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I just want to say once again, thank you for allowing us to be here, thank you Pastor Bull God for allowing me to come up here and to identify your people. Jude chapter 1 verse 22, the Bible reads, and of some have compassion, may it be a difference. Let me just pray. God asked me to just help you right now Father, please forgive me of my sins, cleanse my heart, help me not to be self-willed, help me do this for them dear Lord and myself as well. But in the end Father, just help us to glorify your son right now in the name of you dear Lord. Amen. Alright, Jude chapter 1 verse 22, I want you to see right there where it uses two words that I want to focus on, one is compassion and the other is difference. And the title of my sermon right now is making a difference for God forever. And what I want you to do is go to Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31, verse Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31, and what I want to do this morning is just to motivate you and help you to realize that we're not just here on earth, we're here on earth to make a difference. And while you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31, I'm going to read from Mark chapter 10 verse 29 to kind of give you an understanding of why we're here in South Africa, why we came all the way from America, and I'm going to start out by reading Mark chapter 10. The Bible says, Jesus answered and said, barely I say unto you, there is no man that has left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or land for my sake in the gospel that he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time houses, brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life. In the very last verse, verse 31, but many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first. And I know it has to go by, he wants this church to be among those in heaven that are first. He does not want to be last placed. He wants to make sure that his people when they're in heaven are going to be like the brightest stars in heaven that will shine forever and ever. And that's what we're here to do. We're here to do if churches let us, we're here to just help you guys, help you guys to get the confidence that you need to go to your neighbor, knock on the door, ask him if he knows if he's going to heaven, ask him if he's sure and be able to show him the Bible, show him the gospel so he can be a hundred percent sure that he's going to heaven. Because I'm telling you right now, that is one of the greatest feelings that you could ever have is just knowing that comfort, that peace that if you die right now, you will be in heaven forever and ever with Jesus Christ. And the Bible says this in Matthew chapter 4, and Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishers and he said unto them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And I want you to realize that you know what, being a fisher of men is one of the most important jobs that every question has today. But as you know that Jesus said, come to me and I will make you fishers of men. And I can testify right now that many pastors are responsible for helping me to be a fisher of men. And that's what I want to do in my life. Yes, I have my other job, but I have to keep focused and realize that I'm not just here on earth to do cableback in America. God has to be on earth to be a fisher of men. And that's why Pastor Bogart invited us here because he wants to make sure that his church is especially for Jesus Christ because that's what he wants to see, lots of fishes. And Pastor, thank you for reminding people that we are his witnesses. We're not just here on earth to be happy, to be rich. We're here on earth to witness the Lord Jesus Christ, get people saved. And this is something that God wants everyone to do because it's all of our jobs to bring glory to God. So if you're in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31, let me read this. Wherefore therefore you eat, or eat drink, or whatsoever you do, I love these words, do all to the glory of God. And check your heart. Are you doing all to the glory of God? Are you doing everything you possibly can to please our Father in heaven? Because guess what? God wants us all to make a difference. Every single one of us. And see, in this world, I'm not talking about the unsaved. I'm talking about Christians. In this world, I guarantee you there are Christians that are making a difference. And I also guarantee you there are some Christians that are not making a difference at all. And see, God wants us all to make a difference. That's why he said in Mark chapter 13 verse 35, Watch ye therefore, for ye know not what the master of the house cometh, at evening, or at midnight, or at the cock growing, or in the morning. Let's come and suddenly find you sleeping. And a lot of Christians today are sleeping. And I'm not talking about the body. I'm talking about the spirit is sleeping. It's not awake. It's not alert. It has no idea what's going on around it. But Pastor Paul wants to make sure that you guys wake up. God wants you up. God wants you working. And everything he says in the Bible, he's not just saying it to some Christians. He's saying it's all. Because like it says, let's come and suddenly, when Christ returns, Christ will return one day. And just throw it in there, after the tribulation. But when Christ returns, will you be embarrassed? Will you be ashamed? Or will you be happy to see Christ in the clouds? And be ready to meet your Savior. And be ready to say, I have work for you. But remember, he's not just talking to some. He's talking to a lot. How do I know verse 37? And when I say unto you, I say unto all, watch, is what the Lord his Savior says. And see, if you want to make a difference, if you want to say, hey, I'm going to make a difference, I'm going to change the world. Well, you have to wake up. Verse Corinthians 15, verse 34 says, Awake to righteousness, and sin not. For I have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. And realize the words of the Apostle Paul. He wanted Christians in Corinth to wake up. Wake up. Realize you're sinning. Read the Bible. Figure out what's right. Figure out what's wrong. God is not going to help you. You say, how can I change this world by righteousness? The Bible clearly says, wake up to righteousness. Righteousness is salt in a nation. You're like, how can I make this nation better? Vote for the right guy? No, my friend. It starts with you. It starts in the church house. It starts with righteousness. Turning to the wicked ways that you know that you're in. Everybody has sinned. We all shouldn't know our weaknesses. And for those that don't, I would just say, pray to God that he will reveal unto you so you can help others. By you taking the beam out of your eye, you'll be able to help others. You take the motor out of their eye. And see, the Bible says this. That it's woven unto me if I'm preaching out the gospel. And I say the same thing. Woven unto you if you're preaching out the gospel. And remember he said, it's a shame not to you that people don't know the knowledge of God. People don't know the gospel. But I know that's going to change even more in this area. Because there will be a shame for me to come back a year from now and people are no longer knocking on doors. You guys pulled it off for whatever reason, just held up on it. But you know what? In this street, in other parts of South Africa, there are people that really don't know the knowledge of God. But the most important thing to teach them is how to be saved and become a child of God. And that's just my reminder for you today. And see, here's the thing. I want to read you something. I want to read you a quote from a man named Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a president of the United States for eight years. He's dead already. But this is what he said. He said some people spent an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the Marines don't have that problem. As I said before, I was in the military. I was a Marine. And when I heard about that, I thought to myself, how does he even know? He's not a Marine. And I even thought about people that are in the Marines and they're wondering, am I wasting my life? Am I really making a difference? Am I really doing what God wants me to do? And you know what? I can guarantee you that this quote is wrong. There are some Marines that have a problem wondering if they did a good thing in their life, wondering if in their lifetime they did make a difference. But the other thing that I think of when I read this quote is a thing about Christians. I wonder if anybody in this room or any Christians in South Africa or in America, I wonder if one day, if they happen to die very slowly, one day, if they happen to be under a deathbed and they get ready to pass into eternity, I wonder if one day people in this room, people in my church, people in South America or wherever, I wonder if they're gonna be wondering, did I make a difference in this world? Did I help teach this world for God? Did I do anything that was worthy to say I did something for the Lord? And you know what? I guarantee you there will be Christians one day when Christ returns, and when they see Christ, they will be ashamed. They will be embarrassed. They will say, you know what? I'm not ready to be my maker. I haven't done enough. I haven't done anything. I haven't won one soul to the Lord. But you know what? I guarantee you there'll be a group. There will be a group that when they're ready to die, when it's time to go, if they happen to be under deathbed, passing away, I guarantee you this group is not gonna be wondering if they made a difference in this world. They're not gonna wonder if they helped change the world for Jesus Christ. They're not gonna think twice about it. They're gonna be looking forward to meeting the Savior. They're gonna be looking forward to passing over to the next life. And you know who that group is? That would be the group of soul winners. That's who it's gonna be. The Christians that will help. And it won't be for the Lord. I ain't gonna wonder if I did something for God. I know if I happen to be under deathbed about to pass away, go to the next life. I'm gonna remember these faces that I saw here in South Africa. In the 11 days, could be more, but in the last 11 days, 12 days, just us small group of people were able to win at least 60, 60 South Africans to the Lord. And I say amen to that. Amen. And then I'm gonna be on my deathbed wondering, man, I hope I can kind of get a pass from Jesus. I hope that I can do something right here, right now before I pass away. I'll tell you what, it's not gonna happen. I won't be happy to go over. I can't wait to meet the Savior. I can't wait to meet the people that I hope to leave to the Lord. That's gonna be one of the things I look for the most. But you know what, you may be thinking right now, I know I'm supposed to be a witness. I know I'm supposed to go out there and tell people how to get eternal life. Where do I begin and how do I start? And like I said before, that what we do is we help people to get the confidence to be able to knock on doors by teaching them how to have an excellent plan of salvation. One that I personally know works because it's a plan of salvation to save me. In Romans Road, I spoke about it last week. You know, but if you're talking about what can I do after knowing the Gospel? Well, I'm gonna give you three things really quickly, three things really quickly to help you to make a difference in this world. If you do these things, you will succeed. You won't be wondering if you ever did anything in your lifetime to make a difference. You will walk away into the next life believing that you didn't waste the life that God has given you. So the first thing I will recommend for you guys to do, I'll read it for you, Matthew 28, Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them. Let me just stop right there. A person that's speaking here is God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He's commanding is for us to go and baptize people. It may seem like something simple, but in America, a lot of Christians get saved, but they're too embarrassed to get baptized. And I'm gonna tell you right now, if you wanna make a difference in this world for God, for all eternity, you're just gonna have to realize that if you're not baptized, you must be baptized. And I know there's people running around this room and I'm not here to make you feel bad or make you look bad, but you're just recently saved. And I was recently saved, I'm almost recently saved. I did not get baptized for probably two years. That was a huge mistake, a big mistake. And so what I wanna do is just show you some verses to give the confidence that this is what hell wants you to do. You already see in Matthew 28 where it says, go all the way over to me, go therefore and teach, baptize the name of the name of the apostle and the Holy Ghost, and teach them to observe all things who have commanded you. So we know that Jesus is talking, but I wanna read from Mark chapter one, verse nine. This is the baptism of Jesus Christ. And it says, and it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth and Galilee and was baptized. So if our Savior got baptized, He is our example, we should get baptized as well. And the Bible says when Jesus was baptized, straightaway coming out of the water, He said that heaven's open, and the Spirit like a dove descended upon Him. And there came a voice from heaven saying, thou are my beloved Son, and who am I gonna please? I just wanna point three things out. Number one, in Matthew, Jesus is the one that's talking. Jesus is the one that's telling people, go and baptize. So if a person does not get baptized, you're not disobeying the pastor, you're not disobeying the preacher, you're not disobeying anybody except God, and I don't want that for you. But also in that same sentence, just realize that when a person does get baptized, they're not obeying men, you're obeying God. And that is what we're here to do, obey God, and He will bless you for it. But I quickly wanna talk about how we got baptized. It says right here, they're coming up out of the water. See, there's many baptisms out there, they sprinkle babies, they pour water on people, but it shows right here that Jesus came out of the water, and here's the thing, it's impossible to come out of water unless you're first underwater. That's right. Just in case you were wondering what baptism counts, the one where you're completely underwater, that's the one that counts. And the other thing I'm gonna show you is that after Christ was baptized, and He came out of the water, it says right here, and there came a voice from heaven saying, thou art my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased. I just wanna quickly point that out, that when a person gets baptized, that makes God really, really happy. And guess what? It makes the pastor really, really happy. And guess what? It makes the church members really, really happy. And if somebody's not happy, pass that devil away, he doesn't belong around here. But just realize that it doesn't say that God was pleased, it uses the word well pleased. Well pleased, really happy. And when God sees you from heaven, obeying Him, going to the waters to get baptized, and He sees you get dumped on the water, and come out of the water, I promise you His and Son can say, that is my beloved Son, and who I am well pleased. Well pleased. And you may be wondering, well, where should I get baptized? Well, let me go over what they did in the book of Acts. In the book of Acts chapter two, Peter is talking to people. Then Peter said, I said, in repaying, baptize everyone in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are far off. Even as many as the Lord our God shall call, and with many other words, that ye testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this utter generation. Then they that gladly receive this word, were baptized, here's what I'm going to point out, the same day. So these people in the book of Acts, Peter's preaching to them, giving them the gospel, they believe it, and they get baptized the same day. So if you ever get someone saved, and you get baptized from that day, that's what God wants. Obviously some of you got saved recently, some of you are now 100% sure that you're going to heaven, before you weren't, but I recommend now, as soon as possible, to get baptized, to get baptized. And tomorrow, we're having baptisms. We're going to make it easy for you. So if you're freshly saved, we're going to make it easy for you to get baptized, and perhaps we'll talk about that when I'm done. So baptism, as you can clearly see, it's a commandment, like thou should not kill, thou should not steal, thou should not commit adultery. Baptism is up there as well. Because think about it, Christ went back to heaven after he was crucified, and there are many commandments in the Bible, lots of them. Before he left, he could have just said, remember guys, don't steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery. But one of the last things that he said, one of the last commandments he wanted them to remember, was go and teach all nations, baptizing them. And you can tell that God is super serious about some sins when he mentions them over and over and over and over again. And you know, and I know, when a preacher gets up here and he's preaching, the next day, you're probably going to remember one percent of what he said. But what he tries to do is finish the sermon the same way he started it, to help you to walk away remembering the key point. And so of course, Christ walked away and went back to heaven, giving us the last thing he wanted us to meditate on, and that's to teach and baptize people. So I'm telling you, if you get baptized, God will be happy with you. And the Bible makes it very clear that people got baptized the same day. The Bible makes it very clear that they did it because they knew, they knew that it was a commandment. And if you have your Bibles, go to Psalm 66 18. And if you have your Bibles, go to Psalm 66 18. While you're turning to Psalm 66 18, if you have a Bible, please turn there. It'll be worth it. I'll give you time to turn there. Psalm 66 18. While you're turning there, I'm going to read from James 4 17. Let me ask you, church, raise your hand if you believe that baptism is a good thing. Raise your hand if you believe it's what God wants you to do. Raise your hand if it is a good thing. That's a lot of hands, praise the Lord. Here's the thing, you can turn baptism into a sin. Let me show you how. The Bible says in James 4 17, Therefore to him that knoweth the good, and doeth the not, to him is a sin. So you know how to get baptized, and you're like, but I'm too nervous, I'm too ashamed, I don't have time, I just don't want to, I'm just lazy. The Bible says that is sin. And if you're Psalm 66 18, here's the danger with not being baptized. Here's the danger with having sin in your heart. Psalm 66 18 says, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Now if somebody were to ask me how is South Africa, the first word that comes to my mind is danger, danger. If somebody would say, hey, you know, I want to go to South Africa, what do you think of that gate? There's a lot of danger over there, it's not like America, it's definitely not like New Zealand. And I would just say, look, if you're going to go over there, you better go over there with the right heart. You better go over there with the right intentions, you better have God's will in mind, and you better make sure you don't have iniquity in your heart because you're going to need it, you're going to need it. The second day we were here, the second day, we almost got robbed. The second day feeding people that were poor, just trying to give them meat. It wasn't even 24 hours before they tried to jump us. Four guys, four guys, no respect, nothing. They know that there's a referendum. My goodness, I'm there happy, I'm there helping people, I'm like, praise the Lord, I gave them the gospel, I'm just trying to do what God wants me to do, and sure enough, my partner's trying to do what God wants them to do, you know, and he just loves everyone, so he'll talk to everyone, but then, so you know, they start surrounding him, trying to get him to take his phone out of his pocket. They're like, I've come through your church question phone number, so I can call you. Yeah, my buddy was probably born at night, but not last night, and I'm telling you, I'm thinking like danger, and I would just tell people, look, you better have it with your heart, you better make sure you're right with God, you better make sure you don't have any inequity in your heart, because if you do, and you're asking God to protect you, he's not going to listen to you, but you know what, it doesn't matter if it's an American, doesn't matter who it is, I mean, you guys are, are in danger of calling victims to the gangs, to the hard living gangs, the sexy boys, the mambo, all these guys that are out here, it's not just Americans that are in danger, you guys as well, I don't think I ran into many people that said, I've never been a victim of a crime, it seems like 90% of the people we ran into, they're calling me a man, they robbed my house and my mom was in there, we went to talk to a man dying of stage 4 HIV, and the woman is saying, man, they just broke into my house, they broke into my house three times, the last time they did it with a gun, and if you think the danger is going from Americans that are coming over here to give people the gospel, no, it's for you guys as well, and this is why it's so important that you understand, that you've got to be as right with God as possible, yes, he's merciful, yes, he's loving, yes, he's long suffering, but he's also just, and at some point, he would say, you know what, my son, my daughter, she's not going to turn from the same, let me hug her, and he'll just come down and chastise you, because he loves you, but remember, if you refuse to be baptized, and I'm just doing it because I care about you, I'm doing it because I love you, I want God to protect you, I want God to bless you, I want you guys to succeed and prosper, but you cannot win with sin, it's as simple as that, you cannot win with sin, and God wants us to confess our sins, and to forsake them, and he says you will have mercy, and you will prosper, so that tells you that if you have sin in your life, and you don't confess, and you don't forsake it, he says I'm not going to forgive you, and you're not going to prosper, and you know what, I see the children that are poor, and I know that it's sad, and I feel bad for them, but you got to kind of think, a lot of it is because of sin, and the children are suffering, sins of the parents, grandparents, who knows, God says I won't punish the wicked, up to the fourth generation, I'm not saying that all of them are wicked, the children are being punished because of their own personal sins, but I can pretty much tell you that probably the parents have something to do with their suffering, that they refuse to go to church, they know that it's real, but they refuse to trust them, call upon them, repent, and do what they have to do to get God on their side. If you got your Bible, go to Mark 14 32, Mark 14 32, so the first thing I recommend, if you want to change the world and make a difference, the reason I'm bringing this up is because a lot of Christians do not get baptized in America, small percentage, but the first thing is, get baptized if you're not baptized, you want to change the world, you want to make a difference, you want to win souls, you want to think people are heaven with you, you know what, go ahead, get baptized, get that out of the way, because I guarantee you when things get tough, I guarantee you when the danger comes, I guarantee you when somebody gets sick, I guarantee you when you need God the most, if you turn to God and say, God help me, and he knows you know that you haven't been baptized, I guarantee you he's going to look from heaven, look down upon you and say, look, why should I listen to you when you're not listening to me? You know you're going to get baptized, you refuse to do it, you're ashamed of my word, but I bet you he will not hear you, because the Bible says, if I have an equal heart, the Lord will not hear me, but I want God to hear you. So very quickly, the second thing I recommend you start doing, if you want to make a difference for God and change the world, is you have to be a man and a woman of prayer. You have to pray. Here on Mark 14, 32, I'm going to read from Matthew 19, 23. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven, and again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go to the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who there can be saved? Like I said before, if you want to save people, you've got to be a person of prayer. And yes, there are some people that are very hard to save. We know that. The rich, very difficult to get saved. Like I said earlier, I think about 90% of the people I ran into that I spoke to, they all have some kind of issue with being a victim of a crime. And the other 10% that haven't suffered yet, those are the rich people in the high security buildings. But you guys are not those people. But if you're like, hey, I want to get some people saved, how can I start? You've got to learn to pray. Because Jesus said, with many this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible, amen. And James 5 16 says, confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The eventual fervent prayer of a righteous man, I've been living much. He said, I want to do a lot for God. You need to be a fervent prayer. You need to pray like you're a fire. Say God, I need your help. Like you're trying to get the fire off you. God, I need you. Come on, I'm serious. I think you can do it. I believe you can do it. And when he's up there being entertained by you just walking around, everybody got like that. I like that kid. A lot of you are doing business. But let me read you something. If you have your Bible, please just go to 1 John 3 22. 1 John 3 22. I know it's really a new term. I'm going to go to 1 John 3 22. Look chapter 13 says this, and it's made up perfectly up to them, that men ought to always pray and not faint. I'll give you a quick tip. Don't give up on prayer. Don't faint. Don't give up. Go to 1 John 3 22. I'm still on Luke 18. Let me read that again. God said he gave these guys a parable that we ought to always pray, not faint, not giving up. Can we just beat it up? If you're in 1 John 3 22, the Bible says, and whatsoever we ask, we receive because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing and decide. Quick tip when it comes to prayer. God will not answer you like it says right there. More evidence that if you refuse to be baptized, it says right there that we will receive what we ask for if we keep his commandments. And if baptism is a suggestion or is it a commandment? It's a commandment. And not only that, look at what it says right there, that we receive what we ask for because we keep God's commandments and we do those things that are placing inside. And one of the things that pleases God the most is going out there and getting people saved. And I'll bring that up over and over again. And see, here's a motivator for you. If you're doing your best to please God, if you're doing your best to give us right, if you're in baptized and you're just trying to serve God, God will see that. God knows, God knows. And I promise you that he won't answer your prayers. And I promise you those things you desire, those things that you want, God will give them to you. How do we know? Because the Bible tells me so. Listen to this. Psalms 37, chapter three. I'm sorry, Psalms 37, verse three. Trust in the Lord if you could. Souls shall not do well in the land and merrily thou shalt be fed. Then light thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart. Let me repeat that. He will give you the desires of your heart. And let me just talk about two quick desires that God has recently given me. One is when we find out, our church says we're going to have so many marathons in South Africa. I got excited. I'm like, wow, that's awesome. Amen. We're going into all the world like Jesus said. And I was thinking to myself, man, I wish I could go because I couldn't go. I had to work. And I'm thinking, man, Pastor Anderson, the members, all these people, people from South Africa, they're going to meet up and they're going to have a great time. I just know it. And in case you don't know what happened, the government blocked them from coming over. We were not allowed to have a soul winning marathon. But our desire, you know what? I was thinking to myself, man, that's horrible. I would love to go. I would love to be there. Guess where I am? Guess where I am? And they were like, oh, let's take a listen. It's okay, let me talk about a more recent desire. We were at the prison eating at the prison and starting up the waiter comes out and he's like, what do you guys want? And I'm like, all right, I'll be modest. I'll take a burger. You know, other people ordered burgers. You know, Pastor wasn't so modest. So I'm thinking to myself, how much is that? I really can't figure it out. So I busted out my kite and I went six dollars. I'm like, oh, I want to stay too. And sure, a little bit comes out. I'm sorry, guys. You don't have enough burgers for everybody. Hey, get me through there. I'll take the steak. So right away, you got to give them my desire because I was too shy to tell the waiter to change my order. You may need something small, but if it was big, that's a good steak. And so I finished my steak and I'm thinking, I'm hungry. I want to know. I'm too shy to ask for another steak. And I'm like, man, I can't do it. I can't do it. I'm like, should I? No, no, no. I should be modest. No, I keep ordering people steaks. I don't even need this good back at home. People on steak is like rich people food. But I'm in there like, oh, I really want to know. So Theresa ordered a steak. The guy takes forever to bring it. So she's getting frustrated. The guy's taking 20 minutes, 25. Finally, it comes out. And I'm sure Theresa's thinking this better be good. I waited that long. So I'm just sitting there looking at a steak. I can't have a giant steak. Theresa cuts into it. I said, Anna, it's burning today. I don't want it. I'm like, I'll take it. You have the desire of a heart. Oh, Lord. Good. And you may say, that's just stupid. That's dumb. That's retarded. No, my friend. That was the desire the guy gave me. Because I'm doing those things that are facing me right now. I went to that prison for one reason or another. It's got a little bit of a heart. I wanted to go to that prison because I don't care whether it was the prison, the school, the presidential palace. If there's an opportunity to speak to people about the gospel, I don't want that opportunity. Give it to me going, I'll take it. I'll give you the gospel. They're going to hear it. And so like I said before, I recommend if you're trying to change the world, make a difference. Please get baptism out of the way. Get it out of the way as soon as possible. God will be happy. He will bless you. You want to make a difference? You've got to learn to pray. You've got to learn to pray. And here's the thing. I'll quickly cover it. But I hate when people tell me to do something, and they know how to do it, and they don't tell me how to do it. So everybody pays differently. But I'm going to teach you how I pray. And the Bible says in 1 Peter 5 says, humble yourselves therefore unto the Almighty and the God, that He may zone you in due time. Humble yourself. Now when I pray, nothing new. Somebody taught me this. In America, just in the military, we like acronyms. Who knows what an acronym is? It's OK if you don't know. I know that you guys speak Afrikaans, and you may not understand me. But I'll quickly tell you what an acronym is. An acronym is just a word that represents other words to help you to do something. So this acronym is called ACTS. My pastor from a First Baptist Church taught me this. If you want to pray, you just know how I pray. I use ACTS, like the Book of Acts. A-C-T-S. And he says the A stands for alleration. The C stands for confession. The G stands for Thanksgiving. And the S stands for suffocation. And I'll explain what that means. So he said, when I pray, I start with praising God. I start singing a song. And my pastor really couldn't sing. But he said, this is how I do it. Oh, my God, when I'm in awesome wonder, consider all the world thy hands have made. I'm the other one. I come to the garden alone. What I'll give you is still one love. Amen. You can sing it. Another song. So what I like to do is I spend five minutes just adoring God. Just sing in the hand for five minutes, because there are so many commandments in the Bible that tell you to sing, sing, sing, sing, sing. Sing unto the Lord. Sing to us, Lord David. Praise to the Lord with singing. And so I cannot go a day without singing. And I'm telling you right now, it is a sin to go a day without singing to the Lord. Because there's a commandment. You need to sing, yeah. You need to sing to the Lord. I know pastors are like, man, you got to go really sing, because I've been concentrating on other things. But when nobody's watching, I'm singing. I'm singing to the child. I'm singing with my kids. I'm singing as much as I can. And that's the first thing I want to do, which is praise God, adoring Him. Just sing to Him. So I do that for five minutes. Then the C, confession. I spend one minute confessing to God, because I don't want the devil to hear what I'm doing wrong. So I confess, Lord, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I've done all this. I've done all that. You know, I really ask you to be merciful to me. You know, why? Why do you do that? Because the Bible says if I have iniquity of the heart, the Lord will not hear me. So I want God to hear me before I start asking. See, prayer is asking. Prayer is not singing. Prayer is not giving thanks to God. Prayer is asking. And before I start asking, I'm going to confess my sins to God. Everything that I know that I've done wrong, I'm going to say, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. And then I'm going to say, Lord, if there's anything else I can't remember right now, please forgive those sins too. And then a T. T is Thanksgiving. Guys, I'm telling you, Sodom and Gomorrah became wicked because they were not thankful to God. And you will too when you forget how good God is. And so I spent a minute, actually five minutes, just thanking God for anything that comes to my mind. I look at myself, Lord, thank you for these shoes. Thank you for this suit, this tie. Thank you for my ring. Thank you for my wife, my children. Thank you for my pastor that's preaching correctly. Thank you for this, thank you for that. Thank you for as much as I can. You can thank God for a lot of things in five minutes. And the S, the S is supplication, but I'll make it simple. The S, just start praying. Just start praying. You're like, what should I pray for? I'm glad you asked. Jeff, in South Africa, and Pastor Bogart has only taught me one word in upper cons, Mophie. Mophie. Mophie. I said, who do you think it is for me to say thank you? Hello, how you doing? Praise the Lord, amen. Nothing, just Mophie. So I'm going to go above and beyond Pastor Bogart. I'm going to teach you guys two words in Spanish. Two words in Spanish. But when I start praying, this is what I do. I cast all my cares upon God. And the way I do that is I tell Him my problems. My problems. Another acronym. The word my in Spanish is mi. The word problems in Spanish is problemas. And I'll tell you what they all stand for. So I take one minute for each letter. And I start out with me. The end is this for myself. So when I pray, I pray one minute for myself. Dear God, I need this, I need this. I need this, I need this. I need wisdom. I need your guidance. I need this. I need to pay this bill. I need to pay that bill. I'm hurting here. I'm hurting there. You know, I need this and this and this and this and this. For about a minute. That's what the M stands for. Mi, M-I. The I. Immediate family. That's my wife and my kids. I spent a minute praying for them. Dear God, thank you for these kids. My son's taking his cavity. Give me money to fix it. You know? My wife, her stomach is hurting. Make her feel better. Whatever. That's one minute for my family. Then the B. You're going to like this one. The B in Parema stands for pastor and his family. And I pray one minute for pastor and his family. And I say, Lord, protect this man. The devil wants to give, we know. Help his family, help his kids. And if I know he needs a knee, I say, Lord, help him with tires, help him with water. That's what I do for about a minute. Then the R. The R stands for real family. They ask Jesus, hey, your mother and your brother, they're trying to talk to you. And he looks on this and says, and he puts it, and he says, behold, my mother and my brothers. Who's ever doing the love of God? It's my mother and brother. So the R, the real family, that's the church. They don't spend another minute talking to God about the church members. If I know there's a problem, I say, God, this guy needs this, this guy needs that, protect this guy, protect that woman, protect this, protect that. And it'll take about a minute to pray for my church family. Then the O, the O is other believers, other believers. And I like to pray for other pastors. Because Paul, if you read his books, he's constantly saying, when you guys come into remembrance, I pray about you, I pray for you every time you come into remembrance. Every time I think of you, I pray for you. And I pray for pastors to support us. I'm gonna be praying for Pastor Bogart, Pastor Jimenez in Sacramento, Pastor, every pastor that I know. I just try to, and not just them, but church members as well from other churches. I pray for them. That's what the O stands for. And then the letter B, backsliders. I pray for backsliders. Because if I was a backslider, I would love for you to pray for me and ask God to have mercy upon me. That's why I will pray. Backsliders. I quickly take a minute and I say, Lord, this person hasn't been to church, be merciful unto them. I don't know what they're doing, but please, Lord, keep the devil away. Soften up their heart. Help them to come back to church. And I mention names as I see them dropping out of church. As I see them not showing up for a while. As I look at our gift bucket, look at the faces. Hey, I haven't seen that guy. Pray for that guy with the kids. That's what the B stands for. And then the letter L. I love the letter L. It stands for the lost. Christ said the pride to the Lord of the harvest. He may bring labor or sin to the harvest. Spend one minute to say, God, please save this. Please save this. Please save this and this person. And please raise up our soul winners. And I think God has answered my prayer because we have about 190 to 200 solid soul winners that know what they're doing. They go out every week, every day at our old church. And if it can happen over there, it can happen here. But you gotta pray to the Lord of the harvest and pray for the lost. Mention your coworkers. Mention your friends. Mention your neighbors. And God, if you don't have a negative in your heart, He will hear you. He will hear you. And the E, you might like this one. The E stands for enemies. You gotta pray. God says pray for your enemies. Love those that hate you. So of course, you got plenty to pray for. The M stands for missionaries. People that are overseas. We got some missionaries in our church. I just remind myself to pray for them financially, help, whatever, protection, whatever it may be. That's what the M stands for. And the letter A in problemas. I pray for America. Not that God will forget America because it's too late, but that God will allow our church to reach every single American and give them a clear presentation of the gospel and let them decide whether they want to believe it or not. That's why I pray for America. Amen. And you guys can pray for Africa that you guys will be used to get the gospel to everybody, not some, everyone. I mean, is your gospel to be gone? Can you not do it? Can you not get the gospel to everybody? We just want for you guys to get right and call upon Him. That's what it says in the Bible. My people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves in praise and turn from the wicked ways. They will not hear from heaven. They will heal their land and forgive their sin. So God's just waiting on us. That's what the A stands for. For me, it's America, for you guys to be Africa. And the S, the S stands for the sick, the sick of the church, the sick of the churches, because I don't love it being sick. When I get really sick, I just beg people to pray for me. So as we know that people are sick, we pray for the sick, the sick have a special place in my heart. And I know they're really suffering, whether it's a headache, broken bone, you name it, I'll pray for you. And that's how I pray. And then I just finish it off, five minutes, which is a song. The reason I'm bringing this up is to give you an idea of how to pray. And if you do the math, Acts, iteration, five minutes, confession, one minute. And if you do the math, thanksgiving, five minutes, and then supplication, you throw lemons, each one is one minute. It equals to about 22 minutes. It's like, what's the profession about 22 minutes? I'll tell you in a second. The book of Psalms, chapter 55 says this, evening and morning and noon, what I pray, what I pray and cry out loud. And you should hear my voice. David was a man that prayed three times a day, three times a day. So if you pray three times a day, 22 minutes, that's over an hour. And you're like, well, what's the big deal about an hour? Let me read from the Bible. This is Jesus talking. And he covered it and find that they're sleeping, sleeping. And say to little Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Look at this. Couldn'test thou not watch one hour? One hour. He could have said two hours, half an hour. He said one hour. He said, can't you watch and pray with me for one hour? I made a big deal about one hour. So if you decide to use this and you can pray, whatever, this is not the only way to pray. I'm just saying, this is what helps me just stay in track with things decently and in order. Because like I said, if you want to do something for God, you better be baptized. You better be baptized. If you want to do something for God, it says the American prayer for righteous men are better than much. You will do much with prayer. But if you're wondering how to pray, even as apostles, even though Jesus Christ said, Lord, teach us to pray, help us out. And he did. So that's what I want to recommend you guys. Do it if you can. And I'll quickly hit the last point. If you want to do something big for God, get baptized. Learn to pray. But you got to read your Bible. You got to read your Bible. And here's your Bible. I'll quickly finish in about five minutes. Go to Deuteronomy 17, 18, 17, 18. While you go to Deuteronomy 17, 18, I'm going to read from Romans 10, 13. The Bible says, But whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then should they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how should they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how should they hear without a preacher? And how should they preach the second to be saved, as they have surrendered? How beautiful are the feet of them who preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all paid the gospel, for as they have said, The Lord who hath believed the report, so that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. By the word of God. Why is it important to read the word of God? Because he will give you faith. And why do you need faith? He who shall have the faith, but without faith, it is impossible to please him. You cannot please God without faith. Reading the Bible will give you faith. And let me tell you what reading the Bible will do. I'll start actually in verse 20. That your heart be now lifted up above your brethren. Reading the Bible will give you the fear of the Lord. Reading the Bible will keep you from being proudful. And the Bible makes very clear that you not turn from any of the commandments. Any of the commandments. And I'll quickly go over some things. My pastor back home, he reads the Bible for at least an hour a day. He does the reading from beginning to end. Some days he reads it for three hours, sometimes more. But what he does, he says, I found it easy to do this. I looked at a Bible that I know I can finish. A book in the Bible that I know I can finish within the hour. And he just reads the whole day. That's just a recommendation I give to you guys because they can help you because you're wondering where to start. Because if you start in Genesis, that book will take you a long time to finish. So find a small book, knock them out, and then start with the harder books. But reading the Bible, my friend, will keep you in church. It will keep you from sin. It will make you a good soul winner. And above all things, it will keep you humble. You will get the fear of the Lord. And why is it important to read the Bible? Because it will keep you from leaving church. It will keep you from going back into sin. It will keep you from destroying your life. You will not be a good soul winner. You will not make a difference in this world. You will not do much for God if you don't start getting into the Word. And I'll just read this. The Bible says, These six things that the Lord had, gave seven in abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, and a heart that divides two wicked imaginations, feet that be swept and run into mischief, a false witness that speaks and lies, and he that soweth the score among brethren. God hates it when someone is causing problems in the church. God hates it when people go around talking bad about the pastor. God hates it when they're trying to divide the church. God hates it when you're making brothers fight against brothers, basically look at each other like they're all hurting each other. God hates that. But if you start at this verse, it says the proud is the person that does that. Reading the Bible will keep you humble so you don't lift up your heart above your brethren. And if you think it doesn't happen, it just recently happened to one of our favorite pastors. In his church there was an individual who decided to go against his pastor. He decided to talk bad about his pastor and he decided to make up lies about his pastor. You're like, why would a man do such a thing? I'll tell you why. Proverbs 13 says, only by pride comes contention. Only by pride. And it will happen here. Some of you will get prideful. Some of you will start talking bad about you. Some of you will think that it's not a big deal. Some of you will think that God doesn't really care. Some of you will think that it's His job to correct you. To tell you what to do. To fix you. When the Bible is going to fix you. You want to tell me He's doing something wrong, you go out to Him like a father. You respect Him. Amen. But you know what? If you see anybody, anybody disrespecting your pastor, anybody going against the leadership, anybody, you can bet it's because of their pride. And you can bet it that they're either not reading their Bible or they're reading the wrong Bible. I guarantee you that. Because doesn't it say here, quickly in Deuteronomy once again, that if we read the Bible, the Bible says simply this, and then shall be with Him, and He shall read it therein all days of His life. Every day of the Bible. And God says if you do that, you're going to learn to fear the Lord. You're not going to have your heart lifted above your brothers. So you can guarantee that if so many things are better than someone else, I guarantee you, it's because they're not reading the Bible, they are too puffed up in their own mind. And if you read the Bible and you're like, yeah I'm reading my Bible three hours a day, and I still think I'm better than this guy, then you might just be, amen. But you still don't have the right to disrespect them. So I bring that up and I'll close with this. That if you ever want to do something for God, it just comes down to obeying Him. Amen. To doing what He wants you to do. And many people would say, well I just believe that we should love everyone. Just in the love of God is all that matters to me. I just want to love God. I'm just going to show people the love of God. And I say, amen to the love of God. And even in Jude, you guys remember Jude 1 22? Let me go back to the beginning. Jude chapter 1 verse 21. God commands us, it says this, Keep yourselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Amen. I assume people have no clue what that means, so I'm going to tell you what that means. First John 5 3. First, this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments, it's up to us to keep. So let me conclude with this. In Ecclesiastes 12 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole pattern. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of men. God commands us to pray. Get baptized. Keep His commandments. You're never going to keep His commandments unless you get in the Word. Read the Bible. Learn it. Know it. Love it. And I promise you, you will make a difference in this world. You will change this world for God. Let's pray. Dear Father, thank you for this life. Thank you for everything you've done. Lord, I know there are people in here that have not been baptized. I am not saying this to make them feel bad. I love them. I want them to prosper. I want them to do what's right. So Lord, just help us to help them to get baptized. Give us the gas, the opportunity, the time to get them baptized. And for those that are baptized in this room, I pray, dear God, Jesus, help them to pray more than you. Prayers are important. We should pray every day. And I live out my best just to help them to figure out how to pray. But also, the Bible, the Bible, dear God, I pray that if they don't have a Bible, help us to get a Bible in their hand. Lord, I just beg you right now, dear Father, please just help them to realize that this is what's going to change you. The Bible. The Bible will change from the inside out. And you cannot be a good soul owner. You cannot be a good young member. You cannot do anything for you unless you know your word and love your word and then keep your word. So I thank you for everything. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Now, tomorrow morning, we want to have a special time. If you see anyone that wants to be baptized,