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

Now, I want to preach about several different things tonight. I'm starting in Psalm 150. What I want to talk about today is substitutions. Things that are not bad in and of themselves. These are actually good things. I mean, or could be good or neutral. They're not wrong. They're definitely not sinful. But the problem is, they can often take the place of something that we should be doing, and therefore they become wrong. When they take the place of something that we should be doing. The Bible says in James 4.17, Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So, not doing the right thing is also a sin. Usually when we think of a sin, we think of doing something bad. Stealing, killing, blaspheming, or committing adultery, coveting. But also, it's a sin when we don't do the things that we should be doing. That's a sin too. And a lot of things that are not bad in and of themselves, they can become wrong when they become a substitute for something that we should be doing, and something that's better that we could be doing. First of all, I want to talk about this. Listening to music instead of singing praises to God, or praising God with musical instruments. In Psalm 150, among many other places in the book of Psalms, we're commanded to praise the Lord. And we're commanded to sing praises unto God. To sing praises unto him in the congregation, in the sanctuary, in church. And also, just throughout the day, the Bible says, I'll bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall be continually in my mouth. And God wants us to sing praises to him, and also he mentions musical instruments. You know, using a musical instrument can be a way to praise God. You know, whether it's playing the piano, the Bible mentions here the organ. The piano had not been invented back then, but there are other stringed instruments mentioned. And that's a way to praise God. But today we live in a society where it's all about listening to music. Now, is it a sin to listen to music? No, because there's no place in the Bible that tells you, don't listen to music. It's not a sin to listen to music, but does the Bible tell you anywhere, listen to music? Nowhere will you find the Bible commanding you to listen to music. But you will find commands to sing unto the Lord. You will find commands to praise God, to praise him on an instrument of ten strings, or to sing out praises to him. And so sometimes listening to music can become a substitution for what we ought to be doing, which is singing praises to God. And you know, I think as we go through our day, we should be just in our daily lives, driving the car, around the house. I think there's a place for singing praises to God, singing hymns unto God in our daily lives. Not always just popping in a CD or, you know, turning on music. And I don't own music CDs, because I try to focus upon what God focuses upon, which is me singing unto God. And he wants to hear you sing, and you say, well, I'm not a good singer. Well, good singing comes with practice also. And not only that, God is the one who created you, and he knows what your voice sounds like, and so just sing unto him. I'm sure that even if you're not a professional singer, he still likes to hear his child sing. Like, think about this. I have little children, and when they sing, you think, oh, isn't that so cute? Because it's your child. Someone else might not necessarily think that they have the best singing voice in the world. But to you, because it's your child, you love to hear them sing. Well, as God's children, God wants to hear us sing. I'm sure that he would rather hear you sing, because you're a Bible-believing Christian, because you win souls to Christ, because you read your Bible and love it, than some paid professional musician somewhere who they might not have even been so many their whole life. They may be living a completely worldly and unseparated and ungodly life. And yet, that's what we have playing in our house all day long, and I just don't believe that that's what God wants. He wants to hear us sing. And so this ought to be your stereo system right here, the hymnal. You know, take this with you and sing everywhere you go. But not only that, turn to Ephesians 6. I'm going to read you a few different verses. Turn to Ephesians 6. Here's another substitution that can take place. A lot of people will substitute soul winning. They'll substitute instead just tracts, just handing out tracts. Now, is it wrong to hand somebody a tract? You know, a piece of paper, and you say, what's a tract? A little piece of paper, a little leaflet that has Bible verses on it explaining how to be saved. Is it wrong for me to hand somebody a tract? No. But let me tell you something. If that becomes a substitute for soul winning, then it is wrong. Because God clearly commands us to preach the gospel to every preacher. He didn't say hand it to every preacher. Hand out the gospel to every preacher. Hand out tracts. No, he told us over and over again to preach. And this is what I'm saying. God told us hundreds and hundreds of times to sing praises unto his name. And yet we spend way more time listening to music than doing what he told us to do, singing praises to his name. And then we look at this thing, look at Ephesians 6 19, it says, And for me, this is Paul speaking, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. God is telling us to speak boldly. He said, here it is, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every preacher. He said in Romans 10 17, so that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. He said, how should they hear without a preacher, and yet many people will spend hours and hours and hundreds of hours doing something that God never told them to do. Not saying it's bad, not saying it's a sin, but it's not what God told us to do, and it becomes a substitute. They don't go soloing, and I've even seen these tract companies advertise and say, oh, are you too shy to go soloing? Just hand out this tract. Wrong. Pray for boldness. Pray like Paul said, give me boldness, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. And it's a cop-out today. Give me one of these things. You know, this is not really a tract per se, it's an invitation to our church. But on the back it has Bible verses, so you can consider the back part of it like a tract. It becomes a cop-out. Like basically, here's an unsaved person that I know, here's somebody that I work with, here's somebody that I have contact with, and I say, hey, just read this sometime, buddy. See you later. And then I can wash my hands like Pontius Pilate and say, well, I did what I could, I gave him a tract. Wrong. I need to take my Bible and give him the gospel, and preach him the gospel, because he might not even read this. And it can become a substitute for soul-winning. It's not wrong in and of itself to necessarily listen to music, or, you know, I mean, there's a lot of bad music you could be listening to that would be wrong. It's not wrong in and of itself to hand somebody a tract, but if that's instead of soul-winning, then it becomes wrong, because it's taking you away from what you should be doing, which is when he souls to Christ, it becomes a cheap substitute. Now, I challenge you to show me tracts in the Bible. Show me one verse in this whole book, and I challenge a bunch of people. I say, show me tracts in the Bible. And why do you spend hundreds of hours on tracts when it's not in the Bible? And I can show you verse after verse of preaching the gospel, house to house, daily in the temple, and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. I can show you over and over. And I'll say, show me tracts in the Bible. Here's what they'll show you. Go to Mark 13, 10. Now, every time I've said this, they say, no, no, it's in the Bible. Tracts are in the Bible. And this is one of the places that they'll take you. They'll take you to one of several verses that use the word publish. So here's Mark 13, and then the next place we're going is Psalm 26, if you want to get a finger over there. So Mark 13, 10 says, the gospel must first be published among all nations. And they say, see? Publishing the word of God. Publishing it. Well, here's the thing. The Bible talks a lot about publishing. That's actually a word that's used over and over again. Go to Psalm 26, and they'll give you another one. Acts 13, 49. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. Well, here's the thing. In the book of Acts, they hadn't invented printing presses yet. They didn't have computers or printers. And I doubt that they were handwriting tracts and then handing them out. That would be really a terrible long time. You know, like, write out all the tractors and hand it out. Okay, one down, another 200 to go. And you see, when the Bible says in Acts 13, 49, the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region, it's not talking about, like, publishing a book or publishing a pamphlet. Because printing presses have not even been invented when the Bible was written. And I'll prove it to you. Look at Psalm 26, verse 7. It says that I may publish with the what? Voice. Publish with the voice. So this is, publishing in the Bible is not talking about a printing press. Because printing presses weren't even invented. He says that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works. So right there, you see, doesn't the Bible define itself? The Bible just doesn't mean what the word publish means. It means to publicly proclaim something. To preach it publicly means to publish it. That's where the word comes from. And it's using your mouth. It's using your voice. And I'm not saying that tracts are evil. I'm saying that when they become a substitute for bona fide solany, opening your Bible and preaching the Gospel, you know what, it becomes wrong. It becomes something bad because it's a substitute for what's right. Here's another thing that people will do instead of solany, another substitution. They'll do street preaching. And look, people get upset when I bring this up, but let me tell you something. Street preaching is not biblical. End of story. And I'm going to prove it to you from the Bible. You don't believe me? Go to Isaiah chapter 42 right now. And people will get, oh man, yeah, street preaching. And they'll say this, every preacher in the Bible was a street preacher. And Jesus was a street preacher. Okay, let's see if that's true. And don't get mad before you've heard the truth tonight. Look at Isaiah chapter 42. This is about Jesus Christ. And people will say, Jesus was a street preacher. And let me just explain to you what I mean by street preaching. I'm not against having a preaching service outside. I think that's great. Okay, have a preaching service outside. Set up a tent. Preach outside. What I'm against is people going out in the street and they're not preaching to a group. They're just up. With a full horn. You need to repent. You're waving at cars and screaming out. Holding up signs. Turn or burn. This is not scriptural. It's not biblical. Every time you see a preacher preaching in the Bible, he's always preaching unto an audience. Are you listening to me? Every time. He's preaching either to a person. Sorry, you're just my unsaved person tonight. He's either preaching the gospel unto a person, one on one. Or when Jesus is preaching, there are crowds of people gathered unto him. And he preaches to that group. Not against preaching outside. But I am against walking down the street, screaming with a bullhorn and preaching. Now look, if you're out in front of the Federal Reserve or something yelling at a bullhorn, that's okay. I'm not talking about that. Now people say, Jesus was a street preacher. Let's see if that's really true. Look at Isaiah 42 because this is about Jesus. If you're not sure it's about Jesus, this is quoted in Matthew 12 about Jesus. It says in Isaiah 42, 1, Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighted. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. Okay, a bruise of greed shall he not break, and the smoking plaques shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. Turn to Matthew 12. So very clearly right here it says that he is not in the street crying out. His voice is not heard in the streets. I mean, it really couldn't be any clearer. And yet people will still say, Jesus was a street preacher. And when we go out on the corner yelling into a bullhorn, we're doing exactly what Jesus did. That's not what the Bible says. Jesus was not an obnoxious person walking on the street corner yelling and holding up a sign. You'll never see that in the Bible. Jesus Christ went into the temple and preached unto the people that were gathered to hear him. Jesus Christ went from house to house and door to door with his apostles. Jesus Christ stood up in a ship and had a crowd gathered to hear him. He stood on the mount and preached the Sermon on the Mount. But he did not walk around screaming in the street. And the problem with it is, you say, well is it bad, is it sin to stand on the street corner and preach the Bible to no one? Or to cars as they drive by? Or to people who try to look the other way as they walk by? You know when it becomes wrong? When it becomes a substitute for solen. Because I even talk to these people who do a ton of street preaching. And I ask them, how many people get saved? And it's very few. Very few. They'll spend hundreds of hours to just get a couple people saved. We go out and knock doors. We're seeing all kinds of people saved. Because what a concept. We're actually opening our Bible and talking to someone who actually wants to listen. And we're going to every creature. We're going to every house. We're taking them to the Word of God. And we're not screaming in their face, but we're actually lovingly giving them the Gospel and getting people saved. But this can become a substitute. Well we don't do soul-wetting, but we do street preaching. And it's just not effective. Now you say, why isn't it effective? Because it's not biblical. God's methods are always going to be more effective. God's method is just one-on-one taking the Bible and giving the Gospel. Jesus did it with the woman at the well. He did it with Nicodemus. He did it with the blind man here. He did it with the leper over here. He would preach to people and talk to people. He would have groups of people come and hear him preach. Not against preaching outside, but I am against screaming on the street corner with a bullhorn in the sign. And a lot of these people are preaching the wrong Gospel anyway, by the way. Because they're telling people they have to turn from their sins to be saved. My Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And thy house. It doesn't say turn from your sins. You know, go to Alcoholics Anonymous if you want to turn from your sins. And you'll go straight to hell too, by the way, unless you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because turning from your sins is not salvation. And people will say, well turning from your sins is the evidence of salvation. Then how do all these people at Alcoholics Anonymous quit drinking without getting saved? Because it's two different things. Turning over a new leaf does not make you saved. And you don't have to turn over a new leaf to get saved. You have to believe in Christ because salvation is by faith not of works, lest any man suppose. But look at Isaiah chapter 12 where I had to turn, verse 18. This is the exact quote from Isaiah 42. Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. So did Jesus preach? Yeah, he preached. He's going to show judgment to the Gentiles. He preached God's word, but was he a street preacher? It says he shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. So if you lived at the time of Jesus Christ and you're walking down the street in Jerusalem, you're not hearing Jesus screaming in the street. I mean, am I misinterpreting this? You're not going to see him on the street corner screaming and holding up a sign. You could go hear him preach. He might come walk up to you and give you the gospel. You're not going to hear him just screaming in the streets. That's what the Bible says. But yet people still insist that he was a street preacher. It's just not true. But anyway, I don't want to spend my whole night on that point. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 4. And again, I'm not saying that these things are... Is it a sin to street preach? No. Is it a sin to listen to music? No. Is it a sin to hand out tracts? No. But you know what it is a sin? When you're not singing praises to God, that's a sin. You know what is a sin? When you're not winning souls the way the Bible tells us to, which is to open our mouth and preach the gospel to every preacher, not preach the gospel into the air and hope that somebody walks by, but to actually go to someone and give them the gospel. And God told us house to house. He gave that example of going to the highways and hedges and going to the houses. That's where people are. That's where they live. And nothing against going to people in public. Do you see Jesus doing that? Do you see the apostles doing that? Walking up to people and giving them the gospel. But not only that, here's another substitution that can become bad. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7. It says, But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Now, is bodily exercise a bad thing? Now, exercise is good, right? Like exercising and staying in shape. And, you know, physically bodily exercise in your body to stay healthy. Good thing or a bad thing? Good thing. It's a good thing. But wait a minute. God said, Exercise thyself rather unto godliness. So, should that be a substitute for our spiritual development? Should that take the place of our spiritual exercise? You see, we ought not get caught up in bodily exercise to the point where we're spending more time on that than on the things of God, than on the spiritual things. You see how something that's not even bad, but if it can become a substitution for something else, it can become bad. You know, it's great to be physically fit and active and to engage in bodily exercise. But how much time are you spending on bodily exercise versus the spiritual? Like, how about your Bible reading? Right? I mean, the Bible says right here, it says, bodily exercise profited little. So there is a little profit in it. I mean, it is good for you. But it's a very small profit compared to the spirit. I mean, if you're getting up and spending hours working out and you're spending hours at the gym and you're spending hours running, those are all good things to do. Great! But how much time did you spend reading your Bible? That's what you've got to ask yourself. Am I spending way more time caring for the physical body rather than caring for the spirit by praying and reading my Bible and exercising myself unto godliness and living a godly life? That's what you've got to ask yourself. What are the priorities? Look at 1 Corinthians 9. You see almost the same thing in 1 Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9. And you know, the way I see it is the devil, I don't think he really cares what you do sometimes as long as you're not doing what God told you to do. You know, as long as he can get you spinning your wheels on everything except what God told you to do, I don't think he cares what you do. Whether you're just spending all your time on physical fitness or whether you're spending all your time handing out tracts or whether you're spending all your time listening to Christian music, whatever it is, whatever it is, if it takes you away from serving God, I think he likes that because he's keeping you from obeying God. And again, going back to the last poem we were on about soul wedding, you know, soul wedding is important to me that you say, you preach too much on soul wedding. You know, I probably do. Amen. But I love soul wedding. What do you mean, amen? But you know, I love soul wedding. And I mean, people are going to hell. And we need to win souls. And it's what keeps our church thriving is getting out there and giving the gospel and giving the gospel to people we know. That's what it's all about. And the Bible says bodily exercise profited little. And to me, like taking thousands of tracts and putting them on doors all day just... That's just a bodily exercise. A robot could do it. An unsaved person could do it all day long. I mean, we could hire unsaved people and pay a minimum wage to just put out flyers on doors all day, put out tracts all day. But it's going to take the spirit to preach the word. Right? I mean, to open your Bible and preach the gospel, it's going to take the spirit. And so bodily exercise profited a little. But back on the subject of physical fitness and bodily exercise, look at 1 Corinthians 9, verse 23. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you, knowing ye not that they which run in a race run all... So we're talking about a physical activity, a sporting event is the illustration that he's using. He says, they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertain, so fite 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 preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. Here we see that God is using an illustration about a physical sporting event. He's talking about running a race. He may even be referring to boxing, because he says, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. Who knows what that's called when you're beating the air? What's it called? Shadow boxing, right? Anybody who's ever trained in boxing, you do a lot of shadow boxing. You practice by just beating the air. And that is a way of practicing. But he's saying that's not how I fight. When I fight, I'm trying to actually hit a real target. And what God's saying here is that when you're working for an athletic goal, it says in verse 25, and every man that striveth for the mastery, it's saying you want to win. You want to master running or boxing, are the two examples he uses here. Everyone who strived for the mastery is temperate in all things. What does temperance mean? It's talking about controlling yourself. A person who's an athlete, a person who's a runner, or a person who's a boxer or some kind of athlete, they are temperate in all things. They're temperate about what they eat. If you're in training for an athletic competition, you're not just eating all this junk food. It's the day before the big fight, and you're eating a bunch of Twinkies, and you're drinking a Coca Cola. No, you're temperate in all things. You've got to be careful. Okay, what am I eating? What am I drinking? You're temperate in your schedule. You're not just going to sleep in and stay up late partying. You're not drinking alcohol. You're going to have to get on a good sleeping schedule, and you're exercising, you're eating the right foods, and you've got it all planned out. And he says, look how much effort they're putting into it, and they're just doing it to win a corruptible crown. What do you get? A gold medal, a trophy, a certificate, a medal around your neck. That is not of any eternal value at all. None. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not against sports. See, all the things tonight, I purposely, everything in my sermon tonight, none of them are things that are sinful or wrong. But it's things that can become wrong when they take us away from serving God. Because there are some people where sports becomes a religion in their life, and it does keep them away from serving God. And nothing wrong with being temperate. Nothing wrong with being physically fit. But it is wrong, and I asked, you know, I've been getting in better shape lately, but I ask myself all the time, wait a minute, am I spending more time on this than on Bible reading? I better be reading my Bible more than I'm exercising. I better be out-soulening and praying and singing praises to God. That's what I ought to be thinking about. I ought to be filled with the Spirit, not filled with sports. And it can become a God in people's lives where that's what they spend most of their time with. That determines their circle of friends. Instead of church determining their circle of friends or Bible determining their circle of friends, it's all about sports, and that's the big thing in their life. And that's the first thing that they do when they wake up in the morning. That's the biggest thing that they think about all day long. And God is saying here, take that same energy and effort that a professional athlete would put into winning and being temperate in all things and tempering every part of his life toward the goal of winning. Take that same dedication and drive and let that motivate you to serve God, to preach the Gospel. And that's what he mentioned there in verse 23. He said, this I do for the Gospel's sake. I'm not running for some olive leaf crown that's going to wither and fade. I'm not running for a hunk of metal to put on the wall or some trophy that's just going to end up in the attic somewhere covered in dust. That's not what I want to spend my life achieving. I want to get a crown in heaven. I want to lay up treasures in heaven by serving God. That's what I'm going to strive for. And we ought to think of ourselves as athletes today. Spiritual athletes running the race, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, running with patience the race that is set before us and put that kind of effort not into our physical bodies but into the spirit because that's what's the most important. So bodily exercise profit a little but exercise thyself rather unto godliness. Don't let a physical exercise routine be more important to you than your Bible reading and prayer and things of that nature. Not only that, go to John chapter 18. Just talking about things that can be substituted. And again, everything I'm listing, you know, don't go away tonight and say, Pastor Anderson's saying there's a sin to exercise. That's not what I said. Pastor Anderson said it's a sin to have somebody attract. That's not what I said. It's a sin when you're not soul winning. It's a sin when you're not spiritually exercising. It's a sin when you're not praising God. Here's another example. Again, this is not something that's bad but shouldn't be the focus of our lives. Look at John chapter 18 verse 36. Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from, hence. Now turn into Matthew 13. Matthew chapter 13. Now some people can get too much into being a political activist instead of serving God as the primary function of their life. Again, is it wrong to be politically active? No. I've been politically active. You know, I've done my part as an American to try to, you know, help our country and, you know, educate people and preserve our nation and preserve our freedom. That's great. That's good. Exercising is good. Being political is... I think we should do every area of life unto the glory of God. We should be, you know, a good citizen, a good father, a good employee. I think every area of life we should do right and be an example of the believers and to let our light so shine among men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father, but it's in heaven. Whether it be politically, whether it be in our job, nothing wrong with being involved politically, but honestly, the kingdoms of this world are going to pass away. And Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. Otherwise, my servants would fight to take the kingdom for me. And one day, the United States of America will be gone, and it will not matter anymore. And, you know, I'm all for, you know, standing up for freedom and fighting for our freedom. But you know what? No matter what happens, at the end of the day, it's all going to be gone. So what is the priority of our life? Is it politics? Is it the temporal, political gains? Or is it serving God, winning souls to Christ? Hey, that has eternal value that's going to last forever. If you get somebody saying, hey, that person is going to be in heaven for all eternity, they'll live forever. Political goals, you know, yes, we do. We want to live an honest and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. We do want to, you know, the Bible tells us, you know, to pray for those that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. You know, pray that someone will be gone soon so that we get a little quiet and peaceable life. But anyway, the bottom line is that it does matter. Politics do matter because if we don't have the freedom to go soul-winning, that's a problem. If we don't have the freedom to meet in church, if we don't have the freedom to go out in our doors without the police arresting us, if we don't have the freedom to spank our children and raise them up the way the Bible tells us in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, if we don't have the freedom to keep our children out of the public fool system and raise them ourselves the way that we believe and in homeschooling, okay, if we don't have the freedom to do that, that's a problem. So we should stand up for liberty and stand up for freedom and fight that battle. But is that the main battle of our life? I'm sorry. It's not the main battle of my life. I am not going to spend the majority of my time out there fighting for politics and fighting for our freedom and fighting for the government. I'll fight the government. I'll fight. No, I'm not saying I'm going to go fight the government and people will take things out of context. I'll fight against big government. I'll fight against infringements upon our liberty. I'll stand out there with the bullhorn with you once a year. I'm not going to be out there every week. I'm going to be out soul-winning every week. I'm going to from day to day be soul-winning. I'm going to be day to day reading the Bible, not reading, you know, every news website and every political blog and just spending hours a day poring over every political blog and political website. And look, those, look, hey, I stopped in at Infowars.com but I'm not going to sit there and just read every article and I'm going to read my Bible. And you know what I'm saying is right right now, that this book should be read more than any blog, any political website, any newspaper or news website. Look, I'm not saying it's wrong to keep up on the news but the news is not as important as the old right here, the old book, the Bible. That news, and by the way, I go through phases where sometimes I'm a little bit more looking at the news and then I'll go through a phase where I don't look at the news at all for months. But you know my Bible always needs to come first and it needs to be much more time spent on this than on that but here's the funny thing. I've gone months without watching the news at all and I'm not talking about it on TV, I don't have a TV but watching it as in, you know, keeping my eye on it on the internet or on the C-SPAN or whatever, okay, I'll go months and when you turn it on, you haven't missed anything. Has anybody else noticed that before? Whatever you have, you've noticed that before. It's like you'll stop following it. Six months will go by and it's like nothing has changed. You feel like you haven't missed a beat but if you listen to it every day and keep an eye on it every day you'll feel like, oh man, there's all this development. The news is designed to seem like just every day we're just at some crisis point today. Like, the Middle East, this is the decisive moment but yet, the Middle East is always falling apart. I mean, when is the Middle East not? And then they've got all these Christians on radar. Oh, look what's going on in the Middle East! This is the end of the world, you know, May 21st or whatever. And it's funny because it was like that 10 years ago. It's on the verge of World War III all the time. And I'm not saying that World War III is not coming. But that place is always on the verge of World War III. There are always people dying over there. There are always people blowing themselves up over there. The Middle East is always like that. And you know, if you just ignore it for a few months, just try it. Just skip it for a few months and just read the Bible and just listen to the Bible on tape in your car. Instead of following any news and just be oblivious to it for a couple months you won't miss anything. You'll turn it back on and it'll be the same thing. The deficit. You think they'll have it fixed by then? No. It'll still be like, we gotta fix the deficit! We're going bankrupt! You're trillions of dollars a day. You go back to it, Israel will still be on the verge of nuclear war. Every week. Okay? I'm not saying it's never going to happen. But what I'm saying is that you're like a hamster running in a wheel if you're just on that stuff all day long. Get out of the hamster wheel and go run the race that God has set before us. You win somebody to Christ, that's a never-dying soul. You read your Bible, you know that's true. Do you really know that everything you read on every blog and every website and every news agency, do you really know that that is all really true? But I know this is all really true. So what am I going to fill my mind with? Stuff that's probably true that might be true or stuff that I know is true? And by the way, filling your mind with this will help you to deserve the truth of some of the other things you hear. When you do check the news, when you do check out that political site, and when you do read that political book, this will have filled you and you'll know what is right and you'll be able to deserve between good and evil. So don't let political activism, and hey, political activism is good, you know, and I'm all for it. I just said I spend time getting in shape. I spend time on politics. I spend time, but it's little in proportion to the spiritual because this is the main thing. This is the thing that's going to matter for all eternity. This is the thing we ought to focus on. Anything spiritual is better than just the things of this world. Look at Matthew 13, because the Bible talks a lot about this. Matthew 13, verse 22, this is the parable of the sower. And it says, he also, the received seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed of the good ground, is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some a hundredfold, some sixty some thirty. Go to Luke, check number eight. And we'll see the parable of the sower in Luke eight. A little bit, slightly different perspective. It says in Luke, chapter number eight, verse 13, this is a different group here. While you're turning there, I'll read it to them, because I like this verse. They on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. Verse 14 is where I want to get to. And that which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard, go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. You see, the cares of this world, the Bible says, can choke you that you'll not bring forth fruit, that you'll be unfruitful, that you'll bring no fruit to perfection. The things of this world can distract you, from serving God. Demas, remember? Demas was a guy who had traveled with Paul and preached the gospel with Paul, and was serving God with Paul. He was saved, but remember, Demas had forsaken me, having loved this present world. He got too caught up in the cares of this life, and he became unfruitful. Do you want to become unfruitful? You're not multiplying, you're not reproducing, you're not bringing forth fruit, you're not bringing forth 30, 60, 100. You're not getting anybody saved. You're unfruitful because often you're being choked by the care of this world, by the deceitfulness of riches, by the pleasures and things that the world has to offer. It said here in verse number 14, the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. So it could be entertainment, the pleasures of this life, just having fun, or the cares of this life, worrying about the Middle East, for example, or worrying about your finances and your riches can stop you from being fruitful. You know, there are things that we need to deal with, obviously we need to work and make money, but do we need to be rich? Where does God command us to be rich? God says, labor not to be rich. Did you hear that? Look, this is a biblical command. He says, hey, if you're rich, you can become rich, and then you can give a lot of money to church, but hold on. I'm not saying it's a sin to be rich, but should that be our goal at all? No, God says, labor not to be rich. Cease from my own wisdom, and he says, but they that will be rich, those who want to be rich, he's saying, they that will be rich fall. Did you hear that? They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have earned from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things, fall after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, flee the love of money, flee the desire to be rich. Do not let that choke you. It's all about making money. I'm just too busy making money, too busy, too busy to read my Bible, too busy to pray, too busy to serve God, too busy to make it to church, because I'm trying to have riches and have nice things and all these fancy things that, you know, we just really don't need, that we don't have to have in our life. And so we need to be careful that nothing in our life comes in and becomes a substitute for serving God, whether it be sports, nothing against sports, whether it be listening to music, nothing against listening to music, but if it's taking the place of Bible reading, and by the way, don't listen to music while you're reading the Bible. And I know that might be kind of a common sense thing, but there are people, you know, I read my Bible, I just don't get anything out of it. And literally, they are listening to music. They'll love rock and roll on while they're reading the Bible. I'm not kidding. I mean, literally. Turn off the music and read your Bible. And in order to read your Bible properly, you're gonna have to turn off the music, you know, in order to really focus on what you're reading. You know, or you're definitely gonna have to turn off the music before you put in that CD of the Bible on CD, because I'm all for listening to the Bible on CD. I think that's great. The word bless is he that hear it. The words of this prophecy. But you're gonna have to turn off the political radio to do that. You're gonna have to turn off the music to do that. And guess what? There's only 24 hours in that day. And you're going to work for eight hours. You gotta take a shower. You gotta eat three meals a day. You gotta clean yourself. You gotta do your chores at your house. You got all these things to do. You can't just let other things suck up all your free time to where you've got nothing left for God and where God goes on the back burner, because it's all about sports, because it's all about making money, trying to be rich. Obviously, you gotta provide your needs, but you don't have to be rich. It becomes all about just listening to music all the time. That's all you're doing. It becomes all about, you know, political activism and staying up on the news. You gotta keep our focus right and seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto us. None of these things are bad. You know, I have other points in my sermon that I cut out that are bad things that take up our time, because I wanted this sermon to just purely be things that aren't sinful. They're not wrong. But they become wrong when they become a substitute for what is right. Then it is wrong, because people aren't getting saved because of all these other methods that are not biblical, that have taken the place of someone. I mean, people aren't saved because of it. They're not here in the Gospel because of it. They're not getting saved. That's a problem. And so let's stay away from these substitutions and let's put the priority on things that God told us to do. He definitely spelled out that we should read our Bible. He definitely spelled out fruits of the gospel to every preacher. He definitely spelled out pray. He definitely spelled out provide for our families and to pay our bills. He definitely spelled out having children and raising our children and training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let's let those things take up the majority of our time and the bulk of our time, and let's let these other things be something that's just maybe icing on the cake, on the side. Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm gonna stay physically fit. I'm gonna, you know, whatever. I'm gonna be politically active, but let's not make that the main emphasis of our life. Let's prioritize that word of prayer. Bob, please just help us to get our priorities right. Really, it was a sermon about priorities. Help us to keep our priorities straight and not let things that are not eternal suck up all of our time and become our priorities, dear God. Help us to keep the main thing in our life the main thing, which is the Spirit. The Word of God, prayer, soul, and church, our families, our spouse, our children, our brothers and sisters in Christ, help that to be our main thing, singing the praises of God, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.