WEBVTT

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Jesus name and pray, amen.

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Man, the title of my sermon this morning

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is Putting in the Work, Putting in the Work.

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Now, we obviously talk a lot about the fact

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that salvation is not of works, right?

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For by grace are you saved through faith

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and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,

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not of works, let's say any man should boast.

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The Bible says, but to him that worketh not,

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but believeth on him that justified the ungodly,

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his faith is counted for righteousness.

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Even as David also described it,

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the blessedness of the man unto him God

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imputed righteousness without works.

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Saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven

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and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

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And so we talk a lot about that.

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We go out soul winning and we're preaching

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that message to people that salvation is by faith.

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It's not by works of righteousness which we have done,

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but according to his mercy he saved us.

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And of course in the process of talking to people about that,

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we explain to people that the works of the law,

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those are works too.

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When you're obeying commandments like,

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thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal,

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thou shalt not commit adultery,

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thou shalt not bear false witness.

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That's also called work in the Bible.

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It's not just doing good things that's works.

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It's also not doing bad things

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that is classified in the Bible as works.

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So we don't get saved by anything that we do or don't do.

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We simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

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And of course the most famous verse in the Bible

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tells us that whosoever believeth in him

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should not perish but have everlasting life.

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So we understand that being a Christian is hard work.

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If somebody said, hey, you have to be a good Christian

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in order to go to heaven.

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You have to go to church, live a good life,

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follow the commandments.

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We would say that that's a works-based salvation.

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Okay, well then here's what that means then.

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After we're saved, if we want to live a good Christian life

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by that logic, it's gonna take hard work.

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I mean, if we're gonna sit there and tell people,

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hey, living the good Christian life, that's works

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and we're not saved by works, we're saved by faith.

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Well, let's flip that over and say, okay,

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we're already saved.

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We've already believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,

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our Savior, we're going to heaven.

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Nothing could separate us from the love of God

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which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

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We have eternal life.

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No man shall pluck us out of his hand.

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But if we're gonna live a good Christian life,

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if we're gonna be good Christians,

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if we're gonna be good children of God,

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if we're gonna be effective servants of God,

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it's going to take hard work.

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We're gonna have to put work into it.

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It's gonna take effort.

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But the sad thing is that today,

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people want a Christianity that costs them nothing.

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They want to just sort of incorporate Christianity

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as this tiny part of their life,

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but anything that caused them to go out of their comfort zone

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or put in any actual hard work or effort,

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they're not interested.

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And it makes me think of back in 2 Samuel 24.

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You don't have to turn there.

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But back in 2 Samuel chapter 24,

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David needs to make an offering unto the Lord

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and this guy, Aaron of the Jebusite,

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offers to just give him everything for free.

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Everything that he needs is just gonna be gifted to him.

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But the king said unto Aaron,

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Nay, but I will surely buy it of the enterprise.

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Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God

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of that which doth cost me nothing.

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So David brought the threshing floor

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and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver.

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So we see that David there,

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he doesn't expect serving God to be free.

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Now look, salvation's free.

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Going to heaven's free.

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It's the gift of God that's eternal life

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through Jesus Christ the Lord.

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But serving God isn't free.

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Being a disciple of Jesus Christ isn't free.

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Being a good Christian isn't free.

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Being an effective servant of God

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is gonna cost you something.

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Look at Luke chapter 14 verse 25.

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The Bible says,

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and there were great multitudes with them.

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Now look, Jesus was often followed around

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by great multitudes of people, huge crowds.

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I mean, just the fact that he's feeding the 5,000

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shows that there's 5,000 people there

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listening to him preach.

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And that was just the men

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not even counting the women and children.

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On another occasion, he's preaching to the 4,000

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and he feeds the 4,000 with seven loaves and two fishes

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just like he fed the 5,000

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with five loaves and two fishes.

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And so Jesus at other times

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is preaching to an innumerable multitude.

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And this is one of those times

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when he just has great multitudes following him.

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But isn't it interesting

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that when we get to Acts chapter one,

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the actual diehards who are actually showing up

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for church in the early church,

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ready to go, ready to serve God,

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serious about their walk with God

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in Acts chapter one is only 120 people

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including women and children, right?

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So the early church in Acts one

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is 120 people including the women and children.

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That's the diehards.

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I mean, that's the people that are serious.

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There's just multitudes and multitudes following him.

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And I guarantee you that multitudes and multitudes

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got saved and are in heaven

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because the Bible talks about just thousands

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and thousands of people believing on Christ,

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getting saved, and then even getting baptized

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or just thousands and thousands of people being baptized.

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But how many people are actually panning out

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as a really serious servant of God?

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It's like 120 people that are the core

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of the diehards in Acts chapter one.

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And so look what Jesus says to the multitudes.

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Great multitudes following him in verse 25,

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but he says in verse 26,

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if any man come to me and hate not his father

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and his mother and wife and children

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and brethren and sisters,

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yea, and his own life also,

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he cannot be my disciple

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and whosoever does not bear his cross

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and come after me cannot be my disciple.

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Now does it sound to you

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like Jesus is saying,

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hey, following me is gonna cost you nothing.

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You don't have to choose.

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You don't have to sacrifice anything.

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You don't have to give up anything.

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It's gonna be easy.

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It's not gonna be hard.

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In fact, you can have it all.

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You can have it both ways.

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You can have the best of all worlds.

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You can live your best life.

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Now, is that what Jesus is saying here?

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In Luke chapter 14, no.

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He's saying the opposite.

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He's saying, look, you have to be ready

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to give up everything.

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He said, he that loveth father or mother

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more than me is not worthy of me.

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He that loveth son or daughter

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more than me is not worthy of me.

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And he that taketh not his cross

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and followeth after me is not worthy of me.

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He says in verse 28, for which of you

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intending to build a tower

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siteth not down first

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and counteth the cost,

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whether ye have sufficient to finish it.

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Lest happily after ye have laid the foundation

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and is not able to finish it,

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all that behold it begin to mock him

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saying this man began to build

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and was not able to finish

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or what king going to make war against another king

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siteth not down first and consulteth

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whether he be able with 10,000

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to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000

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or else while the other is yet a great way off,

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he senteth an ambassage

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and desire with conditions of peace.

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So likewise, whosoever he be of you

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that forsakeeth not all that he have,

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he cannot be my disciple.

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I mean, the Bible's saying,

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look, you better know going in,

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it's not going to be easy to be

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a disciple of Jesus Christ,

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to be a Christian,

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it's going to take effort,

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it's going to take hard work,

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it's going to take diligence

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and it is going to cost you

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potentially everything

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and you have to be willing

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to give up anything.

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The Bible says be thou faithful unto death

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and I will give thee a crown of life.

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Right, I mean, the Bible's crystal clear

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on this score

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that no, you can't just have it all

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and have it both ways.

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You got to choose as a trade off

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and this is what the Bible says.

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It's not necessarily going to be easy.

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You got to put in the work as a Christian.

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Go through into Romans chapter 12.

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Here's another one of the most famous passages

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in the entire Bible.

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Romans chapter 12, verse number one.

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And I'm going to start reading it as you get there.

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It says, I beseech you there for brethren

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by the mercies of God

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that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,

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holy, acceptable unto God,

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which is your reasonable service.

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And be not conformed to this world

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but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

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that you may prove what is that good

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and acceptable and perfect will of God.

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I mean, the Bible is saying here

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that you have got to lay down your life on that altar

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and be willing to give everything.

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You got to be a living, breathing sacrifice, right?

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Serving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

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I mean, this is what the Bible,

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and the Bible doesn't say

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this makes you the most radical Christian ever.

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This makes you super cool and super awesome.

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I mean, the Bible says that presenting your body

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a living sacrifice is your reasonable service.

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You know, this is considered reasonable.

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This makes sense.

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You know, if Jesus Christ died on the cross for us

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and took all of our sins

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and has given us this inheritance in heaven,

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and if we're just living on this short life

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that's like a vapor that appears for a little time

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and then vanishes away

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and then we're gonna spend eternity in heaven,

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you know, it's reasonable.

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It makes sense to expect you to make some sacrifices

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while you're here on this earth

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and especially to even present your own self

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as a living sacrifice.

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But today, what do a lot of Christians wanna do?

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They just wanna get along with everybody.

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Just get along with everybody, no strife,

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no friction, no problems, no issue.

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And look, there are people who put other things

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much higher on their regard

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than the Lord Jesus Christ and serving Him.

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You know, whether that's putting money first,

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what does the Bible say?

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You can't serve God and mammon, right?

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They maybe put their fame and their prestige

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or their good reputation or getting along with people.

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Maybe that's number one to them.

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That's what they care about the most

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because what's the Bible say?

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A good name is rather to be chosen than silver.

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I mean, people would rather have respect and honor

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and a good reputation many times than even money.

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But you know what the Bible says?

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Jesus Christ made Himself of no reputation

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and took upon Him the form of a servant

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and was made in the likeness of man

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and being found in fashion as a man.

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He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death,

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even the death of the cross.

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And you know what he just said a couple of verses earlier?

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Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

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All right, so we've got to be willing to understand

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that no, we're not gonna put money first.

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No, we're not gonna put people liking us first.

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And a lot of people will say,

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yeah, but we gotta put family first.

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It's family first.

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But what did Jesus say here?

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I mean, Jesus just finished telling us

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that you know what, no.

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He says, you know, in comparison

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to how much you love God,

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you got to be willing to hate family.

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And I didn't make that up.

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That's literally in the Bible, those exact words

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in Luke chapter 14.

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That's what the Bible says.

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He says, he that love a son or daughter more than me

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is not worthy of me.

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I mean, one of the most famous stories in the Bible

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is in the book of Genesis

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when Abraham is asked to sacrifice Isaac

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in Genesis chapter 22,

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ultimately picturing God the Father

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sacrificing the Lord Jesus Christ,

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sending the Son to be the savior of the world.

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And of course, he didn't actually

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have to sacrifice Isaac

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because God provided himself a lamb for the sacrifice.

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And Jesus Christ is the sacrifice

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that takes away the sin of the world.

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But the idea was that Abraham was being tested

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and he had to show that his commitment to God

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was greater than his commitment to family,

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greater than his commitment to his son.

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It's funny, I had a pastor just tell me

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right to my face and say,

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well, I know Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son,

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but I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice my family

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for ministry, family just comes first.

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Well, then you don't belong in the pulpit.

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You don't belong as a pastor.

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And here's the thing, it'd be one thing

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for some layman to say that

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or emphasis on lame, okay?

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But it'd be one thing for a woman to say that,

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like, oh, I'm a mother and I just can't imagine,

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or a layman or something.

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But it's like, you're the pastor of the church.

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That's Genesis.

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That's what the Bible says.

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That's what Luke 14 says.

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You should have counted the cost

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before getting into the ministry.

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You shouldn't get into the ministry

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and pastor if you want to pay nothing.

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Look what the Bible says in Mark chapter four.

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Flip over to Mark chapter four.

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Mark chapter number four.

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And so here's the bottom line.

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Lame Christians, they're willing to sacrifice nothing

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and they're immediately offended

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whenever any persecution comes.

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Look at Mark chapter four, verse 16.

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The Bible talks about people like this

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in the parable of the sower.

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It talks about them being the ones

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who are sown on stony ground.

13:18.620 --> 13:19.400
And you know what's funny

13:19.920 --> 13:22.200
is that often God's people

13:22.200 --> 13:24.420
and especially preachers of God's word

13:24.420 --> 13:27.820
will often be accused of being hard-hearted

13:27.820 --> 13:30.840
or being mean, oh, this preacher's too mean.

13:31.280 --> 13:33.600
And he's just so hard and so cold.

13:34.380 --> 13:35.540
Part of that is just because

13:35.540 --> 13:38.900
as a leader, sometimes you have to do hard things

13:39.320 --> 13:40.840
and you have to say hard things.

13:41.380 --> 13:43.080
And here's the thing, sometimes you have to preach

13:43.080 --> 13:46.500
some cold hard truths without getting emotional

13:46.500 --> 13:48.980
and rejecting what the Bible says because of emotion.

13:49.880 --> 13:51.700
But at the end of the day,

13:52.060 --> 13:54.480
you know who God actually classifies

13:54.480 --> 13:57.460
as the one who is hard-hearted

13:58.060 --> 14:00.900
is the lame Christian who quits when things get hard

14:00.900 --> 14:03.480
and quits in persecution because the Bible says here

14:03.480 --> 14:07.440
that they which are sown on stony ground,

14:08.280 --> 14:11.140
it says who when they have heard the word,

14:11.460 --> 14:13.780
immediately they receive it with gladness

14:13.780 --> 14:15.840
and have no root in themselves.

14:16.440 --> 14:19.200
And so endure but for a time afterward

14:19.200 --> 14:21.120
when affliction or persecution arises

14:21.120 --> 14:23.780
for the word's sake, immediately they're offended.

14:24.120 --> 14:26.100
So you know who are the stony people?

14:26.540 --> 14:28.200
You know who's got the stony heart

14:28.680 --> 14:30.620
is the people who get immediately offended

14:30.620 --> 14:32.180
by persecution and quit immediately.

14:33.880 --> 14:36.120
Right, I mean, according to the Bible,

14:36.500 --> 14:38.680
the productive soul-winning Christians

14:38.680 --> 14:42.800
are the ones whose heart is a good, fertile, soft,

14:42.940 --> 14:46.680
receptive soil that's actually receiving the word

14:46.940 --> 14:49.620
and understanding it and loving it

14:49.620 --> 14:50.900
and bringing forth fruit.

14:51.100 --> 14:53.360
That's actually the tender heart right there

14:53.360 --> 14:56.280
that's actually successfully doing the work of God.

14:57.400 --> 15:00.660
The stony hearted person is actually the person

15:00.660 --> 15:03.660
who shows up, yay, yeah, it's so fun

15:03.660 --> 15:05.080
coming to Faithful Word Baptist Church.

15:05.260 --> 15:06.740
And then as soon as there's a problem,

15:07.040 --> 15:08.140
as soon as things get difficult,

15:08.420 --> 15:09.220
as soon as things get hard,

15:09.440 --> 15:10.540
they're just immediately offended.

15:11.340 --> 15:13.700
Just by and by they're offended, they're gone.

15:15.040 --> 15:16.340
And you know what's funny too

15:16.340 --> 15:18.640
is that people expect the pastor

15:19.120 --> 15:21.780
to continue preaching no matter what, right?

15:21.920 --> 15:23.340
No matter what I go through,

15:23.740 --> 15:25.240
no matter what persecutions,

15:25.540 --> 15:27.900
no matter what torture I endure,

15:28.420 --> 15:31.380
I am expected to keep going no matter what, right?

15:31.560 --> 15:33.180
I just gotta keep on going and continue.

15:33.480 --> 15:34.920
But then it's funny how church members

15:34.920 --> 15:37.220
will just quit for no reason,

15:37.580 --> 15:39.680
not even say anything, you know what I mean, right?

15:40.180 --> 15:42.400
I have to continue until death,

15:42.700 --> 15:44.200
but what about y'all, you know,

15:44.260 --> 15:45.740
are you guys in it to win it?

15:45.880 --> 15:48.080
Are you just gonna be immediately offended?

15:48.500 --> 15:49.700
And you know, let me tell you something.

15:50.120 --> 15:52.980
Why do people leave a church like ours

15:52.980 --> 15:56.020
and go to some lame do nothing church?

15:56.020 --> 15:56.900
I'll tell you why

15:56.900 --> 15:58.620
is because they don't want to put in the work.

15:59.020 --> 15:59.800
They're lazy.

16:00.940 --> 16:02.200
Now look, the church does,

16:02.340 --> 16:05.440
this church doesn't actually require anyone to do work,

16:05.520 --> 16:08.720
but Jesus does and this church is gonna get up

16:08.720 --> 16:10.540
and remind you of that and preach that

16:10.540 --> 16:12.420
and tell you that we're not just gonna get up

16:12.420 --> 16:15.360
and tell you, hey, we got the coffee bar out in the lobby.

16:15.700 --> 16:16.900
Isn't God good?

16:17.460 --> 16:18.720
Isn't life good?

16:19.240 --> 16:20.640
Isn't family good?

16:21.240 --> 16:22.660
Isn't it so great?

16:23.040 --> 16:25.820
You know, and just hands across the water

16:25.820 --> 16:29.740
and all you need is love, everybody!

16:31.080 --> 16:35.540
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

16:35.560 --> 16:37.120
Oh wait, that's not even a hymn, I forgot.

16:37.520 --> 16:42.020
That's a song by a bunch of Christ-rejecting,

16:42.020 --> 16:45.120
fricking quasi-Hindu, whatever, rock and rollers.

16:47.460 --> 16:50.120
You see, at the end of the day, okay,

16:50.120 --> 16:53.960
the real big boy church is gonna preach the word of God

16:54.300 --> 16:56.480
and it's gonna place some demands on you.

16:56.680 --> 16:58.040
Not, nobody's enforcing anything,

16:58.220 --> 17:00.120
but it's just, the Bible is demanding.

17:00.660 --> 17:02.500
Living sacrifice, let's go!

17:03.540 --> 17:06.980
Church down the street that has, you know,

17:07.600 --> 17:10.380
rounded to zero salvations per capita,

17:11.140 --> 17:13.620
if you do the math, okay?

17:13.920 --> 17:18.320
Yeah, it's super comfortable, yay, fun, nice, pretty,

17:18.960 --> 17:23.700
shiny, okay, but is it really about following Christ?

17:24.660 --> 17:28.000
Or is it really just about, hey, let's just grind it out

17:28.000 --> 17:31.280
and let's just kind of put in the time and get it done.

17:31.380 --> 17:33.820
Now, I wanna go into some specific things

17:33.820 --> 17:35.140
that are hard work today.

17:35.740 --> 17:38.500
Go, if you would, to 1 Timothy, chapter five.

17:38.780 --> 17:41.300
Because remember, we said this,

17:41.740 --> 17:44.540
that salvation's not by works.

17:45.820 --> 17:48.300
And so you don't have to do any work to be saved.

17:49.420 --> 17:51.060
But that to be a good Christian,

17:51.680 --> 17:52.700
you're gonna have to work hard.

17:52.780 --> 17:53.800
You say, well, Pastor Anderson,

17:55.240 --> 17:57.120
I just don't feel like a very good Christian.

17:57.300 --> 17:59.180
I just don't think I'm a very good Christian.

17:59.480 --> 18:00.920
I'm a little disappointed with myself

18:00.920 --> 18:02.720
and I think that we all feel that way at times, right?

18:03.140 --> 18:04.960
We're a little bit disappointed with ourselves

18:04.960 --> 18:07.280
and thinking like, man, I should be a better Christian.

18:07.740 --> 18:09.040
I should be a better person.

18:09.600 --> 18:12.000
I should be a better husband, wife.

18:12.360 --> 18:13.840
I should be a better child.

18:14.300 --> 18:14.660
Whatever.

18:15.020 --> 18:16.700
I should be a better brother, sister.

18:16.920 --> 18:18.060
I should be a better friend.

18:18.420 --> 18:19.620
I should be a better employee.

18:20.260 --> 18:21.700
I should be a better church member.

18:22.020 --> 18:22.480
I should be whatever.

18:22.640 --> 18:25.740
We all feel sometimes like, man,

18:26.560 --> 18:28.320
I just wish I were a better Christian.

18:28.600 --> 18:29.860
At least I hope you feel that way.

18:32.060 --> 18:33.900
And you might be sitting here this morning thinking,

18:34.020 --> 18:36.200
man, I know I'm not that great of a Christian

18:36.200 --> 18:37.540
and I'd like to do better.

18:37.920 --> 18:38.900
Well, let me just tell you,

18:39.020 --> 18:41.960
it's gonna take hard work to become a better Christian.

18:41.960 --> 18:43.260
I mean, being a good Christian

18:43.860 --> 18:47.020
doesn't happen without effort, okay?

18:48.340 --> 18:50.920
So athletes don't just get good at their sport

18:50.920 --> 18:53.300
without training, okay?

18:53.480 --> 18:54.880
People don't learn a foreign language

18:54.880 --> 18:56.480
in just five minutes a day,

18:56.600 --> 18:58.700
just watching TV in Spanish.

18:58.940 --> 19:00.920
I tried that as a kid, it didn't work, okay?

19:01.600 --> 19:03.840
I watched a bunch of Spanish TV, I didn't learn Jack.

19:04.740 --> 19:05.720
At the end of the day,

19:06.380 --> 19:09.680
you gotta work at anything in life

19:10.500 --> 19:11.920
to get good at your job.

19:12.260 --> 19:14.580
You gotta work hard to study,

19:14.760 --> 19:16.440
learn anything you gotta work hard

19:16.440 --> 19:19.120
in order to develop any kind of skill or discipline.

19:19.340 --> 19:22.540
I don't care if you're a ballerina or lifting weights.

19:22.780 --> 19:24.080
It's all gonna take work.

19:25.020 --> 19:26.400
And the Christian life is no different.

19:26.700 --> 19:27.920
You're gonna have to put in the work

19:27.920 --> 19:29.520
in order to succeed as a Christian.

19:30.180 --> 19:31.260
And so point number one,

19:31.620 --> 19:33.220
and you gotta be willing to pay a price.

19:34.060 --> 19:35.020
You gotta make sacrifices.

19:35.700 --> 19:36.840
Point number one is this,

19:36.840 --> 19:38.960
reading the Bible is hard work.

19:39.820 --> 19:41.540
Reading the Bible is work.

19:42.100 --> 19:44.060
You can't just expect Bible reading

19:44.520 --> 19:47.580
to just be super easy, phone it in.

19:47.900 --> 19:49.840
No, you gotta put some effort and some work

19:49.840 --> 19:50.740
into reading the Bible.

19:52.260 --> 19:54.360
Let's look what the Bible says in 1 Timothy.

19:54.640 --> 19:55.760
Did I return to 1 Timothy 5?

19:56.240 --> 19:57.160
Look at verse 17.

19:57.840 --> 20:00.340
It says, let the elders that rule well

20:00.820 --> 20:02.940
be counted worthy of double honor,

20:03.480 --> 20:05.200
especially they who watch this,

20:06.540 --> 20:08.960
labor in the word and doctrine.

20:09.140 --> 20:11.720
Now doctrine is referring to teaching.

20:11.960 --> 20:14.200
Doctrine and teaching are synonymous.

20:14.320 --> 20:16.260
Just a fancy word for teaching.

20:16.440 --> 20:18.660
So if we say, what are the doctrines of the church?

20:18.800 --> 20:20.880
We're saying, what are the teachings of the church?

20:20.980 --> 20:22.160
What is the church teaching?

20:22.940 --> 20:24.220
The doctrines of the Bible

20:24.220 --> 20:26.020
are the things that the Bible teaches.

20:26.320 --> 20:27.400
And so the Bible says here,

20:27.440 --> 20:30.920
especially they who labor in the word and doctrine,

20:30.920 --> 20:33.580
the word and doctrine has to do with number one,

20:33.920 --> 20:35.680
first of all, learning the word,

20:35.920 --> 20:38.840
that's laboring in the word, studying, reading,

20:39.200 --> 20:41.480
study to show thyself approved unto God,

20:41.880 --> 20:44.380
a workmen that needed not to be ashamed,

20:44.560 --> 20:45.680
rightly dividing the word of truth.

20:46.060 --> 20:48.060
And then doctrine is teaching,

20:48.200 --> 20:50.160
so it's like the input and the output.

20:51.220 --> 20:53.540
So you're laboring as a pastor,

20:53.640 --> 20:55.240
you're laboring to take in the word

20:55.240 --> 20:57.660
and then you're laboring to output the word,

20:57.820 --> 20:58.580
to teach the word.

20:59.000 --> 21:00.180
This is considered work.

21:00.180 --> 21:02.980
Also in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, it says this,

21:03.560 --> 21:05.460
and further by these, my son be admonished

21:05.780 --> 21:07.340
of making books there is no end

21:07.340 --> 21:10.840
and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

21:11.620 --> 21:15.040
The Bible says much study is a weariness of the flesh.

21:15.160 --> 21:18.100
Now look, anybody who's actually done serious study

21:18.100 --> 21:19.420
knows that it's exhausting.

21:20.240 --> 21:21.020
It's tiring.

21:21.600 --> 21:24.260
If you're memorizing things, studying things,

21:24.440 --> 21:26.880
whether it's memorizing scripture, reading,

21:27.560 --> 21:29.780
cramming for a test or learning something,

21:30.380 --> 21:32.140
much study is a weariness of the flesh.

21:33.420 --> 21:34.140
It's exhausting.

21:35.040 --> 21:36.420
Reading the Bible is hard work.

21:37.460 --> 21:38.060
But you know what?

21:38.160 --> 21:39.380
God commands us to read our Bible.

21:40.000 --> 21:41.360
We need to read the Bible every day.

21:41.900 --> 21:43.280
Man does not live by bread alone,

21:43.500 --> 21:45.960
but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.

21:46.320 --> 21:47.760
Why don't you put some effort,

21:47.940 --> 21:49.280
if you wanna be a good Christian,

21:49.620 --> 21:50.680
part of being a good Christian

21:50.680 --> 21:51.880
is knowing what the Bible says.

21:52.980 --> 21:54.200
You know, I'm part of the reason why

21:54.200 --> 21:55.920
some people get offended by my preaching

21:55.920 --> 21:57.200
is because they don't know what the Bible says.

21:58.220 --> 22:01.480
Part of the reason why pastors are preaching weak,

22:01.960 --> 22:03.880
lame sermons that are doctrinally incorrect

22:03.880 --> 22:06.420
is because they just don't know what the Bible says

22:06.420 --> 22:09.440
because they didn't put in the hours and hours

22:09.440 --> 22:11.240
and hours and hours of study

22:11.240 --> 22:13.540
to learn what the Bible says.

22:15.220 --> 22:18.060
Look, at a minimum, you should be reading the Bible

22:18.060 --> 22:18.760
once a year.

22:19.380 --> 22:21.260
That's only 15, 20 minutes a day.

22:22.260 --> 22:25.380
But how about getting some labor in the word?

22:25.860 --> 22:27.220
You know, and there can be times.

22:27.600 --> 22:29.380
And look, I do think you should have a routine

22:29.380 --> 22:33.100
that's reasonable and sustainable that you can manage.

22:33.300 --> 22:35.760
Like you don't wanna just have some insane reading goal

22:35.760 --> 22:38.640
and then you just get frustrated and you can't do it.

22:39.220 --> 22:41.280
But you know what, why not set aside

22:41.700 --> 22:43.880
a basic Bible reading time every day

22:43.880 --> 22:45.220
just something really reasonable,

22:45.620 --> 22:47.500
something easy where there's no excuse

22:47.500 --> 22:50.980
not to put in that 15, 20 minutes, just super reasonable.

22:51.300 --> 22:52.460
But you know what, there's nothing wrong

22:52.460 --> 22:54.440
with every once in a while when you got some extra time,

22:54.440 --> 22:56.600
when you're sitting around with nothing to do.

22:56.780 --> 22:58.780
Why not actually go on a marathon

22:59.160 --> 23:00.420
and read for a couple hours?

23:01.620 --> 23:03.680
You know, I'm not saying you're gonna do that every day,

23:03.680 --> 23:06.040
but what's wrong with just a Bible reading marathon

23:06.400 --> 23:08.100
where you do the Twilight Zone marathon,

23:08.380 --> 23:09.320
you do the Superman marathon.

23:09.480 --> 23:12.420
Okay, that was 30 years ago, but 40 years ago.

23:12.740 --> 23:13.780
But you know, it's like people go

23:13.780 --> 23:16.720
and sit and watch a movie for three hours, four hours,

23:16.900 --> 23:20.000
and people will read books for hours and hours.

23:20.340 --> 23:22.100
There's nothing wrong with just sitting down

23:22.520 --> 23:24.040
and just reading a whole book of the Bible.

23:25.480 --> 23:27.780
You know, there's nothing wrong with just sitting down

23:27.780 --> 23:29.900
and just doing some extra bowery.

23:30.100 --> 23:31.620
I remember one time when I was a teenager,

23:32.200 --> 23:35.980
I showed up for Sunday school on a Sunday morning

23:36.680 --> 23:40.620
and they announced, hey, we're doing a thing

23:40.620 --> 23:43.140
on the Book of Revelation, you know, it's a new series.

23:43.220 --> 23:44.220
And I was excited about it.

23:44.360 --> 23:46.280
I just went home and just read the Book of Revelation

23:46.840 --> 23:47.640
that afternoon.

23:48.000 --> 23:49.520
Just as a worldly teenager,

23:49.720 --> 23:51.040
I just read the Book of Revelation

23:51.040 --> 23:53.080
and it only takes to read the Book of Revelation

23:53.080 --> 23:55.920
like maybe about an hour, a little more than an hour.

23:56.120 --> 23:57.660
It's not a very long book.

23:57.860 --> 24:02.320
I believe it's 303 verses or maybe it's 404.

24:02.580 --> 24:03.760
Yeah, that sounds more right.

24:04.000 --> 24:05.960
Yeah, it's 404 verses.

24:06.740 --> 24:09.260
It's not that big of a deal, you know,

24:09.340 --> 24:10.660
to just sit down and read the Bible

24:11.140 --> 24:12.800
and crank it out from time to time.

24:13.040 --> 24:14.560
But you know, reading the Bible is hard work,

24:14.620 --> 24:17.540
but number two, you know, prayer is hard work.

24:18.640 --> 24:20.320
And look, I'm backing this up from the Bible.

24:20.320 --> 24:22.240
Go through it to Colossians chapter four.

24:22.640 --> 24:23.800
Go to Colossians chapter four.

24:23.900 --> 24:25.640
We said, Bible reading is hard work.

24:25.920 --> 24:26.480
How do I know that?

24:26.560 --> 24:29.980
Because the Bible talks about laboring in the word, right?

24:30.080 --> 24:31.340
It talks about how much studies

24:31.340 --> 24:32.620
the weariness of the flesh,

24:32.960 --> 24:35.200
putting in the work of studying the Bible.

24:35.560 --> 24:37.800
That diligence is gonna take effort.

24:38.100 --> 24:41.440
But number two, prayer is hard work.

24:42.480 --> 24:44.740
Look at Colossians chapter four verse 12.

24:45.100 --> 24:47.740
It says, Epiphras, who is one of you,

24:47.900 --> 24:49.460
a servant of Christ, saluted you.

24:50.860 --> 24:53.460
Always laboring, and the word labor itself

24:54.060 --> 24:56.160
is not just any kind of work.

24:56.300 --> 24:58.940
The word labor itself implies that this is hard work.

25:00.000 --> 25:01.640
You know, if somebody was doing an easy job,

25:01.720 --> 25:03.220
you wouldn't call them a laborer

25:03.220 --> 25:05.440
or saying that they're laboring, okay?

25:06.440 --> 25:10.240
It says here, always laboring fervently for you

25:10.240 --> 25:14.500
in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete

25:14.500 --> 25:16.600
in all the will of God.

25:17.040 --> 25:20.180
Now with that, Romans chapter 15 verse 30 says,

25:20.320 --> 25:23.080
Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake

25:23.080 --> 25:24.200
and for the love of the Spirit,

25:24.640 --> 25:27.640
that you strive together with me

25:27.640 --> 25:30.440
in your prayers to God for me.

25:31.040 --> 25:33.700
And so he's saying, strive with me in prayer.

25:33.920 --> 25:34.840
What does it mean to strive?

25:35.240 --> 25:37.500
Well, the verb strive, here's a noun

25:37.500 --> 25:38.460
to go with that, struggle.

25:39.440 --> 25:41.760
You know, he's saying that prayer is a struggle.

25:43.300 --> 25:45.220
You're struggling, you're laboring,

25:45.220 --> 25:46.900
it's work, it's difficult.

25:47.140 --> 25:49.260
If it were easy, everybody'd be doing it.

25:50.660 --> 25:51.940
And look, we talked about recently,

25:52.420 --> 25:55.860
there are pastors who haven't read the Bible cover to cover

25:55.860 --> 25:57.980
or they've only read it cover to cover once, twice,

25:58.520 --> 26:00.040
and they've been in the ministry for years.

26:00.500 --> 26:01.860
This is out there, my friend.

26:02.400 --> 26:04.220
And look, a lot of pastors,

26:04.440 --> 26:05.880
that's the problem with their preaching

26:06.440 --> 26:09.060
is just having only read the Bible a handful of times,

26:09.160 --> 26:10.540
they don't know what they're talking about.

26:11.800 --> 26:14.280
And not only that, not only did I have the information

26:14.860 --> 26:16.360
that is studied from the Bible,

26:16.700 --> 26:18.560
but they also don't have the spirit of the Bible.

26:19.080 --> 26:20.120
You know, because it's like,

26:20.160 --> 26:21.900
if you read the whole Bible over and over again,

26:21.940 --> 26:23.480
you start getting a feel for like,

26:23.580 --> 26:25.300
okay, I'm getting the gist of this,

26:25.620 --> 26:27.080
I can see what God's doing,

26:27.500 --> 26:28.960
I can see what God's saying,

26:29.240 --> 26:30.700
I can see what God means,

26:31.040 --> 26:33.880
I can see what things are like from his perspective.

26:34.220 --> 26:36.140
Look, we have the mind of Christ

26:37.200 --> 26:39.000
by being able to read the word

26:39.000 --> 26:41.660
and know what he thinks about everything.

26:42.520 --> 26:44.720
But if you're just barely touching on the Bible

26:44.720 --> 26:46.660
and just getting worldly opinions all day,

26:46.940 --> 26:50.240
then no surprise when you have all these worldly takes

26:50.240 --> 26:51.700
that contradict the word of God.

26:51.940 --> 26:53.340
Then Pastor Anderson gets up

26:53.340 --> 26:54.840
and preaches something hard from the Bible

26:54.840 --> 26:55.440
and you're just like,

26:55.700 --> 26:59.140
oh, it's like, bro, hast thou read?

26:59.800 --> 27:01.060
Have you not read?

27:01.580 --> 27:02.920
How read is thou, friend?

27:03.600 --> 27:05.040
You got a labor in the reading

27:05.040 --> 27:06.660
and you got a labor in prayer.

27:07.040 --> 27:07.860
Prayer is work.

27:09.280 --> 27:10.680
You know, prayer is work.

27:11.660 --> 27:13.280
You know, there's even a famous saying like that.

27:13.340 --> 27:14.740
It's probably from some Catholic or something,

27:15.040 --> 27:15.420
but you know,

27:16.860 --> 27:19.160
laborare estorare, you know, or whatever.

27:19.480 --> 27:24.400
But I'm telling you that it's not easy to pray,

27:24.760 --> 27:27.540
it takes effort, it takes work, it takes diligence,

27:27.780 --> 27:30.540
and it's something that's really easy to neglect

27:30.540 --> 27:32.380
because you're just too lazy to do it.

27:33.100 --> 27:34.680
Right, I mean, because it's work,

27:34.820 --> 27:35.880
you gotta work at praying.

27:39.080 --> 27:41.680
But not only that, soul winning is hard work.

27:42.560 --> 27:44.720
Go through it to Philippians chapter four.

27:44.980 --> 27:46.240
Philippians chapter four,

27:47.080 --> 27:48.760
still in the epistles of Paul here,

27:48.920 --> 27:50.160
Philippians chapter number four.

27:50.680 --> 27:52.120
Bible reading is hard work.

27:53.040 --> 27:54.500
Otherwise everybody'd be doing it.

27:55.200 --> 27:56.940
Prayer is hard work.

27:58.080 --> 27:59.720
You know, just taking that time

28:00.240 --> 28:02.560
and just clearing your mind of other things

28:02.560 --> 28:06.340
and focusing and talking to the Lord in prayer

28:07.300 --> 28:08.700
and putting in the effort

28:09.080 --> 28:10.940
to have that conversation with God

28:10.940 --> 28:13.180
and speak to God in prayer, it takes work.

28:13.800 --> 28:15.560
But look, if you wanna be a good Christian,

28:15.680 --> 28:16.980
you gotta work to be a good Christian.

28:17.660 --> 28:18.860
How are you gonna be a good Christian

28:18.860 --> 28:20.520
if you don't read the Bible and you don't pray?

28:21.580 --> 28:23.360
I mean, what does it even mean to be a good Christian?

28:23.560 --> 28:24.860
Right, you gotta read the Bible,

28:24.980 --> 28:26.120
you gotta pray, that's part of it.

28:27.460 --> 28:28.840
And soul winning's part of it too.

28:29.280 --> 28:30.420
And soul winning's hard work.

28:32.280 --> 28:34.200
Philippians chapter four, verse three says this,

28:34.360 --> 28:36.380
I entreat the also true yoke fellow.

28:36.820 --> 28:38.700
And this whole phrase, yoke fellow,

28:38.780 --> 28:42.000
it's kind of an odd phrase to our ears in 2026.

28:42.740 --> 28:45.240
But a yoke fellow, yoke is something

28:45.240 --> 28:48.020
that attaches two animals together

28:48.020 --> 28:49.820
so that they can work together.

28:50.300 --> 28:52.840
And so that they can actually pull the plow

28:52.840 --> 28:55.400
and that their muscle and strength and effort

28:55.400 --> 28:57.200
can go toward the same goal

28:57.200 --> 28:58.460
so that they're not going in different directions.

28:58.460 --> 29:00.640
They're yoked up so that they can pull

29:00.640 --> 29:01.480
in the same direction.

29:02.120 --> 29:04.100
And so he says, yoke fellow,

29:04.540 --> 29:06.780
he's saying, look, you're my fellow laborer.

29:06.880 --> 29:08.700
And that's a term that Paul uses all the time

29:08.700 --> 29:10.300
in scripture too, fellow laborer.

29:10.880 --> 29:12.680
Yoke fellow, you're in the yoke with me,

29:12.760 --> 29:14.800
we're working hard together, we're laboring.

29:15.240 --> 29:17.160
He says, help those women

29:18.220 --> 29:20.420
which labored with me in the gospel.

29:20.780 --> 29:24.480
Now look, women are not supposed to pastor churches,

29:25.020 --> 29:26.960
they're supposed to keep silence in the church,

29:26.960 --> 29:29.360
they're not preaching and teaching the word of God

29:29.360 --> 29:31.460
or having any kind of a public ministry.

29:31.560 --> 29:33.120
They're supposed to be silent, the Bible says.

29:33.480 --> 29:37.400
But here's the thing, women are greatly used by God

29:37.400 --> 29:39.880
to go soul winning, to win souls.

29:40.060 --> 29:41.160
All throughout scripture,

29:41.580 --> 29:44.000
they're out preaching the gospel to the lost.

29:44.440 --> 29:46.700
In Acts chapter two in the famous passage

29:46.700 --> 29:47.620
on the day of Pentecost,

29:48.220 --> 29:51.080
God had promised that he would pour out of his spirit

29:51.550 --> 29:54.560
upon the young men and upon the handmaidens

29:54.560 --> 29:55.880
and that they would prophesy.

29:55.880 --> 29:58.060
And so there were people soul winning

29:58.060 --> 30:00.260
in Acts chapter two from the early church

30:00.260 --> 30:02.080
and it wasn't just the men, it was the women

30:02.560 --> 30:04.540
preaching the gospel and the spirit of the Lord

30:04.540 --> 30:07.080
came upon them and they were able to miraculously

30:07.080 --> 30:09.540
preach the gospel to people in languages

30:09.540 --> 30:10.580
that they didn't even speak

30:10.580 --> 30:12.300
and that they were able to communicate

30:12.300 --> 30:14.060
with these pilgrims that had come

30:14.060 --> 30:16.620
from all over the world to worship at Jerusalem

30:16.620 --> 30:18.560
so that the gospel could go throughout the world.

30:18.860 --> 30:22.120
And so here again, the apostle Paul is acknowledging

30:22.720 --> 30:25.900
that there are women who are laboring with him,

30:25.900 --> 30:27.960
not just doing menial work,

30:28.100 --> 30:29.600
but actually laboring with him what?

30:30.040 --> 30:32.240
In the gospel, right?

30:32.320 --> 30:33.780
They're actually preaching the gospel.

30:33.980 --> 30:35.940
They're actually doing soul winning.

30:36.060 --> 30:36.860
They're doing evangelism.

30:37.020 --> 30:38.220
He says, help those women

30:38.220 --> 30:40.360
which labored with me in the gospel,

30:40.620 --> 30:43.940
with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers

30:43.940 --> 30:45.980
whose names are in the book of life.

30:46.240 --> 30:49.540
And so again, laboring in the gospel

30:49.540 --> 30:51.640
shows you that soul winning is hard work.

30:51.640 --> 30:52.420
Soul winning is labor,

30:52.600 --> 30:53.940
just like reading your Bible's labor,

30:54.480 --> 30:55.860
just like praying is labor.

30:56.460 --> 30:57.900
Going soul winning is exhausting.

30:58.020 --> 31:00.220
I remember one time we had a preaching class

31:00.220 --> 31:02.320
at Faithful Word and this is going back like

31:02.320 --> 31:04.800
15 some odd years, 17 years.

31:05.160 --> 31:07.200
We had this guy and he was a kid

31:07.200 --> 31:10.940
who had grown up on a farm in West Virginia

31:11.540 --> 31:13.520
and he said, I grew up on a farm

31:13.520 --> 31:16.140
doing hard physical labor and he said,

31:16.540 --> 31:18.280
soul winning is the hardest work

31:18.280 --> 31:19.380
I've ever done in my life.

31:19.460 --> 31:20.900
It's the most exhausting work

31:20.900 --> 31:22.040
I've ever done in my life.

31:22.400 --> 31:24.060
Even more exhausting than, you know,

31:24.200 --> 31:26.000
I don't know what farmers even do,

31:26.380 --> 31:28.040
but shoveling the hay or whatever,

31:28.200 --> 31:29.880
but I've never been a farmer.

31:30.640 --> 31:32.540
But the point is this guy had grown up

31:32.540 --> 31:34.660
working hard on a farm and he said, soul winning is harder.

31:35.080 --> 31:36.740
He says, soul winning is hard work.

31:37.120 --> 31:38.460
And anybody who goes out soul winning

31:38.460 --> 31:41.400
knows how draining it is, how exhausting it is.

31:41.460 --> 31:43.060
It's not physically draining,

31:43.360 --> 31:46.140
it's just mentally and spiritually draining

31:46.710 --> 31:47.500
to go soul winning.

31:47.500 --> 31:50.360
And so these women have labored

31:50.360 --> 31:52.820
with the apostle Paul in the gospel.

31:53.340 --> 31:56.120
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number three.

31:56.580 --> 31:58.080
1 Corinthians chapter number three.

31:58.420 --> 31:59.920
And while you're turning to 1 Corinthians three,

31:59.980 --> 32:01.920
I'm gonna read for you what Jesus said about this.

32:02.620 --> 32:05.040
In John chapter four, verse 34,

32:05.320 --> 32:06.540
John saith unto them,

32:07.160 --> 32:08.880
my meat is to do the will of him

32:08.880 --> 32:10.260
that sent me in to finish his work.

32:10.720 --> 32:13.020
Say not ye there are yet four months

32:13.020 --> 32:14.100
and then come with harvest.

32:14.720 --> 32:16.720
Behold, I say unto you lift up your eyes

32:16.720 --> 32:17.640
and look on the fields

32:17.640 --> 32:19.540
for they are white all ready to harvest

32:19.540 --> 32:21.800
and he that reapeth receiveeth wages

32:22.280 --> 32:24.200
and gathereth fruit unto life eternal

32:24.200 --> 32:25.760
that both he that soweth

32:25.760 --> 32:28.180
and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

32:28.540 --> 32:29.820
And here it is that saying true,

32:30.280 --> 32:32.140
one soweth and another reapeth.

32:32.240 --> 32:34.040
So look, he's talking about preaching the gospel

32:34.600 --> 32:36.380
and you're not always gonna be the one

32:36.380 --> 32:37.420
to get the person saved.

32:37.520 --> 32:38.920
Sometimes you're just planting the seed.

32:40.420 --> 32:43.140
And so one sows and another reaps.

32:43.300 --> 32:45.100
You know, sometimes you're sowing the seed

32:45.100 --> 32:45.860
for the first time.

32:45.860 --> 32:48.120
Sometimes you're watering an existing seed.

32:48.400 --> 32:50.060
Sometimes you're able to get the harvest.

32:50.740 --> 32:52.700
And it says, herein is the saying true,

32:53.200 --> 32:55.780
one soweth and another reapeth.

32:57.100 --> 32:59.260
And then it says in verse 38,

32:59.500 --> 33:01.840
I sent you to reap that

33:01.840 --> 33:03.380
whereon you bestowed no labor.

33:03.920 --> 33:07.180
Other men labored a year entered into their labor.

33:07.320 --> 33:08.120
So what's the Bible saying?

33:08.680 --> 33:09.840
Sowing the seed is labor.

33:10.580 --> 33:11.860
Watering the seed is labor.

33:13.160 --> 33:15.240
Harvesting the harvest is labor.

33:15.820 --> 33:19.120
This is all hard work because soul winning is hard work.

33:19.240 --> 33:21.540
And there's a similar illustration in first Corinthians

33:21.540 --> 33:22.800
three, verse five, it says,

33:23.460 --> 33:25.800
who then is Paul and who is Apollos,

33:26.300 --> 33:29.380
but ministers by whom ye believed

33:29.900 --> 33:31.960
even as the Lord gave to every man.

33:32.280 --> 33:35.000
See every single man that is saved,

33:35.360 --> 33:36.380
how did he get saved?

33:36.500 --> 33:39.000
I mean, there's some minister by whom he believed

33:39.000 --> 33:42.400
not necessarily someone who's a minister for a living,

33:42.940 --> 33:45.640
but some man, woman, boy or girl

33:45.640 --> 33:48.020
must have preached the gospel to him

33:48.660 --> 33:50.680
and been a minister by whom he believed,

33:50.940 --> 33:52.360
the person who won him to Christ.

33:52.560 --> 33:54.380
And it's often not just one person

33:54.380 --> 33:56.500
because of course sometimes one is planting,

33:57.040 --> 33:58.000
the other is watering.

33:58.380 --> 34:00.180
Ultimately it's God that gives the increase.

34:00.620 --> 34:04.080
But it says here, ministers by whom ye believed

34:04.080 --> 34:05.560
even as the Lord gave to every man.

34:05.980 --> 34:08.720
I have planted Apollos watered

34:08.720 --> 34:10.720
but God gave the increase, verse seven.

34:11.000 --> 34:12.820
So then neither is he that planted anything,

34:13.400 --> 34:14.860
neither he that watereth,

34:15.180 --> 34:17.140
but God that give it the increase,

34:17.680 --> 34:20.700
now he that planted and he that watereth are one.

34:21.040 --> 34:21.720
Now what does that mean?

34:22.120 --> 34:23.940
He that planted and he that watereth are one.

34:24.220 --> 34:26.260
It means we don't have a guy who's just only planting.

34:27.160 --> 34:28.060
Oh, I just plant,

34:28.240 --> 34:29.780
and sometimes you'll have people say this,

34:30.160 --> 34:31.960
like, oh yeah, I get zero people saved

34:31.960 --> 34:34.080
but that's because my ministry is just planting.

34:35.500 --> 34:37.240
Now I don't know because the one who plants,

34:37.240 --> 34:39.680
the one who waters, it's all the same person

34:39.680 --> 34:42.580
because it's like you knock one door and you're planting,

34:43.020 --> 34:44.540
you knock another door, you're watering,

34:44.720 --> 34:46.120
you knock another door, you're harvesting.

34:46.620 --> 34:47.640
You know, he that goeth forth

34:47.640 --> 34:49.360
and weepeth bearing precious seed

34:49.360 --> 34:51.780
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

34:51.900 --> 34:52.880
bring in his sheaves with him.

34:53.760 --> 34:55.700
It's not like, oh no, I just sow and sow

34:55.700 --> 34:57.400
and sow and sow and never get any results.

34:57.720 --> 34:59.280
Well, you're doing something wrong

35:00.600 --> 35:02.140
because you should be getting results.

35:02.940 --> 35:05.240
You know, and obviously the results don't come quick.

35:05.760 --> 35:09.040
Sometimes you have to put in hours or even dozens of hours

35:09.040 --> 35:11.800
or scores of hours even to get a single salvation.

35:12.200 --> 35:13.620
That's just the way life is.

35:13.820 --> 35:15.540
If you're in a really receptive area,

35:15.800 --> 35:18.120
it's easy to get people saved one after the other

35:18.120 --> 35:19.860
but if you're in a difficult area,

35:20.240 --> 35:23.000
it can take literally dozens of hours

35:23.000 --> 35:24.080
to get one salvation.

35:24.600 --> 35:26.800
So we're not saying it's gonna instantly happen,

35:27.060 --> 35:28.800
we're saying it's eventually gonna happen.

35:29.580 --> 35:32.260
You know, you will eventually come again rejoicing,

35:32.560 --> 35:34.000
bring in his sheaves with you

35:34.000 --> 35:36.360
because it says here that, you know,

35:36.440 --> 35:40.120
he that planteth and he that watereth, it's one.

35:40.440 --> 35:42.620
He that planteth and he that watereth or one, Versaite,

35:42.920 --> 35:45.500
and every man shall receive his own reward

35:46.080 --> 35:47.740
according to his own labor.

35:47.960 --> 35:49.680
Notice the word that's used here

35:49.680 --> 35:53.780
to describe this process of planting and watering is labor.

35:54.340 --> 35:56.180
You will receive according to your labor

35:56.180 --> 35:59.100
for we are laborers together with God.

35:59.480 --> 36:01.760
You're God's husbandry, you're God's building.

36:01.760 --> 36:04.080
Over and over again, the Christian life

36:04.080 --> 36:07.840
is compared not to a Kush office air-conditioned job

36:07.840 --> 36:11.340
but to being a laborer, to being out sweating

36:11.340 --> 36:13.800
and toiling and working and struggling.

36:14.120 --> 36:15.880
And of course, I'm not down on you

36:15.880 --> 36:17.160
if you have a white collar job

36:17.160 --> 36:19.400
because we already said even just reading

36:19.400 --> 36:20.400
and studying is labor.

36:21.240 --> 36:22.500
Staring at a computer screen

36:22.500 --> 36:24.060
and doing your work on a computer's labor too.

36:24.280 --> 36:26.500
But I'm saying when God wants to use an illustration,

36:26.880 --> 36:28.720
it's not an easy job of any kind.

36:28.720 --> 36:33.420
It's hard physical work that he uses, okay?

36:33.780 --> 36:37.180
It's not a Kush easy, relaxed job.

36:37.400 --> 36:38.500
It's about working hard.

36:40.320 --> 36:41.960
You say, well, I don't like this sermon

36:41.960 --> 36:42.960
because it sounds hard.

36:44.040 --> 36:46.120
Well, okay, Mr. Lazy Boy.

36:47.020 --> 36:47.640
Well, you know what?

36:47.820 --> 36:50.560
There's plenty of churches in this area

36:51.320 --> 36:54.760
that are right on salvation, King James.

36:55.260 --> 36:58.820
They have some anemic, weak,

36:59.820 --> 37:02.080
barely phoning it in soul winning program

37:02.800 --> 37:04.640
just so that they can kind of take a box

37:04.640 --> 37:05.700
that they're a soul winning church

37:05.700 --> 37:07.720
where they go out and put out door hangers

37:07.720 --> 37:09.400
or go soul winning once a month,

37:09.720 --> 37:12.520
just super weak, super ineffective,

37:12.800 --> 37:14.600
but they still have all the right doctrine

37:15.130 --> 37:18.240
and they're right on salvation and they're King James.

37:18.700 --> 37:20.820
And you can go there and you can serve God

37:20.820 --> 37:22.220
and have friends and you know what?

37:22.220 --> 37:24.060
Here's the thing, they're not gonna preach hard.

37:24.760 --> 37:25.860
They're not gonna preach hard

37:25.860 --> 37:27.920
and so you can show up and just be super comfortable

37:28.540 --> 37:30.640
and just be like, oh, it's so nice,

37:30.860 --> 37:32.320
it's so refreshing, it's so cool.

37:32.840 --> 37:35.920
But okay, but just realize that you're going nowhere

37:35.920 --> 37:36.880
in your Christian life

37:36.880 --> 37:39.780
and that you are just an unprofitable servant

37:40.260 --> 37:41.760
that's not even doing the minimum.

37:42.860 --> 37:45.040
If you just go to some babysitter

37:45.040 --> 37:47.540
and you know, we could call it babysitter Baptist.

37:48.800 --> 37:50.960
It's basically just babysitting the saints.

37:52.220 --> 37:54.300
Just making sure they don't get into too much trouble.

37:55.180 --> 37:55.660
Right?

37:55.960 --> 37:58.960
Like here's the thing, you know, if I go somewhere

37:58.960 --> 38:02.160
and I leave the kids with a babysitter, right?

38:03.040 --> 38:06.660
You don't expect the babysitter to basically like

38:06.660 --> 38:09.040
take your kids to the next level

38:09.040 --> 38:11.440
on, you know, spiritual things

38:11.440 --> 38:15.120
or schoolwork or sports or anything.

38:15.440 --> 38:18.700
You know, the basic expectation of a babysitter

38:18.700 --> 38:20.640
is kind of like, hey, I just want the kids

38:20.640 --> 38:22.020
to be alive when I get home.

38:22.620 --> 38:25.900
And that they're okay and nothing crazy happened, right?

38:26.360 --> 38:28.680
It's just like people are just kind of watching the kids

38:28.680 --> 38:30.040
making sure everything's cool,

38:30.340 --> 38:31.460
making sure everything's fine.

38:32.200 --> 38:33.860
And that's what these churches are.

38:33.960 --> 38:35.960
They're like a babysitter Baptist church

38:35.960 --> 38:38.540
where basically it's like, they're just kind of just

38:38.540 --> 38:42.420
keeping Christians just kind of barely treading water

38:42.420 --> 38:43.820
in their Christian lives

38:43.820 --> 38:46.920
and just kind of like keeping them out of too much trouble

38:47.440 --> 38:49.900
and just maybe they'll get one person saved

38:49.900 --> 38:52.080
at every blue moon if you're lucky.

38:52.640 --> 38:54.560
You know, whereas Faith Forward Baptist Church

38:54.560 --> 38:56.380
has got you doing the butterfly stroke.

38:56.800 --> 38:58.360
We got you doing the forward crawl.

38:58.800 --> 39:00.260
We got you doing the back stroke.

39:00.520 --> 39:01.620
We got you doing a freestyle.

39:02.160 --> 39:05.000
We've got you doing all kinds of drills and work.

39:05.320 --> 39:06.060
You know, why?

39:06.200 --> 39:07.920
Because we're trying to make you a better Christian.

39:08.600 --> 39:12.680
We're trying to get new people saved by the droves.

39:12.900 --> 39:14.480
We're trying to take God's people

39:14.480 --> 39:18.660
and thoroughly equip them and motivate them

39:18.660 --> 39:21.980
and send them out as an army for the Lord.

39:22.240 --> 39:23.980
We're not just trying to just babysit

39:23.980 --> 39:25.180
the saints of God here.

39:27.080 --> 39:28.400
And you know, something's wrong

39:28.400 --> 39:31.160
when the church is just filled 100%

39:31.160 --> 39:32.800
with people who got saved somewhere else.

39:33.640 --> 39:35.060
It's just a babysitter Baptist.

39:35.260 --> 39:37.220
Like they did not reach any of the people in the church.

39:37.560 --> 39:39.740
No one in the church was reached by that ministry.

39:40.140 --> 39:42.320
They're just babysitting all of the people

39:42.320 --> 39:44.100
who wash up from Faithful Word.

39:45.060 --> 39:47.440
All the people who can't cut it at Faithful Word.

39:47.860 --> 39:50.900
All the people who got saved 30 years ago, 40 years ago

39:50.900 --> 39:53.120
and are just kind of just treading water

39:53.520 --> 39:55.980
and just trying to get by and just need a little,

39:56.240 --> 39:58.160
you know, check a box on Sunday morning

39:58.160 --> 39:59.000
that they went to church.

39:59.840 --> 40:01.760
That's what a lot of these Baptist churches are.

40:02.600 --> 40:03.740
They're just babysitters.

40:04.780 --> 40:07.140
The babysitters club is what they could call it.

40:07.280 --> 40:07.840
You know?

40:08.220 --> 40:09.620
And it's like you show up

40:09.620 --> 40:12.040
and you got saved 30 years ago

40:12.040 --> 40:14.160
and 40 years ago and 50 years ago

40:14.160 --> 40:17.460
or you got saved recently somewhere else.

40:17.960 --> 40:19.540
And you know what's funny is that, you know,

40:19.580 --> 40:21.260
obviously our church had a lot of people saved

40:21.260 --> 40:23.020
and people are like, well,

40:23.500 --> 40:25.000
why don't all these people go to your church?

40:25.100 --> 40:26.100
Cause they are lame.

40:29.160 --> 40:32.600
Because 99% of Christians can't handle hard preaching

40:34.000 --> 40:35.800
because they don't want to work

40:35.800 --> 40:37.920
because they don't even want to talk about work.

40:37.920 --> 40:39.920
They don't even want to hear sermons about work.

40:40.020 --> 40:41.340
They don't want to be challenged.

40:41.640 --> 40:44.920
They'd rather be a big fish and a little pond

40:44.920 --> 40:46.840
than a little fish and a big pond.

40:47.160 --> 40:47.720
That's why.

40:48.980 --> 40:50.080
Where are all these people?

40:50.340 --> 40:50.620
I don't know.

40:50.660 --> 40:51.120
Where are you?

40:53.060 --> 40:54.640
You know, the people asking this question

40:54.640 --> 40:55.460
don't go to our church.

40:56.000 --> 40:58.320
So I always just ask people whenever they're like,

40:58.420 --> 41:00.100
well, where are all these people you want to Christ?

41:00.200 --> 41:00.920
Why don't they go to your church?

41:01.020 --> 41:02.960
I always just ask them, why don't you go to my church?

41:04.300 --> 41:07.360
And then they'll say, well, I live 1,000 miles away.

41:07.360 --> 41:09.940
I'm like, so do most of the people that we want to the Lord.

41:11.140 --> 41:13.100
Because most of the people that we want to the Lord

41:13.100 --> 41:15.860
are on mission strips and soldiering marathons

41:15.860 --> 41:17.540
across America and across the world.

41:18.080 --> 41:21.240
Because obviously we fly to these super receptive places

41:21.240 --> 41:23.400
and get the most salvation abroad.

41:23.920 --> 41:26.300
Or we're getting people saved three hours away

41:26.300 --> 41:27.960
on the Apache reservation,

41:28.120 --> 41:29.980
four hours away on the Navajo reservation.

41:30.480 --> 41:32.900
You know, so it's like, where are all these people?

41:33.000 --> 41:33.680
Why don't they come to your church?

41:33.880 --> 41:34.940
Well, why don't you come to the church?

41:34.940 --> 41:37.460
Well, because I live in another city, state, area.

41:37.660 --> 41:39.540
Yeah, so do most of the people that we want to the Lord.

41:40.440 --> 41:42.280
You know, when COVID happened,

41:43.080 --> 41:46.480
we got about a third as many salvation as we normally do

41:46.480 --> 41:48.560
because we were pretty much only soul-winning locally.

41:48.960 --> 41:51.520
We couldn't go to the res, we couldn't go to the mission field.

41:51.760 --> 41:53.720
And so we literally had like one third

41:53.720 --> 41:56.080
as many salvation as normal.

41:56.580 --> 41:58.420
Because two thirds of our salvation

41:58.860 --> 42:00.640
are out in these far-flung places.

42:00.900 --> 42:02.840
And then it's like, why don't you go to my church?

42:03.060 --> 42:04.000
Well, I don't go to your church

42:04.000 --> 42:06.600
because you're too mean

42:06.600 --> 42:08.800
and you preach all these mean, hard-nosed sermons.

42:08.960 --> 42:10.300
Okay, well, that's the same reason why

42:10.300 --> 42:11.260
other people don't come here.

42:13.080 --> 42:14.500
Where are all these people?

42:16.840 --> 42:18.260
Well, I don't know, why aren't you here?

42:18.640 --> 42:20.480
Well, because you're this and you're that.

42:20.540 --> 42:21.800
Well, they think the same thing.

42:23.060 --> 42:25.020
Everybody wants the free gift of salvation,

42:26.440 --> 42:28.780
but they don't necessarily want to get on board

42:28.780 --> 42:30.460
with everything that the Bible teaches.

42:30.820 --> 42:33.020
You know, and here's the thing,

42:33.020 --> 42:35.000
there are parts of the Bible that are unsavory

42:35.000 --> 42:37.020
and they don't want to be reminded of those parts.

42:37.200 --> 42:38.580
They don't want to hear sermons about it.

42:39.440 --> 42:41.060
I mean, look, they'd rather just pretend

42:41.060 --> 42:43.200
that Luke chapter 14 just isn't in the Bible.

42:44.920 --> 42:45.320
Right?

42:46.640 --> 42:47.960
They're like, what the hate?

42:48.200 --> 42:49.560
Father, mother, wife, children?

42:49.740 --> 42:50.320
What the heck?

42:52.240 --> 42:53.740
Psalm 23, let's go.

42:57.060 --> 42:58.580
You know, where are all these people?

42:58.840 --> 43:00.100
Most people can't cut it.

43:00.520 --> 43:01.560
This is the special forces.

43:05.640 --> 43:07.200
But lastly, let me say this,

43:07.260 --> 43:09.020
go to 1 Corinthians chapter nine.

43:10.180 --> 43:12.520
Lastly, self-control is hard work.

43:13.220 --> 43:15.700
So we said, number one, reading your Bible's hard work.

43:16.240 --> 43:17.740
Number two, prayer is hard work.

43:17.860 --> 43:19.120
Number three, soul winning is hard work.

43:19.220 --> 43:21.280
I mean, look, the famous verse where Jesus said

43:21.280 --> 43:24.800
the harvest truly is plenty is, but the laborers are few.

43:25.560 --> 43:27.080
Pray to you, therefore, the Lord of the harvest

43:27.080 --> 43:29.820
that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.

43:30.680 --> 43:31.740
Sounds like hard work.

43:33.260 --> 43:36.360
But number four, self-control is hard work.

43:36.540 --> 43:38.860
You know, it's hard work to abstain from sin.

43:39.780 --> 43:40.960
It's not just easy.

43:41.080 --> 43:43.360
You're not just gonna automatically by default

43:43.360 --> 43:46.980
just be living this really clean and separated

43:46.980 --> 43:48.340
and sanctified life.

43:48.540 --> 43:52.040
No, it's gonna take hard work to fix your habits,

43:52.800 --> 43:56.140
to change your habits, to change your behavior,

43:56.400 --> 43:58.160
to get sin out of your life.

43:58.400 --> 44:00.800
Look, quitting drinking can be hard work

44:00.800 --> 44:01.440
for a lot of people.

44:02.180 --> 44:04.960
Quitting smoking is probably even harder

44:04.960 --> 44:06.300
than quitting drinking for most people.

44:06.680 --> 44:08.760
I mean, quitting smoking is super difficult.

44:09.120 --> 44:11.920
People struggle and work hard to get off the drugs

44:11.920 --> 44:12.240
and whatever.

44:12.980 --> 44:14.460
And you know what's interesting is,

44:14.700 --> 44:16.740
you think about, you know, alcoholics anonymous,

44:17.160 --> 44:19.640
which has obviously been wildly successful

44:19.640 --> 44:22.680
at getting people sober for many, many decades.

44:23.460 --> 44:25.600
Alcoholics anonymous has gotten people sober,

44:26.060 --> 44:27.580
gotten people off of the drinking,

44:27.860 --> 44:29.380
gotten people off of the drugs,

44:29.380 --> 44:32.900
and there are all kinds of success stories and examples,

44:33.060 --> 44:34.220
literally millions of people

44:34.220 --> 44:37.300
that have followed those programs and succeeded, okay?

44:37.860 --> 44:38.780
And here's the thing about it.

44:39.420 --> 44:42.220
These people who go through alcoholics anonymous

44:42.220 --> 44:45.060
and get sober, did you know that they go to meetings

44:45.060 --> 44:46.240
every day?

44:47.260 --> 44:50.100
Who knew that they go to meetings every day?

44:50.660 --> 44:52.480
Who, you know, I see very few people

44:52.480 --> 44:53.720
because most people would think,

44:54.160 --> 44:55.620
oh, they probably go once a week.

44:56.260 --> 44:58.540
Maybe they go once a month or once a week

44:58.540 --> 44:59.380
or maybe twice a week.

44:59.600 --> 45:03.480
No, they go to meetings every single day,

45:03.760 --> 45:05.460
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

45:05.840 --> 45:07.640
I mean, they go to work, they go to their meeting.

45:07.960 --> 45:09.760
Go to work, go to their meeting, go to their meeting,

45:10.000 --> 45:10.380
go to their meeting.

45:10.540 --> 45:12.220
I mean, these people will go to meetings daily,

45:12.360 --> 45:15.020
sometimes for years, okay?

45:15.640 --> 45:16.220
And why?

45:16.380 --> 45:18.180
Because a lot of times they quit going to their meetings,

45:18.740 --> 45:19.820
they could fall off the wagon.

45:19.940 --> 45:21.100
They need that continual encouragement.

45:21.260 --> 45:22.380
Now, I think for a lot of people,

45:22.400 --> 45:25.380
and I was talking to this one guy several months ago

45:25.380 --> 45:26.860
when I was preaching about this,

45:26.860 --> 45:28.340
and he came up to me and said,

45:28.440 --> 45:30.480
hey, I've been sober for X amount of years.

45:30.960 --> 45:33.360
I went through the program with Alcoholics Anonymous.

45:33.740 --> 45:37.400
He said eventually, church replaced the meetings form.

45:37.700 --> 45:39.540
You know, so he said, I don't go to meetings anymore

45:40.040 --> 45:41.980
because I just go to church three times a week.

45:42.220 --> 45:43.580
That's my meeting, you know?

45:43.940 --> 45:45.060
Three times a week in church.

45:45.160 --> 45:47.580
And I do think that church is superior

45:47.580 --> 45:51.140
to Alcoholics Anonymous as a meeting, obviously.

45:51.960 --> 45:54.260
So ultimately, church is God's institution.

45:54.260 --> 45:55.460
Church is the place,

45:55.580 --> 45:57.440
but I just want you to just stop and think

45:57.960 --> 46:00.100
about how much work it would be

46:00.100 --> 46:02.000
and how much effort it would take

46:02.000 --> 46:04.700
for somebody to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting

46:05.340 --> 46:08.360
seven days a week for months or years.

46:09.140 --> 46:09.500
Why?

46:09.960 --> 46:11.820
It sounds like getting sober is hard work.

46:12.740 --> 46:15.100
It sounds like getting off drugs is hard work.

46:15.160 --> 46:16.500
Sounds like staying sober

46:16.500 --> 46:18.900
and staying clean of alcohol is hard work.

46:19.160 --> 46:20.540
So, you know, the moral of the story is

46:20.540 --> 46:22.440
don't get into that stuff in the first place.

46:23.580 --> 46:25.440
Why would you even want to open that door?

46:25.840 --> 46:28.840
Why would you even want to test alcohol or test drugs

46:28.840 --> 46:30.800
and run the risk of getting addicted

46:30.800 --> 46:33.400
and then having to just devote literally hundreds

46:33.400 --> 46:35.120
and hundreds of hours of your life

46:35.120 --> 46:36.340
to getting off of something

46:36.340 --> 46:38.100
that you could have just not started in the first place.

46:38.540 --> 46:39.660
Be a lot easier.

46:40.140 --> 46:40.880
But here's the thing.

46:41.220 --> 46:43.580
If Alcoholics Anonymous has people coming

46:43.580 --> 46:47.180
every single day that shows you how hard it is,

46:47.360 --> 46:48.620
it shows you how much work it is,

46:48.720 --> 46:49.580
and then you'll see people

46:49.580 --> 46:50.620
when they quick go to the meetings,

46:50.620 --> 46:51.680
they fall off the wagon.

46:52.760 --> 46:55.120
And as I said, I think that ultimately,

46:55.560 --> 46:57.200
people who are in that situation

46:57.200 --> 46:59.860
can replace three times a week at church

47:00.460 --> 47:02.300
with, you know, seven days a week

47:02.300 --> 47:04.380
at Alcoholics Anonymous or whatever.

47:04.580 --> 47:05.900
And look, you can even listen to preaching

47:05.900 --> 47:08.200
through the week even to help supplement

47:08.200 --> 47:10.600
and keep you thinking about spiritual things.

47:10.680 --> 47:12.680
We've got the technology with the internet

47:12.680 --> 47:15.320
and our phones and headphones and everything.

47:15.580 --> 47:17.060
You can be listening to sermons every day

47:17.060 --> 47:19.800
to supplement and keep your mind on the things of God.

47:19.800 --> 47:20.880
Keep yourself right.

47:21.220 --> 47:23.700
But that just shows me that self-control is hard work.

47:24.200 --> 47:25.880
Stopping sinning is hard work.

47:26.280 --> 47:28.340
Getting right with God is hard work.

47:29.060 --> 47:30.860
If people are having to go to meetings

47:30.860 --> 47:33.560
every single day to fix it, right?

47:33.740 --> 47:34.700
I mean, that should show you something.

47:35.160 --> 47:37.220
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse 24.

47:37.420 --> 47:39.680
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all,

47:40.240 --> 47:41.500
but one receive at the prize.

47:42.120 --> 47:43.640
So run that you may obtain,

47:44.080 --> 47:46.260
and every man that striveeth for the mastery

47:46.260 --> 47:48.360
is temperate in all things.

47:48.360 --> 47:51.360
And another word for temperance is self-control.

47:51.800 --> 47:53.420
It means that you're controlling yourself.

47:53.600 --> 47:54.380
You have temperance.

47:55.160 --> 47:57.360
Every man that striveeth for the mastery

47:57.360 --> 47:59.500
is temperate in all things, meaning that athletes,

47:59.880 --> 48:02.520
literal physical athletes, runners,

48:03.120 --> 48:05.100
and other sports practitioners,

48:05.860 --> 48:07.780
they have to be temperate in all things.

48:08.060 --> 48:09.840
They can't just be like, oh, well, I train hard,

48:09.880 --> 48:12.260
but I eat whatever I want, right?

48:12.400 --> 48:15.060
No, these athletes have to eat a certain way.

48:15.460 --> 48:16.920
They have to train a certain way.

48:16.920 --> 48:18.580
They have to sleep a certain way.

48:18.720 --> 48:21.560
They're not just taking drugs and drinking alcohol

48:21.560 --> 48:23.500
and smoking cigarettes willy-nilly.

48:23.940 --> 48:25.440
No, they have to be temperate in all things.

48:25.500 --> 48:27.480
They have to exercise extreme self-control.

48:27.980 --> 48:29.120
They're getting up early.

48:29.600 --> 48:30.740
They're going to bed early.

48:31.180 --> 48:32.440
They're training hard.

48:32.820 --> 48:34.020
They're putting in the effort.

48:34.420 --> 48:37.300
Every single day, even on their rest day,

48:37.820 --> 48:40.540
they're having to make an effort to make sure they rest.

48:41.600 --> 48:42.740
And they're having to make sure

48:42.740 --> 48:44.720
that they eat the right things on the rest day.

48:44.940 --> 48:46.580
It's not like there's a seventh day

48:46.580 --> 48:47.860
where they just do whatever they want.

48:48.980 --> 48:50.580
They're temperate in all things.

48:50.860 --> 48:52.500
In order to be an Olympic athlete,

48:52.760 --> 48:55.000
they need a commitment to the cause.

48:55.200 --> 48:56.400
And that's what he's saying here.

48:56.500 --> 48:58.700
He says, every man that strives for the mastery,

48:58.760 --> 49:00.600
and he's talking about mastering sports.

49:00.800 --> 49:02.660
He's talking about winning a physical race.

49:03.660 --> 49:07.140
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,

49:07.440 --> 49:10.740
but we, an incorruptible, and Olympic athletes,

49:10.920 --> 49:12.520
we're talking thousands of years ago,

49:12.760 --> 49:15.480
used to literally get a crown

49:15.480 --> 49:17.100
that was made out of leaves.

49:18.960 --> 49:19.840
Literal leaves.

49:20.740 --> 49:22.560
So this isn't a gold medal

49:22.560 --> 49:26.020
that you can have 30, 40, 50 years later.

49:26.500 --> 49:29.000
And the idea here is that it's just temporary glory.

49:29.940 --> 49:31.260
It's a corruptible crown.

49:31.400 --> 49:33.400
It's made out of literal leaves.

49:34.660 --> 49:36.680
He says they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,

49:37.080 --> 49:37.800
but we an incorruptible.

49:37.860 --> 49:39.120
Obviously as a Christian, we know

49:39.120 --> 49:40.820
that even gold and silver are corruptible

49:41.580 --> 49:43.360
because they're not going to last for eternity.

49:44.100 --> 49:45.440
Right? You can't take it with you.

49:45.940 --> 49:48.340
He says they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,

49:48.420 --> 49:49.340
but we an incorruptible.

49:49.540 --> 49:52.340
I therefore so run, not as uncertainty.

49:53.380 --> 49:56.520
So fight I, not as one that beateth the air.

49:56.980 --> 49:58.980
He said, I'm not just shadow boxing here.

49:59.080 --> 50:00.360
I'm actually hitting a target.

50:01.160 --> 50:05.560
I keep under my body and bring it into subjection,

50:05.560 --> 50:08.660
lest that by any means, when I preach to others,

50:09.020 --> 50:11.320
I myself should be a cast away.

50:11.320 --> 50:15.000
Here's another translation for cast away, reject.

50:16.260 --> 50:17.320
Right? Cause what is it?

50:17.380 --> 50:18.220
What is a cast away?

50:18.640 --> 50:21.820
A cast away is like, meh, you're going through

50:21.820 --> 50:22.980
and oh yeah, we'll use this.

50:23.100 --> 50:23.520
We use this.

50:23.580 --> 50:24.440
This sparks joy.

50:24.560 --> 50:27.980
This doesn't, you know, cast away is a reject.

50:29.260 --> 50:31.860
And so look, do you want to be a reject?

50:32.040 --> 50:32.500
And you know what?

50:32.620 --> 50:33.300
Let me tell you something.

50:33.700 --> 50:36.340
There are some people that have served God

50:37.000 --> 50:40.020
in churches like ours or our church itself.

50:40.020 --> 50:42.160
There have been some people that in the past

50:42.160 --> 50:45.800
were in a fired up church, going soul winning,

50:46.220 --> 50:49.660
doing great works for God, and they are now rejects.

50:50.600 --> 50:53.200
You know, the XNIFB reject club.

50:54.700 --> 50:57.060
You know, it's like, do you want to be a reject?

50:57.620 --> 50:59.260
No, you want to keep going.

50:59.420 --> 51:00.720
Well, you got to be temperate in all things.

51:01.120 --> 51:01.900
Cause guess what?

51:02.380 --> 51:03.920
Moralson is going to make you a reject.

51:05.340 --> 51:05.760
Okay?

51:06.140 --> 51:08.820
You know, if you crash and burn spiritually,

51:08.820 --> 51:10.560
you're not going to lose your salvation.

51:12.320 --> 51:13.200
You're not going to.

51:13.240 --> 51:14.360
It's impossible to lose your salvation.

51:14.600 --> 51:15.840
As soon as you lose your salvation,

51:15.960 --> 51:17.300
God's going to have to stop being God.

51:17.740 --> 51:20.620
Cause God promises eternal life and God cannot lie.

51:21.580 --> 51:21.760
Okay?

51:22.080 --> 51:23.540
Nobody's going to lose their salvation,

51:23.800 --> 51:24.560
but you know what?

51:24.760 --> 51:26.660
There are a lot of saved Christians

51:26.660 --> 51:28.300
that are going to heaven when they die,

51:28.500 --> 51:30.940
but they are living as total rejects

51:30.940 --> 51:32.460
over a trash can Baptist,

51:33.100 --> 51:35.120
total rejects doing nothing for God,

51:35.760 --> 51:38.040
total failures, total losers.

51:38.640 --> 51:38.920
Okay?

51:39.420 --> 51:40.700
Why did they end up that way?

51:40.880 --> 51:43.400
Because they did not practice self-control.

51:44.520 --> 51:45.040
Right?

51:45.140 --> 51:46.900
We don't want to become rejects

51:46.900 --> 51:48.140
because we quit reading our Bible,

51:48.500 --> 51:50.380
we quit praying, we quit going to church,

51:50.720 --> 51:51.580
we quit soul winning,

51:51.960 --> 51:53.780
we quit exercising self-control,

51:54.040 --> 51:57.040
and you get drunk and become a drunken reject.

51:57.520 --> 51:59.620
You become a drug addicted reject.

52:00.160 --> 52:00.320
Right?

52:00.580 --> 52:02.820
You become a gambling addicted reject.

52:03.380 --> 52:03.560
Right?

52:03.560 --> 52:07.780
You indulge in, you know, extra marital, whatever,

52:08.020 --> 52:10.220
cause you become a total loser.

52:11.580 --> 52:13.280
Look, we got to keep under our body

52:13.280 --> 52:14.560
and bring it into subjection.

52:15.360 --> 52:16.820
And you know, obviously, yeah,

52:16.900 --> 52:19.780
that means abstaining from fornication,

52:20.000 --> 52:20.980
abstaining from adultery,

52:21.340 --> 52:22.360
but you know what it could also mean

52:22.360 --> 52:23.940
is forcing yourself to read your Bible.

52:25.220 --> 52:27.540
It also takes discipline to force yourself

52:27.540 --> 52:28.340
to show up for church.

52:29.560 --> 52:30.480
It takes discipline.

52:30.660 --> 52:31.000
I mean, look,

52:31.000 --> 52:33.120
for the guy who's going through alcoholics anonymous,

52:33.280 --> 52:35.140
it takes discipline not to drink,

52:35.500 --> 52:37.800
but it also takes discipline to get his butt to the meeting.

52:39.260 --> 52:42.420
That's gonna take effort, planning, work,

52:43.060 --> 52:44.160
driving down there,

52:44.560 --> 52:45.660
building his whole schedule

52:45.660 --> 52:47.200
and his whole life around these meetings.

52:50.220 --> 52:52.640
Keep under my body and bring it into subjection

52:52.640 --> 52:53.840
unless that by any means,

52:54.160 --> 52:55.760
when I've preached to others,

52:56.000 --> 52:57.380
I myself should be cast away.

52:57.480 --> 52:58.760
It's like you're getting up

52:58.760 --> 53:00.600
and preaching to other people

53:01.120 --> 53:04.560
and then you end up crashing and burning and being a failure.

53:04.720 --> 53:07.960
Obviously, that's not what any of us wants, right?

53:08.420 --> 53:10.980
You don't want to go out and be this zealous soul winner,

53:11.060 --> 53:12.460
maybe even preaching behind the pulpit,

53:12.700 --> 53:14.040
maybe just preaching out there

53:14.040 --> 53:15.160
on the mission field or whatever.

53:15.420 --> 53:17.680
And then someday somebody's preaching at you.

53:18.640 --> 53:20.340
I get right with God, man.

53:20.540 --> 53:21.500
What is wrong with you?

53:22.420 --> 53:23.900
Why are you a cast away?

53:26.240 --> 53:28.820
So in conclusion, let me say this.

53:29.220 --> 53:30.560
You know, we're not saved by works,

53:30.620 --> 53:32.060
but we're saved unto good works.

53:32.600 --> 53:36.100
The Bible says not of works a sending man should boast

53:36.100 --> 53:39.460
for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus

53:39.460 --> 53:40.880
unto good works,

53:41.000 --> 53:44.280
which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.

53:44.540 --> 53:47.060
So although we're not saved by work, we should work.

53:47.860 --> 53:48.900
We need to put in the work.

53:49.300 --> 53:50.540
If you want to be a good Christian,

53:50.740 --> 53:51.620
it's gonna take hard work.

53:52.020 --> 53:54.620
You say, why is this person a better Christian than me?

53:54.980 --> 53:56.100
I'm kind of a lame Christian.

53:56.300 --> 53:57.540
This other guy's just killing it.

53:57.600 --> 53:58.060
Why is he such a great?

53:58.260 --> 53:59.140
Because he's putting in the work.

54:00.600 --> 54:03.180
Why does one person play piano better than another?

54:04.640 --> 54:06.080
Because they put in more work.

54:06.740 --> 54:07.560
It's that simple.

54:11.600 --> 54:13.640
For the Son of man, this is what Jesus said,

54:13.760 --> 54:15.820
shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels,

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and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

54:19.340 --> 54:20.460
Jesus is gonna return someday.

54:21.080 --> 54:23.440
Matthew 16, 27 says he's rewarding people

54:23.440 --> 54:24.260
based on their works.

54:25.020 --> 54:27.340
Revelation 22, 12, behold, I come quickly,

54:27.480 --> 54:28.320
my reward is with me,

54:28.580 --> 54:30.400
to give every man according as his work shall be.

54:31.080 --> 54:34.060
So look, work has nothing to do with getting saved.

54:34.380 --> 54:36.700
You can do zero work and go to heaven

54:36.700 --> 54:38.340
because Romans 4, 5 says,

54:38.520 --> 54:39.480
put him that work is not,

54:39.980 --> 54:42.360
but believe it on him that justified the ungodly,

54:42.640 --> 54:43.960
his faith is counted for righteousness.

54:45.180 --> 54:47.100
So it's possible to do no work

54:47.100 --> 54:48.900
and be like that guy in 1 Corinthians 3

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where all of your works are burned up,

54:51.180 --> 54:52.880
all of your works are wood-hand stubble,

54:52.980 --> 54:55.580
yet he himself shall be saved, right?

54:55.980 --> 55:00.100
So salvation is a free gift, free lunch,

55:00.580 --> 55:03.340
by grace, through faith, not of works,

55:03.600 --> 55:05.280
paid for by the blood of Jesus.

55:07.400 --> 55:10.460
Whereas being a successful Christian,

55:11.440 --> 55:13.900
being a Christian who's still here five years,

55:14.040 --> 55:15.720
10 years, 15 years from now,

55:16.600 --> 55:18.520
actually winning souls to Christ,

55:19.500 --> 55:21.480
actually being fruitful and multiplying,

55:22.260 --> 55:25.140
actually being a serious Christian

55:25.140 --> 55:27.040
that stays in Big Boy Church

55:27.040 --> 55:30.660
and doesn't downgrade to some watered down,

55:30.800 --> 55:32.880
and you know what's funny is that these people

55:32.880 --> 55:36.280
who quit our church to go to some lame church,

55:37.320 --> 55:38.920
you know what I never see?

55:39.020 --> 55:42.340
I never see them promoting their church online.

55:44.320 --> 55:45.120
You know what I mean?

55:45.840 --> 55:49.240
Like me, like when I've gone to churches

55:49.240 --> 55:50.220
that I was excited about,

55:50.580 --> 55:52.140
I was telling everybody about my church.

55:53.100 --> 55:55.560
I hope that you're excited about faith for word

55:55.560 --> 55:57.400
and you're telling people about faith for word.

55:57.780 --> 56:00.220
But I remember when I was a teenager

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and I got into a soul-winning Baptist church,

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I'm telling all my friends about it.

56:04.240 --> 56:08.000
And we weren't really much on the internet in those days.

56:08.440 --> 56:10.500
The internet was barely a thing

56:10.500 --> 56:12.320
and most people weren't on the internet

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at all.

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And if you were on the internet,

56:14.220 --> 56:16.400
it was so ridiculously painfully slow,

56:16.480 --> 56:18.920
you couldn't really do anything on the internet.

56:19.140 --> 56:20.780
But I mean, I'm just word of mouth

56:20.780 --> 56:22.340
just telling people about it.

56:22.460 --> 56:24.560
And you know what's funny is you see people

56:24.560 --> 56:26.880
from Faithful Word and our sister churches,

56:27.200 --> 56:30.360
don't you see them just constantly like posting sermons

56:30.900 --> 56:34.680
and documentaries and soul-winning events

56:34.680 --> 56:36.660
and talk about, oh, you gotta check out

56:36.660 --> 56:37.720
this awesome sermon.

56:38.160 --> 56:39.900
Here's a clip from this sermon.

56:39.980 --> 56:41.240
Here's a clip from that sermon, right?

56:41.760 --> 56:44.420
You know, where's all the awesome preaching,

56:45.140 --> 56:46.620
awesome soul-winning events,

56:47.020 --> 56:50.340
awesome mission strip from babysitting Baptist

56:50.820 --> 56:51.820
is what I'd like to know.

56:52.240 --> 56:55.560
You know, oh, it's so much better.

56:55.780 --> 56:56.540
It's so awesome.

56:56.900 --> 56:59.220
Oh, I'm so glad I love Faithful Word.

56:59.740 --> 57:00.920
Oh, I just love it through sure.

57:01.140 --> 57:02.840
It's funny how your pastor

57:02.840 --> 57:04.440
doesn't preach any awesome sermons.

57:05.140 --> 57:08.140
What's going on with that, right?

57:08.140 --> 57:11.340
I mean, where's all the fruit?

57:12.200 --> 57:14.100
Where's all the result?

57:14.980 --> 57:16.220
Where's all the output?

57:19.480 --> 57:20.860
Because at the end of the day,

57:21.200 --> 57:22.800
the Christian life's hard work.

57:23.240 --> 57:25.180
And people who aren't putting in the work

57:25.180 --> 57:26.200
aren't getting the results.

57:26.540 --> 57:29.240
And look, you might think that there's some prodigy

57:29.240 --> 57:30.500
that just came out of the womb

57:30.500 --> 57:32.320
and awesome Christian, but it doesn't exist.

57:33.140 --> 57:34.720
I don't believe in it for one second.

57:35.020 --> 57:37.260
I think everything, I don't care if it's music,

57:38.200 --> 57:39.860
sports, you name it in this life,

57:40.160 --> 57:42.280
it's 90% hard work, 10% talent.

57:43.080 --> 57:44.780
Yeah, the people at the Olympics have talent

57:44.780 --> 57:46.740
because they need that extra 10%.

57:47.940 --> 57:50.280
Anybody can become a virtuoso pianist

57:50.280 --> 57:51.200
if they put in the work.

57:52.020 --> 57:53.620
You put in thousands of hours of playing,

57:53.900 --> 57:55.840
and you know, what it is is people overestimate

57:55.840 --> 57:57.160
how much time they put into things.

57:57.860 --> 57:59.640
You know, I remember last year I was like,

57:59.720 --> 58:02.200
dog gone it, I'm gonna get better at playing piano.

58:03.100 --> 58:05.220
I started playing piano consistently

58:05.680 --> 58:09.220
for like an hour and a half, two hours a day, you know?

58:09.360 --> 58:11.200
And it was just like, but here's the thing,

58:11.880 --> 58:14.060
on days that I felt like, I was like,

58:14.140 --> 58:15.680
oh, I must have practiced for five hours today.

58:16.200 --> 58:17.660
But then it's like hour and a half.

58:18.660 --> 58:20.560
But it feels like you're just like,

58:20.660 --> 58:22.520
dude, all I did was play piano all day.

58:23.340 --> 58:24.540
It's like, I woke up in the morning,

58:24.680 --> 58:26.620
I pretty much ate, slept and played piano the whole day

58:27.080 --> 58:29.060
until you actually started looking at the clock

58:29.580 --> 58:32.380
and realized that you put in an hour and 45 minutes,

58:32.560 --> 58:34.520
you know, or two hours and 15 minutes or something.

58:34.880 --> 58:35.820
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?

58:36.480 --> 58:38.760
And here's the thing, so for several months

58:38.760 --> 58:41.860
I put in effort and I actually made serious progress.

58:42.720 --> 58:43.920
You know, eventually I was just like,

58:44.020 --> 58:45.140
yeah, I don't love this enough

58:45.140 --> 58:46.220
to put in this amount of time.

58:46.680 --> 58:49.400
So I ended up, you know, getting away from it.

58:49.680 --> 58:51.980
But that's how you get better.

58:52.140 --> 58:53.720
I mean, to get, and I'm telling you,

58:54.240 --> 58:55.400
the people who are good, it's like,

58:55.500 --> 58:56.540
oh, they're so talented.

58:57.080 --> 58:58.780
Oh, Kira is so talented.

58:59.540 --> 59:01.360
You know, oh, Catherine is so talented.

59:01.520 --> 59:04.220
It's like, who remembers Catherine Lynch

59:04.220 --> 59:06.200
coming down here five days a week

59:06.200 --> 59:08.920
and practicing for four hours a day, Monday through Friday?

59:09.200 --> 59:13.900
She would literally come in here every day during the week

59:13.900 --> 59:16.180
and she's just like, seriously, just like.

59:18.340 --> 59:20.040
Just, all these just like drills

59:20.780 --> 59:25.260
of just hand and studies and scales and whatever.

59:25.620 --> 59:28.040
And just, she would play for four hours a day, every day.

59:28.120 --> 59:29.520
And then she shows up on Sunday and plays

59:29.520 --> 59:30.840
and she's like, oh, she's so talented.

59:32.220 --> 59:33.240
It's like, no.

59:34.780 --> 59:36.840
Talent is usually a code word for,

59:37.480 --> 59:39.540
I really like it so I spend a lot of time doing it.

59:41.020 --> 59:42.500
That's the talent, okay?

59:43.000 --> 59:43.560
So guess what?

59:43.960 --> 59:45.060
When it comes to Christian life,

59:45.340 --> 59:47.000
the people who are succeeding,

59:47.420 --> 59:48.500
people who are living for God,

59:48.860 --> 59:50.480
they're putting in the time.

59:51.060 --> 59:54.860
On Bible, prayer, soul winning, church attendance,

59:55.500 --> 59:57.680
getting sin out of their lives, they're working.

59:58.660 --> 01:00:00.460
And if you wanna succeed, you gotta work hard.

01:00:00.460 --> 01:00:01.300
Let's bards and on board a prayer.

01:00:01.400 --> 01:00:02.780
Father, we thank you so much for your word.

01:00:03.520 --> 01:00:05.640
And Lord God, I just pray that you would just help us all

01:00:05.640 --> 01:00:08.320
to put in the work, put in the effort,

01:00:08.480 --> 01:00:10.600
not take the easy way, the lazy way,

01:00:10.840 --> 01:00:12.100
path of least resistance, Lord.

01:00:12.460 --> 01:00:14.000
Help us to put in the work necessary

01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:16.000
to be the best Christians that we can possibly be.

01:00:16.380 --> 01:00:17.360
And in Jesus' name we pray amen.