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["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] Amen, wonderful singing. Let's start off our service with a word of prayer. Dear Lord God, Heavenly Father, we just thank you for giving us this day. Come here unto your house and hear the preaching of your word. And we thank you for your word, Lord, and we thank you for all the blessings that you give us each and every day. And we just ask that you please bless our service this morning, Lord. Please bless the singing. Most of all, please bless the preaching, Lord, that we may leave here changed. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Turn to song number 105. Song number 105, All That Thrills My Soul. Song number 105, all together on that first verse. Who can cheer the heart like Jesus By His presence all divine True and tender, pure and precious Oh, how blessed to call Him mine All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see Love of Christ so freely given Grace of God beyond degree Mercy higher than the heavens Deeper than the deepest sea All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see What a wonderful redemption Never can a mortal know How my single red like crimson Can be whiter than the snow All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see Every need His hand supplying Every good end I see On His strength divinely lying He is all in all to me All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see By the crystal flowing river With the ransom I will sing And forever and forever Praise and glorify the King All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see Alright, great singing, thank you so much for being here this morning Welcome to First Works Baptist Church Our next song will be 248 if you want to get that ready in your songbooks Now I Belong to Jesus song number 248 If you did not get a bulletin go ahead and raise your hand And one of the ushers can get one for you Important information on there Of course our Sunday morning service is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5pm And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock You see the zoning times and teams And of course we added some new zoning times there On Tuesday at 4pm meeting here at the building And then on Wednesday at 1pm heading out to Ontario And so if you'd like to participate in that You can see brother Ulysses Hernandez For more details And I hope to see you here on those days And you see the list of expecting mothers Please continue to pray for them And then the important reminders there at the bottom We have a special announcement to make Now one of them, or two of them are here But I want to announce some engagements in our church Of course brother Peyton and Miss Tamia And then brother John and Miss Caitlin So let's give them a round of applause It's getting kind of dry around here, amen We haven't seen a wedding in a while So looking forward to these weddings coming up And so be in prayer for them And then you see the upcoming church events We have the men's prayer night On Friday September 1st 7pm at the church building We will have dinner for all the men who come on that evening Feel free to bring your sons to pray with you And then the TJ soul winning is on Monday September 11th And we want to encourage Spanish speakers who can preach the gospel To participate in that And you do need a passport to go And so it's very fruitful there We saw about 33 people saved With two groups In a matter of two days In less than about seven hours And so it's really receptive And honestly we didn't even go door knocking We went to a park And we spent about three hours there When I went with the group And really receptive People are very open to the gospel And so we're very open to the gospel And so if you speak Spanish I want to encourage you to be there for that And there's going to be some folks who actually live in TJ Are going to be joining us on that trip as well And so make plans for September 11th And then on Sunday September 17th Is our sixth year anniversary And we'll give you more details of what we're going to do As we approach that day But we're looking forward to the completion of our sixth year And then you see the regular reminders there at the bottom No food or drink allowed In the main auditorium except for water and coffee Please make sure you're not loitering in the four year fellowship hall During the preaching service Quiet time is this afternoon from 3pm to 4.15 Throughout the entire building And then lastly please make sure You silence your phones during the preaching So as to not be a distraction during the service Let's go ahead and sing our next song 248 Now I Belong to Jesus Song number 248 Now I Belong to Jesus Song number 248 All together on that first verse Jesus My Lord Will love me Forever From him No power of Evil can sever He gave His life to Ransom my soul Now I Belong to Him Now I Belong to Jesus Jesus Belongs to Me Not for the years Of time Alone But For eternity Once I was lost in Sins degradation Jesus Came down to Bring me salvation Lifted Me up from Sorrow and shame Now I Belong to Him Now I Belong to Jesus Jesus Belongs to Me Not for the Years of time Alone But For eternity Joy floods my soul For Jesus Has saved me Freed me from sin That long had Enslaved me His precious blood He gave to Redeem Now I Belong to Him Now I Belong to Jesus Jesus Belongs to Me Not for the years Of time Alone But For eternity Amen Amen Wonderful singing at this time The ushers will come forth to receive the offering You can turn your Bibles to Proverbs 21 Proverbs chapter 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 Morning we're in Proverbs chapter 21. Proverbs chapter number 21 in the Bible reads the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will every way of man is right in his own eyes but the Lord ponder at the hearts to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice and high look and a proud heart and a ploughing of the wicked is sin the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plencheousness but everyone that is hasty only to want the getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them because they refuse to do judgment the way of a man is froward and strange but as for the pure his work is right it's better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house the soul of the wicked desireth evil his neighbor findeth no favor in his eyes when the scorner is punished the simple is made wise when the wise is instructed he receiveth knowledge the righteous man wisely considerth the house of the wicked but God overthroweth the wicked for the wickedness who so stop of his ears at the cry of the poor he also shall cry himself but shall not be heard a gift in secret pacifieth anger and a reward in the bosom strong wrath it is joy to the just to do judgment but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead he that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich the wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous and the transgressor for the upright it's better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise but a foolish man spendeth it up he that followeth after righteousness and mercy fineth life righteousness and honor a wise man scaleth the city of the mighty and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof who so keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath the desire of the slothful killeth him for his hands refuse to labor he covet it greedily all the day long but the righteous giveth and spareth not the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind a false witness shall perish the man that heareth speaketh constantly a wicked man hardeneth his face but as for the upright he directeth his way there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the lord the horse is prepared against the day of battle but safety is of the lord let's pray lord dear lord god thank you for your word for this chapter i just ask that you would uh meet with us here now and please fill a pass from here with your holy spirit and please bless the preaching to our edification in jesus and we pray amen amen okay the title of my sermon this morning is the congregation of the dead the congregation of the dead proverbs chapter 21 and verse 16 the bible says here the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead i'm gonna explain what this verse is referring to in just a bit let me make a couple introductory statements as we go into the sermon here you know we as a church should never be characterized as a dead congregation as a dead assembly a dead church and for obvious reasons right when you think about it you know the bible tells us that god is the god of abraham the god of isaac the god of jacob god is not the god of the dead but of the living our lives our church our ministry should be characterized as something that is living in a living organism that's constantly growing it's serving the lord the bible tells us in galatians for i through the law am dead to the law that i might live unto god romans chapter 6 and verse number 11 states likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed into sin but alive unto god through jesus christ our lord now let me talk about a couple things here regarding churches that are dead okay that have no pulse they are dead congregations dead assemblies why is that well first and foremost let me say this is that a dead church has a dead gospel right the bible tells us in ephesians chapter two and verse number one and you have the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin now that's not a word that we're necessarily familiar with we don't use frequently in our vocabulary the word quickened quickened simply means to be brought back to life right so when the bible says here you have to quicken who were dead in trespasses and sin it's referring to the fact that those at the church at Ephesus got saved right their spirits were brought back to life by the gospel which is exactly what the gospel does when we go out and preach the gospel we get someone saved their dead spirit is revived their inner man is brought back to life the holy spirit of god comes to live within them they are quickened by the spirit and in fact in verse 5 of ephesians chapter 2 says even when we were dead in sins has quickened us together with christ by grace are you saved now there's churches out there that are meeting today okay large churches the congregation is filled there's a lot of people the the tides are coming in they're singing the hymns but let me say this they're as dead as last year's christmas tree you know why because they're not saved because that church is promoting a false gospel and it doesn't matter if your gospel presentation has the name jesus on it it doesn't matter if they use all the christianese and the so-called biblical terminology of the word of god if the gospel is not by faith alone in christ alone it's a false gospel if it includes works if it includes repenting of your sin if it includes keeping god's commandments to maintain your salvation or if it includes the fact that you know a lot of these churches teach that you can lose your salvation then guess what that is a dead church people are not saved there now obviously there could be people there who might have gotten saved outside of the walls of those church of the of those churches and went to that church and they're not growing in their faith so they can't really discern but in general i guarantee you the majority of the people in those churches including the pastor they're not saved it's a dead church they're just kind of meeting together a bunch of corpses are meeting together spiritual corpses are kind of gathering together to talk about things that they don't really know about because the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god neither can be known for their spiritually discerned so it's a complete waste of time for them to meet together they believe that they are essentially working their way to heaven there are a bunch of self-righteous people who think that they have to participate in their salvation in order to go to heaven it's false you know and obviously there's varying levels of false gospels out there that some would kind of seem to say what we say but then obviously they flip it other are just really blatant about it right you have like for example pentecostal churches that will tell you you can lose your salvation we need to make sure we maintain our salvation work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and they'll twist a lot of scriptures but you know there's a lot of religions out there that will teach such a false gospel that what they end up doing is making their congregants twofold more child of hell than themselves they become twice dead plucked up by the roots so that's why they are a dead congregation because the people there are not saved the pastor is not saved and therefore it's a dead church not only that but you know there's churches out there that are dead because they have a dead bible you know the bible says in hebrew chapter 4 verse 12 that the word of god is what quick quick doesn't mean it's fast or something quick means it's alive right quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword now you say what do you mean by that by the fact they have a dead body are you referring to like the new world translation are you referring to the book of mormon well yeah obviously that those would be included and christianity in general rejects those books but then there's other bibles out there that are in circulation that try to make it seem as though they're the word of god but they're actually being deceitful because of the fact that they remove from god's word they add to god's word they teach a lot of false doctrine that's why in our church we would consider ourselves to be a king james only church in other words the bible that we use in this pulpit and even in the pew is the king james bible and notice i didn't say the new king james bible okay you know we stay away from the esv the niv the nlt and all these other versions of the of the bible that pervert god's word and you say well don't they kind of all say the same thing no not really and anybody who makes that argument has never read them has never actually done the research to look to see what these modern versions of the word of god are actually saying and you know what these i preached an entire sermon about a year ago called the superiority of the king james bible just proven conclusively what's wrong with these modern versions and why the king james is superior and look if you're new in our church and you don't have a king james bible then just ask us and we'll give you one okay you know it's better than what you probably have in your lap at this moment okay if you don't have a king james bible and in fact if you don't have a king james bible and you have a modern version you should just put a hymn book on your lap because that's probably more inspired as brother house would say than that modern version that you have on your lap okay you know and i don't have time to go through all the differences of the modern versions but they literally remove entire verses they add to them they are biblically and geographically inaccurate they have a lot of just mistakes and errors in that bible and those bibles that a lot of christians don't really know about because they don't read it they essentially take it to church they want to have a nice little leather bound with a little cute little design that they got at barnes and oval or whatever and go to church with it but they don't actually crack it open and read it and see for themselves folks we are a king james only church and don't be ashamed of that by the way okay you know a lot of fundamental baptists unfortunately have become very ashamed of being king james only and they'll say they're king james only to your face but they're not going to promote it on their social media they're not going to put it on their website they're not going to preach that from the pulpit because of the fact that in their minds being king james only has this negative stigma to it right where it's just like oh all these hillbilly type fundamental baptists are the only ones that use the king james bible well here's the thing is that you know there might be some hillbillies out there that use it but who cares it's still the word of god and you know what i'm not a hillbilly you know i'm in southern california okay and i use it because it's accurate because i believe it's the inspired and preserved word of god for the english speaking people don't go to these inferior bibles for knowledge they are garbage okay and so but a lot of these churches they do use that and in fact a lot of churches who were once king james have switched to these modern versions because they want to reach a new group of people you understand and you know they don't even encourage people to bring their bibles to church they have the screens where the verses come up but then you have this issue because you bring a bible but then they're reading from the nlt but you have esv and your friend has an you know uh hiv you know whatever they have all these different versions and it's just like they're all saying something different okay and i remember when i first got saved i got saved at a fundamental baptist church and a friend of mine had gifted me not from the church outside of the church he wasn't saved he gifted me a new king james bible and i brought that to church and i remember my my pastor preaching and he was you know going through the verses and i remember looking at my bible i'm like this what he's saying doesn't match up with what it's saying in my bible and i didn't really know the whole issue and then someone came up to me after the service and they're like hey how'd you enjoy it did you like the service i'm like yeah i thought it was great the preaching was great there's only one issue though i said what he was saying from the pulpit or reading from the pulpit and what i'm reading here in my bible isn't the same and he's like what do you have and he looks like new king james oh man that's trash let me and he said let me get you a new bible and i thought to myself okay you know you know i guess i've been reading the wrong bible this entire time but then later on when i began to investigate i realized oh man there's all types of differences for example the new king james tells us you know in the king james bible it says in first corinthian chapter one for the preaching of the cross is to them that pairs foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of god us which are saved it is the power of god and the new king james it says but unto us which are being saved it is the power of god okay and that's only one of many mistakes you know obviously the new king james is essentially insinuating that salvation is a process rather than something that happens in an instant when you believe on jesus christ and so obviously there's an issue if what i'm reading in my bible isn't matching up with what the pastor's reading in his bible they're not the same you can't say that all the bibles are teaching the same thing because they're not okay they're obviously vastly different and so a lot of these churches they have corruptible seed in their church they use an niv and esv and that's why they their churches are filled with a bunch of false doctrine and heresy because of the bible that they use now probably 21 it says here the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead when we think of these dead churches you can categorize them as being a church that has a false gospel that has false bibles they teach false doctrine they're heretical but let me say this safe people can join those churches okay and in fact it tells us here that someone who is wandering out of the way of understanding will remain in those churches why is that because someone who has understanding of the bible they learn the word of god they can discern between good and evil once they enter into a church some non-denom church that has a false gospel and a false bible they're going to hear the preaching and say this sucks this isn't biblical this guy is teaching a false gospel i'm going somewhere else but someone who's wandered out of the way of understanding can't discern that you say a safe person can't discern that yeah babe in christ they're kind of like a clean slate and they can become deceived this is why the bible tells us that they that are unlearned and unstable rest the scriptures they don't really know the bible they can be tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine that's why the bible tells us that we be no more children because children are easily deceived and spiritual children are easily deceived as well so a christian who lacks understanding they're not growing in their knowledge of the word of god they can start going to these non-denom churches or even just a fundamental baptist church that claims to be a fundamental baptist church that doesn't teach the right doctrine they use a false version of the bible because unfortunately there are fundamental baptist churches that have essentially forsaken the king james bible and gone with the modern versions and you know they they muddy up the gospel you know someone who's wandered out of the way of understanding can easily get caught up in that type of church so what is the the solution the solution is keep growing the solution is read the bible the solution is bring your bible to church because i'm preaching to you but you need to open up the word of god yourself and actually read it and see for yourself and build that conviction in your heart okay now let me get into some things here go to first corinthians chapter two if you would first corinthians chapter two i'm going to give you some characteristics of a dead church and these are characteristics that we don't want to be stigmatized by we don't want to have these characteristics as a church we want to avoid being the congregation of the dead okay and i'm going to talk about some things just as a pastor of this church that we i need to address okay so your senses have been heightened now that i just said that you're like oh okay let me say this first and foremost a dead church has dead preaching okay a dead church has dead preaching look what the bible says in first corinthians chapter two and verse number one and i brethren when i came to you came out with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of god for i determined not to know anything among you save jesus christ and him crucified and i was with you in weakness and in fear and in trembling and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words it wasn't with the screen it wasn't with the projector it wasn't with you know andrew tates philosophy and sound bites enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of god you know what churches need they need powerful preaching and i don't just mean in the volume in which someone preaches it i'm talking about the doctrine i'm talking about the sermons i'm talking about preaching against sin i'm talking about preaching the entire council of god with zeal now obviously this point is for me but it's also for you in case you decide to leave our church you know if you leave our church and you decide to go somewhere else you better get yourself in a church where the preaching has power not some weak limp-wristed pastor out there who just wants to please you so that you can continue to tithe and give to their building program and continue to feed into his you know his little machine there the little empire that he's trying to build make sure you get into a church where the preaching is just powerful where it actually preaches against your sin and not just the sin of your parents not just the sin of your spouse other sins that you know don't involve you that actually goes against what you believe if it's unbiblical right that makes you feel uncomfortable that's what you need you see you need preaching that is unbiased there is no respecter of people okay that regardless of how close we are as a pastor and congregation you know i'm going to tell you the truth no matter what even if it costs us our relationship even if it makes you leave our church because at the end of the day i'm serving christ i'm serving you by serving christ but if i had to choose between you and christ i gotta choose christ i choose the commandments of christ to preach the word to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine he said well isn't that what all churches do no churches out there are literally just kind of tailoring their sermon removing things adding things so as to not offend their church members because they're afraid that their church is not going to grow they're afraid that they're going to lose the biggest tither in their church they're a respecter of people you need to be in a church where there's powerful preaching okay and i'm not saying my preaching is like super powerful or is the most powerful in california and southern california but you know what at the end of the day it's the most powerful here at first works baptist church because i'm the pastor here and so i need to make sure even as i get older you know because i'm getting older i'm gonna be 38 this year okay what's with the whistle okay that's not bad you know i'm nearing 40. i got to keep the testosterone up i got to keep the the preaching fire i got to keep calling out sin i got to make sure that i keep preaching against the sodomites and all the false ideologies of this world i want to make sure that i don't go gently into the night then in my old age you know i'm still preaching hard against sin hard against sodomy hard against divorce hard against my church members you know i've said it once i've said it a million times i want to make sure that i'm preaching so hard that maybe in my old age 90 95 if the lord allows me to that i just die preaching i'm just like preaching against you i'm like just like and just go home to be with the lord i mean that's pretty epic but most pastors out there are giving speeches they're given a ted talk it's not a sermon it's a ted talk right and here's the thing there's nothing wrong with encouraging the congregation because exhortation is part of preaching there are instances where we need to talk about how to overcome depression how to continue in the faith where i have to speak softly and tenderly because i love the congregation and there's a time and place for that you know what every sermon can't be that way though okay we need to call a spade a spade we need to make sure that we're continuously labeling sin and not just speaking of sin in general but specifically what fornication is what adultery is what is divorce what is drunkenness what is railing and also making sure that the pastor me as a pastor i got to keep a pulse on the church so when things are getting out of hand in a church people get out of hand in the church i have the uncomfortable responsibility to call it out now people often tell me like oh man that's you're made for that though that's like that's like your personality though you know like but no actually it's not like i actually feel really uncomfortable doing that stuff that is not i'm an extrovert for sure but i'm the type of extrovert that just likes to get along with everybody like after church it's for me like it's like the after party you know what i mean it's just we're just it's party time i just want to hang out with everyone and laugh and enjoy things and and and laugh some more and eat and laugh and and go talk to everybody my eyes are just really bright when i'm talking to people i'm just really excited to be around god's people and so that's not necessarily something that comes natural to me but you know i have the uncomfortable responsibility to call things out and to confront people when i feel like they're overstepping their boundaries and when i me as a pastor i have to keep doing that even as i grow older and i'll be like well you know i'm not going to say anything you know i just can't i can't say something you know i just said i need to be i need to be merciful well yeah there's a time for mercy but there's also a time for judgment and so you know the preaching has to remain powerful the preaching why because this isn't a dead church i have to maintain power behind the pulpit and of course i got to make sure that i'm spirit-filled that i'm reading god's word that i stay in the fight so that the fight of the christ of christianity is on the forefront of my mind and we are maintaining that the bible says in luke chapter 4 and verse 32 and they were astonished at his doctrine for his word was with power he says in verse 36 and they were all amazed and spake among themselves saying what a word is this for with authority and power he commanded the unclean spirits and they come out you know this is referring to jesus christ that when he would teach they would say of him he teaches as one who has authority and not as the scribes his teaching was very much distinct from the religious leaders of that day and it should be our goal especially for you men who plan to be pastors one day or that your preachers that your preaching stands out and i don't mean stand out by just preaching cute sermons don't be preaching no cute sermons behind this pulpit if you ever have a privilege to preach behind this pulpit don't try to get cute with it we're talking about being spirit-filled preaching no new thing preaching that which is common to the word of god but in demonstration of power you understand and so we need to make sure that we esteem the preaching of god's word above anything else in our local new testament church i love the music in our church but it's not the main ministry it's it's it's uh it's an accessory to the service right it improves the service by preparing our hearts for preaching but you know there's churches out there that are willing to preach a 25-minute sermon because their worship service is like 45 minutes because they got all these congregationals which is great but then they got all these specials people coming up and singing and and they have five specials and whatnot and look i come from an old ife church so i'll just be honest with you i like specials okay let me just confess my my faults to you you know we're at verity and they had a special and it was beautiful now we won't have it here because that's not the direction that i believe our church should go in but you know i enjoy it but you know what some other churches just go overboard and i'm not talking about new ife churches i'm talking about old ife churches where literally they want to consider themselves as a musical church or something rather than a bible preaching church right keep the preaching powerful like what are you are you talking about jack treiber yes i'm talking about jack treiber yeah you know i'm talking about him in north valley baptist church but he does have power he cries in every sermon and i'm not saying crying in a sermon is bad but let me say this he cries over money though and a lot of his weeping is very insincere he just turns on the waterworks it doesn't come from a heart of sincerity look we were at fresno we're in fresno on friday and saturday and pastor pazarski he didn't preach i mean he did his his son's wedding but that's a man of compassion right that's a man that's a man who has a tender heart for the lord and there's multiple times what he wanted to break down and it wasn't like oh he's faking it it was very sincere and let me be honest like i was watching i was almost in tears you know what i mean because his compassion was communicated in such a way that i knew it was sincere it was genuine jack treiber doesn't have genuine sincerity when he's crying he just sounds like he's whining and so we need to keep the preaching powerful and don't be deceived look there's people out there like no no he does preach powerful then you haven't heard powerful preaching you don't know good food until you've had really good food if you think that preaching is powerful you know i mean you must not have ever heard some red hot preaching then knock your socks off and so a dead church is a church that has dead preaching go with me if you would to revelation chapter 2 revelation chapter 2 if you would not only that but a dead church doesn't have a beating heart for the lost so the congregation of the dead is a congregation that no longer loves lost people and here in here in lies the temptation for a here in lies the temptation for a lot of churches that when they begin to grow in vast numbers maybe because of soul winning because of their efforts to reach new people they kind of scale back on soul winning a little bit you know they don't soul win as much because they don't feel the need to preach the gospel as often because their church is already big but folks we need to make sure that we keep soul winning we need to make sure we keep the first works the first works amen look at revelation chapter 2 and verse number 2 referring to the church at Ephesus it says i know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how that canst not bear them which are evil and and thou has tried them which say there are apostles and are not and has found them liars and has borne has patience and for my namesake has labored and has not fainted so so far so good i mean a lot of good things to be said at the church at Ephesus nevertheless that's something you don't want to hear though nevertheless i have somewhat against thee because i was left thy first love remember therefore from whence art fallen and repent and do the first works or else it will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of its place except our repent now many people have wondered what is the first love some people said oh it's the first love for the lost some people said no it's the first love for the lord but it's both you can interpret it as both because at the end of the day the way you get that first love again whether it be for the loss or whether it be for the lord jesus christ is you do the first works i find that in my personal life if my love for the lord is waning if i don't feel as excited about the lord as i used to be when i go sowing that love reignites again because i'm out there testifying of my savior jesus christ i'm out there knocking on doors talking to complete strangers to let them know that jesus died for them and by faith in him alone he can they can be saved and it reignites my love for the for for the lord but also for the loss and we can't lose our love for just lost people my friends okay we don't want to become a dead congregation where it's just like so many is just kind of like an afterthought or something you know don't let someone die in your personal life because even though this is a living congregation there could be people in church where soul winning at they're dying in their soul they don't really have that love for the lost anymore they've essentially grown cold-hearted towards people okay and it can happen to any of us it happens to me we just need to make sure that we await to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of god i speak this to your shame don't become a type of person where it's just like so many is just like an afterthought i don't really feel like doing it or you know i've i've done it so much in times past i'm gonna take a three month break or something like that no just keep keep at the first works make sure that you're preaching the gospel make sure you're making time maybe you can't go as often but you can go to go and actually go preach the gospel get someone saved go for an hour go for two hours or whatever it may be whatever time you have to actually get someone saved and when you preach to them love them when you preach to them actually recognize that this isn't just a chore you're accomplishing you're changing this person's eternal destination okay you know we're in fresno and i was out sony with someone from sure foundation and you know sony is exciting because you just you just never know what might happen what kind of people you might meet right first door i knock on is a lady is a black lady named betty and she had just come out of this house and she was going into her house and i stopped her and i started talking to her and man she was super receptive she got saved with the bag of weed in her hand i mean she was about to go you know i think the house she came from was actually like a like her her cellar or something because then we knocked on that door and that guy was kind of young and he did look like like he was you know her supplier but she was a lot older she was you know she was like in her 60s or something 70s maybe and she sat down she listened to me while she was holding the bag of weed in her hand you said are you sure it wasn't oregano or something like that or look i grew up i grew up in long beach so um i know what weed smells like and it's just like you know it was you can it was weed okay it was that sticky icky it was what i'm saying but she had like no shame she was just like holding it and and here's the thing you know these repent of your sins idiots out there they would probably just focus on that you need to stop doing this and look obviously she does but she's probably not gonna stop and in fact after she got saved i'm pretty sure she went into her house and rolled up a blunt or something like that it just seemed like that what she was gonna do he said oh then she's not saved well thankfully salvation is not dependent upon whether you roll a blunt afterwards or not i'm not saying that you should it's wrong to do so and she's you know gonna make yourself like unhealthy and stupid and all that but i'm just saying you know and by the way when i spoke to this lady she was extremely it was like really low-hanging fruit and she even said like i didn't you know typically i tell people you realize that what i what i showed you now is a lot different from what you previously believe she actually ended up telling me that before i even told her that she's like what she actually showed me is like way different than what i previously believed you know she's like way different than what i previously believed and she's just like you know but but you know what that taught me continuously is that you know this person is on their way to hell she's smoking her life away she wasn't saved but she needed salvation and you know what there's a lot of holier than that was that probably wouldn't have approached her because she had a bag of weed in her hand you know but it helps me to realize that the gospel is the power of god into salvation to everyone that believeth to the jew first and also to the greek yeah and even to the weed head and it kind of just reignites my love for the loss to realize that you know there's still hope for people and obviously we ended up talking to other people that weren't receptive but you know that's the one i'm focusing on and so let's not be a dead congregation get involved in soul winning and and if you're new to our church we're not going to throw you in the in the deep end if you start going soul winning that's why a lot of people are hesitant sometimes to go out and preach the gospel because they think to themselves like oh man like they're going to put me at the door like right off the bat and i'm going to have to knock on the door and what's going to happen but we don't do that at our church okay we put you on the team with a seasoned soul winner and literally you just watch for weeks you just watch what they do you learn the verses they're never going to just like knock on the door and be like yeah they got something to tell you you know because you know new soldiers have like they have these like reoccurring nightmares that they feel like they're going to be put on the spot or something but that doesn't happen you go there with a seasoned soul winner you watch how they do it you pray silently within yourself that the person would get saved and i'm telling you after a while you're going to be like you know i i think i can do this okay and you know what the great thing is about being a silent partner for that long is that you still get rewarded for the souls that your partner gets saved because you're laboring with them like you you get to participate you get to partake in those rewards because you went with that person that's how it works and so you know gain some love for the laws don't become a dead church member in regards to soul winning let's not be a dead congregation and you know along with that there's dead congregations because of the fact that because they're not reaching anybody new every head in the church is a gray head and that's a dead congregation because they're not reaching the next generation now i'm often told that we have a very young church and sometimes people tell me that as like a i don't want to say like a diss but they're just like yeah you guys are kind of young you know it's just but you know what i kind of like that though because young people got a lot of fire right they're very excited they got a lot of fire and eventually all these young people will one day be old but if we do it right listen to me if we do it right and we're preaching the gospel we're inviting people to church there's always an influx of new people and young people that are coming through our church i've been to fundamental baptist church great fundamental baptist churches awesome churches i remember going to one up north like in redding california and it was a great church the pastor was a great great man the people were very sweet but they're all like 85 90 years old there's no young i think the youngest person there was like 40. i mean it was a very very old church and i thought to myself what a great church but this church is going to die in the next couple years or so spiritually and physically because if they're not sowing reaching people you know it's just going to die out we don't want to be though we don't we want to reach the next generation okay and so let's not be a dead congregation let's continue to reach people go with me if you would to uh revelation chapter three i'm sorry go go to uh skip revelation three go to colossians chapter four let me say this a dead church isn't zealous for the things of god or for anything for that matter okay not zealous you know one of the qualities of a christian that we should aspire to obtain is zeal excitement now you don't have to be excited like i get excited because i'm loud i'm very animated but you know what you get excited about something though okay you know i find that people when they say well i'm not that type of person i don't really get you know excited like that you put like a ufc in front of them they're they're screaming they're hollering yeah you know you put some sort of sport or their hobby in front of them they're hooting and hollering right so don't give me that we all get excited about something and you know what all of us should one thing that we should all get excited about is the things of god and be excited over serving the lord and getting people saved and coming to church i mean these are exciting things the bible tells us you don't have to turn there isaiah 59 verse 17 says he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet excuse me and an helmet of salvation upon his head and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing was clad with zeal as a cloak the bible says look at colossians chapter 4 and verse number 12 it says epaphras who is one of you a servant of christ saluteth you always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of god listen to this for i bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and them that are in laodicea and them in hieropolis so we see here epaphras was excited listen to this about people he was excited and zealous for the brethren and you know what we as a church need to make sure that we get excited about coming to church and fellowshiping with the brethren and you're like well i haven't made any friends at the church you know what that's your fault and i'm not saying that there's not instances where maybe people might pass by you and they're doing something else but you know you got to be friendly too and you know we've had instances where people have criticized their church this church is not friendly enough and you know but it's just like what do you want us to do like how friendly do you want us to get before we get a little too personal you know we need to make sure that we're zealous about coming to church and fellowshiping with people you know it should be that you're more excited about being with god's people than the unsaved out there or you're lukewarm backslidden non-churchgoers you should be more excited about being with fundamental baptists than non-denom christians hey if you're more comfortable with non-denom christians what does that say about your christianity that's right amen you know if you're more excited about fellowshiping and hanging around with these watered down non-denomers out there who don't use your bible who don't believe your gospel or even if they do they don't have your standards they're just watering you down there's something wrong with that i don't even like to hang out with watered down baptists let alone water down non-denomers folks i'm zealous for god's people and not just for any god's people the god's people who are actually serving god i'm zealous for those who go sowning i'm zealous when when we went to mexico with brother connor i was excited to be with connor you know i'm like we're out there preaching the gospel in the heat and getting people saved that was exciting to me i was excited to be with brother connor you know there's this this white filipino japanese guy who speaks fluent spanish ruddy looking dude you know he's just i was excited to be with him you know when we got partnered up i was like this is gonna be in three hours with him and man i had a fantastic time fellowshipping with connor and you know when we departed it was just like my heart was filled it was content with being with god's people you know some people were like yeah but i don't really want to do that you know i just can't be around god's people all the time well why is it because they convict you or something is it because you just can't be around high standards and biblical talk all the time and you can't handle when the women encourage you to submit to your husband and to reverence him and they encourage you to love your wife as christ also loved the church and to stop playing video games because they're trying to exhort you in the way of righteousness okay i understand now it makes sense because that's what we're going to do and you know if you feel uncomfortable in a conversation like that then get your christianity up to here so you feel comfortable talking about it you know one thing that would irk me about old ifb churches is when a service as soon as service ended it was like the looney tunes like when you remember looney tunes when when like they would like run and then the cloud was still there that's how old ifb churches are it's like they would sneak out of the church during prayer they're all you know they're just because they don't want to talk to anybody why why you know i like the fact that at our church we have church we have to cut your leases on sunday night has to like flick the lights on and off like all right it's time to go because people just want to hang out but don't be one of these christians that as soon as the church ends you just bolt out the door or something like that you know this isn't don't compartmentalize church church is part of our life okay be zealous like apaphras for god's people love god's people spend time with god's people fellowship eat with god's people serve god with god's people that's how it should be and i know we got introverts in our church who you know they got their their introvert way of living and but you know what luckily you have other introverts in the church too and y'all can just be introverted together y'all can just sit in a circle just look at each other's face and not say anything we got that even available for you y'all can just pow wow on the fellowship hall and just be mute the entire time and no one's gonna ask you anything random everyone's just kind of just not saying anything at all we got that for you we got a section for the extroverts that's with me and then we got a section for the for the extreme introverts and then we got something in between you know if you want to be a little extrovert but then it gets a little too much you can slip over to the introvert you know we got it all but don't be this christian where it's just like well i don't want to fellowship so i'm just gonna head right out because you know i got things to do what do you have to do on a sunny afternoon other than go eat and go take a nap today's your day off anyways be here if it is your day off spend time with god's people you need it all right but let me say this also regarding zeal you know sometimes there's christians in a congregation even though the congregation's on fire they're excited about the things of god they are zealous for soul winning and the preaching of god's word they can become dull of hearing and it's not because of the preaching it's not because of the congregation it's because of them you know what happens physically when someone becomes dull of hearing they fall asleep and i don't mean just spiritually although that's that that's definitely the case i mean literally fall asleep and let me just address this issue here and obviously young lady's about to fall asleep right now that's what kids do okay but you know what when adults are doing that we got an issue hey we got poles here but these aren't to like rest your head upon so you can knock out and let me just say this okay if you have an issue with falling asleep in church first of all shame on you okay fix your diet or something do something about it but if you just can't stay awake in church stay home sleep in at your house don't come to church to go to sleep it boggles my mind that someone would get up on a sunday morning you know where i'm going with this you get up on a sunday morning you shower i think you iron your clothes put on a tie and you're just like going to church you get to church and you're just like you're a back head nodder or front head nodder just like what's the point why come to church is it that comfortable here folks be alive awake and enthusiastic in the house of god have some shame about yourself can i just can i just petition the church to maintain some shame in your life that you would be ashamed to ever fall asleep in church i know it's a thing in churches but let me say this it shouldn't be a thing in this church that you fall asleep and you're like well the preaching is boring well sorry that my sermons are boring i'm doing the best that i can but you should have some self-discipline that even when the preaching is boring you still stay awake because god's word is still being preached you know well i wasn't falling asleep i was uh meditating i was praying well this is not the time to pray and by the way you can pray with your eyes open too i don't know if you knew that well i was just kind of resting my eyes this is not a time to rest your eyes i was just blinking for a really long time and let me say this if someone confronts you about sleeping in church don't don't just deny it because you know the people in our churches like hey you're falling asleep you know you should be awake and they're just like i'm not i'm not falling asleep i'm wide awake everyone knows you're falling asleep you want us to film it do we need a video recording of this we're not trying to get a trial going on here come to church get a cup of coffee get an energy drink or whatever you got to do but stay awake in church now i get it you know i'm gonna give a little mercy to those who work graveyard shift because that's that's rough you know it's rough to just work graveyard shift and then you come to church right afterwards i commend you but if you just don't have a job though there should be no reason why you're tired especially if you're young if you're young you have all the energy in the world if you're between the ages of like 15 and 25 i mean you should have loads of energy unless you're just staying up all night playing video games or something go get some exercise in you know i remember when i was that age at one time i can just burn the candle at both ends and still have energy for more i remember being like 18 years old working a job and just working shift after shift and just like not sleeping i remember i worked at this at this restaurant it was called the elephant bar okay i don't even think it exists anymore but i was like a buster at the elephant bar my shift started at 6 a.m i opened and it ended at two but then at two o'clock my my buddy called me and said hey i need you to cover for me can you cover for me between three and i think it was like 10 and i was like another shift heck yeah so we covered that one or i would cover that one to 10 and then the the bar would say hey if you help me close i'll give you more tips well the bar doesn't close until like two so then i would help them close and then two o'clock rolls around and obviously you have to stay and clean up so i wouldn't be home until like three and guess who had to open the next day me at 6 a.m you say how did you operate i mean on a lot of caffeine amen and i wouldn't do that all the time i'm just saying like i was capable of staying awake and let me say this don't say you know i just have a hard time just staying awake you don't have a hard time staying awake playing video games you don't have a hard time staying awake with your hobbies and doing all that other stuff you make sure you stay awake for call of duty you make sure you stay awake for all that stuff and let me just make a public service announcement okay the next person i see fall asleep you're getting called out and also let me say this okay if you're tired and by the way if you're tired you're tired it is what it is right but don't turn into like a tyrannosaurus rex when you yawn yeah it's just like people are in the service and it's just like and let me let me just give you because this is family time here on a sunny morning you don't have to say amen when you yawn either to try to cover up for the fact that you're tired it's like just look i learned in bible college believe it or not maybe some of you guys need to go to bible college to learn these things you talk so much crap on bible college maybe this is one area that you need maybe it's worth the extra money to actually pay for bible college just so you can learn how to stay awake and i'm talking about some of the the adults in our church you know i learned to even yawn quietly like you make a funny face but it works it's just like and then if the preacher catches eyes with you this is what you do because you're saying you're with them still but don't go yeah freaking chew baka over here have you no self-awareness so what does it have to do with the sermon you're like the congregation of the dead don't be a eutychus in our church and look eutychus at least he had an excuse it was midnight paul paul was long preaching you know but let me you know eutychus had to fall out of a window and i i'm just guessing when he fell out of the window and died and was revived he probably thought to himself i'm never going to fall asleep when he preaches ever again but don't be a eutychus in our church have some discipline to just keep your eyes open and pay to and if you're so tired then go home you know if you're so tired you're just like i just can't stay awake then go home and if you're just like well you know i'm tired but i want to be here then stand up in the back go do something because you're being a bad example to other people in our church and you know what you are a distraction to the people in our church because everyone's looking at you snoring church well i'm preaching you're falling asleep ever so slightly snoring and everyone was just kind of like is this guy for real so you're taken away from the preaching of god's word i know i'm making a big deal about this but i need to i feel like every couple years i need to talk about sleeping in church you know we had a guy one time years ago that would fall asleep in church and he would sit in the front and by the way if you're in the front you for sure make sure you don't fall asleep in church because you're in the front i can see you he would sit in the front take notes right he would take notes in church and then he just and then you look at his nose you're just a line folks this is embarrassing yeah this is embarrassing have some shame and the biggest thing i can say about this is learn to have some shame you know they used to tell us in bible college if you're tired because guys would work a lot of hours if you're tired pluck the hairs off your leg if you have to stay awake and i remember being extremely tired during bible college and but i just never fell asleep i never fell asleep i would just stay awake i'm not saying that i would pay attention to everything that was being said i was extremely tired but i don't want to be disrespectful towards the teacher or the preacher because he spent all that time preparing the lessons you know i want to make sure that he understands that i'm still with him and i'm not falling asleep in church zeal is being awake alive awake enthusiastic regarding the things of god okay and don't be let me just this last thing i'm just gonna say about this okay don't be so arrogant and prideful that if someone confronts you about it you just blatantly just deny it don't gaslight me don't gaslight our church don't insinuate that i'm some sort of idiot because that's what you do when you're confronted about something that's blatant and you just deny and say it just didn't happen you're calling me an idiot is what you're doing because you're saying like like don't try to like you you're jedi mike's jedi mind tricks don't work on me okay it was like i wasn't falling asleep are you calling me an idiot or something if you get confronted with it do something about it don't deny it do something about it all right we'll move on from that okay but you know it's important you know the bible tells us awake thou that sleepest and arrives from the dead and christ shall give thee light okay church is a place where we should give our hundred percent energy to and i get it on thursdays people are coming from work they're tired and they're trying to do their best to make church a priority i get it but you know what we're adults here responsible adults we can make it happen if we want to okay there's plenty of people who are tired in our church who just make it happen and they stay awake you know maybe you just need to say amen a couple more times in church to stay awake it's like i'm falling asleep i need to pay attention amen now make sure you say it at the right time or something we're like the devil and you're like amen all right let me say let me move on here although i would like to just spend the rest of the sermon just talking about this just be honest with you a dead church has dead singing okay the bible says in psalm 59 verse 16 i will sing of thy power yeah i will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning for thou has been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble you know our church i get it you know sometimes people are like well i don't want to sing out loud because you know i can't sing well then why you're singing for the wrong reasons then because you know people make this excuse well i don't want to offend people next to me and i can't really sing so who are you singing for them because we're singing for the lord we're praising and worshiping the lord jesus christ okay and let's just be honest you've probably seen your worldly songs in your car pretty loud you know you're playing it you you're taylor swift you've probably seen that nice and loud whoever you probably seen those pretty nice and loud why not designate that for the lord when you're in church singing out loud and i'm not saying be obnoxious about it either okay and and you know obviously we need to sing skillfully i get it okay and you know obviously not everyone has the same talent when it comes to singing and maybe you can't carry a tune like others can but just do the best you can though i just you know sometimes where's the song book you know sometimes people just i because i scan the room sometimes you know it's just like make a joyful noise actually sing and of course if you don't know the song you can't really sing it but you'll learn it i'm just saying like you know use that diaphragm that god gave you and sing out loud there's there's still songs in him in the hymn book that i don't know and you know i've been in church long enough though that if a new song is introduced to me by the third verse or something i know the tune and i can sing it out loud after a while right and most of you can't too okay sing in church sing out loud make sure that you're making a joyful noise and don't just treat singing in church as a chore that you have to do before the preaching it's vital to sing out loud in church because it prepares your heart for preaching okay and okay here's another thing use the hymn book if you don't know the song don't just guess there's people in our church not gonna point any elbows or anything like that let me just point this way though you know sometimes people are just like they they're singing joyfully but they're not even singing the right words but they have the hymn book in front of them how does that work use the hymn book learn how to sing hey when we have singspiration gather around the piano sing out loud sing songs sing the hymns enjoy the singing because a dead church has no singing okay go to james chapter two if you would james chapter two and then we'll go to revelation chapter three the congregation of the dead doesn't sing and if they do it's it's it's in vain unto the lord even if they do it skillfully i mean think about the mormon tabernacle mormon tabernacle they sing very skillfully it's beautiful but it's a bunch of corpses singing because they're not even saved none of that honors the lord they're glorifying god but god doesn't consider it to be honored because they're dead it means nothing so our singing in our little church here is worth more in the ears of god than the mormon tabernacle even if you're not that good at singing and you don't have to be good at singing god has commanded you to sing so sing it out be zealous about singing in church don't just treat it like you know oh the person next because here's the here's sometimes the attitude that people have it's like if i sing too loud i feel like i'm the only one singing and obviously the dynamics of our church the carpet and the chairs blah blah blah blah blah blah blah but that's what people think they think well you know if i sing out loud i feel like i'm like the only one singing right let me know what i'm talking about because when you sing in the church it's just like it feels like you're just doing a solo okay but who cares i mean when i'm singing there i feel like i'm doing a solo i feel like i'm doing a duet with brother john or something because sometimes i don't hear and i know people are singing i'm just saying just because of the the the structure and the dynamic of the physical building it may seem that way but everyone is singing just make sure you're doing your part okay and enjoy singing speak to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody into in your heart unto the lord i mean you should put more effort into singing the hymns and praising god than the effort you put in to you know uh whatever worldly song you listen whatever country song you like or something you know whatever country song or god forbid some ccm song that you're listening to if you sing your ccm little contemporary you know gay little music you put on there louder than what you do the hymns shame on you okay and you instrument players out here play with play skillfully and play with your heart okay but um don't be a dead congregant let's not be a dead congregation let's sing you know and i admire the song leaders when they're up here singing their hearts out even when sometimes people don't sing along with them it takes a lot right by the way you song leaders don't stop singing and if you only stop singing if you lose your place but if you don't lose your place just be in the mic sing nice and loud don't be timid you know sing out and if you back up raise your voice a little louder so everyone can hear you because you are leading us in singing okay don't follow the congregation the congregation is supposed to follow you and that guy right over there is supposed to be following you so don't let him lead either you know ain't that right brother that's how it works those are the dynamics and so let's move on here lastly you know a dead church has dead faith and what do i mean by that well you know a dead faith is a faith that's not being worked right it doesn't say a non-existent faith it's just a dead faith look what it says in james 2 14 what does the prophet my brother and though a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you saying to them departed peace be warmed and filled notwithstanding he give them not those those things which are needful to the body what does it profit even so faith if it hath not works is dead being alone yea man may say thou has faith i have works show me thy faith without thy works and i will show thee my faith by my works you know we never want to be a church that is so uh that emphasizes doctrine to the point where the actual the work of christ is just kind of second it goes on the back burner right where it's all about the knowledge and not about acting out the knowledge we need to make sure that we're working out our faith right and working with people doing good works as therefore we have opportunity let us do good unto all men but especially those of the household of faith and check your faith we're not talking about for salvation because a lot of times people take this and try to apply it to salvation but this has nothing to do with salvation this is talking to save people making sure that you're growing in your faith you're not just coming to church to hear the preaching of god's word folks this isn't a time of entertainment although you get some entertainment out of it this is a time to grow in your faith so when you leave church you're like i'm ready to serve the lord again throughout the week i'm ready to give to those who are in need to pray to sowen to serve my husband to serve my wife to serve my kids and if i don't have that to serve other church members because our life that's what it's for is to serve okay go to revelation chapter three and this is the last verse we're going to talking about the congregation of the dead this is something that we want to avoid and never become look what it says in revelation chapter three and verse number one it says and unto the angel revelation three one and unto the angel of the church and sardus write these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of god and the seven stars i know thy works that thou has a name that thou livest and are dead he's like you guys act like you're alive you guys act like you're living but in god's eyes you're dead so what is the solution verse two be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for i've not found thy works perfect before god you know what the sermon is is to show you the things which remain and to make sure that you strengthen those areas the soul winning strengthen it if it's ready to die you're singing strengthen it if you're ready to die you know be an awakened church strengthen yourself or something so that you don't die spiritually you might not pay attention to the sermon you know whatever things that remain this is to strengthen that so it doesn't die so you know the christian life is constantly taking inventory of our christian life and making sure that there's enough in there to serve god you know kind of looking at your soul winning how's your soul winning doing how's your love for the brethren doing how's your love for your family how's your love how's your marriage how's your childering how's you serving other people in our church doing take inventory don't be a dead congregate make sure that we're constantly living out our faith working out our salvation with fear and trembling in other words working out the deliverance that we received making sure that we work that out to please the lord right making sure that we are strengthened the things which remain and make sure that you're not in denial either like no i'm fine none of this is dying in my christian life i'm fine well you know what take some inventory of your life of your service and say you know this thing needs to be tweaked a little bit here you know i need to increase my soul in this area yeah you're right i don't really hang around hang out with the brethren as often you know what this happens my friends okay and there's people that leave our church they leave and they might blame the church might blame my preaching but at the end of the day it's because something died in them just remember that something died in them something was not tweaked something was not changed something was not quickened and they went they wandered out of the way of understanding understand don't think that just because you've been a christian for any length of time that all of a sudden you've you've arrived we are all in danger at times to allow our christian life to just slip okay and and wander out of the way of understanding and then before you know it you're in some congregation of the dead where you're not being exhorted and encouraged to continue in the faith okay and so let's work on that let's pray father we thank you so much for your word help us as your people lord to not become the congregation of the dead in this church lord help us lord to to make sure that we are serving you wholeheartedly lord and when our faith wanes and um maybe we get a little lax in a certain area regarding preaching the gospel or just loving the brethren that we take action maybe if if our if our love for the brethren has wane maybe we just need to go out and do something kind for the brethren buy groceries for them spend time with them take them out for a meal coffee stick around in church and just fellowship and talk more often to develop that a lot of these things have to be done on purpose they don't come by osmosis and so help us lord to do so we love you we thank you pray these things in jesus name amen please turn your song books to song number 261 song number 261 turn your eyes upon jesus song number 261 all together nice and strong on that first verse oh soul are you weary and troubled no light in the darkness you see there's light for a look at the savior and life more abundant and free turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace through death into life everlasting he passed and we follow him there over us in no more half dominion for more than conquerors we are turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonder face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace on the last his word shall not fail you he promised believe him and all will be well then go to a world that is dying his perfect salvation to tell tell turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace amen