(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

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Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] We're going to start the announcements, so we're going to go right on to the next song, song number 208. Song number 208, Grace is Greater Than I Said. You'll recognize it from the moment it comes. Alright, song number 208. ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] ["Grace is Greater Than I Said"] This is from Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. Verse 1 of the Bible reads, When it came to the past, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught His disciples. And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, and will be done, as in heaven and so on earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone as indebted to us. When He is not in a situation, He never should be one. And He said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto Him at midnight, and say unto them, Friend, let me be three loaves, for a friend of mine in this journey has come to me, and hath nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble be not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give them. I say unto you, We will not rise and give them, because He is His friend, yet because of His opportunity, He will rise and give them as many as He need them. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given unto you, to seek, and it shall find, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receive it, and he that seeketh, find it, to him that knoweth, it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you as a father, will you give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Or if he shall be an eagle, will he give good gifts unto your children? How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that asketh? And he was casting out a devil who was dumb, and it came to pass that the devil was gone out, and the devil stayed, and the people wondered. But some of them said, He cast out devils through the algebra, the chief of the devils. Another said, The tempeter saw that a sign came from heaven. But he, knowing the thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself shall be divided against a house fallen. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because his say, I cast out devils through the algebra. And if I, by the algebra, cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keep this palace, his goods are in peace. For when a strong man in he cometh, he shall come upon him, and overcoming, he takeeth from him all his armor, where he trusteth, and diviseth spoils. He that is not with me is against me. He that gathereth not with me is scattered. When the unseen spirit is gone out of the man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he saith, I will return him to my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth sweat and garnish. Then goeth he, and takeeth to him seven other spirits who are awakened to himself. And they enter in, dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. And it came to pass, as he must take these things, a certain woman with the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bear thee, and the past which shall it suck. But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they to hear the word of God and keep it. And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation, and they seek a sign, but there shall no sign be given but a sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign of the Ninevites, so also shall the son of man be to his generation. The queen of the south shall rise up in judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them, for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, the greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn them, for they are pented at the preaching of Jonas. And behold, the greater than Jonas is here. No man, when he hath lighted a candle, puteth in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a canvas pole. They which come in may see the light. The light of the body is the eye. The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, when that eye is single, that whole body also is full of light. But when that eye is evil, that body also is full of darkness. Take heed, therefore, that the light, which is in thee, be not darkness. That whole body, therefore, be full of light, having no part dark to be full of light, as when the bright shining of the candle was giving light. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee saw him, the dynamite, and he went in and sat down to meet. He marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, for your inward part is full of raving and wickedness. He fools, did not he, that made that which is without, take that which is within also, but rather give alms to such things that we have. And behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto us, Pharisees, for ye tithe in it, and ruin all manner of earth, and pass over judgment, and love of God. These I each have done, and I leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seats and synagogues and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you have graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of it. Then actually one of the lawyers had said unto him, Master, dost sayest thou who approaches us also? And he said, Woe unto you, also ye lawyers, for ye lay men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto them, for ye build the seculars of his prophets, and your fathers kill them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed kill them, and ye build their seculars. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute, but the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which were yet to perish between the altar and the temple. Barely I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe unto you, lawyers, we have taken away the key of knowledge. Be entered not in yourselves, and then though we're entering in, be hindered. And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him behemingly, and provoke him to speak of many things, laying weight for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him. Elder Allen, would you pray for us? Thank you, Father God, for this service Amen. All right, so first of all, I'd like to thank Pastor for this opportunity to be here, and also Deacon Russell. He's sick, so be praying for him, and all you guys for showing up as well. This is a great honor to be here, and I love coming down here and being able to visit with you guys. And the title of my sermon tonight is called, Keeping the Basics. Keeping the Basics. Now I first heard this term from Brother Segura a long time ago. Basically what he says is whenever somebody comes to him with some sort of an issue, they say, oh Brother Segura, I'm depressed, or I have some issue in my life. I have something bad going on, and I need advice, or whatever. He always asks them the same question first. He says, are you keeping the basics? And what he means by that is that, you know, basically this is a topic in my sermon tonight and what he means by that is the way that he puts it, there's five basics of the Christian life, and I want to go over this. This is going to be my five points for you tonight. And those five points would be prayer, Bible reading, soul winning, church attendance, and tithing. So these are the five things that Brother Segura asks, and it's like, you know, are you doing these things? Because really if you're not doing these things, then God can't bless you in these other areas and stuff like that. You need to be keeping these basics. And so I'd like to preach this tonight just as a reminder for the new year coming up that we should be keeping these things and our lives. And you know, you may say to yourself, like, you know, Brother Raymond, I don't want to hear about this. I already know all this. You know, I already go to church and I already read my Bible and I already pray. But you know, we need to be reminded of these things continually, constantly. You know, the Bible says, you know, I've just got a few verses right here about that. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. It's very easy to forget these things in the Christian life. The Bible says if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? So these are foundational truths from the Word of God that I'd like to expound to you tonight. And then also too, the Bible says to write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. So it's safe to preach these things that are kind of the basics, kind of the foundational things in our Christian life. But then not only that too, I'm also going to be, you know, adding some challenges in there as well. So let's say that you are the person that's keeping these five basic things. You're like, yep, check, check, check. I've got all these things down. I'm also going to be adding in some little challenges at the end for those people who want to take their Christian life to the next step in this new year coming up. So all of us should be at that basic, the basic level, but then also too, if you're already there, then you know, push it to the next level in this upcoming year. And so my first point to you tonight is that you need to have some sort of a prayer life. You need to have prayer in your life, prayer to God. So you're there in Luke chapter 11. Look down if you would at verse number one and we'll begin here. It says, and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. So the first thing I want to point out is that the disciples saw how important prayer is. And you know, I was thinking about this. This isn't in my notes, but I was thinking about this on my drive down here. But you know, every, pretty much everything in the Christian life starts with prayer if you think about it. Think about it. You know, our salvation it started whenever we prayed, whenever we asked Jesus to save us, right? The Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Think about it. You know, before you start reading the Bible, you need to pray first and ask God to open your, my eyes that I might behold wondrous things from out of thy law. Before we go soul winning, we start off with prayer. Before we have church, we start off with prayer. Everything starts with prayer. Prayer is just so important to have in your life. Not only whenever you're doing those things with a group or whatever, but then also in your own private life as well. So let's get into that. In verse number two, it says, and he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done as in earth or as in heaven, so in earth. So the first thing that he's telling you to do is he says, you know, basically to praise the Lord. You know, I would look at this as just praising the Lord. And, you know, I've heard this said too. I've never fact checked this, but I've heard it said that the number one commandment in the Bible is to praise the Lord. That's stated more often than any other commandment. And I would say that that's probably true. You know, the Bible just says over and over again. How about Psalm 1 17 that we sing as a church sometime. Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people, for his merciful kindness is great towards us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. So, you know, the first thing is that we got to praise him, you know, and then look at verse number three. It says, Give us day by day our daily bread. And, you know, this right here, too, I believe this is talking about the word of God. Of course, you know, give us the word of God. Help us to know your word. This could be, you know, as as in us asking for wisdom or asking God to teach us his word, because maybe we get this idea sometimes that, oh, you know, God's already given me his word in the King James Bible, and all I can and all I have to do is just open it up and start reading it. But really, before we ever crack it open and start reading, we need to ask God to show us, you know, what his word says, because God is the one that teaches us. If you're reading in the in the flesh or whatever, you're not reading in the spirit, then you're not really going to get very much out of it, you know. And just for a verse on this, it says in Psalm 1 19 in verse 102, it says, I have not departed from my judgments for thou has taught me. So see, God is the one that teaches us his word, the Holy Spirit living inside of us. He's the one that's going to guide us and lead us into all truth. And so we need to pray that God will give us day by day our daily bread. He's going to teach us the word of God. That's what we need to be praying as well. And look at verse number four. It says and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And so the third thing here is that we need to ask for forgiveness. You know, we're sinners. We sin every single day. You know, I believe that we can't go through an entire day without sinning at some point. And so we need to constantly be asking God to forgive us for those things. And that's pretty pretty simple as well. So let's continue. Verse five. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine is in a journey and his journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not the doors now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of you of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If he then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? And so these last several verses are talking about asking God for things asking God for our needs for our for our desires according to his will. And what I want to point out here is that you know at whenever the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray he didn't immediately go to the asking part. Now the word pray just means to ask and that that really is what prayer is it's just asking God for things but he didn't start there he started by first praising the Lord and then asking to teach us his word and then asking for forgiveness for their sins and I think the reason for that is just because you know we need to get right with him before we start giving him all of our requests if we just you know call out and we're just like God I want this I want this I want this I want this but we're not praising him we're not asking for forgiveness of our sins we're not you know asking him to help us know his word better then you know I mean yeah that's not right you know we need to start out you know praising him and and these things first and so I think that's why Jesus started with those things and then went on to the asking part but of course yeah you know asking that is what prayer means is just to ask Jesus and so turn if you would to Genesis chapter 32 Genesis 32 while you're turning there I'll read to you a couple other verses as well In 1 John 5 it says in verse 14 and this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he heareth us and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him and so we can have this confidence that we're if we're asking according to his will we have those things that we've asked of him and so this is a great honor and a great privilege that we have to talk to God and to ask him for the things that we need in our daily life and a couple other verses in 1 Thessalonians 5 it says just pray without ceasing right that's a very easy command very small very short sweet to the point and and that's how we need to be is praying without ceasing now you're there in Genesis 32 I want to show you a symbolic story of prayer it says in verse number 24 now if you know the story up to this point basically Jacob is is going back to see his brother Esau after about 20 years of being separated and so and he's nervous he's worried about his brother Esau that he's going to hurt him because of you know all the messed up stuff that Jacob did to Esau before so look down if you would at verse number 24 it says and Jacob was left alone okay so he had separated himself from the rest of the people that was with him his wives and his children so he was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day and so this is Jesus we'll see in just a minute and then it says in verse 25 and when he saw that he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him and so notice you know he's wrestling with this man just like whenever we pray we're wrestling with God and basically you know it cost him something for the rest of his life he's going to have this issue in his thigh because he was wrestling with God and then verse 26 and he said let me go for the day breaketh and he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me and he said unto him what is thy name and he said Jacob and he said thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel for as a prince has thou power with God and with men and has prevailed and so I love this verse right here so this is symbolic of prayer because basically if you look at it symbolically Jacob is spending all night in prayer you know he's just praying to God he's just calling out to him and he's wrestling with him because it's something that happens that's fervently right the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man will avail much and so it's a very fervent it's a very strenuous thing and you know and then Jacob is wrestling with this man it's symbolized here and then he goes on to say that he has power with God and with men the reason that he says this is because you know whenever we pray we can have power with God meaning that we can change God's mind about things you know and I don't have time to go through all the examples in the Bible but there are many times in the Bible where God has made up his mind he's like this is what's going to happen and then somebody prays and then he changes his mind because prayer changes things and you know we can have power with God and with men as well and what I want to take from that is that you know through our prayers we can change people's hearts we can change people's attitudes what do I mean by that like for example if you had somebody in your family for example who's maybe a hard case who doesn't want to hear the gospel or whatever then you can pray to God that he would basically you know soften his heart make him receptive to the gospel and you know things can change you know you can change you can have power with men through praying to God because God can bring circumstances in those people's lives and you know help their situation and help your situation as well and you know it's no coincidence that in the next few verses after this you know Jacob is so worried that Esau is going to hurt him Esau is still going to be mad after 20 years but you know what Esau if you know the story he's very congenial he meets Jacob and he's so happy to see him you know maybe that's a direct reason or that's a direct result of this night of prayer that Jacob spent you know we don't really know but I do think that it's great that that just proceeds right after this comes right after this and so prayer changes things okay and so don't neglect your prayer life it is 100% vital to your Christian life if you don't have prayer in your life at all then all the rest of the things that we're going to go through tonight just doesn't even matter because you need prayer this is where it starts it starts with asking God asking God for help in your life and you know maybe you already have a prayer life well here's your challenge for the next year and I'd just like to throw this in here but you know let me stress this point of praying also on your knees as well so you know we don't hear a lot of preaching about this but you know what there is many examples in the Bible it's not a commandment but there are lots of examples of praying on your knees kneeling before God because it is an act of humility so it's really good to do this let me just share with you a verse it says in Psalm 95 it says oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our maker so it is an act of humility and I think that it's good to do it and you know whenever I'm whenever you're alone you should strive to do this you know whenever you're in your closet by yourself or whatever maybe you have to make an effort to do this but I think this is good it'll change your heart I believe if you just make this one little small change you may think to yourself like oh well that that's no big deal I can just pray here or I can pray while I'm driving and that's great and I do that as well and that's and that's correct but there's just something about that humility the act of humility of just getting on your knees before God and so I think that's a great thing and if you're not already doing that then I think that you should challenge yourself and try to do that you know do that every day if you can this upcoming year I think that that's very important so turn if you would to Psalm 119 so my second point for you tonight is your Bible reading okay now I'm about to now Joshua 1 8 says this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success this is one of my favorite Bible or favorite verses out of the entire Bible and here's what I really want to stress with this is that you know I want you to well I mean it's one thing to mark it off on a piece of paper right to have like a Bible reading schedule and I'm all for that I have my Bible reading schedule as well and I have it on my phone and I think that's great but don't let Bible reading just become some mundane thing just something where you're just going through the motions you're not really feeling it you know we we should love the word of God you know we should be happy to to hear the word of God we should love it we should want it we should want the word of God we should want to read it should not be a drudgery it should not be something where we're just going through the motions you know the Bible says in Romans 7 it says fry the light and the law of God after the inward man so in our flesh we you know we may not want to read the Bible but you know what we need to put off the flesh and put on the new man and we just need to read the Bible and we need to love the word of God in Mark chapter 12 it says and one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that he had answered them well and asked him which is the first commandment of all and Jesus answered him the first of all the commandments is hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind with all thy strength this is the first commandment you know you may ask you know what does loving God have to do with reading the Bible everything you know what I mean God is the word or yeah God is Jesus is the word Jesus is the word of God and so how can you say that you know you love God if you don't love his word you know what I mean so we need to love the word of God we need to just you know read it but not only just read it we need to love it and you're there in Psalm 119 and you know I've got a full page here of verses from this one chapter that just talks about loving God's word we're just going to read a whole bunch of verses right here about 30 verses we're just going to go through really really quickly but look down if you would at verse number 14 it says I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches so notice that in as much as in all riches imagine somebody who wins the lottery how excited they're going to be they're going to be like whoa I just won the lottery I just won three hundred and twenty million dollars or something like that you know what we need to be that way about God's word we need to rejoice more in God's word than if we were to win the lottery you know that's that's strong language right there look just a couple verses down in verse 16 I will delight myself in thy statutes I will not forget thy word over and over again we're going to see this word delight delight delight we need to delight ourselves in the word of God verse 20 it says my soul breaketh for the belonging that it hath unto thy judgments at all times imagine someone that you miss you miss dearly maybe someone who passed away or maybe someone that you've been away from for a long time and your heart and your soul breaketh you just want to see that person that's how we need to feel about the word of God look at this it says at all times we need to just be breaking like man I can't wait to get back to reading the word of God you know look at verse number 24 it says thy testimonies also are my delight in my counselors verse 35 make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein do I delight behold I have longed after thy precepts quicken me in thy righteousness 47 and I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved I have loved your commandments verse 70 their heart is as fat as grease but I delight in thy law verse 72 the law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver the law of thy mouth is better than thousands of gold and silver thousands of what thousands of coins thousands of ounces thousands of pounds thousands of tons it doesn't really matter because your word is better than all that stuff it says in verse 77 let thy tender mercies come unto me that I may live for thy law is my delight unless thy law had been my delight I should then have perished in mine affliction verse 97 oh how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day how often do you think of the word of God how often is it on your mind how often are you meditating on it because here he's saying that it's his meditation all the day I think we can all work on that and then it just keeps going on and on and on how sweeter thy words into my taste yea sweeter than honey to my mouth and then it goes on to say I hate vain thoughts but thy law do I love and then it just keeps going on and on oh I'll just point out a couple more here one is verse 131 it says I opened my mouth and panted for I longed for thy commandments just think about the thirstiest that you've ever been that's how much we should love the word of God I just need it I need the word of God and then in verse 148 this will be my last verse mine eyes or 147 I prevented the dawning of the morning and cried I hoped in thy word and then verse 148 mine eyes prevent the night watches that I might meditate in thy word he's talking about reading the word of God all night long that's how much he loves the word of God and so see we need some of these attributes right here I'm not I'm not saying that I'm perfect at this and I know that none of us are really you know loving God's word the way that we should at all times but that's what he's saying here and this should be the standard this should be you know what we you know want to shoot for especially in this new year coming up you know you need to fix this in your life if you don't love the word of God I have found myself since I've been saved you know I've said I've been in and times whenever I've kind of grown cold to the things of God and I thought to myself man I just don't love the word of God the way that I should and you know what we all go through those times but we need to fix that we need to love God's word and we you know yeah we just need to love it I just can't express to you how much that's so important and I skipped a whole bunch of verses by the way I'd like 30 verses but I didn't want to belabor the point too much but you know and let me point this out too God wants to have like a good relationship with us you know because our relationship to God is where his children he's our father and you know he loves us and here's the thing about that what if I never spoke to my kids or my kids never spoke to me we just never talked to each other they just left the house and we just never had any fellowship at all you know that's not what God wants you know what I mean God wants to talk to you through his word he wants you to talk to him through prayer he wants to have that good relationship with you and you know if you struggle in this area of loving God then God can help you and I've got many verses here that from the same chapter but it just says make me to understand the way of thy precepts so shall I talk of thy wondrous works and it says that I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart and it says incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covenness over and over again he's asking God to change his heart and you know if you if this is you if you're struggling in this area where you don't love the word of God the way that you should then you just need to just ask God to help you you know I had to do that at that time and I just asked God God please just change my heart make me love your word and you know he can help you with that he wants you he wants to be close to you in that way and so my challenge for you this year is maybe you are reading your Bible maybe you have the Bible reading plan where you're going to read it through the year in one year and that's great and you know if you've been saved for over a year but you haven't read the Bible yet then you know shame on you you need to do that and I'm not against that I have that myself but you know here's the challenge right here love the word of God don't just go through the motions but love the word of God you know just you crave it you need it you long after it your heart breaks after you delight in God's word this is the challenge for you this year turn if you would to Acts chapter 20 Acts chapter 20 my next point is about church attendance okay so we need to emphasize church attendance this is being so much de-emphasized in the world that we live in today but look at how Jesus feels about this in Acts 20 look down if you would at verse 28 Acts 20 28 it says take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed look at this the church of God which he referring to Jesus has purchased with his own blood Jesus loves the church so much that he purchased it with his blood that's how important church is in Ephesians 5 it says husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it see God gave us church because he loves church he knows that's so important and we need to get this same attitude that church is so important turn if you would to John chapter 20 John chapter 20 you know Jesus thinks that church is important enough to die for but you know we can't even make it for you know all the three services a week or whatever you know that's that's a shame we need to you know we need to make it to the church services now in John chapter 20 unless there's some sort of you know hindrance as far as sickness or whatever I know deacon wrestles sick tonight so but um but other than that we need to in general we need to make it the church of course now you're there in John chapter 20 look down if you would at verse number 19 I'm going to show you a bad example of somebody who did not value church enough okay verse number 19 it says then the same day at evening being the first day of the week so notice this is Sunday evening this is the Sunday night church when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them peace be unto you and we and when he had so said he showed unto them his hands and his side then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord then said Jesus to them again peace be unto you as my father hath sent me even so send I you and we and when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost whosoever sins you remit they are admitted unto them and who's so ever sins you retain they are retained so this is a fantastic church service probably one of the greatest church services that ever happened whenever Jesus actually physically showed up in in the flesh after his resurrection but look at this next verse it says in verse 24 but Thomas doubting Thomas but Thomas one of the 12 called Didymus was not with them when Jesus came he skipped out on Sunday night church look what happened the other disciples therefore said unto him we have seen the Lord but he said unto unto them except I shall see and his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe so here's a guy who did not value church here's a guy who just who who didn't want to come to the Sunday night service and and you know I don't know why he didn't show up the Bible doesn't tell us but you know what for all of the rest of history he goes down in history as being doubting Thomas and you know you never know when that fantastic life-changing service will be at church you know what I mean and the thing is yeah you know you can catch the live stream all day long but you know the Bible says that where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them and I don't know if you know this or not but right now while we're gathered here as I'm preaching you know the Spirit of the Lord is here with us right now because you know this is church and God has ordained church to be the place where we meet and talk about him and all that good stuff and so and there's many other reasons for going to church you know I have a lot of reasons here such as we congregate to pray you know in Mark chapter 11 it says and he taught saying unto them is it not written my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves so his house is a house of prayer and let's see what else in fact let me give you an example of how prayer changes things also in church as well this kind of mixes the two points that we already talked about but in Acts chapter 12 you don't have to turn there just go ahead and turn actually I do want you to turn there turn to Acts chapter 12 please Acts chapter 12 let's take a look at this real quick so another great advantage that we're talking about right now going to church is prayer you know praying together as a church praying by yourself is great and we already talked about that but we're talking now about praying in church and the thing is that that church really isn't for anybody but you you know if you're not going to church and you're basically depriving yourself as well but look down if you would Acts chapter 12 look down at verse number one it says now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church and he killed James the brother of John with the sword and because he saw it pleased the Jews he proceeded further to take Peter also then were the days of unleavened bread and when he had apprehended him he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people Peter therefore was kept in prison look at this but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him and if you know the rest of the and if you know the rest of the story then Peter's broken out of prison and by the end of the chapter Herod's dead Herod dies from from worms eating his brain so that's pretty crazy it's a crazy story you know what it happened why because prayer was made of the church without ceasing and so you know we whenever we pray up here you know before the services and you know I know often times too in Tempe whenever we have somebody who's going through a really hard time maybe they're going through something life threatening you know disease or whatever then we always pray for them as well from behind the pulpit you know all together and so prayer is so important at church not only that the Bible says in 1 Timothy 3.15 it says but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself and the house of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and ground of the truth the church is where you get the truth you get the truth preached to you this is where you learn the truth and then here's another great reason to come to church Romans 10.15 and how shall they preach except they be sent right so going soloing you know preaching the gospel to every creature and we'll talk more about soloing in a few minutes but you know the thing is that we need to be preached from or we need to be sent from the church to go out soloing and to go out preaching and and so if we're not sent by the church and we can't really be effective in this area God has ordained it this way and then finally I want to point out Psalm 1.22 it says I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord and if there's one theme throughout the entire sermon tonight it is just you know all these things are going to come so easily and naturally if you just love God you know what I mean if you love the word of God if you love God you're going to pray to him if you love the Lord then you're going to be glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord and so it's all about this delight delighting yourself in the Lord and I guess that's the one great theme of this sermon but I want to challenge you so if you're already going to church at least once a week then that's great you're fulfilling the commandment but you know what I want to challenge you to go to all three services this upcoming year that's what God would prefer if you go to all three services and we need more church as the day is approaching not less you know what I mean so that's a challenge for you in this upcoming year and then let's talk about my fourth point tonight which is tithing we need to be tithing so let's see here turn if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 1 Corinthians chapter 9 I'll read to you some familiar verses from Malachi chapter 3 it says will a man rob God yet ye have robbed me but ye say wherein have we robbed thee and tithes and offerings ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now therewith herewith sayeth the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it so what's he saying here he's saying that look you haven't been tithing in a while and you're robbing me but if you start tithing then I will open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing so God will bless us and he even goes so far as to say he says prove me prove me you know prove me wrong I'm saying right here that I'm going to bless you just do your tithe and then prove me wrong and then you know of course he's going to bless us so he's saying prove me so he wants to show you that he will bless you but you know you need to be tithing in order to do that and in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 look down if you would at verse number 4 it says have we not power to eat and to drink have we not power to lead about a sister a wife as well as other apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas or I only and Barnabas have not we power to forbear working who goeth a warfare at any time at his own charges who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock say are these things as a man or saith not the law the same also for it is written in the law of Moses thou shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn does God take care for oxen or saith it all together for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope and that he that thresheth in hope should be a partaker of his hope if we have sown unto you spiritual things it is a great thing is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things if others be partakers of this power over you are not we rather nevertheless we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple and they which wait at the altar are partakers of the altar even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel and so you know whenever you tithe it goes to the church it goes to you know the people who work for church of course and you know the thing is that I think that we probably have the most generous church of all time probably you know I've never heard of a church that is so generous as us I mean we have like weekend trips almost every single weekend going all over the state and then we have school field trips we have lots of food all the time we have dinners and potlucks and picnics and all kinds of crazy stuff going on and you know that all comes from our tithe money that we give myself included and I mean we have mission trips that come up I mean even right now as I'm speaking we have six people that's in the Bahamas right now they're getting all these crazy amounts of people saved they got over 400 people saved already so far so they're coming back in a few days and you know church helped out with that as well and not to even mention just having a beautiful pulpit here I mean I haven't been here since you guys got the new mural but this is great you know and I'm sure that some of the tithe money went to that as well and so you know it's great to tithe it actually helps you out you know God already told you that he's going to bless you he says prove me and so I can show you that I'm going to bless you and it's and you know we're just blessed with a great church you know if I if I went to a church where they were just abusing the tithe or taking it or doing whatever with it that wasn't good then you know maybe I wouldn't want to either but you know what God has commanded it and guess what you've been blessed to be at a great church that you know that the money is going to something really really good getting people safe you know and so you know and so that is the the basic there the basics right we're talking about the basics tonight is tithing this is the next basic but let me give a little challenge on top of that so let's say that you're already tithing that's great but here's a little bit of challenge how about and this is a slightly different topic but how about just giving right alms giving giving the bible talks a lot about this Jesus talked a lot about this as well you know in Matthew chapter 6 yeah you can turn over there too go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 6 I want you guys to check this out but you know we should be giving as well giving to the poor now by the poor I don't mean these homeless bums that are on the side of the road with their little sign and stuff like that obviously you know a lot of them they're just out there because they want to be out there but but you know and in fact the bible says in proverbs 29 it says the righteous considerth the cause of the poor so whenever you see those people consider why are they out here why are they begging is it because you know they have a drug problem or alcohol or laziness I mean why aren't their friends helping them out their family members you know why isn't their church helping them out and really it just comes down to you know obviously you know 99.9% of them are just wicked and they're just doing all sorts of things that they're not supposed to be doing I mean why don't they have a job you know all that sort of thing so I'm not saying to give to those people but don't have this mentality that says like well I'm not going to give to the homeless person on the side of the street because you know he's in a young well you know able bodied man or whatever he should be out working that exempts me from giving to anybody that's not true you know we should have some giving in our life as well because if you finish this verse in proverbs 29 it says the righteous considerth the cause of the poor but if you finish the verse it says but the wicked regardeth not to know it so see there is a time and place whenever we should be giving right and the thing is that there are plenty of opportunities to give to people that you know for sure are good people they're Christian people they're just going through a hard time and you know the bible talks about this as well but you know we need to be giving we need to have this in our lives I can even name to you right now church members that you know need help financially and stuff so there's plenty of opportunities to give and so yeah you know that there's that going on but look if you would at Matthew chapter 6 look down if you would at verse number 1 it says take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven therefore when thou doest thine alms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men verily I say unto you they have their reward but when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know with thy right hand do it that thine alms may be in secret and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly and so you know Jesus has taken it for granted here like you're going to give some alms just don't do it publicly just don't make a big deal about it and so the thing is now this is a different category of course from tithing but I thought I'd mention it as being like that little extra challenge so if you're already tithing great but you need to add some giving to it as well you know this is what God's talking about here and then finally my final point for tonight is soul winning so we need to you know be soul winning Mark 16 15 says and he says in the them go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and you may be saying brother Raymond every time you come down here you preach about soul winning and yeah I am because you know soul winning is like the the number one reason why we're even on this earth right now I mean whenever you got saved why weren't you just raptured up that moment it's because we're supposed to go out and get other people saved you know soul winning you know it's just so important so I want to expound to you some numbers tonight I got some numbers right here just in my conclusion basically I'm almost done but I want to I want to wrap up with some with some numbers because I want this to motivate you and and I want you to realize the the reality of hell you know hell's a real place and a lot of people are going to hell unfortunately okay so let me go through some numbers so right now just today I have some statistics from online it says that roughly one hundred and sixty five thousand people die every single day in the world that's sad but you know it's it's not sad if they're going to heaven but many of these people are not going to heaven unfortunately and then in the u.s. is seven thousand six hundred and seventy five people die every single day and the United States of America and here in Arizona we have one hundred and fifty eight people that die every single day and this is sad this is unfortunate but you know unfortunately the vast majority of these people you know are going to hell and and that's so that's bad you know of course that makes us really sad it's hard to talk about but you know the vast majority of these people are on their way to hell and I also have here some numbers of the world's top religions I'd like to just go through this really quickly but you know the top religion in the world is Christianity but we're not going to talk about that one right now we'll save it for the end but then the second biggest is Islam with 1.6 billion people that are Muslims the next biggest is non-religious people who are atheists or agnostics or don't really adhere to any sort of religion with 1.2 billion after that is Hinduism at 1.16 billion Buddhism at 500 million and then the last 10 percent are just kind of weird beliefs like animist and Judaism and stuff like that so we have that's about 70% of the world if you're keeping up with it so 70% of the world right now isn't even a Christian okay but now let's talk about the Christians and I'm showing you and the reason I'm going through this is to show you just how many people are on their way to hell today and why it's so important to preach the gospel to every creature in the entire world but out of the 30% of the world that's Christians about 2 point or hold on 1.3 billion are Catholics so of course many yeah almost all of them are unsaved of course unless they got saved somewhere else and just go to a Catholic Church right I've heard brother Segura tell the story that he got saved by a Baptist and then for the next two years he wasn't taught any doctrine so he just told people like I'm a Catholic but he was saved but you know he he just didn't know any better but but Catholics make up about 60% of all you know Christians out there after that a Protestants with 350 million and this would be Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans stuff like that and after that would be Pentecostals with 280 million non-denominational makes up a hundred million and then we get to us Baptists with 100 million so there are about a hundred million Baptists in the world and after that there's about a 35 million of all the other weird stuff like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and stuff like that so if you if you break it all up if you break it all down well let me let me say this okay so not all Baptists are saved right you know I meet tons of Baptists out soul winning and a lot of them are not saved but you know what we meet a lot of saved people too that just go to these other churches maybe they got saved by a Baptist a long time ago and then they just go to these other churches or whatever and so let's just you know round it all out and say that there's about a hundred million saved people in the world hopefully there's more than that you know maybe there's less than I don't know but you know and and that's just kind of a vague vague thing but let's just say for grins that there's a hundred million saved people in the world that's 1.2 percent of the world are saved that means that ninety eight point eight percent of people in this world are not saved today so do you see why we need to preach the gospel to every creature I mean we need to give these people the opportunity to get saved and many of them will get saved if somebody just brings them the gospel you know it says in Ezekiel right I mean very familiar verses but it says that if we blow the trumpet if we're the watchmen then you know the blood their blood is not on our hands but if we don't even tell them about it then their blood is on our hands and then the Bible says in Isaiah 52 it says how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth salvation that sayeth unto Zion thy God reigneth we need to be those people that publish salvation we need to be telling people how to be saved and in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 it says I therefore saying we have this ministry as we have received mercy we faint not but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God but if our gospel be ahead it is head to them that are lost and whom the God of this world had blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them for we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus's sake for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ but we have this treasure and earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us see we have this treasure in ourselves in these earthen vessels and we are the ones that need to preach the gospel and and tell other people how to be saved and I've got more and more verses here about just you know soul winning soul winning soul winning we got it we got to be soul winning you know and acts 1 it says but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth see this is our goal this is our mission is to preach the gospel to every creature and that just starts out with soul winning and so the basic here the basic standard is just go soul winning you know if you if you if a week goes by and you haven't told anybody how to be saved whether out soul winning door-to-door or just in your personal life then you know shame on you you know you don't need to even let one week go by we're not telling somebody how to be saved and you know I guess the challenge for the new year is just you know if you're already someone just so and more just go so anymore just just you know carry some YouTube cards in your pocket I just started carrying them in my wallet so I can just start handing out to people whenever I meet them out and about you know just little things like that but you know you need to just be so winning more just finding new ways to do so winning so into your family members who aren't saved yet you know because here's the thing you know I've looked at the numbers and everything and we need more soul winners just even in our church right because I've looked at how long it would I mean just projection like if we keep going at the rate that we're going now how long will it take us to reach the whole state of Arizona and it's another like lifetime away if we don't you know start raising the bar a little bit and having more soul winners but not only more soldiers but the soul winners doing more hours of soul winning as well and maybe that's you know a challenge for this new year and obviously if you're already doing so winning the great you know praise the Lord for that but this is the little challenge if you want to take your Christian life to the next step this year then do more so winning you know and I and just recently you know I want to start the I've already started actually some Monday Tuesday trips so we already have the weekend trips but now we're doing Monday Tuesday trips to other parts of the state I'm about to start doing like week-long trips like once a month just going up to the reservation like once a month once a month or whatever for an entire week but you know it can't just be me that's a bumping stuff up you know ramping stuff up we all need to you know ramp up this this thing of soul winning because here's the thing you know if if we're gonna preach the gospel to every creature then you know we all need to chip in and pull our weight and everything and so here's the thing why did I preach this sermon tonight I preach this sermon it's very clear you know I preach this sermon because the new year is coming up and I want to remind everyone of the basics this is you know the standard this is what we need to be doing as Christians and then not only that if you're already there then just you know raise the bar a little bit raise the bar of righteousness in your life this upcoming year and just you know have some new goals for yourself you know and and just challenge yourself if you're already doing these things but if you're not doing these things then make make that your goal the basics right and so you know that that's why I want to preach to you guys about tonight just the basics and just keep up the good work if you're already doing it then great and just just raise that bar this year so let's just go ahead and pray so dear Lord thank you for this opportunity to preach and I just pray that you would bless all of us and I just pray that something I said tonight would have would have touched somebody and edified and and just please help us all to be better Christians this upcoming year and it's in Christ's name I pray amen you Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh