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

So, as we're making this soul-winning shift to these different neighborhoods, I want to talk to you a little bit this morning about incentives for the Christian life. Give you some things to think about for your life and also some things to think about to help explain to other people about incentives for not just getting saved, but for this Christian life. So, think about that word incentives. What does that even mean? The incentives in our lives, not just our Christian lives, but incentives in general basically define every single thing that we do. Everything that you do is because of some sort of incentives or even anything that you don't do is because of some sort of incentive. I mean, the definition of incentives, you know, from the perspective of economics is this, you know, just an example. An incentive function of a price mechanism encourages producers to supply more when prices rise because of the possibility of greater profit. So this is talking about incentive in economics, whereas, you know, when prices, you know, a price mechanism encourages producers to supply more when prices rise. Basically, you know, talking about how, you know, demand and supply and demand works, it's all about incentives. And economics is just based on incentives. As a matter of fact, you know, economics is really just a study of human behavior when it comes down to it. You know, why people do certain things, why people head in certain directions, prefer one thing over another. As a matter of fact, you know, when it comes down to incentives, not to, you know, rabbit trail this, but this is really how the government controls you too, you know, is through what? Through incentives. You know, the government itself, you know, socially engineers society through incentives. And that's what they do. They basically, you know, maybe they don't like one industry, so they just really overregulate a certain industry, and that drives up costs of that industry, and then that forces you into another industry. A perfect example of this is like the whole electric car thing that's going on, right? And everyone's like, I would never buy an electric car. Well, when gas is $35 a gallon, you will buy an electric car. And that's exactly what's going on in our country today. But the point is, it's incentives. Incentives drive everything. You know, this is how the government, you know, they'd want to drive certain behaviors, so they incentivize one thing and disincentivize another, all right? They control things through incentives. So that's another, you know, not to go off on this, but when the government tells you they can't fix something, they're lying, because that's what they do for a living, is they control situations, all right? Even jail, when you think about, you know, prison, that's an incentive. It's a negative incentive. It's what the Bible calls a consequence for sin, right? So positive incentives encourage behavior, and negative incentives discourage behavior. So if a negative incentive is put on something, like if you steal something that's, you know, less than $950, you go to jail, you know, people will do that less, you know? This isn't rocket science. But the government knows these things, all right? You know, people know these things because this is how incentives work. So all that to say this, we're going to talk this morning about incentives for the Christian life. Turn to Matthew chapter 28. You're going to keep your place in 1 Corinthians chapter number 3. We're going to come back to that. But let's talk about incentives for the Christian life this morning. Why should you, not talking about salvation this morning, but just talking about incentivizing people to get into the Christian life after salvation? Why should they do that? I want to give you some ideas this morning to think about, not only for yourself, but to explain to people when you're out there soul winning. Now we go soul winning. We go soul winning multiple times a week here. Look at Matthew chapter 28 and look at verse number 18. So there's three steps in these few verses here. There's three steps that the Bible goes through. And look at verse 18. It says, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Now verse 19 and verse 20, he gives us three commands here that we should do three things. He says, go ye therefore and teach all nations. There's number one. Then he says, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. There's number two. And number three is teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So we go soul winning. That's item number one. We're teaching all nations. We're going out and we are teaching and we are preaching the gospel. But in many ways, in many ways, going out soul winning and preaching the gospel to people in many ways as far as the Christian life is concerned, this is the easy part. It's the easiest part. I mean, it literally takes just to go out, preach the gospel to someone, takes just a few minutes, and literally all it takes for that person to do is just to change their belief from one thing to another thing, to repent, to change their mind about what they believed before and now turn to trust in Jesus. That's an easy thing. As long as the heart is right, that's why children are so easy to get saved. Their conscience is many times, you know, undefiled or much less defiled than a lot of adults out there. They have very open hearts to the truth and it's a very easy thing. If somebody has an open heart to the truth, preaching the gospel to them, I mean, this is what we would call like low hanging fruit. You go out and, you know, you ask somebody, do you want to hear that, would you like to hear what the Bible has to say? And they're like, yeah, I was wondering about that anyway. And then you tell them and they're like, oh yeah, that makes perfect sense. They accept it. They get saved. It's easy. There's no action required. There's no work required on their part. But as Jesus continues in these two verses, the steps get harder from there. Salvation is the easy one. Salvation is the simple one, as the Bible says. That's the simplicity that is in Christ that the Bible is talking about. It's just that gospel, just that, you know, being eternally secure in your salvation. But baptism gets a little bit harder. Now is something, baptism requires someone to come to church. Baptism requires someone to take an actual step. They have to have the conviction to follow what the Bible says. And they have to actually do something. That's why baptism is such an important step because it's really the first thing in their Christian life that they actually have to physically do. They have to get up. They have to go somewhere. And they have to get baptized, all right? So that leads right into item number three, which is observing all things. So now that they've taken that first step, to observe all things is another step beyond that. Now to observe all things, you need to know what all things are. You need to first understand what the Bible says. You need to read the Bible, learn the Bible, and then you actually have to put those things into action in your life. That's, I mean, it doesn't say read all things. It doesn't say figure out what the Bible says. It says like observe all things, meaning do those things. So the Bible is literally talking about getting people saved, getting people baptized, and then getting people into the Christian life. And look, observing all things, that path will never be complete for someone in their life. That is something that you will do for your whole life. So this morning, I want to talk about incentives for the Christian life. I don't want to talk about incentives for salvation. I mean, salvation speaks for itself. I mean, you know, the incentive for salvation is hell. That's the negative incentive. You know, do you want to die and go to hell for eternity? No. Well, God offers you salvation. So I want to talk about some incentives for the Christian life, the incentive to become a disciple. And that's where many false Christian religions today confuse salvation, is they add discipleship to, you know, the Bible doesn't say, the King James Bible doesn't say go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations. It says go and teach all nations. And what they do is they conflate salvation with discipleship. Unless you're following Jesus, you're not saved. No, no, no. It is salvation is one, baptism is two, and then the Christian life, observing all things, is number three. So what are the incentives for the Christian life? I was talking to my kids this morning. We're driving to church. We're driving to church this morning. And I was just thinking about this sermon. And I said to the kids, I said, well, I said, I'm really excited to go to church today. And I was like, are you excited to go to church today? And of course, they're just like, of course we are. Why are you asking me this question? But I just see, you know, you see, you know, the roads are most empty. You know when the roads are most empty? The roads are most empty on Sunday mornings. Saturdays, there's people on the roads. All day in the week, you know, the week is just busy on the roads. But the roads are always most empty on Sunday mornings. So I was just asking, you know, the kids like, why are we so, what's so weird about us? We literally go to church, like, we're going to be at church all day today. All day today, we're going to be at church. Like there's so many things, and I was telling the kids, I was like, okay, what's everybody else doing? What was it? Generally, what are people doing? Well, they're probably sleeping in until 10. They're probably getting up, you know, watching TV for an hour or two, walking around the house in their pajamas, maybe having some coffee and some breakfast, whatever it is, you know, and then just maybe they actually do something productive for a couple hours. But generally, they're just wasting their time on a Sunday. And you say, okay, well, you know, you don't go on vacation every single Sunday. But the point is, what is weird about us that we realize as we're here on Sunday morning that everybody else, as a matter of fact, many Christians, many people who are saved, just don't have that feeling that they would like to come to church and not only just be in church for Sunday morning service, but literally, I'm going to be in this building like 90% of this day, I'll be in this building. And I can't wait to do it. So let's talk about some incentives this morning. What is, what's everybody else missing this morning? Well, how can we sell this Christian life to people beyond salvation? Turn to Psalm 119, if you would, Psalm chapter 119. The first thing that people need to realize that is a huge incentive that a lot of people miss is the value of the Word of God. Many Christians today do not understand the value of God's Word, the value of it. Look, before you can be interested in, you know, reading and learning something or coming to church to hear something preached, you must first think that it has value. You must first realize that, hey, this is important. And not only is this important, but this is more important than whatever else I was going to do on Sunday, than whatever else I had planned, which is ridiculous because people are just wasting, most people would admit that they waste probably most of their weekends. But the value of the Word of God is the first incentive. If you can just, if we get people to realize that, Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the entire Bible is basically, that's all it's talking about, is the value of God's Word and how important it is. Look down at verse number 71 of Psalm 119. The value of what is in this book, why is this valuable? Does it have value? Look at what it says in Psalm 119 in verse number 71. The Bible says, it is good for me that I have been afflicted. What? He's like, it's good for me that I have had a bad time, that I've had pain and suffering. Why? That I might learn thy statutes. So whatever he went through, whatever the Psalmist went through here, he was afflicted, he was suffering, and it drove him to God's Word, that he could learn the Bible. And then look at this in verse 72, the law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. I mean, he literally says that the Word of God is more valuable than basically infinite riches in his life. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me, give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments. Three verses in a row talking about God's Word, talking about the value of God's Word. Look, once people understand, once people understand what the Bible says and apply it to their lives, then they will understand that it is valuable, that it has infinite value. But look, the Bible here is saying that the Bible, the Word of God is more valuable than anything in this world, basically, is what it's saying. But we need to stress that to people because people are walking around in this world, most Christians are walking around in this world, most saved people are walking around this world and they are valuing something that is not valuable at all. And here's what we need to understand, here's what we need to think. Think about this for a second. Think about if you valued something that is not really valuable. I mean, wouldn't you want to know? I'll give you a couple of examples and look, I'm not taking one side or another on this, but just look at, let's look at Bitcoin. Everybody likes to talk about Bitcoin. Just think about Bitcoin for a second. I don't know if, I mean, some people say Bitcoin will be infinite value in 10 years or whatever or millions of dollars or whatever. Some people say Bitcoin will be zero dollars in 10 years. I don't know what it's going to be, I don't care, but let me just give you an example. The only reason I'm using this is as an analogy. Say you knew that Bitcoin would be zero dollars in five years. Wouldn't you want to know that? Say you were somebody that was, you know, you put part of your savings in Bitcoin or whatever and not saying that's a bad thing or a good thing to do. But if it was going to be zero in five years, it would have no value next week or next year or whatever. Wouldn't you want to know? Yeah, this is what people are doing. People are putting their value in something that has no value and they are taking the most valuable thing. This is what the Christian that doesn't observe all things and has no desire to observe all things is doing. They are putting all their value in something that has no value and they are putting no value in the thing that has infinite value. And look, they will realize that one day and 1 Corinthians 3 literally says they will suffer loss. Well, they're not going to go to hell. They'll be in heaven but they will suffer loss. They will know that they did that. What a sad moment that would be. The point is wouldn't you want to know what is valuable and what is not? Another example is just somebody that just takes all their focus and all their attention and just puts it on a career. I've seen this so many times. I've seen a man that puts so much focus on, I think that you should pursue your job. I think you should do a good job. I think you should get as skillful as you possibly can. I'm not dissuading you from having a career. That's not what I'm saying. But to throw everything away, throw away your family, not pay attention to the things that you should be paying attention to and instead focus completely on this. I've seen this so many times with a man that then retires and then that career is now done with and that company or whatever that business was just moves on without him and they're lost and they're completely lost. Because what? They put all their value there. Look, while that's something, it's a trap that men especially can fall into because that's something we're supposed to do. We're supposed to go out and provide and do well and try to do well for our families and work hard. If you do those things, you'll be rewarded. God will promote you, all these different things if you do those things. But to put all your value in there and then just ignore the actual valuable thing in your life, that's how people end up lost. Women in general are being convinced to completely go down this path and they literally give up the idea of the things that God wants for them to chase this career that they're not even supposed to have. They're not supposed to be providing for their families. They're supposed to be having children and raising those children and getting married and having children and raising a family and instead they put it off for this career and they literally put the idea of having kids away. It's so sad. They're like, I don't know, you hear all these women talking like, well, I'll have kids when I'm 35 or 40. I mean, I don't know what science book you're reading or what they're teaching these days, but what they're doing is they're putting value in something that they should put no value in. And they're completely missing the ideas that the word of God says that they should have their value in. So look, the word of God is where the infinite value is. Imagine getting to heaven. Now I'm going to turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter number three. Imagine you were saved, imagine you get to heaven and then you realize that nothing you spent your time on in your life had value. I mean, what a sad moment that will be. I mean, I guess you're in heaven so you can chalk up the W on that one, but you wasted your whole life. You will realize that you spent your whole life in something that had no value. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number three and look at verse number 12. And then you realize, you also realize like every Christian will realize this, that doesn't spend their time, you know, observing all things in the Bible. They had it right in front of them the whole time. It was right there. Look, the Bible is not hidden from you today. The Bible is readily available to you today. There are churches that are preaching the Bible today. Look at 1 Corinthians 3 12, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, Paul is saying, and another buildeth thereon, but let every man taketh heed how he buildeth thereupon. So Paul is saying that he's laid this foundation and it is up to somebody else that comes after him to build on that foundation. And that foundation, he explains, look, verse number 11, no other foundation can no man lay than it is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So Paul laid this foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is up to everybody in those local churches that he started to build upon that foundation of Christ. It is up to people to observe all things, follow the Bible, learn the Bible, and build this foundation. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire. This is where God is saying you will know which of your moments in your life were spent on worthless things and which of your moments in your life were spent on valuable things. That will be made known to you by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. And look, so none of these people, none of these Christians, none of these saved people will be able to say in that day, why didn't somebody tell me? Because the Bible told you, but you just did not value the Bible. You valued other things in your life. And because of that, look, the Bible is valuable because it tells you what is valuable. Because of that, you end up wasting your whole life. Isn't a saved person wasting their whole life? Which brings me to my next point, my next incentive, and I want to spend most of the time in the sermon this morning talking about this incentive, which is this, why observe all things? Why actually live the Christian life? The next incentive is this, the biggest incentive in my opinion is the second and third one that I'm going to bring up to you this morning. But the biggest incentive of living the Christian life and observing all things and not just getting saved and moving on, just like everybody else is doing out in the world, is that observing all things gives you a life worth living. It gives you a life worth living. Look, I don't know how many times I've asked this question to people, but I bet you I've asked hundreds, maybe even thousands of people this question. Do you want to waste your life? And no one wants to waste their life. No one has ever said, I want to waste my life. But everybody is wasting their life. Even Christians are wasting their life. Now before I get into this point, I want to just turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 6, if you would, I want to give you a couple mistakes that I believe Christians make in this area where they say many, many mistakes that Christians make where they're trying to convince someone to get into the Christian life, now that they're saved and they're trying to convince somebody to get in church, learn the Bible, apply the Bible to their life, many times people will say, hey, get into the Christian life and you'll be joyful. Or they say, I mean, this is the power of the prosperity gospel right here. This is why the prosperity gospel is so popular and so well received with so many different people, both saved and unsaved. You'll never really be happy unless you follow God's word. Those are not really true statements. And those statements many times with many people will fall flat on their face. Because look, I hate to tell you this, but there's two problems with this. There's two problems with this philosophy and coming at people that way, trying to convince them to get into the Christian life because it will make things better for them. And the first problem is this, many people that are, look, many people both saved and unsaved that are not following God's word are quite happy with their lives. You say, what? How is that possible? It's just true. There's many people out there, look, you don't even have to be some rich billionaire. There's many people who are just living a comfortable life that they're just quite happy. They're living a life where they just do what they want to do at any given moment, especially in this country, where it is very comfortable in this country. Everything is available to you in this country. Many people, especially in that moment that you talk to them, will tell you that we are quite happy with our lives. Thank you. You don't have to sell joy to me. Saved and unsaved, completely unsaved. Some person who's just going and having a great life and they're going on vacation all the time, they're doing whatever they want to do, they'll tell you they're quite happy. No, thanks. I'm full of joy. I'm good. So you can't really sell it that way. First of all, it's not really true. That's the second point. It's not true that Christianity will bring you nothing but happiness and joy. That's just not true. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that, you know, if you live godly in Christ Jesus, you shall suffer persecution. So many times, look, many times just because you are observing all things, it says those that live godly, meaning if you're saved and you keep your head down, you're not going to have much trouble. And by the way, if you're not having trouble in this Christian life, in this environment that we're at right now, you need to think about some things. Because that means you're just keeping your head down. Because if you live the Christian life and observe all things, you are going to have some trouble. Period. So you can't really go out there and sell this idea that if you just, you know, follow the Bible, everything's going to be great for you all the time. It's just not true. Somebody like that, they'll start to suffer persecution as the Bible says that they will for sure. And they'll be like, hey, that guy lied to me. And they'll drop out of the Christian life. Look, if you are not having any trouble in this Christian life, you are not really doing anything. You're not having trouble. That's the truth of it. So you say, what's the sell? A life worth living is the sell. What are you talking about? People could be happy without following the Bible. As a matter of fact, many times they'll have less trouble if they don't follow the Bible. What's the sell? But at the end is the sell. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 6. See the guy who lived for nothing but pleasure in his life. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter number 6 and verse number 1. At that moment in his life when he was 30, 40, 50 years old, just having a good time, living for pleasure, living for whatever he wanted to do, he would have told you he was joyful. But at the end of his life, he will not tell you that. Look at verse number 1 of Ecclesiastes chapter 6. It says, there is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is common among men. It's saying, this is what happens to a lot of people is what Solomon is saying. A man who God hath given riches, wealth, and honor so that he wanted nothing for his soul of all that he desireth. You see that? That's why you can't go up to somebody and say, hey, you need to get in church and get in the Christian life and all your problems are going to go away and you're going to be joyful because he's going to say, I desire nothing. What are you talking about? A common thing will be a man that says, I desire nothing. Get out of here with that. I'm not buying it. Yet, look at this. I mean literally wanting nothing for his soul of all he desireth, that's that guy's whole life right there. But look at this. Yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it. This is vanity and it is an evil disease. What does that mean? What does that mean? You know what it means? It means at the end of that man's life, at the end of that man's life, he will realize that like, hey, none of this stuff, like I don't even know who's going to take all this stuff when I'm about to die in five seconds. I don't even know, like maybe I know that my children are going to take my stuff or whatever, my bank accounts and all those things, but I don't know what they're going to do with it. That will be made obvious to him at the end of his life. He will also die knowing, look, look at verse number four. It says, for he cometh in vanity, but look at this, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. Look, he lived in vanity and he died in darkness. That's what the Bible is saying. Now for the unsaved, the unsaved, they will know all those things and they will die in terror. They will die knowing that they're headed to hell. They will die knowing that. But for the saved, they will die knowing that they're going to go to heaven, but they will die knowing that all this was worthless, that all of it was spent on something that is not valuable. Now go to 2 Timothy chapter four. Let's contrast this with Paul. We're talking about a life worth living. We're talking about a life worth living. The incentive of observing all things, getting into the Christian life, not only being saved, learning what the Bible says, and applying the Bible in our lives. Look at what Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter four. Now I believe, this is my opinion, that Paul was executed and he knew when he wrote this that he was going to be executed. The Bible doesn't specifically say that. Secular history says that Nero executed Paul. I happen to believe that. I believe it matches the attitude that he has here. Paul knew that he was, either way though, Paul knew he was coming to an end here. Paul knew his life was coming to an end. Look at 2 Timothy chapter four in verse number seven. Look at what Paul says. This is verses Paul, he's at the end. He's at the end now. For whatever reason, he knows he's at the end of his physical life. He says, I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I have kept the faith. He's awaiting execution. Where's the terror here? Where is the fear here? He's awaiting his physical death and he's like, hey, I did everything I could do. And in verse number eight it says, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Now I've heard a lot of sermons on like what these crowns mean and all these things, but I think we're missing the overall point here. He's like, I did everything I could do and I'm headed to glory and I'm headed to joy and I'm headed to rewards. I'm headed to Christ and he's going to be happy with me. This is a joyful man right here. This is a happy man. He's at the end and he knows he did what he could do. You know, he's going to light. He's going to reward. That's the opposite of looking back at vanity and looking at darkness. I mean, it's like that great feeling that you have after you run a long race. I used to run the mile in high school and you'd run the mile and I just, I remember how painful it was, but I really remember how good it felt when you were done. Like after you were over, you just get that great feeling that it's done. I mean, they literally call it runner's high, but this is like the best joyful feeling after you've run an entire life observing all things, telling God or, you know, doing what God wanted you to do, which is what, by the way? What is the race? What is the race? The race is spreading the gospel. That's the race. The race is going out there, look, the race is not going to Africa and building shelters. The race is not going and providing water filters and all these things and everyone's going to listen to this and they're going to be like, oh, you hate people that don't have, no, I understand that we have everything here and that people don't have water and people don't have shelter and all these different things and I understand that it's a good thing to go and build something for somebody and it's a good thing to provide water for somebody, but I've often thought, I've often thought, and I was talking to my wife about this last night, I've often, I even thought this before I was saved, isn't that weird? I thought when you would have all these mission trips and people would just go over and they would build like a garage for somebody in Mexico, it was one of them. I was involved in some of these myself. I did a building project for like Hurricane Katrina victims. I just thought it was weird that it's like, all right, I mean, we don't even mention Jesus to these people. I wasn't even saved and I thought this was weird. I'm like, all right, here's a nice remodeled house, have fun in hell. I thought it was the weirdest thing. Here's some diapers, have fun burning for eternity. Here's some clean water. Good luck with that whole, you know, fire and brimstone thing. I thought it was strange from the very beginning, but that's exactly, I mean, look, what's the race? These people don't even know what the race is. My wife and I were talking about the song I Love to Tell the Story last night. We're talking about how ironic it is that we grew up in Lutheran churches our whole lives where they just, they love that song, I love to tell the story, but they don't even know what the story is. Yeah, they're like, I love to tell the story, you know, and they're like, but what's the story? I don't know. They don't know what the story is. I mean, that's people in Christian churches today, they don't even understand, they don't even know the story. But all these false churches, they sing this song, you know, we see people at the door that are not saved and they're like, hey, keep up the good work, you're doing a good thing out there. And I'm like, well, do you want to hear the God? No. Like, I'm like, what? You know, it's just like this logical disconnect that, I mean, it is, you know, I mean, they're like, you're doing, I mean, look, are we doing a good thing or not is what I want to say to these people. They're like, yeah, you're doing a good thing. Well, why am I doing a good thing then? Because well, they'd say, because you're telling people the truth. Well, why don't you want to hear the truth is the question that I would ask people, but it's the biggest Christian contradiction out there. It's the biggest contradiction out there, I shouldn't say Christian contradiction, but people don't ask themselves, why is it good? If I really believe that it's good that this person is doing, why am I not willing to listen to that good? Why am I not willing to receive that good? But look to Christians, to people who are saved, to people that do know the story, to people that do know the gospel to the point where they accepted the gospel, and they are saved, but look, and they have never told it to anyone else. Most Christians will never share the gospel with anyone. You know what? That is a shameful thing. If you are saved, and you have received that gift, and you will dedicate zero time to learning how to give that gospel, to learning how to, you know, just to learn a few verses, you could stand and give your family members and people that you know and love, and not even strangers, that you can't learn and take the time to learn God's word to the point where you could literally explain the gift that you received, that is a terrible thing. That is an extremely shameful thing. You know what? I've preached on this many times, these Christians that get into church, and they just like, they sell out, and we call them, what do we call them, the bottle rocket Christians, where they're just like, pop, and they last for a year, they last for two years, maybe they last for three years, but they get into church, they sell out, they learn how to soul win, they go soul winning, they get people saved, and then they just let themselves get derailed by some, they go back to Egypt to some sin, or they get derailed by some, you know, other backslidden person or whatever, and they just ruin their Christian life, look, even that person has done more than most Christians. It's crazy to even think about it. But most Christians have done and will do nothing for their life. Talk about a life worth living. A life worth living is a life spent, you know, preaching the gospel to people. In order to be a soul winner, you have to apply and observe all things, because as soon as you learn how to soul win, you've got this huge target on your back, the devil's going to try to get you into sin, he's going to try to get you back to Egypt, you have to learn the Bible, you have to study the Bible, you have to apply the Bible, because Satan's trying to get you out of church. He's trying to get you backslidden in your life, and look, he succeeds a lot with a lot of people. Why? So he can get you to stop soul winning. That's ultimately what it comes down to. People get backslidden, and I always think, don't you care about the people that are going to go to hell because you fell into some stupid sin again? Because you decided that, you know, church wasn't important for you and your family. And then they used backslidden people to get church people out of church, which blows my mind. We had a backslidden person years ago that took a third of the church out of here, was a drunk, a drug addict, took a third of the church. Wake up, is what I want to tell people. You're here, you're three to thrive, you're a soul winner, you've got to protect that. Because Satan's after you. Because what are you doing? You're living a life worth living. Well people feel sorry for people, no, no, no, you go out and you get somebody saved, you disciple them. Somebody that's backslidden, into some sin, you've got to protect yourself from people like that. Because they will derail you. Unless they're, you know, backslidden, they're just like, yeah, I'm just backslidden, but that's never how it is. That's never how it is. A life worth living, and you have to protect that because Satan is coming after it. But that's a life where you look back and you're like, you know what, and that brings me to my third point, is that everyone in this Christian life can do great things. Every person who is saved can do great things, and you know what, this is what a lot of people miss here. A lot of people miss, because a lot of people, they struggle. They struggle with raising a family, maybe they struggle with their kids, maybe they struggle with making a living, maybe they struggle in their marriage, which by the way, the Bible, if you value the Bible, it will help you in all these areas. But they struggle with all these things, and they're just like, you know what, I'm not a great Christian. You know what, I'm weak. You know what, I mess up like every single week. But now turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter number 1, if you would, 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. See, but what this struggling person doesn't realize is that this is exactly the type of person that God wants to use. I mean, the idea, but see, the problem is, what Satan plants in your head as a Christian is like, I struggle with this. I'm too weak, I've got too many problems, I've got too many issues from my past, whatever it is, and Satan plants these seeds in your head that, you know, because of those things, you can't be used greatly by God. That is the opposite of the truth. That is the opposite of what the Bible says. As a matter of fact, I preached an entire sermon series called, you know, Confounding the Wise. But the irony of that is those passages and those verses that we're going to read right now are actually about the weak. Look at verse number 26 of 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. It says, for ye see your calling, and the same theme was in chapter 3 that we just read, for ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. Think of all the people in the Bible, think of Paul, the greatest evangelist that ever lived. He stood up in front of people and he was a joke when he spoke. He literally said, I don't have a great presence, I'm not good at speaking, I mean, Moses, same thing. He's like, I don't know what to say. Jeremiah, same thing. What am I going to say? Or Samuel, same thing. What am I going to say? I'm just a kid. I don't know anything. But we're not out there talking about our own words. We're not trying to be these great orders and come up with these great poems. I'm not reading you poems here this morning. But look at this in verse number 27, it says, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. So the wise men, the mighty men of the world, God just confounds them. He doesn't want to use them. All these powerful people, these people that get up and have 60,000 people want to listen to them, God just confounds them and makes them say stupid things. He takes this guy with 165 IQ or whatever it is and he just makes them think about imaginary things that don't exist for his whole life. Like I don't want to use those people. But look at verse 28, it says God hath chosen, the end of verse 27, God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. God wants to take the weakest person. He wants to take some fisherman. He wants to take somebody who's like, he wants to take Gideon and just like knock him down to 300 people. And be like, no, I'm going to defeat the whole army with this weakness here. And the base things of the world, do you know what base means there? Base means the lowest. I want to do the greatest things, I mean this is such a great thing that Christians, look, if you read the Bible, you know this. These are the things that a person that struggles and a person that thinks they're weak and a person that thinks they can't do anything great for the Lord. The Bible is literally saying, no, no, no, God's saying it's you that I want to do great things. Why? Why is that? Well, the answer is simple folks throughout all the Bible because God doesn't want you to get all this glory for it. God wants people to look at this great thing that was done that God used you to do and say, wow, God is, God is all glory to God. He wants to use the lowest things to do the greatest things. But guess what? That's a huge opportunity for somebody that thinks, I can't do anything, I'm weak, I struggle in this Christian life and I did a whole sermon series on the whys here and I would pick wise personalities and do these sermons about how they're wicked and you should be listening to them. But really this is all about the weak, this passage. The lower someone thinks they are, because guess what God does need? God needs humility. The lower someone thinks they are, the more they can be used by God. You want to know, you want to know what you should do with your past? God says keep your hands on the pot and look forward. You want to know what you should do with your past? You should use your past to keep you humble. But that's all you should use it for. You just put it in the past, you allow it to keep you humble. You allow it to, when you get, you start getting some knowledge, you start applying the Bible to your life, you start having some blessings in your life, you don't forget where you came from. You don't forget the gunner that God found you in, but you use that to keep you humble going forward. That's how you should use your past. But the weaker you are, the more you can be used by God. Because God wants everyone to know it was him, not you. Turn to John chapter 1. We need to focus on selling these benefits of the Christian life to people. Because people are wasting their lives. Christians saved people, the vast majority, talk about a market out there, the market of saved people that are completely wasting their lives is full, it's wide open. Look at John chapter 1 and verse number 34. I just thought that this was a great phrase that Jesus says here. And he said, I saw and I bear record that this is the son of God. And the next day after John stood and two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, behold the lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them, what seek ye? They're following Jesus, don't miss that. They said unto him, rabbi, which is to say being interpreted master, where tellest thou? And he said unto them, look at this, come and see. Come and see. That's what we need to convince people after we get them saved. We need to tell them, hey, now that you're saved, you need to come and see. You need to come and see. You need to come and see how things can be different for you. You need to come and see how the Bible can change your family if you allow it to. You need to come and see how your life could be spent. Could is the key word there. You need to come and see. Look, you need to come and see what you can do for the kingdom of heaven. You need to come and see. I mean, do you love your family? You need to come and see that you can do what we are doing today. Come and see. Just look, you know, come and see. Come and see how you can leave this earth with a great spiritual heritage behind you. And guess what? If you leave this earth with a great spiritual heritage behind you, you know how it's going to be spent versus leaving all these riches and all these different things to people where you're just like, I don't even know what they're going to do with all that. Maybe all this inheritance actually ruins somebody's life. But a great spiritual heritage, I mean, literally the fact that you left a great spiritual heritage is proof that you know how it's going to be spent. It'll be spent for the kingdom of heaven. I mean, there's a reason that the Bible says, I mean, there's a reason, I mean, there's a Bible says that children's children are the crown of old men. Interesting word crown there. Children's children are the crown of old men, meaning it's the reward. Talking about a spiritual heritage that lays behind you. With generations to come behind you, as you leave this earth physically talking about, you know, the faith of their father, their grandfather, and their great grandfather. Or their mother, their grandmother, their great grandmother. Don't you know people that have that kind of heritage? Haven't you heard people speak of that type of heritage? That's the type of heritage that keeps them going in their Christian life. That's the kind of heritage that feeds them spiritually throughout generations of their family. And look, and as you leave, you're dying. As you leave, you're just joyful to meet your savior who has another crown for you. Just rewards for you. So yeah, come and see indeed. Come and see indeed. Come and see is the opposite of waste your life. And that's what we need to be selling to people after we go out and get them saved. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.