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Here at Faith Ward, Sunday night rather, if you would all please find your seats and let's take our hymnals please, and we'll begin with hymn number 327 tonight. 327, higher ground, number 327, it begins, I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day, number 327 on this first verse all together now. I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day, still praying as I'm onward bound, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand, my faith on heaven stable and a higher plane than I have found, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. My heart has no desire to save, where doubts arise and fears display, when some may dwell where these abound, my prayer, my aim is higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand, my faith on heaven stable and a higher plane than I have found, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. I want to live above the world, though Satan's guards and me are hurled, for faith has gone the joyful sound, the song of saints on higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand, my faith on heaven stable and a higher plane than I have found, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. I want to scale the utmost high and catch a gleam of glory bright, but still I'll pray till heaven I'm found, Lord, lead me on to higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand, my faith on heaven stable and a higher plane than I have found, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. Amen. Great start to singing tonight. I've asked Brother Eric if you want to open us up for prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, in the name of the Lord, and in the name of the Holy Soul, and the glory of the Lord, I pray you just bless all aspects of this service, Lord, the singing and the preaching of your own, and Lord, it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Back to hymn number 121, Like a River, Glorious is God's perfect peace, number 121. Start on that first verse, hymn number 121. Like a River, Glorious is God's perfect peace, over all victorious in its bright increase. Perfect yet it goeth, fuller every day. Perfect yet it goeth, deeper all the way. Stake upon to a rush, hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. Hidden in the hallow of his blessed hand. Never folk and fall alone, never traitors stand. Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care. Not a blast of hurry, touched a spirit there. Stake upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. Every joy or trial, fallen from above. Traced upon our dial by the Son of God. We may trust him fully, all for us to do. May you trust him wholly, find him wholly true. Stake upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. Amen, good singing. At this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high and we'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6, Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we will be in Ezekiel chapter 14. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms. Thank you for everyone's patience today with taking the group photo. Below that we've got the church picnic coming up this Saturday. It's at noon and it's at the same location that we've always done this, which is the southwest corner of Curry and College. So make sure that you're familiar with that because you can't just type in Papago Park. It looks like if you type in this address, 1000 North College Avenue, that should probably take you to the right place. But you may actually just have to disconnect from the GPS for a minute and just ask yourself, am I at the southwest corner of Curry and College, if you can imagine that. And we're going to provide burgers, hot dogs, beverages, and then we'd love for as many people as possible to bring side dishes and desserts, but there's no obligation of course. And then below that, review the following list of those attending the zip line activity. Make sure that everything there is as you believe it should be. And then on the back, congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Avgulas. And so be sure to congratulate them when you get a chance. Small town soul winning trips are starting up again on Saturday, November the 27th, so just about two weeks from now. All the information of course is over here. We've got schedules and sign up sheets, and of course Brother Raymond Cooper is the guy to talk to to get details on those trips. And the dates of the specific places are listed below. And that is about it for announcements. So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days. Going back to Thursday the 11th. Anything from Thursday? Okay. Got it. Okay. Anything else from Thursday? What about Friday? Got it. Got it. Okay. Got you guys. And then anything else from Friday? What about Saturday? Anything from Saturday? Got it. Anything else from Saturday? And then what about today, Sunday? What's it got? Two. We've got six. Two. Two. All right. Anything else from today? All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. All right. In your song books you should find an insert of the hymn, the song on the Sea of Galilee. If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand and we'll get to you with one. We'll sing it on that first. On the Sea of Galilee. Thou art the master of the sea and of tempestuous skies. I'll trust thee until I see thy glory in thine eyes. On the Sea of Galilee, my Savior is walking on the sea. On the Sea of Galilee, my Jesus is walking to the deep. Thou art the author of our faith, the sacred prince of peace. I come from and or at the sight of all my enemies. On the Sea of Galilee, my Savior is walking on the sea. On the Sea of Galilee, my Jesus is walking toward me. Thou art the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. I'll build my house upon thee and not on shifting sand. On the Sea of Galilee, my Savior is walking on the sea. On the Sea of Galilee, my Jesus is walking toward me. Thou humblest all the storms of life and all my days are fair. With thee our greatness, chilling tight and clean of every care. On the Sea of Galilee, my Savior is walking on the sea. On the Sea of Galilee, my Jesus is walking toward me. Amen. Good singing. Now please turn to Hymn number 178. Jesus loves even me. Hymn number 178. Start on that first verse. I am so glad that our Father in Heaven put a smile on your face and sing it out. Number 178. I am so glad that our Father in Heaven tells of his love and the love that he has given. Wonderful things in the Bible I see. This is the nearest that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves even me. Though I forget him and wander away, still he does love me wherever I stray. Back to his dear loving arms would I plead when I remember that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves even me. Oh, if there's only one song I can sing, when it is near me I sing a great deal. There shall my song in eternity be. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves even me. All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around, and as the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah chapter number 5, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1, follow on silently with Brother Dan as he reads Jeremiah chapter 5, starting in verse number 1. Jeremiah chapter 5, the Bible reads, Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof. If ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh truth, and I will pardon it. And though they say, The Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish, for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased. How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one nade after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Go ye upon her walls and destroy, but make not a full end. Take away her battlements, for they are not the Lord's. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord. They have belied the Lord, and said, It is not he. Neither shall evil come upon us, neither shall we see sword nor famine, and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done unto them. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts, because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. It is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. Their quiver is as an open sepulcher, they are almighty men, and they shall eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat. They shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds, they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees, they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trusted with the sword. Nevertheless, in those days, saith the Lord, I will not make a full end with you. And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things unto us? Then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not. Fear ye not me, saith the Lord, will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass? And though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail, though they roar, yet can they not pass over it. But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart, they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season. He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. For among my people are found wicked men, they lay weight, as he that setteth snares. They set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they are become great and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine. Yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked. They judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper, and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so. And what will ye do in the end thereof? Father in heaven, thank you for your son Jesus Christ. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson as he preaches your word with the power of the Holy Ghost, and help us, your children, learn your word and do it. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Men, we are living in a time of unprecedented technology that has made our lives so much easier. We all have our climate controlled houses where we dwell in just total comfort, especially as compared to people who lived before us in this world hundreds of years ago or even thousands of years ago. Think about how easy it is for us to get food and to get the highest quality food from all over the world. You know, we go to the grocery store and the shelves are just stocked with this cornucopia of wonderful food from all over the world. And not only that, we don't even have to go to the store anymore because now it's just an app, you know, where it can just be delivered to us. And we can have Uber Eats bringing us food from a restaurant. We have Instacart delivering our groceries to our doorstep. We have vehicles to take us everywhere. We don't have to walk anywhere. I mean, we can drive anywhere we want to go. We have access to information like never before. Just pull out the smartphone. We can get any fact, any piece of information. And so we might look at that and say, well, I don't even really need to know things anymore. I don't really need to learn things or remember things because, you know, it's all right here. When I need it, I'll go for it. You know, your teacher told you in school you're not going to have a calculator with you everywhere you go, which is why you need to learn arithmetic. And yet here we are in 2021 and we literally have a calculator with us everywhere we go at all times. And so we don't even need to know math, right? So if we look at the world in which we live, there are so many ways that our world has made our lives easier and everything is so easy. But what I want to preach about tonight is just the danger of things being too easy, the danger of life getting too easy and how we should live our lives to make sure that we don't fall into this trap of everything becoming so easy that we degenerate physically, mentally and spiritually. I mean, we all know that, yes, we do need to learn math, even though we have a calculator with us everywhere we go. Why? Because we don't want to be a brute. We don't want to be an idiot. We don't want to be a buffoon who can't do basic arithmetic, right? Same thing with our bodies. You know, even though technically we don't need to actually ambulate anywhere, right? We could just use a vehicle everywhere we go. We know that our bodies need to be used, our minds need to be used, and spiritually we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness. So we want to make sure we don't fall into this trap of life becoming too easy. Now, there are multiple scriptures in the Bible that would explain this concept that when things get too easy for people, they tend to degenerate spiritually. And it's sort of this vicious cycle where you have a generation that serves God, loves the Lord, does right in the sight of the Lord, and then as a result that generation is blessed by God. And then they raise children in that blessing and in that abundance and benefiting from that past godliness. But then what happens is because those children have it too easy, they forsake the Lord, then God makes things hard, and then a generation rises up in that hard time that actually seeks after God, and then it just keeps repeating over and over again. But look at Jeremiah chapter 5 where I had you read, look at verse number 7. It says, How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, and that's the part I want to focus on, when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, everyone knade after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things, sayeth the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? So notice that the result of fullness, being fed to the full, idleness, having it easy, having it good, is that people just are lined up by troops at the harlot's houses. I mean they are just basically keeping those harlots busy because of the fact that just everyone has lost their morals at that point. And then when they're not doing that, they're neighing after their neighbor's wife because they're just bored and full and everything is too easy. Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter number 32. Deuteronomy chapter number 32. I mean think about when King David committed adultery. It's because he did not go to war because there's no struggle, because there's no fight, because he's at home, he's comfortable, he's relaxed in the city of Jerusalem, he has everything that he needs, and then he can't sleep at night because he didn't do anything. And then he's up walking around at night and next thing you know, he's looking out the window, he's seeing Bathsheba, and then he's sinning with Bathsheba. It all started with his idleness and comfort in Jerusalem as opposed to being out doing the job that a king is supposed to do, which is leading into the battle. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 12. So the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the fields and he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock, butter of kind and milk of sheep with fat of lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan and goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat. So what do we see here? We see that when you serve God and God is alone, who you worship, and you're pleasing to God, then he blesses you with all this bounty, all these blessings and we all want the butter and the milk and the lambs and so forth. And then it says, and that it's drink the pure blood of the grape, but Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. Thou art waxing fat. Thou art grown thick. Thou art covered with fatness. Okay, I get it. Then he forsook God, which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. You see how when when when they got fat and when they had all of those blessings heaped upon them, now all of a sudden what do they do? Now they forsake God, which got them to that point, which gave them all those blessings in the first place. They forsake God. I was just joking about getting it after the third being told that you're fat because, you know, it's just it was just so offensive to be told that many times in a row how fat you've waxen. But the point is that these people, when it says they wax fat, what was this talk? It's just talking about the fact that basically they just have abundance coming in. I mean it's just life is good. Things are easy. The wheat's coming in. The oil, the butter, the milk. These are not lean times. These are good times. And they have all these blessings and then they forsake God. And you look at this in the Bible and you just say, why? You know, praise the Lord when things are good and don't fall into this trap. Go if you would to Deuteronomy 28. And what am I showing you these scriptures for? I'm showing you the danger when things go too good, when things are too easy. Human nature is always looking for that path of least resistance. And so when things are too good, we often can become slack physically, slack mentally, and slack spiritually because of the fact that it's just too easy. Look if you would at Deuteronomy 28 verse 47. Because thou servits not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things. And he shall put a yoke of iron upon my neck until he have destroyed thee. Saying, look, why didn't you serve God in abundance? Why didn't you do it when it was easy, when it was good? No, you didn't. And so now hard times have to come. The yoke of iron has to get pulled out so that you can learn to serve God once again. So we want to make sure that we don't fall into this trap where because things are so good and life is so easy that we forsake the Lord or think that we don't need the Lord. You think of Proverbs chapter 30. Two things have I required of thee. Deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. The author of Proverbs writes, give me neither poverty nor riches, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? So that's the attitude that can happen when things are too good. We're too full. We have everything. We can get spiritually relaxed and just say, well, who is the Lord? What do I need the Lord for, right? I got other things to do. I'm busy with other things. We don't want to fall into that trap. And so I would submit to you tonight and if you would flip over to Proverbs chapter 19, I would submit to you that we as Christians today need to make sure that we do difficult things even in an age where technology makes life super easy for us. Just as I would say to someone, hey, just because you have a calculator doesn't mean that you shouldn't learn how to do addition and subtraction. Why? Because you don't want your brain to atrophy. You don't want your brain to be so weak that you can't even perform these basic calculations in the same way. I would say to you that in all areas of life, we need to make sure that we push ourselves and challenge ourselves and make ourselves do difficult things even if we don't have to, even if it's just easy to just be relaxed and idle and lazy and not work our brains hard, not work our bodies hard, not work hard spiritually because we're surrounded by Christians that are saved, that already believe the way that we do when it comes to like our church community here. We don't want to become idle. We want to push ourselves and challenge ourselves even though we don't necessarily have to because we don't want to become weak. We want to push ourselves. So you know the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 19 verse 15, it says slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. You know the Bible warns about idleness, right? Go if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter 10. We don't want to be idle. We want to stay busy, be working, getting things done. It talks about in the proverb of the virtuous woman in chapter 31, it says she looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. It says in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 16, woe to thee O land when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed art thou O land when thy king is the son of nobles and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness. By much slothfulness the building decayeth and through idleness of the hands the house dropeth through. So just like those of you who own a home know this, you have to maintain your home and it doesn't just stay the way it was when you bought it but it constantly needs to be fixed. There are constant things that are breaking and so if you just do nothing to it eventually it's just going to fall apart on you. It's the same way with our bodies, you know, if we don't use our bodies, if we're idle then our bodies will decay and atrophy and become weak and useless. But he says here in verse 16 in the context of that, woe to thee O land when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning. Now if you stop and think about it, who has more ability to eat and to drink than a king or a prince? I mean kings and princes are not starving or running out of food. You know who can eat or drink or hasten there unto more than a king or a prince. But yet the Bible says woe to thee when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed art thou O land when thy king is the son of nobles and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness. So even though the king would theoretically have the ability to eat at any time and just any time he's the slightest bit hungry, he can chow down, he can just roll out of bed and just start chowing down before he's done any work, before he's accomplished anything, he can just roll out of bed and just eat and eat and be slothful. But that's a curse upon the land. The land is blessed when he eats in due season for strength. Basically he eats when he needs to eat for strength because he's actually working, because he's actually building something or fighting something or doing something. And so we need to learn from this that we don't want to be inactive even if we can, even if we have the ability to just relax and not do anything. We need to force ourselves to get out there and work hard and do stuff. Go if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter number 9. In the New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter number 9. Why? Because inactivity of our bodies makes our bodies get weak. Inactivity of our mind is going to make our brain weak. Look if you would at 1 Corinthians chapter number 9 and the Apostle Paul talks about the idea of an athlete and he compares being a Christian to being an athlete. And he says in verse 25, And every man that striveth for the mastery, 1 Corinthians 9 25, is temperate in all things. That means self-controlled in all things. So anyone who's trying to win an athletic competition has to have a strict regimen for their diet, for their exercise, for their sleep. They don't just do whatever but they have their life under control and they follow a strict protocol of what they're going to do each day. He says every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. All areas of life must be disciplined in order to compete at that level. And he says they do it to obtain a corruptible crown. But we, an incorruptible, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I've preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. So the Apostle Paul is not training to be an athlete. He doesn't have to physically exercise or be really careful about what he eats or anything. But he says you know I'm working towards something that's more important. Even though I'm not going to the Olympics or whatever, I'm striving for spiritual excellence. And he says I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Now we might think to ourselves well you know when it comes to spiritual things our bodies don't matter. But that's not the way the Apostle Paul looked at it because the Apostle Paul said well even though I'm not in a physical competition, even though I'm not an athlete, even though my fight is a spiritual fight, I still keep under my body and bring it into subjection. In spite of the fact that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, I still keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Because I don't want to, having preached to others, myself end up being a castaway. Castaway meaning discarded, worthless, not useful anymore. I want to be used by God and so I've got to keep under my body. Why? Because if I allow my body to just become completely out of control and to just give in to all the cravings of the food and the rest and the slothfulness and the idleness then you know what that's going to bleed over into my spiritual life too. I mean think about it. I mean if I'm a person that's just going to just eat whatever I want and just not do any physical activity that I don't absolutely have to. You know I'm going to drive down to the mailbox to get the mail and I'm just going to eat and relax and never do anything difficult physically. You know am I really going to then turn around and just be disciplined spiritually and I'm just reading my bible and praying and going soul winning and everything. You know obviously these areas of life they intersect. Our body and our mind and our spirit all of these things are connected and we want to make sure that none of them becomes idle or soft or lazy. And again we got to be careful because on the one hand and if you would flip over in your bible to 2 Timothy. Actually I'm sorry let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 4. On the one hand we want to be careful that we don't get so into the flesh that our life just becomes about working out and being in shape. I mean obviously there are people that over emphasize the flesh don't they? And they're just super into their bodies and nutrition and exercise and that becomes the most important thing to them. When in reality we know that spiritual things need to be the most important thing. Other people could overemphasize the brain and just they're just constantly in learning and study and intellectual exercise and they neglect the things of the spirit. That's also a danger isn't it? But we don't want to say oh well that's a danger I'm scared to death of that so let me just let my brain go and let my body go and then I'm just going to call myself spiritual. Folks that's not the answer. The answer is to have all three of these areas of our life in balance to where we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, strength and where we keep under our body and bring it into subjection. Where we do use our brains and learn and work our minds but ultimately the spirit takes precedence and is the most important thing in our life spiritual things. Look at the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 6 if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine whereunto thou is attained but refuse profane and old wives fables and exercise thyself rather unto godliness for bodily exercise profit little but godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. And so we see here that of course bodily exercise profit little and we should exercise ourselves rather unto godliness but elsewhere Paul said I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. You know elsewhere the Bible tells us that we should be learning and increasing knowledge, increasing wisdom, increasing understanding so we don't want to get too extreme on one side or the other when it comes to our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. We want to be balanced and at the end of the day the things of God are paramount. The spiritual is the most important but that doesn't mean to just ignore everything else. So again what am I talking about in the sermon tonight? I'm talking about doing things that are difficult in an age where technology just makes everything easy. We've got to force ourselves to do some difficult things and let me say this. I'm happy that I live in 2021 with all this technology available. You know I don't long for some other time where we didn't have technology. I don't sit around and think oh man I wish we could live in a time where there are no cars and there are no phones and there are no computers and we could just live a simpler life and I know there are a lot of people who feel that way. I'm not one of them. You know I like technology. I like the airplanes and the cell phones and the smartphone and the smart watch and the you know and all these things that make our life so much easier. I like living in 2021 and I think that if you're smart, if you're wise, living in 2021 can be the absolute best of all worlds. If you're smart enough to use the technology for your benefit, for the benefit of the people around you and ultimately for the benefit of the Kingdom of God but that you don't let the technology ruin your life because it can do both. It's a two-edged sword okay. On the one hand technology can make it easy for us to do the greatest works in the history of mankind with regard to missions and evangelism. I mean whereas in the past they'd have to get on some boat and everybody's getting scurvy and they don't have any fresh food and water after a few months and people are dying and getting sick. You know people are getting malaria and stuff you know. At least when our guy gets malaria you know we have the technology to fix it and get him in the hospital and get him medicine and whatever. You know back in the day you know he'd probably be dead right. I mean do you think if you would have not gone to the hospital you'd be dead right now? I mean they had to work hard to stabilize him and keep him alive. You know I thought of the Bible verse you know for the work of Christ he was nigh on to death because for the work of Christ he was nigh on to death not regarding his life to supply your lack of service toward me from Philippians. That was the verse that came to mind because you know what when we go and do things for the Lord you know sometimes we can face challenges and oppositions and have to make sacrifices but you know what it's nice to be living in an age where that's rare and when it does happen boom we got the technology to fix it and so he can live to fight another day. So he can go on another mission strip so that he can continue to evangelize and go soul winning and you know it's it's easier now to do these great works but then here's the irony less people are doing them. You see how that cuts both ways right. So here's the thing if we're smart if we're wise if we push ourselves and challenge ourselves you know we could say okay yeah we're going to use this technology to do unprecedented works for God. We're going to go to these countries and we already learned the language on some electronic device of Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone or Duolingo. We've used that technology to where we already know the language. We hop on the plane. We're there in a matter of hours. We've already got the hotel booked through Travelocity or whatever. We got all this technology and we can use it to do great things for God but the tendency is to just have all this technology and to just get lazy with it and just say oh I don't need to do missions because I just you know I posted stuff to the internet. You know I don't need to knock doors and go soul winning because I just you know I have a website that evangelizes for me and I'll just sit back and let the machine do it. Now look again I'm thankful for the website. You know I'm thankful for faithfulwordbaptist.org. I'm thankful for the preaching.com. I'm thankful for these other websites you know banned preaching.com and you know I think there's one called All the Preaching and KJV whatever. I mean there are all kinds of great sites okay that are promoting the Word of God and I'm for it and that technology is allowing us to do great works but is that going to be a substitute for soul winning now where we basically would just sit back and say well let's just let a machine do it for us. No let's do both right let's do both. We don't want to take the easy path that says oh well you know I went on Facebook and ran Facebook ads on this island in Polynesia and so now everybody on that island's heard the gospel through my Facebook ad. Now look hey I've done it. You know our church has translated the Bible way into heaven into all these different languages and run all these Facebook ads targeted to these islands in the Pacific and you know literally thousands and thousands of people have heard the gospel on each of these islands through these but but does that mean we don't need to go there and actually talk to people because guess what everybody's not online everybody's not going to watch that video and we need to actually physically get out there and do the soul winning and so forth and then we can have the best of both worlds. You know on the one hand it's super convenient that all this wonderful food's available because then we can get good nutrition but at the same time we need to be disciplined and say I'm not just going to eat everything under the sun because I can because it's so cheap it's so available it's so easy we've got to you know reign that in and control how much we eat right and not only that but if you think about it a lot of these easy foods or convenient foods are not the best thing for us are they you know the easiest thing in the world is going to be just uber eats or something where you're literally just having it delivered from a restaurant piping hot it shows up it's cooked it's ready it's easy but is that really the most nutritious way to eat no it turns out the most nutritious way to eat is homemade food made from scratch in your own kitchen but that takes a lot of work doesn't it but you've got the technology at least the grocery store is there at least the machines are there the the blender the cuisinart and all the different things that you could use to make the food but you know you still need to get in there and make some real food and feed your family I'm talking to you uh ladies get in there and make some real food for your husbands and for your children right and not just say oh I got the machine to do everything let's throw a tv dinner in the microwave this is the easiest dinner I ever prepared you know I saw an ad like that where uh the the it was some kind of an ad for Walmart and this woman is saying how like oh dinner is so easy I can give my family this healthy dinner and it was like a frozen pizza and chicken wings or something it's like oh yeah you know it's all it's so easy it's all right here it's like that's and she even said I'm picking up a hot meal for my family at Walmart and I'm like frozen pizza is not a hot meal that's a frozen pizza I was like are you even listening to yourself but the point is you know it's easy to just phone it in isn't it when when the the the frozen pizza is right there but man does not live by frozen pizza alone okay and you know you need to get some fresh food and your diet and look I'm all for the doctor being able to fix things and the hospital being able to fix things right but you know what I'd rather save that for when something really bad happens and not just end up there because I ate too much junk food and was too slothful and didn't move around my body so my body just atrophy atrophied and decayed you know folks we live in Arizona and with technology we can totally get out of the heat can't we we get out of the sun out of the heat and enjoy cool temperatures year round but is that necessarily the best thing for our bodies when we need the sun to live and the Bible says in Ecclesiastes that it's a good thing for a man to behold the sun now that's not saying to look directly into the sun okay because then you will be blinded as many drugged out hippies learned at Woodstock in 1969 so don't look directly into the sun but you know what we need to get out there and see the sun a little bit amen not directly but indirectly getting out and and letting our eyes behold the sunshine getting outside being in the sun oh it's wonderful the shelter we have from the sun but you know we get a little too sheltered and you got people they're not getting out in the sun they don't have vitamin d and they don't have proper immunity they're not healthy because they're not getting outside and being in the sun eating nutritious food doing stuff hey we need to walk and and move our bodies even though we don't have to you know I could go through my life walking almost not at all I mean I could pretty much just walk like from my house to the car or walk from you know the car to the pulpit maybe I could even have somebody carry me to the pulpit on their shoulders right and then I could just kind of just lean over on the pulpit and preach my sermon it's stupid my friend you need to get out and work hard even if you don't have to and look throughout history man has worked hard and women have worked hard I mean what did most people do throughout history you know you could go back to an earlier time in our history where 90 percent of people would have done farming you know where 90 percent of people are farmers now it's like less than one percent of America is a farmer and even that guy's you know driving the John Deere and not necessarily working as physically as the farmers of yesteryear okay and so throughout history man has worked hard he's gone out in the field he's plowed the fields he's worked hard by the sweat of his face in the sun physically exerting himself or even if you weren't a farmer what are you going to do be a blacksmith or something you know you're working hard right there's a lot of jobs that we could throw out there where people have worked hard throughout history and then women throughout history have worked hard as well because they're carrying water they're cleaning clothing by hand they just throw it in the washing machine push a couple buttons and go back to the days of our lives or whatever okay which has probably not even been a thing for like 30 years but basically you know women had to work hard to to to carry around sacks of food and and uh cooking and churning their own butter and uh just hauling the goods and you know just working around the house cleaning cooking a lot harder you know and look cooking and cleaning is work even now but imagine without all the appliances no dishwasher no you know no just unlimited tap of running hot water and palm olive and everything like that okay you had to work harder back then and so again i'm not wishing for a time when my wife is just weaving clothing all day and just working her fingers to the bone making garments for 11 children or you know churning her own butter or whatever i'm not longing for those days i'm glad she has the technology i'm glad that i have the technology in my life but you know what if we're smart though we're not just gonna say oh i have all this technology so let me just become idle let me just relax and do nothing folks we gotta make ourselves work okay you know most people throughout history have worked a six day work week and that's when god's telling them to take a day off he's telling you to take the sabbath right you six days shout that labor today we have the five day work week amen but you know what what are we going to do with that sixth day is it just football on a tv is it just eating chips off our chest watching a bunch of grown men run around chasing a ball is that what our life is on that day off you know but it's so easy for people to just they go to their job which is maybe not even a physical job come home plot down on the sofa eat drink and be merry you know this is not making you a better person physically mentally or spiritually well i don't have i don't have to do anything yeah but do stuff even if you don't have to challenge yourself push yourself make your life harder my friend you say why would i want to make my life harder so that you don't be destroyed as a person make your life harder look make it hard on yourself force yourself to do some physical work some walking and things that you don't necessarily have to do force yourself to learn things and study and read and learn hey you say well my life's just a piece of cake it's too easy i'm too comfortable and then next thing you know you're david up on the roof looking for best shiba you know one of the ways that you could challenge yourself is say you know maybe i'm going to go on some of these small town soul winning trips because that's a way to just keep myself busy on that sixth day work hard get out and do stuff physically and look the you know when you go on these small town soul winning trips there's a physical component to it because you end up walking it sounds silly but you know walking to the doors can wear some people out because of and because in our society we just don't necessarily do a lot of walking or do and it might seem silly but man you get out there and you start walking between these doors sometimes we're in the small towns the houses are a little farther apart you end up doing a lot of walking sometimes these houses are in the hill country and you end up walking up and down hills and you get a workout out there and it could be strenuous and even if it's not strenuous physically soul winning is strenuous mentally and especially strenuous spiritually soul winning's exhausting but you know what force yourself to get out there and do it because why it's good for you it builds character not to mention the fact that the world's lost and dying and going to hell and needs to hear about the savior but also you know what it's good for you too to get out there and you know you might look at your life and think hey things are a little too easy i'm too relaxed i need to get out and challenge myself a little bit you know one of the best ways you could do that is to exercise yourself unto godliness and a physical exercise at the same time by getting out on some of these trips and and getting out on some of these soul winning times even just in the phoenix area here you know build some soul winning into your schedule get you outside working doing something uh go through it to first timothy chapter fifth excuse me five first timothy chapter five while you're turning there i'll read for from ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49 says behold this was the iniquity of thy sister sodom pride fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy and they were haughty and committed abomination before me therefore i took them away as i saw good what was the root problem with sodom that eventually led to all of these other horrible perversions and abominations they committed it started with fullness of bread and abundance of idleness sitting around like fed horses as we saw in jeremiah chapter 5 look if you would at first timothy chapter 5 verse 13 it says with all they learn to be idle wandering about from house to house and not only idle but tattlers also in busybodies speaking things which they ought not now at least in those days the tattlers and busybodies at least they had to physically walk to somebody's house to do it now you've got an app for that you could be a tattler and a busybody 100 online from the comfort of your own home without even getting off the sofa you're not even getting the physical exercise i mean you want to talk about idleness like idleness on top of idleness being a busybody and a tattler and you don't even have the strength to even walk down there and do it you're doing it all on line gossiping and so forth he says i will therefore that the younger women marry bear children guide the house give none occasion of the adversary to speak reproachfully for some are already turned aside after satan why would getting married and having children and guiding the house why would that keep you from becoming a tattler and a busybody why because you're not idle the whole idea in this passage is that getting married and having kids is going to keep you busy you're going to be busy you're going to be so busy dealing with the needs of the home putting clothing on your kids backs and food in their mouths you're going to be so busy you're not going to have time to follow the soap operas and and to sit there and think about all the scuttlebutt that's going on with your neighbors or people at church or whatever because you're going to be busy actually working hard but the problem is that with today's technology sometimes even getting married and having kids isn't enough because you could still end up with a lot of idle time you could still end up having it a little too easy so at that point what have you got to do you've got to challenge yourself motivate yourself discipline yourself you know so in one way we're living in the easiest time but another way we're living a difficult time because in the past life forced us to be healthy in some ways life forced us to get out and chop wood it wasn't like oh you know i gotta go to the gym ah forget it who cares it's like no the gym is we're gonna freeze to death if you don't go out and chop that wood that's your gym the gym is if you don't plow the field there's gonna be no food and we're all gonna die okay that you know so you're not gonna let that gym membership go idle because you have to get out there and do it right the gym is hey my husband expects food to be prepared and cooked he expects clothing to be made that's the gym okay you know we have to do these things and so today yes we live in an easier time and again let me be clear i don't wish i had to go out and do all those things just in order to survive i'm glad we have it easier but at the same time i need to be smart enough to realize okay even though i'm not being forced to do these things by necessity i need to force myself to get out there and be busy and be productive with my time and not to be idle okay you know one of the best ways to describe what it means to have character and what it means to be mature as a person is that you parent yourself you don't need someone parenting you you know children need parents don't they because children i promise you will take the path of least resistance if the parents don't make them do difficult things children are gonna are gonna just only want to eat just the most simple carbs and the easiest foods they don't want to be challenged with exotic vegetables they don't want to be challenged with something that doesn't just tickle their palates right you know they're happy with just the cinnamon toast crunch and just cereal and just a plain cheeseburger and cheese pizza and everything that's just easy you know just keep it simple chicken fingers and fries please and they just want it simple and easy but you know what that's not how you eat to be healthy you know you need to branch out and eat some things that maybe aren't your favorite but you eat them because they're good for you now here's the thing when you're a kid you think yourself man when i grow up i can just eat whatever i want it's just gonna be candy and ice cream whatever but then when you grow up what do you do you force yourself to eat the things that your parents used to force you to eat now you force yourself to eat those things right you know children they would stay up super late sleep in super late are they just gonna clean their room because they like it clean now when they get older hopefully they get to that point but you know what the little child they're just gonna trash their room they'll never clean it they'll never eat their vegetables they'll never you know do these things that need to be they're not just gonna brush their teeth because it's just like well you know yeah let's brush our teeth of course it's like you're like no brush your teeth but the question is as a 40 year old man who tells me to brush my teeth no my wife does not okay that might be the case for some people but honey when was the last time you told me hey you need to brush your teeth you know hopefully at this point i'm telling myself to brush my teeth my wife isn't getting on me to eat my vegetables and telling me hey you know you need to clean your room you need to eat vegetables you need to brush your teeth because at some point you become an adult and you do these things to yourself and you parent yourself right at the job you know the new guy at work somebody has to keep telling him what to do but hopefully eventually he gets to a point where he shows up and he does his work and he doesn't need somebody breathing down his neck or watching him right and in many ways this is the difference between a minimum wage kind of guy and a guy who's making more is because he gets the point where he doesn't need a supervisor he he is his own supervisor okay well that's all i'm preaching tonight is that we need to parent ourselves we need to supervise ourselves we need to force ourselves not to be idle and lazy you know our children we have to tell them read your bible and you should tell your children to read their bible and set out a bible reading plan for them and check up on it hey have you read your bible did you read the old testament part did you read the new testament part have you read psalms have you read proverbs and we will often check up on our kids with this and and sometimes i've looked at them and said okay well what did you read what's it about and they should be able to tell me something about what they've just read lest they just be staring at a page or something and just going through the motions or saying that they read it when they didn't but who makes me read my bible you know who tells me that i need to read the bible and gets on me and checks on me i check on myself okay well it's the same thing in other areas of life as we grow up and become mature adults we need to force ourselves to do things that we don't want to do i mean how many times do we tell our kids to do something you say i don't want to i don't want to i don't want to but and sometimes they they they're so confused there's like but i don't want to do that and what do they expect you say like oh you don't want to oh well why didn't you say so but this is what they say is that well i don't want to i don't want to do that and here's what i often tell my children did you know that i do things every single day that i don't want to do every single day i do things that i don't want and so does everyone on this planet who has any character at all they do things they don't want to do we need to force ourselves to do things that we don't want to do even if no one else is forcing us we need to force ourselves if if life is not forcing us to be physically active we need to force ourselves to be physically active even if it's just for the sake of keeping under our body and bring it into subjection because we don't want to just have this one area of our life that's just way out of control and then expect to keep the spirit in balance expect to keep the mind in balance meanwhile our body is just completely decaying being fed the worst junk because it was the easiest and getting no exercise because there's no there's no reason to walk anywhere or or or lift anything because it's all handed to us now we need to make sure that we parent ourselves and have the character to force ourselves to stay busy right ladies in the past would stay busy just simply by getting getting married and having children they're not going to be idle okay at least it's going to be hard for them to be idle men the same way but today in our society yes we're living in an easy time but we're also living in a difficult time because we have to have the character to force ourselves to do these things most people today and if you would flip back to proverbs 13 most people today are not following the teachings i'm giving in this sermon right now okay they will just take the easiest path that they can you know you talk to the average person today and in many ways their greatest ambition in life is just to find a way to live the easiest life with the least work possible you know you think about the careers that people want to go into or or their their choices sometimes it's just like how can i get the most money and work the least that's the goal for a lot of people it's just i want to work the least and get the most money for working the least this is how a lot of people think isn't it and this is why millions of people literally millions of people buy lottery tickets because this is what they want to do they want to win the lottery so they can do what i'll never have to work again now what kind of a person desires to never work again now some of you are like um have you lost have you lost your mind pastor anderson no you've lost your mind our society has lost their mind if they think that our goal should be to not work because we exist on this earth to work i mean if i'm not working what am i even doing here why do i even live on this planet if i'm not going to work if i'm not going to do anything and again i'm not necessarily talking about having a certain job because my wife doesn't have a job my wife hasn't had a job in over 20 years but you know what she exists to work i mean she works a lot she works hard now is her goal to just never work again no because she'd find that to be a very empty life very soon and i don't want to stop working she doesn't want to stop working why because work is life our life is about working okay now you say no pastor understand our life's about relationships and people and things okay look amen about life being about people and relationships but you know what what if me and my children and my wife what if we just cancelled all of our works and we just said all right guys we're just gonna have a relationship full time folks that's too much of a good thing all right school work's cancelled work is cancelled you know the homemaking is cancelled we've got the money to do this kids we are just gonna just 16-hour day relationship pretty soon it's gonna be like get away from me hey i love my wife i love my children but eventually it'd be like i want to go to work now you know i need to do something here you get busy working because you know sorry but life is not just all about and you know what god didn't put us on this earth just to have relationships with our families now having a relationship with our family is an important part of life but ultimately you know i don't if somebody asks me who i am if someone asked me to introduce myself or explain a little bit about who i am i'm not saying hi i'm my kid's dad like huh that but who are you you know i you know what i'd say i'd say i'm a pastor of a baptist church right you would say you know i'm a plumber i'm a carpenter i'm a computer programmer you know oh what do you do well i parent my kids well i'm just a husband to my wife that's the main thing it's kind of a weird way of looking at the world isn't it and again i'm not downplaying the importance of marriage and family and children and you know my relationship with my wife is important my relationship with my kids important but is that really the number one thing is that really what life is all about is that what the bible teaches but today people just have such a warped view that everything is recreation everything's recreation everything's love and marriage and children everything those are those are parts of life i'm for recreation i'm for family but you know at the end of the day though we exist on this earth to do work to work for the lord that's the main thing is the work okay these other things are all the blessings and peripheral things and the icing on the cake and they're important they're key but not to the exclusion of our works okay how many times does god emphasize works not for salvation but after we're saved we're created unto good works which god has before ordained that we should walk in them how many times does god tell us to labor and to work you know when god looks at the seven churches in asia in revelation what does he say to all seven of them i know thy works he didn't say i know thy relationships and i'm for relationships but he said i know thy works work ends up being the main thing in our lives is the work that we do and these other things are parts of our lives but work is a big part of our lives okay now look at proverbs 13 verse 15 because i talked about how you know we don't want life to get too easy but here's the thing about the easy life the too easy life it ends up ironically becoming harder in the long run you know the bible says good understanding giveth favor proverbs 13 15 but the way of transgressors is hard the way of transgressors is hard look at chapter 15 verse 19 in proverbs proverbs 15 19 says the way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns but the way of the righteous is made plain so those who are slothful those who are lazy their pathway before them is like a hedge of thorns like trying to walk through the hedge of thorns trying to go through the briar patch that is what their life is like continual difficulty continual pain continual obstacles and so it might seem easy to get slothful easy to relax easy to eat the junk food and lay around and sit around and take tons of days off tons of recreation time tons of holidays just doing the least amount of work possible phoning it in doing the minimum lots of tv lots of radio lots of laying on our backs relaxing lots it might seem easy but in the long run it ends up being hard because of the fact that we end up having all these medical problems and we end up getting so weak that it's even hard to even get to the car to even walk to the car and back that's hard you know we go up one flight of stairs and we're huffing and puffing you know that's hard at some point and so ironically doing the easy thing all the time can end up making our life harder because it's hard to be weak physically it's hard to be weak mentally it's hard to be weak spiritually you know it's better that we choose to make things hard on ourselves on our terms so that we can actually live a life that's blessed in the long run you know i i i've often i did a sermon one time called choose your suffering and this is a something that i often think about how i schedule my suffering because i everybody's gonna suffer everybody's gonna go through pain i'd rather go through pain on my own terms on my own schedule and make it a at least a good kind of pain you know i choose my suffering so so here's the thing you can say oh man you know reading the bible is boring let me tell you something sometimes reading the bible is boring and sometimes reading the bible is a lot of fun but guess what even if it's boring read it anyway maybe you're in a boring part quote unquote although the more you study the bible and learn to love the bible and read the bible you know none of it's boring in the in the long run but when you're starting out and you're a beginner and a lot of it's going over your head you're bored see a lot of what makes the bible boring is the parts that you don't understand you know if i sat in some science lecture that was way over my head i'd be bored out of my mind if i sat in a science lecture that was right on my level i might be like oh okay this is kind of interesting i'm learning so part of it's just that you don't know the bible well enough that's why you're bored once you learn it it gets less and less boring but here's the thing sometimes in those early days let's face it you're going to be in a boring part you know leviticus chapters one through nine is going to be boring for most people starting out just reading about all those animal sacrifices for nine chapters straight and just you know it's it's very it's very heavy reading or the book of numbers is going to be some really heavy reading and then even books like isaiah and jeremiah can be heavy just because a lot of it might be going over your head on the first time through and so you say oh it's so boring it's too hard reading the bible is hard it's boring but you know what's going to be even harder is living a life without the knowledge that the bible gives you because you're going to make so many mistakes and you're going to do so many stupid things you're going to go through so much more pain it's going to be a lot less painful to just read your bible and bite the bullet when you're a kid when you're a teenager when you're a young man young lady read the bible bite the bullet even when it's hard even when you're tired force yourself to do some reading in god's word and you know what that little amount of suffering that you endure of pushing yourself to read your bible is going to save you a lot of suffering down the road you say you know well i don't want to exercise because exercise hurts exercise does hurt right no pain no gain exercise hurts but guess what hurts even more you know what hurts even more is the heart attack the diabetes the the diseases the the the you know it's going to hurt even more when you're having to get all of these body parts replaced you know again i'm not trying to be down on people who've had these issues because you know sometimes these are through no fault of our own but you know what a lot of times they are through lifestyle choices aren't they you know and i'm not i'm not judging anybody or saying anything because you know sometimes things are genetic sometimes things happen for whatever the reason sometimes things happen by accident but you know what let's face it folks can we just say it that many of our health problems in america are due to our lifestyle they're due to the fact that we chose to eat that junk food because we didn't want to suffer hunger waiting a couple hours till we get home we don't want to wait we got to eat right now so we go for mcdonald's and then we don't want to suffer by drinking it with water so we go for the biggie size coke and you know we make all these choices and we don't want to suffer by walking or or riding a bike or or or running up the stairs we want to have it easy but then here's the thing the surgery is suffering you know the replaced hip the replaced knee the replaced shoulder and i'm not saying you won't ever need these things if you if you take care of yourself but wouldn't you agree that eating right and and exercising is probably going to cause you to have less surgeries in your life see what i'm saying like you know you can avoid some of these things so here's the thing choose your suffering you know in the long run being slothful is going to be hard in the long run being idle or being a glutton is going to be hard in the long run so you might as well push yourself challenge yourself force yourself to do the hard thing at meal time sometimes right the easy thing is to reach for the wrong things nothing could be easier than pouring yourself a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch okay there's nothing easier you know it's a little harder to cut the vegetables and scramble the eggs and and make something more legitimate for a meal okay nothing could be simpler than skipping exercise skipping physical activity using the elevator every single time and and never touching those stairs okay maybe you can even get it installed in your house the little the little ride up the stairs like uh like biden has in the white house no i'm just kidding he doesn't but there's a cool photoshop like that though so it was yeah i enjoyed the photoshop version of that but the point is you know yeah it's easy to just let it all go it's easy to let your brain go and say math why do i need to do math why do i need to learn how to read a map i've got gps you learn how to read a map you learn how to do arithmetic you why do i need to learn history all i have to do is just google it why do i need no facts about history i mean if somebody asked me for a history question i'll just google it wikipedia is going to tell me everything i need to know but you know what we got to force ourselves to use our brains force ourselves to use our bodies and most importantly we've got to force ourselves to do stuff spiritually like reading our bible studying to show ourselves approved unto god force ourselves to get out soul winning even though it could be easy to just say well you know i'm evangelizing because i posted this meme about about jesus christ that had a bible verse you know that sorry that's not evangelism you know posting a bible i'm for you posting a bible verse on social media i'm for it i do it but you know what don't just post a bible verse on social media and say okay i'm done no open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel look at somebody's face in real life and give them the gospel you know get out there do the soul winning get on your knees and pray read your bible even if you don't have to and you know what a lot of people today are not in church today or any other day because it's just too easy to listen from home now again i love the technology i love streaming the sermons i would never think of not streaming them or not posting them to the internet but i'll tell you this right now if i stopped posting the sermons the internet and stopped streaming them and we just had no recording going on our attendance would go up our attendance would go up because people be like whoa i can't hear the sermons anymore well i guess i gotta go down there people i i i have no doubt about that that if we stop putting the preaching online if it if it all disappeared more people would physically show up now look again i would never dream of doing that because i'd rather reach the hundreds and thousands and even millions of people out there that hear the word of god because of the technology of the internet and it's not just about how many people we can physically get down here but you know what god wants people physically down here god wants us assembling together not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together but again it's too easy to just live stream the sermon i mean and you don't even have to live stream my sermon you got all kinds of sermons to live stream all over america all kinds of great preaching wonderful preach there's so much great preaching online you couldn't even ever run out of it you can't even listen to it all in one week what's out there just of the good stuff okay it would take you the whole week to barely even get through it so it's easy but you know what we need to force ourselves to do the hard thing and get dressed and get to the physical church house and actually have a church service where we sing and where we fellowship where we talk to people and where we actually go out knock some doors and do some soul winning and so in the age of technology where everything's easy let's do the hard things every day i think this way all the time i think to myself you know what i'm going to take a harder path when it comes to food when it comes to exercise when it comes to my transportation you know i'm going to do the hard thing and when it comes to the bible you know what i'm going to physically pick up the bible and read it and i'm going to spend a lot of time reading a book with white pages and black ink and no pictures and do the hard thing because you know what a lot of people they don't want to do the hard thing with the word of god you know what they want to do just google the answer what does the bible say about x oh that's always going to give you the right answer right but a lot of people today would just they'll just google the answer or they'll say well i don't need to know where to find things in the bible because i've got software and i could just type in the word hell and boom all the verses on hell but you know you're not going to get all the verses on hell that way because some of the verses about hell don't mention the word hell you know when i was preparing my sermon this morning if i just type refuge into the search engine i'm gonna get numbers 35 right but am i gonna get deuteronomy 19 so how did i know about deuteronomy 19 how did i know that i knew that because i've read it so many times that as i i i read i mean this is a true story okay i'm preparing my sermon i read numbers 35 and i say to myself this is not all the information there's a whole nother passage that talks about the cities of refuge and i'm remembering all the things from the deuteronomy 19 passes that are not in this passage and i'm saying this is not enough for getting the full picture on this subject it's over in deuteronomy 19 even though it doesn't say refuge so you see what i'm saying how it might seem like oh everything is just easy but you know what to to really excel we got to do the hard thing which is called reading your bible cover to cover a ton of times if you want to be a preacher and even as a layman reading the bible at least once a year cover to cover once a year through the scripture so that you'll know the bible not just saying well if i need to know something doctrinally i'll just google it or i'll just use a search engine folks it's not enough okay just like the calculator is not enough because you know what sometimes i'll trust my own math more than i trust that calculator it's getting quiet in here i'll trust my own math you know i'll use the calculator but you know what i'll also run it in my head at least estimate it in my head to make sure what the calculator is telling me is making sense because you know some people they're so reliant on the gps the gps will lead them off a cliff they'll just go and they'll you know it's like you you'll tell them to go somewhere in phoenix they type into the gps and they're heading toward tucson in the desert and they don't even stop to think why am i in the desert right now when i'm going to a city location so i'm for the gps but you also got to use a little common sense to look out the window and see if things seem legit you know you type into the calculator but if you get some astronomical number if i'm like 32 plus 56 and it's like a it's like a number in the thousands you know you got to stop and think about that does this really jive okay and so we need to force ourselves to do difficult things in the age of technology and not just take the path of least resistance i challenge you every day this week do something difficult that you don't want to do on monday do something difficult that you don't want to do and say i'm going to do this because it's better it's superior and then on tuesday do the same thing and you know i think the best time to do this is first thing in the morning you know my habit is and i talked about this in a sermon a while back about my morning routine and just about you know starting your day off right you know after i acknowledge god and pray and read my bible in the morning i always take on some unpleasant task that i don't like doing and just get it out of the way folks i challenge you to do things you don't want to do and don't be a spiritual toddler he's like but i didn't want to do that i don't want to shut up and do it all right let's power example word prayer father we thank you so much for your word lord and and for all the wisdom that it imparts lord because it could be so easy to fall into some of these traps if we didn't have the bible warning us and giving us wisdom and so lord help us all to not become over fed and and over relaxed and and idle lord help us to stay busy and even if we don't have to work six days help us to find work to do on that sixth day and to stay busy and to do our best and and help every lady in the in the room lord to to do their best as a as a wife and a mother and not to just phone it in help every uh every husband to be the best possible husband and father work hard at his job also work hard in other areas of life working hard at relationships and working hard spiritually but help none of us to just become idle lazy people who always do the easiest thing and in jesus name we pray amen amen let's take our song books please and turn to him number 154 hymn number 154 bless be the tie that binds our hearts in christian love number 154 on this first verse together now is our is is is is