The church in Sardis and God said,
thou hast a name that thou livest and are dead.
So many Christians talk about the heydays
of Christianity in the past
and they will complain about what we have right now,
but we can still do great things for God right now, right?
We can remember the past, it can motivate us,
we can learn from our past victories and failures,
but don't settle, we can always do more.
Obviously, numbers are just numbers, right?
You know, numbers can change on seasons, you know,
life, in the areas, but you know,
what we can learn from this number is very easy.
Like I said, the more hours we spend,
the more those we knock, more people get saved.
It's that simple, okay?
So God has blessed our church tremendously
and we should really praise him for what he has done
and we should rejoice in the Lord.
But let's also not settle, okay?
Philippians chapter three, look at verse number 12.
the Bible says, not as though I had already attained either or made perfect, but I follow after
if that I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ, Jesus, notice verse 113,
brethren, I count on myself to have apprehended, the word apprehend means attained, achieved,
Paul was saying that he did not count himself to have achieved the final state, but there's one thing I do
For getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth on those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
So what Paul is saying that is, keep running the race, right?
The only time you should stop running the race is until you die, right?
And when you go to heaven, you're still going to be working and praising God forever, okay?
So never stop working, keep running the race.
And many of you may not be used to that many people get sick, right?
If you've been to some regular Baptist churches, these members might seem a shock to you, right?
You know, these members might seem to be a shock to you.
But, you know, we should make that the norm.
Don't be surprised on how great God is, okay?
Because these members, 800 salvages in a year is almost unheard of in most Baptist churches.
Let's just be honest don't let that surprise you drink big right we need to go big okay because this is a soul winning church
You can you can see a clear difference between a church that emphasize the soul winning versus churches that do not right?
The members are drastically different
Right, but let that be the norm. This is a soul winning church
Let's let's do more for God. There are people in heaven who want to help people in hell, but it's too late
They want to give them a drop of water to cool their tongue
because they are tormented in hell,
but there are also people in hell who love to go to heaven,
but it's too late.
Somebody told me this, to us Christians,
the earth is the closest place that we can get to hell,
but to the unsaved, the earth is the closest place
that they can be to heaven.
Luke 16 verse
Verse number 27, the Bible says,
This is the cry of people in hell see people in hell would love
For you to preach the gospel to their loved ones, right?
People in hell would love for you to preach the gospel to their unsaved mom to their unsaved dad to their cousins to their
Brother and to their children because people in hell would love to go to heaven. Hey, they request you
They request you to cry about you to send
for the goodness to their loved ones.
But to us who are still living,
it's not too late to preach the gospel.
So I want you to notice the cries of people in hell.
The cries of hell is,
hey, I have five brethren that he may testify onto them,
lest they also come into this place of torment.
Nobody who goes to hell will wish
that other people will go to hell with them, okay?
Some people will say I'd rather rule with saving in hell than be with God in heaven
But saving is not ruling hell they will wish to go out
But by that time it's too late
But if you are safe and you die you go you go to heaven
You will wish that you will help people in hell, but it's too late
You will wish that you will preach the gospel to them, but it's too late because you are in heaven, right? So for us
who are still living on the earth,
it's not too late for us to preach the gospel.
John chapter five, look at verse 24.
Very, very late I say unto you,
be that heareth my word and believe it on him
that send me hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation,
but is, notice, passed from death unto life.
There's nothing wrong with remembering the past.
The Bible says multiple times, winning church.
Welcome back to Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
If you're happy to be in church, say amen. Amen.
Amen. Let's all stand and let's sing to the Lord.
Let's go to number 324, Draw Me Near.
This is one of my favorite songs.
I heard this last week and like let's sing it.
Sing it out with power church.
I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice, and it's all thy love to me.
But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to thee.
Sing it out, church, draw me nearer.
nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to thy precious bleeding side.
Second stanza.
Constant crate me now to thy service, Lord,
by the power of grace.
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope and my
I will be lost in the dark
Preach it to the Lord, church, draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou
with power on the third oh the pure delight of a single that before thy
throne I spent when I kneel in prayer and with the my god I commune as friend
with friends see it up draw me near
nearer blessed Lord to the cross where thou has died draw me nearer nearer
blessed Lord to the cross amen fourth there are depths of love that I cannot
of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with thee. Draw me nearer, nearer
blessed Lord to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer blessed
Good singing church for the wait. Can you pray since it's a service, please brother?
Hey man, let's go to number 364 and that coffee starting to kick in. So help me sing it out. I'm energized right now standing on the promises of God.
We're preaching on faith and the theme is faith this day, so sing about the faith and the promises
Standing on the promises of Christ my king
Through eternal ages let his praises ring
Glory in the highest I will shout and sing. I'm standing on the promises of God
Sing it out church
Standing
standing on the promises of God my Savior standing standing I'm standing on
the promises of second stanza standing on the promises I cannot fail when the
howling stores of doubt and fear sing a church
Shall prevail standing on the promises of God. Sing it out church!
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God. My Savior, stand. Help me hold it out church!
Standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.
of God. Third stanza. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, bowed to him eternally
by love's strong court, overcoming daily with the spirit's sword. Standing in the promises
I'm standing, standing, I'm standing on the promise,
hey, on the fourth verse, I want to hear the little kids sing on the fourth verse, just
the little kids, okay?
Standing on the promises, I cannot fall, listing every moment to the spirit call, resting.
That's my all in all, standing on the...
Hey man, everyone on the chorus!
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God,
my Savior, standing...
You may be seated church at this moment. We're gonna have evangelist Justin John come and give us some announcements
back to show a foundation back to his church and thank brother Eliwood a high-energy
caffeine is some leaders so we did sing great so I mean a good song leader will
really you know encourage the current game to sing out loud so it's good so
let's look at the verse the week Hebrew chapter 11 verse number six that I
would say spoke without faith it is impossible to please him for he that
come up to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that
You know, of course this morning I preach a sermon on faith and you will be hearing about faith this afternoon as well
Hopefully we can all live a faith filled life. Amen
So let's look at the inside page. Please, you know, give us a follow on the social media YouTube Facebook grumble and X
and the service times on the morning at 11 on the afternoon service at 4 p.m.
and Wednesday night Bible study at 7 p.m. we'll be going through Ecclesiastage
chapter number four this coming Wednesday. So many times
Saturday morning at 10 30 a.m. Sunday afternoon at 1 30 p.m.
and then we have 10 soul winners today and three salvation still praise the Lord
for that it's a kind of like a rough area pretty much nobody's home but
we just keep going every single week and that God will bless
So, upcoming events...
Again, thank you for coming out and praying for the Northern Indiana Sony Marathon yesterday.
We had a great time, 223 so-winners and 24 salvations in the South Bend and the Elkhart area.
And then please use the QR code for the registries and to be a blessing to them.
Also save the day for our annual Fall Fellowship at a local park on Saturday, September 13th.
So probably meet around 4 p.m. You can play some games and then we'll probably eat around 5 30.
have a sign-up sheet about the food later.
And please save the day.
Hopefully we have a great time, great food, great fellowship,
great game.
And then save the day for the Sony Marathon.
Detroit's Sony Marathon is September 19th to the 20th.
I posted a video about the address
and the details on the social media as well.
So please check that out.
and then let's see men's preaching night will be taking place August 31st so that will be the last
Sunday of the month during the Sunday afternoon service please let me know if you are planning on
preaching and let me know your sermon topic prior to that as well and let's see
Let's look at the back page. We have a birthday coming up for Miss Rachel. So on the 7th, so let's sing happy birthday to her. Ready?
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday.
You have a special meal cake anything
We shall see it's a it's just it's a surprise. All right
All right, so I believe that's all the announcement and then we will sing our third song and the brother Eli
We will be teaching us a new song Psalm 24. So buddy
All right, let's all stand for this last song
Let's go to our binders and I believe at the front of the binder should be the song song chapter number
24 and we've been doing lots of Psalms recently and so
This is a really good one
I'm just now learning it with you guys. So if I mess up you mess up
It cancels out, alright? Sing it on that first verse.
love the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place.
He that had clean hands and a pure heart, who had not lifted up His sword to...
All right, let's try it one more time on the first day. I'm so sorry. I messed up on that part a little bit
My apologies. Let's do it one more time on that first dance. Uh, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof
The world and they that dwell therein for he had founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the floods who shall ascend into the hill of the lord or who shall stand in his holy
place he that had clean hands and a pure heart who can lift it up his soul unto
vanity no sworn deceitfully second stanza he shall receive the blessing from
the Lord and righteousness from the God of reservation this is the generation of
Let's all mess up to get on the third verse.
Lord mighty in battle lift up your heads oh ye gates even lift them up ye everlasting
doors and the king of glory come in who is this king of glory the lord of
He is the king of glory, see, lie.
Man, praise the Lord.
You may be seated.
Usher's can come up and get the offering.
We'll get it again in some other time.
Brother Matt, can you pray for the offering please?
Open up your Bibles to Roman chapter 10. We're in Roman chapter 10 tonight. If you don't have a King James Bible
Please raise your hand and I shall hand you a Bible Roman chapter 10 verse 1 says
Brother in my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved for I bear them record that
they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves into the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
For Moses described with the righteousness which is of the law that the man which doeth those
is of faith, speakers on this wise, say not in line heart, who shall send into heaven,
that is to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep,
that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what sayeth it, the word is nigh thee, even
in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if
Thou confesses my mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in my heart, that God of
virgin from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, for the scripture sayeth, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew and
the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in him
and who they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach
except they be sinned? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things, but they have not all obeyed the gospel,
for as I have sayeth, Lord, who have believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God.
But I say, have they not heard?
Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth and their words
unto the ends of the earth.
But I say, did not Israel know?
First, Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people
and by a foolish nation, I will anger you.
But as I is very bold and say, I was not found of them that sought me not.
I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me, but to Israel he saith all day long
I have stretched forth my hand until a disobedient and gain saying people do you have any father, Lord?
We just thank you for
This church Lord and just thank you for the word of God and thank you for the people who got saved today Lord
Just protect our church from evil people and please bless the sermon in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen
It's funny, Justin said I'm preaching on faith, too.
He must have both went in AI and asked what to preach,
and it said faith.
So now you know how we get our sermon topics.
At least we both use different AI,
so it gave me a different sermon than his.
But if you guys want to look at.
Verse number 17 of Romans 10 it says so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God
So title my sermon is faith in action. So the actual way I did get the sermon topic is
My wife and I are gonna go to the Philippines
Obviously at the end of the month we're going back there
So there's a church that I'm supposed to preach at and that was their topic for
the whole year. So I feel like it was their topic for the year. I can do a sermon here. And
it'd be a little different than normal. I want you guys, if you think of anything that I should add,
and obviously I want to add more like salvation verses for when I preach there. But if you guys
can think of anything that you would add to this sermon, you can let me know and message me.
but this is their topic for the year so it's obviously it's a good it's a good topic
because obviously Justin preached a great sermon on faith and that we should have faith but you
want to put it in action so we're going to start there's going to be I think I believe four actions
if I remember um of how to apply so the first action is going to be
Listen and be willing to change so that's kind of the start of you know putting your faith in action is
Being able to listen and willing to change. It's obviously, you know, we go out soul-winning and that's probably the biggest hurdle most people have is
being able to listen and
Change their opinion right because most people are just not even gonna listen to you. They're gonna say they're too busy
They don't have time. They're not interested. So, you know, obviously in verse 17. It says faith comes by hearing
So if you can't hear
You're never going to get to the next step.
So if you guys would flip, you want to keep your place in Romans 10
because we're going to be going back here for a while.
But if you guys would flip over to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13.
And while you flip there, I'm going to read Acts 4.4.
It says,
How be it many of them which heard the word believed
and the number of the men was about 5,000 Galatians 2 or 3.2.
This only what I learn of you received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of
Faith and you guys are in Ephesians 1 13
It says in whom he also trusted after
That he heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also
After that you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise and in John 5
24, it says, verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but his path passed from death unto life.
And the last one I'm going to read is Matthew 13, 23.
seed into the good ground, is he that heareth the word and understandeth it,
which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth fruit, some in hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
So obviously to see over and over that faith comes from hearing, and you know, hears my word,
heard the word and believed, hearing of faith.
So obviously the biggest thing, and the more you go soul-witting, the more you'll see that, is
Hearing is the most important because most people that like actually listen and hear the whole thing and are willing to
Change their mind if you you know give them the truth that
You know they're gonna have a good chance of getting saved because I don't you know
I don't keep track of what the numbers are but there's a lot of days where it's two presentations two
Salvation or two presentations one salvation. So, you know, it's
got to be above, way above 50% of people that actually listen to the whole thing
and have an open mind, they're not just like trying to argue with you, you know,
somebody that's actually willing to listen.
There's a very good chance they're gonna get saved, but how many doors do you go to
where there's like, I don't have time,
I don't have time, I'm not interested, I'm busy, and I had a lady today
she said, I've been going to the church for 40 some years, I'm not gonna change my mind
and that's it, right? I mean people like that...
Their biggest hang-up is this first action of putting their faith in action by just hearing which is obviously very simple very easy to do
Anybody should be able to just hear right? You don't have to do anything
Just let somebody hear or let somebody tell you it takes almost no effort
But that's probably the biggest hang-up that most people are going to have in their life is just listening and hearing
So action number two is going to be putting your faith in the right spot if you guys have flip over to Matthew chapter 7
Because obviously there's people that you could hear that are going to preach lies
That's not the truth
So the next thing you have to do is put your faith in the right spot because if you put it in the wrong spot
You're gonna end up in the wrong area. You don't want to go right? You're gonna end up in hell
You're gonna end up having a bad life if you are saved, you know
People are gonna deceive you and lie to you. So you want to put your faith in the right spot. So
You can kind of classify
I guess everything in two areas, right?
You have two options.
You pretty much have your faith in yourself,
you being a good person,
living a good life, following the commandments,
or you have your faith in Jesus.
So those are pretty much the two areas you can do.
And you know, people can say,
well, there's tons of religions out there.
There's tons of different beliefs, tons of churches.
How can there only be two?
But you can pretty much classify every single religion.
into two categories, either it's faith in Jesus
or it's faith in yourself, living a good life
and doesn't matter if it's Islam or Roman Catholics.
You know, they'll all tell you you have to be a good person,
live a good life.
If you go soul-winning and knock on people's door,
90-some percent of people are gonna say,
I have to live a good life, I have to be a good person
and it doesn't really matter what their background is,
it's just, that's what they believe.
So it's either that or faith in Jesus
or obviously there's,
Atheist too, but in Matthew 721.
It's going to tell us about people that put their faith in themselves. It says in Matthew 7 21
It says not everyone that sayeth unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven
But he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven
Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils
And I named on many wonderful works. So we see here a group of people that you know
they get to heaven or they want to get into heaven, right?
And God's asking them, hey, why should you be let in?
And their response is, they've done many wonderful works.
They prophesied in his name.
They cast out devils.
They've done all this great stuff, right?
But if we were to die and get to heaven,
and God was like, why should I let you in?
And he's,
telling us we can't go, we're not going to say, we've done great works, we went soul-winning,
we went to church, we've preached the gospel. We're going to say, what about John 3.16?
What about faith alone? It's by believing, right? That's what our answer would be. What
do you mean I can't get in? What about all these verses, right? We're not going to say
we've done many wonderful works. These people clearly aren't saved, they're clearly trusting
So you see in verse 23, the answer to people who have this in their mind, it says,
And then, while I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
So obviously people always like to say you could lose your salvation if you do bad,
but obviously here, God said he never knew these people.
So if people were never saved, they never...
were on their way to heaven, they didn't lose their salvation, they from the beginning were
trusting their wonderful works, right? So, you know, people could argue and say, well,
it says in verse 22, or 21, sorry, it says, but he that doeth the will of my Father, right?
Well, that's keeping the commandments or keeping the law of being a good person. You got to
do what God says, right? But if you flip over to John 6, I should have told you earlier,
what the will of God is right? So what works does somebody have to do to get the will of God to do God's will right?
Is it all the commandments? Is it the Ten Commandments? It says in John 640 it says,
And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone
which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day.
So we see here the will of God what God wants us to do and the way we get to heaven
isn't by doing wonderful works. It's by believing on the Son of God, right? Believing on Jesus
to do everything. So if you guys would flip over back to Romans chapter 10 where you guys have a
bookmark. Romans 10 is very nice. It kind of lays everything out perfectly in the chapter in order
vast majority of the chapter in Romans 10. So in Romans 10 verse 2
It says, For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
So obviously we see it all the time, right? You know, people always want to establish their own righteousness. They want to say, I'm a great person, I live a good life.
I do all the stuff, but we've just seen that those people aren't going to get to heaven.
God never knew them, and in Romans 10, it's the same thing, right?
These people, they have a zeal for God.
A lot of them say, I love God, I love church, I love Jesus, but it's not about knowledge,
right?
They don't actually read the Bible and learn and, you know, seek out knowledge is what
they believe, right?
It's their made up religion, or their made up Bible, or, you know, some guy today was
Enoch and it's the greatest book ever and it's so great, but you know that's not according to knowledge, right?
I mean what like if you haven't read the Bible, which obviously, you know
I'm not gonna say for sure he hasn't but we can assume if you haven't read the Bible cover to cover and obviously the guy's not saved so
You know, he's obviously not
doing something right. But he's read the book of Enoch. It's like why don't you read the Bible first,
learn what the Bible says, and then like start there. But it's like they always want to start
with like the weirdest thing. And like he's like I never met anybody that actually read it. It's like
that's probably a sign like you just keep asking people like everybody you meet. Have you read
this book and everybody says no. It's like I don't know you probably throw it away. But uh you know
It says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
So obviously it's just so simple, right?
All you got to do is believe that's the end of the law, you know, you don't have to keep
the law to be saved.
It's just Jesus fulfilled all the law, He did everything for us, so you just put your
faith in Him and He did everything.
So you don't have to turn here because Justin read it this morning, but if you guys flip
In Galatians 2.16, which I love this verse, it's just so clear.
It says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law,
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
So the Bible is just so clear that you can't be justified by the works of the law.
You can't earn your way to heaven.
You can't work your way to heaven.
And it's so easy.
It's just by believing in Jesus Christ that you're justified.
So in 2 Corinthians 521, it says,
for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
So Jesus was made sin for us, right?
That's how he can pay that spot to get us to heaven.
He did all the work.
He was made sin for us.
And in 1 Peter 2, 24, it says,
who is own self, bear our sins and his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness
by whose stripes ye were healed.
So Jesus, bear all of our sins in his own body on the tree.
Jesus did all the work, it's so crystal clear,
and you just had to put.
your faith and put it on the right thing of Jesus doing all the work and not on
living a good life, you know, keeping the commandments, because like we've seen
that's not according to knowledge. The knowledge is putting it on Jesus and
letting him do all the work, right, the free ticket. And obviously we know that
here, so I'm not going to spend too much time on this point, but it's still
is, you know, Justin brought it up too. It's still controversial sometimes, but it's asking God to save you.
So if you're still that spot in Romans, so as we continue in Romans 10 verse number 8,
it's going to continue on of what somebody should do with their faith and take an action, right?
So the next thing they got to do is ask God to save them.
Or save you if you're not saved but in Romans 10 8 it says but what sayeth it the word is nigh thee even in thy
mouth and in thy heart
That is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe
In thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth under righteousness
And with the mouth confession is made in the salvation for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved."
So obviously, hey, the first thing someone's got to do,
the first action you've got to do with your faith is listen.
You just have to listen, you have to be willing
to change your mind if you're wrong, hear the word of God.
Then obviously, the next thing is
put in the right spot, right?
If some Catholic priest is telling you how to be saved,
you don't want to listen to that,
you want to put it in the right area.
And obviously,
In the Philippines, there's a lot of Baptist churches that even have a national, I think
it's like National Baptist Day or whatever, but a lot of them even preach a bad gospel,
they preach a repent of your sins.
So obviously they are, even if a Baptist is telling you how to be saved, you really want
to make sure you put in the right spot because a lot of them are deceivers too and will lie
to you.
But once you find the truth, you put it in there, then you got to ask to be saved, you
It's done, right? You can't lose your salvation. It's over, but you still want to put your faith in action, right?
So what's next after that? So action number four is to show your faith. So if you guys have flipped over to
We already read it this morning. You don't have to flip there. You guys can stay in Romans 10 for now
I'll just read it. I think Justin read it this morning. He read something in James, but James 2 18
I'll just read it says yay a man may say thou has
Faze faith and I have works show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works
So a lot of people obviously use James
to try to teach a works salvation or that you can lose your salvation if you don't keep the works.
But obviously, it's still important, right? Because James is saying here at the end of the
verses, and I will show thee my faith by my works. So obviously, we should do works. We obviously
should keep as many commandments as we can do the work that God wants us to do, not to be saved,
but to, again,
action number four, show your faith. So I'm going to read this verse
quick about what works we should do. In Mark
16-15 it says, and he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel
to every creature. So obviously that's the most important work you can do is
preach
how to go to heaven and teach people what obviously you learned in the first three
steps
of where to put your faith and try to get people to listen to you.
So in Romans 10-14, we're going to continue, and in Romans 10-14, it says...
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, 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.
your faith, right? I mean, it's just awesome chapter. And here it says, you know, how shall
they believe in him whom they've not heard? So obviously, if they don't hear about Jesus,
they can't get saved. They won't ever know where to put their faith because no one's told them.
So you have to tell them, right? It's going to tell that. Next, how shall they hear without
a preacher? So obviously, hey, you're saved, you can preach, you have a mouth, right?
And then in verse 15, how shall they preach except they be sent?
So somebody has to send them out, which we've seen in Mark 16,
that Jesus already told everybody to go out and preach.
But obviously we're gonna get there, you know a church is better right the church can send people out kind of
Tell people where to go keep track of everything so we're gonna get there there next
But even if you lived in an area where there's no good church, there's no soul winning times
You don't have an excuse and say well no one's sending me because obviously we've seen in Mark 16 that Jesus
is telling you to go into all the world preach.
So even if you lived in like a remote area
and you didn't have a good church,
you still have a responsibility to do so wanting.
And even if you lived in like, say Alaska
in the middle of nowhere, and you said,
well, there's no one around me,
Stephen preached a sermon on how you could still
get people saved.
So you don't have an excuse in today's generation, right?
Even if you lived alone, you can still do on the phone, right?
So.
If you guys would flip over to ax 13.
So obviously anybody can go soul-winning right you can go soul-winning on the phone you can go soul-winning by yourself
You can go soul-winning if you didn't have a church in your area, but obviously
It's kind of like people who do gig apps, right? If like you don't have a manager. You don't have a boss. It's like it's easy
And I know people
personally that it's like well today I'm gonna take the day off or I'm gonna
sleep in and do whatever because there's no boss telling you what to do it's
just all free right so you can do whatever you want so you miss half the
days you work half the time it's not a good idea so if you have a church is
actually pushing you and telling you every week to go go go and making sure
you're doing it right and you're not preaching weird stuff it's gonna be a
And verse number one, it says,
Now there were in the church
that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers
as Barnabas and Simeon, which was called Niger
and Lucius of Cyrene
and Menaine, which had brought up
which had been brought up with hair, the tea truck, and Saul, as they ministered to the
Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas, and Saul, for the work were
unto I have called them.
And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Cilicia, and from then sailed
to Cyprus.
They preach the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they also, or had also John to their minister.
So we see here that, hey, it's starting out, right, these...
There's a church at Antioch, there's prophets there, there's teachers there, and in verse
number two it says, they ministered to the Lord, they fasted, and you know, they're
doing great things, right, they're being faithful to the church, but then it says, separate
me, Barnabas, and Saul for the work we're on to, I have called them, and then in verse
number five, you know, they were sent out, and then they're preaching in the synagogues,
right, the same thing that we do at our church, right, you come here, you learn, you ...
Some people lead the sing, some people clean, some people do minister, whatever, you know, come and hear the word of God.
But then at the end it says, hey, we're going to send you out, here's the maps, you know, and you have a partner.
to go with. So in Luke 10 we're gonna see that, that it's better to go with
someone else and not alone, right? If you don't have a church and you don't have
anyone in your area and you're going alone, you don't really see too many
examples of that in the Bible, right? I mean, obviously if you don't have
anybody you still should go and it's not really an excuse because you can still do
it, but obviously in the Bible most of the time
there's multiple people right because even here you see Barnabas and Saul. It's not just Saul,
it's not just Barnabas and they also have John right so you have multiple people because obviously
The more you're around the more you see there's a lot of weird people out there and people who preach bad stuff
And if you're going alone all the time, you there's no supervision, right?
I mean you can start preaching weird things and there's no one to correct you to say hey
You know you do have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved, right?
I mean, you know you can get into weird things and people can correct you if you're with someone else
So in Luke 10 we're gonna see that method of having someone with you. So in Luke 10 1 it says
After these things, the Lord appointed other seventy also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whether he himself would come.
Therefore, said he unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.
Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest."
And in verse number three, it's a warning.
It says, Go your ways, behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
So obviously, if you don't have a church, if you don't have anybody to go with, you still should go.
But if you think about it, right, if you have a lamb,
going out by himself with no one with him.
There's a lot better chance that something bad's going to happen.
Somebody is going to attack him or, you know, the wolf's going to get him.
Something could happen, right, if he gets injured.
He could be done, right?
And there's a lot of dangerous people out there.
You see tons of stuff in the news
of different things happening.
And you want to have a group of people that you go with,
but at least you want to be sent out two by two
as bare minimum, right?
Because if something happens out there,
at least if you're two by two, you have a witness,
you have somebody to have your back,
somebody can help you.
But again, if you don't have anybody to go with,
I'm not saying never go.
but just be smart about it, right? I mean, you know, try your best to always have somebody with you,
and it makes it more fun, right, too, as well, because, you know, you can have fellowship,
and if somebody does something and says some really bad stuff, at least you can laugh about it with
somebody, right? So, in Acts chapter 20, if you guys would flip over to Acts 20,
So obviously, we always need more laborers, right?
People, you know, God is so clear that we need more people
to go soul-winning.
God wants more people working for him.
And the importance of being a laborer is that you're gonna
be free from people's blood, right?
Because obviously you know the truth.
You know what people need to turn from and believe.
So if you don't go and tell them, you know,
it's on you, right?
It's on me, it's on us.
Verse number 25, it says, And now, behold, I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more.
Therefore, I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I
have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."
So we see here that, hey, if you preach and you tell everybody you can be, like in verse
number 26, pure from the blood of all men, right?
But obviously, you know, it's hard because I mean, every...
You could preach to everybody and you'd never be able to even leave, right?
So obviously there's some limits.
But again, it is true.
Like if you're in an elevator, you're in the mall, or if you're in a grocery store,
I mean you might be the only person that grocery store that knows how to do soul-winning,
the only person who could get somebody saved in that whole store.
So every single person that you don't tell to, you know,
obviously if they never hear it someday, or they don't get a good presentation.
you know, they might go to hell, so obviously we should try to tell everybody we can, but obviously,
you know, we're all going to make mistakes or be scared or not have time and be busy. But obviously,
you know, I do feel like when you get to heaven, every single person that ever lived,
even probably the Apostle Paul is going to be like, man, I could have preached to that guy,
I could have preached to that person, I could have done a little more because, you know, there's
And like I said, it's impossible, right?
I mean, one person can't preach the whole world,
but that's almost like what it feels like, right?
Because I mean, almost no one is saved.
But obviously,
You know, we should try to strive for this to be pure from the blood of all men, at least in a certain area, a certain neighborhood,
probably not the whole world, but obviously, hey, your street, your family, your friends, you know, some sort of limit,
which obviously everybody, if you're younger, you can have a higher limit if you can travel.
You know, but obviously everybody I think should make some sort of goal that says, hey, I want to be pure from the blood of my family,
my street, my neighborhood, my city, and obviously we do.
a good job of trying to reach all of Indianapolis and again like we talked
about the more people you go with the more you're in a church the more you
can accomplish and you know you could never reach all of Indianapolis alone
but with everybody you could right and if we doubled tripled in size then we
could probably reach all of Indiana or all of the Midwest right like there's
the more people you can get the more you can do and if you guys have flip over
Ezekiel chapter 3, this is the first Old Testament passage of the day, so be glad.
So Ezekiel chapter 3, I like this story of the Watchman, right, it's kind of the same
you know, being purified from the blood of all men.
The watchman, we're going to see here,
I think is a good analogy of that.
So in Ezekiel chapter three, verse number 17,
it says, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman
unto the house of Israel.
Therefore hear the words at my mouth
and give them warning from me.
When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die
and thou give us him no warning nor speakest.
To warn the wicked from his evil way to save his life the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity
But whose fault is it gonna be but his blood will I require at thine hand?
So we're gonna keep reading here. We're gonna pause right if people get mad when you tell somebody hey like
What do you have to do to go to heaven?
Like, well, I've got to be a good person.
And you're like, well, the Bible teaches something different.
And however you kind of throw it in there of,
you're going to go to hell if you keep believing that.
Obviously, everybody's going to say it nicer than that
in some way, hopefully.
But you just kind of say that.
And they just automatically, some people get offended, right?
What do you mean I'm going to go to hell?
What do you mean I'm believing wrong?
But here it says, hey, if you don't tell and warn
the blood's going to be on you, right?
So it's obviously uncomfortable to tell somebody,
hey, I know you think you had to be a good person.
The Bible says you got to believe in Jesus.
If you think you had to be a good person,
you're not going to go to heaven.
Well, they get offended at that,
but obviously at least you warn them
and it's not on you then, right?
Because in verse 19, it says,
yet if thou warned the wicked
and he turned not from his wickedness,
nor from his wicked way,
he shall die in his iniquity.
but thou hast delivered thy soul." So obviously if that person doesn't want to get saved and they
just keep believing what they want to believe, you know, you're free from his blood. It's not on
your head. It's on him at that point, right? So you did your job. And in verse number 20 it says,
again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity,
and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die
Because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sins and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered, but his blood will require at thine hand."
So obviously there are certain preachers now too that say, hey, you know, God's not going to kill you.
But in this verse, maybe I read it wrong, but it seems like...
that you should warn people that, hey, if you do bad things
and you are righteous and you start committing
iniquity that, hey, you could die.
And it says, because the has given him, or not given him
a warning, that, hey, the blood's going to be on you.
So certain preachers that start preaching, hey,
that God's not going to kill you for doing bad,
might want to read that verse.
So we're going to see another example in the same book, Ezekiel
33, if you flip over a few pages.
to Ezekiel 33.
So Ezekiel 33, we're going to see another example about warning people.
It says in Ezekiel 33.3, it says,
If when he seeth the sword come upon the land,
he blow the trumpet and warn the people,
then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet
and takeeth not warning,
if the sword come and take him away,
his blood shall be upon his own head.
He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning,
his blood shall be upon him,
but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
So, here, I kind of like that it says deliver his soul, it doesn't even just say like deliver
his life, right?
Because you can apply it to obviously soul-winning and, you know, warning people you're delivering
their soul.
I mean, here, it could just say deliver his body because it's more like a physical talk,
but the soul, it just makes it so clear that you can apply it to soul-winning and seeing
people saved.
It matches up, right, with soul winning so good.
So in verse number six, it says,
but if the watchmen see the sword come
and blow not the trumpet and the people be not warned,
if the sword come and take any person from among them,
he is taken away in his iniquity,
but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
So thou, O son of man,
I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel, therefore thou shalt hear the words of my mouth and warn them from me.
When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die.
It's crazy how the Bible keeps saying wicked people are going to die, but I thought that was fake.
It says, if thou does not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity,
but his blood while required at thine hand, nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it,
if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.
Obviously, this is just so clear on, hey, what God says, what God wants you to say,
if you tell people and they don't turn from it, they don't want to get saved,
they don't want to get right, then that's on them, you warn them, you did your job,
but if you don't warn them and you don't tell them, then it's on you. And obviously,
I think soul winning is the best application, but it's also other things too, right? I mean,
that they're sinning or doing wrong and you just tell God's not mad at you and whatever,
then if they go and do a bunch of bad stuff, that's going to apply to you as a preacher,
as somebody who reads the Bible, who knows better. So you should warn people in other
categories as well, but obviously I think the most important direct application is soul-winning,
because obviously, you know, you don't want people you know or people you love to go to hell, so
that's the most important thing, right? It doesn't do you much good at like
Argue about every topic and say why Trump's bad or why this is good and this is bad
the most important is getting people saved and
You know even if you were to convince somebody of some conspiracy or whatever
And the person's not say doesn't really do him any good
So obviously getting people saves the most important all the time
But you still do want to teach people because it's you know, it's it's saying if you're wicked
You're gonna die, right? So you do obviously want people to stop being wicked and you don't want to preach this crazy stuff that goes around of
Hey, like God's not gonna kill you like you can do whatever and you know God's not not mad at you, right?
So I'm Joe Meyer, right?
So if you guys have flip over to
Jonah chapter 3
I'm gonna read Matthew chapter
10, verse number 27, so here's the New Testament application to what we just read of blowing
the trumpet warning people.
It says Matthew 10, 27, what I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light, and what
ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops, and fear not them which kill the
body.
but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
So obviously, hey Jesus is saying the same thing, that what you hear in the Bible, what you hear in church,
that you need to preach it upon the house top, right? You need to blow the trumpet, you need to warn people.
So...
The same thing in the New Testament and we're going to see Jonah doing this and obviously Jonah probably
Saved a lot of people in the city, you know, it doesn't give a number of how many people got saved and doesn't really go into that
But I'm assuming a lot of people got saved
spiritually as well
Through this right?
but obviously it still saved them physically for sure.
So the word of God can obviously,
like we've been talking about spiritually save people,
but it can also save people physically on this earth.
So in Jonah three, Jonah's gonna be the watchman
and save the city Nineveh,
even though he's kind of being a crybaby
and not wanting to do it, right?
Which obviously it seems like if God was gonna tell us
to go to a city and save the whole city,
especially like when you go to a bad area so when you'd be like can I go like I want to go right
I mean it seems like this is like the greatest opportunity ever like you go there and just
change the whole the whole country or nation or city state whatever you want to call it but
Jonah doesn't want to go I guess there was a lot of receptive areas back then he's just like man I
don't want to go there it's uh I want to go to some other receptive area but in Jonah 3 verse number one
It says, And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto
Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.
Now Nineveh was an exceeding, great city of three days journey, and Jonah began to enter
into the city.
Day's journey and he cried and said yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown
So the people of Nineveh believe God and proclaimed a fast and put on sat cloth
From the greatest of them even to the least of them
For the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth and saddened ashes.
And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king, and his noble saying,
Let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God.
Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from his violence,
that is in his hands, who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger,
and we perish not. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he
had said that he would do one of them, and he did it not.
So is he here at a whole city, state, a nation?
You know, great city, whatever vocabulary you want to call it.
But God wants to overthrow and destroy this place because they're wicked, but Jonah goes
there and preaches to these people and tells them, hey, God's going to destroy you.
And they turn, they get right.
And this whole area, probably at least thousands of people are going to be saved from this.
They're not going to die.
And they have a chance to either get saved or they got saved, maybe do stuff for God.
and, you know, have a chance to get rewards, and a lot of them avoid it going to hell just by Jonah
going there and preaching this great message, and him being the watchman and blowing the trumpet,
and we can do the same thing, right? I mean, we can do the same thing in our generation, in our city,
Because obviously Jonah, he did a great work for that whole nation.
save them but we as God's people can do the same thing even if people around us
don't necessarily do what happened in the story and get right with God if we
get right with God and we get people who are saved to get right with God we can
change the course of a nation because in 2 Chronicles 7 verse 14 it says if my
people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins
and I will heal their land.
So we see here, I have God's people,
they get right and they humble themselves.
you know, start turning to God, they get away from all the sin,
God's going to hear from heaven, He's going to heal our land and forgive our sins from it, right?
So maybe everybody outside of the church is bad and wicked one day,
but if the people that are saved can get in church, get right,
God's not going to judge that area because His people are the ones that are saving that area, right?
So people hate Christians sometimes, right?
they could be the ones saving that area. So if you kicked all the Christians out of a crazy area, God might just kill everybody there.
So, you know, the Christians, even if you didn't like them, you kind of want them there just so God's like, I'm not going to destroy it yet, right?
So, what's the conclusion, right? What's the meaning to everything? So if you guys would turn to Jude 1, it'll be the last place you've got to turn.
So and I'll read from 1st Corinthians 922. It says to the week
Became I as weak that I might gain the week
I am made all things to all men that I by all means or
that I might by all means save some.
So, you know, obviously the most important thing
of this whole message is to try to reproduce
and get people to believe the correct thing,
get them saved, and you're not gonna save them all.
Like here it says that I might save some.
So a lot of people, even people you love,
people that you're friends with,
they might never get saved,
but obviously you can save some.
And, you know, it's crazy.
What you can do right because obviously it sounds like a like a lot if you never went so wanting or just started going so wanting
You read all the actions, right? You got to hear you got to believe you got to ask
Then you got to start, you know being a watchman and doing these great works
But it's crazy how you can go from like having no background to like being like
a great man of God just so easy because I remember when I first had gotten saved
it's like I wanted to go soul-winning with a pastor and just see somebody get
saved so I wasn't the lowest like spot in heaven. I was like one person can get
saved I'm happy. So I went with this old IFB pastor that was in my area that he
ended up moving shortly after that but I went soul-winning with him once the first
door we knocked.
Somebody got saved and he's like, all right, let's go back.
And I was like, all right, I'm cool.
I hit my goal.
One person, I didn't get him saved, but I was there.
I was like, at least now when I get to heaven,
I'm not the lowest person, because obviously, most people
never see anybody get saved.
So even if all you do is save one,
you're probably above millions of people.
So the bar is very low, but it's also
possible to be one of the top, because obviously, no one
I mean, a vast majority, let's say, of people don't do anything for God.
So if you dedicate and try, you know, you can be one of the top people in heaven.
And you see people in the Bible, and there's a lot of times where it's like there's one
righteous guy, or two righteous guys, or three that are actually doing stuff for God.
So like there's big timeframes in history where like most people aren't doing anything
for God, and you know, you can pass all of them by serving God.
you want to try to be up there and do your best to get there.
So in Jude 1.23, this is the reason we do it,
the reason you want to try to be one of the best.
It says in Jude 1.23, and others save with fear,
pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted
by the flesh.
So obviously, we don't want people to go to hell.
And people volunteer to be firefighters, right?
It's like a thing where people will volunteer their time.
They work for the city to be a firefighter.
They'll have the device by their bed,
and the alarm will go off.
They're not getting paid.
They get out of bed.
They drive to the fire station or go to the crime scene
or they're sleeping at the fire station.
Just all types of crazy stuff that people
will do to save people because they don't want people
to burn in a fire, right?
So obviously, the same thing applies
where you don't want people to burn forever and ever
in a fire.
aren't even saved, will volunteer their time to save someone burning from a fire,
why couldn't we, right? Because that's the true, putting your faith in action as,
hey, I don't want someone to burn in a fire and you want them to get saved, right? So that's the whole...
Pretty much the ending of everything is just everything you do is to try to get more people saved right the more you know the Bible the more
You get closer to God the more he can use you, but also the more you can
You know know what to say when somebody asks you a question like coming to church
So you can get closer people have people to go soul-winning with pushing you to work harder and harder because obviously
I got to get back into it, but man, it's not as hard to keep up with Brother Steven when he's like
two saved, five saved. It's like, man, it pushes me to try to do more, right? That's the goal.
It's like, if you're by yourself and you're not going to a good church, or you're going to a church
that does have so many, but it's kind of a little bit one hour a week, you don't really push yourself
because if you get somebody saved, it's like, you know, that's the most anybody's done. But when you
You know, sometimes people say, hey, I got 10 people saved.
You're like, man, like, I'm lazy.
I got to get out there, right?
So it pushes you to do more.
It's like in basketball and in sports, right?
I mean, somebody breaks a record of the most yards
in the season.
Then the next year, somebody breaks it or tries to break it.
So if there was never any records
and no one ever kept track of anything,
no one would really care, right?
I mean, how many times have you heard, like, LeBron James
has passed?
this person on the scoring title and no one's ever going to pass them and the most points
in a year it's just that's what people care about right is to push other people and so
one thing's no different right I mean the more people that somebody can get saved the
more you might push someone else to try to get somebody saved it's not a competition
but it's just human nature that hey when it is somebody pushing you you want to try to
get to that same level.
So, let's try to close out the year strong, because I think we're getting close to 500
Salvation, right?
So, you know, if we push it hard, we might be able to hit 1,000, so that should be the
goal for the year.
So, we'll close with a word of prayer.
Thank you, Lord, for a great day to be in church.
Thank you for letting us have great people to fellowship with and to go soul-winning
with.
Let everybody have a safe drive home.
We love you and thank you.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Thank you, brother Brett.
That was a great sermon.
Encourage each other, go soul-winning.
Great message.
Let's go to number 139 in our song books.
I know whom I have believed in.
One of the points I liked is, you know, of course,
having faith in God, that we can do all these things
through him.
Let's all stand for this song.
Number 139, I know whom I have believed in.
I know not why God's wondrous grace to me He had made known
Nor why unworthy Christ in love Redeem me for His own
I have believed in and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've
committed unto him against that day. I know not how this saving faith to me he
Leaving in his word, right peace within my heart
But I know whom I have believed in
And that persuaded that he is able
To give that which I've committed
To him against that day
I know now
Spirit moves convicting man of sin, revealing Jesus through the word, creating faith in him.
But I know who...
and and that persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've
committed to him think about those words and that Ford stands up I know not what
of good or ill may be reserved for me
of golden days before his face I'll see. But I know whom I have believed in and am
persuaded that he is able to give them, which I've committed unto him against that day.
I know not when my Lord may come at night or noon or dare,
nor if I walk the veil with Him or meet Him in the air.
But I know I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to keep
I've committed unto him against that I want to sing that second verse acapella
All right, I know not how they're saving faith to me
He did impart
Nor how
Believing in his word
Rod that ought to bring a tear to our ice church see it out now, but I know
in and appersuaded that he is able to keep which have committed on to him
against that day. Amen. Brother Stephen, can you pray us out please?