Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you could all find your seats, we'll go ahead and get started.
Once you've found a seat, go ahead and grab a hymnal.
We're going to start in song number 84.
One of my favorites.
Song number 84, Jesus is coming again.
Let's sing it out all together.
better great singing everybody all right let's go ahead and bow our heads for
word of prayer heavenly Father we thank you for this day we thank you for all
the members that are gathered here and every everyone that's visiting our 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 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 since Jesus' name we
when they ring the golden bells song number 57 song 5 7 when they ring the
golden bells sing it out on the first
Don't you hear the bells coming in?
Don't you hear the angels singing?
Tis the glory hallelujah to believe.
In that far off street forever, just beyond the shining
river, can they ring the golden bells for you and me.
We shall know no sin no sorrow in that.
We shall only know the blessing of our Father speak for us when they bring the golden bells for you and me.
Don't you hear the bells ringing? Don't you hear the angels singing?
When they ring the golden bells for you and me.
Wherever they shall know their number.
When in death we sweetly sumber.
When the king commands the spirit to be free.
Evermore with anguish waning.
We shall preach the love we ate in.
When they ring the golden bells for you and me.
How we eat, don't you hear the angels singing?
Tis the glory, hallelujah, to believe.
Then night far asleep, forever just beyond the shining river,
when they ring the golden bells for you and me.
Great singing, 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 1.
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
evangelists or Bannock 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 have the services at a Jolly Bee, 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 started a Jolly Bee. That's where you really draw on the visitors
But no, it went really well and so that's very encouraging and
That's great. And so really continue to pray for evangelist or bannock 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 marathons at the end of May. So make sure you participate
And we have other soul-winning 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 Hymn Psalm you have of the week
and for the rich to lead us.
All right.
That's going to be Psalm 139.
It's going to be in your binders.
It's kind of near the front a little bit, maybe closer
to the middle.
Psalm 139. Sing it out.
Surely thou will slay the wicked.
Surely thou will slay wicked, O God.
Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men.
To God I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee.
And I agree with those that rise up again.
As the offering plates are going around would you please turn to your Bibles to Luke chapter 23 Luke chapter 23
Luke 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 stirrith 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 naught,
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
No, nor yet Herod, 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.
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
Pilot gave sentence that it should be done as they required
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 sirenian
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
Malifactors 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 Malifactors 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, does not thou fear God,
seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
And we, indeed, justly.
For we receive 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 commend 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 a far 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 council 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 pilot and begged the body of Jesus
And he took it down and wrapped it in linen and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn
in stone wherein never manned 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 sepulchre
and how his body was laid.
And they returned and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day according
to the commandment.
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.
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 a disciple means you have rewards in heaven.
Now, whether you are a disciple or not,
if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're 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.
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 about 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 Christianity is a cross that needs to be born
Now, let's just see what the Bible has to say on this issue because there's 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, 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, you know, atmosphere,
sometimes people might say like,
hey, what are y'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 initiate the conversation
and they bring it up and then it's real easy to then bring up salvation.
But just, 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 bio 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 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. Is 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 so they believe in him in whom they've not heard
and how so they hear without a preacher?
And how so 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.
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
go 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 into reach in 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 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 have traveled across the country to go to church.
Some people have traveled 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.
No, no, no.
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 and 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?
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 saved.
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.
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 sands and 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
I had to use the gift things 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 just 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.
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.
And so you should consider, you know, taking the opportunity to go 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. Well, that's going to cost me something. I'm going to have to travel.
It's not carrying a cross, but even just getting on a plane and all the just kind of you know
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 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 there is a burden.
Two 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.
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 salvation,
no one's gonna 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 counsel?
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 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?
You know, in 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.
You know, this guy sounds pretty good.
He doesn't sound like most Protestants I run into.
And, you know, 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 run up, knock neighborhoods,
we're handing out cards.
The cops come and say, what are you doing?
We're saying, we're going so many.
Hey, try that in Islamic country.
And they'll just say, okay, let's drag them out and kill them.
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 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 him next.
Then, guess what? They're gonna kill you.
So, just in the same way that Simon Serenity is, 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 lest 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, save in 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.
that salvation's 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 saved and not me?
And you know what, the same thing that 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 simple 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 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 a fence 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
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 it 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 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
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 Baptist 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 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.
There's a lot of 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 gonna be some
negative consequences to carrying across and
So in the same way when you go out and you serve 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
Second Timothy chapter 3 look at what it says in verse number 10
but thou hast fully known my doctor in 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. Yay, and all.
That we'll live 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 long suffering 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 secular 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 Serenian, isn't carrying the cross up the hill after Jesus? 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 to
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 be wailing and lamenting what was happening 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.
Caring the cross church is a public thing so winning is a public thing
Preaching is a public thing and they're gonna 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 suffered 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 boy 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 Serenity is not a bad guy.
But then he has to carry across 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's done nothing wrong
And you know what many times when you serve the Lord Jesus Christ
You'll be falsely accused made fun of an attack 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 get
people saved, you know what happens, you'll become a public spectacle and 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 and the alcohol addicted weirdos
We can hang out with the guy that's not working
But man this 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 whore!
I mean, you start living like the Lord Jesus Christ.
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 and we want to just look the other way
Don't pay attention to that. Why because yay and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
I'll 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, okay came to me at night secretly or whatever and then there's 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 is like I get is sounds like you're you're doing good things like
I'm just like right
It's weird is it's weird, but it's biblical. It's strange, but don't think it has some strange thing that's happened under you
Hey, don't think that fiery trial is some strange thing that's happened on 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
Malifactor, 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 the cross of Christianity is that you will lose time. It's gonna cost you time
Obviously for Simon the sirenian 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 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 gonna be carrying Jesus's 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 who gives 50 five talents, maybe that's 50 years some people gives one talent
What if that was 10 years?
What are you gonna do with the life that God's given you?
You know Jeff this 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
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 a sight?
You want to live the longest life possible well start using the time well so that God would give you more
Because if you're a bad steward at the time God's given you he might he might say why waste any more time with this guy
You know, 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 them 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 10 talents.
Hey, that might be 100 years of life.
I better make sure to use those 10 talents
to get him another 10 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 Lord 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.
Just 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
We sweet we should 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 will 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, where, 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 in 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, Mary, 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, if all the trees in the garden now may as 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 caused them to not get married,
like having been divorced or something like that.
Hey, then this, it's good to go.
You don't, 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 ever clear
I don't tequila it doesn't matter if it smells like urine don't drink it
When it giveth its color in the cup and it moveth itself aright, you know at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder
Thy and I shall behold strange women
You're gonna 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 says hey walk as a wise person and then you can go to another verse
It says here's what a wise person does he that when his souls is wise
I'm not just making stuff up
I'm comparing spiritual 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 comment to me and says
I don't go soul-winning, but I redeem the time. They're a liar
What what what are you doing to quote 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 our Lord Jesus Christ?
Just like hey, what 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 is that 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 appeared 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 Mark or Matthew chapter 10 go to Matthew chapter number 10
Just so many so many so many I open up the bulletin church-wide soul winning
Sunday at 2, Wednesday at 5.
Then regional soul winning.
Monday at 6.30, and Tuesday at 5.30,
and Thursday at 10.30, and Thursday at 6.
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 gonna 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 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 looking verse 34
Think not that I'm 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 love a 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 loses them 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 gonna have to bear the burden of traveling.
Number two, you're gonna bury the burden of persecution.
Number three, you're gonna have to lose some time.
Number four, sometimes you're gonna 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 foe 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
to preach the Gospel of Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm willing to be persecuted by my family
for taking church seriously and preaching the Gospel of Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm willing to lose time with my family.
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 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
We're showing up at a family reunion every Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
And we 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 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-eleven
What you know the Twin Towers fell due to engine?
gasoline engine fires from the planes
jet fuel whatever
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 now we need to support Israel, and I'm thinking like man
Watch marching the Zion you know I
Like hanging out with people that I have something in common with that we have some unity around the doxons 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 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 gonna have joys when you get someone's aid.
Those persecutions also come with joy and happiness.
And frankly speaking, some of the best laughs
you'll ever have after it happens.
Okay.
Like Pastor Anderson got sent to a psych ward for a day.
That was not cool.
But now it's really funny and we just you know we really laugh about it a lot
Okay, and it's even funnier that I didn't have to go through it, and I just get to hear about it. Okay, I
Love to just you know to reminisce, you know 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-winning getting people saved and
Hey, you know honestly, I think spiritual families better than physical family anyways
Now, it's great if you get both.
I think it's even, 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.
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 just 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 gonna do just cool
things no no we're all taking up a cross and we're gonna carry crosses
together that's what we're gonna do and when our 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 like help get him back up so that he can carry his cross further
Not not get him up so he can do nothing
We don't 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.
Almost no one's 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 brother cross
Some people get you know we get handed out different crosses
I don't know which one you're gonna 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 bet it 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 gonna carry that cross
cause that's the cross I'm designed to carry.
This is the one that Jesus wants me to carry
so I'm gonna carry it.
You gotta take up your cross
and Jesus is gonna 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.
It's 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, 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.
So it's not like the cripple guys 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 6, go to Matthew 6, and I think there are some people that could be multi-millionaires
and have great possessions in this life if they didn't pursue Christ at all.
If they just spent all 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 you 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...
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...
I mean, you'll 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 sacrifice.
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 multi-millionaire
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 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 what, 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 six, 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.
Look, 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 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 gonna 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 of 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 you know giving money to poor people in the church or people that are in bad situations
You know you could look down on 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 and it's not pursuing God
You know the Bible tells us to not have the love of money
Where we we we want money to for money's sake or possessions 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 may 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,
to go to Amos chapter seven.
You know, the 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 dreams.
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.
I'll just, you know, that was, that was my pursuit.
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 and again
I'm not saying don't think that I decided one day like okay, I have to choose between be a professional golfer and
Being in church because I was never gonna 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 is not even 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 an opportunity to do.
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.
But 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's better.
But then they'll go back home and they'll be like, oh wait.
There's a lot of people they think like oh man. It's not so great. Why don't you go back?
It's like the old IV they think the old IV is not as bad as they thought 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 just I'm gonna always say that and it's not just because I'm here
Because look I 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
He's he's just like I just love Texas. I have a heart for Texas. It's awesome
I know that people say like everybody acts like Texas is the best. It's just cuz it's the best
Okay
Someone's, 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, you gotta, somewhere's gotta be winning.
And hey, I think we're winning.
We have this is a great place to live great soul winning and look you're never gonna be on the charts on everything literally
Right obviously California and Florida probably a better weather
Obviously, no one rab you know raves and rants about the beaches of Texas. Okay, sorry. That's a dark spot, right?
But at the end of the day just when you take all the categories over all I mean, it's pretty great
Okay, 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.
But 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 does 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 saved in Spanish, and I'm not even very good at Spanish. There's a I can I get a witness?
I'm okay. 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, Amos, I have said unto Amos, O thou seer, go flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy thy 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 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've received $0 for preaching in the Bahamas, $0 for preaching in Mexico, $0, hey I got
paid $0 for pure as Baptist church the entire time there.
I got paid $0 for doing lots of things.
I'll go and preach for a friend for $0.
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.
How does he answer?
Verse 14, then answered Amos and said to Amosiah,
I was no prophet.
Neither was I a prophet's son.
And I was a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.
So 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 prophesied not against Israel and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac
Therefore thus say 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 shall die in a polluted land and Israel shall surely go into captivity fourth of his land
Now I bring that up because it's a really negative message
Wouldn't you say Amos had to bear it bear across
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.
And 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 pluck you off of the field.
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
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 your 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 we have 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 under 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, back-slidden 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.
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 gonna cost us.
But we'd realize that that cost is gonna 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.
Amen. For our final song, we're going to go to song number 124, song 124. God will take care of you.
Song 124.
Excellency and everybody, you are all dismissed.