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In Ezra, so what's Ezra about? So Ezra is a story of the Jews going back into their land You know as we were studying through Jeremiah. We're seeing you know just Just prior to the captivity by the Babylonians But Ezra deals and like Nehemiah as well deals with the Jews going back into their land after a period of captivity And Ezra deals primarily with the rebuilding of the temple Okay Now notice there in verse number 16 Ezra chapter 7 verse number 16 And all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon With the freewill offering of the people and of the priests offering willingly for the house of their God Which is in Jerusalem I just want you to notice the term there the house of their God in verse number 17 that that they are amazed by speedily with this money bullocks rams lambs with their meat offerings and their drink offerings and offer them upon the altar of the House of your God Which is in Jerusalem drop down to verse number 19 The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God Those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem verse number 20 and whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God Which thou shalt shall have occasion to bestow Bestow it out of the king's treasure house just to prove to you that this chapter deals primarily with the house of God And of course, that's the rebuilt Temple that's the new temple the rebuilt temple which was not as glorious not as beautiful as Solomon's temple But it's the same temple that when Jesus Christ would come to this earth 2,000 years ago He would walk the earth and that would be the temple that he would be pointing to right That was the one that was built in Jerusalem Now, of course We're going to continue now decently and in order series and when we talk about the house of God as I talked to you on Sunday we're dealing now in the New Testament with the local church You know the local church right now the gathering together. This is the house of the Lord, you know, I was in here earlier I was in here earlier. Just preparing my sermon. I was here all by myself I could not call this building the house of God when I was here all by myself That's not the house of God as I taught you guys. It's not the building Okay, but it's the people of God that make up the church It's the people of God that make up the house of God in the New Testaments Right now with that in in mind Please go to verse number 9 Ezra chapter 7 verse number 9 and I love I love Ezra's attitude Because brethren, you know Our time is short on this earth, you know, you may live some 70 80 90 years Maybe you know Lord willing we don't know when the Lord is coming back We might live a lot shorter than that. And you know what? I don't know about you, but I want everything I do Everywhere I go every friend that I make I want it to be profitable I want it to be a good use of my time You know, I've taught before that as a as a father of 11 children at a big household Time has become more important to me than money, you know, sometimes we will say we'll do this. It will save you money Yeah, but it'll take me so much more time. Like I'd rather just pay somebody else to do it Okay, I don't care about money You know my money goes and my times important and so wherever I invest my time wherever I spend my time I want it to be profitable You know, I want it to be to be beneficial and brethren, you know We talk about the house of God when we talk about church. I want you to come to church and and and and and You know for it to be a benefit to you for it to be profitable to you The last thing I want for you brethren is to come to church and it's all vanity. It's all empty You know you do it out of practice you do it out just because you feel like that. That's something I need to do That's just you know, I tick my box because I've come to church this week, you know, but you get nothing out of church You know, it's if it's not profitable for you brethren, you know Do we really want church then like we want church me a place where we profit a place that we learn a place that we? Grow a place that we can, you know lay up treasures not just on this earth, but of course treasures in heaven That's where it's important. Right? Hey, some profit is on this earth You know going soul winning and be able to preach the gospel sometimes just just knowing that I'll be out You know got the opportunity to preach the gospel someone gets saved Sometimes it's profitable on this earth because I get encouraged I get motivated I see the Gospel the Word of God, you know still works today, but at the end of the day the prophet is in heaven You know, there are days we go out so we and we don't see anybody saved, but we don't okay Maybe we didn't you know necessarily profit on this earth But we know we've profited in heaven because we've done the works that God has asked us to do And so I'm not talking about just profiting on this earth Okay The great thing about being a Christian is that as long as we're doing God's will Even though we're not getting anything out of it in this earth. In fact many times we're called to minister We're called to serve somebody else. Hey, we might profit somebody else, but we know that our treasures are being laid up in heaven That's what's important. Okay, but I love Ezra because ever says, okay, we've rebuilt the temple Yeah, it's in this this house of God is important, you know church is important and you see here in verse number nine Ezra's attitude it says for upon the first day of the month began he to go up from Babylon and On the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem according to the good hand of his God upon him now look at verse number 10 for Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments What do you learn about Ezra before he goes to the house of God? Ezra prepares his heart He prepares himself before he goes to the house of God because he wants it to profit in what way does he want to profit? Says there to seek the law of the Lord and to do it So that's you know Yes I'm gonna prepare myself for church because I want to see what God's Word has to say to me and I want to do it Not only that it says and to teach he says look I've got it I've got to prepare myself because I also have to teach and Brethren whether it's the person in the behind the pulpit that teaches or if it's a person in the congregation That's learning things to do certain things for the house of God We have to prepare ourselves for God's house whether you're the preacher or you just can someone come in to listen And to participate of the church we need to prepare ourselves for church and so brethren I want you to come to church and I want it to profit you. I want it to be beneficial I want you to walk away from church and said man that was the best hour You know that I spent you know, this is the best place I could have been for the last hour You know, maybe I had some other things to do Maybe some other things on my mind that I had to do but thank God I came to church for that hour that hour And a half those two hours because it was beneficial. I learned something now. I know what God wants me to do Wow, you know, I was able to praise God. I was able to give God worship We want church to be a place that we profits and so we need to prepare ourselves for church and the title for the sermon This evening is how to get the most out of church how to get the most out of church And yes preaching is part of it brethren But you know what you can have the best preacher in the world behind this pulpit preaching to you every week But if you've not prepared yourself, it's not going to be beneficial You need to prepare yourself to come to church And so I've got seven points see just very practical teaching how to get the most out of church Alright now, let's turn to our Hebrews chapter 10, please Hebrews chapter 10 and verse number 25 Hebrews chapter 10 and verse number 25 And if I get passionate about this brethren it's because I love church I Love church, you know, not just because I'm preaching. I just love the people of God. I love being together with the people of God Because we deal with this world Monday to Fridays, you know, we we deal the the corruption we deal with a sin You know and it's good to be in a place We just you know where things are normal where people are normal where God's Word has been taught and we understand what is right and wrong I love I love God's house. I love his church and in Hebrew chapter 10 verse number 25 The first before we read that the first point that I have for you is do not make church attendance our decision Don't make it a decision in your life, you know, just just get into the practice Hey, it is is our normal practice every week to be in God's house every week to be in church It's just as normal as going to work. It's as normal as waking up and getting out of the pajamas and putting on clothes It's as normal as eating my breakfast It's as normal as you know, having a shave if you gave you have a shave whatever it is It's as no, you know going to church should just be a normal practice It shouldn't be honey should we go to church today that shouldn't be the way it is, you know You should already have that in your mind. It's not a decision That's where God wants me to be Hebrew chapter 10 verse number 25 not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is But exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching what we learn in this verse here is that there is a manner of some people the manner of some is it is They're a pattern in life to miss out on church You know, you kind of then maybe they turn up to church, but you kind of expect them to not be in church Like, you know for some people you expect them to always be in church You kind of have an idea, you know You know who's going to be there and when people are not in church when people don't turn up to church for two weeks Three weeks, you know you start wondering. Hey, there must be something wrong with that person. Maybe that person is sick Maybe that person's been hurt Maybe something has happened to this person and you start to be a little bit concerned because they haven't turned up to church But then there are other people that don't turn up for months and it doesn't even you know You know, we don't think about that person necessarily because we know their manner is to not be in church We know their manner is not to turn up and so it's usual for us for them not to be here But then when they do turn up, it's a surprise and say blessing You know, it's good to see brother so-and-so, but we're kind of accustomed to that person not turning up And so for some it is the manner to not turn up for church, you know for them it's a decision Do I go today? Do I not go today? Oh, I've got some other things I need to do I'm gonna prioritize that over church if we want to get the most out of church brethren don't make church attendance a decision Okay, just turn up when you know, you need to turn up and look What does that mean to forsake the assembling of ourselves together? You know, I've heard some preaching and I disagree with this some some some preachers and I look though these pastors they mean well I'm sure they mean well, but some pastors basically say if you miss one service Right you forsake in the assembly like, you know, you better be in hospital You better have like a broken arm because if you miss church you forsake in the assembly, that's that's not that that's pretty severe Okay, there are other legitimate reasons why you know, you may not turn up to church services These restrictions might be one of them. All right, but there might be a look to forsake This is what look up the dictionary. What does forsake mean? It's not complicated To forsake means to abandon or leave To abandon only where you make a decision say you know what church is not for me anymore I don't want to be in God's house, even though there are people meeting today I'm not going to go there anymore because I'm sick and tired of church. I'm gonna forsake. I'm gonna abandon church That's what it means to forsake church. If you miss a service for some legitimate reason so be it You know if there's someone in church, it doesn't turn up for service. I'm not upset with you Like I'm just the world there must mean something must have come up that was that important for them to miss church and I'd rather think best of people that I hope that was serious enough for them to have to make that decision that they Had to miss church this time, but look I'm just those are obviously the exceptions But our usual practice should be that we're just there. Hey God's house is open God's people are meeting I'm gonna be there because I want to be close to God and I want to fellowship with God's people. Okay? it's not a decision and Look it said there at the end of verse number 25 and so much the more as you see the day Approaching and I love that because we can apply that for our church. Hey when blessed our Baptist Church started meeting We were only meeting once a week when we're not You know for the midweek services We're meeting once a week and then once our brother David came on board and we're able to have another preacher there behind the pulpit Hey, we've gone to twice a week. Hey, praise God and guess what we're doing now three times a week Hey, even though more as we see the day approaching and so that's a good thing, you know Increasing the amount of times we gather together, you know And serve the Lord and worship God is a good thing and a church that's only adding services like churches They're only doing more and we're doing other things We're going soul winning on Saturdays and we've got the Fridays with the men that sometimes they're doing in the Bible studies That's tomorrow as well You know We're doing more and more because we want to learn more of what God says we want to we want to please the Lord and we Realize we live in an evil day and therefore we need to be amongst our brethren even even more so Right, and so I like that because I see that this is a church that all these you know There are people in this church that don't have a habit of forsaken God's Church But actually desire to be more and more in God's house, especially as our day becomes wicked All right now just for me a personal story, you know I grew up in a household where we basically only really went to church on Sunday mornings, you know I was I grew up in a Baptist Union Church and you know, we didn't miss church Like we went every week, but it was mainly the the Sunday mornings That was a service that we would always go to and I always wondered why do people go Sunday night? I don't understand like I've already been there because you know you get into a habit, you know, okay We went to church this morning. Why do people go at night? So I have no idea people got midweek's Well, what's that about midweek service? you know I and you know eventually I got myself into independent Baptist Church and then I started ran because I'm actually learning things and Learning things on Sunday morning. I was like man I'm gonna go tonight cuz I'm gonna learn even more right and then so I you know I developed a habit with myself and Christina we would go on Sundays We would go to the Sunday service both the morning and the evening service and then eventually You know, I think the the occasional midweek services the occasional ones about what got me going to the midweek service In fact midweek service became my favorite service You know believe it on more than Sundays and the reason I got into the midweek service and my pastor said to me Hey Kevin, would you like to preach for us one day, you know the very first time I got the opportunity to preach at church He says look, you know, there's an opportunity coming up on Wednesday. Can you come in on Wednesday and preach for us? I was like praise God, you know, I was asking God Hey God, are you gonna give me an opportunity to preach because maybe one day I'd like to become a pastor I already have those thoughts in mind. Hey this opportunity opened up and I thought okay I'm gonna go on Wednesday and I got there on Wednesday and I preached God's Word and you know It's my first time and I thought I did okay for my first time and I was excited But then I feel like a hypocrite because I like well Why did I turn up for midweek service? Because I preached and then I was like man if I'm gonna preach on Wednesdays for midweek service And I don't turn up next week for the midweek service I feel like a bit of a hypocrite and I thought I'd be embarrassed right by that So I started going to the midweek service and then I became a three times a week, you know church attending Christian right I'd go there, you know three times a week I had opportunities to preach but I found that that Wednesday was my favorite service Because the church that I was going to on Wednesdays, they would have a prayer time after the preaching Okay, and what I found during that prayer time is you know, because you go to church and you sort of hey Say hello, and you know people going about their business to have their own lives But when you get together and you start to pray for one another I started to realize man Some of these people I go to church with they've got problems. They've got hurts. They've got worries. They've got sicknesses I didn't know right. I mean, I guess I was so preoccupied in my own problems in my life I forgot that there were other people in church with issues and problems and we've got together to pray about this I found out that I started to love my brethren even more because I realized they have needs and Sometimes I can help them in their needs or if I can't help them at least I can pray for them And then what else did I find out on Wednesdays when I had a need for prayer? Hey one time when I didn't have a job Brethren, can you please pray for me? Hey, they prayed for me I got a job next week. Praise God. Hey, I had a need there was a situation and and the Brethren prayed for me I felt loved by the Brethren and so Wednesdays became my favorite because I started to love the people I started to love it wasn't just a preaching of God's Word. It wasn't just a singing It was getting together with believers and I knew they loved me and I loved them and we prayed together And so, you know what what we're going to be doing with this church Starting from next year starting January next year Our midweek services are going to be a little bit shorter in the preaching and we're going to be praying Okay, well, I'm going to be asking you guys for prayer requests. Please bring your requests Let's get into this habit of being open with one another we can share certain things so we can pray for one another Okay, that is so important. Okay All right, so point number one do not make church attendance a decision can you please turn to Psalm 119 Psalm 119 for me And I'm just going to read to you from 1st Corinthians 14 verse 40 Which is where we got the title for this series, which says let all things be done decently and in order Let all things be done decently and in order and of course the direct context of that is in church You know church ought to be a place where things are done orderly where there's order where there's decency Okay, it's not just one person getting up and preaching and one of us is I want to pray I want to break out and people just praying all over each other man. You got some of those Pentecostal churches It's a mess. It sounds like a zoo Because people are just praying on top of each other and they're not even praying in English They're praying in their gibberish language, which nobody understands Hey That's a situation where things are not done decently and in order and so the point number two that I have for you brethren is Remove all distractions. If you want to get the most out of church, you have to remove all Distractions whatever might cause chaos in church whatever may cause case of chaos in your mind You've got to set those things aside and pay attention and be focused on the house of God. Okay? Now you're turning to us someone hundred nineteen and verse number eight I just want to show you this some 119 verse. Sorry verse number 18 verse number 18. Sorry some 119 and verse number 18 look at this Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law Brethren, this is a great prayer to pray to God when you come to church ask God God Can you open my eyes because I want to see great things in the Word of God I want to learn something great today Lord, please open my eyes You know what? The Psalmist is saying here. Not the palmist Joe Biden guys saying that It's not the palmist. It's the psalmist. What is he saying? He doesn't want to be distracted He doesn't want chaos in his mind. He doesn't want things to be blurry He wants things to be clear and he asked God God, can you open my eyes? Brethren the psalmist did not want distractions when he learns God's Word and Brethren That's how we need to that's what we need to make the most out of church is remove all Distractions and Brethren, let me tell you when church service is on Please do everything to be on time or be before the time Please do that, you know when you come late to church and look some people have legitimate reasons They come late to church, especially they're traveling afar I understand, you know, but for those that are able to make it on time and you still miss out on parts of the service You know, you're not distracting me as a preacher You may not even be distracting other people in the church, but you've caused a distraction for yourself You've missed part of the service and this in the first part of the service. What are we doing? We're singing where we're giving praise to God, right? We're lifting up our hearts. We're magnifying God We're opening our mouths. We're praising God brethren and when you miss out on that, you know There's a lot of people like that. They turn up to church just in time for the preaching Well, you've caused a massive distraction for yourself because church is not just a preaching Okay church also includes the singings the singing of praises to God and you know what? There are so many great hymns in our hymn book You know a lot of these hymns are full of doctrine where you may have learned some great truth Just by singing those hymns, but you turned up late and you missed it You know, God wants to receive your worship God wants to receive your praise and when you miss out at the beginning of church, you know You you've caused a disservice for yourself, you know, you're not making the most out of church as if you turned up on time and It's not just the preaching. It's not just the singing. It might just be the prayer. It might be the opening prayer It might be when I asked brother brother Luke, could you open in a word of prayer and brother Luke touches upon something? He asked God to bless us in a certain way and that might be exactly how God Intended you to hear or to receive something from the Lord that day But Brevin we need to avoid distractions from ourselves Children it's important for our children to learn to sit still in church Okay, and look I don't expect I'm a father of many children, you know I don't expect my children to be just you know, children to be completely quiet You know whether they don't make a noise, you know, if you have children, they're gonna make noise There's going to be some element of noise Hey, but it's a good thing for children to learn to sit down and understand for the next hour I'm gonna hear God's Word for the next hour I'm gonna just settle myself so I can praise God so I can receive something from God Hey, so they're not distracted number one and others in the church are not distracted either Okay, and the best way that I found for my children to not be fidgety in church is we got them used to sitting down silently at home Listening to some level of preaching or mum opening up the Bible, you know Singing songs and you get the children used to just sitting down being still and so when they come to church They're not a distraction. Okay point number two is remove all distractions The next point that I want is on sorry within this with it within this thing If you find yourself to be easily distracted what I really recommend you to do and some people already do this Which is awesome, but what I really recommend you to do Especially if you have a desire one day to be a preacher maybe a pastor etc is write down You know bring a pen and paper, you know take down notes It's gonna help you because it's one thing to see the preacher It's one thing to listen to the preaching but you're adding another dimension to your church attendance when you write down things that you've learnt When you write down passages, maybe I've said something and you couldn't really get it but you write down the the reference of the Bible and that you can go back in your own time and look it up once Again, and look that I found for me when I would write down notes Sometimes that he helped me be focused on the preaching instead of being distracted with other things Okay, and I think that's really beneficial because especially if you do want to become a preacher one day a pastor one day You know, if you've got down your notes that you've been able to capture during preaching you're gonna have a wealth of knowledge You know that you've been able to capture that you can go back to as a resource If one day you want to teach something similar, you know, you've got all that material that you've had You know in your preparation to one day be a church pastor and so taking down notes is a great way to remove distractions Okay, another way that we can remove all distractions. Can you please turn to our James chapter 1 turn to James chapter 1 for me James chapter 1 verse number 21 James chapter 1 and verse number 21 and I've preached this before I've said it before and I feel like this is just one of the main things I want to teach this church like Brethren, if there's only one thing you learn from Pastor Kevin All right during these 12 months that I'm down here if there's only one thing that you learn say Oh, this is the thing that I really learned from Pastor Kevin. This is what I want you to learn. Okay? Confess your sins to the Lord. I Know I've said it before but I know because I'm a human being I know what it's like I know we commit sins and we forget to confess it to the Lord Oh, we become prideful and we get comfortable in our sins Or we become ashamed and we feel too ashamed to come before God and tell him of our sins But brethren this is one way to remove all distractions is to go to God and confess our sins Look at James chapter 1 verse 21 James chapter 1 verse 21 the Bible reads wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness that that's from an excess of naughtiness do this and Receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls Brethren when you come to church, I know you want to come and receive the engrafted word Do you want to receive the Word of God you want to learn something from the Word of God? Well before you can learn the Word of God, there is something you need to do It's a layer part of filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. You need to get rid of that sin out of your life You know what you come to church and you have unconfessed sin you're full of sin, you're not walking the Lord You're not gonna get the best. You're not gonna make the most out of church. I promise you that You know, the flesh is going to is going to be engorged with its own pleasures You know that the Spirit of God will be resisted. It would be withheld from helping you walk in his ways Brethren just just if there's only one thing you learn from me. Okay during these total months It was that Pastor Kevin told us we have to confess our sins to the Lord Do it every day and do it before you come to church. I do it before I get up and preach Every time I get up before I get up and preach. I'm praying Lord help me preach forgive me for the sins I've done Lord help me be a clean vessel Help me be a vessel that you can use use your spirit to work in me to help feed the people of God you know if we're just Bogged down our sins and we're just not going to Lord brethren. You're not going to be walking with him You're going to be resisting the Holy Ghost from working your life and you're not going to you're going to be blinded from the Word of God You know you can have the best preach behind the pulpit, but you're not going to be profiting from it because you're far from God Okay Confess your sins to the Lord so number one do not make church attendance a decision number two remove all distractions point number three You know can you please turn to Hebrews chapter 5 turn to Hebrews chapter 5 Hebrews chapter 5 point number three Expect to hear from God Expect to hear from God now think about this brethren if you knew That every time you come to church you would hear from God Like if that was just your expectation wouldn't that just make you be in church Like just I'm going to hear from God today Now if you get into the habit of thinking well, I'm not going to hear from God. I'm going to get I don't know You know that's when you're going to start missing church services You know but expect to hear from God if you expect to hear from God you're more likely to turn up to the house of God Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 11 Hebrews chapter 5 verse number 11 Paul here, I believe it's Paul that wrote the book of Hebrews. He's writing this to Hebrew believers He says in verse number 11 of whom we have many things to say I've got a lot to say to you. I've got a lot of praise to you all right There's a lot to be said the Bible is a big book. There's a lot to learn, but then it says here and Many things to say and had to be added seen ye a dull of hearing Brethren we're going to be careful that we don't go to church and become dull of hearing again that same Pastor Kevin's gonna preach again. I was preaching about a church attendance like Gary We really know we need to attend church listen don't become dull of hearing Pay attention open your ears ask God to open your ears that you may receive his word Why is it important to have your ears open okay expect to hear from God because in Revelation chapter 2 verse 29 It says he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches The Holy Ghost brethren the Holy Spirit is here with us today, and he wants to tell us some truths He wants to tell you certain truths right now brethren. He wants to work in your heart right now There are certain things that I'm preaching that the Holy Ghost wants you to pay attention to to have your ears open Not dull of hearing that you may receive it and grow there by All right, but if you're dull of hearing if you don't think you're going to hear from God Well, you know what you're going to miss out on some great nuggets of truth Now Brethren again with children especially with little babies you know again I know as a parent sometimes parents you know babies they throw up or they need to be fed or their diapers the nappies need To be changed or something right and sometimes mothers are doing that and they get distracted You know they've got to deal with their child or whatever well You know what I don't expect you to necessarily pay attention or or yet pay attention to every word that I say You know I don't think I'm that important. Okay. I'm not that important Okay, I'm not but you know what even when you're kind of distracted little children You know what I really encourage you to do is still pay attention even if you miss parts of it Because if there's only one nugget of truth that you've learnt it was profitable Okay, when the preacher gets behind the pool, but they may have you know five six. You know what I've got seven points right now I have seven things that is going to enrich your church attendance But if you only paid attention to one if there's only one thing that you Listen to that you got and go well if I make this change in my life I'm going to get more out of church praise God for that You know it's so many times You know when I've heard preaching I don't remember the whole sermon But usually just one or two things that was new that touched me that I oh yeah That's something I need to change and praise God for that You know because when you when you're preaching to a whole bunch of people there are different parts of a sermon That will touch people at different places right and again. It's the Holy Spirit that is working in your hearts That's you know that's teaching you certain things that you may hear the Spirit of God Now once again I said it's not just a preaching May very well be the song service as I said to you. I grew up in a Baptist Union Church Okay, and man the preaching ah it was dull. It was dull I don't know what I you know what when the preaching was on I was reading my Bible, or I was reading the hymns. I was okay. What's this him about you know? What was great about the old hymns? Is that it's like I said it's full of doctrine, and I don't know how much doctrine I probably learned as a child just reading through the hymns just oh wow that's in the Bible Is that in Bible that's in the Bible more so than the preaching Praise God here praise God, so you know what the song service is important the Holy Spirit can see Can I speak to you through song as I said someone might might pray hey the Holy Spirit might be speaking to you in that prayer Why is church attendance so important because there might be something that you've asked God you know you've gone to God and say God I have a problem. I need this answered Lord Can you get when you can you please show me this answer and maybe the Lord's put it on my heart or some of the Preachers heart to give you the answer and then you miss out on church Or you come late, and you miss out on that part the Holy Spirit wants to touch touch upon you and teach you Brethren you know what expect to hear from God if you expect to hear from God You're going to be at church on time and you're going to be paying attention Not just to the preaching, but you're going to be paying attention to the singing as well Hey even the fellowship even the fellowship, you know how many times do I come to church? You know I was flying down from Queensland brethren sometimes I get really tired. I tell you the truth coming down every week before right company. I'd be very tired I'd be very tired, but you know what by the end of the service or on what we're doing Tuesday nights at the end of Tuesday nights I was so uplifted. I was so encouraged because I was again with the believers I was in fellowship You know you guys had a smile on your face you guys encouraged me And I said hey that was profitable to come all the way to blessed up Baptist Church to preach them Okay, just the thought sometimes the Holy Spirit can speak to you in that way Where you know maybe you felt down, maybe you felt like people around you you know you feel a bit lonely Maybe you come to church, and you know what just the hello hello sister. How are you today? Hello brother? How's your week been you know just those words might be the Holy Spirit? Speaking to you to tell you that you have brothers and sisters in the Lord that love you that want to lift you That won't lift you up, and you know what you just saying hello don't Underestimate how important that is you know what someone might be coming to church a little bit down you go up to that person I'm hello brother. How are you is there anything that I can be praying for you about you know? Is there anything that I can do for you this week? Just just some simple words May be the answer that that person needed from the Lord the Holy Spirit might be working in you Right to to for that person to hear from God So point number three brethren is expect to hear from God Let's go to Romans chapter 14 now. Let's go to Romans 14 Romans 14 and verse number 19 Romans 14 and This kind of builds builds on from what I just said right, but point number four to get the most out of church is edify the body of Christ Edify the body of Christ you know when you're when you're new to church When you when you first start coming to church? You know the thought is well I want to go to church because I want to be edified like I want to hear from God And you know I want to learn his truths And I need to find a place where I can just you know feel comfortable learning God's Word I know the truth is being preached here, and you know when you're that first church going person You're kind of seeking your own edification, which is not a bad thing You know it's not bad at all But what what where you need to get to brethren is the point where you're not just being edified yourself But you seek the edification of others. That's what's going to get you the most out of church I promise you hey being edified is great, but even better than being edified is when you edify someone else It's going to make you feel better Okay Especially when you find out that brother so-and-so's go for some problem some difficulty And you were able to encourage him you were able to maybe give him a Bible verse Hey, you were just able to say brother. I'm praying for you. Just giving you in mind, and and you know you've lit up his face You know he's going to have a better week this week because you stepped in and you edified your brother Romans 14 verse 19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify another Brethren we come to church. We come here to edify one another one another you know what that means I need your edification, and you need my edification, and we need each other's edification We need to encourage each other brethren because it is not an easy life to live a Christian life. It is not easy It is it is challenging to live a Christian life. It is challenging to live a life That's pleasing to God and the same temptations the same struggles you go through I know each of my brothers and sisters are going through the same level of difficulties or some some type of challenge You know when they brother or sister suffer some type of illness I get really upset because you know I kind of say well Lord why have you looked after my body so well? Why why do I why don't I don't have pains? I don't have these chronic issues Lord and brother so-and-so is suffering sister so-and-so is suffering Lord Help me be and help me edify that brother Now you're going to get more at a church when you say hey, how can I serve my brethren at church? Hey getting the most out of church is you serving others you edifying others? I'll read to you in one sorry first Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 11 I'll just read that to you first Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 11. It says wherefore comfort yourselves together and Edify one another even as also ye do you know why we ought to come to church for comfort to comfort one another Brethren I'm sick of going to the shops and seeing the the advertisements of ladies in underwear You know I'm sick of going to to a place after place and the rock music You know going to a restaurant and the world's evil music, and you know what this world is despicable This world's crazy. We need to come to church where it's a place of refuge Where it's a place of comfort when we can you know just be with in God's house in his presence with God's people And we say hey, how can I comfort my brother? That's why we come to church don't we come to comfort we come to edify one another because we live in a wicked world We live in a wicked world and look can you please? Can you please turn to our? first Corinthians chapter 14 please turn to first Corinthians 14 I Mentioned how I want to have our midweek service become a time of prayer as well a prayer service June our midweek services you go to first Corinthians 14 And I'm going to read to you from James chapter 5 and verse number 16 James chapter 5 verse number 16 says confess your faults one to another and Pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Brethren you know what we're commanded to do we're commanded to confess our faults one to another This is not saying confess your sins one to another okay I'm not going to set up some confessional booth here, and you guys come you know Well, you don't call me father pastor Kevin What do they say? Forgive me for I have sinned and I'll be like okay my son Go and say 10 hail Mary's and you'll be right with God. That's not gonna. That's all Okay, that Roman Catholic nonsense that tradition is rubbish, but you know our faults are other things you know Like I said it might be illnesses it might be some trial or tribulation you're going through hey It might be some financial hardships You know it just it could be a variety of things You know life as I said life is not easy living a Christian life is not easy right it might be some Coworkers that you have that make your life. You know make it a hard time for your work You know these are things that we should share with one another you know be open enough and say look I've got this struggle in my life. I've got this fault in my life got this problem on my life brothers Could you please pray for me? What did it say the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much it also a pray for one other that year may be healed listen if we're not praying for one another we're not going to have healings in our times of difficulties and So it's so important that we come to a place where we feel free to share our faults again Not your sins just your trials or difficulties that you're going through so we can pray for each other encourage one another brethren You know this is how we can profits in church. Where did I ask you to turn to? first Corinthians 14 verse number three This is about the preacher it says, but he that prophesy So that's another way of saying the preacher, but here that prophesy look at this speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort Why does the preacher get behind the pulpit to edify you? Look if I step on your on your sins if I rip your face a little bit if I make you uncomfortable A little bit brethren. I'm not trying to destroy you. I don't want you to get discouraged I don't want you to walk away from church. I don't want you to walk away from the Lord I want to edify you brethren if there's something that's preached. That's and you know that's your personal sin Which is I thank God, you know Thank God for sending the Holy Spirit to speak to me in the house of God today and Lord help me make necessary changes I need to make so I can live in accordance to your ways, you know, praise God. Hey this sermon edified me Yes, it touched my sins. Yes. I felt uncomfortable Yes, maybe even a little bit offended Lord But this sermon was for my edification and I know that the preacher preached this because he loved me. That's why he preached it Preachers remember that when you get behind the pulpit, it's not just to rip everyone's face Man, I'm gonna just make everybody feel horrible about their sins. No, you know, it's to edify them Okay, what does edification what else it would say their exhortation that's motivation right and comfort comfort We're here to preach to people's comforts now You might say well, does that mean we can never preach anything negative? Please go to 2nd Corinthians go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 in verse number 10 2nd Corinthians 13 and verse number 10 Now if you know the books of Corinthians man Paul was ripping into that church I mean chapter after chapter chapter that that church was really messed up and Paul really had to you know Correct them on so many things but in 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 verse number 10 It says therefore I write these things being absent Lest being present I should use sharpness What he's saying here is look I'm hoping you get things fixed while I'm away while I'm at absence Because when I'm present if you don't fix these problems, I'm gonna use sharpness. My preaching is gonna be very sharp It's it right. It's gonna be hard preaching I'm gonna rip into you is what he's saying right if you don't get these problems fixed, but look at this According to the power which the Lord have given me to Edification and not to destruction Paul saying look if I have to use sharpness if I have to be bold and preach strongly against you and against your sins And I have to call you out for your wickedness Listen, the Spirit of God is making me do so not for your destruction But for your edification, okay, so you can learn so you can grow so you can be more Christlike So brevin point number four is to edify the body of Christ. It's the preacher's job Yes, but it's everybody's job to edify one another to comfort one another to pray for one another can you please turn to a Psalm please go to Psalm 122 in verse number one Psalm 122 in verse number one. I better hurry up I've got seven points. We're a little bit past halfway now Psalm 122 in verse number one The Bible reads I Was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord Brevin to get the most church point number five is rejoice in the Lord come to church to give God Praise that's why you come give him praise. I was glad when they sent to me. Let us go to the house Listen, I want to be glad to come to church. I want you to be happy You know, oh man church again Thursdays rolled around already I've already worked hard today sharp church I better turn up because what's pastor Kevin gonna think I'm gonna think well of you Right, but sometimes, you know, you drag the children, you know, come on kids get ready. Come on It's you know, it's our church again, you know, I was a kid. I remember being like that church again Oh man church. Oh, we're going to this church man But no when we when we when we go into church Brevin we need to come Gladly, okay. We come gladly come to rejoice in the Lord. Please go to Psalm 84 Psalm 84 verse 4 Psalm 84 and verse number 4 Psalm 84 And verse number 4 says Blessed are they that dwell in thy house. Do you believe that Brevin if you come to God's house? God's gonna bless you blessed today, right? But then it says that they will still they say they will be still Praising thee as I come to God's house. That's why we come to get the blessing of God and we come to praise God That's why you come to church make the most out of church. Don't miss out on the song service, please and Brevin when we are singing lift up your voices. I'm tired of hearing brother Luke all the time. That's a good thing I want to hear someone else So I lift up your voices Brevin start lifting them up to the Lord. So I can't sing pastor I don't care if you can't sing. Okay, God doesn't God's giving you your voice God's given some people natural talents to sing better than others Whatever and I tell you what the more you lift up your voice The better you are gonna get at singing anyway, the more you practice the better you got to be. All right No offense brother Luke Great singing, but you know, we all need to lift up our voices You want to get the most out of church lift up your voices lift them up? Alright, so I can hear I want to hear each of your voices when we sing praises to God And I'm just gonna reach you another passage and you know It kind of ties in with all of this, but I'll just quickly read it to you first Corinthians 14 verse 33 Which says for God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all Churches of the Saints, you know, God is not the author of confusion You know when you come to church another reason why I praise God at church is because sometimes I have questions Sometimes there are passages that I just don't have an answer to and the preacher gets behind the pulpit and they preach that chapter They preach that verse and now it's clear. It was once confusing now I get it and when I learn you I love learning new things already to cover that before I love learning new things at church And when I learn new things when I understand my Bible better, hey, that's an opportunity for me to praise God. Thank you God Thank you for opening my eyes. Thank you for opening my ears. Well, thank you for the preacher Who's able to look at that passage and you helped him understand it so he can teach others and that's another great reason to praise God when you learn new things and Again to the preachers that get here your job is not to make it more confusing Have you ever been to church and being more confused? I have You know pastor, you know the pastor turns to a passage. It's like oh, yeah I know that passage but the times he's finished preaching I'm like, I Don't know now. I've got more questions than I started with what's happened before Okay, but God is not the author of confusion and you know what if you're the preacher you're here to make it clear You're here to open up the understanding so people can Learn God's Word and when they learn God's Word, they're gonna praise God Hey, they might even come that they might even kind of come up to you and say thank you brother That was a great sermon. I learned something today Praise God for that how God was able to use you and when you hear that kind of words you get edified We hear fortification as well. Remember? Hey, awesome You know all that time or that all those hours or that research, you know preaching God's Word benefited somebody Hey, it's nice when that happens It's nice when people learn God's Word and we of course give God. Thanks. We rejoice in the Lord when we can learn new things Can you please turn to our first Corinthians chapter 9 so I know I've got you bouncing around everywhere in the Bible But anyway, it's good to do that once in a while first Corinthians chapter 9 please and this the sixth point that I have for you if you want to get the most out of church is Give toward the work of the church You know give of your finances so I knew pastor Kevin was all about the money This is about principle this is important. Okay, we would not have these walls painted. We would not have this floor carpeted Okay, we would not have new chairs. I don't know when they come in, but they're on the way Okay, they're on the way we would not have the live stream We would not have so many nice things reverend that we have in our church today We would not have this wonderful image that you know makes it look a lot more presentable if people weren't giving faith leads church You know when you give faithfully, you know we can do more as a church all right well on the 12th of December We're going to be doing a soul winning mega marathon guess what guess who's going to pay for the lunch The church is going to pay for the lunch All right, so you know when things come when the finances are given to the church It means we can just do more for the Lord right and and this is an important principle Already you let's go to first Corinthians 9 I was going to go to first Timothy 5, but I already covered that on Sunday, but first Corinthians chapter 9 in verse number 9 First Corinthians 9 9 it says for it is written in the law of Moses Thou shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn Doth God take care for oxen Now that is in the laws of Moses But if you're using an animal to plow the ground and to work hard you know let the animal eat You know let him get some reward for his labor, but then the question gets asked of God take care for oxen Does God really care about the animals and say well, I guess he does right it's his creation right But that's not actually why it was written in the in the laws of Moses look at verse number 10 Or say if he it all together for our sakes So say look did he say that in the law of Moses for the animals sake or for our sakes right? He says look for our sakes no doubts no doubt. It's for our sakes no doubt It's written for people not so much for the animals It says this is this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope and he that Fresh off in hope should be partaker of his hope if we have sown unto you spiritual things Is that a great thing that we that we shall reap of your carnal things? What is it saying here? Says look if you come to church And you learn spiritual things is it really that much to us that you give of your carnal things So that the preacher so that so the people that are working in the house of God can can you know live? So you know you know? Provide for himself and provide for his family and again brevin I don't really enjoy preaching this because it sounds like I'm asking for money I'm not I'm not the Lord has blessed me. I'm not asking that babe We see a great principle here that it's important to give to the house of God yes for for many things that we can do As a church, but also to provide for those that are working in the church Alright, it's not for the animals. It was for the workers and look you know I'm imparting unto you spiritual things Right what this saying is the spiritual things should clearly outweigh Some of your carnal giving right so it's so hard to give this week I don't know listen you're gonna get risk you're gonna receive spiritual lessons That outweighs any carnal things you can have brevin the spiritual things are so much more important than the carnal things the Spiritual things will allow you to live for eternity the spiritual things will teach you how to lay up treasures in heaven So you can be Christlike? Brethren that is so that outweighs anything that could you could possibly give carnally to the church But we are called to give toward the work of the church once again the more that we receive in this church the more we Can do okay, and look I'm not preaching this because we have a problem this church you know Over the over the months of the years this church has been steadily giving more and more you know the beginning It was just mainly to cover the flights And you know now I can pay myself something for preaching and I pray some other I pay some of the other men They get up to preach as well So look these are good things These are good things because those that are laboring are laboring for your profits you want to get the most out of church Hey bring some of your carnal things as well, okay? Give some some of your given and brevin that's also going to help you you know in your faith Because I know every dollar you have in your wallet every dollar you have in your bank account You you know that money can be allocated to something there's some bill coming up There's some holiday to go to and you know what lord It's going to be a bit hard to give of my of my things this week Lord But if I give to your work Lord I'm going to have to step out in faith and know that you're going to provide for me no matter what and Brethren I can testify to you as the sole income earner for a large family Okay, my wife never worked since I got married. You know in Sydney an expensive city We bought a house brethren okay I can testify to you that as long as I put God's things first and I gave faithfully to my church the Lord always gave Me more than I needed always You know my wife would fall pregnant, and I'm like Lord. How am I going to afford this new child? A few weeks later. He's a pay rise at work. Here's a promotion at work. It's like. Oh, well. That's how you're gonna Take care of it. God Go look just just do what God says just put God's things first and go to make sure you're gonna be taken care of I Promise you that I've experienced that so many people can testify of this simple truth We give to God and God gave us more than we needed all right and Lastly let's go to our Hebrews chapter 5. Please let's go to Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 12 Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 12 point number 7 Point number 7 when you come to church prepare to apply What you've heard and grow thereby Okay, prepare yourself to apply what you've heard all right Make a decision there's something that you learn there's something you have to do say God help me make that change tonight Help me make that change tomorrow morning. Don't put it off for next week. Don't put it off for next month Don't put it off for next year Brevin if you get challenged on your soul wing you know you need to preach the gospel to two people Don't say well God maybe in five years. I'll get out there and preach the gospel. Maybe in ten years I'll tell my my family about you Lord. Hey, just make a decision today I tell you look if you don't do it today. You're not going to do it Okay, just when to get the most out of church Listen and apply what you've heard, and that's what's going to help you to grow Hebrews chapter 5 verse number 12 Hebrews chapter 5 verse number 12 it says for when for the time ye ought to be teachers Paul is saying to these Hebrews listen You should be teachers by now You should be the ones leading the churches you should be the ones preaching God's Word teaching God's Word You should be the one doing that then it says here you have need that one teach you again Which be the first principles of the oracles of God and it becomes such as have need of milk and not of strong meat Brevin if you've been going to church for years For decades after decade after decade and you can't teach God's Word to others That's a problem You know what that means you've come to church, but you never applied what you learnt You probably learnt a whole bunch of things and you never applied it and now you can't even teach others And you say well, what about the ladies well mothers? You know what you are there to teach your children? Okay teach your children the Word of God You know take the things that you've learned from God's house or your own personal Bible reading and teach your children How they can love the Lord and how can they serve the Lord we all ought to become teachers All of us that have been in God's house for a period of time listening to his preaching And if you're not teaching others you know grandparents teaching the grandchildren Etc you're not not all going to stand behind a pulpit and teach right hey teaching the gospel to people Preaching the gospel we are all called to be teachers if you don't apply it Then you're going to lose it and you're going to be Someone that needs the milk like a little baby rather than be able to able to take in the strong meat of God's Word you know there's been a time where I've you know I was in Chile for three months and I didn't do any soul winning during that time and when I got back To Sydney and I started soul winning. I was so rusty. I kind of forgot my plan I kind of forgot the memory verses it was all jumbled up right because it was a period of time where I wasn't teaching God's Word anymore, and then you know after a little while I was able to get back I'll have you know get back into it and stuff like that well You know what church is no difference you might hear some great troops in church. I'm sure you've heard some great troops in church Okay, but you've forgotten it you didn't apply it or you thought well, maybe next week. I'll do it next month I'll do it Lord, and you've forgotten Okay, and you're back like that little baby. You still need the milk of word the word of God it again rather than the strong meat James chapter 1 verse 22 says, but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only Deceiving your own Selves wow you can deceive yourself how by being a hearer only oh, man I hurt so many things today at church, but you don't do it You're gonna forget it you're gonna forget the things that you learnt, and you're deceiving yourself You're thinking I'm a chill in the Lord you think I'm a great Christian I'm growing the look, but you haven't applied what you've learnt What's the point then just to hear some guy scream behind the pulpit? What's the point? You know I would rather you just take one hey I've got seven things here Just take one Brevin take one and apply that one and I promise you just if you just take one of those things You're gonna have a better time at church church is gonna be more profitable for you, okay? So let me summarize those seven things once again number one Do not make church attendance a decision number two remove all distractions number three expect To hear from God number four edify the body of Christ don't just seek your own edification You edify others right number five rejoice in the Lord. You know go to church with a happy face number six Give toward the work of the church and number seven apply what you've heard and grow okay? Let's pray