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

The part of the chapter that I wanted to focus on is beginning in verse number 11, and what I want to preach about this morning is the subject of having the right purpose for the things that you do. Having the right purpose, because a lot of times people don't understand why they do the things that they do, and even God commanded us to do things, and we don't always understand the purpose why we're doing those things, and if we're doing things for the wrong reasons, we might get discouraged and stop doing them because we're misapplying the purposes that God has put for things that we're doing. So for example, I want to start out by saying that the purpose of soul winning is to get people saved, and that might sound like a really basic principle that you wouldn't really need to drive all the way over here on a Sunday morning to hear the pastor get up and tell you, hey, by the way, the purpose of going out and soul winning is to get people saved, but there are a lot of people today who don't understand that principle, and churches that are going soul winning for the wrong reason, and as a result, most churches have stopped soul winning today because they were doing it for the wrong reasons, and let me show you what I mean here. Look at Luke chapter 17 verse 11. It says, and it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem, and he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee, and as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers which stood afar off, and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that return to give glory to God save this stranger. And he said unto him, arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Now we see in this passage is that Jesus Christ healed ten men of leprosy, but out of those ten, only one of them came back to thank him and to glorify God for what was done. The other nine were just excited about being healed. They were happy, and they never came back to say thank you. They never glorified God. They just went their way. Now Jesus, you can see, is not pleased that only one came back. He says, what? You know, where are the nine? Where are they? Why haven't they come back? But this scripture shows us the reality of human nature, how many times people are not grateful for the gifts that they're given or for the things that God does in their life. It's just a reality that nine out of ten people aren't really going to be grateful when they receive something great from the Lord. Now if you think about soul winning, the Bible tells us over and over again in the Bible to do it. He says, go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The Bible says of the disciples in the early church that daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Jesus said unto his disciples, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. This is what God's plan is for us as Christians and people in the church is to be out there in the highways and hedges, you know, knocking doors in every house, preaching the gospel, winning people to Christ. But let me tell you something. There are very few churches anymore who are soul winning, even amongst independent Baptists. Now this is becoming a thing of the past. I did a little research just of our state of Arizona and I looked at just all the independent fundamental Baptist churches in the state of Arizona that had a website and let me tell you something, very few of them are going soul winning. I noticed that a lot of them were scaling back their soul winning to once a month where they just had a soul winning time once a month or every other week, one short soul winning time or they just had one soul winning time per week but it wasn't even soul winning anymore. They said we're going to be canvassing and when they say canvassing they mean they're just going to put flyers on the door and you know what, we could use the mailman for that. I mean you don't have to be spirit filled to put something on a door. You could have the mailman do that. You know all you have to do is buy a bunch of postcards that tell all about your church and just stick them in the mail but instead they want to go through the motions and pretend that they're out in the highways and hedges, that they're out preaching the gospel to every creature. The Bible says open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. It didn't say just hand somebody a piece of paper and walk away or don't even hand it to them, just leave it on the door. We need to be preaching the word of God. We need to be spirit filled and we need to be giving it to every creature and the only way you're going to get the gospel to every creature is by going out door to door. So you have to ask yourself why have churches stopped soul winning? Even big successful independent fundamental Baptist churches, they're just scaling it back once a month, every other week or well it's just handing out tracts or well it's just visiting people who've already visited the church and not having an aggressive bonafide soul winning program. Look there's barely any churches left that have it. I just looked at every website, there are a few that had it and the vast majority had nothing or they were scaling it back. Why is that? Well the simple reason, if you would turn to Romans chapter number 10, the simple reason why churches are getting away from soul winning is because they don't understand the purpose of soul winning and because they don't understand the purpose of soul winning, they don't think it works but it's not that it's not working, it's just not working for what they wanted it to do because they had the wrong purpose in the first place. See Romans chapter 10, the Bible reads in verse number 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, for the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things, but they've not all obeyed the gospel, for as I say, Lord, who had believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now in this passage we see that according to the Bible, people need to be sent out to go out and preach the gospel. The Bible says how should they preach except they be sent? People are sent out to preach the word of God and then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and those who believe in their heart the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus shall be saved. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And the purpose of going out and being sent and going out and preaching the gospel and being in every house and going into all the world is that people might be saved and might receive the gift of God which is eternal life. But you see churches today, they say soul winning doesn't work because it doesn't bring people into the church in the numbers that they would expect it to. Now we do have people come into our church through soul winning, but if you stop and look at the amount of soul winning that Faithful Word Baptist Church does, which is a lot of soul winning, almost every day or maybe even every single day people from our church are out knocking doors and there are all kinds of soul winning times that are official, other unofficial times where people are out doing a ton of soul winning. If you look at how much soul winning is done and how few people come to the church, it really is staggering. If you don't understand what I just said, you just don't understand the mega man hours of soul winning that are happening in this church. I mean we have a lot of people out soul winning in our church for a lot of hours every single week so you'd expect a flood of visitors coming to the church. Where are they all? And so churches will look at this today and pastors will look at this and say, well this isn't working. This isn't the best use of our time. Let's make more postcards to mail out. Let's go ahead and advertise here and advertise there and do this and do that. But wait a minute, they've missed the point that the purpose of going out soul winning is to get people saved. It's not to bring a bunch of people into the church. Because look, if your purpose is to bring a bunch of people into the church, there's a better way to do it than soul winning. If that's your definition, then soul winning doesn't work. But I never set out to become a pastor just to see how many people I could put in a building. Just to see how many people I could gather together and how many throngs of people. The goal is to get people saved. The goal is to reach the greater Phoenix area with the gospel of Jesus Christ and that the church would be a tool to send people out to go preach the gospel. That's what we're trying to do here. But a lot of people have it backwards. They think soul winning is a tool to build the church. Then in reality, building the church is a tool to get people saved. See what's the final goal? The final goal is winning people to Christ, bringing forth fruit unto God. Jesus said, here it is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit. That's the goal. See when we get to heaven, there's not going to be an award handed out at the judgment seat of Christ for biggest attendance. I just don't believe it. I do not believe that Jesus Christ will have, there's no scripture to indicate that Jesus Christ is going to have an attendance award and it goes to Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels. Look, that's not what it's about. You got the cart before the horse my friend. Our goal is to get the gospel to the world and the church is a place where we're trained and equipped and sent out to do that. It's a place where we go to grow as Christians so that we can go out and look, what's the point of having a whole bunch of bodies in here if we're not going out and doing the soul winning? And you can sit there and say, well, but Pastor Anderson, there's a better way to get more people to come to church. Of course there is. But when you cut out soul winning, you're no longer getting the gospel to every creature, period. Period. You say, well, we're reaching people. But are you reaching every creature? Well we can't get it to the whole world. Yeah, but we can get it to every creature in our area. It's very possible. We're doing it. Why? Because we're not going to, look, think about it. We have today, what, a hundred and some people in here. I don't know how many people are in here, but it's well over a hundred people that are here. But here's the thing about it though, okay. Let's say our church had 300 people. That's really not that much if you think about it in a city of four million, okay. So just say, well, look at the 300 people we've reached. Look at the 500 people we've reached. No, there's four million people in the city, okay. But here we are, a church over a little, you know, a hundred and some people here this morning, whatever the number. But these aren't the hundred and some people that we've reached because we've actually knocked the doors of almost a million people already. As we're out knocking doors and there's all kinds of fruit that we're reaping that you don't see here today. Now if you're one of these people that says, well, but if they didn't come to church then they didn't really get saved, go join the church of Christ down the street. If you're one of these people that thinks you have to be baptized and join the church to go to heaven, you stumbled into the wrong church. It's a Baptist church where we believe that salvation is by faith alone. And if you believe that you have to be baptized into the church to be saved, then the church of Christ, the Pentecostal tongue speaking church that believes that is down the street waiting for you. Salvation is by believing on Jesus Christ. And there are all kinds of reasons why people don't come back. First of all, we see that nine people here just got healed and said, cool, and just went on with their life. Did they instantly get struck with leprosy again? Did they lose their salvation from leprosy? No. Well, you can't lose eternal salvation either. If you're ungrateful, if you don't care about joining the church or coming to the church and I always tell these people whenever I win somebody to Christ, you know what I always say to them? I always say, now you said you went to so and so the church, right? Yep. And then they list that church and I say to them, did that church ever tell you how to be saved? Did they ever get you the gospel like you just got it right now? And how long you been going there? And they never told you how to be saved, huh? Oh, okay. Well, maybe you should go to the church that actually told you how to be saved instead of the church that was going to let you go to hell, you know? I mean, I don't say it quite like that, but I do, you know, make that point to people. Hey, did they ever tell you how to get saved? But you know as well as I do, a lot of people that you win to Christ are going to go to the church where their friends are. I can't tell you how many people I've won to the Lord and as soon as they got saved, people who didn't go to church anywhere, as soon as that person got saved, all their friends or relatives who were Christian, oh, you're saved now. You're coming to my church. And they'll absorb them into their liberal, dead-as-a-door-nail, watered-down church that failed to reach that person. You know, and there are plenty of reasons why people don't go to church. A lot of people that we win to the Lord are teenagers. They don't even have control over their own destiny of whether they come to church or not. A lot of them speak Spanish. Fifty percent of the people that I personally win to the Lord speak Spanish. They don't come here because they don't understand a word of the service, okay? There are a lot of people that we win to the Lord 30 minutes from here. A lot of our soul winning takes place 20, 30 minutes from here. And they're just not willing to drive that far. Plus, most people are too shy to just show up at a church where they don't know anybody. The vast majority of people go to a church where they already have friends and family and they know people. And you know, there are a lot of reasons I could sit here and go down the list of all the reasons why people wouldn't come to Faithful Word Baptist Church. Maybe they're scared of the five protesters that are out there this morning. I don't know. That great legion of protesters. Last week there were 86. Now we're down to five. You know, I mean, it's growing exponentially, folks. They will shut us down. But here's the thing. You know, a lot of people are like, oh, Faithful Word, you know. It's like in the Book of Acts. It says of the local church that great fear fell on the people and it talked about how a lot of people believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, but it said that a lot of people durst not join themselves unto them. A lot of people did not dare to join with the apostles just for fear of the Jews, fear of what people think, fear of just being in a church that's on fire for the Lord. You know, they just can't handle it. They can't take the heat so they don't come to the kitchen, okay. And I'm telling you, there are a lot of reasons why people aren't necessarily going to come to church, but they still need Jesus. What about people that are handicapped, can't even get out of the house? I mean, I've given the Gospel to people that were severely handicapped and can't get out of the house. There are all kinds of reasons why you can't just wait for them to come to you. So yeah, there could be a church that's running three, four, five hundred people, but what you see is all you get. That's all they're reaching. That's the only people that they're reaching. You know, then there could be another church that's running a hundred and some people, but going out and reaching hundreds of thousands of doors. Not everybody's going to get saved, but thousands do get saved, my friend. They do get saved. This isn't a question and answer session, so go ahead and put your hand down. But anyway, the second point I want to make is in Ephesians chapter four. Flip over to Ephesians chapter four and this one kind of ties in with what we have in Romans chapter ten about being sent out. Not only do people misunderstand the purpose of soul winning, that it's to get people saved, they think it's to bring people into the church, but what goes hand in hand with that is they misunderstand what is the purpose of church. They get confused on the purpose of church. Ephesians four actually explains to us what the purpose of church is, beginning in verse number eleven the Bible reads, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, watch this, for the perfecting of the saints. Let me ask you this. Is that the saved or the unsaved, the saints? So why did God give us pastors and teachers? Was it for the unsaved or for the saved in the church? It says he did it for the perfecting of the saints. Watch this, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Who needs to be edified in the local church? The body, the saints, the saved. He says this, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, watch this, making increase, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. See the Bible talks about us in the church as being members of the body of Christ. Now, you hear the word church member a lot, but I think a lot of people have forgotten why they call it a church member because actually the word member in the Bible means body part. David talked about being formed and fashioned in his mother's womb and he talked about how all of his members were being fashioned and the Bible says that we are the body of Christ and members in particular and he talks about one person being the nose or the ear or the hand or the foot. We as God's people are supposed to be like a functioning body part in the body of Christ. We are supposed to be a member of the church, not meaning that we join and carry a card and our name is on a list somewhere, but rather that we are the body parts. We have a function. I mean do we have any body part that has no function? Well maybe some evolutionist will tell you that. Oh, they used to say there were like 100 and some body parts that are the vestigial organs, the things you don't need. They're just leftovers from evolution until they just keep finding out how they have a purpose. Your tonsils have a purpose. You know, your appendix has a purpose. There are a lot of parts of the body that we don't think are important, but they all have a purpose. Everything has a function that it's performing. That's how the church should be. Everybody should be here to perform a certain function and to have a job and not to just come here and to just be a parasite of the body, but to actually be here to serve and to work and to operate, not to just be a dead weight that we're dragging around. This is just a leg that doesn't work. Just drag it around. It's slowing me down. It's not helping me get anywhere. That's not what we need to be as a church member, dead weight. But the purpose of the preaching and the teaching very clearly in the verses that we just read is to edify the body of Christ, to edify the saints, to perfect the saints and so forth. Why is that important? Because today people think that the goal of church is to basically bring in unsaved people and get them saved. They think, and remember, what's the word church mean? Assembly or congregation. So they think that we need to bring unsaved people into the congregation and get them saved and that's the purpose of our service. No, that is not the purpose of our church service. Our purpose on Sunday morning is to edify the saints. Our purpose on Sunday night is to edify the saints. Our purpose on Wednesday night is to edify the saints. Well then how are you reaching the unsaved? Going out and reaching the unsaved. That's why he said they are sent. That's why he said how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad ties of good things because it's always associated with go. It's always associated with the feet. It's always associated with being sent. Why? Because the church is a called out assembly of born again baptized believers. It's not just a crowd of people that gets preached to. That's not a New Testament church and it's funny how everybody will define it that way on paper but then they keep talking about how we've got to bring in all these unsaved people to church. If you know somebody who's unsaved, win them to Christ. Then bring them in. Now again we're totally fine with unsaved people visiting our church and the Bible does talk about in 1 Corinthians 14 about how an unsaved person could come to church and be convinced of all and so forth but that's not the primary purpose. Just like when we go out soul winning we're also going to get people to come to our church but that's not our primary purpose. My primary purpose when I go soul winning is not to bring people to this church. My primary purpose is to get people saved. My secondary purpose is to try to get them to come to church. Of course I invite every person and try to get them to come but that's not the main purpose because if that were the main purpose there would be a better more efficient way of doing it to bring people into the church but then we just let our city go to hell. Just let the city go to hell but we have more church members coming. Yeah this is great. We grew by 20. I'd rather give the gospel to 20,000. That's what we ought to be doing and by the way God said that he would build the church. He said upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Bible says that there went with King Saul a band of men whose hearts God had touched. I'll let God worry about building the church. I'm going to do what he told me to do which is to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. Now go to Matthew 28. Matthew 28 what have we learned so far? Number one the purpose of soul winning is to get people saved. That's why the fundamental Baptist churches in Arizona a lot of them are either scaling this back or have eliminated it all together and you are very hard pressed to find fundamental Baptist churches in Arizona that are aggressively soul winning. It's rare. I mean they're out there. There are some out there. Praise God for that but it's rare because they have the wrong purpose. They think oh well there's you know we got to get with the times we got to get more modern on how to bring people in and you know what? I'm not against trying to bring in saved people into the church because you know the more saved people come to church the more people are going to be equipped and sent out and everything like that. But soul winning has another purpose that they've just completely missed okay. And then secondly the purpose of church is to train the saints and teach them. Now a lot of people will commonly complain about church and this is what they'll say. I stopped going to that church because I wasn't being fed there. Have you heard people say that before? And I'll tell you why that complaint is so common because many churches every Sunday morning service is a gospel sermon. It's the plan of salvation every Sunday morning and 98 percent of the church is saved. So you got 90 some percent of the people are saved and they're just hearing the gospel every Sunday morning. Gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel. So they're not being fed because they're just hearing stuff they already know and they're not getting the equipment and the training that they need because they're just being taught the same thing over. You know I've heard people say this where they went to church and they almost wanted to shout out to the pastor we're all saved. We get it. You know teach us something else. And I've heard these pastors say well if you get tired of hearing the gospel there's something wrong with you. You should want to hear the gospel every Sunday morning. But here's the thing if you want to hear the gospel let's go soul winning and we can hear it all day long to the people who actually need to hear it. You know but why would you come to church to hear the gospel again and again. I've had people complain about our church. I went there and he never even preached the plan of salvation. When I visited one time and there was no gospel. That's because I wasn't preaching the gospel that Sunday I'm preaching the rest of this big giant book that God gave us. He didn't give us a three by five card with the gospel on it. He gave us a whole book with eleven hundred and eighty nine chapters to edify you and to perfect you and so that you could grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Look at Matthew chapter twenty eight and see the Great Commission very famous passage. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying verse eighteen. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even in the end of the world Amen. So what is our job as Christians as believers as a local church is to go out and teach all nations the gospel yes but then we're also supposed to baptize people and we're also supposed to teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded. So it's not just let's just get people saved and baptized and stop there. No part of the goal is to get people saved and baptized and to teach them all things whatsoever Christ commanded. And you know where we're going to teach them all things whatsoever Christ commanded? Right here three times a week here's your class is in session three times a week Sunday morning Sunday night and Wednesday night to learn all things Christ commanded. Now look people are doing things for the wrong reason they get the wrong purpose. They think soul winning is to bring people to the church when in reality the main reason we're going out so only is to win people the Lord. Okay they miss that then they get it backwards and they think oh the church that's for winning people the Lord. No church is primarily to teach the saints and then they get this backwards and they say oh teach them to observe all things whatsoever we command you that's out that's done out on soul winning. How are we going to teach people to observe all things that Christ commanded out there at each person's house? You know how would we have time because we would just be stuck with one person for years teaching them all things that Christ taught us to observe and a lot of people will say well you know you need to follow up with people and do home in home Bible studies and teach them the Word of God. No the Bible says right here this is where the Bible studies at you know and if I go out and bring somebody the gospel and win them to Christ and they get say then it's like okay you need to grow more you need to learn more and guess what it's at church here's where the church is here's what time it meets you need to get down there and get some teaching and get training and if the person isn't going to come to me I'm not just going to keep going back to that person's living room I don't have time to sit in the living room with every person I went to the Lord and teach them all things that Christ commanded for hours and days and weeks and years because you know what I'm already doing it to a group here. It's just so much more efficient to do it in the local church as God commanded these young babes in Christ need to be convinced to get down here and get the teaching but here's the thing you can't force people to come to church and if they don't come they're not going to get the training unfortunately they're not going to get the teaching but this is well what kind of a discipleship program do you have for these young converts Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night three times a week discipleship class meets three times a week new believers classes three times a week because you and I know that a new believer could sit in this sermon right now they're going to learn something they're going to get some growth from hearing this sermon they're going to learn about what it means to go out and give the gospel to people and be sent out and what the purpose of church is and so forth everybody needs to learn that but if you think about it and go to Jude that's where we're going to go next the book of Jude but let me say this because of this this mistake of thinking that soul winning is for you know building a church and that oh well you know we bring people to church to get them saved it's corrupted our churches today that philosophy because think about it if our church is geared toward getting people saved you know what we're going to do then bring in worldly music I mean think about it if our if the goal is to get people saved right and to bring unsaved people because that's what they say we need to bring unsaved people to church so they can get saved then we would have to basically gear our service toward unsaved people so let's get the music that unsaved people want let's preach sermons that unsaved people are going to understand let's gear everything toward unsaved people well you know what that's why churches today are geared toward unsaved people instead of the saved and this whole movement of the seeker sensitive purpose driven neo evangelical churches is to make the church palatable unto the unsaved oh don't preach too hard because you're going to offend the unsaved oh don't sing the old hymns that's not what the unsaved are interested in you know oh don't do it this way we want to make unsaved people feel comfortable no I don't because the church is geared toward you and don't you like going to a church where it's all geared toward you where you're not just an afterthought where it's all geared toward some unsaved person that's never even going to come back anyway chances are and you're just oh yeah I guess you're here too no the church is for you to be taught the preaching is for you to learn and grow so that you can be an effective useful part of the body what's the purpose of even coming to church not to just take in but to learn and grow and be edified and perfected so that you can become a functional part of the body that is serving in the local church that is actually performing a role and a function in the church to go out also so that you can be equipped to go out and give people the gospel and see people saved these are the right purposes but not only do people get confused about what the purpose of soul winning is and they get confused about what the purpose of the church is but they also get confused about what the purpose of getting saved is getting saved and again these sound really simple but people are missing it today the purpose of getting saved is to avoid hell to escape hell you know that's the purpose but before I get on that point let me say this on the point about church being geared toward unsaved people this is why everybody is is flipping out right now about my no homos allowed policy at the church here because I made it clear I said no homos will ever be allowed in this church as long as I'm the pastor okay and I will never back down on that I will go to the grave saying that I will never allow any homo in this church oh but pastor haddison how are the how are the filthy homos going to get saved that's what they'll say why how are the homos gonna get saved if you won't let them come in your church now first of all if you actually studied and read the bible and read romans one you'd realize that the homos have already been given over to a reprobate mind so they're not gonna get saved anyway according to romans one okay but even if you did believe let's just say for a second that you actually believe that these homos could get saved that they're not already reprobate according to romans one okay let's say you believe that homos would get saved they would still not have to we we still wouldn't have to bring violence pedophiles into the church to get them safe because if you say well homos can be saved too we need to get them then go give them the gospel who's stopping you you say pastor anderson you're wrong these homos can be saved okay go get them saved I will not stop you I have never stopped you and said get back you don't go give gospel to homos have I ever stopped anyone from giving the gospel to these perverts go ahead if you believe that go ahead and give them the gospel but don't bring them here because there's no homos allowed you know and in the and by the way in the old testament they didn't even let the homos be next door to the church king asa he got rid of the homos who the sodomites had their houses near the house of the lord and he got rid of that okay but today it's like come on in homos no we're not going to bring violent pedophiles into the church that's what the bible teaches that homosexuals are predators and rapists every time they're mentioned that's what they are they're doing whether it be genesis 9, genesis 19, judges 19, Romans 1 but people have been so brainwashed that church is a place to get saved that they think well what are these what's the poor little faggy going to do if you won't let him come to church how's he ever going to be saved you know what even if he could get saved you could go out and get him saved how does everybody else get saved that we went to the lord out there but we're not going to bring around our children all these freaks and transvestites and everything and you know all these all these pastors in the area you know they don't a lot of them don't want to back me up thank god for pastor tim coleman at 35th avenue baptist church called me up and he backed my policy 100 and he he said i'm tim coleman and i approve this message okay and he even publicly from his pulpit defended my sermon and defended it to many people you know god bless him for having the guts to stand up in this wicked and adulterous generation but here's the thing let's get off that point though you know getting saved what's the purpose of getting saved a lot of people are mixed up on this the purpose of getting saved is escaping hell look at jude verse number 22 the bible reads and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh you see it's the fear of hell that actually motivates people to get saved it's the fear of the lord that causes them to actually want to be saved i know that when i got saved as a six-year-old boy it was because i did not want to go to hell now even the term itself saved implies that there must be some danger that you're being saved from i mean think about it if i said brother kevin saved me what's the obvious question from what what did he save you from did he save you from drowning were you in a burning building you know were you going to be killed and he stepped in and and you know took care of it there is an obvious question whenever you say the word saved from what what are you being saved from so imagine someone drowning for example right they need to be saved and we're not talking about heaven and hell we're saying in a physical sense a drowning man needs salvation you know just physically he needs someone to throw him the lifeline or to you know to get him a life jacket or to pull him in or whatever now imagine this a man is is is drowning and we come to him and tell him you know you have this you have this uh life jacket shaped hole in your heart and only a life jacket can fill that what are you talking about yeah i mean don't you feel kind of unfulfilled right now your life you know i mean have you i mean don't you want to have real purpose in your life you know it's more like you're dying grab the life wrap or die okay and the thing is the bible says when we go out preaching the gospel we're to warn all men warning all men the bible says in colossians 4 so we're warning people imagine someone is in a burning house they're asleep they don't know that the lower floor is is completely you know engulfed in flames and and you know or let's say the upstairs since smoke rises up let's be a little more realistic here so let's say the top of the house is burning and and and on fire somebody's asleep in a downstairs bedroom they don't even realize that there's any danger they're sleeping like a baby and you go in and and hey hey wake up do you really feel loved right now because you know i want to tell you how you can feel a love that you've never felt anywhere else you know and listen i'm your neighbor and if you'll let me pick you up and carry you out of here you're gonna feel really loved in a few minutes you know you're like what what are you talking about what i don't need that you know but but you know they probably would feel pretty loved if you carried them out and then and then as you carried them out the whole thing caved in they're like wow you just saved my life you know but here's the thing what's the primary purpose of going there it's to warn people hey look you know you need to be saved let me get you out of here before you die the place is on fire and look people in this world a lot of them don't know that the building's on fire i mean they don't know that they're drowning they don't know that they're that they're going to die and go to hell they've never been warned of of the consequences of not uh acknowledging the lord jesus christ and yet people today think that we're going to get people saved by just going around telling them you know hey i just want to tell you how you can have a relationship with jesus i'm going to tell you how to have a relationship with you and you know what they're thinking i don't need a relationship with jesus i've got all these other friends i've got all these other things going on i already got something to do on sunday mornings you know i already have fulfillment in my life and people say oh every unsaved person has this god-shaped hole in their heart and nothing can fill it you know what that's not really true there are a lot of people are just enjoying their wicked heathen life but that does not prevent them from going to hell when they die and they can be happy there are a lot of people who are eating and drinking and being merry according to the bible and they know not until the flood comes they eat they drink they marry they're given in marriage and there are people today who are just marching toward the cliff today just as happy as can be and you know what they don't have a god-shaped hole in their heart but a lot of people are mixed up on what the purpose of being saved is no the purpose of being saved is to go to heaven and escape hell that's the purpose now don't you get a lot of other benefits too by being saved of course you do you do get purpose and direction in your life you do experience the love of god and have a capacity to love others now and you do have the quickening of the holy spirit and you do get enlightenment and you do get joy and peace and you get all these wonderful benefits of being saved but what's the primary reason of being saved look if it wasn't about escaping hell it wouldn't be called being saved you know you just call it something else it would just be called being enlightened or being fulfilled or being you know initiated into the relationship okay but that's not what it's called it's called being saved for real it's called salvation for a reason it's called eternal life for a reason because what's the opposite of eternal life death dying okay you why do you need everlasting life eternal life as opposed to death what are we escaping death what are we escaping hell what are we escaping punishment what are we escaping the wrath of god today and that is what we need to preach to people that they might be saved we need to go out and tell people that god's wrath is there that hell is there that there's a punishment for sin but that thanks be to god there's good news jesus paid it all the good news is that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life when you get that right purpose down you're going to be a more effective soul winner and a lot of people will criticize the way that we go soul winning because the fact that they don't understand the purpose they're mixed up and they want to do a purpose where they go around telling people that you know they're going to get more fulfilled and better relationship that's not it doesn't make any sense folks it's not really the right way to go soul winning go to james four and you know there's a million things i could preach on in this sermon about just having the right purpose for the things that we do and asking ourselves why do we do the things we do for example when we go to work we should have the right purpose when we go to work you know my purpose for going to work is making money that's always been my purpose i mean why did i originally get a job well i was just looking for fulfillment i was looking for money when i got a job okay say oh that's a horrible reason to go to work that's why we go to work is to make money okay because of the fact that we have to provide for our families and provide for our wives and children and provide for our needs so i go to i go to work this wasn't in my notes originally this just kind of popped into my head but i go to work to make money you say well why is it important to keep that in perspective because a lot of people go to work and as soon as their job just isn't super fun and and they're asking them to do stuff that's not exactly what they like doing and you know they have to get a little bit their hands dirty out digging in the mud or they have to start cleaning toilets it's like i this isn't what i signed up for you know this is what and they have this prima donna attitude a lot of workers because they forget hey i'm here to make money and if the money's green as long as you don't ask me to do something sinful i'll do it because i'm here to get paid right and you've seen workers that have both mentalities you know i'm not going to go to work and i'm an electrician and they say hey you know unclog this toilet i'm not a plumber i'm an electrician no i'll go and clog it if that's what i'm being told to do as long as i'm getting paid to do it i'll do it you know why do you go to work to make money and there are people also there are men out there who will take a really easy job a really cush comfortable not challenging job that pays very little right because they don't want to take a job that pays more that actually makes them work a little bit harder and put forth a little more effort and they they have lost sight of the purpose of going to work you know being a provider is the purpose you know you go out and you work and and and it's hard and look thank god when you have a job that you like it's great to have a job and i've had some jobs that i really liked and enjoyed i've had other jobs that i hated but you know i i went where the money was as long as it wasn't sinful or immoral because that's my responsibility to my family you know is to provide you know and when it came to i remember i had one alarm job that i loved and but you know i switched to another one because i just you know i needed to make more money i needed to provide more and it was a lot harder it wasn't fun but you know i needed to make the money that i needed because it's hard to provide you know and today it is hard i'm not saying it's easy guys in 2014 it's hard to live on one income because of the way things are set up now where men and women both go to work but you know if you're going to go out and and earn it on one income it's a challenge it's hard but you got to get it in perspective of hey i'm here to bring home the bacon i'm here to work hard and get paid that's why i'm here and that will help you be a good worker at your job when you realize that but look at look at uh james chapter four i want to say this a lot of people misunderstand the purpose of prayer and then they're going to quit doing it because they miss the purpose of what prayer accomplishes why do they quit soul winning wrong purpose why is the church quit being a place that trains and equips god's people because they have the wrong purpose why do people quit giving the gospel properly and soul winning properly they miss the purpose of what salvation's for why do people quit a good high paying job because they forgot that the purpose of the job is to make money and they you know they were looking for a little more fun and enjoyment you know there are jobs out there that'll give you a massage at the job i've known people who worked in offices where a guy went around and was performing chair massages and chiropractic adjustments and they're coming and they have a nap time you know i think if you work at i don't know google or apple or whatever you know in the bay area of california you know you get a nap time every afternoon they turn on all the lights everybody gets on their beanbag and takes a little nap you know that's great i've never had a job like that every job i was at i had to work hard and get screamed and cussed at but you know what the money was green but people will quit their job because they missed the point of why they're there you're not there to get a pedicure while you're working you know you're there to bring home a paycheck but it says uh in uh james chaper four and look i'm not criticizing you if you have an easy job because you know god bless you you know it's wonderful but james four what's the purpose of praying well let's see what james four says it says in verse one from whence come wars and fighting is among you come they not hence even of the of your lust that war in your members you lust and have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight in war yet you have not because you ask not ye ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust now according to this the bible says you have not because you ask not that tells me that the purpose of prayer is to receive something that i would not have received had i not asked but a lot of people today misunderstand prayer they think prayer is just like an exercise like they just are going through the motions like well you know we just pray because god told us to and it's a ritual and you know that's what calvinism teaches by the way calvinism teaches that you know you just pray out of obedience and but god's gonna do what he's gonna do anyway at the end of the day you can't really change anything because whatever will be will be this fatalistic calvinistic mentality but yet the bible teaches you have not because you ask not that tells me that if i don't pray i'm gonna miss out on good things that god has for me that are according to his will not things to just fulfill the flesh but actually good things and blessings that god has in store for me that if i don't ask for him i'm not gonna get him that's what the bible's teaching so what's the purpose of me praying as a christian what is gonna motivate me to take the time to pray here's what's gonna motivate me i want to get what god has for me i want to receive and so praying is asking and receiving it's not just oh i go through the motions now i may be down to sleep i pray the lord my soul to keep you know dear jesus bless this food to our bodies in jesus name amen you know just going through the motions but rather we actually want to express real sincere praise and thanks to god but that's not even prayer that's thanksgiving pray the word pray means to ask you'll even see people in the bible say i pray thee meaning i'm asking you to do something not even to god but to even to their fellow man they will pray them and so what does it mean to pray if you say dear jesus thank you for this food amen you haven't prayed because you did not ask for anything now if you said god bless the food that we're about to partake of you know and let it nourish us now you're actually asking for something to happen now you've prayed otherwise you're just uh giving thanks and giving thanks is is is important but prayer is also important why is prayer important to receive help from the lord god's not just automatically going to help you god's not just automatically going to give you all the things that he has for you no you have not because you ask not and if you want to get everything that god has for you in life you must he will give good things to those who ask him the bible says it's that simple he's not just going to give it to everybody there are so many other ways that we could go in this sermon but i think you get the idea is that we need to understand the purpose for the things we do everything we do in life why are we doing it why do we why do we eat meals why do we eat breakfast why do we eat lunch why do we eat dinner well what does the bible say we eat for strength but you know what some people eat for according to the same verse drunkenness the bible says that we should eat for strength and not for drunkenness a lot of people have mistaken the purpose of food they think food is to have a party in their mouth three times a day but in reality the purpose of food is to provide strength and nourishment and health now don't you think people would eat differently if that was the purpose in their mind so when we have the right purpose soul winning becomes different even doing the same activity but doing it for the right reason understanding why we're doing it soul winning changes when you have the right purpose church services are different when you have the purpose what's my purpose this morning to edify saved christians that's what i'm doing so it's going to cause me to preach different if my goal were that a k just in case somebody's here that's not saved i would have a totally different sermon i've been to a church service where i knew what the pastor said he was going to preach about i showed up at that service two visitors came on a wednesday night he tossed aside his sermon and preached the gospel for an hour well nuts to all the rest of us who came out to actually learn something on a wednesday night he's just going to spend an hour preaching the gospel to two people you what ought to happen is you take those two people aside after the service and give them the gospel it's way more effective anyway because people are less likely to zone out when you're one on one than just in a service it's for the body of christ that'll change your preaching you know when you realize the purpose of getting saved that'll change your soul winning too that'll change the way you present the gospel you'll you'll present it properly when you realize the purpose of going to work you're going to be a better worker because you're actually going to work hard to bring home the bacon and do what you need to do when you realize the purpose of prayer you're not going to quit praying and you're going to pray in the right way you're going to pray with an intent to receive you know why do you read the bible just ask yourself why what's the purpose of reading the bible every day you know i can give you some great reasons to read the bible every day number one it's commanded the bible does command that we should read there in all the days of our life and we should meditate there in all the days of our life so it is a command but you know what another major reason to to read the bible is to search the scriptures daily whether these things be so it's to make sure that we believe right we search the scripture to make sure that everything that we're hearing preached at church is right and that we believe right why else do we read the bible to grow in knowledge but a lot of people think that reading the bible is just a pick-me-up it's like a little you know i'm just read till you get something out of it you know you read a few verses oh man that's really encouraging yeah but that's great to be encouraged but what's the primary purpose of reading to search and figure out whether these things are so to learn to get knowledge to grow in knowledge just look up the word knowledge in the bible and see how important it is to god knowledge knowledge knowledge knowledge knowledge and and what when jesus rebuked people for not reading the bible he said you are not knowing the scriptures and he said how readest thou don't you know the commandments don't you remember what did he he said that the reason why you don't know the right doctrine and why you believe the wrong things is because you didn't read so what's part of the purpose of reading them to get the right doctrine to know the truth and the truth shall make you free to search the scriptures daily also the bible says that thy word have i hid in my heart that i might not sin against thee it's also to keep us you know clean of sin but if we stop and think about okay what's the goal what am i trying to accomplish on sunday morning what am i trying to accomplish on sunday night what am i trying to accomplish when i get go to the lord in prayer what am i trying to accomplish when i go soul winning what am i trying to accomplish when i get on my knees to pray what am i trying to accomplish when i go to work each day what am i what am i here for what am i doing it will affect the way you do it think about this what about dating what's the purpose of dating find a wife find a husband but a lot of people are dating for the wrong reasons just to have a good time stringing somebody along you know that's garbage you know i've never believed that any girl that i had the thought in my mind well i'm never going to marry this girl then you shouldn't be dating that girl or i'm never going to marry that guy then you shouldn't be dating that guy because that's not the perp the whole purpose of dating is to get married that's the purpose it should be geared toward marriage and a lot of people will call it you know courtship i just think courtship's a weird word okay but you know but whenever i talk to these courtship people and i tell them my standards of dating and what i believe about dating they always they always approve this message they think that i'm fine i just that i use the word dating i don't think there's anything wrong with the word dating and that guy i kissed dating goodbye is so full of baloney you know his book that's a whole nother sermon exposing that book for all the false teaching in it but what i'm saying today is that you know people need to understand what they're doing what's your purpose in date and by the way if you're not going to marry an unbeliever you shouldn't date an unbeliever at all and i will never condone of it i will never approve of this thing of dating people that aren't saved you know to try to get them say no get them saved before you become involved with that person or or dating that person or thinking about having a relationship with that person because you know what it's a lot of people fall in love with an unbeliever and mess up their life and you need to say hey i'm not interested in somebody who's not saved and who doesn't want to live for the lord what's the purpose of date what's your point in dating if it's not to get married what's the point there's no point but the wicked world has a point besides getting married fornicating that's their purpose just to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season that's why they're dating but god's people should be dating only just to get to know people as possible future wives or husbands respectively that is what the purpose is and we can go down the list of all the things that we do every activity in our life whether we eat whether we drink whether we're going to church reading our bibles praying you know whatever you do playing sports what's your purpose and you know what you're going to find probably a lot of the stuff that you're doing in your life has no purpose or no legitimate purpose and probably just needs to be cut out of your life a lot of things we could there's a lot of just garbage in our life that we just get rid of what's the point i mean is it really benefiting you to plop down in front of the tv and watch tv like what are you what is the purpose oh well i just need this to unwind that's what all people say it's just to relax and unwind yeah but it's been scientifically proven that that's not a good way to relax and unwind because you know what if you sit in front of a tv it's harder to go to sleep at night if you want to relax and unwind read a book because if you read a book who's ever noticed this that if you read a book right before bed you fall right asleep if i ever can't go to sleep at night and i'm struggling to fall asleep because maybe i'm worked up or upset or thinking about things i will either do one of two things i'll either go running get real tired and then come back and go to sleep or i will pick up a book and start reading it and when you read you'll start getting drowsy and you're like okay put the book away but you know tv and computer can have the opposite effect you know i don't know if it's the flickering screen or what it is but you know and i know that the more time you spend in front of a video game tv computer even if you're doing legitimate things on the computer it's not a good activity to do right before bed you you go to bed you close your eyes it's like you still see the screen you can't go to sleep it's a stupid way to unwind why are you doing it say oh well i just watched tv to spend time with my family there's a lot better ways to spend time with your family and you'll find that a lot of these activities in your life are completely worthless and in fact not only is tv worthless is harmful because it's also filling your mind with garbage and trash but i'm saying what's the goal what's the purpose what's the point you need to think about these things and have the right purpose there's a time to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for our church lord and for the people that are here lord and i i believe that most people in church today are actually here for the right reason and the reason they came here is to grow and to learn more and to be edified by each other and they know that iron sharpens iron so they're here to be with their christian friends and to hear some bible preaching and to get edified and to get perfected and to grow and learn and and and become a better christian lord and father i pray that when we go out soul winning this week lord we'd go out motivated to get people out of hell lord and and actually uh get people saved and not really worry too much about who's going to come to church and who's not lord because then we'd skip the house where they're disabled we'd skip the house where they don't speak english we'd skip the house where it's a it's a young teenager that that has no ride lord help us to be motivated just to get that person saved and that should be enough lord and help us in every area of our life to examine the purposes for what we do and to cut out the junk in our life that has no purpose and to do good things for the right reason and in jesus name we pray amen