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All right, the title of the sermon this morning is why people are bored with church Why are people bored with church and you know church should never become a drudgery to anybody, right? And you know this the the assembling of ourselves together Should never become a grievous chore that we despise the Bible tells us despise not prophesied the Bible tells us for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous and one Of the commandments that God gives to us is that we forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is We should not forsake the assembly and we should keep that commandment now But it should never be grievous or a drudgery to us on the contrary Church should be something that we enjoy man It should be something that we look forward to it should be something that we value that we love that is an intricate part of Our personal lives in the lives of our family, you know The Bible tells us David said for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up Okay When he says that the zeal of his house of God's house hath eaten him up He's basically saying that he's consumed by going to the house of God. It's something that he holds dear It's something that is important to him He also says in Psalm 24 verse 7 one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after? That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life The Bible says he's a one thing that I desire is I want to be in the house of God all the days of my life You know He also says for a day and night courts are better than the I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness the Bible tells us this shows us his attitude towards the house of God that he just rather be here all the days of His life you rather be in the house of God at all times This is the attitude that he had go to first Timothy chapter number three if you would let me get that brother first Timothy chapter number three You know We should have the right type of attitude when it comes to church and it should never be something that we see as a chore Something as a drudgery something that is grievous, you know, the Bible tells us in first Timothy chapter 3 verse 15 But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how the oddest to behave thyself in the house of God Which is the Church of the Living God the pillar and ground of truth, you know, Jesus told Peter upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell should not prevail against it The Bible tells us that husbands should love their wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it This shows us that the house of God has value to Jesus Christ himself Therefore we should value it as well now Unfortunately, this is not the attitude that a lot of people have right? In fact, some people come to church. They're bored with church They have an indifferent attitude towards church. It's no longer valuable Why is that? Well, there's plenty of valid reasons as to why your average church member is Apathetic towards church. Okay, and I'm gonna get into those reasons those valid reasons later on in the sermon but the reality is is that some Christians get bored with church and Becomes become apathetic towards it and it has nothing to do with the church itself It has nothing to do with the pastor has nothing to do with the preaching has nothing to do with the singing or the ministries Or the soul winning it actually has a lot to do with them. Okay, or just elements that surround that now We read in Acts chapter 20 The story of Eutychus very interesting funny story, right? It says in verse 9 you'd have to turn there acts 20 verse 9 says and they're sat in a window a certain young man Named Eutychus being fallen into a deep sleep and as Paul was long preaching He sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead now What do we see here? We see a story of the Apostle Paul preaching He's a little long-winded. He's not landing the airplane. He's preaching until midnight and a man by the name of Eutychus Goes to sleep and literally falls out of a window and dies. Okay now This is not necessary. I'm using this story to basically illustrate that it doesn't matter who's preaching Sin nature still sin nature people can still get bored no matter where you're at because you think about it This is the Apostle Paul This is one of the greatest Christians in the history of Christianity did many works He's a man who is spear-filled. He has the power of God in his life and yet Eutychus still fell asleep Okay now give it he was long preaching. Yes. It's midnight He's probably tired, but at the end of the day, it was still the Apostle Paul preaching now This is illustrating to us that really sometimes people could even have a hard time Even in a good church under a good pastor under good preaching and it's not necessarily because of the pastor It's not because of the church. It's not because of the preaching, you know And why is it that in spite of good sermons or in spite of a healthy? Vibrant zealous church people become callous or unresponsive towards the things of God. Why is that? Well, it's not because the church is dead Okay, and it's not because the hand of God is not upon that congregation Sometimes it has to do with the person or certain factors within that person's life You know, the Bible tells us he that have ears to hear let him hear you can't say well I'm not getting anything out of the preaching well, if the Bible is being preached you can always get something out of the Word of God, you know, and Obviously there is some lame preaching out there But you know what if some of that lame preaching has the King James Bible backing it up You can still get something from it. You can still get principles. You can still learn Important doctrine you can still grow and get fed and still learn something even from some preaching That's not as good or as dynamic or vibrant, but why are people bored with the good church? I'm gonna give you a couple reasons this morning as to why now go to Matthew chapter 13 if you would Matthew chapter 13 Let me give you a couple reasons why people are bored with the good church number one. It's because of distractions Distractions cause people to get bored or indifferent to church The Bible tells us in Psalm 119 verse 70 you're in Matthew chapter 13 Psalm 119 verse 70 says this their heart is as fat as Greece But I delight in thy law now. This is not talking about someone who's overweight What it's talking about here is someone spiritually speaking their heart is as fat as Greece in other words Their heart is filled with everything but the Word of God the heart is just filled with vanity with distractions with Containment with problems with stresses with everything but God and his word Okay, in other words, there's no room To delight in God's Word When you come to church Some people it's not because they don't love God. It's not because you know, they they're just backslidden It's because they filled their heart with everything but God's Word Okay, their heart is as fat as Greece. You see their bodies in church But their heart is actually somewhere else Okay, the Bible tells us oh how I love thy law It is my meditation all the day long now look at Matthew 13 verse 22 says he also this is the parable of the seed In the sower it says in verse 22. He also that receives seed among the thorns Is he that heareth the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh Unfruitful and the parallel passage in market says the lust of other things entering in So the parable of the sower and the seed The principle that is being tires that when the Word of God is sown in people's hearts whether for salvation And I believe you know The the seed of the Word of God can be sown in your hearts even after salvation when you're hearing principles and the truth You know, it falls upon four different areas You have the the wayside the stony places, but the third seed is among thorns And what it's telling us here is that when the truth falls in a heart that is thorny in other words It's filled with things it the person becomes unfruitful Because the seed can't grow it doesn't sprout. It doesn't it doesn't go any further than that Now, what are the thorns where it says there the cares of this world? It says there the deceitfulness of riches Covetousness it says there that Another place it tells us the lust of other things entering in can choke the Word of God So sometimes what so how do we apply this in a practical way people come to church? They're going through some trial They are you know, thinking about money. They're thinking about work. They're thinking about entertainment That's in their heart and then they come to church and they just can't pay attention to what's going on They can't get anything out of the Word of God because their mind is elsewhere their heart is elsewhere It's thinking about other things and it's being entangled. Their heart is being entangled with the cares of this life This is why people get bored with church, you know, you're in church you're listening and then you leaving like man What did he just say? You're just thinking about food Think about lunch you're thinking about, you know, the show you watched last night. You're thinking about Financial issues that you may be going through you're thinking about trials you think about everything but God's Word and This is a thorny heart. Okay, it becomes entangled and in fact the Bible even tells us no man that warreth Entangleth himself in the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath called them to be a soldier the Bible says You know if you're gonna be an effective Christian a Christian who wars and is able to overcome the things of this world You can't be entangled with what the affairs of this life You know allowing your heart to be thorny just trapping the entertainment the problems of this world You're gonna be an ineffective Christian. Okay Now, let me give you an example of this brother. Hi, why don't you come on up and brother Paul brother John? I want you to entangle this guy in this rope real quick Yeah you Come on this side brother brother John ignore these guys why they work on this, okay But I want you know one one. Yeah one side to be able to be like this So just wrap them around is that as much as it goes. Okay. Well put it over over his like chest All right Hike loves the Lord He he loves the Bible. He believes right, you know, he loves church. He loves singing the hymns You know, this is a person who loves the Lord, but you know what if he is constantly worrying about the affairs of this life He's constantly think about work while he's here. He's constantly Covetous in his heart for the things that he desires. He has a temporal value system What happens is his spiritual arms get tied up tighten them up guys and really he can't move Don't throw up on me, you know When he wants to reach out and win someone to Christ When he wants to be able to reach out and read his Bible and get something from the preaching He's not gonna be able to because he's entangled Okay, so loosen up a little bit Loosen up. All right. So now he's coming to church. I gotta come to church I need to get something out of God's Word I need to make sure that I get back on track and then what happens he sits down he begins to think Upon the things of this world tighten them up guys tighten them up tighten them up and what happens is now his heart is tangled He can't really pay attention. He's having a difficult time because now his heart is thinking about money. It's thinking about entertainment It's thinking about work. It's thinking about everything but the things of God. Okay loosen up So what's the problem? So now he comes on Thursday and he's he's been working all week He's been dealing with his froward boss Okay, he's been dealing with problems at home with his wife. He's fighting with suing all week. Okay Sueing's been yelling at him all week and just getting on him. I'm just kidding. Okay. They're like, how'd you know? I'm just kidding You know, they just they're having marital issues and they both come to church and there he's like well we're going to church I don't care what you say so long We're gonna go to church today and we're gonna be there tighten up and now you start hearing preaching and he's just can't think stop Thinking about his marital issues Okay, he arms can't move. He's stuck The thorns of this life are just trapping him. Okay now let's talk about someone else What if loosen up guys, you know, what if hike he loves the Lord? He loves the Bible He loves the things of God, but he's so caught up in the entertainment of this world. He's playing too many video games Xbox Okay, he's playing video games. He's just always on social media. He's just not reading his Bible while he's at home He's doing all these things that are just filling his heart with Greece spiritually speaking, you know, and he has the right intentions And he's coming to church is like hey forsake not the assembly of ourselves together. This isn't a robber breaker Church We go to church here and this is his conviction right but now because he's been filling his heart with Xbox tighten up He's not gonna really hear anything. He's thinking about points. He's thinking about guns. He's thinking about all these moves or left right down shift whatever He can't focus You know and look this this right here is the floor I'd look that the pastors get When we're preaching and they're just like and then they kind of shake it off they go This is because their heart is filled with thorns They're thinking about other things. Okay. Okay loosen up guys. You're killing them. Okay, hold on We're not done yet You know, this is the person who's filling his heart with so much entertainment So many extracurricular activities that he can't focus Now I'm not saying live an aesthetic life or you just don't do any of those things but some people that's their life and Some people that's the reason why when they come to church, they can't focus They can't pay attention, you know, you're praying for a solution to your issue to your problem. But the problem is you're not listening So when you come to church You hear a sermon you hear a principle that God is trying to get across to you to help you with your issue But because you're so filled your heart is as fat as grease with Entertainment with Xbox with the problems and money and all these things tighten up you don't get it You're you're not free to actually receive the Word of God He that hath ears to hear let him hear but you know what if those ears are covered by the affairs of this life You're not gonna hear anything Okay, you know You'll you'll you'll actually tune in when everyone says amen you're like, oh man, what did you just say? You know, I got just missed it and you're like hey man, yeah, that's right. Amen, you know But you're not actually listening okay, and you it's not because you're a wicked person it's not because you're backslidden It's just because your heart is filled with thorns You're not capable. You're too distracted. And then what happens is you begin to get bored with church Okay, go ahead guys sit down Thank you for the hike Stop fighting with your wife I'm just kidding. He's not fighting with his wife So Distractions the deceitfulness of riches they choke the word Okay, this is why people get bored in a good church sometimes. All right now What's the solution to that? You know the solution is you got to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's what you have to do You have to check your problems at the door. Okay, and You know, we never want to compartmentalize We never want to compartmentalize God, but we do want to compartmentalize our problems when we come to church You know compart people compartmentalize God and they'll say well here at church. I'm doing church But when I go home, I'm someone else, you know, that's called being a hypocrite What we need to do is actually compartmentalize our problems so that when we come to church We're not thinking we're not dealing with the problems that are out there. Okay now obviously there's certain problems that they're not gonna go away They're in your heart. They're constantly on the forefront of your mind because the problems are so insurmountable Maybe it's a debt that you're in Maybe it's a loss of a loved one and it's just gonna take time To basically ease your way out of that way of thinking for a while But you have to on purpose come to church and say Lord help me to focus today while I'm at church Help me to get something out of the preaching of God's Word Please put out of my mind the troubles that I'm struggling with right now So I can benefit from being in God's house to be able to be exhorted. Okay You know the Bible tells us in Philippians 4 8 finally brethren. Whatsoever things are true Whatsoever things are honest whatsoever. Things are just whatsoever. Things are pure whatsoever. Things are lovely whatsoever Things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things this has to be done on Purpose. Okay. Now I'm not gonna get into the health reasons as to why Another reason why people get bored in church. Obviously, there's a factor of health involved if you're eating, you know junk food at midnight You're probably not gonna do well Sunday morning. I'll just be honest with you. Okay, it's probably why you're falling asleep It's probably why you're so tired It's because your body's been working at digesting that food throughout the night and then you're just exhausted the next morning That is an obvious reason why but I'm giving you the spiritual Reasons as to why people have a tendency to get bored with church Go with me if you go to Hebrews chapter number 5 Hebrews chapter number 5 So there's distractions and you know when you're in church minimize as many distractions as possible put your phone on airplane mode Or turn it off, right You know now with parents parents. We have a good distraction and they're called children That's a good distraction and sometimes children, you know throughout the service they get out of hand and that's why we have mother baby rooms and such and That's just something that we have to basically Work on and deal with because we're trying to teach them how to focus in church as well So for you parents who have children in the service You have to work twice as hard to pay attention in church Okay, because of the fact that you want your kids to pay attention as well So your kids are not gonna be paying attention in church if you can't even focus and pay attention in church either Okay, so why are people bored with a good church? Well because of distractions but also because they just become disinterested in the basics. All right What do I mean by that? Well, if you're not careful, you might be a Christian who just wants to hear something new all the time Thankfully we are in a church where we're always gonna learn something new, but it's not gonna be always Okay, it's not gonna be every service. Not every service is gonna be a bombastic dynamite Sermon that can just wake you up, you know, not every sermon is gonna have the word fag in it except for this one apparently, you know Not every sermon is gonna be talking about just these exciting doctrines that will keep keep your attention span Sometimes you just need to discipline yourself to just pay attention Okay, don't be disinterested in the basics now the Bible tells us look at Hebrews chapter 5 verse 11 of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seen your dull of Hearing there's people who actually become dull of hearing. What does that mean? They're no longer keen They're no longer sharp to just listening to the basics and this is talking about the basics here and this particular verse Or this particular passage look at verse 12 for when the time you ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again Which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are becomes such as have need of milk and not of strong me For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe But strong me belonging to them that are a full age Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Why does someone become dull of hearing well because they think they know it all and Then they want to keep learning something new and what happens they're just bored with the basics and Paul's telling them No, you need to get back to the basics And in fact in chapter 6 he talks about the first principles of the oracles of God He talked about the foundational things such as salvation Baptism eternal judgment the laying on of hands These are basic doctrines that we should be pleased with and should still be edified by okay Now, how do we apply this in a practical way? Well you know We as God's people need to take a sermon in at a time. Okay on a Sunday, for example Sunday you get two meals. Amen in church you get two meals. They're different sermons dealing with different things Digest those things take time to ruminate on those truths as baked as basic as they are Take time to ruminate to chew on it to meditate upon it Hey, how about this to apply it? Okay, sometimes we just want knowledge but the application to that knowledge doesn't necessarily come in right away, right? You know, we want the knowledge of all these things But the reality is God is more concerned with the application of that knowledge than you just having that knowledge Okay, you know, I was just talking to dr. Rita before and we're talking about eating and She was explaining to me that it's always good to eat like physical food It's always good to eat physical food the same meal throughout this throughout the day Change up the meals every day throughout the week But in a single day you should eat the same thing because at that point your body is capable of basically taking care of other things It's able to strengthen your immune system because it's not working on You know breaking down this spice and this nutrient and all these different things, you know It's it can focus on one thing at a time in other words. Okay in order to create this really strong immune system So your body's not just going haywire trying to digest all these different types of foods Well, you know that's a spiritual application right there, you know instead of trying to learn a variety of different knowledge and gain All these things why don't you just focus on one thing? Hey, why don't you just focus, you know when a person first gets get saved You know what that person should be doing is learning the intricacies and the deep doctrine of salvation Right learning about baptism learning why they go to church learning the basics of the Christian life And you know what the deep doctrine comes later You say how do you know that well because of the fact that you know The Bible tells us he that is faithful and little shall be faithful and much God will give you more deep understanding of deeper truths and deeper doctrine if you're a good steward of that which you've learned today Okay Digest the basic truths today. All right, you know, don't be dull of hearing the basic things The repetitious basic things go to numbers chapter 11 numbers chapter 11 So number one, you know people are just too distracted They're so filled with everything else that when they come here, you know, the Bible says the full soul Loatheth and honeycomb right but to the hunger so every better thing is sweet You know, it's not the honey's fault. It's the soul that is already full of something else. Okay People are bored with church because of the fact that they're distracted People are bored with church because they're dull of hearing they're disinterested in the Word of God An example of this is the children of Israel and the manna now manna is a Amazing concept is it not bread that falls down from heaven and all you got to do is go pick it up You know, it's a core it's the size of a coriander and you know It tastes like honey and wafers sounds delicious to be honest with you. I think Porto's for some reason Cheese rolls. That's what I think every time I think of man. I think of cheese rolls Like flaky or something. It tastes good and you know, they're they're happy with that It was like this big miracle They you know God provided for them and they're eating it. But what do we see later on? They become discontent with the basics and wouldn't you say that the most basic meal that the Israelites had was the manna The most basic meal look at numbers 11 verse 4 and the mixed multitude that was among them fellow lusting and the children of Israel also wept again and said Who shall give us flesh to eat now? I don't blame them. Okay flesh is good, too. Okay We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely the Cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic but now our soul is dried away There is nothing at all beside This manna before our eyes. I mean, they're already Discontent with the manna that God is miraculously providing for them This goes to show you that people can often get bored with just the basics Okay. Now with them what they needed to do is just be grateful Right show gratitude show appreciation and you know Maybe go hungry for a couple days and guess what that manner will look pretty good after five days or so Okay After they fasted for a little bit the Bible tells us preach the word be instant in season out of season Reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine for the time will come When they will not endure sound doctrine the basics But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears And they shall turn away the ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables go to Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrews chapter 13 Don't become disinterested in fact master the basics Appreciate the basics relearn the basics and one thing about human beings is that we easily forget things Okay If you allow enough if you allow enough time to pass between the time you learn something and The time when you review it you will forget it Anybody who's read through the Bible multiple times know this is true You know, there's stories that you have read and then you read it six months later. You're like man I feel like I miss this truth here, but you didn't miss it You probably learned it before but you forgot it because we have we constantly have information coming into our brains leaving our brains We're constantly learning new things, but we constantly have to review certain things Okay Now obviously when information comes into our brain it really never leaves but it's more difficult to recall if you don't review Over a spaced amount of time, but this is why it's important to review Okay, and to revisit biblical truths because if not, you will forget it. Okay Look at Hebrews 13 verse 9 says be not carried about with diverse and strange Doctrines for it is good for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace and not with meats Which have not profited them that have been occupied There and so one of the main reasons why people become dull of hearings because they want to hear something new But also because they're just not applying that which they're learning Okay and let me say this you will not be bored with biblical truth if You just work on applying what you've learned because it takes a lot of work To apply biblical truth, it takes a lot of work to live a life of righteousness It's one thing to sit there and listen to preaching. It's another thing to get up and apply it You know, it doesn't take a whole lot of work to sit there and hear someone scream at you for an hour You know, it doesn't take much to sit there listen and hear it But it's does take doubly work in order to actually apply you see the work that's being done right here is actually by me All right preaching the Word of God now your turn is when the service is over and now you got to apply that which I Just taught from the Word of God that actually takes work And you know what if you can just work on applying the Word of God applying what you've learned Applying what you're learning, but you know what you won't be bored with the Christian life because you'll recognize Hey, man, even the basics are hard to kind of keep sometimes. I need to work on this I need to work on this area of my life I need to live righteously in this area of my life and it's gonna take a lot of time to do so Okay You need to make sure that you are a doer of the work and not a here only Try to apply the biblical truths in a practical manner go to Mark chapter 12 if you would So people become bored with church because of the fact that there's distractions in their lives Their their heart is as fat as grease. They can't pay attention when they come to church They're bored with the good church because they get disinterested in the basics. Okay, they want to keep hearing something new They want to hear something that's never been heard before they want to have a new revelation Okay, and sometimes we need to stick with the basics and be satisfied with those things. Here's a big one number three Why are people bored with a good church wrong attitude towards the preacher slash pastor? Wrong attitude. Okay. What does that mean? People come to church with the critical eye or they think they know more than the pastor They think they know more doctrine than the pastor and they kind of come with this attitude of Filtering everything the pastor says and making sure that he doesn't say anything wrong You know, oh that's wrong. Oh, yeah, that's not true. Oh, no. No, I already know that That's not the kind of attitude people should have and look we don't have that attitude here in our church. This is preventative Okay, this is the only good thing that when it when it comes to preventing something. This is the only time that it's good. Okay Not physical war. Amen This is preventative because we need to make sure you have a good attitude even towards me Okay, then when you come to church, you don't come With a critical attitude towards the pastor, you know saying well Bless me. I dare you You know, oh and something basic is thought yeah, I already knew that I already knew that, you know, no the attitude should be Yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing something from God's Word and to learn Okay, now look what the Bible says in mark 12 verse 11 This was the Lord's doing in his marvelous in our eyes and they sought to lay hold on him But fear the people for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them and they left him and it went their way and They sent unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. This is wicked They're not coming to him to learn doctrine. They're not coming to him to learn a biblical truth They're coming to him under the cloak of wanting to do those things, but they want to catch him In his words look at Luke chapter 11 go to Luke chapter 11 Next book over Luke chapter number 11 in verse number 53 It says in Luke chapter 11 in verse number 53 and as he said these things unto him the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently and to Provoke him to speak of many things Laying wait for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him You know, there's certain people out there that literally to go to church Just so they can hear the pastor say something wrong just so they can approach him and tell him that he was wrong about that area These whack church members Okay These people who've been saved for a year two years and all they want to do is show the pastor That they know more Bible than him that that pastor got it wrong. They didn't agree with him. They're prideful and puffed up And I'm not talking about here That's never really happened here as far as I know But look, I'm sure there's Pat there I'm sure there's church members new IFB church members that go to old IFB churches that do that and Shame on those people. Okay, because first of all, you're just being a bad representative of the new IFB movement period Okay, why don't you just shut your mouth? Keep your lips shut Get something out of the Bible and thank God that you have a church to go to And look there's a reason why he's up there and you're not You ever think about that? There's a reason why the pastor is up there and you are not you know Don't go to church with an attitude that you know more than the pastor You know that you can you just want to correct everything. No come with an open heart Now obviously you don't want to take it to the extreme where you don't prove all things and hold fast that which is good You know, we obviously don't want to be dumb sheep where we just accept everything that we hear and just follow blindly Follow the leader blindly. We don't want to be that way and we're not that way But we want to make sure that we don't go over eat each extreme where it's like follow the leader blindly or just Criticize everything that comes out of his mouth. Okay, and look I'm gonna say things from this pulpit that you probably won't agree with You know, do you need to come tell me you could if you want to but I don't care You know people tell I don't agree with that. I'm like I'm faster here. So that's fine. You could disagree on how you do something. Hey, thanks for telling me You know, it's not gonna change much, you know, and I'm not talking about Essential basic doctrine I'm talking about maybe if I even talk about my preferences for the church Okay, you know you may not like it But guess what you voice in your opinion against it and with a bad attitude is not gonna help anything In fact, it'll push me further Into my preference, you understand so don't have this Herodian attitude or Pharisaical attitude Where you just want to catch something out of someone's mouth. This is why people become discontent and disinterested in their church All my teachers such a false prophet. He always preaches the preacher relation rapture It's wrong, yeah, I know, you know, but is he a false prophet because of it no, he's not Okay, cuz that would mean that my father-in-law's a false prophet cuz that's what he believed and I know he was a safe man Okay, he is a safe man You know We never want to have this wrong attitude towards pastors and preachers come to church with an attitude of we're gonna get something today I want to feed my family. I want to feed myself. I want to learn something when I come to church Okay, why are people bored with a good church? Well, we said because of distractions Number one number two, they're disinterested in the basics number three They have a wrong attitude towards the pastor and or preacher number three is this go to Matthew chapter Excuse me. Let me see here. Go to mark chapter one if you would actually mark chapter number one Let me give you the last reason that people are bored with the church lack of involvement Lack of involvement in The church. Okay, if you only come to church to hear the preaching of God's Word, but you're not involved in the ministries You're gonna get bored with the church Because here's the thing. You're not exercising. You're not bringing out that what you're learning Okay, and I make it real easy for you to get involved in our church. You know how I only have one ministry Technically there's two you got the minister and stuff But there's one ministry that you can be a part of and guess what? It just so happens to be the most important ministry there is the Ministry of Reconciliation You know, you will get bored with our church if you don't get involved in the soul one That's just well, that's not really for me. Oh, no, it's actually for everyone You're right. It's not just for you. It's actually for everyone It's for everyone. Okay You never want to become this person that comes to church It's just blessed by the sermon. It's just such a good truth. You go home and you just don't go preach the gospel Look Preaching the gospel soul-winning will fertilize your growth You will learn things from the pulpit you will you know Enjoy the preaching and the fellowship but soul-winning is so vital and essential to a Christian's growth The involvement okay, you know, we can never the people the reason people get bored with church is because they're not actually putting into practice You know, we're human beings Not just human doings, right? We have to be we have to be the right type of person We will also have to do the right type of things as well we have to be doers of the word and not here is only and If you're the type of person who's like, well, I'm not involved in this church Well, guess what after service we can put you on a team and you can get involved You can become involved learn how to preach the gospel and don't see it as some like Insurmountable task that you can't do it's very simple to learn how to preach the gospel in our church Because we don't put you at the door like right away Okay, and in fact, we don't do anything. We don't do that to anybody we gauge if you are ready If you are capable of and then when you feel like you're ready, you can do it on your own But look, this is a way you can get your feet wet. Just go as a silent partner And if you are right with God If You're right with God if you love the Lord, you're gonna get excited when someone gets saved You're gonna see your partner lead someone to the Lord. You're gonna be like, wow, that was awesome That was great. And then what happens is after the second third fourth time you start thinking I can do this Let me try because you want a piece of the pie now You want you want to you want to see it done? You want to do it for yourself and then once you bite into it, you're hooked Now it's like now I got to learn now I need to memorize the verses now. I want to win more souls to Christ and now you've found purpose in your life Okay, you know people are bored with church. It's because they don't have any purpose in life Well, guess what? Your purpose is to win people to Christ Now obviously there's there's other details that align your life They would align with being your purpose as far as you know, maybe you're a wife. You're a husband your father You're a mother you have a job so on and so forth But here's the main purpose and that's winning people to Christ. Okay, and look Don't get bored with church by just not being involved You should get involved as soon as you possibly can and grow in that area This is why people get bored with the church now Let me just give you give you a couple reasons why people are bored with an average church Okay So I give you the reasons that it people are at fault with but now let's talk about the churches and pastors Who are responsible for causing their people to be bored with the church? Okay. Now why are people bored with an average church? Well number one because the preaching is lame and powerless You know why people get bored with an average church because the preaching sucks Let me just be real honest with you. Okay, and People go to church they might go to independent fundamental Baptist Church, but the preaching is so powerless. It's so lame It's so without zeal that people They just kind of see Church as a social club after that The reason they would even go to church is because their friends are there Not because they're hungry for the Word of God not because they know they're gonna get their face ripped off It's because they're they have friends there people get bored with church because the preaching has become garbage It's become lame and look it's not because they have a lame Bible. It's because they're not praying for power They're not preaching through the entire Word of God. They're not hitting on controversial subjects You know people tell me oh you guys are so controversial. All you do is talk about controversial things. You mean the Bible? Oh You oh you mean the Word of God, yeah the Word of God is controversial, I don't know if you knew that You know if you get out of Proverbs every once in a while or how about this just preach on the topics in the book Of Proverbs like Proverbs chapter 5 6 & 7 Talk about the whore Hey, if you use biblical terms like bastard whore and ass You wake some people up in the church You're just cussed. Well, you know what you just showed your ignorance of God's Word because those words are in the Bible And look people get excited at biblical preaching Bible preaching You know, the Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword. It's an exciting book to read It's an exciting book to preach The Bible tells us in Mark chapter number one For they were astonished at his doctrine for he taught them as one that had Authority and not as the scribes the Bible says so what is the scribe a scribe is someone who's who hears something from someone? Else and writes it down Someone who speaks with authority is someone who gets it straight from God How do we apply that today? You know, the scribes of today are getting their doctrine from Paul chapels books From commentaries Secondhand information whereas the preachers who are on fire zealous preachers. They're getting it straight from God's Word that's the difference and People get astonished at that. Okay The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 23 verse 28 the prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream He that hath my word let him speak my word faithfully What is the chapter of the wheat saith the Lord is not my word Like as a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces You know the Word of God, it's not like a pillow It's not It's a hammer That breaks up the fallow ground of your heart Okay, and look this is why I love the new IFP preachers Because they're fiery preachers Okay, they slobber they spit they yell they scream veins are bursting out of their foreheads They get mad about things because this the Bible says the word is like a fire. What does it do it burns? It's hot. Hey, man, and it's like a hammer. It just breaks false doctrine breaks false perceptions and false teachings and theology that's being Propagated out there just breaks it in pieces It breaks the culture. Amen It breaks up the fallow ground of a Christian, you know You get a Christian under some hard preaching someone who has been callous Someone who has been hardened or indifferent and they get into some fire-breathing preaching you what's gonna do to them It's gonna break up that fallow ground in their heart Yeah, I Thought that was me at first That Broke my concentration You know, it's gonna break up the fallow ground It's gonna help them to get right with God and you know the feeling once you get under some leather lung preaching Your heart starts breathing just a little faster You started kind of like your hands start sweating a little bit you kind of start sitting up because you know What the man is saying is true and you start realizing all this guy's mad about sin This guy's mad about what's going on. And you know what it rubs off on the people as well. But if you have some lame watered-down Baggedy preacher. Oh, there it goes. There goes that word again, you know if you have some lame skinny jean-wearing mohawk Preacher who just wants to share with you Let me just share with you what I got out of the Word of God today These soothsayer preachers It's no wonder people fall asleep. It's no wonder people are bored with it. It's no wonder why the sermon is like 20 minutes long It's true though, they have to preach for 20 minutes Because there's no content in the sermon and they already lost the people at the 10-minute mark Whereas and these type of churches the leather lung fire-breathing preaching you can preach for an hour and people sometimes don't even notice that You know, I preached for an hour and 15 minutes and when I was done people have told me like man that was short I'm like, what are you talking about? It's like an hour and 15 Like no, that was like 30 minutes. I'm like, no that was an hour and 15 minutes, but you know what it is is The attention span increases when the pastor has power behind the sermon. Okay. Are you saying you have power? Yes Because it's available to every single one of us and guess what? It's available to every pastor behind a pulpit if they just preach the Word of God half of the power just comes from preaching the Bible Half of the power of a sermon comes from just preaching just reading the Word of God Just saying what the Bible says the other half comes from when you're spirit-filled And you're just letting loose and you're just zealous for the things of God, you know People are bored with you know, why men are bored with church is proof for that very reason You know why churches today are just filled with ladies and children and no men Because the pastor is too effeminate The pastor is too effeminate just limp-wristed powerless lame Just soy boy You think of the word? That's what he is. And that's how his preaching is You know and the pastor just tries to work hard at keeping keeping the ladies there and that and by the way That's why they have to preach all these emotional sermons Because women are emotional right and they get captivated by the emotional sermon, you know whereas the leather lung preacher just slobbers and gets mad and Rips on sin and guess what that men like that Men like it when you just give it to them straight Okay, I've heard I've talked to members like what church is just for ladies and kids, you know Well, I don't know what church you're talking about My Savior is the the manliest man that ever lived. Okay Go to Ezekiel chapter 6 Ezekiel chapter number 6 people get bored with church because the preaching is lame and Powerless and look Obviously there has to be an element of repetition when it comes to the basics, but some pastors literally preach the same exact sermon Don't change the title. I mean literally just repeat everything on the on the paper. You said what do you do with your papers? I literally just throw them away I'm done. I've already preached it There's people who literally evangelists Pastors who literally priest the same exact sermon using the same jokes the same Illustrations over and over and over again. Okay, there's no power in that There's people who literally have to read off of their sermon everything they say off their sermon The sermon is supposed to be the skeleton to kind of guide you and what to say and if you chase a rabbit It'll kind of help you to get back on the trail Okay These guys are often lame and powerless and look I've heard testimonies from other church members of other churches Who have literally said I'm not learning anything in noon at this church. I just come here because my friends are here and They literally get upset over the fact that this pastor will literally preach the same exact sermon Not even don't even change up the points a little bit not even mix it up Just the same exact thing. You know what that tells me that pastor stopped growing a long time ago. Okay? You Know pastors Today the vast majority of them are just not dynamic okay, look at Ezekiel 6 11 says thus saith the Lord God smite with thine hand and Stamp with thy foot and say alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel For they shall fall by the sword by the famine and by the pestilence the Bible says. Oh You guys you know, there's this guy you're always sliming the pulpit Why you're always time in the pulpit Smite with thy hand I'm not gonna smite my church members. So the next best thing is the pulpit Okay, smite the Bible says To show the severity of the truth that's being spoken Stamp with thy foot, you know the prophets of the Old Testament are a great example of how dynamic a pastor ought to be Okay, and people criticize these things today people look at pastors like us and they'll say Oh, you guys are just angry you jump on your pulpits you kick and scream and do all the that's what they did in the Old Testament The guys that you guys read every single day You read through the Bible every single year. That's what they're doing. And it's funny how you want to you know Associate with the prophets of old and the pastors of old but you're not mimicking the way they preach You Know we ought to smite with our hand stamp with our foot and cry out loud and spare not and show my people their Transgression the Bible says to lift up our voice like a trumpet. Must you scream so much? Yes, I must to wake people up Spiritually and physically, okay You got to be dynamic, you know and look there's pastors out there that Maybe they they have a good Bible doctrine, but this is an element that they're missing here is being dynamic Okay, you need to be dynamic. Look if you're gonna get sent out by this church, you need to be dynamic Okay, it's not the only it's not the most important thing But it is definitely important that if you're gonna be sent out at a first works Baptist Church You need to be a dynamic preacher. No boarding preachers coming out of this church Okay Go to Ezekiel 34 Pastors Today they preach like they're giving a motivational speech or something They're just like the Lord loves you I Love you the devil loves you You can do it and then it's just like I believe in you They have all this weird stuff that they have to do and you know, the ladies are just like the guys are like Are you right are you talking like that? Why are you like making love to the mic? That's what it is You know It's just giving this Motivational speech and look if you read between the lines, this is what they're saying. God loves you time God loves you I love your money. I mean So they're they're basically preaching these smooth sermons to get you to just give Right Whereas the fire-breathing preacher The only time he even talks about money is if he has to preach a sermon on it and if the sermon calls for it Most churches look at your smoothest church I guarantee you the vast majority of the service is dedicated to talking about money at one time or another Right before the offering takes place You know right before they pray for the offering. They're just like I Give to my church and you should give to and they always give this little sermonette take your Bibles go to Malachi That's the only time to actually go to the Old Testament, right? Talk about tithing, okay You know and people are fed up with that People get fed up with that and the interesting thing is is most churches who behave that way They're giving is going down They're giving is going down. So there's just like they're constantly pushing and propagating give give give but you know when you push that button you end up breaking the button and People are just like I'm not giving to this crap All they want is my money All right This is not this is why people get bored with church No dynamic preaching lame sermons and then here's another reason is people are bored with church because they're just not growing They just are not growing. They're not learning anything and look learn new things But you know what some some things that are not new to you are new to others Some people come to church and like I never heard that before, you know, that means they're growing okay, look at Ezekiel 34 verse 1 and The word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel Prophesy and say unto them thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? He eat the fat and you clothe you with the wool you kill them that are fed But you feed not the flock the disease you have not strengthened neither Have you healed that which was sick neither have you bound up that which was broken neither Have you brought again that which was driven away? Neither have you sought that which is lost but with force and with cruelty. Have you ruled them? The Bible says you're saying your congregations are filled with broken people people who are going through issues people who are Disease with sin they have sinned. They're sick Spiritually speaking and you're not helping them Because you're so worried about the money You know, I literally had a pastor one time tell me this he brought me to his office and he told me this He said he told me about a new family in his church in The church and he said this pray for them Because they got money. I Was like are they saved and he's like, huh, I don't know they got money I Was like whoa False prophet times a thousand Literally pray for them because they got money and I need money Ha That's what I was hearing I was like man you should be on the preachers of LA show But this is exactly what God is talking about you lame shepherds Who Are not helping my people grow in knowledge and in doctrine This is what the church is here for amen you come to church the Bible says so you're not tossed to and fro Carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby the lying weight to deceive you're here to grow To learn doctrine to learn eschatology and times Bible prophecy. You're here to learn about salvation about Sanctification you're here to learn that the Jews are not God's chosen people That's what you're here to learn You're here to learn the Bible. Okay, and people get bored with church. You know why because they're not learning anything they're like Church is Church is 20 minutes long. We have donuts before Donuts afterwards and look this is one reason why the vast majority of churches as soon as the service is over. What do they do? They're out you're just like I don't even want to be here There's my good deed for the week You know done with that. I mean you you if you've come to our church for any length of time You know, we have to like kick people out. I Was like after it starts hitting like 12 midnight just like I start turning off the lights. All right guys You guys can stay but I gotta go home. I got kids, you know put them bad and stuff people loves being in our church You know and so but here we don't see that today We see that churches People are bored with church because of the fact that they're just not growing the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 3 15 and I will give you pastors according to mine heart which shall feed you with knowledge and Understanding and look people criticize all you guys are just coming up with these new doctrines No, they're just new to you because you don't even study the Bible pastor It's in the Bible. I Mean when's the last time you preached through revelation? Or through what was the last time you preached to Hosea? Hey, I have never heard a book someone preached to Hosea before in the old IFB People are interested in that When you start talking about topics that the Bible talks about, you know What you're gonna have people in your congregation say wow, this is interesting I've always wondered about this, but I've never heard anything about it now I'm hearing about it and that makes it interesting to the people understand Go to first Samuel chapter number four Why are people bored with church? Number one because they're the pastors preaching is lame and powerless, okay Two is because they're just not dynamic when they preach they don't keep the people's attention Three they're not growing Four it's because there is no vision at that church. No vision What does it mean the pastor in the church? They're not going anywhere? They're not looking to grow They're not looking to grow they're not looking to reach new people they're not taking mission strips there's no vision of what can happen within the next ten years and That's why people people want to be in a place where that church is going somewhere It's going the pastor's going somewhere. The congregates are going somewhere. It's growing there's vision there The Bible says where there is no vision the people perish Let's look at an example of this Eli is an example this first Samuel 4 verse 11 it says the ark of God was taken and the two sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas were slain and There ran there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army and came to Shiloh The same day with his clothes rent and with the earth upon his head and when he came low Eli sat upon his seat by the wayside watching for his heart trembled for the ark of God and When the man came into the city and told it up and told it all the city Excuse me told it all the city cried out and when Eli heard the noise of the crying He said what meaneth the noise of his tumult and the man came in hastily and told Eli now Eli was 98 years old and his eyes were dimmed that he could not see now look physically Yes, his eyes were dim, but God did not put that there on accident It's not a coincidence because what it's telling us here is that spiritually his eyes were dim as well. He could not see Go to first Samuel chapter 3 first Samuel chapter number 3 the chapter before says in verse number 1 and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli and The word of the Lord was precious in those days There was no open vision and it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place and his eyes Began to wax dim that he could not see and ere the lamp of God went out of the temple of The Lord where the ark of God was and Sammy was laid down to sleep that the Lord called Eli No, he called Samuel and he answered here am I now? Why did the Lord called Samuel not Eli? Well, because Eli Eli's eyes began to wax dim That he could not see what does that mean? He didn't have vision anymore That's why the Word of God was precious in those days because there's no open vision God was no longer using Eli to foresee what was going to come to pass You know, I want to be a church where there's always vision here Okay Over vision for your family for your children for your marriage for soul winning for missions to do great exploits for the Lord there needs to be Goals there needs to be a purpose and There's churches that are just have zero vision and that's why people are bored You know small dreams move no man's soul big dreams will move people to Belize Big dreams and big goals will move people around the world Okay, and this is why people are bored with church. There's no exploits being done Go with me if you would to revelation chapter number three revelation chapter number three There there may have been a time when pastors who are the pastors who are pastoring these churches they had vision They're excited about the things of God They're excited over the potential that a church could have and over the people But now in their older years their eyes are beginning to wax dim. They can't they can no longer see Okay They need carrots. They need glasses and What's happening here? Is that a new generation is arising? Where the younger preachers, you know these young bucks these little young idiots They got more vision They actually can they actually can see Years beyond 10 years 20 years of what God can do now what we don't want is for us to end up like them Where our eyes begin to wax dim and our eyes are no longer capable of seeing what God may be able to do So, how do we prevent that? Well, this is how we prevent it. We fulfill the vision Every couple of years You see some people have vision, but they never fulfill anything Therefore to them it's impossible to do to fulfill any vision Whereas when we cast vision here. Oh, hey the vision of Belize. Well fulfilled You know the vision of reaching a filling up that map what fulfilled So now we begin to prove to our church that we not only have vision. We have the capability of fulfilling the vision We actually do what we say you understand we want to start this many churches, where's the fulfillment? We want to send all kinds of missionaries out, where's the fulfillment of that We want to reach our community. I want to see the fulfillment And you know what the people want to see the fulfillment too They want proof Because the proof is what motivates them to buy into the vision Okay Here's the last point people are bored with church Because the church is dying and everyone knows it That's why people are bored with church. Some people are in a dying church and they're like this this thing is dying It's it's it's either dying or it's dead And guess what? It is commonly reported in that church that they're dying Okay Look at Revelation 3 verse 1 and unto the angel of the church and Sardis write these things saith he that hath the seven spirits Of God and the seven stars, I know that works that thou has a name that thou livest and are dead Now I don't want to get too much into Revelation chapter 3 because I don't want to steal my thunder For the fall not this Thursday, but the following But look these people think that they're alive Because they're so busy doing so many things God says you're dead You're dead as last year's Christmas tree You're dead as Julius Caesar. You're dead Now They can fix that in verse 2 they're watchful and they strengthen the things which remain Things that are ready to die for I have not found that works perfect or complete before God The reason they're dying is because they've removed certain things from their church They just cause them to die. You know, I don't believe we are a dying church. I believe we're just thriving. We're growing We're not only growing in attendance. We're growing and having babies. Amen Oh What is that all about? Yeah. Well, that's one that's one of the reasons these other churches are dying Because they teach birth control and all this filth They discourage people from having babies. And so then that's why you get a church that's only filled with gray heads Right because they hate babies and don't tell me look I know of a pastor whose wife literally Part of her ministry was to go around to talk to the ladies and encourage them to get on birth control the pastor's wife Doing that garbage Telling people to get on birth control. I literally had a friend of mine say I keep my wife away from that lady Because I want my wife to keep having babies, you know, we love children But you know what? Churches are dying and the people in those congregations. They know it. That's why they're bored with it You said why do they stay there then this isn't that what we think sometimes like why do you remain in that lame? Congregation if you know that it's dying because of the fact that some people are just creatures of habit and they just get used to being in a dead congregation or Maybe they have a heart for the Lord and they're like You know, they're like the the few names in Sardis or they like to be a big fish in a small pond That's sometimes the case But you know, they're not gonna grow beyond that unless they go to a church. That's actually growing. It's vibrant. It's soul-winning It's preaching the Word of God These are the reasons why people are bored with church. So what is the gist of the sermon here? The gist of the sermon is this is there? Hey Let's not get bored with our church And here are some clearly laid-out principles that you can do to abstain from ever becoming indifferent towards your congregation But not only that for for people who go to lame churches This is the reason why it's because they got lame preaching they they're preaching is not dynamic They're not growing the church has no vision. No exploits and it's dying and the people know it. Okay Let's seek to be in the house of God all the days of our life Let's seek to be like David who said the zeal of thine house has consuming it has eaten me up Amen fireheads and have a word of prayer father. We thank you so much for your word Thank you for the house of God I'm thankful for our church here I'm thankful for churches in the past, but I'm looking towards the future and I pray God that you'd help us help me as a pastor to Continually help our people here grow and to learn the basics to perfect them help me to be dynamic and Part of being dynamic is just believing what we're saying And I just pray God that you'd help us to do So help us as a congregation never become indifferent towards our church here and when that happens may we take the necessary steps to correct it and Lord there's churches that are dying out there and I feel like they just need to die They've had their chance. They need to die and it's just a result of the candlestick that's being removed from that congregation Help us Lord to shine brightly and to burn for you and in Jesus name we pray. Amen