Thank you everybody for coming let's take a look at verse 23 we're in Proverbs 23
and the Bible reads buy the truth and sell it not also wisdom and instruction
and understanding so what I believe the Bible is illustrating here is that we're
not supposed to sell out on doctrine we're not supposed to compromise on
what the truth is you know the truth is the most important thing of course Jesus
is the truth you know these riches that we can earn riches in heaven they're
priceless they're not to be compared to anything worldly we ought not to sell
that which is spiritual for that which is carnal ought to be the other way
around you know there's a lot of people here that could have you know maybe
worked Saturday we got brother Fidel he told me something that really stuck with
me you could be working overtime today instead instead of making time and a
half you'd rather be here winning souls to Christ and even if we don't win a
single soul today which you know it's going that way for some of us but God
will reward us for the work we're doing we can't make people believe we can't
make people listen necessarily but we can obey God we don't want to sell out
on the doctrine of the Great Commission we don't want to sell the doctrine of
soul winning sadly a lot of churches today they sell the doctrine of soul
winning they're not doing soul winning very much anymore you know we see this
nation just getting worse and worse every year less and less receptive it
seems from my perspective hopefully it'll fluctuate and bounce back up in
receptivity but you know it's not looking good but whether people believe
what we have to say whether people want to listen to us or not whether it's
gonna be like the generation in Noah's day where prior wasn't a lot of people
that believed his message or whether it's extremely receptive like Sierra
Leone or something we ought to just obey God and not sell the doctrine of the
Great Commission and not sell the doctrine of soul winning so by the truth
and sell it not also wisdom and instruction and understanding turn with
me if you would to Matthew chapter 4 and you know it's interesting earlier on in
this context in Proverbs 23 it talks about basically not selling out no
first few verses verses 1 through 8 not selling out you know people sometimes
try to buy you or try to flatter you get what they want you know one of the
things it says is riches certainly make themselves wings they fly away as an
eagle toward heaven what are you gonna sell the truth for money it's gonna fly
away anyway you know you can't take it with you obviously we all need money we
need to sustain ourselves we need to work earn a living for men but hey if
you don't need that extra money and you can come out so winning on Saturday go
for it you know I mean you got to work Saturday you got to work Saturday if you
need the money you need money well that's a great attitude to have to
rather earn riches in heaven so Matthew 4 I want to read quickly Matthew 16
Jesus says in verse 26 but what does a man profited if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul but what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul what are you gonna give it for anyway you could gain the whole world
it's meaningless you give your own so your soul is what's precious and how
about soul winning when we go out we sacrifice our time our money our energy
a lot of us are kind of sleep deprived you know we're coming from Arizona a
lot of us we went in the future an hour I don't know if that's the right way to
describe it we lost an hour okay no we lost some sleep we got here late a lot
of us got like four or five maybe six hours of sleep we're sacrificing there
under the Lord we're sacrificing some sleep time money and energy in order to
exert our energies into soul winning so that we can win people to Christ and
that they don't spend eternity in hell yeah and so even if we were to gain the
whole world and lose our own soul it's meaningless it's worthless we'd be
missing the point of life and so Jesus is obviously our perfect example Matthew
chapter 4 this is after he fasted 40 days and he was tempted of the devil
he was there in the wilderness and it says in verse 8 again the devil taketh
him up into an exceeding high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the
world and the glory of them and saith unto him all these things will I give
thee if thou will fall down and worship me then saith Jesus unto him get the
head Satan for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only
shalt thou serve and what's interesting here is Jesus he fights temptation by
using the Word of God obviously he is the Word of God made flesh and dwelt
among us and everything and the Word of God is our weapon to fight temptation he
uses that here he does it flawlessly and one of the things I wanted to point out
he could have gained the whole world but he chose not to sell his soul he didn't
sell the truth he is the truth so he didn't sell out and so he used the Word
of God and fought the devil and he's victorious and that's our example I
believe another great example is how about steadfast Baptist Church maybe you
know the story you probably do recently they had a lawsuit where they were going
to get evicted because they somehow broke the lease or whatever by preaching
Leviticus 2013 by preaching Genesis 19 and pastor Shelly does a great job
preaching what the Bible says thank God for that thank God you know I mean it's
few and far between these days sadly were a pastor who actually preached the
whole Council of God we're blessed to have pastors like that that were
friends with Pastor Anderson likewise and he didn't want to sell the doctrine
of Leviticus 2013 you know he doesn't want to sell any verses we don't want to
sell the truth by the truth and sell it not also wisdom and instruction and
understanding and so what ended up happening was this liberal landlord
sued them for preaching Genesis 19 all about Sodom and Gomorrah how God
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and this corrupt judge deemed that they had
somehow broken the lease and they ended up getting evicted well I could just
picture the devil you know we read verse 8 of Matthew 4 about how the devil
taken Jesus up into a high mountain and show them all the kingdoms of the world
and I just picture the devil saying to pastor Shelly you know all the apartment
buildings of the world I will give them to thee if you just sell me 2013 of
Leviticus and the answer is no you know what I mean it doesn't matter what the
devil has to offer we're not gonna give it to him at least we shouldn't give it
to him because the truth is the most important thing you know I like to use
this analogy to kind of illustrate a point and even this analogy isn't going
to do it justice per se but basically what the devil has to offer us pennies
on the dollar compared to what God has to offer us and that's not even a good
enough analogy because pennies are actually worth something but what the
devil has to offer you is vain and what God has to offer us is so much greater
than dollars so much greater than money riches in heaven that nobody can rob
nobody can steal nobody can take away from us and that's the souls we went for
Christ that's the obedience we have to price but if we sell doctrines like
Leviticus 2013 what's next is soul wanting gonna become a door hanger know
what he's gonna come next we're probably going to sell out on other things too I
mean the devil's not going to be suffice if we give him an inch he's gonna want
to take a mile anyway he's gonna want to take as far as he can go so we ought to
be steadfast unmovable not give him that inch not certainly not giving more than
that unmovable always abounding the work of the Lord Bible says as much as you
know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord and we're gonna finish up in
2nd Corinthians 4 I want to read a verse for you real quick but David says
something that I really like and for sake of time I won't get into much of
the context but he says in 2nd Samuel 24 it says and the king said to unto
our Rona nay but I will surely buy it of thee at a price neither will I offer
burnt offerings under the Lord my God of that which does cost me nothing so David
bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver he says
something very profound to me basically he's not going to sacrifice under the
Lord that which cost him nothing you know there's a cost we have to count it
and we ought not to sacrifice that which is spiritual for that which is
carnal like say if you were offered a better job but you'd have to go live in
a place where there's no good church to go to or a job where you'd have to work
Sundays and just miss a lot of church no we don't want to sacrifice that which is
spiritual for that which is carnal you can't take the money with us anyway it's
gonna sprout wings fly away it's gonna be but for a moment it's not gonna be
worth it so basically David has this attitude he has the right attitude I'm
not gonna sacrifice under the Lord that which cost me nothing and I mentioned
how we have a cause we're putting in time money and energy to be here look
what it says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and it says in verse 17 for our light
affliction which is but for a moment work it for us a far more exceeding
eternal weight of glory I believe God will reward us exponentially for what
we're doing for him now it may cost a little bit of sleep time energy what
have you but he's going to reward us exponentially because the light
affliction which is but for a moment work it for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory that sounds exponential to me and the treasures in
heaven you know we can't even compare that to all the money in the world the
whole world is not to be compared to the rich that we can earn in heaven seeking
by obeying God winning souls and hey this is not the most receptive soul
winning marathon I've been on but God's gonna reward us anyway because we're
obeying him we're sacrificing unto him and let's finish up in verse 18 of 2nd
Corinthians chapter 4 where it says well we look not at the things which are seen
that the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal
but the things which are not seen are eternal now I tell people sometimes when
I leave them out sowing at the end what I'm trying to convince them to pray to
call upon the name of the Lord sometimes I tell them you know I can't see your
heart but I believe you're sincere and calling upon the Lord to be saved that
is a requirement now you understand the gospel you understand what you must do
to be saved you understand how it's not based on your works at all no let's call
upon the name of the Lord let's just confess that this is what you believe I
tell them I can't see your heart but I believe you're sincere we look on the
things that are not seen when we're winning so we're trying to get people I
don't I've never seen help you know what I mean but I know it's real I know God
tells the truth I know he can't lie I know that hell is real I know we all
deserve it but thank God we're saved by grace through faith so Jesus Christ has
bought our salvation and we can never lose our salvation obviously we can't
sell that but we don't want to sell out on any doctrine whether it's Genesis 19
or whether it's soul winning the Great Commission or how about thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve whatever the doctrine
the Bible we shouldn't want to sell it we should have the reverse attitude and
be willing to sacrifice that which is carnal for that which is spiritual let's
go ahead and close in prayer thank you Lord for this marathon Lord I pray you
need us to the people that want to be saved please Lord first with your spirit
as we go out and please Lord keep us safe and help us have great fellowship
the rest of the day please help us stay motivated and never sell out on the
things of God in Jesus name amen