ you do right.
Many times you'll have to suffer punishments and all kinds of shame and ridiculing as if
you're a bad person.
Simon the Serenian is not a bad guy.
But then he has to carry a cross up a hill like he's a literal criminal.
Like he's a murderer or a thief or some robber or someone that's worthy of the death penalty.
He's suffering trouble as an evildoer yet he is not an evildoer.
He has done nothing wrong.
And you know what?
Many times when you serve the Lord Jesus Christ you'll be falsely accused, made fun of, and
attacked and you may even go through severe persecutions as if you really did something
bad and you didn't.
That is the bearing the cross of Christianity.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for us being perfectly innocent.
And look, he's not the only person that will ever be falsely accused or attacked for no
reason.
Joseph also had to be falsely accused and thrown in prison.
We have the Apostle Paul being thrown in prison.
Peter and John thrown in prison.
We have people in the book of Revelation being thrown in prison.
All kinds of people are being falsely accused and attacked and lied about.
And they have to bear all kinds of persecution.
But why do they do it?
They do it for the elect's sake.
But for the elect's sake he's enduring so that more people can be saved.
Why did Jesus go on the cross for our sake?
Why does Simon carry the cross for the elect's sake in the same spirit of Christ having the
same mind as Christ?
And in many cases when you try to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, when you're trying to
feel safe, you know what happens, you'll become a public spectacle in your sphere of influence.
Your family, your friends, the people that grew up around you, all of a sudden they'll
start paying more attention to you than they ever did before.
And every little imperfection, every little grievance that you have is now something they're
going to pay attention to, they're going to talk about.
I mean your brother could be a drug dealing hippie that's in and out of jail and they
don't want to focus on that.
But boy you make a little mistake and everybody wants to talk about that.
Why?
Because now you're a public spectacle, because now you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's so funny, you know, we can hang out with the drug dealing cousin, we can hang out with
the couple in our family that's committing fornication, we can hang out with the drug
addicts and the alcohol addicted weirdos, we can hang out with the guy that's not working,
but man this guy that's going to church three times a week, he seems dangerous for the family.
I don't know if we can have him over for the family reunion, you know, he likes the King
James Bible, that's scary man, it's scary, you know, his kids dress nice, his daughters
wear skirts, and they're not mini skirts, the horror, I mean you start living like the
Lord Jesus Christ, you start, all of a sudden you're like a spectacle, everybody talks about
you, everybody's interested in everything about you, anything they can attack, whereas
people that are doing all kinds of horrible things, nobody cares, nobody wants, just look
the other way, don't pay attention to that, why?
Because yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Because you don't want to lie, because you don't want to commit grievous sin, because
you don't want to get drunk with them, isn't it so funny, someone could come over to the
family reunion, they want to drink alcohol and smoke pot, nobody cares, you say I don't
want to drink, everybody loses their mind, it's like how is not drinking, it was funny
to me because I kind of experienced a similar thing at one point, where everybody's losing
their mind about me just not wanting to be as worldly as them, but there was like one
person, we'll call him Nicodemus, came to me at night, secretly or whatever, and they're
just kind of like, I don't really get it, because all you guys want to do is just like
not do bad things, like not drink and stuff, and everybody's getting mad at you for it,
it's like I get it, it sounds like you're doing good things, I'm just like right.
It's weird, it's weird but it's biblical, it's strange, but don't think it has some
strange thing that's happened unto you, hey don't think that fiery trial is some strange
thing that's happened unto you, that's just how it is.
We have to bear the cross of Christ, in the same way that Jesus had to go up and it looked
like he's a malefactor, it looks like he's an evil person, it looks like he committed
a sin worthy of death, he's done nothing wrong.
He's only blessed people, he's only done good unto people, but that's part of the bearing
the cross of Christianity.
Go to Ephesians chapter 5, go back a little bit to Ephesians chapter number 5, here's
the third thing that we see as a bearing of the cross of Christianity is that you will
lose time.
It's going to cost you time.
Obviously for Simon the Cyrenian to go on this journey or to carry this cross, he had
to lose some time.
He obviously was going somewhere, had something to do, I mean, he obviously had to spend some
time to do this that he wasn't anticipating.
He didn't know that day when he woke up that morning he's going to be carrying Jesus'
cross.
And at the end of the day, serving the Lord Jesus Christ will cost you time.
Now time is, in my opinion, a gift that God gives us.
We don't know how much we get, but we've been given a certain amount of time, whether
that be 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, 70 years, 80 years, 90 years.
We don't know.
But think about it this way.
God gives some people 10 talents.
What if that's 100 years?
Some people he gives 5 talents, maybe that's 50 years.
Some people he gives 1 talent.
What if that was 10 years?
What are you going to do with the life that God's given you?
You know, Jephthah's daughter, we don't know how old she was when she died, but she had to die young.
But you know what, whatever time God gives us, we should use for the Lord Jesus Christ.
We should use, you know, what we've been given.
And we can spend our time on whatever we want.
We have free will.
We're not Calvinists here.
God allows us to do literally anything that we want.
We can choose to use our time however we want.
Obviously there's other external influences that limit the decisions we make.
But generally speaking, we can choose our own decisions and we're choosing what to do with our time.
Us as Americans, we kind of have about as much freedom and liberty as we want to spend our time however we see fit.
But at the end of the day, God is also measuring us and looking at us and saying,
"Okay, I've given you this time, what are you going to do with it?"
And often I personally believe if you really study the scripture carefully,
you'll understand that God, obviously He understands the beginning from the end.
But it almost seems like God is saying the time that you get is even conditional on how you're using that time.
You know, if you're honoring your father and your mother, He promises to give you more time.
Hey, and I think that if you're using your time wisely, doing things of God, He's going to keep that going.
You start going down a bad path, boy, you just start shaving days off your life.
Shaving not months, years, decades.
Who knows, you know, how much time you can be shaving off by making bad decisions.
I mean, the Bible says keep the commandments and live.
And, you know, some people get mad at me.
They might say, how dare you suggest someone dying young or dying early could have been
a cause of bad decisions.
Well, do you not believe the Bible?
I mean, how many verses would I have to show you to prove to you that the Bible constantly
is talking about, hey, your life on this earth is a direct consequence of you keeping God's
commandments and being pleasing in His sight.
You want to live the longest life possible?
Well, start using the time well so that God will give you more.
Because if you're a bad steward of the time God's given you, he might say, "Why waste
any more time with this guy?
Let's just pluck him up.
Let's prune him off the tree.
Let's get him out of here."
Ephesians chapter 5 tells us in verse 15, "Seeing then that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil."
How do you redeem the time?
What does it say in verse number 15?
It says, "See then that you walk circumspectly as a wise person."
So when you don't walk wise, you're not redeeming the time.
When you do walk wise, you're redeeming the time.
And the Bible tells us the people that are wise, "He that win his souls is wise."
Hey, you want to know what's a good use of your time?
Going soul winning.
That's redeeming the time.
That's taking advantage of the time that God has given us.
Just like, hey, Simon the Serenian, bearing up that cross, carrying that cross that day,
that was a good use of his time, just like us going out and bearing the gospel message
is a good use of our time.
We're walking as the wise, we're redeeming the time.
God's given me ten talents, hey that might be a hundred years of life, I better make
sure to use those ten talents to get him another ten talents by going out and getting a bunch
of people saved.
This is bearing the cross of Christianity, it'll cost you time, but you know what, this
is what the Bible says, verse 17, "Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the
will of the word is."
The will of the Lord is not a mystery, mystery be something that's unknowable.
Now the will of the Lord may be hidden from you, but the only reason the will of the Lord
is hidden from you is because you haven't read the Bible.
Because when you read the Bible, you will understand what the will of the Lord is because
the will of the Lord is the Bible, it's the word of God.
Many people try to make the will of God something that's not in the Bible.
That is not the will of the Lord, that's the will of your imagination.
You know, we have to understand that when we're proving what the will of the Lord is,
we're proving it by showing you verses in the Bible that are telling you what to do.
I get so irritated by people when they want to prove their message, when they want to
prove their idea, they go to a vague verse that says, "Well, we need to know what the
will of the Lord is."
And it's like, okay, but then show me a verse that has that idea.
Because if you're having an idea that's not coming from the Bible, you can only ever use
vague verses to prove it.
It's something, you know, abstaining from all appearance of evil.
This is just the carte blanche verse for anything they want to say is now evil.
Just insert man-made idea of what's evil, abstaining from all appearance of evil.
Okay, it's evil, then show me in the Bible.
Not a vague verse.
Why does the Bible have vague verses like this?
Just to be all-encompassing.
Just say, "Hey, the Bible says be good.
What does that mean?"
Okay, well the Bible will tell you what being good is.
The Bible will tell you what evil is.
The Bible will tell you what corrupt communication is.
The Bible will tell you all these different things.
And so if you don't have verses in the Bible specifically detailing out what you're saying,
it's because you're making stuff up.
People make stuff up, folks.
People come up to you and say, "God told me to buy a red Corvette.
I don't want to be disobedient under the will of the Lord.
God told me I'm going to be a professional video game player."
Where is it?
What verse?
That's not in the Bible.
And look, obviously there's some things that we have to make.
There's some decisions we have to make that are not in the Bible.
What's a decision the Bible does not tell us?
Who to marry?
The Bible does not say, you know, I never read in the Bible it says like, "Jonathan,
marry, carry."
But what does the Bible say?
The Bible says this is the type of woman you should marry.
Here's some parameters.
Here's some boundaries.
Just like the Bible says in the Garden of Eden, hey, of all the trees in the midst of
the garden, or of all the trees in the garden, thou mayest freely eat.
I could eat of any of those trees that were in the garden.
But there was a certain tree I'm not allowed to eat, right?
And the same way, you know, when we talk about marriage, I believe that we have the freedom
to marry whomever we choose, as long as it's in the boundaries of God's Word.
Hey, they're a saved person.
Hey, they're not off the table because of, you know, something that causes them to not
get married, like having been divorced or something like that.
Hey, then it's good to go.
It's not this specific person.
So there's freedom in the world.
God's not going to give you, hey, God doesn't say you have to have a red truck or a blue
truck or a green truck or a clear truck or no truck.
You get to choose on that one, right?
But the Bible does say things like you're not allowed to drink alcohol, period.
Whether it's Jack Daniels, vodka, Everclear, tequila.
It doesn't matter if it smells like urine, don't drink it.
When it gives its color in the cup and it moves itself a right, you know, at the last
it bite it like a serpent and sting it like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women.
You're going to utter perverse things.
You just stay away from it.
You got to have clear, clear verses.
And you know what, the Bible says redeem your time. What does that mean?
It means go soul winning because I'm comparing spiritual to spiritual.
It says, hey, walk as a wise person.
And then you can go to another verse and says, here's what a wise person does.
He that win his souls is wise.
I'm not just making stuff up.
I'm comparing spiritual to spiritual to understand what it means to redeem the time.
Many people will come up with their interpretation of what redeeming the time is.
Let me just tell you, it's soul winning.
It's preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's redeeming the time.
If someone wants to come to me and says, "I don't go soul winning, but I redeem the time,"
they're a liar.
What are you doing to "redeem your time"?
You can't take anything out of here with you.
How are you using that time wisely if you don't get people saved?
You're not preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just like, hey, what if Simon the Serenian, he was carrying, I don't know, a waterbed
up the hill?
Does that really matter?
What if he was carrying a backpack?
What if he was carrying a sombrero hat?
No, no.
He carried the cross.
Just like me going out and just doing other things that have nothing to do with getting
people saved, that's not me really redeeming the time.
It's meaningless.
Our life is a vapor that appears for a little while.
Us preaching the gospel is redeeming the time.
Why do you hammer that all the time?
Because that's what matters.
Go to Matthew chapter 10, go to Matthew chapter number 10, just soul winning, soul winning,
soul winning.
I open up the bulletin, church wide soul winning, Sunday at 2, Wednesday at 5, regional
soul winning, Monday at 6.30, and Tuesday at 5.30, and Thursday at 10.30, and Thursday
at 6.00.
You already have a time on Thursday.
Where's another one?
Friday at 6, and Saturday at 10.
Well sometimes you have a soul winning marathon on top of all that, yeah.
It's like well I don't have time for anything else, good.
What else do you have?
Redeeming the time because the days are evil.
We're increasing the soul winning.
We're preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're here because of the gospel.
Oh Simon, what else are you going to do today?
I'm just carrying the cross up.
That's what I'm doing today.
Oh, I want to do something different.
Well, you can do whatever you want.
God gave you ample time to do whatever you want.
But let me tell you something.
Redeeming the time is preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why we emphasize it.
That's why you open this thing and it's just like that's what it's all about.
Now yeah, is there time for church too to praise God and sing praises and to motivate
us to keep going soul winning?
Yeah, there is.
We're not just only doing soul winning literally, but at the end of the day church is also geared
toward to get us going soul winning because the Bible says when we stop soul winning we
stop to be a church anyways when you lose your first love.
And of course churches that attack soul winning or don't want to do soul winning or don't
want to talk about soul winning or don't want to count soul winning, you kind of wonder
like what's the point of your church?
Not really a church now, is it?
Matthew chapter 10, look at verse 34, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth,
I came not to send peace but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own
household.
He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loveth him his life for my sake shall
find it.
So the Bible brings us up in many different places.
Number one, when you are bearing the cross of Christianity, you're going to have to
bear the burden of traveling.
Number two, you're going to bury the burden of persecution.
Number three, you're going to have to lose some time.
Number four, sometimes you're going to have to lose some family relationships.
What kind of family relationships?
Well, what did it say?
It said specifically a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law
against her mother.
That one's easy.
All right.
But it says a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
That's taking up your cross, saying, "You know what?
I'm willing to travel away from family, preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm willing to be persecuted by my family for taking church seriously and preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm willing to lose time with my family to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And even if I have to, I'm willing to sacrifice the relationship that I have with some of
my family to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you know what?
You come to church and in return you'll get more family.
God doesn't leave us alone.
In fact, in many cases, you get even a bigger family.
You know, I've been to family reunions that were pretty big, it's like 20, 25 people.
I've never been to a family reunion where there's 200 people.
We're showing up at a family reunion every Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
And we've got more brothers and sisters, and look, hanging out with you, I like hanging
out with you way more.
Sorry, brother and sister and family, because, you know, they want to talk to me about things
that I don't care about.
They want to argue with me.
They want to tell me that 9/11 was, you know, the twin towers fell due to engine, gasoline
engine fires from the planes, jet fuel, whatever.
I'm like, I don't want to talk about this.
They want to talk to me about politics.
They want to talk to me about how Donald Trump is so amazing and how we need to support Israel.
And I'm thinking like, man, watch marching to Zion.
You know, I like hanging out with people that I have something in common with, that we have
some unity around the doxans of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I like hanging out with you because you're sober, you're not drinking.
It's so annoying to hang out with people that are drunk.
They're irritating.
They're annoying.
They don't even know what they're saying.
They sound like these preachers that talk and don't say anything.
They sound spiritually drunk.
These are these pastors that won't ever, they just talk and they say nothing while
talking.
They're thinking like, "What's wrong with you?"
You know, it's irritating.
I like to have intelligent conversations.
I like to talk to people.
And you know, there is a loss.
There is a cost to bearing the cross of Christianity, but you know what?
There's also a blessing.
You go travel and preach the gospel, you're going to have joys when you get someone saved.
Those persecutions also come with joy and happiness, and frankly speaking, some of the
best laughs you'll ever have after it happens.
But Pastor Anderson got sent to a psych ward for a day, that was not cool.
But now it's really funny, and we really laugh about it a lot, and it's even funnier that
I didn't have to go through it, and I just get to hear about it.
I love to just, to reminisce, some of the worst things that ever happened to me, they're
now hilarious.
Hey, some of our time that we love to share, we love to share about the experiences we
had going soul hunting and getting people saved.
And hey, honestly, I think spiritual family is better than physical family anyways.
Now it's great if you get both, I think it's probably even more special.
It's probably more special when you get both.
But you know what, at the end of the day, just generally speaking, for the family members
that don't want to serve Christ, a brother that does want to serve Christ is better.
A brother near is better than a brother far off.
Go over to Luke chapter 8, go to Luke chapter 8, I could read a lot more verses, but the
Bible constantly hammers what we just read in Matthew 10 about how you have to deny yourself
and take up your cross.
Deny yourself, take up your cross.
Take up the cross.
It's mentioned over and over, taking up your cross.
Christianity is a religion where we take up a cross.
Christianity is not a religion where you show up and you just get handed just free gifts
and joy and happiness and fun and we're just going to do just cool things.
No, no, no.
We're all taking up a cross and we're going to carry crosses together.
That's what we're going to do.
And sometimes when we're walking and we're carrying that cross, the guy next to us, he
trips a little bit.
And then we slow down and we help get him back up so that he can carry his cross further.
Not get him up so he can do nothing.
We don't necessarily start carrying him.
We don't want to carry dead weight.
We just help them get back up and then like, come on, keep carrying your cross.
And you know, the Bible says that we're supposed to carry his cross.
He that does not take up his cross.
Not all of us have the same cross.
You know, the Bible talks about father and mother and wife and children, all these other
things.
The Bible is going to have to do all of that.
It's collective because some people never have to give up their spouse.
Some people do.
Some people never have to give up their parents.
Some people do.
Some people never have to give up their brother.
Some people do.
We don't know which cross we get.
Some people get, "Hey, you got the spouse cross."
That one's rough.
Some people get the kid cross.
Some people get the brother cross.
Some people get, you know, we get handed out different crosses.
I don't know which one you're going to have to bear, but you know what?
You have to bear the cross that Jesus gave you, and you have to say, "Well, okay.
I would rather have this one, but this is the one he gave me.
This is the one I got, so I better just carry it.
I better be the guy.
Hey, if I get the wife cross, I get the wife cross.
If I get the husband cross, I get the husband cross.
If I get the brother or the sister or the mother or the father or the whatever or the
lands or the money or the whatever, hey, I'm just going to carry that cross because that's
the cross I'm designed to carry.
This is the one that Jesus wants me to carry so I'm going to carry it.
You got to take up your cross and Jesus is going to give us all a different cross.
Say, "Well, mine's hard to carry."
Well, maybe it's really important that you carry it then.
I don't know which cross you have to carry.
We all have different burdens.
We all have different things.
But many people, they just don't want to carry that cross.
We as Christians have to carry that cross.
And one of those is often even finances, is money.
Look at Luke chapter number eight, look at verse 14, "And that which fell among thorns
are they which, when they have heard, go forth and are choked with the cares and riches
and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection."
You know, some people, depending on where they live, maybe different countries or different
parts of the world, they don't really have an opportunity to make much money.
They'll never have money.
They're pretty much just going to be poor.
So for them, sometimes these things aren't even really a cross for them to bear.
Just like some people don't have to bear a cross of a wife or kids or whatever because
that's just not their thing.
For some people, maybe they just aren't in the right country or they're not in the right
time or they didn't maybe get the same education or they don't have the same opportunities.
Maybe some people, they just physically can't because they're cripple.
So it's not like the cripple guy is maybe not necessarily worrying about having to make
a bunch of money.
He just can't.
He has to beg his entire life.
But there could be some people that have great opportunities, they have a capability of making
tons of money, and you know what?
They get carried away with that instead of putting that as a cross and saying, "You
know what?
Instead of spending all my time making money and getting great wealth, I need to bear this
cross and just serve the Lord Jesus Christ."
Put that as my focus.
Now again, when we go to work, we have to put on the work hat and we have to work hard
and we try to make all the money that God's going to let us make during that time.
But you know what?
If you're going to be a God-fearing Christian, you have to decide many times throughout the
week to take that hat off and say, "At the end of the day, that's not my biggest master.
My main master is the Lord Jesus Christ."
Go to Matthew chapter 6, go to Matthew chapter 6.
And I think there are some people that could be multimillionaires and have great possessions
in this life if they didn't pursue Christ at all, if they just spent all of their time
on the weekends and the nights and all the stuff they're doing for Christianity, and
they just put it into making money.
I guarantee there's many people that could make tons and tons of extra money if they
wanted to do that.
Not everybody.
Some people can though.
And you know what?
That might be a cross you have to bear.
You have to say, "You know what?
I'm going to lay that aside.
I don't want to pursue riches over the things of God.
Hey, I'll decide to try and make money when I have to make money.
But I'm not going to make that my primary goal.
Hey, if it interferes with my church attendance, if it interferes with my soul-winning, if
it stops me from being able to go out and do any kind of evangelism, well then you know
what?
I'm not willing to make that sacrament.
And some people have to make that decision.
There's going to be people that don't make that decision.
There's going to be people that say, "You know what?
I would rather just be a multimillionaire.
And if that means I'm going to have to miss church, that means I'm going to have to stop
going soul-winning as much, if that means I'm going to have to stop reading my Bible,
I just want to have those things.
I would rather have the nicer house and the nicer car and all the things.
And look, there's nothing wrong with having a nice house.
You know, I'm not mad at preachers for having nice things if they're still serving God.
I'm not against wives having nice things if they're serving God.
I'm not against my children having nice things if they're serving God.
But let me tell you something, when your possessions and your pursuit of riches stops you from
doing the things that you should be doing, you're wrong.
And you know what?
It chokes the Word lest it become fruitful.
Matthew chapter number 6, look at verse number 24.
"No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other."
You cannot serve God and mammon.
You can't spend your entire life pursuing money and God simultaneously.
At the end of the day, someone's winning.
You just have to ask yourself this question, who's winning?
Are you becoming more spiritual year after year, or are you getting more finances year
after year?
And look, honestly the Bible does teach that when you serve God, He's still going to give
you a need.
Look at verse 33.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall
be added unto you."
See, it's not like by serving God you have to be poor.
That's not what Christianity teaches.
Many people in the Bible serve God and had wealth.
But you know what?
When you're pursuing wealth, well, you're not right with God.
When that's first.
It can be second, and it probably shouldn't be technically second, but I'm just saying,
it can be second in this conversation at least, that hey, I'm making sure I'm in church,
I'm going soul winning, I'm serving God, I'm reading my Bible.
But then as soon as, you know, I'm not doing those things, I'm going out there and working
hard, I'm putting extra hours in, I'm working 50 hours, 60 hours, I'm doing multiple jobs,
I got side businesses, I got side hustles, okay great, I'm all for you, you can do that,
you have your free time, you get to choose whatever you want, but at the end of the day,
if it's crossing over and stopping you from serving God, you're not right with God.
And you can't serve two masters.
You say look, I'm going to put church first, and then hey, we can have all these things.
And the person that's covetous is the person that allows possessions and money and job
to stop them from serving God.
You know, some people acquire great wealth to help them serve God even better.
Like pay for soul winning mission strips.
How does that happen?
It doesn't just come out, there's not like a money tree for soul winning or whatever.
People actually go out and work hard and then spend their money on getting someone saved.
Giving extra money to church, blessing people, giving money to poor people in the church
or people that are in bad situations.
You could look down on the people that have money, but the Bible doesn't look down on
people that have money.
The Bible looks down on people that are trying to acquire wealth and not pursuing God.
The Bible tells us to not have the love of money, where we want money for money's sake
or possession's sake.
We should serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you know what?
It's a tool that God gives us.
If God gives me great time, use it for Him.
If God gave me great wealth, use it for Him.
But we have to first seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
And you know what?
It could have cost Simon the Serenian something to take off and go carry this cross.
Who knows what he was doing?
What if he was going to go somewhere and sell something or make money or go to his job?
Maybe it caused him to be late for his work.
You know, it could have been a financial cost for him to go and do this thing.
He's obviously not hanging out with his family.
And here's the last one I'll go to.
Go to Amos chapter 7.
You know, bearing the cross of Christianity will also sometimes cost you your future.
You have to lay down your life.
You have to say, "Well, I want to do this with my life, or I want to pursue this with
my life.
This is my desire.
This is my dream.
This is my vision for my life."
And you have to say, "Well, but you know what?
That's not going to allow you to serve God."
And you have to say, "Okay, then I have to change my future."
I have to say, "Well, I'd like to live here, or I'd like to have this job, or I'd like
to have this career."
You know, growing up, I always grew up wanting to be a professional golfer.
That was my pursuit.
That was my career of choice.
I wanted to do it.
But you know, there's a problem.
Golf tournaments are played on Sundays.
You know, I couldn't be here on every Sunday morning if I was a professional golfer.
I'd have to miss a lot of church services.
I'd have to miss a lot of mission strips.
I'd have to miss a lot of soul winning if I was a professional golfer.
And again, I'm not saying, don't think that I decided one day like, okay, I have to choose
between being a professional golfer and being in church because I was never going to be
a professional golfer.
I was never good enough.
Okay?
But I'm just saying that that's just an example of, hey, here's a dream that even if it was
on the table, which it's not, even if it was theoretically on the table, I just wouldn't
be able to press that button if I want to be right with God.
Obviously I could.
God gives me the opportunity to.
Some people are doing this.
But you know what?
That's not the right button to press.
And sometimes you have to, quote, "lose your life" in order to find it.
You say, "I didn't really want to live in Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas."
Maybe you don't.
Maybe that's just where God wants you right now.
Maybe you lost your life and yet you found something.
And you know, this is what I know about people.
They'll come here and they'll think like back home is better, but then they'll go back home
and they'll be like, "Oh, wait.
There's a lot of people that think like, "Oh man, it's not so great.
Why don't you go back?"
It's like the old IFB.
They think the old IFB is not as bad as they thought and they remember.
It's like, "Go back for a little while and then come tell me about it, okay?"
Like Texas is awesome.
I'm going to always say that.
And it's not just because I'm here.
Because look, you could import me into other places and I wouldn't be like, "This place
is just awesome."
You know?
I'd be having to struggle to think about all the positives, okay?
Here it just comes off the page.
It's easy.
I just love Texas.
I have a heart for Texas.
It's awesome.
I know that people say like, "Oh, everybody acts like Texas is the best."
It's just because it's the best, okay?
Somewhere has to be the best.
Somewhere has to have the best food.
Somewhere has to have just, you know, the best church.
I mean like, somewhere's got to be winning and hey, I think we're winning.
This is a great place to live.
Great soul winning.
And look, you're never going to be on the charts on everything, literally, right?
Obviously, California and Florida probably have better weather.
Obviously, no one raves and rants about the beaches of Texas, okay?
Sorry, that's a dark spot, right?
But at the end of the day, when you take all the categories overall, I mean it's pretty
great.
It's got a lot of good things going for it.
I mean, we have some of the greatest soul winning opportunities ever where we live.
And if I'm thinking spiritually, praise God.
Praise God that I don't have to pick between going to a cool church and having great soul
winning opportunities, that I can actually go to an awesome church and have great soul
winning opportunities because there's a lot of people that have great churches where it's
just not as receptive or it is not as many opportunities.
You know, I love this area.
It's great.
And sometimes you have to make a career change.
Sometimes you have to change locations, change countries, change languages, change all kinds
of different things.
You have to lose your future to find it in Jesus Christ.
Hey, maybe some of you white people have to learn Spanish.
Why don't you lose your life a little bit and learn some Spanish, because let me tell
you something, I get a lot of people saying Spanish, and I'm not even very good at Spanish.
Can I get a witness?
I'm just kidding.
I mean, I'm really not that great at it, but I'm good enough.
I'm good enough to give someone the gospel, and you know, some people had to make a change.
There's a person in the Bible, Amos, I wanted to read that with you, Hosea Joel Amos, if
you're in the Minor Prophets, and Amos is a not someone that was born to necessarily preach
the Word of God.
That wasn't necessarily his original future.
Look at verse 12 of chapter 7, "Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go flee thee
away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there."
Now he's saying Judah because that's where he's from.
He's saying go back home.
Here's a guy that's traveled.
Here's a guy that's being persecuted.
Here's a guy who's using his time to reach people with the Word of God.
Here's a guy that's not with his family.
Here's a guy that it may have cost him money because he had to leave his job to go do some
free job.
I mean he's going out there free.
He's preaching the Word of God to Israel for free.
When we go to the Bahamas, I'm not getting paid.
I received zero dollars for preaching in the Bahamas.
Zero dollars for preaching in Mexico.
Zero.
Hey, I got paid zero dollars for Purist Baptist Church the entire time there.
I got paid zero dollars for doing lots of things.
I'll go and preach for a friend for zero dollars.
I'll go do all kinds of things.
You know, the man of God should be not going out to preach the Bible for profit, for money
as a hireling.
No, we go out and preach for free.
This guy's quitting his job temporarily.
We don't know how long.
He's leaving his job.
I doubt he has PTO, and he's probably even losing his future here a little bit.
How does he answer?
Verse 14, "Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, 'I was no prophet, neither was I
a prophet's son, and I was a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.'"
This guy just works in the field, blue collar, blue collar Amos, but he just left and went
to go preach the word of God to Israel, didn't he?
"And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, 'Go prophesy unto
my people Israel.'
Now therefore hear the word of the Lord, thou sayest prophesy not against Israel, and drop
not thy word against the house of Isaac.
Therefore thus saith the Lord, 'Thy wife shall be in harlot in the city, and thy sons
and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line, and
thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his
land.'
Now I bring that up because it's a really negative message.
Wouldn't you say Amos had to bear a cross?
That's a pretty big cross to bear.
He has to go into a foreign land and preach a negative message, and preach against people.
He's not getting paid.
That wasn't his life's call in the sense that he wasn't born a prophet, he wasn't born a
prophet's son, he wasn't, you know, in this position.
You know, who knows where God finds you in life.
Maybe you weren't born in a Baptist church, maybe you weren't born to soul winners or
to evangelists, okay, but God could puck you off of the field.
Notice he didn't get him from the welfare department, he found him working, he found
him working hard for his family, and he grabbed this guy and said, "Hey, go preach the word
of God.
Good, bad, ugly, just preach it."
And you know what?
Praise God that we get to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, Jesus went and found two fishermen, Peter and his brother, Andrew, and James and
John, fishermen, and grabbed them from their work, grabbed them from their future.
They were going to inherit the family business, said, "Come and follow me and I'll make you
a fisherman."
They had to lose their life to find it.
Let me tell you something, why don't you lose your life and find it in Christianity?
Why don't you lose your life and carry your cross?
It may cost you to have to travel, it may cause you persecution, it may cost you time,
it may cost you family, it may cost you finances, it may cost you your future, but you know
what?
You'll find it.
You'll find all those things in Christianity.
God put us on this earth for a reason, not only to get saved, but also to bear the cross
after Jesus.
Jesus came here, He only got 34 years or 35 years of life.
Many of us have even gotten that or more.
Let us bear the cross of Christianity.
And let us not get confused by a false version of Christianity that says, "No, it's all
about fun and happiness and there's no cost."
You know, the Bible says that we're supposed to count the cost.
True Christianity costs you something.
Do not ever think that coming to Steadfast Baptist Church will be free.
And we give everything away for free, but it'll cost you something.
It'll cost you everything.
Are you willing to be a steadfast Christian?
It's not about this church, it's about whether or not you want to be a disciple of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
That's what our church stands for, is being steadfast, is being disciples.
And let me tell you something, the whole Bible is written to disciples.
You know, the Bible is not emphasizing the backslidden guy that doesn't want to do anything
for Jesus.
It's written for disciples.
It talks about the disciples.
It's the acts of the disciples.
It's epistles written to churches where the people in the churches are trying to be disciples.
It's written to pastors.
It's talking to churches that are not doing the works and saying how they're not going
to be rewarded.
The Bible is telling us to go on unto perfection.
The Bible is written for disciples.
It's not written for the backslidden, watered down guy.
Think about it.
This is the instruction manual for the expert, for the MVP, for the all-star.
That's who it's written for.
It's not written for the watered-down, weak, backslidden guy that wants to have a weak
faith.
It's written for the guy that wants to go all the way.
That's why when you don't have a real Christianity, the Bible doesn't make sense.
But boy, when you have a real Christianity, you want to be a real disciple, boy, the Bible
will come off the page.
And you know what?
It'll challenge you greatly.
When we read the Bible, we don't think we've arrived.
We think, "Wow, I'm so far off.
I need to get better."
Let us see the true cross before us and let us put us on our back and let us follow after
Jesus.
Close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for the Word of God.
Thank you for you bearing the cross for us so that we wouldn't have to go to hell.
I pray that in like manner we could come alongside and we could bear the cross that you've chosen
for us to bear.
That we'd look at Christianity with the right mindset.
That we wouldn't look at it as something free but rather something that's going to
cost us.
But we'd realize that that cost is going to pay off in eternal rewards and people being
saved.
I pray that we could have an eternal mindset and that we wouldn't just seek to serve Mammon
but we'd seek to serve you first.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
For our final song, we're going to go to song number 124.
Song 124, God will take care of you.
Song 124, there's someone singing everybody.
You are all dismissed.