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

Second Corinthians chapter 4, the place where I'd like to begin is in verse number 8 where the Bible reads, We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies. So there he's describing the fact that as a Christian you're going to go through a lot of hard things, you're going to go through persecution, affliction, rough times, but Jesus Christ is going to sustain you through it. But look down if you would at verse number 16, he says, For which cause we faint not? So he's saying even in spite of all the opposition, in spite of all the hardships, we faint not. But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Now what Paul is explaining in this chapter here is the importance of having our focus on things that are eternal, not on our temporal surroundings, not on the situation that we find ourselves in today, but rather the situation we're going to be in for all of eternity. And today we want to make sure that we as Christians have our affections set on things above, not on things on this earth. You see if you're truly living the Christian life, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. You're in 2 Corinthians, just flip back to 1 Corinthians a few pages, chapter 15. If you're truly living the Christian life, you're going to go through hard times. You're going to go through suffering. He said in Philippians chapter 1, he said, up to you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict which he saw in me and now here to be in me. But he said if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship with the spirit, if any vows and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being one accord of one mind. He said let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. Let every man esteem other better than himself. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus lived a life where he suffered and ministered to others. And he said for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on the right hand of God. The thing that's going to sustain us according to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, is to know that when we go through these hard times and sufferings and struggles, that inevitably will be a part of the Christian life if you're truly living for God, is that we know that they're temporal. We know that they're going to end. We know that one day we will have rest when we're in heaven and we are glorified with Jesus Christ for all of eternity. He says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 16, For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. This is of course the great resurrection chapter where Paul goes on and on explaining about how important the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ is. But look at verse 19, he says, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. You see that? He said there's no hope. I mean if there's no heaven, if there's no reward, he said we're of all men most miserable. Because we're not living for the now. We're not living just for here today, the temporal. We're not trying to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. But rather we have our eyes set on the crown that awaits us and not only us but all those that love his appearing. As Moses said, He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season as steaming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect under the recompense of the reward. We've got to get our eyes on those things that are eternal. We need to have our conversation in heaven and not always just be so focused on the surroundings that we find ourselves in, the things that are temporal and emphasize those things. You see because Jesus Christ is raised, the Bible says if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so then also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him? And we know that Christ will raise up us also by the glory of God. And so we have an inheritance in the heavens, something that's not going to wax old, where moth and rust does not corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. You may be poor here on this earth but you've got treasures in heaven if you're serving God, if you're living for God. And that's what he's trying to show us here, to focus on things that are eternal and not on the things that are right or wrong. And by the way, let me just throw this in since we're in 1 Corinthians 15 talking about the resurrection of Christ. Did you know that the Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead? Did you know that? I mean talk about a core tenet of the Bible, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Look if you would at 1 Corinthians 15, a little bit forward, verse 1. It says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved. So it's the gospel that saves you, right? If ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye believed in vain, for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scripture, and he talks about how he's seen all his apostles. I was out soloing the other day, talked to a Jehovah's Witness, and he flat out told me, he said, Well, they don't believe it physically rose from the dead, and turned to Luke 23. We've got to hit on this before we move on this time. Go to Luke 23. I'm talking to this guy, he said, Well, they just believed that his spirit went out of his body. He didn't physically raise his head, just his spirit went out of his body. Well, hold on a second. Isn't that what death is according to the Bible? Your spirit going out of your body? I think I remember James 2 26, For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Hey, we know he died, but he physically rose again. He physically walked out of that grave, and I'll prove it to you from the Bible. Look at Luke chapter... Let me find my place here. Give me one second. I'm sorry, it's Luke 24. Good night. Am I in the wrong chapter? Here we go. I found it. I'm sorry. Luke 24, look at verse number 36. It says, And as they thus spake... This is after Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a what? A spirit. They thought they just saw a spirit, right? And he said unto them, Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see. For a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have. I mean, did you see what kind of garbage they're teaching down there? They're basically saying that Jesus did not physically rise from the dead. Just his spirit went out of his body. No, he physically walked out of that grave. He said, handle me. He said, put your fingers into the holes in my head. Thrust your hand into the hole in my stomach. And the hole in my side of me not faithless, but believe it. And so he thought, it wasn't just a spiritual resurrection, it was a physical bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Paul said, Look, we know Jesus rose from the dead. We believe that he physically rose from the dead, and therefore we believe that we have a home in heaven. We will live, when we die, that's not the end of it either, we will live on in heaven with Jesus Christ, and one day we'll be resurrected as well, physically, from the grave. And so we should not live just for the things that are right here and now, but also for the things that are eternal. That's what we need to focus on. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3, toward the end of the New Testament, 2 Timothy chapter 3. You see, many churches today, their focus is all on the here and now. It's on everything that is seen, instead of that which is not seen. Because remember what Paul said, that which is not seen is eternal, right? But he said that which is seen is temporal. For example, you look at me, you can see my body, right? Is my body eternal here? No, it's temporal, it's going to die. One day we resurrected and brought back to life and created anew, but this body that you see right here is temporal. But can you see my spirit? Can you see my soul? And yet those are the things that are eternal, because God said that the things that are eternal are things that we can't see. And the things that are seen aren't just temporal, they're just temporary. And so we need to get our eyes as a church just off of the things that we can see, off the temporary things, and onto the eternal things. But the problem with that is that you have to have faith in order to focus on things that you can't see. Because that which is seen, you don't have to believe in it, because you can see it with your own eyes. But the Bible says we walk by faith and not by sight. The Bible says that Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible. You see, in order to see the things that are eternal, you have to just see them by faith. You can't physically see them with the eye because everything that we see is temporal. Everything around you is temporary. Every single thing that you can see on this earth will be one day burned up. The Bible says heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away, Jesus Christ said. Look at 2 Timothy 3, verse 15. It says, and that from a child, thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. By the way, that's what salvation is. It's through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and he's given this advice to a young preacher. He said all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. You see, many churches today, their focus is only on that which is temporary, that which is seen, and here's what they call it, relevant preaching. Relevant preaching. Who's heard that term before? It's kind of the buzz word. If you were to flip open the yellow pages, and I don't have the yellow pages with me, but if I were to bring the yellow pages up here and flip it open and just look through the churches, you'd see that word over and over and over again. Relevant. And here's the other word you'd see over and over again. Practical. Practical and relevant. Practical teaching, relevant preaching, relevant, relevant, relevant. Now, here's the problem that I have with that. Basically, what it insinuates is that something in the Bible is not relevant. And what they mean by that is that all of the preaching is going to be geared toward the here and now. That's what they're saying. Basically, all the preaching is geared toward the here and now. You know, the relevant, the practical, you know, fix your marriage and fix your kids and just the day-to-day, getting through the grind of it. No, that's not what I care the most about, just the getting through the grind of it. And if I want to have a great relationship with my wife, it's because we're both focused on things that are eternal. And if I'm going to raise my children, right, it's because I'm teaching them what's eternal. But today, it's all just the practical, relevant preaching. Let me tell you something. Leviticus is profitable for doctrine. That's what the Bible says. All scripture. The book of Numbers. The book of Deuteronomy. These books are relevant today because guess what? The whole Bible is relevant. Every word of it. Say, oh, you know, these deep studies aren't relevant. Yes, they are. We need to get into the deep things of God. The Spirit serves with all things, even the deep things of God. We need to get in and learn the doctrines of the faith. We need to learn the Old Testament. We need to learn the New Testament. We need to learn Bible prophecy. We need to learn the histories of the Bible. And you say, well, that's just not relevant. It's all relevant. It's all profitable. It's all given by the inspiration of God. It's all good for preaching. It's all good for rebuke. It's all good for reprove. It's all good for instruction in righteousness. There's nothing irrelevant. But see, it's all relevant. It's all irrelevant. But somebody sent me this news article. It cracked me up. Somebody sent me this news article that was about these pastors who turned atheist, but they keep preaching. And it's these Southern Baptists, and they didn't want to give their name, but this was an ABC news article that somebody sent. It was a big news article. And it's these Southern Baptist preachers, and basically they've decided that they don't believe in God anymore, and they don't believe in the Bible anymore. But because the economy's bad, they don't want to change jobs. So they're just going to continue preaching and continue pastoring the church. You know, that's just kind of a weird article, but there was one thing in it that jumped out at me, and I want to read you this quote from this interview where they're interviewing these guys about the fact that basically they started out, they said, you know, they thought it was all real, but then the problem is, you know, they started studying it, and they started reading atheist materials and it just made a lot of sense to them, and now they're just atheists. They believe that there is no God. And they actually believe that the Bible is just a fairy tale. And that's what they're saying. Now, obviously, you guys were never saved in the first place. And by the way, we run into Southern Baptists every day that aren't saved, so that shouldn't really shock you, because a lot of these Southern Baptists, I've run into Southern Baptists who are saved, but a lot of Southern Baptists I've run into who were teaching like a lordship salvation, like a work salvation, a lordship salvation. You know, I've run into independent Baptists that aren't saved. You know, not everybody who's a Baptist is necessarily just automatically saved, right? Just because you go to this church doesn't make you automatically saved. You better believe that salvation's by faith and Jesus Christ alone, not of works lest any man should boast. And that's what makes you saved because of your faith in Christ Jesus, not the church that you attend or don't attend. But this guy, listen, you got to hear this, because this explained a lot. When I read this, I said, oh, now I get it. Here's from the article. He and Jack, I'm quoting the article, he and Jack said that when speaking to parishioners, this is after they became atheists, okay, but they, you know, hey, the economy's tough. I got to keep preaching. And here's what they said. You know, I have a seminary degree, you know? It's the best job I can get. Okay? It says this. He and Jack said that when speaking to parishioners, they tried to stick to the sections of the Bible that they still believed in, the parts about being a good person. Both said that they would like to leave their jobs, though they can't afford to. I want to get out of the position I'm in as quickly as I can because I try to be a person of integrity and character, Adam said. With the economy the way it is, with my lack of marketable skills other than a seminary education, it's got me in a tough spot. So notice what he said. He doesn't really believe in the Bible, right? He even says, I'm an atheist. I don't believe that God even exists. So what parts of the Bible does he focus on? Just the practical part, right? Just the relevant part. Just the part that's going to help us here today, right? He says the Bible's going to focus on the part about being a good person because, you know, that's the part that we can all agree on. Well, you know what? I like to focus on the part that we can't all agree on because if we all agree anyway, then why even show up to church? Just to have somebody tell you what you already agree with? No, you come to church to learn something new. You come to church to get a glimpse from God's Word of that which is eternal, not to just talk about the temporal, not to just only, well, I'm just going to focus on the parts that I still believe in. Well, you know what? I still believe in all of it, so I'm going to focus on the miracles of the Bible. I'm going to focus on God parting the Red Sea. I'm going to focus on Jesus Christ raising up a dead body from the dead. Hey, I'm going to focus on the part that's spiritual. I'm not just going to focus only on the here and now, the temporal of, you know, love your neighbor, love one another, do good to people, get along with your wife, get along with your kids, and that's what a lot of churches today focus on only, and it just makes me wonder, are they an atheist too? Do they only believe in the here and now because that's all they want to talk about? No, let's talk about heaven. Let's talk about hell. Let's talk about the resurrection that's bodily of Jesus Christ and not just a social gospel about being good to your neighbor. Hey, that's not all that we need. That's part of the message, but that's not the whole message today. We need to focus our attention on that which is eternal. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. If you're in 2 Timothy, just go a few pages to the right of your Bible, Hebrews chapter 10. But that's kind of an eye opener for me, you know, these atheistic Southern Baptist preachers basically that are pretending to be a Southern Baptist, really they're total atheists. They just said, well, I'm just going to focus on the parts about, you know, being a good person and being good to your neighbor, you know, stuff like that because I still agree with that. But it says in Hebrews 10.34, I like what it says here. It says, For ye have compassion of me and mine bonds. And what's Paul saying? He's talking about when he was in jail. These people took pity on him. They had compassion of him. They knew he was in jail. And it says, And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance. Basically, Paul's in jail and they were really generous with him. They put him together a care package. You know, they took of their goods and that which they had financially and of their food and they basically took care of Paul. They got him the clothes he needed, the food he needed and so forth when he was in jail. Why were they so generous? Why were they such giving people? Because they knew in themselves that they had in heaven a better and enduring substance. That's what's going to make you a generous person today when you're focused on the eternal and not on the temporal. Because the Bible says, Sell that you have and give to the poor. He said you'll have treasures in heaven. And so the person who's focused on the here and now is just going to want to amass all the wealth for themselves now. They're going to want to keep everything and store everything up and not be... The person who's generous and giving and helping people who can never do anything for them in return, that they'll never... He said, you know, Lend, hoping to receive not again. That's how I always mold stuff out. You say don't give back anyway. So he said, you know, Lend, just open to receive nothing. No, open to receive nothing again. He said, you'll have a reward in heaven. But does that mean anything to you today? A reward in heaven? This life is but a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Would you rather have everything now? Or would you rather have that reward when you get to heaven? Think about the story of the prodigal son. In the story of the prodigal son, he basically went to his dad and said, Dad, give me the portion of the inheritance that followed me. He said, give me my inheritance now. I don't want to wait until you die to inherit everything. I want to have it all right now. And so his father said, okay, fine. Gave him this portion of the inheritance, gave it to him, and he took it off into a far country and he spent up his substance on riotous living. He just blew all the money. He said, I want to enjoy it all right now. But you know what? It didn't last as long as he thought, did it? And you know, we think that just enjoying life right now is what it's all about. But this life is going to go by faster than you think. Maybe you're young and you think, oh, man, I've got my whole life ahead of you. But if we talk to those that are older, not that we have anybody here old today, but if we talk to those who are older, I'll bet you they'd say, man, life blew by. They'd say, oh, man, it seems like just yesterday I was your age. And life just blew by because it is just a big boom. And that's what this prodigal son also represents. He basically thought, oh, man, this money is a lot of money. Like if I said to my son, you know, son, I'm going to give you $10,000. And I was like, wow, that's going to last forever. But how long is $10,000 really going to last when you're out there paying for a place to live, paying for food, paying the bills? And especially in a riotous living, you know, that $10,000 isn't going to go far. But to that young mind, it sounds huge. And you eat a million dollars. But yet in your lifetime, even if you don't make that much money, you'll probably earn a million dollars over time. You know, because in the course of 50 years, you're going to earn a million dollars. You know, you're going to earn a lot of money over time. And even if you discern, if you earn $20,000 a year for 50 years, that's a million dollars. You know, so you think of these numbers like, oh, wow, $10,000, you know, yeah, it's going to last a little while. And then what? When you're in the pig pen, like the prodigal son was, eating slop, just wishing to have food to eat. And that's how we are today. We want to have it all right now. So, you know, I was at home, but he didn't own the ranch anymore. Because he'd already sold out his stock in it. And his older brother owned everything. And when Dad passed away, he spent the rest of his life controlling that ranch, controlling that farm, controlling all the wealth. You know, the fun of the younger brother probably only lasted, what, a year or something? You know, he blew it all. We don't know the exact timeframe. But let's say he blew it in a year, a year and a half. The other guy probably enjoyed it for decades. And that's a picture of everything right now. Or are we willing to have the faith to believe, hey, I'll go through some suffering now. I'll go through some struggles now. I'll go through the hard times right now. Because I know that in Heaven I've got something better waiting for me. And everything that this world has to offer is vanity anyway. Solomon had it all. You know, he had women. I mean, he had 700 wives. He had all the money he wanted. He said, if I saw something that I wanted, I withheld not something I wanted, I got it. He got all the education, all the knowledge, all the wisdom. He built great construction projects. He was interested in music. He was interested in literature. I mean, he had everything. And then he said I hated life. He said it's all vanity. He said it's worthless to me. And today, we can become enamored by the world's façade and all the things the world has to offer that are just temporary pleasures, that are just a short little fun thing that God offers us joy forevermore in His presence according to Psalm 16 11. But look at Hebrews chapter 11. You're in chapter 10. Just go to chapter 11, verse 32. Here's where Paul is just concluding this long litany of all these people from the Old Testament who have great faith and he's explaining in detail how they have faith and what their faith accomplished. But then he kind of sums it up in the end of verse 32. He says, I don't even have time to go into Gideon. He says, Time would fail me to tell Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah, of David also and of Samuel and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousnesses, obtained promises, stomped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women received miracles but keep reading, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection, and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, in moreover of bonds and imprisonment, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in sin, and these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God, having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. He said, look, they went through all these things hoping to obtain a better resurrection, they wanted more rewards in heaven, they wanted more glorious rewards at eternity. He said, that's why they went through suffering. He said, they went through it because of what they knew was coming as a reward, and he lists off, I mean, were these guys living the practical, relevant, your best life now? They were living their best life, I don't want to preach that your best life now. Give it to me now. Give me the portion of the inheritance that follows me now. I want it all right now. You know, you're not going to have wealth, and fame, and prosperity in this life, and expect to be glorified in the next life. You'll still go to heaven, you'll live on easy street here today, we're not going to get the major rewards. Paul didn't live on easy street, that's why he knew he had the crowns coming because he suffered for the cause of Christ. That's why we just went through it in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 5, when they were beaten for the cause of Christ, they knew that there were great rewards coming for that beating that they received. Why? Because they had the faith to believe that. That wasn't very practical and relevant for them at that point. I've got a really practical sort of how to get beaten for the cause of Christ, this is really going to help look as you would at 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Actually before we go there keep reading. Let's not stop at the end of Hebrews 11. Look at chapter 12. Wherefore, so he's continuing the same thought about these people who went through so much because they were looking toward the rewards that they were going to receive. They were saying, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, in Psalm 16, this is Jesus Christ speaking prophetically. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is black and my glory rejoices. My flesh also shall rest for thou will not leave my soul in hell. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Jesus Christ is basically speaking prophetically. He is saying, look, I know my soul is not going to be left in hell. I know my suffering will come to an end and he said, in thy presence there are joys for evermore, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the dead. He says for a second, when this is quoted, Psalm 16 is quoted in Acts chapter 2, he contrasts Jesus Christ here about his soul not being left in hell, his flesh not seeing corruption. He said, let me tell you something, David the prophet, his flesh did see corruption. He said, his sepulchre is with us unto this day, but you can't go there, you're not going to find it today. Peter said, David's sepulchre, we can go visit it, his remains are there, he's not yet erased from the dead, but not the remains of Jesus Christ, Jehovah's false witnesses, because he rose from the dead body, there was nothing in that tomb. They walked in the tomb, his body died, his body laid past tense. And so, where did I return? Or nowhere yet, 1 Thessalonians 2.19, sorry, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. So, we want our emphasis to be on the eternal, and if we're going to have our emphasis on the eternal, that means we have to be emphasizing the invisible. The Bible says, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen. God is invisible to us today. We don't see God, do we? We don't physically see God, we don't physically see Jesus, we don't physically see the word of God, we can see this book in our hand, which has the words of God printed upon it, and it is God's word, and so here we see in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, it says in verse 19, for what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming for ye are our glory and joy. So right there, he's saying, we're rejoicing about seeing those that we've won to Christ when we get to heaven. At the coming of the Lord our hope, our crown of rejoicing is going to be you, because they're the ones who, if you look in the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians, he said, look, you received the word of God, but you heard of us, you got saved, we preached you the word, you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and our rejoicing, our crown, our joy is going to be invisible. You see, today, there's a reason why most churches don't go soul winning. I mean, if we were to look at all, even if we were to just look at the independent Baptist churches in Phoenix area, and we look at the soul winning, it's rare that a church does any amount of soul winning, or any large amount, or any real soul winning. Most of the independent fundamental Baptist churches in this area you know, like an independent fundamental Baptist pastor, I would say knocked on my door recently, but he didn't knock on it. I'm sitting in my living room with my family, and this independent fundamental Baptist pastor that I recognize comes to my door, doesn't knock on the door, just leaves, because he was just going, and I walked out on my front porch, and I could see what he was doing. He didn't see me, but I saw him. He was just and the advertisement didn't even have any Bible verses on it. It was just all about this loving home for your family. It's going to be great. He had all these pictures of strangers that don't go to his church. You know, like stock, all these stock photos, making sure to include every race, every age group, a single mother, you know, just like trying to get everything, cover all the bases of all the stock photos. Oh, it's going to be wonderful, and practical, and relevant. And it's like, Because that would not produce visible results. That would produce invisible. He'd rather hand out a million pliers that don't really say anything, that just look really happy and smiley, just hoping that somebody will come to his church. Because that's a result that you can see, my friend. When somebody walks through that door into our church, can we see that result? Yeah, we saw somebody walk in and sit down. But do we see the people that we go out and win to Christ but we have the faith to believe that we're going to see them in heaven and that's the difference. You see, soul winning today, there's a reason why that guy was just out handing out his little glossy, fancy plier and not doing soul winning. Just going out, walking around, handing out a plier. The reason why he's not doing soul winning is because I've got a news flash for you. Soul winning doesn't work to build the church. It doesn't work. Look, if soul winning made the church get big, then guess what? All these pastors would be doing it because that's their goal. To have a big church, to have a big offering, to have a big crowd. Look, if soul winning is what made the church grow large, then all these new evangelical rock and roll churches, they'd be out doing it because that's their goal. Bring in as many people as possible. But guess what? It's not a method that brings in crowds. Have you noticed? I mean, our church does more soul winning than any church I know of in this area or even a lot of other areas. If you count up how many people in our church go soul winning and how many hours they spend, I mean, we're talking about hundreds of man hours of soul winning probably in a week's time. Frequently, we would have hundreds of hours of soul winning. And yet, do you just see throngs and masses of people coming in on Sunday morning just being stampeded like Walmart or Black Friday trying to get into church? That's not necessarily what you see because soul winning, and that's why people today say soul winning doesn't work. You know, Brother Gary, he found our church because he was trying to see if soul winning doesn't work because he went to a soul winning high. He was interested in evangelism and soul winning and this is before he was saved. He went to this conference and they told him soul winning doesn't work. And he saw us talking about soul winning and said, why don't we go down there and see if soul winning worked? And you know, whether or not soul winning works depends on of course not. And that's why they don't do it and that's why they say it doesn't work but it does work to get people into heaven. Because if they hear God's work, preach, and believe on the word of God and receive Christ as Savior they will be saved whether they do the works or not because we happen to believe that salvation is by faith not of works lest any man should boast. And we happen to believe that him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth his faith is counted for righteousness. And we believe that you can be saved without attending a church. You can be saved just by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we go out and we preach the Gospel to many people who don't get saved. But at least we preach the Gospel to them. At least we sow the seed. At least we water that seed. And then other times we actually get to win people to Christ and we'll see them in heaven. And we are laboring for eternity. We're also laboring for the long run. Because eventually we know that many teenagers and young people that were waiting to Christ when they grow up one day and have a family hopefully they will come and join our church once they get the keys to the car. And once they have a family and they want to raise their children in church they're going to remember hopefully the one who came to their door and won them to Christ and gave them their Bible and handed them a Bible and put it in their hand and preached them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and got them saved and showed them where to start reading that Bible. Hey, they're going to remember that and come someday. But you know what? That takes way too much faith to wait until we get to heaven to see all the fruit of our labor. To see all the people that we won to Christ. I mean why do we go out and preach the Gospel to people in Spanish? They're never going to come to our church. I mean half the people I win to Christ is in Spanish. They're not going to come to church because this church is in English. But yet we'll see them in heaven. And that's what matters. The eternal is more important than the temporal. And there are temporal things that we care about. I mean we want to have a roof over our head. We want to have lunch today. And that's temporal. We want to have our church grow and people be here. But we want them here for a spiritual reason. And so we're more focused on the eternal. We're more focused on the invisible. Hey our outward man may perish. We may be suffering. And maybe you're going through bad times right now. Maybe you're poor. Maybe you're struggling. Maybe you're going through hard times. But you know what? You need to stay focused on the eternal in your life. That's going to help you have a better attitude when you realize this life's just a vapor. Only one life so soon has passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And as a church we need to be the same way. Emphasizing the eternal. Is this building eternal? Let's not emphasize the eternal. It shouldn't be our main thing. A building, building, building, building, building, building, building, building. That shouldn't be the main thing. Is money eternal? Then money shouldn't really be the main thing. The streets in heaven are paved with gold. Okay? So we shouldn't worry about pavement so much today. And make that our emphasis. Money's not eternal. The buildings out there are the souls of man eternal. Absolutely. That ought to be the focus right there. Is God's word eternal? That ought to be the focus from Genesis to Revelation. It's all profitable. It's all good. It's all relevant. It's all practical. We don't even have to say practical relevant preaching. You know what we just say? Bible preaching. Bible preaching. That means it's relevant. That means it's practical. And when we say turn in your Bible to Leviticus, turn in your Bible to Isaiah, turn in your Bible to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk, that's relevant to you today. And that's what you need to hear. Not just the part that's just for the here and now. This is the book you'll be studying and learning and hearing and preaching all throughout eternity. This is eternal. The things that you see are not eternal. Let's bow your eyes and have a word of prayer. Bob, let me thank you so much for your eternal word of God. Thank you so much for eternal wages that we earn serving you. Thank you so much for an eternal salvation that was purchased by the blood and death and burial and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you so much that we are not, of all men, most miserable because we only have hope of Christ in this life. But thank you so much that we have heaven, dear God, and that we have a future reward to look to. And God help our church to stay focused that way and help me personally to be focused that way. And in Jesus' name, I pray, amen.