I first want to say thank you so much to Pastor Burzins and his family and
Stronghold Baptist Church for inviting us out here and the accommodations and
hospitality has been above and beyond it's been great it's great to have a
cottage out there on the lake is beautiful and I never expect to see
beach in the middle of the Georgia woods but you know hey it's been great and a
lot of faces I recognize some faces I don't recognize my name is Pastor
Jonathan Shelley this is my wife Carrie and our family we came out here we're in
the Dallas-Fort Worth area from Steadfast Baptist Church and so we look forward to
meeting anybody that we haven't met already I want to start here it in my
sermon in Titus chapter 3 look at verse number 8 the Bible reads this is a
faithful saying and these things I will that thou firm constantly that they
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these are
good and profitable on the men and I want to just draw my sermon from this
passage and the title of my sermon this evening is this zealous routines
maintain zeal zealous routines maintain zeal and we have an admonition here
that's very strong where it says we need to be careful to maintain good works it
even says that this is something that preachers are supposed to preach on a
regular basis they're supposed to affirm constantly and they're supposed to bring
these things up constantly and I'm not going to bring up any topics that you
wouldn't expect to hear constantly in church because you know good works are
going to be very obvious you know your pastor is going to preach on a lot of
things that you hear often but it's for a purpose that purpose is so that you
maintain those zealous works and you know I love coming to events like this
there's so much fun and I love the fact that we get to come to church on a
regular basis come every single night and hear all kinds of different sermons
and obviously anybody that's here that you obviously have zeal you know I can't
say that you don't have any zeal you already showed that you have a lot of
zeal to want to come out and hear the Word of God being preached you know it's
something that a lot of people are not interested in today is hearing the Bible
being preached but you've obviously shown a lot of great zeal but you know
it's easy to show zeal or it's easier to show zeal for just one week then for
the rest of your life it's easy to get zealous just for a short period of time
it's harder to maintain that zeal over years decades over a lifetime and if
that's your goal then you need to have a zealous routine so that you can maintain
that zeal and the reality is any area of your life you need maintenance you know
when it comes to your car if you're not constantly putting oil in that car it's
not gonna work right and you can't just drive your car without putting oil in it
you got to constantly put oil in it you know when it comes to your house you
got to constantly clean it I bet the women know what I'm saying right now
they'd love to yell amen but you know you got to keep maintaining that house
or it's gonna have problems you know there's a lot of things in your life
that you have to have a routine maintenance a routine zeal for in order
to keep it in good working condition okay you know and I don't like coming to
my house and being dirty or smelling bad or those type of things no one would
enjoy that and so in order to live a life where you really enjoy your home
you're gonna have to constantly perform maintenance you're gonna constantly have
to clean it up you're gonna have to constantly put effort and energy into it
even your physical body hey you got to maintain that thing you know if you can
smell you've been stinking for at least three days if you can smell yourself
that's what my dad always said but the reality is if you want to enjoy your
body you got to maintain that thing you got to put some effort and some energy
into your own body you have to wash it you have to take care of it in order to
have a well-functioning body and the less you take care of it the worse it's
going to be off the less you're even going to enjoy your body the less you
maintain your house the less you're gonna enjoy your house the less you take
care of your car the less you're gonna enjoy your car and it comes the same way
these carnal truths come into your spiritual truth and the fact that if
you're not maintaining your spiritual life you're not going to enjoy your
spiritual life as much go to Hebrews chapter 10 and go to Hebrews chapter
number 10 and when it comes to spiritual life you know there's a lot of things
that are extremely important when it comes to your spiritual walk but you
know this to me is probably one of the most important things that you can do
just because it reminds you of all the other important spiritual things that
you need but that is going to church and if I can say there's one thing I just
think people need to have a really dedicated zealous routine is going to
church because when you're going to church you're gonna be reminded of all
the other spiritual things that you need to be doing and in the Bible commands
that you go to church look at what it says in Hebrews chapter number 10 look
at verse 24 and let us consider one another to evoke unto love and a good
works now we read in Titus chapter 3 verse 8 they're supposed to maintain
good works the Bible is going to tell us one of those good works right here look
at verse 25 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 the Bible literally tells us that we need to constantly go to
church we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together but we
need to be going to church we need to be zealous for church we didn't have a
zealous routine for going to church you say what does that look like well for an
independent fundamental Baptist Church that's three to thrive there's a lot of
churches that don't even have three service to offer but you know what I'm
not gonna stop having I'm not gonna stop in three services I might have more
you know and look this week we're having more and what a great thing to have you
know 2020 and 2021 haven't been the greatest years as far as just enjoying
this world or enjoying the things and and we can see kind of some birthing
pains of the devil and his agenda and we can see a lot of evil is taking over in
this world today and guess what every single second that ticks on that clock
is just a second closer to the coming of Christ and when we keep getting
closer and closer you say when's it gonna happen I don't know but we're
getting closer by the time pastor minutes is preaching we're getting
really close like two and a half hours closer or something he told me I had
about two and a half hours or something we need that zealous routine now I want
you to go if you would in your Bible to Proverbs 22 and I'll get there in a
moment but you know it's really hard to provoke people under love and good works
when you don't see them it's easier to provoke people into love and good works
when you see them and you say well where am I gonna see you in church and you say
well what are those other good works Bible reading soul winning you know it's
easier for me to provoke somebody that's at church already there with me to say
hey why don't you come so winning with us in the afternoon hey why don't you go
so winning with us later this evening or why don't we go so winning on Saturday
it's a lot easier to provoke somebody to serve God when they're there in the
flesh and you're there and you're saying let's go you know hop in the car you
know it's a lot easier to provoke somebody to memorize the Word of God
when they're there and you know what I do is all my kids if they memorize the
verse of the week they get ice cream for our Bible study so it encourages
them to show up for the midweek service encourage them to show up for the Bible
study and you know what I don't care if I give up give out a hundred ice creams
every single week it's worth it to me because I want them to have the routine
of memorizing a verse of the Bible every week and those zealous routines well
guess what they'll maintain zeal to help those kids love the Word of God you know
you're gonna be reminded to pray you're gonna be reminded to read your Bible and
here's a benefit that you don't realize but church makes you normal church makes
you normal when you're not going to church you're not normal when I meet
people that don't go to church they're not normal you know they're believing in
the Flat Earth Theory and I'm thinking like you don't go to a good church you
go to my church and start bringing that up people are gonna start making fun of
you they're gonna tell you you're dumb they're gonna say I'm not writing in
your car cuz you're gonna drive me off the edge you have people they don't go
to church and they'll come with you let's say did you know that Donald Trump
is still the president and I'm like what yeah there's this secret you know White
House down in Mar-a-Lago I think you're crazy man they're like have you heard of
Q non like I'm not interested you know and people get so excited about Donald
Trump because they're not going to church you know if you go to church
you're gonna hear about sins like I don't know pride I don't know like
covetousness I don't know like adultery and then you're gonna think oh wow this
Trump guy doesn't sound so great after all you know it's weird how this world
they constantly try to give you two different options that really suck to
try and convince you that one of them's good you know what Donald Trump and Joe
Biden it's like both of these options are so bad nobody would ever pick them
in their right mind let me tell you what Donald Trump here's my parable for you
okay Donald Trump is like the impossible burger who knows what impossible burger
is I hope nobody's even tried it the impossible burger is somehow a meatless
burger who comes up with these terrible inventions you know I want the exact
opposite I want a burger that's only meat not a burger that's zero meat okay
but someone comes up with this option here's the thing you present that to a
Baptist he would always reject it you present that to a real man he's gonna
say like no you should have never even tried but then they compare they say
well you can have the impossible burger or rat poison and you're like well I
guess I'm taking the impossible burger it's like hey yeah the Democrats are
like rat poison no one wants that it'll kill you as soon as you eat it but no
one in their right mind wants an impossible burger sorry I'm not
offending you vegans but you know I don't care he said I supposed to preach
something really hot okay I saw someone wearing a shirt PETA hey it was a good
shirt people eating tasty animals but the reality is going to church is gonna
make you more normal it's gonna help you not eat the impossible burger spiritually
which is Donald Trump if you think Donald Trump is gonna save our society
if he's gonna save America you're wrong
you know people get all excited especially in Georgia because I mean
talk about the epicenter of the election right talk about all kinds of crazy
things going on and look if you think that the election was completely
legitimate you need to also come to church so you can be more normal but
people that get so enemy they're so excited they're like wow I can't wait
for them to finally fix the elections you know and get voter ID in here or
something but guess what I'm not excited about that because even if we could say
our elections from now on are gonna be 100% pure perfect every single person is
gonna get to vote well guess what we're still gonna be doomed I don't know if
you realize but this world is not interested in the things of God if we
have a hundred percent legitimate elections they're still not gonna vote
pastor burzins as your governor they're gonna vote for Brian Kemp but he's not
gonna fix the world he's not gonna fix our society look why would you get so
zealous to make sure that they can correctly vote for someone who's wicked
and you know what people get caught up in the wrong fights they get so zealous
for the wrong things because they're not going to church because they don't have
a zealous routine spiritually and they get sucked into all this weird crap the
Bible says be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners
people don't accidentally start serving God when they're not going to church
people that do spiritual things are getting into church and they're serving
the Lord and the reality is you know when you start hanging out with the
wrong crowd you're gonna start believing weird things and when you let weird
stuff come into your church your church is gonna get weird you start letting
Jehovah's Witness get in your church and pretty certain you're gonna start saying
well nobody burns in hell you're gonna start saying weird stuff like there's
the God part and there's the human part why because the relationships that you
have are going to affect you and if you're not in church you're gonna have a
lot of bad relationships dragging you down you're gonna have a lot of people
affecting you but not in a good thing you know it's good to have people iron
sharp and iron but it doesn't help to have flat earth sharp and cunon because
then pretty pretty sure pretty much you know Donald Trump is you know still the
president and all the politicians in the White House are holograms and you know
it's like look these people exist they come up to me and I'm just thinking like
what have you been doing YouTube a little bit too much YouTube a little too
much reddit or something or 4chan I don't know what is it anymore but the
reality is you know what if you want to have zealous works you want to have good
works you need to have a zealous routine you have a good routine and the things
of this world are not going to provoke you into serving the Lord look what it
says in Proverbs 22 verse 24 make no friendship with an angry man and with a
furious man thou shalt not go lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy
soul look what the Bible is teaching is teaching a principle that when you hang
out with someone who's angry he can make you angry you can start learning his ways
and it's not limited to anger it's every single emotion it's every single attitude
it's every single idea people often are just sheep and they just you know listen
to the loudest voice that they're around they start becoming the people that they
surround themselves with and they turn into a different person you know and I
know when you start hanging out with the wrong friend the wrong person they
could affect you very negatively that's why it's important to find people that
are better than you and hang out with them so I'm glad pastor minutes here to
preach later and clean everything up I want to find people that are you know
serving Lord better than I am doing more than I am and go rub shoulders with them
so that I can be better if I hang out with an angry person I'll just become
angry you hang out with a complainer you're just gonna complain hang out with
someone that doesn't like church pretty soon you won't be going to church you
hang out and it's funny to me you hang out with someone that's a you know what
it was Atlanta Falcons fan you'll become an Atlanta Falcons fan it's interesting
to me when it comes to all these sports people just like the team that they're
near I you know there's usually not very much loyalty you just like wherever
you're at why because it's hard to go against the grain it's hard you know
just stick to your own convictions wherever you're at you know it's just
end up who you like and the things that you do and the behaviors that you take I
mean your accent is dictated by around the people that you're around you don't
even try it just happens automatically and you pick up so much more than you
realize from the people you surround yourself with and I'm telling you if you
get into church it's gonna affect you in a way that's positive it's gonna give
you some good zeal and you know what you want to maintain that zeal you have to
have a zealous routine get into church go to Ecclesiastes chapter 9 Ecclesiastes
chapter number 9 and we all know that children act one way in front of their
parents and another way with their friends you speak one way in front of
your parents you speak another way when you're with your friends why because
your environment is going to affect you the people that you're round is gonna
affect you you know you start coming to church you might start saying some
things differently you might start acting a little differently you might
dress a little differently why because the environment you're putting yourself
in is gonna dictate your behavior I remember growing up in school I was not
a very good student okay as far as behavior I did good for grades but I was
not good in the behavior department but there was a couple times where I'd be
put in a classroom where I didn't have any friends I didn't know anybody I
didn't like them and I would just be silent I would I wouldn't talk to
anybody because there was no one to feed off of there was no one to you know get
me riled up and I remember my teachers would be so confused because they would
talk and they would say all this Jonathan Shelley he's such a hassle he's
always you know making fun of things and then getting every riled up in class and
they talked another cheese like he never talks I never even got a peep out of it
and it was it was confounding to them but here's the reality depending on the
environment you're in you change your attitude and behaviors they change hey
the version of you in the bar is different than the version of you in
church the version of you around the world is different than the version of
you around God's people and so if you want to have zeal for the things of God
you need around other people that have the zeal for the things of God you know
three to thrive two to survive one is life support its life support and here's
the thing with pastors is they have to constantly look at their flock and they
can see people start to fade away and just as much as if you stopped showering
for a couple weeks and we could we could all tell you can tell when people start
to fade spiritually and they start to stink spiritually and you can tell the
direction that they're headed and it's frustrating to you and look people that
are going to church three times a week they don't just like randomly leave
typically typically people start to fade typically they go from three times now
that just Sundays just a couple times now that's just Sunday morning then
pretty much just every once in a while and then just gone but the people that
are putting themselves in the routine it's a lot harder for them to go it's a
lot harder for them to walk away and the reality is you know if I miss one
service but I'm going three times a week that's still two for that week if I
go once every month and I miss once that's a whole month of services that I
could be potentially missing and it's a lot easier to break a routine by just
one thing you know it's easy to miss one time right kid gets sick your wife's
pregnant that happens often right yeah I mean you got whatever you got things you
know you got to give birth right go to the Ecclesiastes chapter 9 I have you
turned there please yes chapter 9 the reality is you know we're all going to
miss one service every once in a while but when you're going three times a week
you just get right back in whenever you're kind of hanging loose and you're
already kind of fading a little bit and you start missing it's a lot harder to
get plugged back in it's a lot harder to keep showing up and the reality is I
kind of thought with all the crazy stuff that's happening and how it's almost
just obvious the devil's playbook I mean it's just like he's just telling us
his strategy right before eyes and we see this world waxing worse and worse so
readily I thought so many more people get more spiritual it kind of wake them
up they kind of be like oh wow we need to take things more seriously but I've
noticed it seems like more people are fading and and here's my theory about
that this is why I think a lot of people are fading is because they're so busy
with other stuff right now and they've gotten so tired from getting into the
wrong fights they're so into their fights against racism and they're in
the fight against the election and they're in the fight for their governor
and for the president and they're in the fight for their job and they're in the
fight you know do I wear the mask do I not wear the mask where we're 20 of them
you know I mean it's just there's just so many though so much fighting and
there's so many fights you could be in but the reality is you know that's just
a distraction to get you out of the good fight we're supposed to fight the
good fight of faith and I don't want to get to the point where I'm so concerned
with all these other issues that I'm putting church on the back burner that
is changing my zealous routine and you say well church has been shrinking not
growing or you know we've gone through a dry spell or maybe it's growing it
doesn't matter churches go up and down but the reality is the majority is never
gonna want to hear the truth but who cares about the majority you can only
affect yourself I like this verse look at Ecclesiastes chapter 9 look at verse
17 the words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that
ruleth among fools the reality is if you really want to hear something wise often
it's heard often a quarter somewhere often the woods somewhere often a small
Baptist Church somewhere is where you're gonna have the words of the wise yet the
guy that's screaming for everybody here on Facebook and Twitter it's stupidity
it's not worth listening to anyways why do you want to go hear what they have to
say look you should find a church where you're gonna have the words of the
wise men being taught to you even if it's just you and your family even if
it's just Wednesday night oh man it's us and three other families well you're
there the pastor's there it's interesting the pastor doesn't get you
just take a break because not everybody's showing up or whatever it's
interesting that the pastor prepared a Bible study for you and you know what he
prepared it for every single person and you say well where am I gonna get all
the good information I need you know it may not be with lots of people maybe a
small crowd but look the words of wise men are heard in quiet more you want to
hear the words of wise you need to seek them out you need to find them it's
difficult to find them sometimes and the more you're in church the more spiritual
you're gonna be the more you're in the world the more carnal you're gonna be
you need to get a habit of going three times a week it's harder to get out of
church at that point go into Proverbs 24 just flip back and go to Proverbs 24 I
want to show you verse here people are just getting sucked into the wrong
fights and it's not going to be any different as the world waxes worse and
worse there's going to be even more distractions more difficulty more
pestilences more evil you know I wish I could say COVID is gonna go away but the
Bible promises is all kinds of pestilences in the future and I've
noticed this thing the government when they take a whole bunch of power they
never seem to be like I just want to give that right back when have they done
that I don't remember it seems like they pass even more legislation and they pass
even more rules and they say we didn't take as much power as we wanted we wanted
even more power we're looking to take even more and look at this point you
could tell people if you wear a mask you're gonna go to hell and they'll
still wear it so you know even from an individualistic perspective you know
that stuff's not going away it's going to be a constant fight and the devil
wants you to be distracted with all of the the COVID issues and all these other
things and look I hate it just as much as the next guy don't hear me wrong but
I don't want to waste and spend all my energy on that I don't want to fight all
the woke issues I don't want to fight for the dr. Seuss book to come back on
the shelf I didn't read them before they're like
another dr. Seuss book is banned and I'm thinking like which one I didn't read
that either who cares who cares whatever they ban and whatever they do I mean
these are just the wrong fights and look I'll talk about it I'll make fun of it
and and you know what it's fine for a pastor to call out the stupidity of this
world every once in a while but the reality is if it's interrupting your
zealous routine you need to change something you need to get back in the
cells routine when you start to stink spiritually you need to take a bath and
you say where is it in the house of God that's where you get cleaned up like
what it says in Proverbs 24 verse 10 if thou faint in the day of adversity thy
strength is small you know it's easy to serve God when it's easy it's easy to
serve God when everybody's going and it's fun and they got Starbucks in the
lobby and just you know everything's just roses or whatever you know what
that doesn't make you strong you know it doesn't make you strong to share an
opinion online that everybody likes and it's going viral and everybody's so
excited oh you're so strong you know what strength is is standing up in the
day of adversity strength is when you get up and you preach a sermon where you
feel like people are gonna like it where people might leave after you preach
something you know strength is saying you know what I'm gonna stand with my
pastor no matter who likes it whether my job likes it whether my parents like it
whether my family likes it whether my friends like it hey he's my friend and
that's interesting Peter had a crisis at a point is he friends with Jesus or not
and look he failed if Peter can fail we can fail it was a little girl I know
not the man can you imagine saying you don't even know Jesus it's a crazy
thought but here's the thing that kind of pressure most of us probably haven't
even gone through you know Peter's obviously looking at the fact that he
could probably be killed his life is on the line he could be ridiculed horrible
pressure coming upon him most of us have not stood the face of persecution where
your life is on the line and a lot of people they'll get up and they'll say
oh I'm with you pastor oh man I'm gonna stand against them I can't wait I love
your sermon that was so great and then a little girl's like do you go to
stronghold never heard of it that's a dumb name for a church stronghold what
is this you know they still got Baptist on the sign I wouldn't go to a Baptist
Church he's like what's that what's that stronger sure you got on oh this
nothing don't worry about that you know where were you last week nothing you
laugh but it's reality go to Romans chapter 12 for a moment go to Romans
chapter 12 for a moment and let me tell you this you need to make habits that
you can maintain it and I noticed some people they have zeal and you know what
sometimes people are going three times a week or they're really plugged in but
their lifestyle is not a maintainable lifestyle let me explain what I mean
they're driving two or three hours to church every single week and the reality
is sometimes that's just not maintainable that's just not real for a
lot of people it's a very difficult struggle and the reality is I don't want
to make serving God as hard as possible I want to make serving God as easy as
possible when I moved to faith Lord Baptist Church to go there you know I
didn't know is where I should live as far as the neighborhood or where my work
is going to be necessarily or any of those factors and frankly I've never
been there I bought my house online you know what I liked about it was four
minutes from the church and I said I want zero excuse carnally to not serve
God I just want to make sure that I'm taking out every single block every
single roadblock every single stumbling block every single thing I can out of
the way so I can serve the Lord and I can be zealous and you know I've seen
people they're going to church three times a week they're they're going so
winning on a regular basis they're serving the Lord and then they move
three hours away from church and then they start going twice a week and then
they're just waiting for the next life event and that life event is gonna
change for them spiritually what's that life event I don't know someone dies or
they move or they get a new job or they get married or they have a kid or they
have another kid or they have some kind of a health crisis or they have some
kind of a life event that happens and look life events are going to happen to
you and when you don't have a zealous routine it's easy to get knocked out
it's easy to stop serving God and then that person changes or they get married
to the wrong person that person's not as zealous and you see them slowly changing
as a person the person that was real zealous is now not as zealous for the
things of God is not putting God first and eventually they're gone I've seen
marriage ruin a lot of people's spiritual walk they marry the wrong
person that person's not interested the person lies to them and look I'm not
interested you know some people get married and like less than two weeks of
knowing each other I don't recommend that people that have made it work
praise the Lord that's great and you know what hey some people in the Bible
got married like that you know Rebecca just took a step of faith that Isaac was
gonna you know marry her I was gonna be a great person to marry and you know
that picture is a picture of Christ right we haven't seen Christ but we just
accept him by faith right but the end of the day you know this life is a long
life and there's a lot of roadblocks there's a lot of difficulty and there's
a lot of struggle and the Bible emphasizes being equally yoked and I
just tell you you can't figure that out in two weeks because you can be really
zealous for a week you can be really zealous for two weeks it's hard to be
zealous for a lifetime and you know what you're gonna you're gonna have children
with this person you're gonna spend a lot of time with this person you know
you need to be careful who you marry what they do and you have habits that
you can maintain you know that's why I also make sure I don't have any work
conflicts some people they're showing up and it's like they barely can show up
because they have all these weird work conflicts so they get a job where if
they get promoted they're gonna stop serving God it's like they have this job
but they're like I'm really hoping to get this next job and as soon as I get
the next job I won't be able to come to church and I'm thinking like I hope you
don't get that next job why would I want you to get the next job you know in this
world doesn't understand the things of God because they're not of God they
think that moving should be because you're gonna make more money they think
that moving should be because you're gonna have a nicer house they think
moving should be because you're gonna be closer to in-laws why would you ever
want to be closer to in-laws ask a married person that's been married for a
while do you want to go move in with the in-laws no look it causes problems
and look some people have great in-laws that's that's wonderful see them every
once in a while and have a great time but what I'm telling you hey you know
it's a great way to have a happy great way to move closer to church and closer
to a great church it says in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 I beseech you
therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your body as a
living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is a reasonable service and be
not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God
here's the reality you go out in the world and you get dirty you need to come
into church and wash your brain from all that filth from all that smut you need
to be constantly renewed so that you can prove what is that good and
acceptable will of God the world will tell you what's acceptable but it's not
the world will tell you what's good but it's not you need to hear from the Word
of God what is good you hear from the Word of God what is acceptable you need
to constantly renew your mind by getting into church and look you don't get zeal
on accident you know where people get zeal from hearing a verse come off the
lips of a preacher and it strikes something in your heart and I know in
our churches we don't really do the old-fashioned altar call but the altar
call shouldn't be a physical thing it's a spiritual thing in your heart it's
where you hear something and church and you say you know what I need to make
that change hey that Word of God pricked something in my heart and you know what
that's going to give you that zeal you want to get zeal get into church and you
know what if you're a pastor or preacher you want to give people zeal preach the
Word of God preach what the Bible actually says you know one thing that
pisses me off is when a young preacher gets an opportunity to preach on my
pulpit and they preach their opinion not the Bible because opinions don't
change people's lives opinions don't make people more zealous you know what
makes people really zealous is the Word of God hey when you think of the change
you made in your life I bet you there's a Bible verse you could think of that's
tied to that change in your life there's something that the Word of God did to
you and look that's why men of God are supposed to get up and to preach the
Word of God because the Word of God will change your life but if you're not
hearing the Word of God your life is not going to be changed for the better it's
gonna be changed for the worse the message of the world wants to drag you
down go to Psalms 119 for a moment go to Psalms 119 and I love this chapter of
the Bible because it's emphasizing the Word of God every single verse in some
way is a reference to the Word of God and it's the longest chapter in your
Bible and here's the thing Church needs to constantly remind you some things
like staying away from sin and you know where you hear that message only Church
it seems like Church is the only is it's the pillar and ground of the truth and
and I know as a pastor sometimes when I'm I'm thinking about a particular
subject or I'm thinking about something that people do I think you know if I
don't say that no one else will ever say that to that person and I think this
person will never hear this message if they don't come to church and you
prepare a message thinking you know what I'm really excited I hope the Word of
God can make a positive change in this person's life and they're not there and
you know what they never seem to magically come to church and like I made
that change anyways no even people that sit in the church and you preach that
message they sometimes don't make that change but you know what the changes are
made in the hearts of men in the house of God and we need to constantly hear
the Word of God being preached like what it says in Psalms 119 101 I have
refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word I love this
person's attitude notice they don't have Peters attitude oh I'll die with you
Christ for sure no matter what this person's taking heat under their
spiritual walk they're saying that I might they say hey I know it's difficult
hey I know it's a struggle hey I know there's gonna be roadblocks hey I know
there's gonna be things attacking me and I know in order for me to keep God's
Word I have to do something I have to refrain my feet meaning what you're not
going certain places you're not hanging out with certain people you know the
best way to stop sending is be in church I notice people stop sending a
lot more when they're in church presently it's a lot harder to get drunk
in church it's a lot harder to look at filthy disgusting things when you're in
church it's a lot harder to hear really stupid ideas when you're in church look
at verse number nine also you say well how am I gonna get better wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy
word hey you want to clean yourself up hey you want to be zealous you got to
take heed under the Word of God and you got to constantly hear it by being in
church and look you say well why is my pastor always getting up and saying you
need to come to church because the Bible tells us to constantly preach it cuz we
look at people that are fading and we're saying wow you need to take a
shower you need to clean up a little bit mom and dad are saying hey boys take a
shower and you say where how is the young man gonna clean up spiritually by
the Word of God by getting into the house of God and hearing God's Word
being thundered forth that's how you need it cleaned up you're gonna be a
better person when you're constantly being cleaned up by the Word of God
and not only that look with Ephesians chapter 5 my first topic I want to bring
to approach was church and I only have three I have two short ones that I want
to kind of mention here for a moment but look zealous routines maintains ill you
want to be zealous for a church you need to have a zealous routine and look you
can hear the words that I'm saying but if you don't make a zealous routine
eventually you'll probably fade and it's really life support because you know you
look at these people going once just coming every once in a while they
eventually typically leave and that's a sad reality that's a sad thing to watch
someone slowly deteriorate and to get out of church and when you get out of
church it doesn't just affect your spiritual life it even affect your
carnal life it affects every part of your life because you're not being fed
the things that you need you're not taking the spiritual showers that you
need you're not cleaning yourself up and one area that I notice you know you're
not going to get any good advice outside the churches in your marriage in your
marriage you know there's not good advice outside the church in marriage
there's a lot of really bad advice people you talk to your friends oh man
he's so mean he so he told me something and I didn't like it
well you should divorce him right away that's that's what they'll say oh he's
so mean he wants me to dress nice and he wants me to cook and to clean I'm not
gonna do that I'm gonna go work at the hotel where I cook and clean he wants me
to teach the children I'm gonna go work at the elementary school and teach 150
and show him 150 brats that'll be way better you know the whole better divorce
him you know all your husband made a mistake better better drop him like a
bad habit that's what you device you'll get out in the world and you know what
you're not constantly reminded to love your wife and to love your husband and
to do right outside of the church and I noticed that marriages start to really
deteriorate when they're not hearing the Word of God being preached who's
been where are you getting constant reminded to have a good marriage outside
of church who's trying to constantly tell you to love your wife and love your
husband look I hear a different message outside of these walls you know when I
see the billboards in Dallas Fort Worth you know what the billboards are oops
call us at this divorce lawyer call so-and-so divorce lawyer you go to the
mall call this so-and-so divorce lawyer I saw one billboard it says double your
closet size call this divorce lawyer and I was like jokes on you because I don't
even have half it's like add 1 10th your closet size you know have room for a
extra pair of shoes you know the messages of this world and I encourage
you to love your spouse my friend and you look hey you want to ruin every
area of your life stop going to church
Ephesians chapter number five the Bible says in verse 22 wives submit yourselves
into your own husbands as unto the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife
even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior of the body
therefore as the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own
husbands in everything that's it's funny to me that people that will come to a
church like ours they'll literally say well what if my husband says X or what
if my husband asked me to do this and I'm just thinking like everything
everything obviously there's a caveat of your if your husband's asking to murder
someone okay you know obviously he's telling you to break God's Commandments
we ought to obey God rather than men but if it's not in violation of God's Word
you say yes sir and you do it now it's not hard to understand it's hard to do
and it's really hard when none of your friends are doing it and that's who you
hang out with it's really hard when you're out in the world and your mom
doesn't it's really hard when your aunt doesn't it's really hard when your
grandma does it but you know what you should serve God and you should not care
what the world's doing and when you're in the house of God you're gonna constantly
be reminded of how to behave like I said when you're hanging out with the wrong
crowd your behavior starts to change doesn't it the way you might talk to
your husband might be different around your family then your spiritual family
than in the house of God and the reality is we need people to be reminded to serve
the Lord and to do it right and just as inappropriate as it would be for me to
literally get up here and start ripping pages out of my Bible or to say I don't
like that opinion of God I know the Bible said this but I'm gonna do X as
blasphemous as that would be is for a wife to say that she's not gonna obey
your husband that's the comparison that's made the church is supposed to be
subject unto Christ the same way that a wife is supposed to be on her own
husband and the reality is they say oh you just hate women you know women have
to obey look I don't care who you are you have to obey someone in this room
everyone in this room has to obey someone you have to obey your boss you
have to be your parents you have to obey whoever it is you have to obey your
pastor you have to obey your soul-winning leader you have to obey
the people that are given into your life we all have people that are over us and
in the same way that I'm supposed to obey my boss at work is the same way
that my wife should obey me and everything that's not violating the Word
of God and you say oh I don't like that well you just don't like the Bible and
the reality is you know if your children are looking to your example and you're
not going to obey your husband let me give you on a little secret they're not
gonna obey you when you mouth off to your husband your children are gonna
mouth off to you if you're always complaining about your husband your
children are gonna be complaining about you why because when you don't have a
zealous routine you're gonna lose zeal for the things of God hey you want
things to go well in your life start serving the Lord look at verse 25
husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by
the word then he might present it to himself a glorious church not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without
blemish so I've been to love their wives as their own bodies he that loveth his
wife loveth himself for no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourish it and
cherish with it even as the Lord the church so again if you don't want to
stink you got to wash your body but here's the thing if you don't want your
marriage to stink you got to love your wife you got to nourish your wife you
got to cherish your wife and just like it's three to thrive for a church why
don't you get a three to thrive for your marriage why don't you have at least
three quality times with your wife every week he say well why why would I do that
so you can have a good marriage you say hey my marriage is not going well well
do you ever spend time with your wife no it's like it's not a shock it's not
it's not a it's very obvious why that's happening you know you're gonna get out
of the things that you put into and if you really want to have a good marriage
you have to put something into it and look no one's perfect here I'm not
perfect up here but I'll tell you what I notice when I'm not putting effort and
energy into my marriage my marriage is not as good as when I'm putting a lot of
effort and energy into my marriage and I've noticed that marriage causes a lot
of people to stop serving the Lord go to a first Corinthians chapter 7 go to
1st Corinthians chapter number 7 you know you need to take time to enjoy
things with your wife enjoy things with your husband spending time with them
putting effort and energy into your relationship and look marriage is not
automatic that's infatuation that was dating ever you young couples I heard
there's a couple gonna get married hey it's easy now you have to try you like
every you like all the things they do wrong he burps cute you know oh man he
stinks and it smells great you know everything's just wonderful when you're
dating but pretty soon those burps start to smell pretty soon all those things
that you thought were really cool and cute they kind of wear off a little bit
and you have to start putting effort and energy into your relationship and really
a great marriage comes with great effort people that have great marriages I
guarantee they put a lot of effort into the marriage and you know some people
say I don't fight me my spouse never fight and I'm thinking it's because you
never talk you guys must not hang out with each other look if you're not
fighting you're probably not even trying but the reality is you want to have a
good marriage you got to put some effort you got to put some energy into it you
know the Bible says drink water is out of thine own sister and in running
waters of them well let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in
the streets let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee let thy
fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth you know you need to
rejoice with your spouse you need to spend time with your spouse you need to
put effort and energy into your relationship and when you're not you
know it's not going to be a good marriage you know good marriages don't
happen accidentally you know it takes a lot of effort takes a lot of energy and
here's the reality if you want to maintain zeal zeal you say man I really
want to be hot for my spouse I want it to be like it was at the beginning I
want to have you know that honeymoon phase again you can you know what you
have to have a zealous routine a zealous routine maintain zeal look what it says
in 1st Corinthians chapter 7 look what it says in verse number 3 let the
husband render unto the wife do benevolence and likewise also the wife
unto the husband the wife hath not power of her own body but the husband and
likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife
defraud ye not one the other except to be with consent for a time that you may
give yourselves the fasting in prayer and come together again that Satan
tempt you not for your incontinence see and let me tell you what you want to
enjoy the aspects of your marriage that are related to marriage you know what
you end up a zealous routine a lot of people they say oh I don't have that
same fire I don't have that same burning for my spouse one of the same zeal for
my spouse well let me tell you what they don't have a zealous routine with a
zealous routine you can maintain that zeal just like people that barely go to
church aren't that excited about church and people that you know barely work out
they don't enjoy working out hey I took a while off of working out and I worked
out again I was sore for like two weeks straight whereas people that work out on
regular basis you enjoy working out you enjoy the benefits of those things and
here's the thing when you're not working out in your marriage you're not being
zealous in your marriage you don't have a good routine you're not gonna be
enjoying that marriage I have one last point I want to talk about quickly go to
your go to Ephesians chapter 6 zealous routines maintains zeal and look this
could be applied to every area of your life I'm just focusing on a few here
that I've noticed that really caused people to stop serving God and we
already have a great group of people here that have zeal but you know what I
want I don't want people to leave and say well I had zeal I remember that
that great time when we were there I want them to maintain that zeal I want
them to be maintaining good works and carry forward and we see it to the next
event and the next event and the next event and the next event and then we're
in the final event heaven and you're saying oh man I was just constantly on
fire for God and you say how did I do it you had a zealous routine a zealous
routine and let me say this when you make a zealous routine you may not have
a lot of zeal in the moment what I'm saying is that zealous routine could
take someone that's not that zealous and it'll give you that zeal it'll produce
zeal it'll build zeal but it also to maintain that zeal it'll carry forward
look at Ephesians chapter 6 and look at verse number 4 the Bible reads and he
father's broken out your children wrath but bring them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord here's another area that I see people sometimes not
having a zealous routine is in the area of children and what do I mean by that
well go view into Proverbs 23 for a moment go to Proverbs chapter 23 but it
takes a lot of effort and energy when it comes to children in fact this is what I
say I say that children is the hardest thing you'll ever do but it's always
worth it it's the hardest thing you'll ever do raising children but it's always
worth it and you're gonna get out what you put in to your children and I've
seen a lot of people sometimes I think they lose zeal when it comes to child
raising because it's difficult because there's a lot of things and aspects and
there's a lot of things you have to do in order to enjoy raising children but
the Bible does say and I'll read for this for you it says I charge thee
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and elect angels they'll observe these
things without preferring one before another doing nothing by partiality
according to the Bible if you want to be successful you can't do just one thing
you kind of have to do it all just like your car you can't just make it on oil
alone you need gas you can't make it on gas alone you need oil you need a lot of
aspects to all kind of be running smoothly you can't just neglect certain
areas and expect success and when it comes to child raising you know you
can't just expect well the fact that we're having lots of children I'm gonna
enjoy it no there's other things you have to do to continue having that zeal
for children otherwise you can lose a zeal for children you know having lots
of children doesn't automatically make you really zealous for raising children
but here's something that will help and keep maintaining that zeal it's called
discipline look at Proverbs 23 verse 13 withhold not correction from the child
for thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die thou shalt beat him with
the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell the Bible teaches that you're
supposed to discipline your children on a regular basis and I'll tell you this
I see lots of different families lots of different people with all kinds of
different kids and you can tell the families that discipline well the
families that don't and let me tell you something about the families that do
versus the families that don't the families that do are enjoying their life
are enjoying their children they enjoy going out to eat at a restaurant they
enjoy going to church and I notice the families that are not disciplining well
they're not using the rod of correction well you know what they don't enjoy
anything they don't enjoy being at home they don't enjoy being at the restaurant
they don't enjoy being at church and you can tell this is virtually everybody
else in the world in fact a lot of the people in the world have one kid they
have one child and they see a family of five six seven and they're like how do
you do it they're freaking out they're like this one's a tyrant and I'm
thinking it's you don't discipline them you know every time we go recently we
had somebody look are they all yours and I'm thinking just look at them you know
yeah all mine okay and and and frankly I don't even think that our kids are like
exceptional or I don't think that they're more well-behaved than other
people typically you know especially in a fundamental Baptist Church but it's
such a stark contrast in the world that we're constantly complimented we go out
to a restaurant I mean we're oftentimes we're not even thinking our kids are
behaving well but then just strangers just come up and they're just like wow
you know your kids are so well behaved I can't believe you take them out to a
restaurant and it's like it's great you know we don't want to be at home and
it's fun to go out every once in a while it's fun to enjoy these things but I
want to keep having children and if you want to keep having children you need to
enjoy the children that you have and if you want to enjoy the children that you
have you need to discipline them and the people that are not disciplining I see
that it it destroys the zeal they have in their heart I see they're not as
excited when they have the next one when they're pregnant with the next one
they're not as excited when they start to grow and to multiply and you know
what the Bible says be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth you
know it's a commandment for God's people to multiply physically and spiritually
and you know I don't believe in birth control the Bible doesn't believe in
birth control the guy that practice at Onan was killed for practicing birth
control and the reality is it's called birth control not conception control
okay conception is when a child is produced birth control is called murder
Bibles says thou shalt not kill it's the Bible memory verse that we've been
working on and the reality is I'm not trying to have as much birth control as
I can by killing my children and I see that children are sorry children are not
well disciplined often provide birth control to others because they're like
well I don't want to be like them and I don't want to see all these rowdy kids
and you know I don't want my church to be an advertisement for birth control
when they look at all these rowdy children the reality is if you want to
have zeal towards children you want to really love and cherish your children
you know what it comes with discipline and if you don't discipline your
children you're tempting hell with their life and I see a lot of people they have
children already raised and they don't enjoy that child because they didn't
discipline that child and you know what they lose the zeal and the love they
have for that child because they didn't love them when they were little and use
the rod the Bible says he that spareth the rod hated his son go over to 1st
Peter chapter 2 I'm almost finished this evening but here's one other area that
I'll give you just a tip and this is my suggestion also is obviously having lots
of children can be stressful it's very difficult but I feel like some people
aren't doing themselves any favors and when you're not disciplining you're not
doing yourself any favors and the Bible already said we do things partially it
doesn't work out as well well here's another thing that I feel like some
people are doing partially and it's obviously circumstantial but the reality
is the Bible talks positively about breastfeeding you know it says the
blessings of the breast the Bible says even the sea monsters draw at the breast
and give suck under their young ones and I see some people that are capable of
breastfeeding they have that blessing from the Lord and they choose not to do
it they choose to forego that and it oftentimes will complicate your child
raising it can complicate in the fact that your child some people are
basically bringing back Irish twins you say what's Irish twins it's where you
have two children in less than a year okay and look if you have two children
in less than a year praise the Lord you know children are always a blessing
there's nothing negative with ever having a child and you know what I want
to have as many children as I possibly can but the reality is when you forego
something that the Bible is constantly mentioning and bringing up as a positive
thing you know it sometimes can make things more difficult and zealous
routines maintain zeal I've seen a lot of people forego breastfeeding and they
have kids I've seen people have four or five kids and a period of three years
and look I'm just being really honest here when they tell you that they're
pregnant they're not even excited they're kind of they're kind of down
about it they're kind of they're kind of frustrated they're like I'm pregnant
again what am I going to do and I want people to be only excited when you have
a child because that's the right reaction you know the right reaction to
have a child is to be excited it's a blessing from the Lord it's a gift from
God and the reality is children are always great and I don't want to
discourage anybody from having as many kids as they possibly can you know what
having kids you know the way God designed our bodies is going to be the
best it's always going to be the best and you know if you do choose to
breastfeed your child one thing happens you can't get pregnant within the first
six months on a ninety nine point nine percent I mean with human error rate
obviously that's there but you can't and it's going to protect your body and it's
going to protect you from having so many kids close together that you may lose
some zeal for child raising because it can be very difficult to have lots of
littles if you're not disciplining if you're having so many so close together
and I'll tell you this my wife is just a personal anecdote but my wife when we
were first having children she did not want to breastfeed at all she thought it
was like gross or she thought that it was weird and it's mostly from the baby
boomer generation which really forsook a lot of breastfeeding they really decided
they didn't want to do that they were very negative towards it and it's put
this attitude into a lot of people and it's kind of given them a bad taste in
their mouth but you know now my wife loves it she really enjoys it she says
she's so excited to come back to it in fact there's been times where she's like
I'm I miss the fact that I'm not nursing anyone she really enjoys it and look
breastfeeding can be difficult to be painful obviously some people struggle
with it and you know hey you got to get your kid fed I get that but what I'm
saying is if you want to maintain zeal and having lots of children if you want
to be enjoying it to the best of your ability you should be doing the things
that the Bible emphasizes teaches promotes and the Bible promotes
breastfeeding look what it says in first Peter chapter number two look at verse
two as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow
thereby if so you've tasted that the Lord is gracious now here's the thing
the Bible is a spiritual book and this is spiritual verse but God uses carnal
truths to explain spiritual truths and the carnal truth just as a newborn babe
desires that sincere milk of the word is how a new Christian should desire the
Word of God and wants to be fed and wants these things to be nourished and
the reality is when you do these things it's gonna help you and your child
raising it's gonna help you and your family and and I really encourage this
because I don't want people to be disheartened towards raising children
having lots of children I want them to have as many kids as they can and they
think that you can ride a mountain bike on first gear but you know sometimes you
need to shift gears a little bit it makes it a little bit easier I don't
want to do more effort than I have to I don't want to do more work than I have
to and you know following all of God's plan is always gonna be the best and so
I would encourage you you know to start creating zealous routines in your life
go if you would to Titus to this last place we're going to look at Titus
chapter number two zealous routines maintain zeal and a proper main take
proper main maintenance creates a smoother ride you know if you don't put
oil in the cars you know to jerk starts doing weird stuff you don't discipline
your kids it starts to get a jerky ride you know you don't follow God's
commitment you're not going to church your life's gonna start getting kind of
jerky you're not spending time with your wife it's gonna be a rough marriage it's
gonna be difficult it's gonna be frustrating and I want you to have zeal
in these areas I want you to have zeal for your children I want to have zeal
for your spouse I want you have zeal for the things of God but it's not gonna
come automatically it's not gonna come magically what you have to do is you
have to create a zealous routine look at Titus chapter 2 and look at verse 13 the
Bible reads looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our
great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous
of good works we're looking to the coming of Christ that's that's what
we're all looking forward forward to and we're excited about but I want my
journey and I want your journey to the coming of Christ to be with zeal but I'm
telling you what it's not gonna happen by accident you must create zealous
routines in order to maintain that zeal you have this night let's close the word
of prayer thank you Heavenly Father for the instructions and the commandments
that you've given us I thank you for so many families that want to come out and
hear the Word of God preached and I pray that you would just bless this week
that you would help people to be inspired by the Word of God to create a
zealous routine so they can maintain the zeal they have in their hearts