Participants: Phillip Sizemore
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000787
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00:59 Hi, my name is Phillip. I am a student of ARISE.
01:02 And I'm so thankful to be here today 01:03 to be able to break the bread of life with you. 01:05 Today's message is entitled "Church Growth." 01:08 But before we get into God's word, 01:09 I think it's very important 01:11 that we first open up with a word of prayer. 01:13 So let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. 01:16 Father in heaven, thank You so much 01:18 for this day You've given to us. 01:20 Thank You that we can come here together and open Your word. 01:23 And Father, I praise as we open Your word today, 01:25 that You will speak to our hearts, 01:27 You will speak to our minds that we will see clearly, 01:30 the messages that You have given today. 01:33 We thank You for hearing our prayers 01:35 and answering them in Jesus name, amen. 01:37 I think before we open the word, 01:39 I like to start off by sharing 01:40 a little bit of my testimony with you and let you know, 01:42 where I came from and who am I. 01:44 And then you'll understand 01:45 why I'm preaching the message that I am. 01:48 It started off a long time ago, I was raised 'a heathen.' 01:52 A heathen meaning that, 01:53 I was-- I'm what they-- 01:55 what they termed today as "unchurched." 01:56 You've heard that word used quite a bit, unchurched. 01:59 And that simply means that I was raised without-- 02:02 It wasn't in a Christian home, I was raised in a home 02:04 that we lived for the God of-- the God of normalcy. 02:10 You know, we have done things 02:12 based on what the rest of the world does 02:13 and we just kind of want look normal in everybody's eyes. 02:15 And that's what how I was brought up. 02:16 In my view of Christianity as I came up with 02:19 was one of, 'these people are hypocrites.' 02:21 I had good reasons. 02:23 And most of the people that I'd run into 02:25 as I was coming up 02:27 they were claiming to be Christians, 02:29 would say one thing 02:30 and constantly be doing something else. 02:33 And it was not something I really wanted in my life. 02:35 I never was interested in Christianity. 02:38 Until one time, for we are going to get to now, 02:41 I had graduated at high school and there was no work, 02:44 and I went away to go to college, 02:46 and I got a two year degree in electronics 02:47 and I started working for this factory. 02:49 And as I worked for this factory there about, 02:52 for about a year-and-half 02:54 this little girl got hired on there. 02:55 And I was single and desperately looking. 02:58 So I noticed her and just that happened to her, 03:02 second night there on the job, her machine broke. 03:04 And my job was to go around 03:05 fixing the machines, when they're broke. 03:07 And so I went up to her, had to fix her machine 03:09 and I asked her out for a date, I didn't waste any time. 03:12 And believe or not she turned me down. 03:15 And by the end of the night 03:16 though I had her talked into a breakfast date, 03:18 we'd work in the nightshift. 03:19 We went out to eat breakfast 03:21 and one thing I noticed about this little girl was 03:24 she seemed different, young girl, 03:28 she is little younger than I am. 03:30 Seemed different not just I thought she was cute and nice, 03:32 but she seemed different in the way that, 03:36 something was just different-- special about her. 03:38 She didn't act like the rest of the girls 03:39 you go dating and these kind of things. 03:41 And I was interested so I asked her, 03:43 if I could take her out on date, 03:45 again the next night after work 03:46 and then the next night and then the next night-- 03:48 it wasn't no time at all 03:49 before she invited me to go to church with her. 03:52 Yeah, I'll go, but I kind of knew what to expect, 03:54 I've been to church a few times growing up and I know-- 03:57 my view of what Christianity was like, 03:59 what church was like? 04:01 Was, you go there and they would try to get you joined 04:03 what I thought, saw as a club. 04:05 And if I didn't joined their club, 04:06 they would make me feel guilty and tell me I was going to burn 04:08 to the ceaseless ages of eternity. 04:09 That was my vision, visualization of what happened 04:11 when you went to church as a Christian. 04:13 And that's what I expected 04:14 when I went to church with this girl. 04:16 And it does something 04:17 I thought was still little bit odd as well-- 04:19 they went to church on Saturday. 04:21 And so I agreed to go, 04:23 and I knew a little about what she believed I guess, 04:25 they're going to church on Saturday 04:27 and few other things. 04:28 The first Saturday I went to church with her, 04:30 I noticed that the other people in the church 04:32 that I went to with her, 04:33 seemed to have the same kind of characteristics that she had. 04:37 They wasn't just saying one thing and living another, 04:40 they were-- had this spirit about them, 04:42 something different about them, that I wanted in my life. 04:45 And so I started attending church 04:47 without her asking me to attend church. 04:50 Little time goes by about six months later 04:52 I decided this is the girl I want to marry. 04:55 So I hadn't popped the question yet, 04:57 she didn't know I wanted to marry her yet. 04:58 She kind of had an idea I think. 05:01 So I got to talking to her about it 05:04 and I asked her to marry me and she said, 'Yes.' 05:08 But I wasn't the member of the church yet, 05:09 and I did understand that the Bible taught about 05:12 not being 'unequally yoked.' 05:14 And so I started studying the Bible 05:18 and realized that she wouldn't really want to marry me, 05:20 unless I became a Christian, 05:22 a Seventh-day Adventist Christian in particular. 05:25 So I agreed to study the Bible, 05:26 I was interested by the way 05:28 at this point in actually joining the church, 05:30 just as much I was marrying her. 05:32 I had come to the point in my life 05:34 when I-- where I realized that 05:35 there was something special about Christianity, 05:37 those that really followed the Bible are different, 05:39 than what I saw in the rest of the world and I wanted that. 05:42 So I started studying. 05:44 The pastor that I was studying with along with my wife, 05:48 I think he kind of had his doubts, 05:49 as to whether or not 05:51 I was sincere in my walk with God, 05:53 or if I was just wanting to be baptized 05:55 in order to marry Laura, my wife. 05:58 And he kind of had his doubts. 06:00 Well, I happened to be working at that job still, 06:02 I was working seven days a week. 06:04 And I've been doing it for several years. 06:07 My boss is a Hindu fellow, 06:09 and the pastor kind of knew these things. 06:12 I've been working all this time, I'd worked Friday nights late, 06:15 come to church Sabbath with her and then I would, 06:16 I go back to work on Saturday nights 06:18 and I thought everything was okay, 06:20 but then we came across the study of the Sabbath, 06:22 what it really meant to do, to keep God's holy day. 06:24 And when he showed it to me in the Bible 06:26 and then he made his appeal to me, 06:28 basically he says "Look, 06:30 you realize that you can't keep working on Sabbath, 06:32 if you are going to become a Christian 06:34 and follow what the Bible has to say. 06:36 And I was not a Christian yet, 06:37 didn't really trust in God like I should. 06:40 And, but you know, one of the things I did know 06:43 was I believed in the God that that pastor believed in, 06:46 In a God that my girlfriend believed in, 06:48 that He would do what they said He could do. 06:50 And so based on their faith, 06:52 I went and done what the pastor told me I needed to do. 06:54 And I think it's so interesting and so relevant, 06:56 that he doesn't make any excuses, 06:58 this pastor that I was talking to 06:59 didn't say, "Well you know, 07:01 go and see if your boss can kind of 07:02 work things out for you a little bit. 07:04 And if he can't, you just pray about it 07:05 and may be eventually, he'll work it out, 07:07 so you can be off on Sabbath. 07:09 He didn't say, well, just like someone else 07:12 that maybe a habitual liar or thief, 07:15 you wouldn't go to them and say, 07:16 "You know, you can go ahead and become a Christian, 07:18 but give God time He will work it out 07:20 where you can over this habit of stealing and lying." 07:22 It's one of those things you have to quit doing. 07:24 In order to feel you are follower of Christ, 07:25 you have to forsake the ways and the things of the world. 07:28 So he told me I had to go, 07:31 tell him, 'Look, I can't, 07:33 because I believe the Bible Sabbath is true." 07:35 You need to go and just tell him 07:37 and let God work things out in your life. 07:39 And I was sweating bullets. 07:41 I said, I had to go to this Hindu fellow, 07:43 I've been working for seven days a week for several years now 07:46 and tell him, I can no longer work on Sabbath, 07:47 and he's got me scheduled to work that each week. 07:50 I don't know if I can do that, 07:51 but my pastor told me, he said, 07:53 "Look, God is powerful enough, 07:55 He can deliver you and help you through this." 07:58 So I basically said, "All right, I'll do based on his faith." 08:02 I didn't really trust, but he did. 08:04 So I went to my boss and I went in 08:06 and I explained the situation to him 08:07 and said, "Look I can't work on Sabbath any longer." 08:09 and I was ready at this point 08:11 if I had to loose my job in order to follow God, 08:13 I wanted to do it, 08:14 besides I was going to get married. 08:16 So I spend a little time there, 08:19 praying and went in and talked to the boss, 08:20 and he said, "Fine, we can work it out. 08:22 You are not working on Sabbath." 08:24 Praise the Lord, I was so excited, 08:25 I went back and told my wife, 08:27 girlfriend at that time, they worked it out, 08:29 I don't have to work on Sabbath any longer. 08:31 And it was just one step after another 08:34 and I was taking these steps, these stages, 08:36 these commitments to God. 08:38 Each thing that I realized from the Bible, 08:40 I asked God to help me with it, 08:42 and He was doing it, and He will do it for any of us. 08:45 Till finally came the big day, 08:47 I got baptized on Sabbath, and married on Sunday. 08:51 And some of the saints in the church, 08:52 actually now will even still admit a little bit, 08:54 that they went home and kind of had me 08:56 for dinner that Sabbath afternoon. 08:58 They went home and said, you know, poor Laura, 09:00 now that he's got what he's wanted-- 09:02 he's got her married, 09:03 he won't be back to church anymore. 09:04 And they would say, it scared to death 09:06 I was going to pull my wife out of church. 09:07 But I knew something that they didn't know, 09:09 that God had changed my heart and changed my life. 09:11 And so I started growing in the Lord 09:14 and my wife was growing in the Lord too, Laura 09:16 and the reason I started off with that, 09:20 it will make perfect sense 09:21 as we go along here in just a little bit further. 09:23 But that was my brief summary and my testimony 09:25 how I became a Christian and started following God. 09:29 It wasn't too long after that I started-- 09:32 I became literature evangelist, a colporteur. 09:34 I would go around selling 09:36 Christian literature from door to door. 09:37 And things wasn't going that well 09:38 financially for us at that time. 09:40 But we still, I so followed God 09:41 and I was trusting in Him and learning as we went long. 09:45 And one Friday afternoon I got a phone call 09:51 from the pastor and the head elder of our church 09:53 who was supposed to be preaching our church on that Sabbath, 09:56 happened to be in a car wreck, out in California that day. 09:58 And he wasn't going to be able to make it home to preach 10:00 and he asked if I would preach for that Sabbath. 10:03 I've never been upfront hurled it on, 10:05 I was scared to death, 10:06 and I said, "No, I can't do that." 10:07 Finally by the end of the phone call 10:09 as those pastors can often times do, 10:10 they kind of twist your arm around just a little bit. 10:12 He had me twisted around into 10:15 saying, "Yeah okay, I'll preach." 10:17 And he said, "Just share stories about how God's done your life, 10:19 share testimonies its kind of like what I'm doing right now." 10:20 And I said, "Okay, I can do that." 10:22 So I did, that Sabbath I shared my testimony 10:25 and the people in the congregation said, 10:27 "You know what, we would like to have you 10:28 preach again some other time." 10:30 As a matter of fact, the pastor has another church 10:31 in another part of Kentucky. 10:33 He would like for you to preach down there some time too. 10:34 So I started preaching at two churches. 10:37 Someone came along and they heard me preach, 10:38 and they said, "You know, what, 10:40 we like to have you preach at our church." 10:41 A long story short here I have eight years after that 10:45 and there is like anyway from seven to ten churches 10:48 that God provides a place when you preach at 10:50 on Sabbath through the year. 10:52 And I preached about 25 different Sabbaths a year. 10:55 I'll go different churches and preach. 10:56 Now for the punch line, whenever I went out 11:01 and started preaching at other churches, 11:03 other than my home church, 11:04 who I kind of know the people and everything. 11:06 I started hearing different terms using things said it out, 11:08 that really didn't make sense to me, 11:10 I really didn't understand. 11:11 One of those terms that became-- 11:13 it has become real poplar even in churches today 11:15 is the term called 'Church growth.' 11:17 You've heard the term 'Church growth' before. 11:19 And it sounds good, it sounds great on the surface, 11:23 but I've discovered something. 11:25 There is something else that the Bible refers to more often 11:28 and it's called 'Kingdom growth.' 11:30 And you would think, well, there is no difference, 11:31 what's the difference between 11:33 church growth and kingdom growth. 11:34 There should be no difference, I agree with that. 11:36 But unfortunately, often times 11:37 today there is a difference 11:39 between church growth and kingdom growth. 11:41 And that difference just simply is this right here. 11:43 Whenever your focus is on church growth, 11:46 everything you want, everything you do, 11:48 everything you have in your church 11:49 is all about how we can get more people to come to church. 11:53 But you when you focus on kingdom growth, 11:54 everything you are about, everything you do 11:56 is how you can get people pointed to Jesus Christ 11:58 and to follow in His kingdom. 12:00 Again there is a difference between the two. 12:01 The major difference between those two is the fact that, 12:04 if I'm just interested in getting people to come to church 12:06 and I don't care what it takes to get them to come there, 12:08 then I'm going to do whatever I can 12:10 to bring the people in, such as, 12:13 And here are some of the things I found interesting, 'clowns'. 12:17 You've heard of Christian ministry with clowns, 12:19 puppets and I got Christian-- 12:22 what they call 'Christian magicians.' 12:25 They have things, 'gospel rock music' 12:28 and I saw in most of these churches that I was going to. 12:31 I'm not going to name any names. 12:33 But they started bringing in some of these things 12:35 in order to get people to come to church, 12:36 because their whole focus was to get people there. 12:38 And then I started hearing things like this, 12:40 "Well, just as long as they come, 12:44 then they'll understand the message 12:45 and they will follow the gospel and they will hear the message." 12:47 But the problem was, in order to get them coming, 12:49 we had to make all these changes in order to bring them in. 12:53 And then, if we ever preached the straight message to them, 12:54 and they will go back out, 12:56 so we couldn't do that any longer either. 12:57 These kind of things started taking place, 12:58 I noticed in the churches that I was going to. 13:00 Every time I would go in a mission time, 13:02 many of the churches I would hear them say, 13:03 "You know what, we got to get out to the people, 13:06 we got to have church growth." 13:08 I never saw any of these churches growing though. 13:10 I would go and be there week after week 13:12 through the year and come back in a later time 13:14 and the same people were there all the time. 13:16 And they were doing a lot of things 13:17 to try to fix that situation. 13:19 But one of the things I think that there was lacking, 13:22 that the Bible clearly speaks about 13:24 and what we would look at now, 13:25 is the fact that it's not important just to grow, 13:29 but it's important to have kingdom growth, 13:31 it's important to have people pointed to Jesus Christ. 13:33 And I want to opening up the Bible now 13:35 to 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2. 13:39 And I'll start reading in verse 1. 13:41 It says, "Wherefore laying aside all malice, 13:44 and all guile, and hypocrisies, 13:46 and envies, and all evil speakings, 13:49 and as newborn babes, 13:51 desire the sincere milk of the word, 13:54 that ye may grow thereby." 13:58 The Bible says, in order for us to grow, 14:01 He wants us to desire the sincere milk of the word, 14:06 like a newborn baby. 14:07 Now I don't know how many of you have had newborn babies. 14:09 I've had two, not actually I had my wife has had two. 14:13 And I noticed when my daughter was born, 14:15 especially, I can specifically remember this. 14:16 When my daughter was born 14:18 and she came out and there as I'm a brand new daddy 14:21 and I think wow, 14:23 I mean, I'm holding this baby in my hands 14:24 and it starts squalling. 14:27 And I looked and everything is okay down there, 14:29 and it's still squalling. 14:31 It's not, doesn't needed a diaper change 14:32 and you try to put up on your shoulder 14:33 and pat on and pat on it. 14:35 It doesn't help, it's still squalling and squalling. 14:36 And then my wife comes along and she says, 14:38 "It needs to be fed, she needs to be fed." 14:41 So my wife would take the baby and Katelyn, 14:43 and she would feed her and she would calm down 14:44 and get perfectly quiet. 14:46 And then I read this text it says, 14:47 we're to desire God's word like a baby desires the milk-- 14:52 of a newborn baby desires the milk of its mother. 14:56 And it makes perfect sense to me. 15:00 There was nothing I could do to satisfy the hunger, 15:03 the thirsting that my baby had, 15:06 nothing I could do to satisfy that 15:08 except to give her the sincere milk of her mother. 15:11 And as Christians as we follow the word of God. 15:14 The greatest thing God's-- 15:15 that Peter is trying to tell us here is 15:16 we need to be following God's word. 15:18 We need to be desiring the sincere milk of God's word, 15:20 like a baby desires the milk of its mom. 15:23 Here is something interesting, I could have took my baby, 15:27 I could have got a big slice of cheese pizza 15:28 and put it in a blender. 15:30 Blended that pizza all up there and make it liquefied, right? 15:34 Pour it into bottle, got my little baby Katelyn 15:36 and stuck the bottle in her mouth 15:37 and she would have sucked it down, 15:39 been satisfied, right? 15:41 It wouldn't have been much time after that 15:43 though my little baby would have been fat and unhealthy 15:45 and probably died at an early age. 15:48 Today in our Christian churches somehow we need-- 15:52 the thought is the most important thing is just growth, 15:55 but it's not, the most important thing 15:56 is healthy growth, kingdom growth. 15:58 As we'll be going to be looking out 15:59 as we go on here to the rest of this. 16:01 But it's not important that they just grow, 16:03 it's important to grow healthy. 16:05 She would have been fat, lazy, 16:06 and probably would have died at an early age. 16:09 Have we not give her the healthy things, 16:11 the things that she needs. 16:12 I could have took the things in the world 16:14 like the pizza and fed it to her. 16:15 But it was no good, she needed the sincere milk, 16:17 the mother's milk in order to grow healthy, 16:20 the same way that the church needs 16:21 the sincere milk of God's word 16:24 in order to have as we see here that you may grow thereby. 16:28 So thinking about that, thinking along those lines, 16:31 let me start thinking little more about 16:33 how do we approach church growth in our churches today. 16:37 Do we approach it in a way of 16:38 I'm looking for souls for the kingdom. 16:40 I want to give them the sincere milk of the word, 16:42 and they decide to follow, great, 16:44 if they decide not to follow it, well, that's not so great. 16:47 But I still want them to have an opportunity 16:49 to get all of the truth, all the of message of God word. 16:52 And you can't do that with clowns, 16:54 you can't do that with rock music, 16:56 you can't do that with magicians 16:58 or puppets or anything like that. 16:59 If somebody comes to your church 17:01 and they start coming because they like clown ministry you had 17:03 as soon as the clown leaves they'll leave. 17:05 But if someone comes to your church, 17:06 if they come and become a Christian, 17:08 because they love the Lord Jesus Christ. 17:10 And they're gonna follow His word, 17:11 when the clown leaves, when the puppets leave, 17:13 when the rock music is not at church, 17:14 when half of the church leaves, 17:16 if they are grounded in the word of God, 17:17 they will still stay. 17:20 So I want to take now a little time 17:22 and go to the Book of Exodus, Exodus 32. 17:27 And look at the example in the Bible, if someone-- 17:29 of an instance a case, where the leader of the church, 17:34 the leader of God's people actually said, 17:36 "Well I wanted to do what the people want to do, 17:38 I want to make them happy." 17:39 And what it cost him when he'd done that. 17:41 And it's found in Exodus 32, 17:43 I'm going to start reading in verse 1. 17:45 "And when the people saw that Moses 17:46 delayed to come down out of the mount, 17:49 the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, 17:51 and said unto him, 'Up, make us Gods, 17:55 which shall go before us, for as this Moses, 17:58 the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, 18:01 we don't know what has become of him.'" 18:03 And Aaron said to them, 18:04 "Okay, Break off your golden earrings 18:06 which are in the ears of your wives and of your sons." 18:09 Sounds like today, doesn't it? 18:11 "And of your daughters, and bring them to me. 18:14 And all the people brake off the golden earrings 18:16 which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 18:19 He received them at their hand, 18:20 and fashioned it with a graving tool, 18:24 after he had made the molten calf. 18:27 they said, These things be thy Gods, O Israel, 18:30 which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 18:32 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, 18:35 and Aaron made proclamation, and said, 18:37 tomorrow is a feast to the Lord." 18:39 Isn't it interesting? 18:41 They are going to worship the Lord tomorrow he says. 18:43 But how they are going to worship Him? 18:44 The way God had just prescribed earlier in the Book of Exodus? 18:47 Or they had already made up 18:49 a different way of worshiping the Lord. 18:50 They made a golden calf, 18:52 they made an image and made an idol 18:53 and they made an altar before this idol 18:55 and they said, this is our God, but we are going-- 18:56 tomorrow we are going to have feast, 18:58 as we worship this God, 18:59 we are going to be worshiping the Lord God. 19:01 God had prescribed the way, 19:02 He wants us to worship, He wants things done. 19:03 But they decided they wanted a different way of doing this. 19:06 And so when you look at here in verse 6 again, 19:09 "They rose up early on the morning, 19:10 and they offered burnt offerings, 19:12 and brought peace offerings, 19:15 and the people sat down to eat and drink, 19:18 and they rose up to play." 19:21 Some kind of party, huh? 19:22 Let's look what it costs them by doing that in verse 19. 19:25 "And it came to pass," Moses is up on the mountain 19:28 in preceding verses there and God says, 19:30 "Look the people they've done lost their mind 19:33 and they broke all Ten Commandments in one wild party, 19:35 you need to get down there and do something. 19:36 As matter of fact, don't do that, 19:38 I'm going to consume them right now, 19:39 I'm gonna destroy them right now get out of my way, 19:40 Moses says, "No Lord, You can't do that. 19:42 What will people think of you." 19:43 So in verse 19, "It came to pass, 19:45 as soon as he came nigh to the camp, 19:47 and he saw the calf, and the dancing, 19:50 and Moses' anger was waxed hot, 19:52 and he cast the tables out of his hands, 19:54 and brake them beneath the mount. 19:56 And he took the calf which they had made, 19:58 and he burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, 20:00 and strawed it upon the waters, 20:02 and the children of Israel, he made them drink it. 20:05 And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you, 20:10 that you have brought so great a sin upon them?" 20:13 Aaron the leader of God's people 20:15 and Moses comes to Aaron and says, 20:17 "What were you thinking?" 20:19 Why did you let these people talk you into doing this? 20:23 And Aaron comes back and he says, 20:25 "Well, let don't be mad at me." 20:28 Verse 22, "You know the people that they are set on mischief." 20:33 That's what they like to do. 20:34 I was just doing what they have asked. 20:36 I was doing what the people wanted. 20:39 "For they said unto me, make gods, 20:40 which shall go before us, for as this Moses, 20:44 that brought us out of Egypt, 20:45 we don't know what's become of him. 20:47 And I said to them, 20:48 whoever has any gold, let them break it off. 20:50 So that they gave it to me 20:51 and then I cast it into the fire and out came this calf." 20:56 It is just like it was some kind of miracle. 20:58 He threw the gold in the fire and this calf came out. 21:00 Moses, I don't know what's going on. 21:01 And Moses in verse 25, 21:03 "And when saw that the people were naked, 21:06 for Aaron had made them naked 21:08 to their shame among their enemies. 21:10 Moses stood at the gate of the camp, 21:11 and said, who is on the Lord's side? 21:13 Let him come over to me. 21:14 And all the sons of Levi gathered together unto him." 21:17 Verse 28, "And when the children of Levi 21:20 did according to the word of Moses" 21:21 Moses said go out and kill all the people that didn't come. 21:23 "And there fell among them that day about 3,000 men." 21:27 Three thousand men fell that day 21:30 because the leader of the God's church 21:33 didn't have enough nerve, 21:36 enough sincere heart for the God, the things of God, 21:41 he's more afraid of the people than he was afraid of the God, 21:43 because of that, it cost 3,000 people their lives. 21:45 If Aaron would have stood up and when he said 21:47 "No, we're going to continue to serve the Lord, 21:49 we're not going to serve these gods 21:51 like you served in Egypt." 21:52 Three thousand people wouldn't have lost their lives that day. 21:55 Verse 35, at the end of that Chapter said 21:57 "The Lord plagued the people 21:58 because they made the calf, which Aaron had made." 22:02 It's dangerous for us friends, 22:04 to think that God is not real particular about how we worship, 22:08 about when we worship, 22:10 about how we treat the holy things of God. 22:14 Here it only cost 3,000 people their lives. 22:17 The Bible also teaches that 22:18 there's going to be many people in the very last days 22:21 that they're going to be worshipping 22:22 not according to what God has asked them to worship, 22:24 and they are going to lose their eternal life as well. 22:27 God is particular. 22:28 As a matter of fact, I want to turn to another story, 22:30 it's even more direct with this, it's found in 1 Samuel. 22:33 My Bible fell right open to it. 22:34 You want to turn there to 1 Samuel 15. 22:37 This is even more powerful illustration this in my view. 22:42 1 Samuel 15, now those of you that don't know the story, 22:45 God had made Samuel or made Saul rather, the king of Israel. 22:50 The people said, "We didn't want Samuel ruling over us 22:52 or his children ruling over us anymore. 22:54 We want a real king so we can be like the rest of the world." 22:57 So God says, "Well, that's what you want. 22:59 You're rejecting Me, but I'll give you a king." 23:01 And He gave them a king. He gave people a king. 23:04 But then God started telling through the Prophet Samuel 23:07 to have Saul do certain things and Saul just kept messing up. 23:12 God would say do something 23:14 and he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't do things right. 23:16 By and by here in 1 Samuel 15, starting in verse 1, 23:20 God said to Samuel to go tell Saul, 23:24 "The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, 23:26 over Israel, now therefore hearken thou 23:28 unto the voice of the words of the Lord. 23:30 Thus said the Lord of hosts, 23:32 I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, 23:37 how he laid wait for him in the way, 23:40 when he came up from Egypt. 23:42 Now go and smite Amalek, 23:43 and utterly destroy all that they have, 23:45 spare them not, but slay both man and woman, 23:51 infant, suckling, ox, sheep, camel and ass." 23:56 Give it to all of them. Wipe them all out. 23:59 So Saul says, Okay, we'll go do that. 24:02 And they went. 24:03 Verse 11, Chapter 15 verse 11, 24:06 God comes and He speaks to Saul 24:09 and he says, "Look-- I'll start in verse 10. 24:12 "Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying. 24:15 It repents me that I've set up Saul to be king 24:19 for he is turned back from following me, 24:22 and has not performed my commandments. 24:24 And it grieved Samuel 24:26 and he cried all night to the Lord. 24:29 Samuel rose up early to meet Saul in the morning, 24:33 and it was told Samuel, 24:36 saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, 24:38 he set him up a place, and is gone about, 24:42 and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal." 24:44 And Samuel said came to Saul, Samuel came to Saul. 24:48 You got to pay attention to the 'me's, 24:50 and 'I's and 'thee's in this next few verses, 24:52 the I's, they's and the we's rather. 24:55 "Blessed be though," this is Saul speaking to Samuel 24:58 "Blessed be thought of Lord 25:00 I have performed the commandment of the Lord." 25:07 God told Saul to go and destroy all the Amalekites. 25:13 Saul comes back and he says to Samuel, 25:15 I've done what God told me. 25:16 I've performed the commandments. 25:18 "Samuel says then, what's the meaning 25:20 of this bleating of the sheep I hear in my ears 25:23 and the lowing of these oxens I hear. 25:25 And Saul said, well, 25:26 they have brought them from the Amalekites." 25:30 Speaking of the people, 25:32 first of all, when he first comes back Saul says, 25:34 "Look, I have done everything God told me to do. 25:36 I have done just like God said. 25:37 And then Samuel says, wait a minute. 25:39 What about the noise I hear of these sheep and this ox. 25:42 And Saul said, "Oh, well the people did that." 25:44 They did it, they brought them up from the Amalekites 25:47 "For the people spared the best sheep and of the oxen, 25:51 to sacrifice unto Lord thy God and the rest did this, 25:55 the rest we utterly destroyed. 25:58 First of all Saul says, 26:00 yeah, I've done what I'm supposed to do. 26:02 I destroyed it like God had told me to do. 26:04 And he said, "But what about the sheep?" 26:05 Well, the people brought them back. 26:06 But we as in, well he is talking about himself again said, 26:09 "We've done everything God said, we destroyed the rest of it." 26:12 Then Samuel said unto Saul, 26:13 stay and I will tell you what the Lord has said." 26:16 Samuel said in verse 17, 26:18 "When you was little in thine own sight, 26:21 wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, 26:27 and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? 26:29 And the LORD sent thee on a journey, 26:33 and said, Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, 26:36 and fight against them until they be consumed." 26:38 Destroy them all together. 26:42 Wherefore, he says in verse 19, 26:44 "Did you not obey the voice of the Lord," 26:45 why didn't you obey the voice of the Lord, 26:47 "but you flew, you grab the hold of the spoil, 26:50 and did evil in the sight of the Lord?" 26:52 Again Saul is going to start blaming the people again. 26:55 "Saul said to Samuel, I obey the voice of the Lord, 26:59 I have gone the way which the Lord had sent me." 27:00 Verse 20, "I brought Agag, the king of Amalekites back, 27:03 but I utterly destroyed the Amalekites but the people," 27:08 once again, Saul is blaming the people. 27:10 He says, "But the people took the spoil, 27:13 the sheep, the oxen, and the chief of things 27:15 which should have been utterly destroyed." 27:17 Saul is saying, "I admit, 27:19 they should have been utterly destroyed. 27:20 They brought it back to sacrifice 27:22 in the Lord thy God in Gilgal." 27:23 And Samuel said, 27:25 "But has the Lord such great delight 27:26 in burnt offerings and sacrifices, 27:27 as in obeying the voice of the Lord? 27:31 Behold, it's better to obey than a sacrifice." 27:36 It's better not to sin to start with 27:37 and then have to ask for forgiveness for sin. 27:39 Saul, the word of God was clear, 27:42 what you were supposed to go do and you didn't go do it. 27:44 You have sinned. 27:48 Verse 24, "Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned. 27:52 I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord." 27:56 He needed to stop right there, that's repentance, right? 27:59 If you stop right there that's repentance, I have sinned. 28:00 I have transgressed the commandments of Lord, 28:02 what can I say, there is no excuses 28:03 but he makes some excuse. 28:05 He says, "Because I feared the people, 28:07 and obeyed their voice." 28:10 Saul was afraid of what the people would think. 28:13 He wanted to serve God, but you know what, 28:15 there was so much peer pressure 28:17 to do what the world wants to do. 28:19 And I just gave into it. And it's their fault. 28:21 If they hadn't put the pressure on me, 28:22 I never would have done that. 28:23 Does that sound familiar? 28:25 Today you go around 28:27 and the leaders of churches will say, 28:28 "You know what, this is what the people want." 28:30 The people want the rock bands in the church. 28:33 They want the things of the world in a church, 28:36 but my Bible says, friends, 28:37 1 John 2 starting at 15, "Love not the world, 28:41 neither the things that are in the world. 28:43 For all that is in the world, 28:44 the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, 28:46 the pride of life is not of the Father, 28:48 but is of the world." 28:49 And it's passing away. It's passing away. 28:53 And the lust thereof, 28:55 but he that does the will of God will abide forever. 29:00 God's calling us not to be like the world, 29:02 not to do whatever we can to get the people 29:04 to come into the church and to fill the pews, 29:06 He is calling us to go out to the world 29:07 that's dying, that's lost 29:09 because they love the ways of the world 29:10 and bring them into the truth of God's word. 29:12 So they can live forever. 29:14 It's not just a temporary thing, 29:16 it's eternal consequences sitting in balance, 29:20 they're laying in the balance, eternity. 29:23 But often times we think we're just okay 29:25 by just doing whatever we can to get people to come to church. 29:28 We call that "Church growth". 29:30 But God is interested in something more than that. 29:32 God is interested in Kingdom growth. 29:35 Having people in the pews is not what's important to God, 29:37 having people in His kingdom is what's important to God. 29:39 And He doesn't want us to sacrifice 29:41 any of the principles of God's word 29:42 in order to just get people to come. 29:43 And that's what's been brought out here. 29:45 If Saul would've just said, 29:46 "Look, I don't care what the people say, 29:48 I'm going to obey the voice of Lord." 29:49 He didn't do that, he said, I obey the voice of-- 29:51 "I obey their voice." Verse 24. 29:53 He says, "I obey their voice." 29:56 But he says, "Wait a minute," 29:58 we're going to find out 29:59 what his underlying principles was in his life. 30:01 We're going to look at Saul again, 30:02 because I think that applies to lot of us today. 30:05 Now therefore I pray thee pardon my sin and turn again 30:07 with me that I may worship the Lord." 30:09 Samuel said to Saul verse 26, 30:11 "I will not return with thee 30:12 for you have rejected the word of the Lord, 30:15 and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel." 30:19 Pretty powerful words if I had a man of God, 30:22 a Godly man, a pastor or elder someone 30:24 I highly respected that was-- 30:26 this is the prophet of God talking to Saul here. 30:28 If he would have told me 30:29 "Look God has nothing to do with you anymore, 30:32 the kingdom is going to be taken from you." 30:33 I would be terrified. 30:35 The last thing on my mind right at that moment 30:37 would be trying to justify myself. 30:39 I would like to think that would be the case. 30:41 But look what Saul says verse 27, 30:44 "And as Samuel turned to go away, 30:46 he laid hold upon a skirt in his mantle, and it rent. 30:48 And Samuel said unto him, the Lord's rent to kingdom 30:50 from Israel from you this day and has given it to your-- 30:54 to neighbor of yours that is better than you. 30:57 And also the strength of Israel he will not repent, 31:00 lie nor repent for he is not a man 31:02 that he should repent." 31:04 Then he said, this is Saul talking again, 31:06 "I have sinned yet honor me now." 31:09 That's how the text goes. 31:10 "I have sinned yet honor me now 31:12 I pray thee before the elders 31:14 and the people, and before Israel, 31:15 and turn again with me, 31:17 that I may worship the Lord thy God." 31:18 In other words, Saul says look, 31:19 I realized yeah, I have lost the kingdom 31:21 and God is not going to follow me anymore 31:23 but please, please the elders the people, 31:25 please have them come, 31:27 please come back and worship with me so-- 31:28 so the people won't see think bad of me." 31:30 His whole concern was still not like, 31:32 what he'd done to God, but again in verse 30 he says, 31:34 "He's concerned what the elders think and the people." 31:39 So he turned back and Samuel worship with him as he asked. 31:43 But I love how Samuel 31:45 interrupts their worship service. 31:46 Samuel says, look I'll come back and worship with you, 31:50 but I'm going to finished obeying the word of the Lord. 31:52 God said to do something, you haven't done it yet. 31:54 The rest of the story friends, Samuel is true to God, 31:57 he didn't care what the people thought, 31:58 he didn't care what Saul thought, 32:00 he didn't care what anybody else thought at that time, 32:01 he says, bring out bring out the Amalek, 32:05 the king bring him out Agag the King bring him out so. 32:09 In verse 32 it says, "Samuel said, 32:11 I've to bring him out and Agag came out 32:13 and he walked kind of delicately 32:14 and he was kind of nervous they said, 32:16 well in his mind surely the bitterness of 32:18 death is past," in verse 32. 32:20 And Samuel said to the king Agag. 32:23 He says, "Your sword, 32:26 your sword has made woman childless, 32:29 and now your mom is going to be childless." 32:31 And the Bible tells us that Samuel took the sword 32:33 and hacked Agag up into little bitty pieces 32:35 and everybody went home. 32:37 The party was over, the worship service was over. 32:39 Everybody went home. 32:40 They didn't like the way Samuel had done things, 32:42 but Samuel was obeying the word of the Lord. 32:44 His focus was not on what the elders thought 32:46 or what the people thought 32:48 or what anybody thought other than God 32:49 and God has said to do this, so he did it. 32:53 How often do we today? 32:55 Just do what God asked without asking questions, 32:57 without worrying about what the family's going to think, 33:00 what other peoples going to think. 33:01 I'll tell you what friends, since I become 33:03 a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, 33:04 my family thinks I have lost my mind. 33:10 They don't know what to think, 33:12 you know, but I know that I'm pleasing God. 33:16 I know that when I serve God 33:18 that there is one in heaven that is pleased. 33:22 My family might not be pleased. 33:24 But it's interesting to me also 33:26 as we live our life for Jesus Christ, 33:29 as we consecrate our life 33:31 and everything we have to Him, please notice. 33:35 Who do you think my family calls 33:37 whenever things go wrong, whenever they need prayer, 33:40 whenever they don't know how to take things, 33:45 whenever we go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas 33:47 and then they need somebody to pray over the food. 33:48 Who do you think they ask? 33:52 It is a shame that-- that people that we know, 33:56 our friends and family. 33:58 I heard a guy say one time, 34:00 and I believe it totally to be true. 34:02 It goes along with the family or your relatives 34:04 or that this was particular talking about our workplace. 34:06 He said, if the people that you work with 34:08 don't know you're Christian, then you're not. 34:11 If the people you work with doesn't know 34:13 you're Christian, then you're not. 34:14 Friends, we are to live our Christianity 34:16 in front of everybody 34:17 and not worry about what people think. 34:19 We'll let people know or we have a relationship 34:21 with the one truly living God and we trust in Him. 34:24 I wish I had time to share some testimonies 34:27 and things of what God's done in my life 34:28 and I'm not going to have time to do all that today 34:30 because I got a get to another section here, 34:33 another part and it's in found John 6. 34:35 I want to ask the question, question today. 34:37 Did Jesus worry about numbers? 34:40 Was His focus, He's concerned on 34:42 what we think of today is church growth 34:44 or was He's concerned on kingdom growth, 34:46 that He differentiate the two. 34:48 As a matter of fact I believe we have 34:49 strong evidence in several places in the gospels, 34:51 but one place in particular is John 6. 34:54 This is one of the most favorite chapters. 34:55 I kind of just sum it up, 34:56 summarize the whole thing in this part, 34:58 because it actually you got to go through 34:59 the whole chapter to get-- to get the understanding. 35:01 At the beginning of John Chapter 6 35:03 and read verse 1 and 2 it says, 35:05 "After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, 35:07 which is the sea of Tiberias. 35:10 And a great multitude followed him, 35:12 because they saw the miracles 35:13 which he did on them that were diseased". 35:14 We had a great multitude following Jesus, 35:16 because they saw miracles 35:18 that He did on those people that were diseased. 35:20 And then if you read on and Jesus is standing here 35:23 in John 6 and there is great multitude comes to Him 35:27 5,000 people, 5,000 men the Bible says, 35:30 maybe they are not counting the women, children, 35:32 they could have been in as many as 10,000 people there. 35:33 You can call that the first recorded mega church, 35:37 that you find-- that you find 35:40 that's the term lot of people like to use, mega church. 35:42 Now even they got what they call 'giga churches' 35:43 where they got like 10,000 people 35:45 were coming out to worship 35:46 and the guy will stand up in front tell them that, 35:48 they're just all good people and as along you are 35:50 good to your neighbors and happy and friendly 35:51 and all this kind of stuff, Christ loves that 35:53 and He's going to accept you into His kingdom. 35:56 Is what the gospel, is that the teaching 35:57 we find in the scriptures we're going to find out 35:59 what Jesus had to say. 36:00 Jesus says, "Look, look at these people, out here Phillip. 36:03 He speaks to Phillip and He says, 36:04 "5,000 of them are out there". 36:06 And He says, "How we're going to feed all of them?" 36:08 Phillip says, "I don't know." 36:10 In verse 5, He says, I mean in verse 6, 36:16 verse 5 Jesus asked, then peter says, 36:19 how we're going to feed these people? 36:20 And this he said to prove him for he knew himself 36:24 what he would do, Phillip answered, 36:25 "Two-hundred penny worth of bread is not that sufficient 36:27 that every man may even have a little bit." 36:30 Not even little bit, but Andrew bring this little 36:33 kid up here with two fishes and five loaves 36:35 and he says here's two fishes and five loaves. 36:37 I don't know, if that will do any good or not. 36:40 Jesus says, "have all the people sit down." 36:43 Five thousand people all of them sit down on the grass, 36:44 there is a plenty of grass there to have them sit down 36:46 in companies and they did and Jesus fed 5,000 people. 36:52 Fed them so much that there was 36:54 12 baskets full of bread leftover. 36:58 What a miracle, powerful miracle. 37:01 And you would think, well, that's great. 37:02 Now Jesus is going to have a lot more people following Him, 37:03 as a matter of fact He did. 37:05 And the Bible says, then He went 37:06 across the sea that evening, 37:08 actually the disciples got a boat, 37:09 went to the other side. 37:10 And Jesus walked on water that evening 37:13 and followed them and people noticed it 37:14 that when Jesus-- Jesus stayed on land 37:16 and His disciples got the boat and went to the other side. 37:19 And then the people sailed over there also 37:20 and when they got there the next day 37:21 and noticed that Jesus was there too 37:23 with the disciples they said, "Master, how did you get here?" 37:25 How did you get over here because we know, 37:27 you didn't go with your disciples. 37:28 Pick it up in verse 22, "The day following, 37:30 when the people which stood on the other side of the sea 37:32 saw that there was none other boat there, 37:34 save that one where into his disciples were entered, 37:38 and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, 37:41 but that his disciples were gone away alone. 37:43 Howbe it there came other boats from Tiberias 37:46 nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, 37:50 after that the Lord had given thanks". 37:51 These people as they goes on to say 37:53 here these people are following him 37:54 over to the other side, they all over there now 37:56 and I got 5,000 people on the other side of the lake. 37:57 And Jesus starts talking to them, He says this. 38:00 Verse 26, "Verily I says unto you, 38:03 you don't seek me because you saw the miracles 38:05 but because you ate loafs and you got your bellies full." 38:08 You're following me around because-- 38:09 because I fed you and you got your bellies full. 38:13 I've got a big mega church here, got people following me, 38:16 everywhere I go because I fed them. 38:18 Then he goes on verse 27, 38:20 "Don't labor for the meat it's going to perished, 38:23 but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, 38:25 which the Son of man shall give unto you. 38:28 For him has God the Father sealed." 38:31 Jesus starts telling people 38:32 now we are going to go different direction. 38:33 He has the people following Him. 38:36 At the beginning of John 6, 38:38 He has over 5,000 men following Him. 38:41 Midway through John 6, He starts preaching this 38:43 powerful message about Him being the bread of life, 38:45 that came down out of heaven. 38:48 He says, "I'm that bread of life." 38:49 And the people says, "Uh, that's hard to understand 38:51 we don't-- don't can't quite get that." 38:54 Pick it up again in verse 47, 38:56 "Verily, verily I say unto you, 38:58 he that believeth on me has everlasting life. 39:01 I'm that bread of life, your father's ate 39:03 men in the wilderness and they are dead." 39:05 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, 39:07 that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 39:09 I'm the living bread Jesus says, 39:10 which came down from heaven 39:12 if any man eats this bread he shall live forever. 39:15 And the bread that I will give us my flesh 39:18 which I'll give for the life of the world." 39:20 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, 39:22 how can this man give us His flesh to eat? 39:25 Totally confused, they don't understand 39:26 the spiritual message that Jesus is trying portray here. 39:29 We know it's a spiritual message 39:31 because he go in John 6:63, he says, 39:34 "It's the spirit that quickens the flesh profits nothing, 39:37 the words that I speak unto you, 39:38 they are spirit and they are life." 39:41 Jesus says, look guys I'm trying to present you 39:44 something spiritual now because I fed you physically. 39:46 I've got you here fed you physically, 39:47 but now you're going to hear 39:49 a straight message from the word of God. 39:51 He preached the straight message from the word of God 39:53 and then the people still miss understood it. 39:56 Because it says in verse 64, but there are some of you 39:58 he says, that believe not, 40:00 some of you stand here, you don't believe. 40:02 For Jesus knew from the beginning 40:05 who they were that believe not and who would betray Him. 40:08 And he said, therefore said I unto you, 40:11 that no man can come to me, 40:12 except it be from father and given to him by my father. 40:16 From that time many other disciples went back 40:18 and followed Him no more. 40:21 Then said Jesus to 12, "will you also go away." 40:28 It was a tough message. 40:30 The people didn't really understand it, 40:32 Jesus didn't try to drag the 5,000 bags 40:34 and now wait a minute guys, wait a minute, 40:36 I want to make sure you understand this clearly. 40:37 He just preached the word of God in truth, in spirit, in truth. 40:40 He says, "These words that I speak unto you, 40:41 they are spirit, they are life." 40:44 He is the bread of life. He didn't make no exceptions. 40:48 He made an appeal to the people 40:49 to accept Him as the bread of life. 40:50 They denied Him, they didn't want to accept it 40:52 and at the beginning of John 6, 40:54 you got 5,000 people following Him, 40:58 He preaches a powerful sermon in between 41:00 and in the end of John 6 it says here, 41:04 "Then Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, to whom shall we go, 41:09 you have the words of eternal life. 41:11 And we believe that you're-- 41:13 we believe and are sure that you are the Christ, 41:15 the Son of the living God." 41:18 Jesus answered them and said, 41:20 "Have I not I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil? 41:22 He's speaking of Judas Iscariot 41:24 for He it was that would betray him being one of the 12. 41:30 At this time Jesus is here now with His 12 disciples. 41:36 That's powerful to me to think that 41:37 at the beginning of John 6, 41:39 He's got 5,000 people following Him, 41:41 midway through John 6 Jesus says, 41:43 you guys are just following me around 41:44 'cause you're getting your belly full 41:46 and because you see these things that I am doing. 41:47 And he says, listen and He preached 41:50 this powerful message to them 41:52 about how He is the bread of life. 41:53 At the end of John 6 there's just 12 left. 41:57 Jesus gave them an opportunity 41:58 to accept or reject Him as the Savior. 42:02 They had an opportunity 42:03 to accept or reject Him as the Messiah. 42:07 Five thousand people rejected Him. 42:11 You think it bothered Him? Of course it did. 42:15 But Jesus had one thing above anything else 42:17 and that was the word of God. 42:19 He says, look this is the truth. 42:20 You can accept it or you can reject it. 42:23 Many chose to reject it. 42:24 We have to do the same thing today. 42:26 Are you aware that preaching the truth of God's word 42:29 has never been popular? 42:30 Do you ever wonder why Jesus says, things like, 42:33 there is a broad wide road that many there be He goes on... 42:37 at least to destruction. 42:40 And there is this narrow thin road 42:41 that-that few there be that go on, 42:44 that leads to eternal life. 42:48 But yet we seem to think that 42:50 if we don't have the multitudes 42:52 and the more multitudes flocking to our churches 42:54 and filling them up that somehow 42:56 we're not be in the wrong, Jesus Himself said, 42:58 it was going to be that way. 42:59 In the days of Noah, eight were saved. 43:02 It's never been popular following the truth. 43:04 It's never been popular doing what the word of God say. 43:07 As a matter of fact, you can find in the Book of Acts. 43:09 If you want to know how to go to your churches, 43:11 go to the Book of Acts. 43:12 And then go to your knees and ask God to help you 43:14 to do be like the people in the Book of Acts. 43:16 You know, I love the Book of Acts. 43:18 As a matter of facts starting in Chapter 2 43:20 of the Book of Acts. 43:21 You find Peter standing up in verse 14, it says, 43:23 Peter stood up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, 43:27 and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, 43:29 and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, 43:30 be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. 43:32 And they begin to preach the sermon, 43:34 he preaches a sermon about how Jesus was a Christ, 43:36 the Messiah. 43:38 Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. 43:39 He starts to preach a sermon about how David prophesied 43:42 about seeing Jesus being resurrected 43:44 and that's exactly what took place, 43:45 He was resurrected. 43:46 And then He tells the people in verse 36, 43:48 "Therefore let all the house of Israel 43:51 know assuredly that this that-- 43:53 God has made the same Jesus whom you have crucified." 43:58 You crucified Jesus, I crucified Jesus 44:01 before we have to-- we gonna feel 44:03 good about going to church 44:04 and being around with another Christians, 44:06 we first had to realize that I crucified the Savior. 44:10 And then my only hope is turning back to Him. 44:12 This is what--the sermon here, Peter preaches. 44:15 He says, "You crucified Him." 44:17 But now He's become both Lord and Christ. 44:20 Now when they heard this, 44:21 they were pricked in their hearts. 44:24 And said unto Peter and to the rest the apostles, 44:26 men and brethren, what shall we do? 44:29 Of course Peter says, guys, 44:31 that's not really nothing to worry about, 44:32 just come to my church and follow me around 44:34 and everything will be great, is that what he told them? 44:36 Listen what Peter says to him in the next verse. 44:39 "When they heard this they were pricked in their heart 44:42 and said what shall we do." 44:43 Verse 38, "Then Peter said unto them, repent." 44:48 What a powerful sermon, you don't hear 44:49 a whole lot of that these days. 44:51 "Do you repent, you're a evil sinner, 44:53 you need to repent." 44:55 Because there's good news for you, good news for me, 44:58 and we baptized every one of you 44:59 in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. 45:02 The remission of sin means, the forgiveness of sins. 45:04 He will forgive our sins. 45:05 The Bible tells us 1 John 1:9. 45:07 "If we confess, he is faithful and just to forgive 45:11 and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 45:12 If we have done things that we know 45:14 that God will not approve of, 45:15 in our churches, in our homes, in our lives. 45:17 If we live the life that maybe, 45:18 maybe brought disrepute upon God's people, upon God's church 45:22 and upon Christianity in general he says, 45:25 look, repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. 45:30 And you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 45:32 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, 45:35 and to all that are afar off, 45:36 even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 45:38 " Verse 40, I love this. 45:40 Often times, people think, you know what, 45:42 as soon as somebody just acknowledges, 45:44 they can actually get enough, ah, air in their lungs-- 45:46 and come out of their mouth and say, "Ah, I...believe. 45:49 Now, oh, that's good enough, let's baptize him. 45:50 But notice what Peter does here, 45:52 Peter preaches to them a sermon 45:54 about how they crucified the Messiah. 45:55 It was their sins, your sins and my sins 45:57 that nailed Him to the cross. 45:58 They realized this and said, "what shall we do?' 46:00 He says, "You need to repent." 46:02 Repent means also to 'turn around.' 46:03 You don't keep going in the same direction you're going, 46:05 you change, your life changes 46:06 because you will realize what you've done. 46:08 He would say to repent and believe 46:09 and then he doesn't baptize them. 46:11 No. 46:12 Verse 40 says this, "And then with many other 46:16 words did he testified and exhorted them saying, 46:19 Save yourselves from this perverse generation. 46:22 Then they that gladly receive the word, 46:25 they that gladly receive the word were baptized. 46:29 And the same days they were 46:30 added unto them about 3,000 souls. 46:32 Then they continued steadfastly 46:33 the apostles' doctrine and fellowship 46:35 in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 46:36 And their king fear upon every soul 46:38 and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 46:41 And all that believed were together, 46:44 and had all things in common. 46:45 And they sold their possessions and goods, 46:48 and they parted them among men, as every man had need. 46:52 And they, continued daily with one accord in the temple, 46:54 and breaking a bread from house to house, 46:56 did eat their meat with gladness 46:57 and singleness of heart. 46:58 Praising God, and having favor with the people. 47:02 And the Lord added to the church daily 47:05 such as should be saved." 47:07 It was the Lord that added to the church daily. 47:09 It wasn't their antics, it wasn't their great preaching, 47:13 and it wasn't their donuts and coffee outside the church. 47:17 It wasn't their clowns or the magicians 47:20 or anything else they had. 47:21 It was the preaching of the word of God 47:23 and the Lord out at that church daily, 47:24 such as should be saved. 47:27 How often do we-- 47:29 can focus on bringing people in to be saved. 47:34 Is it more important? 47:36 Is church growth is important as kingdom growth? 47:39 The church, the people were added to the church 47:41 in the days of the apostles were saved. 47:43 You know, people that were repented 47:44 and they turned to Jesus Christ and it says they were saved. 47:50 I think that was a great sermon, think about it. 47:52 God used him to preach a powerful message like that, 47:54 and they had 3,000 people join the church. 47:57 But, you know what, it's not always popular 47:59 to preach a message like that. 48:01 As a matter of fact, the very next chapter 48:02 Acts 3 says "Now Peter and John 48:05 went up together to the temple 48:07 at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 48:10 And a certain man that was lame 48:11 from his mother's womb was carried, 48:14 whom they laid at the gate of the temple 48:15 which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them 48:17 that entered into the temple." 48:19 This guy had been there, 48:20 he'd been in this shape for over 40 years. 48:22 You read him in the Acts 3:22, 48:24 it said this guy was over 40 years old 48:25 and he had been laying from his mother's womb, 48:27 sitting there in front of the gate 48:29 with his legs crippled asking for money. 48:32 Peter and John come up to him and say, 48:34 I don't have any money to give you, 48:36 but what I have, I am willing to give you. 48:37 And he says, rise up and walk in the name of Jesus Christ, 48:39 and he rose up and walked. 48:41 He rose up and started walking. 48:43 But they took advantage of this opportunity. 48:45 They preached that message again, 48:46 the same message that they have preached in Chapter 2, 48:48 they had 3,000 souls converted. 48:49 He preached the same message again in Chapter 3. 48:51 And the result of that message, 48:53 we will look at in just a second. 48:54 When Peter saw, in verse 4, 48:55 he answered to the people and said, "You men of Israel, 48:57 why you are marveling that we have done this? 48:59 Or why do you look at so earnestly on us, 49:01 as though by our own power and holiness 49:03 we had made this man to walk? 49:04 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 49:07 the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, 49:08 has glorified his Son Jesus, whom you delivered up, 49:12 and denied him in the presence of Pilate, 49:14 when he was determined to let him go." 49:16 Pilate won't let him go, but you delivered him up, 49:18 you cause Him to be crucified. 49:20 Same sermon. 49:22 "But you denied the Holy One and the Just, 49:24 and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. 49:28 And killed the Prince of life, 49:30 whom God has raised up from the dead, whereof, 49:32 we are witnesses of this. 49:36 And his name through faith 49:38 in his name has made this man strong, whom you know. 49:41 ye, the faith which is by him 49:44 has given him this perfect soundness 49:46 in the presence in front of you all." 49:49 And now, brother, 49:51 I want that through ignorance, you did it," 49:55 Peter here is preaching again. 49:57 He says, you know, you crucified the Savior. 49:58 I realized it was out of ignorance. 50:00 You have done it out of ignorance. 50:03 "As also did your rulers, but those things, 50:05 which God before had showed by the mouth of his prophets, 50:08 that Christ should suffer, he has so fulfilled. 50:11 And listen what he says in verse 19, once again. 50:13 Like I said, same message he did in Acts 2, 50:16 we got it here again in verse 19 of Acts Chapter 3, 50:19 "Repent you therefore, and be converted, 50:22 that your sins may be blotted out, 50:24 when the times of refreshing shall come 50:25 from the presence of the Lord." 50:28 Peter says again, you need to repent. 50:30 You crucified Him. 50:31 You wanted a murderer, you wanted a murderer, 50:35 instead of the savior. 50:37 But you can repent, there is still hope for you. 50:39 Again we go back to 1 John 9, there is hope for us. 50:43 He is willing to forgive us. 50:44 He tells these guys, look there is hope. 50:46 You have to turn back from your evil ways though. 50:48 Once again, we may have made mistakes. 50:53 Peter realized that these people have made mistakes. 50:56 May be we haven't been worshipping 50:57 and doing things just exactly 50:58 like God wants it done, but there is still hope. 51:00 You just need to turn back from your sin. 51:02 Chapter 4 now, we are going to find out 51:03 what the result of this sermon was. 51:05 "And as they spake to the people, the priests, 51:07 and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees," 51:09 and by the way you know what Sadducees 51:10 were called 'Sadducees' right. 51:13 They were Sadducees because they didn't 51:14 believe in resurrection. 51:16 And they were sad, you see. 51:18 And they were upset because, 51:21 in verse 2 says" Being grieved that they taught the people, 51:24 and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead." 51:26 The Sadducees were upset with them 51:28 and the leaders of the church were upset with them 51:29 because they were preaching about the resurrection 51:31 from the dead and he said, that goes against our doctrine. 51:33 "And so laid hands on them, and he took hold of them 51:36 and put them in prison." 51:40 John and Peter now preaches the same message again, 51:43 this unpopular message landed them in prison. 51:47 How many of us are willing to preach the word of God in truth, 51:51 even if it means being landed up in prison. 51:55 How many of us are willing to stand on the faith of Christ, 51:59 on the faith of His word, and trusting in His word 52:02 even it means being put in prison, 52:05 even if it means losing your job. 52:08 Because in there friends, 52:10 the Bible is clear in the last days. 52:12 It's clear in the last days that we are not going to, 52:14 it's not going to be a matter of just losing my life, 52:17 I mean losing my job or may be losing some of my family 52:20 or may be not being popular. 52:23 It's going to be a matter of losing your life. 52:27 Serving God in the last day, the Bible is clear 52:29 is going to be a matter of life and death. 52:33 But I love the Bible. 52:35 Hebrews 11 talks about, that those that sawn asunder, 52:39 those who had these things happened to them, 52:41 done it because they were looking forward 52:43 to a better resurrection, a better resurrection. 52:49 Verse 12, Peter goes on to say, 52:52 after they let him out of the prison. 52:53 He is pulled in front of the council and they say, 52:57 we are going to examine these guys now. 52:59 And we are going to tell him 53:00 not to go out and do this anymore. 53:02 Not to be preaching in this name of Jesus anymore. 53:04 And Peter says this verse 11, 53:08 speaking of Jesus "This is the stone 53:09 which was set at nothing of you builders rejected, 53:12 set at nought of you builders, 53:13 which is become the head of the corner. 53:15 Neither is there salvation in any other 53:17 for there is none other name given under heaven 53:19 whereby we must be saved. 53:21 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, 53:23 and perceived that they were 53:25 unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled." 53:30 This next part, if you had nothing else 53:33 you got out of this message today, 53:35 this next part is a part 53:36 I want you to take home to concentrate on, 53:40 to meditate on and think about. 53:44 "The leaders of the people it says here, 53:46 took knowledge of them," John and Peter, 53:50 "that they had been with Jesus." 53:55 Do people recognize that in your life? 53:58 What is it that it drives you, what is that it makes you, 54:02 give you a desire to have people to come to your church? 54:05 It is just so we can be happy and say, 54:07 "Look at all the people coming to my church." 54:09 Or is it because you have a desire for their soul 54:11 and to see them in God's kingdom. 54:13 You know you can just about do anything in church 54:16 in any kind of building and have a club 54:18 and have people come to it. 54:22 There's a rotary club, 54:23 how do they fill up all the time, right. 54:25 There is Bingo Halls they are full all the time. 54:28 But the church of God, 54:30 it needs to have people coming to it, 54:32 looking for salvation and because 54:35 they see that the people going there have been with Jesus. 54:40 So you might ask in closing up here, "What do we do now? 54:44 We have made mistakes like this." 54:46 You know, I haven't really been living like I should for Christ 54:49 and I want to change, but what do I do? 54:53 As we are finishing up here, Ephesians 6, 54:55 sorry Ephesians 5, I love this part of the scripture. 54:59 I took time to actually to memorize most of this, 55:02 starting in verse 6, he says 55:03 "Let no man deceive you with vain words 55:05 for because of these things 55:06 comes the wrath of God on the children of disobedience. 55:08 Be not you therefore partakers with them. 55:11 For you were sometimes darkness, 55:12 but now are you light in the Lord 55:15 walk as children of light. 55:17 For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness 55:18 and righteousness and truth, 55:20 proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 55:22 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful 55:25 works of darkness. 55:28 He is talking to the Christians here. 55:30 He says "Have no fellowship 55:33 with the unfruitful works of darkness." 55:37 That means don't bring the things 55:39 of the world into the church. 55:40 Don't have things that are not part of what Christ has, 55:43 coming in and infiltrating, He says, 55:45 don't have no fellowship with them. 55:47 "For it is a shame even to speak 55:48 some of the things that they do in secret." 55:50 Think about when he is writing this 55:51 and think about what things are like today. 55:53 It is a shame of they are doing in secret in that day. 55:56 Friends they do those same things, 55:57 that he was talking about it in open today. 55:59 "But all things that are reproved 56:00 are made manifest by the light 56:02 for whatever does make manifest is light. 56:03 Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, 56:05 arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. 56:10 See then that you walk circumspectly." 56:13 You know what circumspectly means? 56:14 It means diligent. 56:16 He says, see that you walk diligently, 56:18 not as fools, but as wise. 56:24 And if you've messed up, redeem the time, 56:28 because we are living in evil days. 56:33 Friends if anybody is even awake today, 56:37 if anybody is just looking around, 56:39 they have to realize that this world 56:40 is not going to keep going on the way it is going on. 56:43 Prophecy is being fulfilled, things are finishing up. 56:49 We are soon to go home to glory. 56:51 But the question you got to be 56:52 asking yourself this morning, "Have I been doing things, 56:55 have I been living life in such a way 56:56 that is pleasing to God? 56:58 Is my focus, in my ministry, in my life 57:01 to bring people to Jesus Christ or just to a club? 57:06 My prayer is it starting this very day 57:08 that will redeem the time. 57:11 Because it is true we are living in as verse 16 says "evil days." |
Revised 2014-12-17