Music
If you could find your seats and grab your songbooks and turn to page number 430
We're going to be singing the Banner of the Cross. Welcome to Shrift Foundation Baptist Church.
If you could find your seats and grab your songbooks and turn to page number 430.
Your blues songbook that is, the Banner of the Cross.
Music
Song 430, the Banner of the Cross and your blues handbooks. Let's sing it out the first.
There's our royal banner given for display to the soldiers of the King.
As an ensign fair we lift it up today while as ransomed ones we see.
Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss.
And to crown Him King, toil and sing, meet the banner of the cross.
Though the foe may rage and gather as the flood, let the standard be displayed.
And beneath its folds as soldiers of the Lord, for the truth be not dismayed.
Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss.
And to crown Him King, toil and sing, meet the banner of the cross.
Wherever land and sea, wherever man may dwell, pick the glorious tidings known.
Of the crimson banner, now the story tell, while the Lord shall claim His own.
Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss.
And to crown Him King, toil and sing, meet the banner of the cross.
For it dawns, destroying very near, it is hastening day by day.
Then before our King the foe shall disappear, and the cross the world shall sway.
Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss.
And to crown Him King, toil and sing, meet the banner of the cross.
Good morning, Brother Alex, could you open a prayer?
Thank you, dear Heavenly Father, for bringing us here to your house. We thank you for your word.
We ask you to bless our service today and fill pastor with the Holy Spirit.
We preach your word so that we can find that in our hearts and take your word. In Jesus' name we pray.
Man, our second song will be song number 412, I Will Sing the Wondrous Story.
Song number 412 in your Blue Hymn books, I Will Sing the Wondrous Story.
Song 412, I Will Sing the Wondrous Story, let's sing it out there on the first.
I will sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me.
How He left His home in glory for the cross of Calvary.
Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me.
In it with the saints sang glory gathered by the crystal sea.
I was lost but Jesus found me, found the sheep that went astray.
Threw His loving's arms around me, drew me back into His way.
Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me.
In it with the saints sang glory gathered by the crystal sea.
I was bruised but Jesus healed me, faint was I from many a fall.
Sike was gone and fears possessed me, but He freed me from them all.
Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me.
In it with the saints sang glory gathered by the crystal sea.
Days of darkness still come over me, sorrows pass I often tread.
But the Savior still is with me, by His hand I'm safely led.
Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me.
In it with the saints sang glory gathered by the crystal sea.
He will keep me till the river rolls its waters at my feet.
And He'll bear me safely over where the loved ones I shall meet.
Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me.
In it with the saints sang glory gathered by the crystal sea.
Good morning everybody. Welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church.
Let's take our bulletins and go through some announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin would you just lift up your hand and one of the ushers will bring you a bulletin.
On our front cover we have our verse of the week.
It says, but exhort one another daily while it is called today.
Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews chapter 3 verse number 13.
Our service times are 10 30 a.m. for our Sunday morning preaching service.
And Sunday evening is at 3 30 p.m.
And Thursday Bible study is at 6 30 p.m.
We're going through the book of Titus right now.
Today I'm going to preach the last sermon from Titus chapter 1.
I just kind of want to get back on track and and finish that chapter.
So we'll be doing that this Sunday evening.
And then our sowing times are there listed below.
We have sowing today at 1 p.m. if you're interested in going if you've never gone sowing with us before.
Brother Sean is leading that.
Will you raise your hand.
OK.
And we do have a WhatsApp group that we use to put all the maps and stuff like that in there.
So if you're new to the church and you're wanting to go soul winning.
Or you're just interested in it.
Go see Brother Sean at the end of the service and he'd be happy to pair you up with somebody so that you can learn how to go soul winning.
And we're not going to ask you to talk at the door or anything like that until you're comfortable doing that.
So we you would be what would be called a silent partner.
Silent partners are just that they're silent and they just learn and observe.
And then as they get as you get comfortable and comfortable giving the gospel then you can become a soul winner too.
So and we're all called to be soul winners as Christians. Amen.
And we also have a Thursday soul winning time at 5 p.m.
And a Friday soul winning time at 3 p.m.
And then Saturday soul winning at 12 p.m.
But then there's also another time at 6 30 p.m.
Brother Sean Collins been going out and they had to save last night at their time.
So praise God for that.
Our regional zoning is where you can get plugged in with people that are just not living in this area.
But they're they're doing some regional soul winning in their areas.
So if you need to get plugged in with one of those regional areas then come see me after the service and I'll direct to the right person.
Our praise report so far this month we've had 11 salvation.
So we're almost past what we did in June which is that's a real low number for June.
It's not normal for us.
But anyway.
So praise God for the 11 people that have gotten saved this month.
And we've had some baptisms and Brother Wynn baptized someone last week and they had a good week's soul winning.
They had 14 salvation this week up north.
And so they're doing a great job up there.
Still keeping it real and all that good stuff.
So they're doing well.
So anyway also our church in England.
I don't know if I announced this or not but they are moving to a new building.
It's kind of crazy how it worked out because they were looking for a building for a long time.
And like they're just kept getting stonewalled and the building that they're in currently they have never had to pay rent there.
It was just kind of like here you go you can use this until we sell the building.
Well last couple weeks ago they had said to Brother Ian that they have 30 days to get out of the building.
And then right after that happened somebody called them or e-mailed them and said that we have a building available for you.
So it's funny how things like that work out for the good right.
So they're moving to a new building in a new area.
It's not too far from the area they're at now.
But it's closer for a lot of people so that's really good.
And they're doing a great job up there.
They've added a Wednesday night service.
So they have three full services going now.
So and their sole meaning is just knocking it out of the park over there.
So anyway that being said let's look at the upcoming events on this week is the Red Hot Preaching Conference.
So Wednesday there is no service there.
OK.
So a lot of people go there and they're like oh we thought there was a service on Wednesday.
There's no service on Wednesday.
I'm sure that you could probably get some maps or something like that if you're planning on going early or if you just want to relax before the conference.
Because the conference goes fast and it does it goes faster than you would imagine.
And there's a lot of preaching a lot of activities going on.
If you look down there you can see the sowing time for Thursday is 2 p.m. services at 6 p.m.
And if you're going to ask me what pastors are preaching what day.
I don't know that I only know when I'm preaching.
So and then the service.
Let's see the service on Friday is at 9 a.m.
So only at 2 p.m. teen activities at 3 p.m. singles activity at 3 p.m. and services at 6 p.m. also Saturday is just is soul winning.
They're probably a short sermon and then there's the ping pong tournament.
If you haven't signed up for the ping pong tournament.
I'm not exactly sure about the details of that.
Does anybody know.
Sean do you know what the details of it are.
Brandon are you our only player going.
Yeah.
OK.
Well I'm sure all that will be announced at the conference if you're planning on going.
So anyway let's see Sunday is the regular service times for Verity.
Pastor Mendez will be preaching at 10 30 a.m.
There'll be so many at two and then the evening services at 6 p.m.
There'll be ice cream served afterwards.
So and on our calendar here in a couple of weeks we're going to be having our fourth year anniversary.
So it's already been four years since we've become sure Foundation Baptist Church and very excited about that.
We'll have Pastor Pizarnsky preaching for us on Friday at six thirty p.m.
On the twenty ninth Saturday will be so many time the morning and then in the afternoon a barbecue and bounce house is a tentatively scheduled for the kids.
I still I have to get permission to be able to do that here.
So I'm probably to block off that area because I don't want you know the homeless people coming over and thinking they're going to enjoy hamburgers with us because if you don't work you don't eat.
Well plus they just leave their trash all over the place and it's just it's been bad.
So I do appreciate the guys that have been stepping up and cleaning things up out there and any ladies that are doing it it's it's it's not a great job to do so.
But anyway that's the plan.
We might end up having to do some other kind of event but we are going to do something family some kind of family fun that day that Saturday.
Pastor Jones will be preaching for us on Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. and then I'll be preaching the evening service so that's kind of all we got really going on right now.
Our August and September are pretty clear right now so that doesn't mean we're not going to do anything in August and September I just haven't made that part of the calendar yet.
So anyway we're a family integrated church the children infants are welcome during the church services.
Please utilize the mother baby room was located back there in the dad baby room located back in that corner for your children if you need to change or feed or just take them back because they're being too loud.
Please do the do that and keep in mind that there's other people in those rooms so be respectful of them.
They're trying to listen to the services.
It's not a place to just go hang out and chat it up.
So during the services we need to be focused on the preaching.
So do your I mean obviously the kids are back there because they're being rambunctious or whatever sometimes but do your best to try to minimize distractions even in there for the other people.
So please no unattended children in any area of the building.
No food or no food in the assembly area.
Silence your cell phones at this time replace them in airplane mode and escorts to vehicles are available by the ushers.
The ushers are the guys with the pins on them that say Usher.
And let's see you can donate online at Sure Foundation Baptist dot com and the birthday is Miss Sherry Thompson is in the bulletin for her birthday.
She didn't know it but it's too late.
You're stuck.
You can't run off to the bathroom or anything like that.
But that's what we have for this week.
Miss Sherry.
She's twenty nine again and still looks it.
But we're going to sing happy birthday to Miss Sherry.
All right.
We are first time guests.
We're very happy that you're here.
We do have gift bags for each first time visitor.
They kind of look like this.
They're around that little dividing wall there.
If you want to grab one as a first time guest please do so.
They have a there's a film in there called Being Baptist kind of explains what Baptists believe the the main core parts about being a Baptist.
And it's really great.
Well done film.
And it's yours for free.
There's also a really nice pen in each package and some other things.
So please take that as a token of our appreciation for you being a first time guest here.
And if you have you've been here before and you didn't grab it before it's OK to grab it now.
So but anyway that's all I have for announcements.
Let's sing another song and we'll receive the offering.
Next song is number 48 in your book Satisfied.
It's our new hymn that we're going to be trying to learn this week.
Song number 48 in your book Satisfied.
Song number 48.
Let's try and learn together on the first.
So long as.
Jesus.
Satisfies my long.
Through his blood.
I know.
And say.
On the house.
Around me.
Tell my strength was almost gone.
My soul.
Something.
Only still.
To.
Hunger.
I have found him.
My soul.
So long as.
Jesus.
Satisfies my long.
Through his blood.
I know.
And say.
For I was and sought for riches.
Something that would satisfy.
But the dust I gathered round me.
Only mocked my soul.
Sad cry.
Hallelujah.
I have found him.
Who my soul.
So long as.
Jesus.
Satisfies my long.
Through his blood.
I know.
And say.
Well of water.
Ever screaming.
Bread of life.
So rich and free.
Untold wealth.
That never.
My redeemer.
Is to me.
Hallelujah.
I have found him.
Who my soul.
So long as.
Jesus.
Satisfies my long.
Through his blood.
I know.
And say.
Amen.
Good seeing brother Sean.
Bless you often for us.
I thank you for this day Lord.
I thank you for this gathering of believers Lord.
I pray that you would bless all aspects of the day today Lord.
Bless the soul winning and the preaching Lord.
Please help us to pay attention to the message and apply it to our lives.
I pray you bless this offering.
In Jesus name I pray amen.
Amen.
John 4 the Bible reads when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.
Though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples.
He left Judea and departed again into Galilee.
And he must needs go through Samaria.
Then cometh he to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar.
Near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.
Jesus saith unto her give me to drink.
For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat.
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him how is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria.
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said unto her if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee give me to drink.
Thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.
The woman saith unto him sir thou has nothing to draw with and the well is deep.
From whence then has thou that living water.
Art thou greater than our father Jacob which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle.
Jesus answered and said unto her whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
The woman saith unto him sir give me this water then I thirst not and neither come hither to draw.
Jesus saith unto her go call thy husband and come hither.
The woman answered and said I have no husband.
Jesus said unto her thou has said well I have no husband.
For thou has had five husbands and he whom thou now has is not thy husband and that saidest thou truly.
The woman saith unto him sir I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Jesus saith unto her woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father.
Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth.
For the father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
The woman saith unto him I know that messiahs cometh which is called Christ.
When he is come he will tell us all things.
Jesus saith unto her I that speak unto thee am he.
And upon this came his disciples and marveled that he talked with the woman.
Yet no man said what seekest thou or why talkest thou with her.
The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and saith to the men come see a man which told me all things that I ever did.
Is not this the Christ?
Then they went out of the city and came unto him.
In the meanwhile his disciples prayed him saying master eat.
But he said unto them I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
Therefore said the disciples one to another had any man brought him ought to eat.
Jesus saith unto them my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.
Say not ye there are yet four months and then cometh harvest.
Behold I say unto you lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest.
And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal.
That both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
And herein is that saying true one soweth and another reapeth.
I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor.
Other men labored and ye are entered into their labors.
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying to the woman which testified he told me all that I ever did.
So when the Samaritans were come unto him they besought him that he would tarry with them and he abode there two days.
And many more believed because of his own word.
And said unto the woman now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ the savior of the world.
Now after two days he departed thence and went into Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified that a prophet had no honor in his own country.
Then when he was come into Galilee the Galileans received him having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast for they also went unto the feast.
So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee where he made the water wine.
And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee he went unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death.
Then said Jesus unto him except you see signs and wonders you will not believe.
The nobleman saith unto him sir come down or my child die.
Jesus saith unto him go thy way thy son liveth.
And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way.
And as he was now going down his servants met him and told him saying thy son liveth.
Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend.
And they said unto him yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said unto him thy son liveth and himself believed in his whole house.
This is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.
Brother Drew will you pray for us?
Thank you God so much for bringing us out to church today.
Just pray that you would be with us and bless the good team and the fellowship and the soul of the couple.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen, alright.
Well the title of the sermon this morning is What's the Big Deal?
What's the Big Deal?
And there's some things that our church really stresses what we believe at this church that are big deals.
And some churches they're not really that big of a deal like Bible versions.
And some churches it's like whoever has the Bible of the month you know it doesn't matter.
They're not King James only they're just whatever Bible they think all the Bibles are inspired even though they all say different things.
But at this church we're King James only.
And you know when you first walk in the door you're going to see this normally right at the front of the door when you first walk in.
It's a King James Bible.
It's a replica of the original one that was you know was distributed after the King James translators translated it.
And it's an exact replica for the most part and we encourage people to go and look at the Bible and that's why we have it there.
It's like a big deal at this church.
Another thing that we find a big deal is salvation.
Salvation is by faith alone and we make a big deal about that.
There's a lot of churches you'll go to and you'll have you know this part of the room will be Lordship salvation.
This part of the room will be repent of your sins and then maybe there's some faith alone people.
Maybe there's some Calvinists that think that God just picks who's going to be saved and who's not going to be saved.
And so you know if you're a Calvinist and you're obviously saved right.
That's what they think.
You know obviously we're in church and we're doing everything we're supposed to be doing so we're obviously part of the elect.
Well the elect means chosen.
I'll give you that but we don't believe that God chooses who's going to be saved.
We believe that God already knows who's going to be saved because he's omniscient and he knows everything right.
Another thing that we stress at this church that's a big deal is soul winning.
And so I've just chosen three things today that I want to I want to preach about that are a big deal at this church.
And you know what we need to have them be a big deal in our lives and in our hearts.
So and a lot of people will call us they'll say you guys are a bunch of Pharisees.
You know when we say well the Bible says this the Bible says that.
But here's the funny thing about that is that the real Pharisees are the ones that don't actually believe the Bible.
They were teaching for commandments the doctrines of you know the for for doctrines the commandments of men.
They were teaching you know when they said hey you know do you believe that we can you can be divorced for any reason.
That's what they believe that you could get divorced for any reason.
And Jesus said no no no no.
It's except for fornication.
That's the only reason that you would be able to get divorced.
And that doesn't mean adultery.
Adultery is adultery.
Adultery is when you're married and you and you commit that sin.
But fornication is you know say that you're you said well my daughter's a virgin or my son's a virgin.
And then that is found out to not be true once they get married.
That is the only reason that Jesus gives for being able to divorce.
And even then you don't have to divorce them.
But you do have that little clause that Jesus that's the only caveat that Jesus gave.
But why I say that well because people will say well you guys are a bunch of Pharisees because you believe that it's not right to be divorced and remarried.
It's like no we're following what the Bible says.
See that's the thing about Baptists and that's the things about this church is that we're biblicists.
We believe what the Bible says.
And so we teach what the Bible says.
Whether that hair lips you or not.
Whether that upsets you or not.
Whether it hair lips every dog in the county.
I don't really care.
Because we believe what the Bible says and that's what we're going to preach.
That's what we believe.
And it's a big deal to us.
It's a big deal.
And people will call us cult leaders or say that our church is a cult.
It's like I kind of made this point when I was down at Faithful Word.
It's like well if we're such a cult then why don't people follow everything that we say to do?
They don't.
So that's not a cult.
A cult usually they're telling you what sneakers to buy, what clothes to wear.
Give all your money to the church and whatever whatever.
But a cult that's not what we are.
You can get kicked out of this church for not adhering to certain standards
and certain things in the Bible where it says hey this person needs to be gone.
This person needs to be kicked out.
And so we take the Bible and we live by it and we teach what the Bible says.
Salvation is a big deal to us.
And that's going to be my first point is that salvation is a big deal at this church.
And if people believe a bunch of weird stuff or they're teaching other things within the congregation about salvation,
we're going to have a problem with that.
So we want to be in unity at this church and what we believe for the main things of our church obviously.
And you know I could preach a sermon called The Big Deal.
What's the big deal?
And then preach about all kinds of things that we make a big deal of.
I just have chosen three things today and I kind of have some visuals that I want to display as to things that are a big deal.
Well salvation is a big deal to us.
So you know this water bottle you know I actually use this water bottle at work.
People go where did you get the missile or whatever.
But actually it kind of fits me quite well doesn't it.
So being tall today is going to help me out a little bit.
But this is a one gallon cruise missile water bottle.
So I could fill this thing up and maybe I won't drink the whole thing in one day.
But if it's a hot day you know it might be gone.
And I kind of just have this.
This is a big.
When I buy water I don't just buy the smallest little bit.
I could suck a small water down really fast especially if I'm really thirsty.
Anyway well I'll keep that up here as a visual.
And you're in John 4 keep your finger there and let's skip over to John chapter 7.
So I've chosen to use these giant water bottles because salvation is like a really clear crystal clear glass of water.
And when Jesus was with this woman at the well in the story in John chapter 4 he uses water as an illustration as to how she gets someone would obtain salvation which is eternal life.
Right.
And he teaches her about how it's a gift about how you have to ask for it and about what it represents in the Bible.
So you're in John chapter 7 look at verse number 37.
It says in the last day that great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirsts let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me as the scripture has said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
So there's a difference between living water and just regular water.
So here's the funny thing about water and I feel like God just kind of made water for a big picture for us to be able to see.
Look nothing in this world can live without water.
Even in the deserts the small amounts of water that are there provide life to the animals and the plant life that is out there.
But without water in about three days you'll die.
You have to have water to survive.
And so that's kind of a picture for us that hey unless you have the living water then that's a picture of you not being able to live also into eternity.
Because it's a picture of salvation.
It's a picture of having been filled with the Spirit.
You're filled with the Spirit and then that is what the living water is.
You get saved, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells you for all eternity.
And so it's like that water that you would receive for salvation.
Now let's look back at John chapter 4. Let's look at verse number 5.
So salvation is such a big deal that Jesus took the time to have this divine appointment.
Jesus knew all things too.
And he knew that this woman was going to come to the well.
And this is what we call a divine appointment.
And I'm sure that we don't know when those divine appointments are going to happen.
But when you cross paths with someone when you're soloing that's a divine appointment for you.
You should just figure that God brought that person across your path for a reason.
Even if you're just going to the next door and you have someone that you can talk to in between.
Many times people like that will get saved.
But anyway we're in John chapter 4 verse 5 it says,
Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey,
sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
So I mean obviously you know he's thinking that he's going to talk to this woman about water.
But what's he do first? He gets her thinking about regular water.
They're at a well, the well that actually was dug and given to Joseph by Jacob.
So this is like a place where you know one of the patriarchs dug a well,
which you know that's pretty cool to be at that well.
But you know look at verse 8 it says,
For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat.
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest, Drink of me,
which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
So Jesus has an obstacle here that he has to get past.
And the fact that the Jews were being racist unto the Samaritans and had nothing to do with them.
They didn't want to even offer them salvation.
Here's Jesus who she knows is a Jew.
And she's like, Why is this Jew talking to me?
You know they normally wouldn't even cross the road to help us or anything like that.
They wouldn't cross the street to spit on us.
But here you have this Jew that's, first of all, he's asking me for a drink of water.
And then he's speaking with her, which she finds to be kind of a crazy thing.
Look at verse 10.
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God,
and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water.
So this living water, which we saw in John chapter 7, also is something that Jesus talks about.
And he is the one that's able to give people this living water.
He said, If you knew the gift of God.
So here's the first thing that salvation is a free gift.
In Ephesians chapter 2, it says, For by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
And so that's the first thing that he's trying to teach her,
is that if you knew what the gift of God was, what is the gift of God?
It's salvation.
It's everlasting life.
And then he says, And who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink.
Who is talking to her?
This is the Messiah.
This is Jesus, who is the Son of God.
He is the Christ.
If she would know, he's saying, Hey, if you would know who I am,
then you would just ask me for this free gift.
And it says, That would have asked of him.
See, you know, people say, Well, you don't have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
That's kind of a heresy that kind of pops its head up in our types of churches every once in a while.
But you, he said it right here, If you knew who I was, you would ask me for this gift.
Right?
So when we pray with people at the end of presenting the gospel with them,
you know, we obviously know that people could trick us.
People could be insincere and things like that.
But the Bible says, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So when you call upon him, what are you doing?
You're asking Jesus to save you.
Okay?
That's what we have people do.
We ask them with their, you know, we help them with a prayer.
Obviously, people could pray their own prayers.
There's no, there's no, this is how you do the sinner's prayer in the Bible.
But, you know, as long as they're understanding what the gospel is, they understand that it's a free gift.
They understand that it's everlasting life.
They understand that they're sinful and that hell is a real place that they need to avoid.
Then we would pray with them and they would receive Christ as their savior.
So that, it said that would have, excuse me, asked of him and he would have given the living water.
So salvation is a gift that's given to you.
But you must, you do have to ask for it.
Now, people will say, well that's a work, Pastor Thompson.
See, you have to do something to get it, you have to ask for it.
But when you're asking in faith, prayer is a thing of faith because none of us have ever seen God.
None of us have ever seen Jesus Christ.
So when you are asking for it, you're showing that you do believe, that you do have faith.
And when you ask for salvation by faith alone, through Christ alone, then you are doing something that is an act of faith.
It's not a work. Prayer is not works.
Now, prayer can be works if you're praying for somebody else, but prayer itself is something that you do out of faith, right?
So what is Jesus trying to teach her?
He's saying, here, give me the drink, right?
And he's saying, if you would have asked, I would have given you living water.
So he's talking about a different type of water, isn't he?
It's being used as a metaphor from regular water because what's going on here?
He's at a well. The woman comes to get water from the well, he asks for a drink.
And then uses that to springboard into a gospel presentation to her.
Now it says in verse 11, the woman saith unto him, Sir, thou has nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
From whence then hast thou that living water?
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle?
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
See, whoever drinks of regular water, you're going to get thirsty again.
This is not going to satisfy your soul for the rest of your life.
There's no water on this planet that is so pure and so great that you only have to drink just one glass of it,
and you're sustained for the rest of your natural life.
But what is he saying? He's saying, if you drink this water, you're going to thirst again.
If you drink out of this well right here, you're going to get thirsty again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
And then, you know, Jesus goes on to explain to her that he is the Messiah.
She said, well, we know that the Messiah is coming, and he's like, I that speak unto thee am him, am he.
Look what it says in verse 15.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
Now, I don't have time to go into the whole chapter. It's a very long chapter.
But I just wanted to use this big water that I have here to illustrate to you that, you know,
salvation is a big deal, and we make it a big deal at this church because, look, we don't want to have any crumbs floating in this water.
If there was just like one little speck of mud, I mean, you probably couldn't tell.
You might be able to, it might get a little bit cloudy, actually.
But if there was just like a minuscule molecule of dog do, would you drink that water?
You wouldn't. Why? Because it's tainted.
See, we don't want, we make salvation a big deal because, listen, it's easy to be saved.
People accuse us of being easy believism and, hey, I'll take that badge of honor because Jesus said it is easy.
But, see, what's hard for people is to swallow their pride and to say, hey, I can't do this, there's something I can't do myself.
I can't save myself. Jesus has to save you.
So when people say this term, they say like, well, I gave my life to Jesus.
And, look, I know that maybe some people are just kind of confused,
but if you really stop and think about what you're saying when you say, I gave my life to Jesus,
you're kind of saying that you saved yourself, aren't you?
But in reality, you have to be very humble, humble enough to say, you know what, I can't do it myself.
You know, this water that I keep drinking, all the stuff that I keep doing is not going to get me to heaven.
I need that living water. I need the water that Jesus can give me that's flowing up into my belly and that's everlasting life.
It's like a spring that just continues to flow. Who's ever seen like natural springs before?
You know, they're fresh water sources that pop up all over the world and they're fresh spring water.
You know, and so, you know, even in a dry desert place, there are springs of water that if you know where they're at,
you're going to be able to sustain yourself in a dry and thirsty land.
But salvation is easy. It's not by works.
So if you start throwing works, you know, the dog turd of works into the clear crystal water,
you're muddying up the gospel and you're saying that, hey, what Jesus said in the Bible isn't good enough.
Why do we make a big deal about salvation? Because it's a big deal.
Because if you get it wrong, someone's going to go to hell for all eternity.
And so that's why we make salvation such a big deal at this church, because it is a big deal.
Jesus said that, you know, and he referred it to as living water.
We've got to be able to get that living water out to people so that they can have a spring of water flowing up into their belly of everlasting life.
Now, number two this morning, we make soul winning a big deal.
See, you know, we have to be saved ourselves to get other people saved.
So if you're not saved, you're never going to get anybody saved because you're not saved yourself.
See, the Bible talks about it being from faith to faith.
Someone of faith, someone with the right kind of faith has to present the gospel to somebody else.
Look, Jesus is not here anymore. Jesus went to heaven and he's at the right hand of God the Father right now.
And he is preparing a place for us, the Bible says in John chapter 14.
He says, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also.
So he said, we're going to do the greater works, which means we're going to be able to do more works because it's an army of Christians that has the Holy Spirit,
that has faith, that has the Holy Scriptures available to them so they can tell people how to be saved.
So, you know, let's look at Ephesians chapter 6.
Turn over to Ephesians chapter 6.
And, you know, unless you're saved, you're not getting anybody else saved, period.
And people will dispute that.
We've had people say that Judas got people saved.
That's ridiculous.
Judas was a devil from the beginning.
He never believed.
So how would he get someone saved if he did not have the Spirit of God within him?
You're like, well, the Bible, you know, can work all these wonders and stuff.
And look, I get that.
But God's not going to use a non-Spirit-filled believer to get somebody saved.
It's faith to faith.
Someone has to be able to understand salvation.
If you're not even saved, how are you going to understand salvation and explain it to somebody else?
Because to a lot of people, what we believe about salvation, they don't agree with it.
So I can just preach a sermon about salvation by faith alone and people will mock that.
People will scoff at that.
Even Baptist preachers will say you have to repent of all your sins before you can be saved.
That's worse.
That's adding something else to this water that doesn't belong.
Doesn't the Bible say in Ephesians chapter 2 that it's not of works?
So how would you say that salvation is, you know, first you have to repent of all your sins.
That is literally what they're doing.
They're saying that, you know, you have to do something that's not of faith, that's not a gift to get saved.
And that's not what the Bible teaches.
But you're in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 15 that says,
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
See, we have to go out.
Why is it saying that?
Why is Paul explaining, you know, he's explaining this whole armor of God,
you know, all these different pieces of armor that we have to have,
he's using it as a metaphor and a teaching tool to say,
well, hey, you know, you can have all this armor on, the breastplate, the helmet, all this other stuff,
but if you don't have your feet shod, I mean, say you're a knight,
and you're a knight in shining armor or whatever,
and you're going out to fight a battle and then you forgot to wear your shoes.
Your costume isn't complete.
Your armor is not complete.
See, we must have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
It's using shoes as a metaphor to show that, hey,
you have to actually have your shoes on to go out and do this.
You know, you can say, well, you know what?
I'm a missionary to Facebook.
And look, there's nothing wrong with putting, like,
Bible Way to Heaven on Facebook or YouTube or Gab
or whatever else you're trying to do.
But if you're not going, then you're really not doing it the way God said to
because you can be an evangelist on Facebook in your fuzzy slippers.
You can be an evangelist on YouTube with your bare feet.
But you know what?
If you try to walk around this town with bare feet preaching the gospel,
first of all, people are going to look at you like you're weird
and be like, what's up with this rube?
He doesn't have anything to wear.
The biggest thing I could find that I have that I own, like,
these are pretty big, right?
Would most of you fit in these?
You'd probably be sloshing around.
So I'm going to just kind of put these here.
Look, your feet have to be shod and protected.
These are steel-toed boots.
So if somebody stepped on them, it's not going to hurt.
If I stubbed my foot, it's probably going to hurt whatever I kick with it
more than it's going to hurt me.
I could have stuff fall on there, and I'm still able to go out into battle.
See, shoes have been around for thousands of years.
People have always worn them.
I know that people want to do the minimalist thing with all that.
But if you were in certain areas, you would not want to have minimalist shoes on,
especially if your feet are not used to it.
But even Roman soldiers had boots that they laced up and strapped up.
So shoes and boots and things like that have been around to protect our feet
while we walk to keep us away from thorns.
Who knows what goat heads are?
You know what goat heads are?
Have you ever stepped on one before?
Goat heads are little thorns that grow on the ground.
If you went to Yakima, you might have stepped on some
and they got caught on the bottom of your shoe,
and they'll stick into your shoe and stay there.
You have to literally pull those things out.
And when they're green, they hurt really bad.
But when they're fully hardened,
they'll go right through the bottom of the pad of your foot easily.
I used to live in an area where they had them,
and they're hard to get rid of.
They just look like little weeds.
You can't even tell that they're thorns.
But imagine living in an area and saying,
I'm going to go soloing with bare feet.
It's not going to work out for you.
So why does God give us this illustration of shoes?
Well, because if you're going to preach the gospel,
if you're going out to preach the gospel,
you should have some shoes on.
Your feet should be shod.
And then you know what?
God, he thinks that that's a great thing.
Look at Isaiah chapter 52 verse 7.
Isaiah chapter 52 verse 7.
So these are like armored boots for me.
You know, I can walk in water up to here,
and it's not going to get my feet wet.
I can have things drop on me.
I can walk all over all kinds of rocks and things.
And these are going to protect me.
But Paul is talking about the armor of God
in Ephesians chapter 6, and he's saying,
hey, you need to have your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
The preparation.
Be prepared.
You know, we're supposed to go out into battle
with the full armor of God on.
But who would want to go out to battle
without the full armor of God?
You're missing part of the armor.
You're missing your shoes.
How many people do you think you're going to be able
to slay on a battlefield with no shoes on?
You can have the greatest armor.
You can have the greatest helmet and sword
and all this other stuff.
But if you don't have a decent pair of shoes,
you're going to be in trouble.
So that's why he's saying, hey, this is part of the armor.
You might not think it is,
but it is a big deal to go out.
Jesus said, go ye therefore
and preach the gospel to every creature, right?
We're supposed to go, not stay.
You know what?
I'll get criticized for preaching sermons
that have nothing to do with the gospel at all.
They're like, you should just preach the gospel.
It's like, well, wouldn't you guys get pretty bored
if all I ever did was preach the gospel
every single Sunday morning?
I mean, who's saved in here?
Raise your hand and let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
Everybody's saved in here pretty much.
And even if they're not, hey, at some point
we want to get them saved, right?
Some of the kids that don't understand it fully yet
and things like that.
But wouldn't it be weird if I just preached the gospel
every single Sunday morning?
It's like, by the way, here's what the gospel is.
It's like, uh.
But that's what happens in churches
all around America right now,
is that the pastor will say,
go and bring somebody to church tomorrow.
You know, they'll get up and preach about someone
and they'll say, bring somebody to church.
And look, I want you to bring people to church.
I want people to get saved to come to this church.
But that's not our main mode
of going out and preaching the gospel.
Look at Isaiah 52, verse 7.
The Bible says,
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him that bringeth good tidings
and publisheth peace
and bringeth good tidings of good
that publisheth salvation
that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.
And you're like, well, I don't know
if it's really talking about, you know,
soul winning or whatever.
But it is talking about soul winning
because it's quoted in the New Testament.
And it actually says, publisheth salvation,
good tidings.
Good tidings means good news, right?
Tidings like, if you think about the story with David,
where his son betrayed him,
and then, you know, there was two people
that were running, you know,
they asked Joanna if they could run,
and then the one guy outran the other one.
And David said when he saw,
I think it's Ahimehas,
he's like, you know, I think his running
is like the running of Ahimehas,
and he said good tidings are in his mouth.
Good news, right?
So the gospel is good news.
And so we should never be ashamed
to go out and preach the gospel
because the gospel is so important.
You know, it doesn't matter what people think about us.
It doesn't matter what people believe about us.
It doesn't matter if it makes people upset.
Look, they're rejecting something that's good
if they reject it.
They're rejecting the gospel that we're publishing
that's peace to them.
You know, it's peace between God and men.
We're reconciling God and man.
It's a very big deal.
We have to make soul winning
and continue to make soul winning
a big deal in this church.
We have all these different soul winning times
that we have operating right now.
And people want to go soul winning.
That is a big draw to a church like this
is because people get convicted about,
you know, hey, I need to get out and go soul winning.
I need to do something for Christ.
That's the ultimate thing that he wants us to do.
But yet some people will be like,
well, I'm just going to do it this way.
Or I'm going to start my own church
and I'm going to do it whatever way I want.
But see, again, we believe the Bible.
The Bible explains to us how to go out.
It says that we're supposed to go out two by two.
Right? And I know that people
in certain situations would have to go out by themselves
but that's not the optimal situation.
Two by two, you know, sometimes we have like
a pack of children with like three ladies or whatever.
You know, the more the merrier, right?
But sometimes it's just necessary to do that.
But two by two is what Jesus instituted
when he started soul winning in the New Testament.
Right?
And, you know, Paul, the apostle,
explained how he went to every door,
daily and in every house.
You know, so in the early Acts church,
they met together every single day.
They met every single day.
And what did they do?
They went out and preached the gospel.
And so it's a big deal.
If God focuses on it in the New Testament
and he's making it a big deal,
he's talking about it a lot,
he's directing the apostle Paul to preach about it
and to talk about it,
then don't you think we should make a big deal of it too?
Don't you think we should make a big deal about salvation
if it's something that's focused on
in the New Testament constantly?
It's a big deal.
And we need to keep it a big deal.
And I think that at this church,
we always need to make sure to emphasize these things
that they are a big deal.
It's a big deal to have your shoes on.
Now turn on to Romans chapter 10 verse 13.
I'll show you how Isaiah is quoted by the apostle Paul.
So we know that he was talking about salvation, Isaiah,
and how beautiful God thinks your feet are.
Now underneath those shoes that you're wearing,
your feet might be the ugliest things
that anybody's ever seen.
You hide them, you know, at all costs.
You know, if you need a chisel to,
if you need like one of those grinders
to zip your toes down, you know, your toenails,
and as you get older, just let me tell you this right now,
your toenails are going to turn yellow
and just be ugly, okay?
And ladies, they have the option of putting some, like,
nail polish on and stuff like that,
but guys will think you're kind of queer, right?
Will think you're kind of a queer
if you're just going around with painted toenails.
But, you know, you can hide them with your shoes,
but you know what's funny is that he says,
how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him that bringeth good tidings.
So your toes can be ugly and gnarled
and have bunions and calluses, which, you know,
if you're working a lot on your feet,
you're going to get those things.
Your wife might say,
you need to do something about them toes.
Your wife might say,
you need to do something about those calluses on your feet.
Get one of those pumice, what is it?
I said pumice, it's pumice, right?
Pumice.
No, pumice stones and grind them down or whatever.
But it's like, you know what,
I don't care what my feet look like anymore.
I'm past that point in my life.
You know, I've never seen that meme
where it's like it's flip flop season again
and it's like this nasty, like,
this nastiest looking foot
and toenails you've ever seen in your life.
You could snatch an eagle out of a,
or you could snatch a trout out of the river
with your claws or whatever.
But, you know, God thinks your feet are beautiful
if you're using those feet
to go out and preach the gospel in all places.
Look what it says in Romans chapter 10 verse 13.
For whosoever, that means anyone,
shall call upon the name of the Lord,
shall be saved.
Whosoever.
So, what's the big deal about soul wanting?
Well, we're trying to get people to call upon the name of the Lord.
We're trying to get people to get saved.
Look what it says in verse 14.
How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
It's not just talking about this preacher, folks.
It's talking about any preacher.
See, you know, we don't allow women to preach in the pulpit,
you know, and we don't,
you know, that's just something
the Bible disallows.
But you know where you can preach, ladies?
You can preach at the door.
That's your opportunity
if you really just want to be like Joyce Meyer.
No, I'm just kidding.
But if you want to go out and preach,
God's designed, you know,
for all of us to be soul winners.
He wants all of us to have beautiful feet,
even no matter how ugly your feet are physically.
When you go out soul wanting,
he looks at your feet and he's like,
those are beautiful.
Those are beautiful.
And it says in verse number, let's see,
verse number 15,
and how shall they preach except they be sent?
As it is written,
how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things.
So he's semi-quoting Isaiah here
where he says,
hey, how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel?
Hey, when you go out and preach the gospel,
your feet are beautiful.
No matter whether you're wearing
these ugly boots or not,
or, you know, even if you were wearing sandals,
don't wear socks with sandals,
but if you are wearing sandals,
I guess it's okay in the northwest
in the wintertime, but like, I don't know.
It's kind of goofy looking.
It's like wearing Crocs or something.
You know, it's just not manly.
Sorry, if you have Crocs.
No, my barber actually,
I have a pair of shoes that are,
they're kings.
They're like water sandals or whatever,
but he always like throws a towel
over the top of my feet.
They try to imply that they look like Crocs
or something.
They don't look like Crocs.
But anyway, he sends me pictures.
I send him pictures of different Crocs.
I send him a pair of rainbow Crocs
that he needed to buy.
But anyway, listen, salvation's important,
and what is the metaphor that he gives to us?
He said, hey, make sure that your feet
are shot with the preparation
of the gospel of peace
and that when you do go,
God looks at you with,
he looks at your feet
as in they look good to him.
You know, beautiful is kind of a powerful word,
isn't it?
You know, you say, well, that's a beautiful woman,
or you wouldn't say that about a guy necessarily,
but it's just not popular saying,
like that guy's handsome.
But whatever your feet look like
when you're going to preach the gospel
and you're making salvation a big deal,
so big of a deal that you're willing
to go out in the hot sun,
go out in the rain,
and all these different weathers
to try to preach the gospel to a stranger
that you don't even know
that doesn't even realize
how much you actually are caring for them.
And, you know, God holds you
as you have beautiful feet
when you do those things.
So look at what it says in verse 16,
but they have not all obeyed the gospel
for Isaiah saith,
who hath believed our report?
So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God.
See, salvation's so important,
it's a big deal, salvation.
Salvation's such a big deal
that it's emphasized a lot in the New Testament.
Sowing is emphasized a lot in the New Testament,
it's a big deal.
But without the word of God,
we have nothing.
We have no way to even see how to be saved.
We have no way to show other people,
excuse me, how to be saved.
So the word of God is another,
number three is a big deal in this church
because without it, we're walking blind.
We're flying blind.
We have no way to understand
anything about our faith.
We have no way to understand
what God desires from us.
We have no answers to the questions of life.
Where did we come from?
Where are we going?
How did we get here?
What are the doctrines of merit?
I mean, just all this doctrine in the Bible,
if we didn't have the Bible,
we'd be in a mess.
And a lot of churches, you know what,
they dismiss the Bible,
they don't care about the Bible,
they don't hold the Bible in high regard
so much that even if you do show them
that in English the King James is the best translation
and it is the word of God,
it's where God preserved His word
for us to know and to understand.
So why did we make the King James such a big deal?
Because without this book,
this big book right here,
which I don't use it to preach
because it's hard for me to look at the old English
and figure that out.
But see, people say,
well, the King James has been changed too.
Well, it's been changed in spelling.
But is the spelling of a word,
is that inspired by God?
No, it's not.
It's not inspired by God.
So if you spelled son, S-O-N-N-E in here,
which it spells it that way,
you still understand that the word means son though, right?
I mean, in old English,
we don't use that type very much anymore
because it is harder to read
because we're just not used to it.
S's look like S and stuff like that.
But this book right here is the preserved word of God.
That's why we have it sitting out front
for people to go and look at it.
You can compare John 3.16
from your modern font King James Bible.
Everything here is going to match up, folks.
It's a big deal to have a Bible that's inspired.
It's a big deal to have this book
to be able to count on it
for actually knowing how to be saved
and actually knowing the doctrines of the Bible
and knowing the doctrine of solanine.
Look, if we don't have this book, we have nothing.
That's why it's a big deal, right?
So let's look at Ephesians 6 again.
Let's go to verse 17.
And what it ultimately boils down to
is that we love the Bible at this church.
Why do we love the Bible?
Because it's God's word.
This is where we get all of our doctrine.
For everything that we practice in this church,
it comes from here.
It doesn't come from my imagination.
It doesn't come from somebody's opinion.
It comes from God's word.
It's important.
It's the big deal.
It's the big deal here.
King James only.
And it's like, well, you know,
and look, if you're like one of those people that's like,
well, I don't know,
but there might be some other good translations,
blah, blah, blah,
and you want to talk to me about that,
that's for something for just disagreeing about that.
But I would like to explain it to you,
you know, why the King James is the best.
But, you know, this book separates us
from a lot of different churches, doesn't it?
You know, what types of churches are King James only?
Generally.
Baptist churches, right?
What types of churches are actually going out
and preaching the gospel?
Baptist churches, aren't they?
What types of churches are going out
and actually knocking on doors like the Bible says to do?
It's Baptist churches, isn't it?
Now, there might be some outlier somewhere
that's maybe called such and such community church.
Maybe they're King James only.
Maybe they actually do share their faith.
And, you know, praise God for that.
I don't see that very often, though.
I don't know of one church in this whole city right now
that isn't called Baptist that isn't King James only
or that is King James only.
They're just, they don't exist, folks.
They're unicorns.
So why am I a Baptist?
Well, I'm a Baptist because I believe the Bible.
I'm a biblicist.
I believe the Bible.
And, you know, I'm not ashamed to call myself a Baptist.
You're like, well, you're putting a label on yourself.
Well, yeah, I just want you to know what I believe.
You know, and unfortunately, there's
a lot of people that have Baptists on their churches
that need to take it off because they're not even adhering
to Baptist principles at all.
So unfortunately, there's just a lot of bad churches out there.
Why do people think that we're a cult?
They think that we're worshipping the Bible.
They think that we're like, that's not what we're doing.
But you know what?
I worship the God that had us pen his Bible down.
That this Bible was translated through.
I worship that God.
And you know what?
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the word of God.
This is the word of God, folks.
This isn't Jesus, but the words are of Jesus, aren't they?
So we hold the Bible in big regards in this church,
and we always will as long as I'm the pastor here.
Now, where did I have you turn to?
I had you turn to Ephesians chapter 6, verse 17.
The Bible says, and take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
It is the word of God, the sword of the Spirit.
So the part of the armor that we need to take out,
that's the offensive weapon in the arsenal.
Now, a shield can block things, and you could probably
use it offensively in some ways.
But a sword, there's no doubt that it's going to cause damage.
That's our offensive weapon, but it's also a defensive weapon.
And it talks about it being a two-edged sword in other scriptures.
So the sword of the Spirit is the word of God.
So if you're going out solely without the sword of the Spirit,
you're not going out with the full armor of God, are you?
If you're going out into any kind of spiritual battle at all,
without a Bible, you're in trouble.
You're in trouble because, I mean, you could really just go with this.
If you were out with a sword and you just had a sword,
it would be a lot more helpful than any other piece of that armor
as far as what you can do offensively.
Turn to Isaiah, chapter 30, verse number 8.
See, without the word of God, without the sword of the Spirit,
we cannot be effective.
We cannot go out.
We can't understand salvation because if we didn't have it,
we wouldn't have salvation.
We couldn't answer any questions for ourselves or for anybody else.
And so that's why we make the sword of the Spirit,
the word of God, a big deal at this church.
I need a volunteer real quick,
but I'm going to call you up at a certain time.
Who's a young man that I can use to volunteer?
I'm looking over down at the end there.
Can you be my volunteer?
When I call upon you, will you be ready?
Okay.
He's going to do a special task for me.
It's not hard, okay?
So, let's see.
You're in Isaiah, chapter 30, verse number 8.
I just want to show you some things about the word of God here.
It says,
Now go, write it before them in a table and note it in a book
that it may be for the time to come, what does it say?
Forever and ever.
Why is the word of God a big deal?
It's not just a book that can disappear into the archives of time.
It's a big deal because it's forever.
This book here isn't actually 411 years old,
but the King James is 411 years old.
It's done more for this world than any other translation that's ever been around.
I was saved from a King James Bible.
I believe that the King James Bible has the correct doctrine in it,
has the correct salvation in it, and it's what gets people saved.
I've seen multitudes of people saved with the King James Bible,
but you know what?
I've never seen people saved out of the NIV
and out of all these other modern perversions.
You just don't see it.
I think it was Brother Alex that was telling me,
was it Thursday, that you saw a verse that said,
Repent of your sins and believe the Gospel.
That's not what the Bible says.
It doesn't say repent of your sins.
But see, how many thousands of people,
how many maybe even millions of people,
are looking at that version of the Bible
and thinking that you have to repent of your sins?
That's a corruption of God's word.
God's true and holy word cannot be completely corrupted
because God has took it upon Himself to preserve the Bible.
It's so funny how people can think that God's so powerful
in all these different areas.
He can create life.
He can destroy life.
He can do all these different miracles.
He can raise people from the dead.
He can walk on water.
But He can't preserve a perfect book for us
to be able to study and to look at
and to rest our heads on
and know that what we're reading is right.
You have a small God if you don't believe that.
He's not all powerful if you believe that.
Look, our God is all powerful.
And when He says He's going to preserve something forever,
He's going to do it.
Unlike us who say we're going to do things and don't do it,
God never does that.
God always keeps His promises.
God always keeps, you know, what He says is going to happen
is going to come to pass.
There's nothing that can be done to stop that.
Look at Psalm 138, verse number 2.
Why is the word of God such a big deal in this church?
Well, it's a big deal because God makes it a big deal
in the whole Bible.
He makes it a big deal.
It's such a big deal.
Look at Psalm 138, verse 2.
It says,
So the name of Jesus is pretty special, isn't it?
The New Testament makes it very clear that His name
is the name that you're to call upon to be saved.
He makes it a big deal.
He makes the name of Jesus a big deal.
There's no other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved.
That's what the Bible actually says.
So when God says, you know what?
My word, my word is magnified.
It says,
So obviously, Jesus Christ is the word of God.
I understand that.
But His name is written in the book.
The book is preserved.
The book is kept.
And you know, Jesus said,
Heaven and earth shall pass away.
But what?
My words shall not pass away.
How do we know that?
Well, it's written in the book.
You're like, well, how proof the Bible is right and inspired?
Well, books from thousands of years ago,
there's very small copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey
and all that stuff, very few copies.
But there's thousands and thousands and thousands
of copies of the word of God, even in Greek,
where it was originally translated from.
There's thousands and thousands of Hebrew
that's been passed down that's still right.
Now, people will try to corrupt the word of God,
and they'll try to say that this is the word of God.
This is what it says.
But you know what?
Don't accept the imitations, okay?
When you're looking at the facts about Bible translations,
look, and I'm not saying that English is the only Bible
that we should ever, if you speak a different language
and you have an inspired copy in your language,
that's still the word of God.
You know, look, in Greek and Hebrew are not magic languages, folks.
God speaks all languages, right?
He made our tongues to be different at the Tower of Babel
and spread everybody out around the face of the earth.
And then he says, hey, I want you to go to the uttermost parts
of the earth to preach the gospel.
I want you to go to the uttermost parts of the earth.
It's like, oh, wait, but we don't have one in your language.
No, God speaks all languages,
and I'm not saying that there's a copy in every language.
But I'll tell you what.
There's people that are saved in every nation.
How'd they get saved?
By faith.
How'd they get saved?
By faith.
This book.
You're not going to get saved without it, folks.
Salvation isn't going to happen without the Bible.
Solemnity's not going to happen without the Bible.
Look at Proverbs chapter 30, verse number 5.
You're like, you're reading Bible verses about the Bible.
Yeah, I know.
But if thousands of years ago these words were penned down
and they're still there, isn't that proof of the fact
that they're inspired?
I mean, preserved, inspired.
They're still here.
And there's people that are, I call them omos.
I got that from Pastor Jones.
Original manuscript onlyists.
So they only believe that the Bible's inspired
in the original manuscripts.
Well, I guess we're all in trouble
because if you can't read Greek and Hebrew,
I guess you don't get the real meaning of the word of God.
That's trash, people.
That's not true.
It's garbage.
Look, some of the smartest men on the face of the earth
translated the King James,
and a lot of the work was already done by William Tyndale.
A lot of it they were just making sure,
and look, it was all different types of denominations.
I understand that.
And just because someone sprinkled babies
doesn't mean that they weren't smart at translating.
You don't have to be a translator in this world.
You have to be able to understand and know the language
in order to translate it correctly, right?
So these guys were smart enough.
They spoke fluent Greek and Hebrew
and multiple other languages,
and they were qualified to translate the Bible
into the language that we can understand.
So they're just people that, like,
they're on shifting sand.
They rest their head on an original manuscript
that's no longer here.
You know, what did Jeremiah the prophet,
what did God think about when Jeremiah the prophet,
all of his book was read before the princes,
and they took a penknife and cut it
and chopped it up and threw it in the fire.
And then God said, hey, write another book
with all the same stuff in it
and then add some other stuff into it
that I want you to add to it.
So the original manuscript got thrown into a fire.
So their faith is in that original manuscript
that got thrown in the fire.
What if I was to tell you that God had Jeremiah,
rewrite everything, put in a book,
and look, we got the book of Jeremiah in our Bibles.
And you know what?
It's a very negative book, very negative.
So, you know, I would not trust a book
that never had anything negative to say
about the people that were in it.
Everybody had problems in the Bible, except for Jesus.
So there's great men of God in here
that made great mistakes in the Bible, too.
But here's the thing.
This is what you got to understand about the Bible, okay?
The Bible is the greatest book on this earth
and always will be.
It's the greatest book that's ever been written.
It's the greatest book that ever will be written.
And why?
Because it's inspired and preserved by God himself.
It's inspired and preserved by God himself.
It's a different kind of book.
You can read this book and you can be like,
oh, man, I really love the promises of God.
I believe those promises.
But then you can also read that book
and then you're like sticking a dagger in your heart,
you know, figuratively.
Like, oh, that really just, that hit me.
See, this book can be an off, it's a double-edged sword.
It can be to your hurt, but it also can be to your help.
It helps cut through all the trash out solely, doesn't it?
When someone believes something weird or wrong
and you just go, hey, well, can I just show you what the Bible says?
Can I just show you what the Bible says and then you show it to them
and you're like, wow, I've never seen that before.
See, the sword of the Lord, the Word of God can be,
you know, it can be something that cuts through all that garbage.
And that's how people get saved.
They're like, you know, this double-edged sword of the Word of God
cuts through all the garbage and if we wield it correctly,
people will have life from a sword.
Isn't that interesting?
And you wouldn't think of a sword as something that gives life,
but what about when it's protecting people?
It gives life.
And you know what, it cuts through more than just flesh,
it cuts through spirit and soul.
The Bible is very powerful and, you know,
we probably don't even fully grasp just how powerful this book is,
but it can take the most hardened person and change everything about them
because you know what, when the Bible, when people get saved,
the Word of God changes you, if you allow it to.
If you're not just cherry-picking all of your favorite stuff
and only being positive about everything, hey, you know,
we've got a lot of stuff to work on, folks.
We're a damaged people, aren't we?
We've got a lot of baggage from our past
and maybe you don't have any baggage right now.
Well, don't, hey, use the Word of God correctly.
Don't get the baggage.
There's other people that have failed and they have baggage.
Why? Because they didn't take heed to the Word of God.
Maybe they just weren't saved at that point,
but hey, when you're saved, you should be able to look through this book
and go, hey, I don't want to do this because, you know what,
this is going to offend God.
This is going to offend my fellow man.
This is going to offend other people.
People aren't going to be saved because of the witness that they see me doing,
the things that they see me doing.
They're going to be like, I don't want that.
I don't want some phony Christian.
I don't want these people to say that they have all the truth
and then that person's acting in a way that's unbecoming to Christ.
Use the Word of God honestly.
Let it change you.
So did I already read Proverbs 30, verse 5?
Probably not.
Proverbs 30, verse 5, the Bible says,
Every word of God is pure.
He's a shield unto them that put their trust in Him.
Add thou not to His words lest He reprove thee,
and thou be found a liar.
Psalm chapter 12, I'm going to have you go ahead and turn to 1 Samuel 21, verse 8.
I've got to hurry up here.
I'm going to read Psalm chapter 12, verse 6.
Psalm 12, verse 6 says,
The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, and thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
See, who's the one supposed to keep the Word of God?
The Lord is.
He's supposed to keep them.
He's supposed to preserve them.
And you're in 1 Samuel 21, verse 8.
I always find this story to be very interesting,
and I've always kind of wondered, like, how to apply this spiritually,
but David was running from Saul, and he forgot to take any weapons with him.
He just didn't have a chance to take anything with him.
So he goes to Ahimelech the priest in verse number 8, and it says,
And David said unto Ahimelech,
And is there not here under thine hand, spear, or sword?
For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me,
because the king's business required haste.
And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine,
whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod,
if thou wilt take that, take it, for there is no other save that here.
And David said, There is none like that, give it me.
And, like, if you want to just apply this in a spiritual sense,
you know, David killed Goliath, and then he chopped his head off with his own sword.
He saved that sword. That sword was put up, and when he really needed it,
when he needed to go out into battle, what did he do?
He asked, you know, he didn't have a weapon.
You know, aren't we supposed to take our sword with us when we go into battle? Absolutely.
We're supposed to take our swords into battle.
But David, the one that he took into battle, he said, There is none like that one.
There's none like it. And that's what, you know, apply that to the Word of God.
When you take the Word of God out, when you take the sword of the Spirit out,
there is nothing like that sword. There's nothing like that weapon.
It is the greatest weapon that you can take with you,
and it's also the greatest defense that you can take with you.
But listen, if you're going out soul-willing, or whatever you're doing in life,
take the sword of the Spirit with you, take the Word of God with you,
read the Bible every day. It's so important that you understand and know the Bible.
And you know what? It's a big deal. It's a big deal at this church.
And, you know, if you can't get down with that, like, I don't know what to tell you,
but if you're an Omo, if you just believe in original manuscripts only,
then you have no faith in a book that you can trust.
Why are we King James only? Well, we trust this book.
We trust it because it's right, because it's true, because it was translated correctly.
So, why would we not rest everything that we believe on?
See, but there's other Christians out there, they put their faith on the shifting sand of the NIV,
or the shifting sand of the NASB that has mistakes in it.
Listen, David killed Goliath, but in the NASB it'll say that his brother killed Goliath.
That can destroy the faith of a person that's saved if they're reading some kind of garbage translation
and it says, oh, if a woman is raped, then she's supposed to marry her rapist.
That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that it's like someone murdered someone
and they're supposed to be put to death.
But see, if you read another translation, it's going to mess you up.
So, come on up.
I did have this little dramatic scene up here, but...
So, I brought a melon out.
I wanted to do it with a watermelon, but I kind of got back late last night and wasn't able to go.
All right, you're going to be my squire, all right?
So, can you just stand there for a second and just hold that for me?
I'm going to pull that sword out here in just a minute, but I wanted to show you a verse and we'll close here.
Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12. Go ahead and turn there real quick.
Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12.
I didn't want to trust a smaller child to this because I was afraid that they might try to grab the sword or something, so...
So, I got that as a gift from Pastor Jones and I thought it would make a good illustration for this verse.
Hebrews 4, verse 12 says,
For the word of God is quick.
That means what? It's alive.
It's not just a normal book, folks.
And powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and the joints and marrow.
So, you got spiritual things and you got physical things here, right?
And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
This book can discern your thoughts.
What other book do you know in the world that can do that?
What other book in the world can separate between the soul and spirit?
And the joints and marrow and it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It can discern what your heart is up to.
It can discern what your heart is thinking about.
And people dismiss this book.
You know why? Because they have not the Spirit of God, therefore they cannot understand it.
There's people that give commentary on the Bible.
It's like, what are you talking about?
You're not saved, buddy.
You can't understand the truth of the Bible.
So, why do we make the Word of God a big deal?
Because this book is different than any other book.
It's a spiritual book.
It's a book that's alive.
When you read it, new things are going to pop out at you.
It's not just a normal book, folks.
People always mock the Bible and say,
It's just another book.
It's just like the Koran and all these others.
The Koran is written by a pedophile, folks.
God didn't have any pedophiles write this book.
God spake and the men, the holy men of old wrote it down.
But what I find very interesting is that it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It can divide between soul and spirit.
Alright, squire, are you ready?
Alright, go ahead and hold it tight for me.
So, this is representing the sword of the spirit.
It's not the sword of the spirit, obviously.
It is sharp, though.
But even as sharp as this is, it's not as sharp as the Bible.
The Bible is saying that it's sharper than any two-edged sword.
Now, do you think that this is going to cut through this really easily?
Or do you think it's going to take me more than one shot?
One shot.
Squire, you've become the cutter.
Is it okay?
Alright, one shot.
Ready? Go.
Well, he got through it in one shot.
I guess it's not that sharp.
See, the Bible is sharper, amen?
But I think it was the force of the swing.
What do you see here?
You see everything on the inside of it, though, right?
See, the word of God sees inside you, too.
The word of God can discern what's going on in your guts.
The word of God can discern for you what's going on with your heart.
And that's why it's so important that we read it.
Because if you're not reading the Bible,
you're not able to discern what's wrong with you.
And look, folks, there's a lot wrong with you.
There's a lot wrong with me.
There's a lot wrong with everybody.
And you know what? If we don't have the sword or the spirit to guide us,
then we're in a lot of trouble.
Thank you, Squire. You can sit down. Thank you.
Everybody, amen?
Next time, swing harder, though.
But it does make it true that, hey, it's not as sharp as God's word.
That thing can be the sharpest.
You can have the sharpest sword ever,
and the Bible is always going to be more sharp than that.
And the fact that it calls it a two-edged sword,
it's sharper than a two-edged sword,
that should help us in understanding just how much the Bible
can divide us up, too, and work on our hearts and our lives.
So it says,
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight,
but all things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
See, that word of God cuts through everything,
and God sees who we are.
We can discern our lives so much better
if we would just use the two-edged sword of the Bible.
So why do we make these things a big deal?
Well, because they are a big deal.
Salvation is a big deal.
Solvening is a big deal.
And you know what? The word of God is a big deal.
And as long as we keep these three things going in our church,
our church is going to be a strong church for a long, long time.
But if we allow dog do into the gospel, clear gospel water,
if we stop taking our sword out in a battle,
if we don't use the Bible when we're soloing, we're in trouble.
We don't want to be on shifting sand.
We want to be founded upon the rock.
All right? Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the truths of the Bible.
Lord, for salvation that's free and clear to us, Lord, in the Bible.
And we thank you, Lord, for the fact that you've called us to be soul winners,
to go out and preach the gospel to the other most parts of the world.
Pray, Lord, we take these things serious
and that we would continue to read our Bibles daily.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right.
You guys get out seeing the babies on this one.
The last song will be song number 393,
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.
Song number 393 in your blue hymn books,
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.
Song 393, let's sing it out there on the first.
A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing,
Our helper he amid the flood,
Of mortal hills prevailing,
For still our ancient foe,
Seek to work us woe,
His craft and power are grave,
And armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal,
Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing,
We're not the right man on our side,
The man of God's own choosing,
Let's ask who that may be,
Christ Jesus it is he,
Lord, save me of his name,
From age to age the same,
And he must win the battle,
And though this world with devils failed,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear for God hath will,
His truth to triumph through us,
The prince of darkness grim,
We tremble not for him,
His rage we can endure,
For lo his doom is sure,
One little word shall fail him,
That word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to them abideth,
The spirit and the gifts are ours,
Through him with us all cited,
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also,
The body they may kill,
God's truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
Amen.
Good seeing brother Steven, could you close your board of prayer?