It's great to see everybody here.
If we can go ahead and find our seats,
we will get started this afternoon with our first song.
And for our first song tonight,
let's go all go to song number 162.
Song number 162.
162, to God be the glory, let's all sing that out.
Everybody, let's open up the service now
with a word of prayer.
Lord, thank you so much for this awesome church.
Thank you so much for the souls that were won onto you
this afternoon, Lord.
And thank you for everybody here.
And we love you, Lord.
We just ask you to bless this service,
bless this church and everything that it does.
And it's in Jesus' name that we ask it, amen.
All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 69.
69 we shall shine as the stars
Thanks for coming to Steadfast. If you didn't get a bullseye, you need one. Just lift up your hand nice and high on the front.
We have our Bible and repassage, Jude 119 on the inside as our service and soul winning times on the right as a list of expecting ladies
upcoming events. We are having our conference this week. Those who are helping clean tomorrow, I think about 9 a.m.
is that we're going to be doing a lot of cleaning at the church if you're able to come if you signed up for that. Also
In preparation after the service tonight,
we're gonna just see if we can get some extra men help us.
We're gonna move all the chairs just up on the stage area
so that we can clean the carpet real good
just for the conference.
And so if you can help us do that,
also there's some lights outside
that need to be replaced.
So Brother Fur got some replacement bulbs.
So we're gonna try and replace those.
So there's just a couple of things
if you could kind of help us with that.
For the conference itself, again just a couple reminders, we should have lots of guests and
visitors try to be really hospitable, really nice. We're probably going to pack as many
chairs in as we can, so it'll be a little bit tighter. Also, we're going to put our
If any of your kids can be well-behaved at the conference, they can just come sit up here.
Maybe we'll put some of the teenagers on the benches and stuff just to free up some room.
So, we want to try and fit as many people in the sanctuary area as we can.
And so, God willing, we'll be able to pack in a lot of people in here.
So, just a couple reminders there.
Also, missions trip, Mexico City, September 8th through the 12th,
for the Diego's leading that for us.
Tyler, Texas soul winning marathon September 27th soul winning seminar at the church October 4th
The NASA missions trip is October 6th the 11th chili cookoff October 31st
the other thing I want to mention about the conference is
Due to
Pastor Reyes, unfortunately having that surgery this last week. He's not gonna make it
And we're just gonna alter our schedule slightly the only thing that's gonna be different from a big picture is that we're just not gonna have our
Saturday service anymore, so
We were gonna have a Saturday service at 5 p.m. At the church. We're just not gonna have that service
And then some of our preachers have changed exactly when they're coming. So Pastor Oz is gonna be preaching Thursday
Pastor it's a pastor Russell Wednesday Pastor Oz Thursday Pastor Stephen Anderson Friday
Sunday morning will be Pastor Aaron Thompson, and then I'll be preaching that evening service
So that's just how things kind of just shifted just a little bit for our service schedule, but
Just to give you guys the update,
I'll try to get that announcement
and put that out there publicly
so other people can be aware of those changes.
But all the other activities and events that we're having
should be the same.
On the back is a list of our prayer list.
And if you continue to pray for our church family,
that would be very helpful.
If you have additional prayer requests,
please just email them in.
I'm pretty sure that's all I have as far as announcements.
Thank you to everybody who's helping us with the conference.
It's not one person at all.
It's definitely been a group effort,
and a lot of people have really stepped up, volunteered, helped do a lot of things.
Thank you so much to those who did help volunteer.
Anybody who's helping volunteer or lead, please be respectful of them,
because pretty much all of our people working are just...
Volunteers doing these things for free and so please just be respectful of those that are trying to help things go along and go smoothly
and just pray for that our conference will go smoothly and that will have a good time and we can get a lot of people saved and
People can be more zealous for the things of God after hearing a lot of good preaching
So thank you so much. We'll go ahead and go to our third song song 147 song 147 sing it out nice and loud
All right, that was Psalm 147.
Psalm 147.
Let's all sing that out on that first.
Praise ye the Lord.
as the offering plates are being passed around.
Go ahead and open your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 13.
That's the book of 2 Kings chapter 13.
2 Kings chapter 13 the Bible says in the 3 and 20th year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah
Jehovah has the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria and
Reigned 17 years and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and
Followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which made Israel to sin. He departed not there from
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of Hazael,
king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-Hadad, the son of Hazael, all their days.
And Jehovah has besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him,
for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.
And the Lord gave Israel a Savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians,
and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before time.
Nevertheless, they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin,
but walked therein, and they remained the grove also in Samaria.
Neither did he leave of the people to Jehovah has but 50 horsemen and 10 chariots and 10,000 footmen.
For the king of Syria had destroyed them and it made them like the dust by threshing now the rest of the acts of
Jehovah has and all that he did and his might are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel and
Jehovah has slept with his fathers and they buried him in Samaria and Joe as his son reigned in his stead
In the 37th year of Joash, King of Judah began Jehoash, the son of Jehoah, to reign over Israel and Samaria, and reign 16 years.
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
He departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.
But he walked therein and the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did and his might wherewith he fought against
Amaziah king of Judah are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel and
Joash slept with his father's and
Jeroboam sat upon his throne and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel
Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died
and Joash the king of Israel came down unto him
and wept over his face and said,
oh my father, my father, the chariot of Israel
and the horsemen thereof.
And Elisha said unto him, take bow and arrows.
And he took unto him bow and arrows.
And he said to the king of Israel,
put thine hand upon the bow, and he put his hand upon it.
And Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands.
And he said, open the window eastward, and he opened it.
And Elisha said, shoot, and he shot.
and he said, the arrow of the Lord's deliverance
and the arrow of deliverance from Syria,
for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphik
till thou have consumed them.
And he said take the arrows and he took them and he said unto the king of Israel
Smite upon the ground and he smote thrice and stayed and the man of God was wroth with him and said thou should have
Smitten five or six times then hadest thou smitten Syria till thou had consumed it
Whereas now thou shalt smite Syria, but thrice and
Elisha died and they buried him and the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming end of the year
And it came to pass as they were burying a man that, behold, they spied a band of men.
And they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha.
And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood
up on his feet.
But Hazel, king of Syria, oppressed Israel all the days of Jehovah's.
And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them,
because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them.
Neither cast he them from his presence as yet."
So Hazel king of Syria died and ben Hadad his son reigned in his stead and
Jehovah's the son of Jehovah has took again out of the hand of ben Hadad the son of hazel the cities
Which he had taken out of the hand of Jehovah has his father by war
Three times did Joash beat him and recovered the cities of Israel. Let us pray dear heavenly father
I want to thank you for the salvation today
I pray that you would please bless this upcoming fire-breathing Baptist fellowship that we have.
Please fill the preachers with your spirit to preach edifying sermons and please renew us with Zill.
I pray that you would please bless Pastor Shelley now as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
This is a little anecdotal story about Elisha before he dies and one thing that's interesting
about Elisha is he pictures the Lord Jesus Christ in a lot of ways in his life. If you look at
verse 20 it says, and Elisha died and they buried him in the bands of the Moabites, invaded the land
at the coming end of the year, and it came to pass as they were burying a man that, behold,
they spied a band of men and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha. And when the man was
and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet.
That's kind of an incredible story because Elisha is not even alive, he's dead.
But by allowing this man to touch the dead body of Elisha,
he comes back to life. And of course, this is symbolic of
the Lord Jesus Christ and that when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, his death,
that's what gives you life. And so this is a great symbolism
the gospel message. Now in this story though, we also learned something about Elisha right before
his death and that's what I want to focus in on the story but it's just kind of cool when you read
through the Bible that you'll see a lot of little stories of Elisha and how he foreshadows and pictures
things about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it says in verse 14, now Elisha was falling sick of his
sickness whereof he died. Notice that even great men of God can die of sickness because you all have
We all die eventually, don't we?
And even Elisha, one of the greatest men in the Bible,
got sick and he died.
It says in Joash, the king of Israel came down into him
and wept over his face and said,
oh, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel
and the horseman thereof.
Now, previously in the story,
we learned that the king of Israel
had his armies decimated prior to.
And so he's just basic complaining,
hey, we don't have much to defend ourselves with,
our armies and our supplies have been decimated.
where we don't have many things and he's dying too which makes him nervous and Elisha said in him
take bow and arrows and he took unto him bow and arrows and he said unto the king of Israel put
thine hand upon the bow and he put his hand upon it and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands
and he said open the window eastward and he opened it then Elisha said shoot and he shot
and he said the air of the Lord's deliverance and the air of deliverance from Syria
For thou shalt smite the Syrians in affect, till thou hast consumed them."
Now, he just kind of follows the simple instructions of Elisha, shoots out of a window, and as soon
as he shoots though, the man of God makes this great proclamation about how he's going
to be delivered from the Syrians, which in essence is what he was asking for, right?
He's coming unto him, and what did he say, oh my father, my father, the chariot Israel
and the horsemen thereof?
You know, being consumed of the Syrians about being destroyed militarily.
So he's like, all right, just shoot shoot out the window and he's thinking like what in the world?
But he just does it and then as soon as he does it he's giving this indication. Hey, you're gonna be victorious
You're gonna have
Deliverance, but it doesn't stop there because then he says in verse 18 and he said take the arrows
And he took them and he said under the king of Israel
Smite upon the ground and he smote thrice and stayed and the man of God was wroth with him
That means very angry, and said thou shalt us have smitten five or six times,
then addest thou smitten Syria till that has consumed it,
whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.
And then we get into the story about Elisha dying.
So in Joash's life, he comes unto the king.
I'm sorry, he comes unto Elisha and Elisha.
He has this request of him, hey, I'm worried about our military.
I'm worried about being successful, you know, what's going to go on.
Lysha does this kind of interesting, almost a parable in a sense,
where he's just doing these physical actions, but they kind of are symbolic of their deliverance.
Now, in the first part of the story, he does everything he says,
and he only stops or only quits in the sense that...
the man of God just immediately says,
hey, you're going to have deliverance, right?
He said, shoot out the arrow.
He shoots out the arrow and then he says deliverance.
Then he says, all right, smite the ground.
But notice that the man of God didn't stop him.
He stopped himself, right?
He says, smite on the ground.
He smites three times.
Then the man of God is just angry with him and saying,
why didn't you do five or six times?
And really, you know, there's a lot of ways
we could look at the story, but one of the ways
I think we could look at the story is it almost seems like
And that's something that in the Christian life some people are going to do the bare minimum,
but you know what, they're not going to get the results that they wanted.
And in the Christian life, it's important not always do the bare minimum,
but just keep going and do as much as possible.
Just do as much as possible.
And really, when we think about doing the bare minimum,
somebody could say, well, this doesn't seem fair because
he didn't tell Joash to smite five or six times and he smote three times.
But here's the thing, he didn't even tell him to smite three times, did he?
He didn't tell him to smite two times.
He decided on his own free will and volition to smite three times.
Now, he could have, you know, after he did the third time,
don't you think there was maybe a split second where he's deciding,
am I going to do it again, am I done, am I going to quit?
But he didn't have the man of God stop him, he stopped himself.
He made the arbitrary decision, hey, I'm going to only do three times.
then I'm going to stop, then I'm going to stay,
and then the man of God's mad at him.
And really when it comes to the Christian life,
you know, God gives us parameters and boundaries
and essentially just guidelines,
but it doesn't always just say,
smite the ground five times.
He doesn't always say, just smite the ground three times, or six times, whatever.
We get to decide basically what we're going to do.
But what God does say is that when we have something to do, we should do it with all
of our strength, all of our might, all of our opportunity, and what we don't see the
man of God doing...
is just doing it with all of his strength,
all of his might, all of his capability,
because he was capable of doing it five or six times.
He just didn't do it all.
He just kind of gave up.
He did the bare minimum in a sense.
And then what does he get as a result?
He gets a bare minimum success.
They only smite them three times,
but they don't actually win the war.
They're not successful in defeating
or consuming their enemies.
Now, go to Ecclesiastes chapter 9.
This is just an interesting story in the Bible.
We have to realize God wants us to do things by faith and he wants us to do things by our own mind and our own strength and
our own decision-making.
God is not going to tell you every aspect of your life. He gives you free will to make your own decisions.
This guy of his own free will decided to stop after three times and notice he doesn't have as much success
You know, there's a lot of people in life that are gonna be like Joe Ash and they're not gonna have a
They're not gonna be successful in all the areas of life because they just do the bare minimum
And a lot of people are just this kind of a Christian.
They're a bare minimum Christian.
Cleese, he asked in chapter 9, look at verse 10,
What's over thy hand, find it the do,
Do it with thy might,
For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge,
Nor wisdom in the grave, whither so ever thou goest.
Or whither thou goest.
Once you die, it's over.
This is your opportunity to do something for the Lord.
And as long as you have breath in your lungs, we should use that opportunity to serve God.
No matter where you find yourself or whatever you're doing,
we don't want to be the person that just smites three times and then gives up.
Smites three times and calls it quits.
Just does the bare minimum.
Just checks in a little bit,
but isn't willing to just keep going
until the man of God tells us to stop
or until God tells us to stop, right?
And really, if you think about your life,
you should be going until God tells you to stop.
When is that? When you take your last breath.
Right? You just keep going, don't stay, don't quit, don't give up, just keep going and just don't be a person
that's just always doing the bare minimum.
Go to Hebrews chapter 10. Go to Hebrews chapter 10.
Now, of course, I hope that you will take this sermon and apply it way beyond what I bring up today.
But I do want to bring up some things that people often do the bare minimum of.
And the Bible does not say this.
The Bible does not give the indication of bare minimum.
And number one thing I want to bring up is just church attendance.
Where in the Bible does it say go to church at any frequency?
It doesn't.
In fact, this is kind of our only real passage that is kind of directly maybe addressing
the idea of church attendance, but it's not going to give you a day, a week, how long
the church service should be.
Praise God, because you know, I don't know.
But you know, you could at least admit that I'm not doing it for three minutes.
I'm not preaching for three minutes, all right?
I'm going for a while.
And you say, like, how many times do we have service?
All these different questions are asked.
But, you know, what is the Bible's instructions
about church attendance?
Well, look what it says in verse 24.
And let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is,
but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
So the Bible is basically saying,
let us not forsake assembling, let us not forsake congregating,
as some people do, some people are not congregating with us.
and they say, and how, what should be the attitude?
The attitude is, and so much the more,
as you see the day approaching,
it's what it's saying, you need more congregating,
more church, not less.
That's just the guiding principle.
Now, some churches, they have arbitrary
number of services, right?
I mean, some churches meet once a week.
Some churches have twice a week.
Some churches have three times a week.
Maybe people are doing more, I don't know.
But at the end of the day, that's kind of an arbitrary number, isn't it?
And how many fundamental Baptist churches have been three times a week,
and now they're scaling back?
They're not doing more, they're doing less.
Or how many Christians today, they're just an Easter-only Christian.
Well, I mean, you have to ask yourself this question.
What kind of Christian are you going to be?
Are you going to be a bare minimum Christian?
Or are you going to be someone that is just not going
to forsake the assembling and is going to try to go to church
as much as possible?
Right? I mean, does the Bible say once a year,
once a month, once a week, doesn't give any of these numbers?
Now, we as fundamental Baptists, you know,
as our church, our standard, we try to do three services a week
and we often promote the idea of three to thrive.
not three to be saved or three to avoid sin
because at the end of the day,
we're all gonna sin, number one.
And number two, I can't even say for a fact
that going to church once a week is a sin.
But I would say, in my opinion, it's the bare minimum.
And sometimes I've heard this say,
and I repeat it myself, three to thrive,
two to survive, and one to backslide.
And the reality is that you know over the years of pastoring you really do see this you really see people that are going three times a
Week seem to be thriving in their Christian life
Not saying their life. I'm saying their Christian life
Obviously life itself has ups and downs life itself has ebbs and flows life itself has good moments and bad moments
But just spiritually speaking those that are going three times a week often are thriving in their spiritual life
Those that start to wane, those that start to go to church less, you often see them having less spirituality, less soul-winning, less Bible reading, they're struggling more with sin.
And of course, as a result, often their lives get harder too because the way of transgressors is hard.
And I've seen it usually, and I'm not saying this as always, usually the people that quit church were not three to thrive.
I mean, usually it's not the person that's three to thrive and then they just randomly
disappear.
It's usually someone that's only going once a week or less than once a week.
Now, they may have been three to thrive at one point, but they were three to thrive,
then they start skipping, and they're only going twice, then all of a sudden it's just
every once in a while, and then pretty soon they're just gone.
That's typically what you end up seeing.
And look, this bare minimum Christianity isn't successful.
This bare minimum church attendance isn't as successful as the person that's just going
every single time and they're not calling it quits. They're just showing up
and hey, even when there's a conference, they're gonna go five, six times our thing.
They're not just going to go three times, they're like,
hey, I'm ready to go five, six times when it's needed,
when it's available, because I want to go to church
and I don't want to be a bare minimum Christian.
Look, what is the point of church?
What is the text saying?
Let us consider one another to provoke
under love and good works.
You coming to church is provoking other people
to what?
To love.
You're encouraging other people to love you're encouraging other people to do good works. Why would I want to scale that back?
Why would I want to say I want to be a bare minimum Christian?
I only want to barely suggest people to do good, barely suggest people to do good works,
barely suggest people to love, as opposed to being the person, you know what?
I don't want to do that to the bare minimum. I want to do the fullest.
I want to encourage people to love the most and I want to encourage people to do good works the most and
do the most that they can and provoke the most people and look.
If you don't go to church, other people are going to be less likely to want to show up.
That's just how it works.
Sometimes when you don't show up, other people don't show up.
And look, we all pretty much in this room have friends.
We have people that encourage us.
And sometimes going to Sunday night service, literally, it's people dragging other people there.
I mean, it's just like, you're like, hey, you going to Sunday night?
And they're like, thinking in the morning, no.
And they're like, I can't wait to see it.
And you're like, all right, you know,
and then just going by what maybe feels like obligation
or just going by Wednesday night.
But at the end of the day,
you know what you're doing?
You're provoking them into love and good works.
And you never know when that person needs a certain sermon
or needs a friend or needs encouragement
because we all have difficulty.
We all have struggles.
We all have low moments.
And you know what?
The more church is only gonna help.
The less church, you know, when people start getting out of church and they're not focusing
on these things, you know, there's a lot of dangers out there.
The devil wants to attack those that are weak and pray on them and take advantage of them
and hurt them and destroy them.
And the more you're coming to church, the more you're protected, the more you're going
to have the right mindset.
And at the end of the day, I'm telling you, it's three to thrive.
The other ways it's just very easy to do the bare minimum and just go back to the world
Get back slid in bad things happen. You know when you're when you're going three times a week
It's a lot harder to get out of that routine
Then when you're going once because when you're going once a week anything can happen. I mean you just get sick
Your kids get sick your car breaks down
You know, just life happens, you have that one work trip,
and you know, you miss one week,
it is a lot easier to miss the next week,
and then pretty soon, all of a sudden,
you haven't been in church in a month.
Whereas when you're going three times a week,
I mean, yeah, you might occasionally,
we all occasionally miss a service,
or out of town, or we have work,
or we have life, whatever.
No one is just going to make literally every single service for a whole year. It's virtually impossible
Almost all of us sometimes miss at least one service. Okay, but when you just miss that one
Well, you had two other times that whole week
And so it almost feels like you didn't really miss that much and then you just get back in there
And if you don't really miss much of a beat, but man when you miss week after week, it feels different
Man, if you haven't gone to church in a week or two, life feels way different when you
are going three times a week, when you're in that pattern, when you're in that routine.
And so, you know, it's really important, I believe, to go to church as much as possible.
Does that mean that you're a wicked person or you're not saved, you're not a good Christian
if you don't go to church three times a week?
No.
But what we are saying is we're not talking about doing the bare minimum.
We're talking about going all the way, doing five times, six times,
like Joe Ash should have done to have victory, to have success
in your life. And let me tell you something, you want to have success in the Christian life,
you're going to go to church as much as the doors are open.
That is where you have success. And you know what, the people that are getting the most people saved,
I guarantee there's a higher correlation of them going three times a week.
I don't have the stats, I'm sure we could do it, I don't need to do it, but I guarantee
if we just said, hey, we're going to take the best soul winners and we're going to
see how their percentage of like their church attendance, I guarantee the higher percentage
of church you go to, the higher number of soul winning that you do.
And salvation and Bible reading and Bible memorization and everything that's a measurable
Why? Because there's just a correlation to these things and you know what if you want to be a great Christian
You're gonna go to church and you know, I'm preaching to the choir
Hopefully on a Sunday night, but I'm just trying to remind you why are you even here?
Because you don't want to be a bare minimum Christian. You know what? Praise God for that. Praise God that we don't have that
You know what the only way for us to have Sunday night church is for people like you to actually show up
Because I'm gonna still show up and preach to the chairs or whatever, but you know
I'm there's a lot of churches that are cancelling Sunday night service
You know why because they don't want to preach to the chairs
And at the end of the day, you know what? We need people to say I'm not gonna be a bare minimum Christian
I'm willing to sit and hear a Sunday night sermon whether it be interesting or not
Whether I like it or not
Whether I'm tired or not because I just don't want to be a bare minimum Christian
You know the first time to smite the ground was the easiest the second was a little harder
The third was even harder as you keep going you start get that fatigue
But at the end of the day, you know what a strong person saying I'm gonna just keep going. I'm not gonna give up
I'm not gonna do the bare minimum go over to Colossians chapter 3 go back a little bit to Colossians chapter number 3
What kind of Christianity do you want?
And look, I've been to non-denominational churches most of my life, that's what I grew up in.
We never went to church three times a week.
I would have thought that was crazy.
I remember when I was a kid, if my parents had said, hey, we're going back to church on Sunday night,
I would have been like, oh, bummer.
Oh, man.
But you know, obviously church was really boring there, too, and lame, so maybe it was a little bit different.
But at the end of the day, yeah, I may have wanted to just go play video games or waste my time doing something else.
I wish I had gone to three times a King James-only soul-winning church.
I wouldn't be like, man, I've missed out all these video games I could have played.
I missed out on all this time.
I could have just wasted it on Sunday night or Sunday afternoon.
I mean, what are you going to do that's so important on Sunday afternoon that you need to skip church?
And, you know, we don't see the fruit of the people.
It's, you know, it'd be one thing if all the people
that just came Sunday morning only were just killing us
on soul winning.
Like we come on Sunday night and we're all like,
we didn't do anything.
We didn't go soul winning.
We were just, you know, we're just back at church though.
You know, we're doing church, church, church.
And the Sunday morning is just like posting 25 salvations,
50 salvations and we're just like, what's wrong with us?
You know, we must be spending too much time in the building.
These people are out there killing it, right?
But that's not what we see, is it?
The people that are just the Sunday morning only,
the bare minimum of church attendance
are also the bare minimum of soul winners, aren't they?
And let me tell you something.
When you're a bare minimum Christian,
you're usually just a bare minimum person.
What I've what I've noticed is the people that do everything are the people that do everything and the people that are bare
Minimum or just a bare minimum about everything because he that was faithful and that which is least is also faithful and that which is much
Yeah, and if you can't be a good steward of the unrighteous man, man
Why would he entrust you the true riches?
Right and at the end of the day
It's just like people that are hard-working are just hard-working in all the areas of their life and the people that are lazy are
Just lazy in all the areas of their life
And when you don't have self-control and discipline in one area of your life,
it's usually because you just don't have self-control and discipline, period.
That's why when you notice people not having these kind of character attributes. It's important to recognize
They probably don't have it in any area of their life when they're not honest when they don't have integrity
They often don't have it in all areas of life when your friends gossip to you
They probably gossip about you you have to understand that you know, oh man
I just don't do the bare minimum Christianity, but I'm doing you know, or I'm doing the bare minimum Christianity
But I'm not doing that in the rest of areas of my life. That's probably a lie
You're usually very, very consistent in your nature.
Now Colossians chapter 3 brings up,
I think this is kind of one of the clearest passages on this point, but...
I want to read Colossians chapter 3, start in verse 22.
Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh,
not with eye service as men pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And what serve you do? Do it
heartily as to the Lord and not
unto men. Knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance
for you serve the Lord Christ. You know it motivates people to work hard
Christianity.
You know what motivates someone to work hard
when no one will know if you worked hard or not?
Fearing God.
So the same person that works hard when no one's looking
is obviously going to be someone that's motivated
by God to serve God.
Why would that not then translate to the guy that wants to go to church? It does
That's why there's this direct parallel the guy that's taking church seriously is going to be the guy that takes his job
Seriously, because if you don't fear God, why would you work when no one will ever know?
You wouldn't
That's why Communism fails.
That's why Communism doesn't succeed.
Because if you work super hard, you still get the same paycheck,
the same recognition, the same attention,
so therefore no one's motivated to work hard.
But if you actually fear God, and you actually think God's going to bless you based on how you work,
well then you're not going to be someone that wants to do the bare minimum.
You want to work hard so that God will bless you.
And at the end of the day, you know, the people that take church seriously
are often the people that take their job seriously and take work seriously
and they're not just showing up to just do the bare minimum, but rather
they're working hard and they're doing more than they're asked.
Let me explain something. The bare minimum is doing what you're asked,
not doing the bare minimum is doing things you are not asked to do.
Joash was not asked to smite the ground five or six times.
He was just told to smite the ground, but you know what? He did it. He just he stopped at three
And he's just doing in his mind the bare minimum
But you know what at work if you want to be a great employee, don't do what you're told to do do that and more
Don't only do what you're asked to do go above what you're asked to do do things that you were not asked to do
Make recommendations to your boss if your boss says hey have this done on Friday have it done on Thursday
You know, most people, when they hear have this done on Friday, you know what they think?
I'm going to try and have that done on Friday.
And not only that, most people don't even get it done on Friday.
They have an excuse as to why they couldn't get it done on Friday.
And the excuse is because they were lazy, but they're not going to say that so then
they bring something else up.
Traffic, or, you know, COVID, or whatever.
Just something, right?
They just supply chain issues, whereas the guy that works hard, he doesn't get it done
on Friday, he gets it done on Thursday, or Wednesday, or hey, you didn't even ask me
to do this task, but I just noticed it and I just fixed it, or hey, I got this for you,
or hey, I did this, or hey, I noticed this problem and I want to fix it, here's my solution,
will you let me fix this if you need permission?
is someone that's just, hey, I'm ready to do something and get it done.
You know, Jesus doesn't say, hey, Pastor Shelley, will you knock on this door over here, this green house over here?
He doesn't say that.
He just says, go ye in all the world and preach the gospel of your creature.
It's up to me to say, hey, let's make a map, and let's identify this area,
and let's pick a time, and let's show up, and let's hand him an invite,
and we're not going to hand him one invite.
We're going to hand him two invites.
We're not going to hand him two invites.
We're going to hand him three invites.
Hey, I'm going to give you the white card.
Then I'm going to give you the pamphlet that says Jesus paid it all.
Then I'm going to give you a preserved Bible movie ticket.
Then I'm going to give you a sodomite deception movie ticket,
because I'm not going to do three times and stay.
I'm going to give you the fourth one, all right?
Then I'm going to get your email, I mean, we want to just pack, then I'm going to give you a Bible.
Hey, we're just going to keep going until you tell us to walk off the porch or whatever.
You know what I mean?
We're going to sit here.
Hey, did God say give them five, six things at the door?
No.
I mean, hey, not only do we make sure to give people John 3.16,
we make sure that they understand eternal security because we want to make sure they get saved.
We're not doing bare minimum soul winning.
Hey, we're trying to make sure that we're getting these people saved not only that we encourage them to come to church
We're offering free services that are serving you know at church. Hey, we're not trying to do bare minimum Christianity here
We're not saying we're gonna do this one zip code and we're gonna only go so many in this one zip code and then do visitation
No, we're gonna do the whole deal. Look at that. Do you see the map? That is not bare minimum Christianity
It's like, oh, what about the other churches?
Yeah, well, they're not doing anything.
So we're going to go and knock on their neighborhood too.
And hey, we want to go, even if we've knocked some of these areas,
we're going back sometimes.
Hey, sometimes I give people maps,
and I say, hey, there's a little bit here.
Then just go around and do it again.
Just hit the apartment doors again and hit them again and then do them again
And hey, why don't we just keep preaching the gospel and keep going? Hey, and it's not just this map
We got flags back here of other countries and we don't have just three we have five and we're gonna keep adding to it
Aren't we?
Why because we're not gonna sit here and do bare minimum Christianity
We want to do it to the fullest and you know what take that attitude to your job
When you go to your job, say, hey boss, I don't want to just knock our zip code.
We're gonna knock all the zip codes. And we're gonna sell the product to everybody.
And I have ideas that we can expand our company and expand our sales
and expand our operations and cut costs and do this more efficiently.
And hey, I can do more work. And hey, what else can I do? Look, this is the type of an
attitude of a Christian
that doesn't walk on the job site and say, hey, I'm ready to do the bare minimum.
What do I have to do? Do I have to have it by Friday?
Do I have to get this done?
Do I have to wear this?
You know, that's a bad attitude.
And you know, you wonder why you don't get promoted.
I'll tell you why,
because you have a bare minimum attitude.
You want raises at work?
You want to be successful in the business world?
Don't have a bare minimum attitude.
Have a what, how can I make this even better?
How can I improve this?
Hey, you want to start a business?
You're not going to succeed with a bare minimum attitude.
And you know what, in business,
you're probably going to fail a lot.
If you have your own kind of businesses,
you're trying to make your own money,
do your own side hustles, any of these kind of things,
you have to fail a lot and work hard a lot
and overcome all kinds of obstacles.
You know, praise God for men
that didn't just give up after three times.
You know, there's a quote that's attributed to
Thomas Edison in creating the light bulb,
which I like the light bulb.
I think we use light bulbs everywhere, don't we?
We really like it.
And light is a good thing.
Here's a quote from Thomas Edison.
I have not failed 10,000 times.
I have not failed once.
I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work.
Now, I don't know if he really did do 10,000 times of failing.
I don't even know if he knows.
He's just picking a big number, but he did fail a lot.
That's the essence. The essence is hey, I tried to make a light bulb and I failed but really I didn't fail
I just realized this isn't gonna work. So I made an adaption. I changed I
Evolved and then I did something different and that didn't work
So then I tried again and then I tried again and then I tried again and then I tried again and then I tried again
And then guess what then I was successful just like hey you got to battle you don't win the first battle
You don't win the second battle you win the third battle. Well, this guy quit
But Elisha's saying, hey, you should have gone to the fourth battle and the fifth battle and then they're done.
And now I don't have to fight them anymore because I consumed them.
You know, we shouldn't have this bare minimum attitude.
We shouldn't have an attitude that says, hey, I'm just going to keep going until I win, until I succeed.
I'm not going to give up.
I'm not going to put in a minimal amount of effort.
I'm going to keep going so that I can be successful.
And you know what?
Ten thousand times is a lot.
There are some problems out in this world.
There are some things in this world that you have to do a lot in order to be successful.
Hey, you want to play some of the really awesome songs on the piano?
You're going to have to practice that song more than three times.
Unless you're a savant and I've seen them, but I'm not.
Go to Proverbs chapter 22.
Hey, you want to memorize the verse in the Bible?
You're probably going to have to repeat it more than three times.
Who in here can memorize a verse with only three times of chanting it?
Yeah, not me.
In fact, when I do it, I try to do 10 times at a minimum
before I even start to try to move on
because I feel like if I don't do it 10 times,
it's not even a chance it'll stick.
Now, obviously, if it's a verse that you're really familiar with
that you've already heard a bunch of times,
you can maybe ride on those coattails.
We're talking about verses you haven't really studied that much.
Boy, you're not gonna get it after three times.
You gotta sit there and just do it over and over and over.
Hey, when I do Wednesday Night Bible studies,
there are times when I read the chapter,
I'll read the chapter, and you know how many thoughts I have for that chapter? Zero.
I'll be like, I have no idea what that chapter just is.
I just read it to get the first one out of the way.
Just like, all right, I'm just going to read it.
Then I read it again, then I read it again, then you got to read it again, then you got to read it again.
Before you're going to get something out of it.
That's just how life is and you know at the workplace
You know, maybe there's certain tasks. There's certain jobs that your boss gives you that are difficult
You're gonna have to learn it over and over and over you're gonna have to study over and over and over
You have to try over and over before you become successful at it before you come good at it
You have to put in a lot of effort. You have to put a lot of energy in you know what?
Praise God for the people that put the energy into learning musical instruments. I've learned playing guitar is hard
Wow, I am not good at it
Changing chords, you know, changing chords is hard.
And whoever's good at that, I'm gonna tell you something.
They did it a lot.
They did not do it three or four times.
They did it three or four hundred times
or three or four thousand times
because you know what, these things take effort and energy.
You know what, praise God for the people
that can play the guitar at our church.
It's beautiful.
It's awesome.
You know, don't we love the fruit of the people
that put effort in?
What if we said, all right, we only want people to play musical instruments up here that have only attempted three times to play
It's gonna sound horrid
No, we want the people that have been I've done it 3,000 times
I've done it 30,000 times
I've put in the effort and the energy and the time to put it in and then we enjoy the music of the people that have
perfected their craft
that they're doing good with their craft.
No one likes laziness.
No one likes slothfulness.
No one likes the bare minimum.
We all enjoy the people that put their effort and energy in.
And you know what? God is the same way.
And if you want to succeed in the workplace,
let me tell you something.
Don't be a bare minimum worker.
Be a person that puts in a lot of effort, a lot of energy.
Be someone that your boss is saying,
man, I wish there was more of you, not less of you.
And I'll be honest, there's...
Bosses there's places out there where they feel like no one's good. I mean, I had a boss admit to me one time
He said I've never worked with somebody in my life that I would ever want to work with again
I was thinking like is it am I being fired or I
Think he was making me an exception. I don't know because it was kind of awkward
But I'm just sitting here thinking like dang that's pretty black build
But I get it
There are companies there are places where they struggle to find people of quality
They struggle to find people that are not gonna they start all the people of it do the that do the bare minimum
But you know what don't don't be the bare minimum person because look in America the day
You can do the bare minimum and outshine your peers
It's sad. It's really sad that you can do this, but still you should not do that
You should go even beyond just doing the bare minimum.
You should be someone that's like Joseph, where Potiphar
doesn't even know how anything works because Joseph just takes care of it.
Like the Bible talks about Potiphar just didn't even understand what was going on
with Joseph. Like
he just knew Joseph was taking care of it and it was just, it was taken care of, done.
He doesn't have to worry about it. He can just trust it into Joseph's hand.
You know that's the kind of worker that you want to be for your boss because when
you're that valuable
Obviously, with Joseph, he thought he slept with his wife and that would actually get you fired.
But I'm just saying, like, apart from that, literally, I mean, they won't fire someone they can't replace.
And look, when your boss is giving you so much work that he doesn't even know how to do,
he won't fire you because he doesn't know how to do it.
He's like, well, but it's really hard to do all that work. That's why they pay you.
Look, be a business that does things other people don't want to do.
That's why they pay you money.
That's why they make money is they do things you don't want to have to do or they do it
better than you can do it yourself.
And that's why people are successful in the workplace, not doing the bare minimum.
Proverbs 22, look at verse 29.
In his business, he shall stand before kings,
he shall not stand before mean men.
Now the word mean is not talking about being impolite or rude,
it's talking about the word average.
So in mathematics, you try to find the mean, the mode,
these different calculations.
The mean is the average.
It's saying this guy's not gonna stand before average people,
he's gonna stand before kings
because he's diligent.
in his business.
You work super hard and you will stand out.
The reason why people don't stand out in America
is because they don't work hard
because they're not diligent.
They're not putting in the effort or the energy.
You put in the effort and energy, you will stand out.
That's what the Bible is explaining here.
That's why people do well in work.
Go over to Proverbs 31 right here.
Let's make some more applications.
So number one application I kind of made was,
hey, don't be a bare minimum church attender.
Go to church as much as possible.
Go to church with all they might.
That's a good red hot preaching sermon.
And look, that's the type of attitude you should have.
Not saying, hey, what's the bare minimum
I have to go past this Shelley to not be sinning?
It should just be like, hey, how much can I possibly go?
Right, I'm gonna do the most that I possibly can number two. We should apply that to your workplace
Don't be a bare minimum worker work as hard as you can make the company extra money do things your boss didn't ask you you know
The other day I didn't have much work to do
And it's kind of like a lot, it's a common thing where I'm not getting a lot of work to do
because I can do it much faster than it can be assigned to me.
So then I'm just inventing things to do, but I was like,
hey, I just like redid the entire website for our company and just like, hey, I just did this.
And it's like, cool, thanks.
But it's like, just find something to do and do it.
You know, they didn't ask me to do that,
but you know what, my boss wasn't mad at me for doing it either.
He was just like, cool, thanks, appreciate that.
What other things do you want to just invent to do?
And it's just coming up with stuff
and just doing extra tasks
because if you can get your stuff done, do extra stuff.
Now look, am I a perfect worker?
No, not even at all.
But at the end of the day, you know what?
I don't want to be the bare minimum worker either.
And we should all try to be the best
that we can possibly be.
Proverbs 31, look at verse 12.
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
Don't be a bare minimum wife.
You know, some people just want to do the bare minimum in their life and, you know,
women are constantly being talked down to as being like a housewife is that it's
not necessarily special or good.
You know, being a housewife is awesome, according to the Bible.
And every godly man wants this.
I mean, the Bible even says who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies.
You know, this is talking about a rare thing.
And look, if you get the opportunity to be a wife, to be the proverbs 31 woman, then
be her.
Right and look this is an ideal. I don't know that this is necessarily like
People aren't necessarily like this just like husbands aren't perfect women aren't perfect
But this is just kind of something to strive for this is something to to look to and to try to emulate as much as possible
And to be like this woman and look you you only have one life to live
Why not be the best wife that you could possibly be?
Well, if I had the best husband well, you don't so you know, that's just reality
I mean, only one person can have the best husband ever, right?
But does it really matter?
Do you have to be married to the best guy ever to be the best wife ever?
The answer's no.
You can be the best wife to whoever you're married to,
no matter what shortcomings, no matter what faults he has,
no matter what problems he has.
In fact, the Bible doesn't really describe her husband that much.
Obviously, he's in the gate, we get, there's some, there's some clues here, but at the
end of the day, we don't really know that much about him.
The Bible doesn't tell us that this woman was only married to the greatest guy to ever
live.
It's not like she's married to Paul or David or whoever, we don't know.
And in fact, he's not the king, so it's not King David.
It's not King Solomon that we're talking about.
It's just an average dude, just your normal guy that loves the Lord.
He's married to this woman.
I'm sure he's a pretty good guy to have this woman,
but he's not necessarily the greatest ever.
She's just deciding,
I'm gonna be the greatest wife that I can possibly be.
And you know what?
Don't allow yourself to be held back and being a great wife because my husband.
Your husband's not holding you back.
You're holding yourself back.
And don't be a bare minimum wife.
Be a wife that goes above and beyond.
And look, I'm not going to go through this entire passage, but this entire passage is
incredible, incredible.
I mean, she's just, she's just rising up at night.
She's just making food for everyone.
She's making all kinds of clothes.
She's got all kinds of side hustles.
She's buying land.
She's making the best kind of meals.
She's making the best kind of garments.
I mean, this lady is going all out.
Everybody knows who she is, and every time she speaks, it's only with wisdom and only with kindness.
She's not a complainer. She's not a murmur. She's not someone who's constantly nagging her husband.
Look, I mean, her husband's got to be excited to come home.
He's getting the best clothes, the best food, the best attitude.
Look, your husband's gonna rush home when you're acting like this.
The Bible says her children and her husband are rising to just praising her.
They're just blessing her because of all of her works.
She's so fun to be around.
Everybody wants to hang out with this woman.
Why? Because she's not a bare minimum wife.
What does it say in verse 27?
She looked well to the ways of her household that needed not the bread of idleness.
You know what? She's not making the bare minimum meal.
She's making awesome meals.
You know, I'm not Alice's wife, and I never will be, but if I was, I would be trying to make the best meals possible.
Not just like, you know, just warmed leftover, you know, something to just put in the microwave.
In fact, I had a school teacher. She graded everybody on meals.
She'd be like, this is a hamburger. This is a hamburger helper grade.
That was like a B or something, I think.
Her A plus was the Thanksgiving dinner.
She always said like this is a Thanksgiving dinner meal.
And then it was like somewhere in between,
I can't remember all the meals now,
because I didn't really like this teacher,
but I liked this analogy.
And she was just saying like,
you know, like ramen noodle was like
not passing grade or something.
You know, you just get the ramen noodle
and just microwave it or whatever.
You know, this is just like the nothing.
But it was like hamburger helper.
And it was like Thanksgiving dinner and stuff.
And it's like, yeah.
She's grading it based on the meal, and look, I'm not saying make Thanksgiving dinner every day
because we need steak, amen, but I am saying why can't you just put a lot of effort and energy
in every meal? And it doesn't have to be expensive even. You know, there can be cheap products that
you just put a lot of effort and energy in, and they turn out to be great meals. You know,
but here's the reality. Great meals take time.
There's no such thing as just like hey, I just threw this together in five minutes, and it's the best meal ever doesn't exist
Does not exist. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes energy. It takes labor
That's why it costs money at the restaurant
Not even necessarily because the ingredients are expensive because it takes a lot of time to make it look a croissant itself
Is not expensive ingredients. You want to know why croissants are expensive?
because it takes a lot of stinkin' labor
to do all the things they're doing to make.
It's like a folded over piece of dough
that they're just doing like over and over and over
and over and over and over and over
to make this light, flaky little croissant
that's just so soft.
Or you could just go to get Subway's bread,
which just sucks, okay?
Right?
And eat the bread of idleness.
Look, sometimes the Bible's even literal here.
Look, if your wife isn't putting effort and energy in,
you're gonna get Wonder Bread.
You're not getting your croissant
You're gonna get Wonder Bread, and you know what's gonna be on it baloney
You're gonna hit the meat of idleness too, and you think like what is baloney. I don't even know I
Was trying to look it up. This is what the internet was telling me
Mechanically separated chicken or turkey. Maybe it's also mixed with pork and beef
I don't know. Corn syrup, dextrose, sodium phosphates, sodium lactate, potassium lactate,
sodium diecotate, sodium nitrite, pepper, coriander, nutmeg, garlic. That is baloney.
I wonder why people are like, that's a bunch of baloney because it's fake. They're saying
You know you get you get the bologna and then you get a craft single, which is that cheese?
I don't know and
Then wonder bread and you're like you're wondering is it bread and
Then you get it slapped together and this is the meal that you get
From the bread of idleness. This is the meal of idleness
You get the ramen noodle of idleness and isn't it interesting that the meals of idleness
Often are the ones that cause the most cancer and are the least healthy and the least nutritious as well
And look, I'm not saying you have to eat
some kind of an expensive meal, you know,
but meals that have a lot of effort and energy
are just so much better.
Even myself sometimes I make meals
and I made chicken noodle soup,
and I love it.
And it is not an expensive meal.
Chicken noodle soup, I mean, you can buy a whole chicken
for $7, $8, $9.
and you can buy celery and carrots for like a nickel,
because it's like nobody wants them or whatever.
Sorry, the nickel's an exaggeration,
but I mean, a few bucks or whatever.
Buy some egg noodles for maybe a couple dollars
or whatever like that.
And we're talking about like maybe,
$15 to $20 worth of money when it comes to just the ingredients, but you can make a giant
thing of soup that you and your whole family could eat a couple different nights.
I mean think about it, if you have a $20 total that your whole family can eat for three nights,
I mean the cost per person is just like super low.
or you can go to Burger King and spend $7, $8 on whatever
or go and just get, I mean, even the Wonder Bread
and the Bologna, you buy that stuff
and it might even be more expensive at the end of the day.
But here's the thing, to make chicken noodle soup right,
it takes a lot of time.
Because you got to put the chicken in the oven with the seasoning and you got to cook
it for a couple of hours.
Then you got to take it out and extract it and put it in a pot and you put water in it
and you got to boil that thing for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours
and hours and you know you get really good broth.
But if you don't let it cook for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours you don't
get a good broth.
Then you have to come back and put it all together so you know in order to make chicken a little soup
I mean it probably takes me you know seven eight nine hours
Now I'm not doing something all of those hours most of the time
There's just the stovetops doing the job for me, but I'm just saying it you can't start that
Five minutes before dinner and enjoy it. You got to start that thing seven eight nine hours
What's also really awesome? How about brisket who loves Texas brisket? Amen? You're saved all right?
Here's something. If you get a Texas brisket from the store, you cannot enjoy that in five minutes later.
You can't even enjoy that five hours later.
And you know what? You go up to northern places in this world, you go into other states,
and you want to know why their brisket sucks is because they didn't take the time to cook it right.
The only reason brisket is good is if you slow cooked it and you put a lot of time and a lot of attention into it
That's what makes it great. You know it separates ribs from great ribs
Smoking them low and slow and putting the time and the effort and energy into them because it is not a quick meal
You know what? I don't like eating bare minimum ribs. I don't like eating bare minimum brisket
And you know what, praise God for Texas culture where not everything's a bare minimum meal,
but rather you put the time and the effort and the energy and you know what, you taste
it.
You know why bread is really good?
Because they put a lot of effort and energy into the bread.
My wife makes some awesome rolls.
They're excellent.
I love them.
But let me tell you something.
They take time.
for a long time I mean I know what it sounds like is this is like hours I'm
just sitting in my but you know I'm thinking like those are gonna taste
good you know it's just sitting in there just needing that dough needing that dough
needing that dough why because things that are of quality take time and you
know if you're just a bare minimum person you know what you're not you're
gonna be eating Chuck E cheese breadsticks okay that's the bread of
idleness I looked it up like the worst bread this was rated the worst bread
I mean nobody even likes Chuck E. Cheese pizza, but I was thinking like who goes there for the breadsticks
You don't have the cheese. I
Could go on I could go on food for a lot longer. Some hungry. All right. Go to song of Solomon. Hey, don't be a
Bear minimum homeschool mom either
Hey, your kid's education is important.
You should put some effort and energy into that.
You should teach them a lot of things,
sit down with them.
Teaching kids is rough, it's difficult,
it takes a lot of effort, it takes a lot of energy.
You know what?
You get out what you put in, and you know what?
I want my children to get a good education.
Put some money, put some effort,
put some energy into homeschooling.
How about cleaning?
My kids help with cleaning. Hey kids, don't be a bare minimum cleaner
It's like clean the kitchen table and they'll clean like just one square inch away from the table and
They'll just be like giant mess all around it. And it's like did you not see the giant mess right here, too?
It's like hey, don't be a bare minimum cleaner when you're walking from the trash can to the table
Did you notice anything else on the floor clean that up, too?
Don't just do the bare minimum clean everything clean things that you weren't even asked to look
I'm constantly walking around noticing things that I didn't make the mess
I didn't do the problem, and I'm just hey someone's got to clean it up
And you know what?
It's really annoying to be around people that do the bare minimum all the time
Be someone that goes above and beyond and clean well clean your house. Well, you know what everybody loves a clean house
No one enjoys a dirty house.
Everyone loves a clean house.
And you know what?
You wonder like, hey, how can I improve my life
and my marriage and whatever?
How about having a super clean house,
making super great meals, doing great home schooling,
having a pleasant attitude?
Boy, I'm telling you, you know, people just think like,
why is my life or marriage not very good?
And it's just like, well, are you putting any effort or energy?
I love coming home to a clean house with a great meal and my kids are smart.
It's wonderful.
How about the husbands?
Well, you know, we don't want to be a bare minimum husband either, do we?
Song of Solomon look at chapter 4 verse 1 behold thou art fair my love behold thou art fair
Thus doves eyes within my locks thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead now again in this passage
The we have kind of a back-and-forth different times in the book of song of Solomon in this part
we kind of have the husband praising the wife and
You know what we learn from this is not the exact expressions that we should give to our wife because if you compare it to a goat
It may not go well, okay?
But what we're learning is how the husband is complimenting his spouse and what I like about this is he doesn't compliment her just three times
He keeps doing it doesn't he?
It's not just one time, it's not just two times, it's not just three times.
This guy cannot stop complimenting his spouse in so many different ways.
And in fact, he doesn't even just say different things, sometimes he repeats the exact same
thing.
What is fair?
Thou art fair, my love.
Behold, thou art fair.
Fair is beautiful.
That's what we would typically think of, beautiful.
And I, there's a, you know, I'm thinking about like in Spanish, there's multiple ways to say beautiful because it's like hermosa and bonita and they're just, you know, just expressing just like beautiful, amazing, gorgeous.
You know, pretty, all these different things that people use in our language to express,
hey, you're beautiful, you're gorgeous, you're pretty, you're fair, you have Dove's eyes,
he's complimenting her eyes, he's complimenting her locks, her hair, thy teeth are like a
flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing, where have everyone
Have some good hygiene right so that your husband can praise you
Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet and my speech is comely not only is he complimenting her physical beauty
He says I love it when you talk to me and look your husband is gonna compliment you talking to him
If you're not nagging him and complaining about him and verbally abusing him
What is he saying? I love it when you talk to me because your speech is comely. It's nice. It's pleasant
But he's complimenting her for that like temples are like a piece of pomegranate within my locks
Thy neck is like the tower of David
Builded for an armory where in there hang a thousand bucklers all shields of mighty men, you know these weird compliments
This is my thought
Maybe you have some weird thing that is between you and your wife and bring up the weird compliments to her because she likes it
Some compliments don't fit everybody if I told my wife you have a really tall neck
I don't think she would be, like, cool, or, you know,
hey, you have a neck like a tower.
But, you know, here's the thing.
In marriage, it's not really about other people, it's about you and her.
And whatever it is between you and her that's special or you like or whatever, inside jokes
or whatever, you should do that and be affectionate to your wife.
Hey, don't be a husband that does the bare minimum complimenting of his wife.
Keep going.
Go five times, six times, seven.
Just keep going.
Don't be a bare minimum husband.
Be one that's constantly praising his wife, constantly complimenting her, constantly praising
constantly being affectionate to her.
You know what, your wife will never tell you
stop complimenting me.
You know I've never had someone come up with counseling
and say my husband's complimenting you a little too much.
Can you tell him to cool it?
Never happens.
It's never happened and I don't believe it ever will happen.
You can't compliment your spouse too much.
I mean this guy just can't stop.
Thy two breasts are like two young rows that are twins which feed among the lilies until the daybreak and the shadows flee away
I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense thou art all fair
My love there is no spot in thee. He's saying you're perfect
You're perfect. I love everything about you. You're all fair everything about you's fair. I love everything about you
You're so beautiful. I like all of your body
And he says in verse number nine,
thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse.
Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes,
with one chain of thine neck.
How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse.
How much better is thy love than wine
and the smell of thine ointments than all spices.
Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb.
Honey and milk are under thy tongue
and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
I mean I could keep reading and I want to but I want to go to some other passages in
this too but here's the thing, what do we learn from this?
He can't stop complimenting her, giving her attention and giving her affection and let
me tell you something, you as a husband and a wife cannot compliment each other enough,
you cannot give each other enough attention, you cannot give each other enough affection.
And you know what? I recommend every couple increase this constantly.
Hey, when you're out with your wife, hold her hand.
Put your arm around her shoulder. Give her more kisses.
Tell her more sweet things.
When you go on a date, make sure to compliment her. Open the door for her.
Be a gentleman. Don't be a bare minimum husband.
be someone that's constantly praising her,
constantly giving her attention,
constantly giving her affection,
and you know if you're out of practice,
there's never a bad time to start.
Verse four of chapter two, he says this,
he brought me to the banqueting house
and his banner over me was love.
This guy, he's obsessed with her,
he's constantly thinking about her.
Go to chapter seven and look at verse one.
Now, in the song of Solomon, it's going back and forth.
You know, he already praised her a lot.
And let's just be honest, he probably praised her more than we would normally do in just
like a whole day.
This guy just did it in a few breaths.
He's going to do it a whole again here in chapter number seven.
This guy is obsessed with his wife.
This guy is constantly praising his wife.
This guy says that his heart is ravished with his wife.
The Bible says, let her breath satisfy thee at all times.
You cannot you know be affectionate with your wife too much and you know if you want to help yourself
With the duty of marriage and with intimacy. Let me tell you something
You should be constantly touching your wife and praising your wife that has nothing to do with that
Just holding her hand being affectionate spending time with her and let me tell you something it helps all areas
Song of Solomon chapter 7 verse 1 how beautiful are thy feet with shoes oh prince's daughter the joints of thy thighs are like jewels
I mean this guy likes their knees
Right the work of the hands of a cunning workman
Thy navel is like a round goblet which wanteth not liquor
Thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about the lilies. Thy two breasts are like two young rows that are twins.
Thy neck is as a tower of iron. This chick has a long neck. I don't know what I mean.
Whatever, he likes it. Thy eyes like the fish. I mean, hey, I'll say this. She probably has good posture, you know?
There's a good tip.
Thine eyes like the fish pools in Heshbon,
by the gate of Bath-Reben.
Thine nose is as the tower of Lebanon,
which looketh toward Damascus, she could be a Jew.
No, I'm just kidding.
Thine head upon thee is like Carmel,
and the hair of thine head like purple,
the king is held in the galleries.
How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights.
This thy stature is like to a palm tree and thy breast to clusters of grapes. I said I will go up to the palm tree
I will take hold of the bows thereof
Now also thy breast shall be as clusters of the vine and the smell of thy nose like apples
He's saying like just like I would go up to the palm tree and I would just take fruit off it
I'd take hold of it. He's going under his wife and he's taking hold of his wife
You know give your wife a hug
I like verse 10.
I am my beloveds, and notice this, and his desire is toward me.
Now, this is her talking, but notice what her attitude is.
Hey, his desire is toward me.
Well, how do you know that?
Because he can't stop talking about her.
He can't stop thinking about her.
He can't get his hands off of her.
Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field.
Let us lodge in the villages.
What are they doing?
They're hanging out.
Look, don't be a bare minimum husband, hang out with your wife, talk to your wife, compliment
your wife, be around your wife.
You know what?
It takes two to tango when it comes to marriage, but when you look at people that are struggling,
they're not doing these things.
The wife is not doing what Proverbs 31's doing, the husband's not doing the song of
In marriage you got to put work you got to put effort you got to put energy and the couples that are not having a good marriage
It's because they're putting in the bare minimum
Don't put in the bare minimum
Don't do it put in the effort put in the energy keep your promises
Don't be the guy that just three times and stays do more than what's even asked of you
You know think about in Matthew 5 when Jesus is bringing up. Hey, someone asked for a coat give him my cloak also
If he says, hey, walk a mile, walk with him, twain.
What is that attitude?
It's just not to do the bare minimum.
Hey, you want one, I'll give you two.
Hey, you want this, I'll give you that.
Hey, we need to give each other more than we ask for,
more than we bargain for.
That's the true Christian attitude.
Hey, you know what?
God constantly gives us more than we ask him for
or that we deserve.
Hey, you want to have a lot of friends?
Well, don't be a bare minimum friend.
Like, we could apply this to every area of life.
I just picked a few that I think were, you know, relevant, but what's the general principle?
Let us not be someone that's just a bare minimum Christian, a bare minimum worker, a bare minimum
wife or husband, a bare minimum friend.
We want to be someone that's going to put in the extra effort, the extra energy, and
you know what?
God will bless you when you put in the extra effort.
Then you can take your rest then you can then you can decide that you don't need to work anymore because he can't
Right now. Well, you have opportunity
Let us do everything with all of our might and avoid being a bare minimum person. Let's go some prayer
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for the word of God
Thank you for the fact that Jesus Christ didn't do the bare minimum for us, but he paid the full price
He did everything and he went above and beyond not only give us eternal life and salvation
but also to reward us for our works and I pray that we would realize that
The work that you've given us to do on this earth is important.
I pray that we wouldn't do the bare minimum.
I pray that you would help us to be successful by going beyond what's asked
and that we would do so in our workplace, we do so with church,
we would do so with our relationships, with our marriages
and the jobs and the opportunities that we have.
And I pray that our church would not be a bare minimum church
but that we would work really hard
and we would do it heartily unto the Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, for our last song, let's go to song number 150.
Song number 150, song number 150, my faith has found a resting place.
Grace singing, everybody, you were all dismissed.