The title of the sermon tonight is Steps for New Convergence to Christ, Steps for New Convergence
to Christ. And you're like, why are you preaching this, Pastor Thompson? Well, people that are new
to Christ need to know what they're supposed to do next. And I'm going to make some things
relative to you all in this room too. But not everybody here has been saved for years
and years and years, I'm sure. I mean, can I get a raise of hands of who's been saved
in here at least 10 years? Raise your hand. 10 years. All right. Has anybody been saved 15 years?
Yeah, 20?
Rami's been saved since he was six years old, so he's been saved a long time. But
what about five years? Five years or more? Okay, what about four? Three?
Two? All right, well, we got three is the lowest. All right. Well, I mean,
there's people who've been saved for 20 years that are still babes in Christ. So think about
that. So I mean, this sermon is for people that are new converts to Christ, but maybe this
sermon can also help. Maybe this is a sermon you could recommend to somebody that you get
saved because it's important for people to kind of be directed once they get saved, isn't it?
I mean, we had that young man get saved, and we offered to baptize him, and he ended up not
doing it, but I don't think we would have been able to do it because the tide is out. But
what, you know, what are people supposed to do? They're supposed to get baptized right after
they get saved, right? And we see in Acts chapter number 16 in verse number 41, it says,
then they gladly received it. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized,
and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
So early in the early empowered by the spirit church in the New Testament,
you know, Peter gets up and preaches this great sermon, and he's preaching concepts to them
that are maybe things that they don't know about, like the coming of the Lord,
David, you know, Jesus Christ ascending into hell, not being left in hell.
But he also, in the last of the chapter, let's, I got to turn over there real quickly,
Acts chapter two, sorry. But anyway, so what does it say there though? The first,
when they gladly received him, what does that actually mean? That they received Jesus as their
Savior, right? That's what it means, and so it says they were baptized. And you see that as
a theme throughout the whole New Testament, where when people get saved, they genuinely get
baptized right afterward. So, and yesterday we had a couple converts that got saved, and the same day
they got baptized. So that's kind of what gave me the idea for the sermon. But how often
does that happen anymore? I mean, early on in the book of Acts, and I'm sure throughout time,
a lot of people would get saved, and you know, that day would get baptized. But
brother Wayne was telling me that someone, you know, said, oh yeah, I'll be at church
this Sunday, right? It was this Sunday, and how many times have you heard that?
And I know that people come back to me, and they go, pastor, I talked to this person. They
really seem really into what we were saying, and you know, they got saved. They said they're
coming for sure, and then how often do they really actually come? It's not very often. So
I've learned to just not get my hopes up in those types of situations, but you know,
yesterday was a very pleasant surprise. You know, someone actually came, and got baptized,
and hung out with us. We fellowshiped with them, but I still haven't gotten all the way
to where I needed to get. So sorry, hang on a second. Acts chapter number two, we're in verse 41,
but it says in verse 42, there's kind of a list here of kind of how
they fellowshiped together, and things like that afterwards. So they got saved. They got baptized.
They're added to the church. Notice that when someone gets baptized, they're added
to that church, and it says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.
So they learned doctrine, and it says in fellowship. So we're supposed to fellowship
with other believers. We're supposed to get plugged in with other believers,
and it says in breaking a bread. We did that here today. We broke some, you know,
pizza's bread, right? It says and in prayers. So you know, we've prayed together today.
We've prayed together several times already. That's what the new believer's life should be like,
following after God, doing the things, being plugged into the church,
breaking a bread in prayers. It says in great, and fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, and all that believed were together,
and had all things in common. So they're all hanging out together. They have all things in
common. You know, it used to be talking about football. Now it's talking about the Bible.
When, you know, when you have a Bible involved, people talk about the Bible. Well,
hopefully, you talk about the Bible. At our church, after the services, we talk about the
Bible. Guys get together, and we're like, well, what do you think about this verse? What do
you think about it? See, the pastor was wrong right here. No, they don't do that.
But we talk about the Bible because there's some things that are not really certain.
Like maybe we don't, we're not 100% sure it could mean one thing or the other sometimes.
And so we kind of talk about that kind of stuff, or just insights that we have,
and we have a good time doing that. We'll sit there and talk about the Bible for a long
time, and that's the way it should be in a healthy church, right? But it says,
and sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need,
and they continued daily in one accord in the temple. So they hung out every day. You know,
we hang out three times a week. We have, we're three to thrive, but I mean, obviously,
this is Saturday. So now you're four to thrive. So I mean, it's good. It's good to be
hanging out together with other believers because, you know, if you're doing good things,
if you're doing good deeds, if you're, you know, together with the believers,
you have less of a chance that you're going to just have a sinful day, right? I mean,
we've been together all day, and maybe the most sinful thing you did was stubbed your
toe and said, dang, or something. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I mean,
maybe you yelled at your kid or something, but they probably deserved it. So that's not
really sinful. But anyway, you know, you're just less likely to fall into sinful
things when you're hanging out together with other believers. And it says,
and they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread, see, it brings up
breaking bread twice, and from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness
of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. So it gives us these lists of things that these new believers
were doing, and they're obviously new believers because 3,000 people get saved in one day.
So what I'm preaching about is the steps for new converts to Christ. And if you're saved,
you have all your sins forgiven. You've obtained everlasting life through faith in
Christ alone. If that's not how you got it, then you're not saved.
So what comes next? Well, you get baptized. In verse 41, it says that they were baptized
the same day. Now turn over to Acts chapter 16, verse number 30, and we'll get rolling here.
Acts chapter 16, verse number 30 is another example of when someone gets saved and baptized
immediately. I kind of brought it up in my sermon before, but it says in Acts 16,
verse 30, it's talking about the Philippian jailer, the one that put Paul and Silas in
jail and locked him up. He's about to kill himself. Paul says, don't do it. And then it
says, and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? So he asked Paul and Silas,
what do I got to do to be saved? And he's not talking about from the Roman guard,
Praetorium guard or whatever. He's talking about, you know, what do I have to do to be
saved from hell? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved
and thy house. So he's actually predicting the fact that his household is going to get
saved also. And what happens? And it says, and they spake unto him the word of the Lord
and to all that were in his house. And he took them that same hour of the night and
washed their stripes and was baptized, he and all his straight away. So what happens? They
get saved in the same night, the same night, you know, after he washes their wounds from
the beating that they took, they get baptized after they get saved. So that's the first thing
that we're supposed to do is we're supposed to get baptized. It pictures the death, burial,
and resurrection. It represents us walking in a newness of life. Because in reality,
when you're saved, you do have a newness of life. You're a new creature in Christ Jesus
and that baptism pictures your, you know, that you're dead to yourself and that you're
going to live for Christ from here on out. And so that's the next thing that you're
supposed to do. As a new convert, the first thing you do is get baptized. And it says,
and when he had brought them into the house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. So they did what they were supposed to do. The gospel was preached to
them. They got saved. They got baptized. So what's the application for some longtime believers?
Well, let me give you a little bit of application for longtime believers. I don't know
about this room. I think everybody in here is pretty much baptized. I'm not 100% sure about
that because I didn't baptize everybody in here. But maybe you've been saved a long time
and you're not baptized. Well, you know what you should do? You should get baptized. If you're
putting other things before getting baptized, you're putting the cart before the horse,
you're going and doing things out of order. And God is a God of order. He says,
let everything be done decently and in order. And so like just like at the times what
we believe about the Lord's Supper is that you should be baptized before you partake of the
Lord's Supper. You know, some people get irritated with stuff like that, but it's just
like you don't see them and then they gladly received him, then they ate the Lord's Supper
together. That's not what you see. You always see people believing and then getting
baptized. Why? Because that's the order that God wants you to do it in. So we need to do
things after the due order. And we know about Urijah that touched the ark when they were
carrying it the wrong way, weren't they? So we're supposed to do things the way God says to do it.
Why? Because there might be really drastic consequences if you don't. So they're simple,
they're trying to do something right, but I've said this before, the road to hell is paved
with good intentions. You know, there's a lot of people that are dying and going to hell
that did good things or seemingly good things. But the one thing that they didn't count on
is that it's not about your works that get you to heaven. It's about being saved by
faith alone. And so there's a lot of people out there that are probably by the world standards
and maybe even by our standards good people, but by God's standards what they're doing is
ensuring that they're going to hell because they're trusting in something that's never going
to get them there. Right? So an application for someone that's been saved a long time,
why don't you get baptized? What are you waiting for? The special pastor to get you baptized?
You know, I mean, and obviously I'm not saying go to the Jehovah's Witness church and get
baptized, okay? Don't go to a Mormon church and get baptized. Don't go to some,
you know, unsaved devil and get baptized. I mean, go to a Baptist church, go to a saved
man, if you can, and get baptized. Someone that's been commissioned and empowered by God
to, you know, to be a man of God and to baptize, he's actually qualified to baptize you.
It doesn't, it's not about even the denomination necessarily, it's what do they believe. You
know, I personally think that we should get baptized by people that believe the right things.
You know, Jesus Christ, when he got baptized, he didn't go to the Pharisees,
he didn't go to the Sadducees, and they were the religious leaders at that time. Well,
who'd he go to? He went to John the Baptist, you know, because his name was the Baptist,
so I was like, well, I might as well get baptized by him, right? But anyway,
he was a Baptist, he was baptizing people. Jesus said, you know, John didn't even want
to baptize Jesus. He thought he wasn't worthy, and he probably wasn't, but, you know, Jesus said,
suffer it to be so for now, because I must fulfill all righteousness. So Christ had to be
baptized to fulfill all righteousness, you know, because it is a work, isn't it? It's a work,
so you have to actually, it might not be hard work, you know, to go into the water sometimes,
and depending on where you live, it might be like a pleasurable thing to get baptized, like,
ah, you know, you're in Phoenix or something. I don't even know if the water is cold there or
not, but I guess you could get into the mountains and find some cold water. But anyway,
so what's the application for people that have been saved a long time is that you need to get
baptized too. Don't just wait for the unicorn pastor to baptize you, just go get baptized
by someone that is qualified to be baptizing. Number two steps to new converts, get a real
Bible, get a real Bible. Turn to Psalms chapter 12 verse 6, Psalms chapter 12 verse 6,
and you might think, well, you know what, Pastor Tom said, I really don't think I need this
sermon. Well, it's got to get preached sometime. I got to preach about what new converts got to
do at some point, don't I? I mean, at some point you were a new convert, and you probably
would have liked to have heard a sermon that tells you what a new convert should do,
and maybe you just have a sermon that you can point people to, like I said before.
But you need to get a real Bible, all right? If you're going to be a Christian, you're going to
follow after Jesus, so you might as well follow the book that's right. And it's the King James
Bible, if you speak English, if you speak another language, you know, I'm not an expert in
other languages, just English, and I'm not even an expert in that. But I do know that the King
James is the right one, right? Psalms chapter 12 verse 6, the Bible says, the words of the
Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. God's words
as pure as it gets. And it says, thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from
this generation forever. So the Bible actually says that God is responsible to preserve the
Bible for this generation and forever. So you need to get off these garbage Bible versions
that can't save, because you know what, if it's not the pure word of God, it's not going to save.
You know, people say, well, you can get saved from all these other Bible versions. Well,
if the verses are correct, then you could use those verses to try to work on getting someone
saved. But if the Bible version is corrupt, and it says, you know, you're trying to quote
John 3 16, it says, his one and only son, is that verse right? You know, God didn't
sacrifice his one and only son, he sacrificed his only begotten son.
In most of the modern versions, that's what it says. Is John 3 16 a verse that you quote
a lot when you're out soul wanting? It should be. It should be. And because it's super clear,
it says that God loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And so that verse is a great verse.
It shows God's love, it shows who you have to believe in, it shows what you have to believe,
and it shows what you get when you believe. So you want to get a real Bible, and obviously
nobody in here, I don't think, has a problem with the King James, but you know, you want to
point people in the right direction with this. Why did we give that young man a King James
Bible? Why did we do that? So that he could get on the real deal, right? And we try to
make sure that they get the word of God in their hand, we offer to baptize people,
we offer to baptize them, you know, and we offer to, I mean, if you're soul wanting and you get
somebody saved, you should say, hey, come and get baptized, come to church, here's some stuff,
in case you never do see us again, that'll help you along the way. And so we're trying
to just equip people to get saved, to live the best Christian life that they can.
But, you know, if they're picking up the New World Order translation, you know, the
Jehovah's Witnesses false Bible version, you know, they might pick up one from before the
edit that says in Job 6, 6, will the tasteless things be eaten without salt, or is there any
taste in the slimy juice of marshmallow? They might read that and go, this is stupid,
what have I done? I'm believing that they don't even, you know, first of all, if a
marshmallow has slimy juice, it is going to taste like something, it's probably going to be sweet.
It's going to be disgusting, but it's going to be sweet. So, I mean, I don't even want to
imagine how marshmallows get turned into slimy juice, I guess they just, you know,
get put in a bag in the hot sun or something, but what an idiotic way to translate this verse.
You know, the Jehovah's false witnesses, they go and they say, well, we went back to the Greek,
to the right, the best manuscripts, and we translated it. That was your best,
that was your best shot at Job 6, 6, that will tasteless things be eaten without salt?
Here's what the King James says in Job 6, 6, it says, can that which is unsavory
be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the white of an egg? Isn't that a lot
different than the slimy juice of a marshmallow? And you know what, the King James Bible is over
400 years old. In fact, it's 411 years old now in 2022, and you know, it's still right.
We don't have to keep updating it all the time because some idiot translated it.
You know, there were smart men that actually translated the Bible,
and they actually could speak Greek and Hebrew and multiple other languages,
and they used the texts that were received and passed down throughout the ages. They used the
Texas Receptus, they used the Bible that people had used and it was preserved by God.
Now, there are other modern Bible versions that are translated off of things that they say
are older texts and manuscripts. That's even a debate, really. And just because something's
older doesn't necessarily mean it's better. It could be an old, preserved piece of trash
and still be trash, right? But if you have a King James Bible, most people, their Bibles,
you know, they run through, if you read them so much, you're going to have to keep getting
new ones because they're going to get used and beat up and marked up. And so it's no wonder
that there isn't one that's way older because they were all being used and recopied and
redone. So, but if they want to talk about how their books were translated from the
better text, that's just not true. You know, if it says something that's corrupted, that we know
it's corrupted, does not match the received text. And look, there's thousands and thousands
of old manuscripts that agree with the King James. So, if you want to get a good book,
as a new convert, you want to get the right book, then you need to get the King James,
not the new King James, not the King James Easy Reader version. Like, I don't know what
that even means. But I've seen the book, I've looked through it, and they say, we just changed
the thes and nows. They change a lot more than that. And the thes and nows are there for,
you know, for pronouns and context. So you can know who it's talking to. If it says thee,
it's talking to a singular person, isn't it? If it says ye all, it's talking to,
you know, everybody in that context. So the King James is right, even in those things,
because in the Easy Reader version, it just says you for everything.
So you don't know who they're actually talking to, which makes it not really correct. If the
Word of God is pure, and the words are pure, then it's going to tell us who it's talking to,
so that we can understand those things. And that's just a simple argument. But, you know,
it's been translated into English, and the guys that translate it were really smart guys.
And yeah, maybe some of them were baby sprinklers. But that doesn't mean they weren't
smart. Doesn't mean that they didn't know how to translate. You know, there's a lot of people
that translate just in day-to-day life, and they don't have to be King James only, like,
they don't have to be saved Baptist in order to translate from Spanish into English.
They just have to be able to speak the language and know how to translate it correctly, right?
So these guys, they took the best manuscripts that were available and translated it so
that we had a great version. There was already other good versions of the English,
and then the King James just perfected that and made it the best English copy that there is.
You know what? It's still getting people saved today. Today, we had someone saved out of a
King James Bible. It's not archaic. It's not some dinosaur that can't be used to save people.
It's the Word of God, and it always will be. Look at 1 Peter 1 verse 23. 1 Peter 1 verse 23.
And you know what? Without the right word, people aren't going to get saved.
The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 123, it says, being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the Word of God. I heard someone preach this not too long ago,
and they were just like, oh yeah, the corruptible seed, it's not talking about the Bible.
It's talking about your flesh. Okay, well, if you want to take that interpretation,
that's fine, but what does the next part of the verse say? By the Word of God. So what is the
seed? It's the Word of God. What's the corruptible seed? Something that's not the
Word of God. I mean, it's not really that hard to figure out. You don't have to be a
major in English in order to figure that out. It tells you right there, by the Word of God,
which liveth, abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower
of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the Word by which, excuse me, the Word which by the Gospel
is preached unto you. So what is the, how do you get the Gospel? By the Word of God.
You preach the Word of God. That's what it's talking about. That's the context of what it's
talking about right there, isn't it? Is that you get preached to by the incorruptible Word of God
and that's how you get saved. That's the Gospel that's preached unto you. The good news,
the glad tidings. And look, you can't just take the Word, your own words and get people saved.
You can't take some corrupted manuscript and get people saved. Why are we King James only if
all the other modern Bible versions can save people too? I wouldn't even care if someone had
a modern version as long as people could get saved out of it. What's the difference
as far as getting people saved? But obviously God doesn't want corrupted manuscripts around.
They're straight out of hell. When some bull dyke is the one that's translating the NIV,
do you think that God's in that? I don't think so. It's not even a bull dyke. It's like an
omnigender. I don't even know what that means exactly, but it looks like an omnigender.
I forgot what the freak's name is, but that was on the committee to translate. So
you need to have the right text. You need to have the right Bible and that's the King James.
It's tried. It's true. At 411 years old, still saving English speakers today. Still saving
English speakers yesterday. Still saving English speakers last week, last month, last year.
1611, 1711, 1811, 1911, 2011. Still saving people all that time. What's wrong with it?
Why do we got to keep having all these new translations? No other translation is getting
people saved like the King James is. Do you think anybody else in this park today pulled
out anything besides the King James to show someone the gospel? No, because most of the time
people that read those versions don't even go soul winning. They wouldn't even know how to
lead someone to Christ even if they had a Bible in their hand because they don't even
really read those perversions. The King James is the most read Bible in the world. I don't
care if it's not the top selling one right now, it's still the most read and that's a fact
because who wants to read something that sounds like a robot printed it out from a computer?
He has chosen the old human one. Like they try to make it like, you know, where
they don't say man, they just say a human one or something. That's ridiculous. Nobody talks
like that. Only robots talk like that. I mean is that the Garrett Kurchway translation or what?
Anyway, look people, the King James still works. We can still understand it. It's still good
today. There's nothing wrong with it. Maybe you just need to get smarter and learn how to
understand English. Open up a dictionary if you don't know what the word means because every
single word in this book is found in a modern dictionary. It's not archaic if it's not in a
modern dictionary. If you look up a word online and it says archaic, it might not even be archaic
because if it's in the dictionary, it's not archaic. Archaic means it's just not in use
at all. Nobody uses it for that reason. Like, you know, James White, how he said,
you know, Ado is, you know, who knows the word Ado? It's like it's not Ado, idiot. It's Ado.
You know, it's supposedly an expert in Bible translations that doesn't even know what the
word Ado means. Much Ado about nothing. Anyway, so turn to Acts chapter 8 verse 35.
Why is the King James so important? Why is it so important to have a good Bible?
Well, because the modern Bible versions, not only do they translate Job 6-6 into something
that sounds ridiculous, you know, like some camp scout leader, you know, interpreted that
verse or something while he was eating marshmallows at the campfire or something, but they take whole
verses out. The NIV has like thousands of changes to it, but most modern Bible versions take out Acts
8-37. Let's look at Acts 8-35 though. It says, and Philip opened his mouth and began to
have the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way,
they came into a certain water and the eunuch said, see here's water what doth hinder me to be
baptized. So here's again an example, we'll just go back to the point number one,
where Philip gets his guy saved, this guy wants to get baptized. He's asking Philip about being
baptized. Philip didn't even have a chance to ask him. He just knows he's supposed to get baptized.
Where are we at in 2022? Anyway, Acts 8-37 says, and Philip said, if thou believeth with all
thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son
of God. Now, most translations, there'll be an asterisk next to that verse if it's still in
there, or it's just completely gone. Why would they want that verse to be completely gone?
Because then you don't have to do anything to be baptized. Then you believe that baptism
is what actually saves you. Look at verse 38 says, and he commanded the chariot to stand still,
and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
So, but if you take out verse 37, what do I, what doth hinder me to be baptized?
And he commanded the chariot to stand still. You know, that skips the process of the fact
that you have to be saved to get baptized. That's what's wrong with it. And if all the
modern Bible versions say that, then they're trash. Because you know what? If you don't believe
that Jesus is the Christ, if you don't believe he's the son of God, and you're not saved,
you have no business getting into baptismal. You have no business being submerged underwater
and baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. You know, that's why
a bunch of Catholics, you know, they sit there and sprinkle kids, or the, or the Orthodox
church dunks people, you know, they dunk people, little babies three times. It's weird. You know,
it says to just submerge once, you know, they come out of the water. It doesn't say
John the Baptist took Jesus and, and thrashed him three times in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He just came up out of the water one time.
Because you're only born again. The picture is being born again. You're not born again,
again, and again. Right? They do it because of the trinity or whatever they,
whatever reason they do it for, but it's wrong practice. And why aren't they practicing it right?
Because they don't have a right Bible. So, and they're a bunch of pedophiles. Anyway,
it doesn't surprise me that the Catholics get stuff wrong. So the other thing that's great
about the King James is there's no copyright. You know why you can go and buy King James at
really cheap prices? Because they're not copywritten. You know, unless you're getting like some kind
of, you know, one with multiple maps or some kind of special way to study the Bible or whatever,
but most King James Bibles are not copywritten, and they're copywritten because of the maps.
They're copywritten because they're a study Bible. You know, so-and-so's study Bible. Well,
you should stay away from study Bibles anyway, because they get a bunch of unsaved people,
and then put their commentary at the bottom of a page so that you'll be like, well,
I don't really understand this verse. It's kind of hard. What, what does Matthew Henry
say who believed in baptismal regeneration? You know, well, you're going to an unsaved mind to
try to interpret a scripture for yourself. Hey, you know, the, if you're saved, you have the
Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will help you to understand the verses. Hey, and maybe if
it's, if it's a tough one, you just don't get it, just move on. Don't stop your Bible
reading because you're stumped on one verse. You know, keep reading, and maybe the next time
through, God's going to give you the answer and help you to understand what that verse means.
Maybe you just don't need to know that right now. God doesn't give you all knowledge instantly
the moment you get saved, because it would be like brain overload. There's so much to the
Word of God. It's so deep. Even just the secondary and third meanings sometimes takes a
while for you to get, because, you know, it is like an onion. There's lots of different layers
to it, and so the Bible is a book that's alive. It's something that's spiritual. It's
something that, you know, is spiritually discerned, and you know, you don't have to
have spiritual discernment for these dumbed down versions of the Bible that they're putting
out now, and, you know, they're just trash, and you know what? They're all copywritten.
You know why? Because somebody wants to make money off of God's Word and just, you know,
dominate and control the market. You know, why do they always come out with these new modern
Bible versions? So someone could get rich off of them, that's why, instead of just making
it free. You know, the King James, you know, you might have to pay for a Bible, but you
know what? You could actually take a Bible and take your own notepaper and copy it down
for yourself, and that's not illegal to do, but you couldn't do that with the NIV.
You know why? Because it's copywritten. It'd be against the law. You could be imprisoned
or fined for doing that, and you know why? Because it's not the Word of God.
The Word of God is free, so it might not be free at Barnes & Noble, but you can get a
cheap copy at the Dollar Tree, and it's a dollar. Well, maybe it's $1.25. Is the
Dollar Tree $1.25 now? Is that right? I haven't been there. I won't go there anymore now.
$1.25, that's just way too much. I'm teasing. So the great thing about the King James is
it's not copywritten. I looked up this article, just happened to catch this article last night,
and it says this. I'll read the article for you. It says,
want to quote the Bible in your book? You may need permission to do that. You wouldn't think
it, but it's true. You can't quote extensive passages from the Bible even if the gospel is
free. Every now and then, over the course of my editing Christian books and coaching Christian
authors, I have been asked about what are the restrictions on quoting scripture.
What a weird question to ask. Here's my nice and neat answer. I hope it helps. Many times,
you will not need to get permission to quote scripture if you use it sparingly.
This is what he's saying to Christian authors. Ideally, people are coming to your book to read
your thoughts on the topic. They can read the Bible themselves. So if you're using scripture
to provide evidence for a statement you're making, that's perfect. To find out a little more
about what the word count limits are for quoting different Bible versions,
visit BibleGateway.com. Go to the list of Bible versions. Click on the version in question,
then click on copyright information tab. The publisher details will be there, and sometimes
the copyright restrictions will be listed there as well. When that info is not there,
you'll need to contact the publisher or investigate the publisher's permission page
on their website to find out more. Usually the word count allowance for quoting scripture is fairly
high, but again, I would not recommend quoting so much scripture that you need to ask for
permission. You know what I love about the King James Bible? We can quote as much as we want.
We can say as much as we want, and you know what? We don't have to ask for permission.
So it says, and just in case it helps, oh, let me see. Usually the word count, okay,
but again, I would not recommend quoting so much scripture that you need to ask for permission.
It can get too expensive. So you have to pay to use other modern Bible versions
if you're going to use the scriptures in your book. Isn't that sick? You have to ask
for permission, and then it says, and just in case it helps, the King James version of the
Bible is public domain. So that means that there are no copyright restriction and permission
is not needed to quote it at all. But yet, in these new modern Christian authors books,
do you think that they use the King James so they don't have to pay more? They'd rather
pay more and use a corrupt manuscript than use the King James, which is the word of God.
That should tell you something. So we need to make sure that we're using the right book,
we're reading it, and now that you're saved, you can understand it. So it'll teach you,
it'll give you counsel, it'll get you understanding, and you'll find out what God actually expects
from you, what he expects for your life, you know, and you need a King James. You need
something that's good. You need to equip yourself with the right Bible. So here's some
application for those that have been saved for a long time. How many saved Christians out there
know that they can understand the King James but they don't even read it? How many Christians
are there that are King James only and they don't read it? Why aren't you reading it? Why
don't you have a plan? Why don't you read it at least one time a year? As a saved Christian,
you should be reading it. You should be, you know, most people said they were saved here
over three years. So how have you read it cover to cover? Have you read the whole thing cover
to cover even one time? You know, the excuse of I don't have time only lasts for so long.
But how could someone say that they're, you know, established in the faith and that,
you know, you might be a good Christian in a lot of areas but if you've never even read the Bible
cover to cover, how are you not a babe in Christ? You are still a baby in Christ. You
know, my grandson's here. He's like three months old and you might be the same age as him,
spiritually. If you haven't read the Bible, you know, then if you only read a third of the
Bible, you know, or a quarter of the Bible, then you're a spiritual babe in Christ.
And there's nothing wrong with being a spiritual babe in Christ, but if you're saved for 20 years
and you've never read the Bible cover to cover and you're still a little baby, there is
something wrong with that. You need to, you know, it's not that hard. Seven and a half
minutes in the morning, seven and a half minutes at night, you'll get the Bible read cover to
cover in one year. Let's move on. So number three, get into a good church that preaches the
Bible. Get into a good church that preaches the Bible. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24.
Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24. Does it matter what church you go to? Yeah, it matters what
church you go to because there's a lot of charlatans out there. There's a lot of false
prophets out there. There's a lot of heretics out there and, you know, even so-called
independent fundamental of King James Baptist. There's a lot of them out there that are not
good. You know, how do I know they're not good? Well, if they're not preaching that
salvation is by faith alone, they're automatically not good to me.
Now there might be saved people in those churches that are fooled by these people,
but if a pastor, after being corrected, he's still saying that you have to repent of all
your sins to be saved, that pastor is not saved. And I don't care who says what about it.
If they're going to stick to their guns over something like that, they're not saved.
If they say you have to repent of your sins or you can't be saved, you have to be sorry
for your sins or you can't be saved, and they stick to that, it's not just a word jargon thing.
People can be mixed up. I get that. But if someone is actually saying that they're,
you know, that you can't be saved unless you've turned from all your sins, that person's not
saved. Period. It's a false gospel. You know, how much room do we have to give the false
prophets, huh? How much room do we have to keep giving them? Well, you know, you just got
to give them a little time. No. They should be able to be straightened out with one verse.
If they're saved, they're going to understand it, and they're going to turn from that stupidity
that is the false repent of your sins gospel. It's false. How many people are sent to hell
because of that wicked doctrine, and then we're just going to give people slack on it all
the time? I don't think so. You know which ones are and which ones aren't. If someone can turn,
they'd be like, yeah, I was using the wrong lingo for that. You know, I just meant that a
person had to admit that they're a sinner, which is still something different, but I can see
how that could happen, but once you show them, hey, it's by belief only, you know,
and if you're a pastor, how do you not know that by now? You haven't read the Bible enough
to know that the Bible says it's by faith alone? Come on. I'm sick of that excuse.
Quit giving people free excuses to just, you know, preach a false gospel. Anyway,
Hebrews 10 24 says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto 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, you know, we're supposed to go to church. Why? So we can encourage people to do good works.
So we can, you know, exhort people to do good works. And you know what? It's because God
said to. He said not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. And, you know,
I can't pick on anybody right now because you're all here. But there's people that weekly
only show up for one church service, and I know for a fact that they live in town.
And it's just like, I just, I can't understand that. I will never be able to wrap my brain
around that. There's been times when in my past, way past Christianity, where I would be like,
oh, yeah, I got an excuse to stay home tonight or whatever. But, you know,
I, here's one thing I don't, I mean, if you're helping with someone, a kid that's sick,
I understand that where everybody stays home or maybe you're both sick or something.
But some people just, you know, the whole family stays home if one person's sick.
That's ridiculous. Get to church. If you're not sick, go to church, you know. And people,
people just find any excuse they can to not go. And it's just ridiculous. So how are we
supposed to encourage a new believer that just came into church and we're like, hey, you know,
come to church every time the doors are open. But so-and-so has been saved for 20 years,
can't even get their butt in church for one service a week. Or we see him one week and
then we don't see him for three weeks. It's like, what are you doing? What exactly are you
doing? You know, if you show, what, you're giving God your leftovers? Oh, well, God, I didn't
have to work this Sunday. And, you know, the sport, the Seahawks lost in the playoffs. And,
you know, there's no, I'm in between sports season, so I guess I'll show up for Sunday.
It's like, that's ridiculous. You're giving God your doggie bag. Here you go, God. Here's
my leftovers from, you know, the pizza place last night. You know, I'll grace myself with
your, you know, or yourself with my presence, God. It's ridiculous. But anyway, we should be
in church. 1 Timothy 3 15 says, but if I tarry along, thou mayest know how thou oughtest to
behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar
and ground of the truth. Why should you be in church? So you can get plugged into the pillar
and ground of the truth. Why should you choose a good church to go to? Well, so that you can
get plugged into the pillar and ground of the truth. So you can actually listen to someone
preach the Bible that's going to edify you and encourage you and, you know, maybe step on
your toes and say get your lazy carcass in church. Quit being lazy. Quit being weak. You know,
get to church and encourage other people. You're not the only person in the church.
So why are you just skipping out whenever you feel like it? It's ridiculous. It is ridiculous,
folks. And, you know, using the same old tired excuse is ridiculous too. You know, peel yourself
off the sofa and get to church. I'm tired too. You think I'm not tired? I'm tired.
But I still go to church, don't I? I kind of have to. I'm the pastor, but I mean,
pastor's not here at church again. Seahawks must be on TV.
How, you know, how would it be, how would you feel if I just did that? If I just, you know,
missed church for every little, oh, you know, it's my cousin's bar mitzvah and I'm not really
Jewish, but, you know, you just make up any excuse as to not, why did I go to church?
Oh, I'm trying to reach him, you know, with the gospel. I know he's Jewish.
I mean, quit, just quit. I've heard it all. I've heard it all, you know, and there's that old
excuse about there's milk in the fridge when, you know, when you, oh, I can't come to church
because I got milk in the fridge. You know, when you don't want to do something, one excuse is
just as good as the next. So just tell me you got milk in the fridge next time you don't
want to come to church. But why do we come to church? So we can get some sound doctrine,
you know, so we can hear a man of God with a backbone, not be afraid of his own shadow,
not be afraid of what his Bible college preacher say about them because they, you know,
decided to actually teach what the Bible says. So that's what a lot of independent Baptist
churches, and I'm going to pick on them a little bit because a lot of them are afraid
to preach against something that's different than what their Bible college teaches.
Because it's really a Bible college club, and if you get out of the good graces of that Bible
college club, you actually want to be independent and you want to say, hey, you know, maybe the
Bible doesn't say that there's a pre-trib rapture. Maybe I should actually study the
Bible for myself instead of just doing whatever my Bible college instructor said. You know,
that's why they hate us. That's why they hate our church. I don't have any church pastors
that fellowship with me at all in our area, in Washington, really. I mean, I have one pastor
friend basically, and you know, we don't hang out all the time. We're friendly, but as far,
you know, he texts me every once in a while. We talk. We go out to lunch every once in a
while, but like for the most part, nobody wants anything to do with me. Why not? Well,
because if they chose to hang out with me, all their little Bible college buddies are going
to call them and tell them just how much weird stuff we believe. Like, you know, that Jesus
went to hell for three days and three nights. Blasphemy! You know, they're just like,
it's like, bruh, it says right there, his soul was not left in hell. I mean,
how else do you want us to interpret that? Well, you know, hell, if you go back to the
Greek, actually, it's Gehenna. Shut up, man. Hell means hell. So sick of that stuff, too.
But anyway, I'm getting, this is supposed to be for new believers, right?
But the point is, is that you need to get plugged into a church that you can
get behind. You know, and if you can't get behind their program, then you need to go to
a place that you can get behind their program. You know, this church up here, up north, the
one that this guy is leading right now, has been doing a great job for many years now. You know,
that's a good church to go to. So, but I don't really know a lot of the other pastors in
Canada, but I do know that in B.C. there's a good one. You know, Shura Foundation Baptist
Church North is a great church to go to, and they care. They care about getting you out
and getting you soul winning, you know, trying to inspire you to do great things for God.
You know, is the church perfect? No. Is my church perfect down in Vancouver? No.
Is any church perfect in this world? No. There's no churches that are perfect. You're going to
disagree with some things every once in a while, but there's a difference between disagreeing with
what the pastor says on a specific doctrine that doesn't really mean anything necessarily,
like whether, you know, Jesus is saying that he's the rock in that passage or whether he's
talking about Peter being the rock. You know, we know that Jesus is the rock, but is he talking
to Peter saying that he's the rock? I mean, what's the big deal? Really? The Bible says that
it's built upon the apostles or the prophets and the apostles, and of course Jesus Christ is
the chief cornerstone, a building that's built up of believers, and that we're precious lively
stones, but you know, we're not stones. We're not rocks. I mean, but I'm sorry. I'm proving
my point, but anyway, it doesn't matter whether you disagree with me on that or not. I mean,
is that really the biggest deal? What do I believe? That Jesus Christ is the rock,
so what's the big deal if you believe some nuance that's different than that?
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about just straight-up heresy that gets preached
to other churches, and they don't have a single verse to back it up.
Now, there's damnable heresy, and there's heresy. Okay, heresy is just a belief that,
you know, it doesn't have anything to do with salvation. You know, it's wrong. It's not right,
but it's not something that, you know, they're not saved or something because they believe it.
Now, if you believe that you have to repent of all your sins and turn from your sins,
and that you have to be sorry for your sins to be saved, that's another gospel.
That's a problem, isn't it? If someone believes in the pre-trib rapture,
is that the biggest deal in the world? I mean, it annoys me. It would be enough for me
to leave a church, but, you know, I mean, I've been to churches. I've gone to churches where
they believed it, so I guess it didn't make me leave, but ultimately, here I am, so.
But my point is, of this point, is that you need to get plugged in as a new believer
to a church that you can get behind and a church that's going to preach the truth
and stand on the truth. So, what's the application for long-time believers? Well,
you know what the Bible says about going to church. Why are you forsaking the assembly?
There's some application for you. Why are you forsaking the assembly? Why are you not in a
church? If there's not a church that's close to you, then move to one that is,
that you can get behind. Because look, our life is fleeting. Our life is short. Why waste your
time in a place that's unfruitful? Why waste your time where you can't serve the Lord with
all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength?
You're wasting your time. You're wasting precious years off of your already short life,
doing nothing for God. For what? For filthy liquor? For things that don't matter in this
world? For family? For dogs? For cats? For whatever it is? You know, why don't you get
into a good church where you can serve God with all your might? I just cannot understand that.
I'll never be able to understand it, but there's some application for you. Why don't you get into
a church and get into a church you can get behind? Get your backslidden carcass into church,
all right? Because if you're not going to church, you're not right with God. Isn't that
what the verse said? We're not supposed to forsake the assembly. And look, online church
is not church. It's just that it's online. But isn't it different being here with everybody
else than it is just watching in your jammies, you know, with your popcorn or whatever? And you
know, hold on, babe, pause the sermon real quick. I'll be right back. You know, you're just
like, hold on, I've got to make some pop tarts or whatever. You know, it's like, come on.
It's not the same. Being face to face and being able to enjoy ourselves in fellowship is a
lot better, isn't it? So that's the application. Hey, be there whenever the doors are open.
Get yourself plugged in to a great church. Number four, get a prayer life going. Get a prayer life
going. Turn to Luke chapter 11, verse number one. Luke chapter 11, verse number one. The Bible says,
I'll let you turn there real quick. I'm going to get a drink of water.
The Bible says, and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place,
when he ceased, one of the disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught
his disciples. And he said unto them, when you pray, when you pray, say, Our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. As in heaven,
so on earth. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive
everyone that is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Now this was supposed to be an example prayer. He's just like basically saying,
hey, when you pray, as in you should pray, right? You pray to the Father, okay? And then
the Bible teaches in other places that you pray to the Father in Jesus' name. We address God
as the Father, not as dada, okay? His name is not dada. His name is the Father, God,
God Almighty, the Father, right? And if his name's hallowed, then you're not going to call
him some goofy name that isn't in the Bible, number one. But anyway, let me move on. Thy
kingdom come. So what do we want God to come? And how are we going to help that situation?
Well, it says thy will be done. God's will is going to be done in heaven and earth, but
we want to also do God's will in heaven and earth. What would we pray? Well, hey, God, help us
to help your kingdom. Help us to do something to move your kingdom along. Help us to be a
blessing to your kingdom. Give us day by day our daily bread. Hey, give us the things that
we need, God. Like I said, it's an example prayer. He said not to repeat vain repetitions
like the heathen do. You know, like this, wailing against the wall. Or whatever the,
what did the Greek Orthodox say? They say some, they chant some weird stuff. But anyway,
the Catholics do the same thing. Hail Mary, Mary full of grace, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
They do the Our Fathers. You know, Jesus isn't saying repeat vain repetitions. He's saying,
when you pray, these are the things you should pray for.
And then, hey, forgive my sins that I've committed this day. Now, obviously, you're already forgiven
for all your sins, but the difference between, you know, getting right with God on a daily
basis is like, it's like getting right with your parents. If every day, you know, your
parents are mad at you because you won't clean your room and you just keep, you keep not
cleaning your room and you keep not apologizing, you know, you're going to have a bad
relationship with your parents. And so you don't want to have a bad relationship with God.
You're still saved. You don't have to ask God to forgive your sins to be saved every day,
but you should, you know, deal with your sins on a daily basis, all right? Deal with your sins
on a daily basis with God. So basically, you know, he's given us, you know, something to
have an example of. First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17 says,
pray without ceasing. Now, it's not talking about 24-7-3-6-5 in your dreams, you know,
every moment of every day you're just praying all the time. I don't believe that's what it's
saying because that's number one impossible, okay? You know, you're never going to be able to just
pray 24-7-3-6-5. What it's saying is don't stop your prayer life. Ceasing is stopping to
do something, right? You know, smoking cessation. I don't know why I keep talking about smoking
so much. I don't smoke, just so you know. I know people in here that do though. No,
I'm just joking. I don't know. I really don't. But I don't really care either, you know?
I care in the fact that I would like to help you, you know, pray for you if you are.
Come tell me all your secrets. No, I'm just joking. Well, in the grand scheme of things,
whether you smoke or not, you can still serve God. I'm not saying to smoke, okay? Don't get
me wrong. I'm just saying that some people, you know, won't live a victorious Christian life
at all because they think that because they smoke, they're some kind of leper. You're just
addicted, you know? You're addicted and you need to find the strength to quit, but it doesn't mean
God can't use you. I'll take a brand new person that's saved and take him soloing with me. I
don't even care if they're smoking cigarettes in between the doors. I really don't. I want
them to come soloing, and maybe they still have some bad language in their repertoire,
you know? They're like, the S word. You know, the F word, you know, you might have to say,
hey, you know, settle down there, buddy. Depends on which F word it is, because fag, I'm okay with
that. But the other one is the four-letter one. It's not good. So anyhow, you know, we need to
pray without ceasing. What's the application for older Christians? Well, when's the last time
you got on your knees and begged God for something? When's the last time you actually got
on your knees for anything and prayed for anything? And I'm not saying that you can only
pray on your knees, but there should be a time that you do get on your knees and pray to God.
Isn't there? You know, how often do you pray to Him? Do you pray to Him in the morning? Do you
pray to Him in the evening? Do you pray to Him in the noontime? You know, we all get busy,
we all forget, but we should have some sort of a prayer life. A new believer should start
to do all these things. They should start incorporating a prayer life into their
daily life. And you know how I learned to pray? Like, I just learned to pray by going
to things like this or men's retreats. I remember the first time my pastor ever asked
me to pray, and man, I was so nervous and sounded like an idiot. I still do sometimes, but
you know, it's just, I'd never done it before. It's like all these, you know, spiritual
juggernauts are around here, like the new guy that still smokes. You know, you don't know
how to pray in front of people. It's just the sound, you know, but at our church,
like the song leader's pleasure or revenge sometimes could be to call on someone that's
not paid attention. Or the Bible reader, you know, will say, hey, should I get this done?
You know, and so like if you ever notice in some of our services, like guys will get up and
go to the bathroom like right before, but I don't want to pray today. I'm not feeling the
spirit, and I'll like get up and walk out like, boy, you just don't want to pray.
You backslidden. But that's how you, you know, you learn by doing something.
So you get into a habit of prayer by actually putting that into practice, okay?
Last thing is go soul winning. A new believer should learn how to go soul winning. Matthew
chapter 28 verse 18. Matthew 28 verse 18. The Bible says in Matthew 28 verse number
18, it says, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and
earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you,
and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world. Jesus has all the power,
and guess what? He's left us in charge of getting people saved. So if he has the power,
and he's like, I'm going to give you the power to do the same thing. I'm going to leave you with
this job, and you have the power to get people saved. If you have the Holy Spirit
and a Bible in your hand, guess what? You're a candidate for being a soul winner,
and if you're a new believer, that's the best time to do it. Get in and get your rewards
saved. Get your benefits plan signed up. You know, it's annual enrollment time, you know,
around a lot of workplaces around the fiscal year. Hey, annual enrollment time is when you try
to, you know, put, you know, who's my benefits? Who's, what kind of benefits am I going to sign up for?
Well, you know what? God's going to give you benefits too. He's going to give you benefits
on earth. He's going to give you lots of benefits in heaven, but we're going to get
benefits regardless. You might as well get in on the plan right now, and then start earning
those rewards in heaven, and you know what? It's going to help you to care about other people.
It's going to help you to see the plight of other people, and say, you know what? I want
that. I want to see people saved too. Nothing's more heartbreaking than a person that you get
them all the way to the door, and then they say no. They understand it, but they say no.
Nothing's more heartbreaking than that, but you know what? You did your job. You soul warned them.
You warned them what was going to happen to their soul if they don't get saved, but that's
part of the job. There's ups and downs to it, but you know what's really great is when someone
says yes, I want to trust Christ as my Savior. That's great, and that is going to help you
in the long run as a Christian. Romans 1 15. Go ahead and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
I'm going to read for you in Romans 1 15. It says, so as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach
the gospel to you that are at Rome also. The apostle Paul was ready to preach the gospel.
When he got saved, he just started right away. He started right away, and yeah, maybe it took a
while for Jesus to train him up and to teach him all the knowledge that he needed to be taught,
but that took three years. If you read the book of Galatians, it took three years,
but it didn't stop him. He wasn't not preaching the gospel for three years.
He was still preaching the gospel because you know what? The gospel is simple. The gospel is easy,
and you know what? You can just learn to go through the gospel. You can go out one time
with a soul winner, and if they have a good path, you can just pick up their path or ask
them what their path is, tab your Bible up, and then when you're really, really nervous in front
of someone, you're just like, you know, but God's going to give you that perfect door to get
your first person saved. No matter how much you stumble and bumble through the gospel,
how much of an idiot you feel like you sound like, they don't feel like that. They're
hanging off your every word, and they're like, yeah, and they want to get saved.
It's hard going soul winning for the first time. It's hard when you don't know the path,
but hey, you got to start somewhere, and all you have to do is to, you know,
I kind of just kicked myself out of the nest and just said, you know what? I'm going to start
preaching the gospel, and I just watched Pastor Anderson's how-to videos about soul winning,
and I just put them into practice, and I was sitting there going,
for first, you know, lots of times when I was preaching the gospel, or I was nervous,
but eventually you get over that. It's just like when you preach. Eventually you get over
the nerves, and it's not that big of a deal anymore, but you know, we got to get out there,
and we've got to be ready to preach. If you're just going soul winning, and you don't try to
push yourself to be a talker, you're never going to be a talker. You just won't do it.
You got to have a little bit of motivation in yourself to say, hey, God wants me to be a
soul winner. Jesus wants me to be a soul winner, and you know what? The most quiet people can be
soul winners. You don't have to be some, you know, some person that's just talking all the
time, and you know, they're just real social. You can just sit there and read the verses,
and explain to people just like anybody else, and get people saved. Doesn't matter how shy you are,
there's lots of shy people in our church, and you know what? They get people saved.
They get people saved, so there's no excuses there. You're in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 11,
it says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest
unto God, and I trust also are manifest in your consciences. So we know that the,
what's the terror of the Lord? He's going to cast people into hell for all eternity,
that's the terror of the Lord, and why, and so why would we persuade men? Because we know that
terror is true. So if we know that something bad is going to happen, we should be out telling
people about it. Why aren't more Christians doing this? I don't understand why. Why? They
just don't care. They don't care, and so the laborers are few, the harvest is white,
the laborers are few. How many times do you think Bellingham has been knocked in the last,
however long it's been a town, by independent Baptist soul winners that believe the right
gospel? I could be wrong, I mean, but it probably hasn't been in a while, that's what I would say,
but you know what? The fields are white under harvest. The fields are white under harvest,
and we need laborers to go out into the field, and so, and obviously here's, I believe this also,
that God's only going to give you a certain amount of laborers to start out with at a church,
and then those silent partners that are silent partners, once they become talkers, then God's
going to bring you more people that are silent partners. But until the silent partners get off
their hands and start doing something also, then I don't believe that God's going to just
continue to bring soul winners there because the people that are there aren't obeying.
You know, I mean, that's just my personal belief, and how do I know, how do, why do I
think that? Because I've seen it happen at our church. I've seen it happen where, you know,
people were getting people saved for the first time, and we make a big deal about that. We make
a big deal about that because there's someone that's graduated from a silent partner to a
talker, and that's a good thing, and then God brought us more laborers. So let's see,
where was I at? Verse 12, for we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give occasion
to glory on our behalf that ye may have somewhat to answer them, which glory in appearance
and not in hearts. Talking about the people that they look good, they talk the right talk,
but in their heart they're not what they seem to be. For whether we be beside ourself, it is
to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us,
because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all,
that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for
them. And Rose again, look, the love of Christ constrains us, that's what Paul said,
and he said that they that he died for, hey, we shouldn't live unto ourselves anymore.
Those days are over, folks. If you're a Christian, you shouldn't just be living only to yourself.
You should be living for the one that died for Christ. What's he want you to do?
He wants you to be a worker in his vineyard. You know what? And his rewards are great.
The reward program's great, but you know, you got to get out and do it. So it is true,
once we get saved, we don't have to do anything else for God ever again, and we still stay
saved. That's true, that's what we believe. People have a hard time with that, but that's
what we believe. But my attitude is, once again, it's not that we have to do something,
it's that we get to do something, and we get to work for the King of all the universe. We get to
work for the God that made heaven and earth. You know, we again, once again, we're on the
greatest team. We have the best leader. We have the person, you know, God himself that
we work for, and what better job is there than that? You know, people always say how
they want their dream job. I want to be a sports announcer. I want to be a pro football player.
Well, I want to be this. I want to be that. Whatever it is, you know what, why don't people
say, hey, I want to work for the God that saved me, and you know what, he's going to reward me,
even though he already gave me everlasting life. You know, why would you want to work for
someone that's going to give you those types of benefits? You know, we'll work all day for some
job that, you know, has good benefits, but what about the best benefits? The best benefits
for working for God, and as a new believer, new believers should get plugged into these programs
at church, and we should steer them that way. Don't steer them in a different way. Don't just
start throwing strange, you know, not strange doctrine, but doctrine that they, you know,
maybe they don't need to learn about the rapture right away. Maybe they need to learn
how to go knock doors. I'm not saying don't teach them that. I'm just saying,
you know, we like to say, here, here's all the, here's all the stuff we have about all
this, and Bible versions, and all, you know, that stuff's all great, but why don't we get
them out there and teach them how to pray? Why don't we get them out there and teach
them how to go door-to-door? How to, how to get a good Bible? How, you know, all, how to pray,
how to do all these things? That's what we should get people plugged into,
and then all the other stuff is going to take care of itself, but we got to get people on the
right track so that people stay, because there's a lot of people that aren't staying.
There's a lot of people that just come and go. Look, do you think that the New
Eye Feast, the first movement that ever went soloing and loved to go soloing,
but other movements have died. Other movements have risen and died. The old IFB
used to be a great soloing movement, but now look at them. They won't even, you know,
they, they have bus calling and call that soloing. It's not soloing, folks,
and, you know, the real danger of not getting plugged into church, not getting plugged into the,
just the basic things that God teaches us to do is that you're going to quit.
If you don't have a proper foundation in your Christian life, you're going to quit.
It might not be tomorrow, it might be not next year, or the year after that, or the year after
that, but there's people that have come and gone, and where are they now? They were really
interested in the post-trib, proving that to anybody that walked in the door, or the new world
or revival versions and giving that to them, or, you know, flat earth, or, you know, what,
I'm just kidding. Just, you know, people just get on these hobby horses and look, there's nothing
wrong with wanting to talk about great things in the Bible, but hey, let's steer people,
let's steer our new believers into foundational things that are going to help them in
their Christian life for the long run. If they get trained in these things, then when they
get that doctrine, they're going to be even more well equipped than they are now, and then
they can say what Acts 17 verse 6 says, these that have turned the world upside down are come
hither also, and so when we get people out soul winning, when we get people praying and, you know,
reading the Bible, getting plugged into a great church, all these things, they're going to be
soul winning machines also, but we got to train them right. You know, we got to make sure
that our hearts are right too, because if we're saying, hey, we got to do all this stuff,
and then you're not even doing it, then you look like a hypocrite. Hey, we should be three to
thrive. Are you three to thrive? We should be praying. Do you pray? We should be soul winning.
Do you go soul winning? We should be going to church. Do you go to church three times a week?
Are you being the example? Are you motivating and helping people to maintain,
are you maintaining your good works so that you can rub off on other people,
or do you look like the backslidden redheaded stepchild? No offense redheads, right? So
let's keep these things in mind, and when we get new people, let's not bombard them with things
that, you know, are secondary things. Let's bombard them with how we can, you know, teach
them to do as we have done also, all right? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord,
so much for this great church up in Canada, and Lord, for our church, Sure Foundation Baptist
Church, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to be powerhouses of soul winning and hard
preaching for many years to come, Lord. I pray that whatever comes our way,
that we wouldn't ever back down, Lord, that we'd continue to preach the truth no matter what,
and Lord, I pray that you'd help us when we get new converts, Lord, that we would steer them
in the right direction, and I pray that you would help us to continue in the right direction,
Lord, which is serving you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.