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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] I know we've got several visitors both locally visiting for the first time and also several visitors from Tempe so I appreciate everybody coming out and again helping us celebrate. But as always we have our service times there in the upper left-hand side of your bulletin every Sunday at 10 30 a.m. again at 5 30 p.m. this evening and then Thursdays at 7 we meet and we're going through the book of Acts will be in chapter number 17 this week. We also have the soul winning times the salvations and baptisms for both the month and year and then also a quick welcome to FWBC Tucson just some notes for any visitors that might not be familiar with our church of course we are a family integrated church meaning we keep all the families together we don't separate the children from the parents here so they sit in the service however if you need some privacy uh mothers ladies there's always the nursery back there and you can take advantage of that and this morning it might kind of over it might overflow a little bit we're kind of at capacity as far as that might go but feel free to just spill out into the foyer there if you need it and then also the men's bathroom I guess this is definitely worth mentioning this morning okay so the way it works here is the ladies restroom is inside the ladies and young children and then the men there is a restroom located outside on either side of the building opposite us so I know this is kind of confusing but it basically if you just walk out the front door and go left or right and follow it up about halfway down you'll find a gated door that you'll need a key to now the key is hanging just on the other side of that door uh that entryway and if you need more help just grab one of the people that look like they know what they're doing around here and we'll get you to the restroom okay we'll make it happen one way or another however if you do make use of the restroom please be as quick as you can about it because of the fact that we only have the one key and it looks like there might be a little bit of a line piling up this morning so uh just that's just uh you know these are the practical matters that you have to address you know otherwise it just turns into pandemonium uh also happy birthday to everybody celebrating this month normally we have birthday donuts but I want I didn't want to fill everybody up you know obviously I want you to come hungry so uh we don't have the donuts this morning but there's plenty of great food and there'll be plenty of good desserts as well so be sure to wish a happy birthday to the individuals there and those celebrating a wedding anniversary this month and then of course the note join us after the morning service for a potluck meal celebrating five years this uh this morning also on the back just a quick note there is uh sign up for anyone who would like to volunteer to help clean the building that's back there and you can always see me for more details about that that'll do it for announcements we'll go ahead and just sing our next song before we get into the preaching this morning is is is is is is is a great singer that's isaiah chapter 54 as always we'll give you the entire chapter please follow on sunday is when he will reach to us from isaiah chapter 54 is the first one the Bible reads single bearing that's not bearing break forth into singing cry aloud thou is not your available child but more of the children of destiny when the children of the married wife say of the lord enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations and spare not cling to thy cords and strengthen thy stakes that shall break forth on the right hand and on the left and I see shall inherit the gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited here not that shall not be ashamed and be left without me that shall be that shall not be put ashamed that shall forget the shame of thy youth shall not remember or approach thy widow anymore that may be my husband the lord of hosts is his name and I redeem the holy one of Israel the god before her shall he be called for the lord I've called thee as a woman forsaken and grieve the spirit and a wife of you when I was with you saying thank god for a small moment if I forsaken you with great mercies will I gather you in a little wrath within my face for a moment with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on sayeth the lord that you need me for this as the waters of Noah is me for as I have sworn the waters of Noah should know more go over the earth so I have I sworn that I would not be wronged no review to the mountains shall depart from the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from me neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed sayeth the lord that mercy on me oh thou afflicted causal tempest and not comfort behold I will lay thy stone with fair colors and lay thy foundation with sapphires and I'll make thy windows and gates and thy gates and carvars and all thy borders and pleasant stones and all thy children shall be taught of the lord and grace shall be the peace of thy children and righteousness shall thou be established thou shall be far from pressure and thou shall not fear and from terror for it shall not come near them behold they shall surely gather together but not by me whosoever shall gather together against me shall fall through thy state behold that created the smith that bloweth the coals of fire and that bringing forth an instrument of his work and have created the waster to destroy no weapon that's worn against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt forget this is the heritage of the servants of the lord and the righteousness is of me sayeth the lord put out and pray for us the lord help me father just thank you for today lord god thank you for your goodness and mercy thank you for this church it's a blessing with lord bless the service give us a heart of understanding lord with your spirit thank you for all you do and all the name of prayer amen amen so in isaiah chapter 54 of course this is one of those uh you know quintessential passages that you end up turning to whenever you end up preaching one of your anniversary services so i figured i'd just go ahead and get that out of the way and try not to be too original this morning on our fifth anniversary of course that's a not to to uh uh you know make light of the fact that we've made it five years in tucson obviously that is a milestone a lot of ministries don't even make it that far but uh it's one milestone of many we pray to come so i did want to preach this sermon because i think here in this passage we see some great uh instruction when it comes to growing and to broadening and and expanding and of course that is always the goal of ministry is to bring more people in not just for the sake of filling out the place but uh also but mainly really just because of the fact that you want more people to be saved and to hear and understand the word of god the more people that come in and grow and understand the gospel and understand living the christian life the better equipped they become at going out and preaching the gospel to others of course that's that is the goal that's why we want to grow as a church and this is again a great passage here that i think gives us some good strong points about what it's going to take to grow as a church and really what i'm going to i'm kind of getting my head myself a little bit here but really to grow as a church you have to grow as an individual you know a church obviously is composed of individuals families and and people so really this could all be applied to us as an individual this morning we're going to look just here at the verse first two verses if you look there it says sing oh baron thou didst not break excuse me thou didst not bear break forth into singing and cry aloud thou that didst not travail with child for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife saith the lord so of course this is a passage where god is you know talking about the fact that eventually he's going to bring back israel into their promised land they're going to be judged they're going to go into captivity but they're going to come back eventually it's going to making this promise that although you're going to be as that barren woman there is going to be a time when you have uh you're going to have many children you're going to have more children than of the desolate than of the children of the married wife saying i will prosper you again he's not leaving them hopeless but he is pointing out the fact that there is going to be a time of desolation and notice he gives in this promise he says in verse two enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited saying i'm going to bring you back in we're going to reinhabit these desolate cities and you're going to be like somebody who has to enlarge that tent i love the analogy he uses there of a tent or a tabernacle is what they would have called it back then this large you know structure consisting of you know the canvas the whatever were they used for the walls and then the ropes this the the the the the cords as they as it were were coming down and then being of course attached attached to the stakes and what's interesting about this is kind of goes back to what i was just saying in a moment ago is that he's speaking to a nation he's speaking to the whole people he's saying this is something that's being addressed to the the nation of israel but notice the verbiage here he's speaking in the first person he's saying enlarge the place of thy tent and stretch force and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes so he's not just talking of course he's applying it to the nation but he's speaking as uh to individuals really because he's talking about stakes and tents and tabernacles and all these things and that goes to my the point i was making a moment ago that we need to if we want to grow as a church and to to prosper as a people of god we have to make sure that we are doing certain things in our lives as individuals okay and i want to preach this morning a sermon entitled strengthen thy stakes strengthen thy stakes and of course you see several points there that can be made this morning and we'll look at a couple of them in verse two it says stretch forth thy the curtains of thy inhabitants habitations spare not lengthen thy courts and strengthen thy stakes and i always love it when the bible just gives you your points when it just lays it all out there especially when they're illiterated like this right you have the stretching the sparing and the strengthening so those are the points that we'll be making this morning the first one being of course to stretch forth right he says there to stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations and really the way we can apply this morning is that if we want to grow as a church then we as individuals are going to have to reach beyond our current station we should never get to a place in our christian life where we feel that we have arrived or we have there's nothing more we can learn there's nothing more we can do there's no more sacrifices we can make there's always needs to be this idea of stretching forth in the christian life of reaching beyond where we are of expanding our borders as individuals because again you know we're celebrating here this morning five years and we're celebrating the fact that as a church here in tucson we have grown you know we started out up there on first avenue over there by you know i really don't remember the addresses i just remember was near smoky mo's right which is the best barbecue in town right right across the parking lot from smoke mo's of course we were in that little complex there very small those of you uh who were there know what i'm talking about was very tight and then of course we moved into this facility right across the way here in this other building and then you know a little over a year ago we moved into this facility and we obviously have grown numerically and there's it's been great over the years to see people who've been with us for a long time we've grown spiritually in their walk but again we don't want to get to the place where we think that we've arrived as a church and we certainly don't want to think we've gotten to a place where we've arrived as individuals in the christian life there always has to be the stretching forth he's saying if you're going to come back into the land and prosper here's what you have to do the lord says i will bring you back i'm going to make you very fruitful you're going to be more fruitful than the married wife but there's some things that you have to do on your part in order to encompass that and able to facilitate that in order to make that growth possible and the first thing he's saying is to stretch forth to reach beyond your current situation your current station wherever you are in the christian life and the christian life is of course a growth it's a process it's a process of maturity but it's one that never ends it's one that keeps going on if you look there he says stretch forth thine habitations and i'll point out that out again that he's saying it's thine habitations it's thy stakes it's plural people play a part in a growing church you know the people of israel have given this promise of god yes but there was a part that they had to play there was something they had to do as individuals and just as he says here that is their habitations it is thine habitations you know we have a part to play in a growing church we can't just sit back and expect the church to grow in and of itself there's things that we have to do if you would go to first timothy chapter number three first timothy chapter number three really just trying to drive that first point in this morning really bring that home because that's something that people really need to get a hold of is that a church is consist consists of individuals and every the more uh people understand that and the more people take on responsibilities and the more people are willing to stretch themselves beyond where they currently are in their christian life the more a church will grow as a whole but if we have an overwhelming majority of people in a church who think that we've arrived somehow simply because you know we've gotten to this building or we've you know reached a certain average number of attendance on sunday mornings or the offering plate is this or whatever they have some kind of metric where they think they've arrived and they stop trying they stop putting forth any effort and they don't want to stretch any further than they've come well that's a recipe for disaster the saying is if you're not growing you're dying and that's that's true for an organization that's true for a church that's true for an individual now i'm not talking about growing physically okay some of us are in no danger of dying right self-included okay i include myself in that but i'm talking spiritually you know we want to make sure we're always growing spiritually never getting this place where we feel that we've arrived if you look there in first timothy chapter number three look at verse 14 he says these things write unto thee the i'll point point that out of course he's writing to timothy an individual hoping to come into these shortly but if i tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of god which is the church of the living god and the pillar and ground of the truth and again i'm pointing out that he's writing to an individual and the temptation might just be to say well you know he's writing to timothy you know it's it's all on the leadership and obviously leadership plays a huge role in church growth but a part of the role of leadership is to also remind others in the church that it's also on them that they have a part to play obviously back in isaiah hopefully you bookmarked i should have had you bookmarked and 50 isaiah 54 the lord you know is the the leader so to speak he's the one that's going to you know organize and and bring the people back in but he's also telling them hey you as the people have a part to play and the first part we're looking at is that he have you have to be willing to stretch forth you need to be able to willing to expand beyond where you are currently and of course again here's writing to timothy but he's saying he's writing to him as an individual okay and timothy is told to be an example to the flock the reason why timothy does the things that he does the way the reason why he's being instructed to do the things that he's supposed to do is to be an example to others and he's saying hey you need to behave thyself in the house of god which is the church of the living god this is something he's writing to individual go to second uh corinthians chapter five second corinthians chapter number five so yes it's written to a leaner but the thing is we all have a ministry to play within church we all have a role to fulfill paul said in romans 12 let us wait on our ministering he that teacheth on teaching look at second corinthians chapter number five verse 18 all things are of god we understand that jesus said i will build my church but that does not mean that we as a church just sit back and just wait for god to do everything we don't just sit back and wait for a leader to do everything we have to be willing if we want to grow even beyond our you know where we've come so far in five years we have to be willing as individuals to stretch ourselves and to go beyond where we have already been he says in verse 18 and all things are of god who hath reconciled us right and this is paul writing the corinthians he's including everybody he's including the church with himself who hath reconciled us to himself by jesus christ and hath given me the ministry of reconciliation well god's reconciled us but he's only given me the ministry is that what he said no he said he's reconciled us unto himself by jesus christ and he's given unto us this ministry paul's including the people there he's saying you corinthians you play a role in this ministry if we're going to stretch forth if we're going to expand if we're going to enlarge our borders we have to understand that the ministry does not fall upon one individual it falls upon the entire body of people go over to second corinthians chapter number four he said in closing to the colossians in chapter four and say to archipus take heed to thy ministry which thou hast received in the lord and fulfill it you say who was archippus well he was a man in the church perhaps he was a leader and but you know what he like the rest of us has been given a ministry and he told him hey you've received this ministry make sure that you fulfill it and if we're going to fulfill the ministry that we have here as individuals as a church we have to be willing to expand we have to be willing to be stretched forth he told timothy to make full proof of thy ministry look at second corinthians chapter 4 verse 1 therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy we faint not of course a very uh famous portion of scripture here but he's saying again look we have received this ministry not i've received this ministry it's not just on me it's on all of us we have received this ministry and notice what he says we faint not if we're going to grow as a ministry you know if we're going to stretch ourselves like we ought to you know it's going to demand something of us to the point where you know we might even think we're going to faint what do we say why would he say we faint not if there wasn't a possibility of fainting there wasn't a possibility of you know uh of being exhausted or stretched beyond measure right look at verse 2 but we have renounced the innocence of the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness or handling the word of god deceitfully by by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of god go over to philippians chapter number three look at a few things there philippians chapter number three so again this morning i'm just making the point here that god has given us steps in isaiah chapter 54 and how to you know broaden our borders how to grow as a ministry he's showing he was telling them hey you're going to grow as a people israel but here's what you have to do as individual with your habitations with your uh ropes with your stakes right not just one tent he's talking about multiple habitations okay philippians chapter number three verse 13 brethren i count on myself to apprehend it but this one thing i do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before i press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus so again it's this idea of reaching forth of being willing to stretch forth to be stretched to lengthen out those chords to stretch them to go beyond where you are right now and he's saying he's reaching forth and i love that he's pointing out it's to those things which are before i press it's this idea of having to put effort into it it's not something that just happens you have to press against it you have to push i press toward i go forward toward the mark for the high high calling of god in christ jesus so it's a pressing forward it's it's it's a moving forward to those things which are beyond you now let me just say this before i i go any further than a certain one i'm not talking about is stretching yourself thin in the ministry not you know i'm talking about stretching yourself beyond your current borders yes but not to the point where you're going to fail i don't want to be misunderstood this morning because there are ministries out there like that believe me believe me there's ministries that will they will run you into the ground and say it's not enough there's ministries you know and really a lot of ministries that will just have you really busy doing a lot of things that aren't really amounting to much so i'm not saying that i'm not saying that we're just trying to be busy for busyness sake and i'm not saying everybody needs to be on the same place as everybody else but what you need to do this morning is say where you are and where you could be you know some people are more mature in the lord some people are newer to the faith and some people are more mature some people are farther along in their faith but none of us has arrived and all i'm saying is is that this morning you as an individual need to look where you are and say and ask yourself how can i stretch myself just a little bit further this next year how can i stretch myself just a little bit further so five years from now maybe it's the anniversary service is even a little bigger what do i need to do as an individual stretch just a little bit more to press just a little bit harder toward that mark to reach forth just a little bit further than where i'm at you see sometimes people hear a sermon like this and they think that you i'm asking people to just go all out just to go all in right now just push it all forward you know take the brakes off and just run this thing into the ground that's not what i'm saying all i'm asking is that the people in this church ask themselves what can i do to stretch forth a little bit more i mean isn't it i'm not much of a stretcher okay but isn't that part of stretching you know you don't just immediately try to touch your toes if you can't touch your toes it's a recipe for disaster right especially when you have some anatomical structures that are you know maybe prohibiting that a little bit more than other people right but you build up towards that right you build up to that long stretch to that that deep stretch you don't just jump into the deep end you make those little movements right those little adjustments you say in brother corbin it sounds like you more know about stretching than you're letting on right but that's all that's the analogy i'm using because that's what i want people to do this morning is not feel like they have to just reach all the way to the end for that price you just need to stretch forth a little bit more they need just to reach a little bit further beyond where they're at right now not stretch beyond your what you're capable of but certainly beyond your current borders see people limit themselves don't they and so i can't let out any more rope for this tent i can't let out any more slack for this for this tabernacle i'm already stretched pretty thin but if we're honest you know what we probably could stretch ourselves just a little bit more and then we would become even stronger more flexible and then we'd be able to stretch even just a little bit further so that's my first point if you're back there keep something in philippians if you're still in isaiah i'll just read to you but it says again enlarge the place of thy tent in verse two and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations spare not lengthen thy cords the first point was to stretch forth the curtains second point is to spare not and again i preface this point already by saying i'm not asking people to go beyond uh you know to just just take the brakes off and just run themselves in the ground i'm not saying that but he does say here to spare not to not spare to lengthen thy courts don't be too conservative don't say you know this might have made more sense back then right when they weren't just churning out rope you know in taiwan while we sleep where they you know all the rope and the the cords that they had were probably very precious things that were very valuable to them that you know took time to to make and he's saying don't spare with that cord trust me i'm going to grow you you know there's going to be more people here you're going to grow as a nation i'm going to bring you back into this land and that city which once was desolate is going to be filled again it might look desolate it might look barren but you know what there's going to be more children here there's going to be more people here than even uh the married wife right he's saying to trust him and i believe that's what god is asking us to do as a church too to just trust god that yes he will build the church like we have to trust god for that we don't want to fall into a bunch of you know just pulling out a bunch of gimmicks and and just doing a bunch of sappy things and just trying to you know go to some of the lengths that some people go to in order to just for the sake of you know uh increasing in attendance where would that lead you know that lead to uh the the contemporary music that lead to you know me take you know getting out of the suit and getting into a graphic tee and and some holy jeans and a little plastic pulpit up here and a little flesh colored mic and maybe i'd start spiking my hair start talking like this and every message is just that soft nice message and we can just have you know 20 minute sermons and 45 minutes of praise and we'll stop praise for have a little handshake and hug fest in the middle of it and you know we'll get a we'll get a latte bar back there for everybody and roll in the you know mcdonald's or starbucks or whatever but that's what people do you know that's where that leads what i'm saying this morning when i'm telling us to spare not is to is to not hold back and not to think that there isn't more that we could do as a church as individuals and obviously you know we do trust god we're trusting him to increase us and i'm not saying that we shouldn't do anything you know obviously we can as a church and as individuals you know we can do more soul winning we can follow up on current converts we can encourage people to get baptized we can encourage visitors when they come out we can follow up with people there are things that we can do and should do i believe to help the church grow but honestly you know you say well i don't know about that but you know he's telling us does not spare he's saying hey don't spare don't hold back and in our lives if we want to grow as christians and thinking beyond just growing numerically as a church if we as individuals because that's how it's going to happen to grow as a church individuals are going to grow spiritually if you're really going to grow spiritually as a christian if you're really going to get beyond where you're at right now you're going to have to just say nothing's off limits to god so you know what lord nothing is off limits to you whatever you want it's yours if you're still in philippians look at verse eight chapter three verse eight yay doubtless i count all things but loss for the excellency of knowledge of christ jesus my lord did he say i count most things some things i count 99 of every of these things but there's just this one area where i'm just god can't have that it's off you know that's off limits to him no paul said i count all things and look the thing is i don't think god's going to ask everything of us but you know i i believe he will ask us to maybe stretch a little bit further than we are he might ask us to you know spare just a little bit less on his behalf paul said i count all things but loss for whom verse it goes on it says for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and to count them but dung that i may win christ and if you know what dung is you know what dung is right right that's what fills the diaper okay that's strong language oh i can't believe you'd say that well that's the bible paul said i count these things dung you know why some people don't they're not willing to uh to to spare not is because they're holding on to dung essentially and i mean paul's speaking figuratively obviously right it's not like he was in manure sales before he got saved you know so you know what i count this dung as dung well duh he's saying all the things that i achieved all the worldly accomplishments all the success i've had in the world it's dung i counted all dung what he's saying is that i'm not sparing i'm not going to spare i'm going to let out the ropes as far as god wants i'm going to expand as far as god wants me to nothing's off limits you know and obviously this is really easy to say about sin and as i preached i think it was thursday night you know i made the point that really god's will is more concerned about the things that we're not doing than the things we should be doing people get so worked up about what god wants them to do they really ought to be focusing on what god doesn't want them to do more than anything you know some some of us we need to just learn to to look at our sin and say this is dung and let it go and get the sin out of our lives that's a great place to start how am i going to stretch myself a little bit further how am i going to grow as a christian how am i going to expand beyond my border how am i going to in what way should i spare not how about looking at the dung of sin and seeing it for what it is and saying you know what this really is dung let me get out of my life it stinks it's making a mess you know we were out soul winning and we saw the diaper bank this building you know and i made the joke about it i said is that where you deposit your precious diapers obviously that's not what it was it's a place where people can go get diapers that were in need of diapers right but i mean isn't that kind of spiritually what some people do with their sin they have this stinking diaper full of dung and it's precious to them they go into their little diaper bank and say could you put this up somewhere and keep it safe you got a safety deposit box for my dung field diaper keep this safe you know you need to you need to stop sparing that you just get that out get you know that's a great place to start get the sin out of your life that pretty much goes without saying you know there's a lot of other things that come into our lives as christians that hold us back that aren't necessarily sinful in and of themselves do we count them as dung do we see them as dung i mean why was paul able to count accomplish everything that he accomplished it sounds to me like he had to start by looking at everything in his life and saying it's all dung compared to the glory of god to the excellency of the high calling of god and christ jesus for the prize that is set before me for the race that is set before me to win that to run that race to finish my course i have to count everything else as dung saying everything else compared to that is dung and i'm not saying that you need to just forsake everything this morning but you know you should be willing to there should be no area of our life where god can't put his finger on and say i want that and i want it to change you know if we did that you know what we find ourselves doing stretching we find ourselves expanding and this is the mentality that we have to bring into the christian life if we want to grow as christians if we want a body to grow as a church it really is you know a a a a i don't want to say an all or nothing kind of attitude because typically when we have an all or nothing attitude it typically ends up being nothing right when we get we we whenever we approach you know this you know all these examples are kind of mind you know like like a diet people go on a diet i don't know what that's like but people go on these diets all the time i'm kidding right starting tomorrow but people take a you know i know this is a sensitive topic people don't want to talk about diet right but people sometimes carry that attitude into a diet well it's all or nothing right and they're doing good they're doing good and then they they mess up one day it's just like well what's the point you know just right back off the wagon right and and really god's not asking us for an all or nothing attitude i don't believe that i mean that is the attitude we should have count it all done but how god really works is that he stretches us slowly you know he slowly brings us around if you would uh well just stay where you are for now i won't have you turn you i'll just read to you actually you know what go to deuteronomy chapter number seven deuteronomy seven you know god is going to stretch us slowly i mean that's what he's done in this ministry over the last five years god has slowly stretched this ministry slowly expanded it the people that have been in this church you know and people that have been you know in tempe and other places you know if you've served god for any length of time you could probably look back on your own life and see that how god has slowly stretched you to where you are today to the point where if you had told the person you know however many years ago this is where you'd be you'd say no way i would never walk down the street in public with a bible in my hand i'd never walk up to someone's door and knock on it and ask them about their eternal soul right it's kind of a heavy question isn't it where you going when you die right walk up knock i've come for your soul that's not how we do it okay it's not a good example you know hi sheev i've come to bind you and take you to my master let's get out of hand right but some of us if we would we would see uh if we could uh you know several years ago look from that point look to where we are today would say that's who is that guy who is that person but how did you get here did you just stretch all at once did god just you know rip you apart and just let it here you are did god just say you got to give up all this right now did you just stop everything no you know there's probably i got this sent out and i got that sent out and then i started getting this godly discipline in i started doing this it was a slow building it was a letting out of those those ropes it was a it was a slow stretching out it was a process god stretches us out slowly i like the example in deuteronomy chapter seven look at verse 22 of course just referring to the fact that he's bringing them into the promised land he's saying here's how i'm going to do it am i bringing that into this promised land regarding these inhabitants that are already there the caninites he says in verse 22 and the lord shall thy god will put out those nations boy for thee by little and little he didn't say i'm not going to drive out the caninites all at once he said you're going to get jericho and then you're going to get ai and then you're going to get the next city and the next one you're going to defeat these kings and then five kings and eventually it'll all be yours but you're not just going to have a blitzkrieg where you just go in there and take over the whole thing at once he said i'm going to drive them out little by little he said thou mayest not consume that at once why lest the beast of the field increase upon me so he was doing that for their sake he's saying i don't want you to be overtaken by the beasts that are left behind of course this is very practical what he's talking about here right he's saying i don't want to leave i don't want to just drive out all the inhabitants and then let all the man-eaters take over because instead of fighting the caninite you're going to be fighting a bear or a lion or whatever okay you know and that's how it is in our lives you know god grows us by little by little we we defeat one enemy and then the next but you know what there's always that next enemy there's always that next sin there's always that next thing that has to be overcome if you would go back to uh isaiah chapter number 54 isaiah chapter number 54 it's not gonna be a long sermon this morning but i did want to preach this passage it's the one i believe the lord laid on my heart this morning and i see these points about how we're going to grow how we're going to expand it was very uh true for the people back then they were given a promise that they would return to the promised land and that god uh would bless them again that they would become fruitful again that they would inhabit those desolate places he would keep up his end of the bargain but there was also something that they had to do they had to stretch forth the curtains of their habitations they had to spare not and lengthen their cords and last of all they had to strengthen their stakes and that's the title of this morning's sermon i don't know if i already said that but it's strengthen thy stakes and i love the analogy of the tent here the way he he's uh using this as a description of their uh them growing as a nation and i'm using this morning as how we're going to grow as a church and more specifically as individuals it's like that tent right and so far we've talked about uh you know the the curtains and we've talked about the cords but last of all he mentions the stakes and what's interesting about the stakes is that without the stakes you don't have the rest you can get all the cords you want and you can have nice big beautiful curtains you can have a great walled tent you can put up all that canvas but if you don't stake that thing down you know you're going to wake up under the stars or worse you know first good gust of wind that comes through it's just it's gone who's ever been in a tent that rolled over on them anybody has anybody ever seen that happen to someone okay well this happens i know because i've seen it maybe you don't believe me right but i remember being camping and my my younger sister when we were just kids and she was uh they stayed the night in a tent uh with her friend and they were just little kids and we woke up that morning to ah you know screaming that's my best little girl scream okay just trying to hit that higher octave and we ran out and their tent was slowly rolling over in the wind because they're just light you know there's these little people right and they had all that canvas around them for that wind to hit all that surface area for it to push so why did that happen was it the tent was it its fault was it the was it the wind's fault was it my sister's and her friend's fault should they have you know uh eaten more that night or something should they got in there with some you know rocks in their pockets or something no it was the guy who set up the tent didn't put the stakes in that's what the stakes are there for and i get it those things are annoying right you go camping you get those cheap plastic ones if you don't know what you're doing you know the seasoned guys know you throw those out and you buy the steel ones you get the get the good ones right but if you don't know what you're doing you're trying to drive that thing and it's all bending over and snapping and you're hitting roots and rocks and you might be tempted to just say who needs it well you know you might end up like my little sister just rolling down this across some meadow somewhere waking everybody up shrieking in the morning that's what bothered me the most i was trying to get a good night's sleep but you see how important stakes are it's interesting in isaiah 54 that god mentions it last because if there's one thing you don't want to forget in this process it's the stakes the cords are important the curtains are important you know that's what's going to cover everybody up and protect them that's what's going to you know make that nice a spittable dwelling for everybody come in and get out of the elements but it won't last without stakes now you know i don't know if you've ever been around a big like a circus tent or anything like that but in my old church in michigan there's a guy that came through a few times and he had a tent ministry that's not where he preached the gospel to tents you know he's always done a big five in the sporting section you know and preach into these tents he got coleman saved okay he had a tent ministry because he'd come he'd set up this big tent and he'd bring in all these hay bales and things like that and just had a good old country meeting whatever they want to call it i don't know it's kind of a gimmick to be honest but i remember setting up that tent with him and you know we would we helped out and you know what one of the main things he got afterwards about was the stakes and those weren't the little plastics and these were like i think they were rebar and he had welded things on it and he had to take a sledgehammer and he had to drive that thing in it had to be at a certain angle and if you didn't do it right you had to redo it and it was a lot of work but you know when people showed up you know what they what they commented on what they marked on they didn't walk over at the end of that stroke that rope and go what a great steak you know that's something you say at at longhorn right they walk over was that rebar what is that eighth inch quarter inch five eighths what'd you have to use to drive that 12 pound 15 pound how many strokes you know and it's not what people were interested in they liked the blue and white you know canvas they liked everything that was underneath the tent they liked everything that was above ground everything that they could see all the visual appealing stuff they were impressed by how big that tent was and it was big that's what caught their eye but you know what what was the most important part of that tent it was the stakes of course the cords are important but what they're attached to the stake you can hang all the ropes off the side that you want they have to be attached to the stake i think you get the point that's why we need to if we're going to grow if we're going to stretch if we're going to not spare in our lives we have to make sure that we strengthen our stakes most of all say i want to do more i want to i want to uh give more i want to sacrifice more i want to stretch myself more i want to spare less in my christian life great strengthen your stake make sure you drive the stake down and look the stake and you say what's the state get to the point i'll tell you here in a minute but it's something i've we've preached about constantly as preachers it's things that we bring up over and over and over and over again because it's the most important thing it's the basics it's the it's the it's the disciplines of the christian life that's what you need to deepen in the christian life if you want to grow and expand as an individual if you want this church to grow and expand as a body the people that are in this church or whatever church you're a part of need to learn to deepen their stakes to deepen the disciplines of the christian life you know and we might even be sitting here saying well i've already done a lot of that i've already you know i've been in church for a long time i've been reading my bible great don't stop keep driving that stake in i mean what are these these disciplines how do you strengthen the stake reading your bible reading your bible and i mean how many sermons have i preached on reading your bible how many times have i mentioned it why do you always bring that up because that is a stake in the christian life that is something that is going to plant you firmly in the christian life i'll wrap it up but if you would go to luke chapter six luke chapter six the bible says if the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do you pull the stakes out of that tent it's a goner it's just a matter of time you destroy the foundation you uh unloose the the moorings of whatever you know it's going to drift away you pull up the anchor don't expect the ship to stay in one spot it's going to be tossed with all those different waves you know i like the also the the illustration i was going to have you turn it but i'll just read to you for sake of time for in ezra when cyrus is decaying decreeing that the house of god be built again in jerusalem and he gave this decree and he said let the house be builded and amen let god's house be built let it grow let it expand he said the place where they offer sacrifices you know that sounds like not sparing that's what church is a place where we don't come to church and say what can i get out of it church is a place we come and say what can i do for the church what can i do for on god's behalf what sacrifices can i make he said the place where they offer sacrifices uh the height thereof three score cubits he's saying he's giving out measurements he's saying it's got to be high make build that thing tall and the breadth thereof three score cubits he's saying build it wide build that big structure but before he said all that he said let the foundations be strongly laid because he knew without a strong foundation it doesn't matter how high you build it it doesn't matter how wide you make it without a strong foundation over time it will crumble and fall and we've probably all seen video that hopefully never seen in a person where you know a builder got cheap or the inspector didn't know what he was doing and they you know they didn't take the core sample or whatever and they just went ahead and built the house and it looks real nice until you get that big crack right down the side of the wall until the whole back half of the house just kind of falls off and you know crumbles into a bunch of sticks why why did that happen it looks so it looks like such a strong building it looks so nice had great carpet and nice paint the doors the trim it was ornate you know had all these bathrooms every all the fixtures were brass it was beautiful yeah but you know it was it wasn't built on a very good foundation you know they they skimped when they were pouring the concrete they said we don't need any rebar we don't need to compact the sand underneath all that we don't have to dig down frost line what's that out here you probably would wonder what a frost line is right the point is is that they didn't care much about the foundation you know cyrus had enough sense hey let the foundation be strongly laid lay it strongly then we'll worry about the heights and the width and everything else it's the foundations of the christian life that are going to allow you to stretch yourself that are going to compel you to be willing to not spare to start seeing things for what they really are you know when you read your bible you'll start to identify things in your life and go you know that's actually dung you know i thought this was so precious and so important and so valuable but now i'm reading my bible and i'm getting a heavenly perspective i'm starting to see things in light of attorney and i'm kind of looking at some things in my life i'm going you know that's that's dung you know all these vain ambitions maybe it's sin whatever it is you read your bible you'll start to see things in your life and just say you know what they're not that important after all and you'll actually start to loosen your grip you'll start to let things go i mean who wants to hang on to dung after all so bolster your bible reading that's how you lay the foundation you deepen these disciplines this is how you strengthen your stakes you make sure the foundation is strong look at luke chapter 6 we all know at verse 47 whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings of course this is jesus talking you know that's the bible friend what are jesus's sayings well it's this book obviously he was actually saying things back then but you know today these are his sayings and not just the red letters and in the gospels and acts and revelation you know i've said it before i'll say it again you know my bible is the words of jesus in black because these are all the words of god he is the word of god all of this is god's sayings he said whosoever heareth my sayings whosoever heareth my sayings and doeth them it's one thing to hear the promise israel that god is going to bring you back into the land it's another thing to do your part it's one thing to hear that god is going to build his church you know but it's also another thing to find out that you also have a role to play in that whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and do with them i will show you unto whom he is like he is like a man which build and house see i wasn't that far off with my analogy earlier and dig deep he didn't dig shallow he wasn't obsessed with the the siding he wasn't obsessed with the slate roof he wasn't sitting there and right out of the gate just thinking about all the you know nice things that everybody's going to see above ground he's saying let me build this house right let me dig deep you know i this is something i i kind of relate to because i was in earthwork for a long time i several years i dug a lot you know helped dig a lot of basements and you know held back to a lot of basements and one that was kind of the joke on the crew is like all our work got buried you know all the all the carpenters and everybody else could walk by and say i did that house i built that house and this is my handiwork here and i've home these cabinets and they could you know people would admire their work ours we just just buried it what'd you have to do with that house you can't see it it's gone it's there but it's out of sight right but how important is it and that's you know this guy had the right perspective he's building that house he's saying i'm going to dig deep i'm going to get down to that bedrock i'm going to get down to that hard layer and i'm going to make sure that this thing is is strongly laid he said he dig deep and laid the foundation on a rock you know jesus is that rock you know he would build his church upon that rock but you know what we have to dig down to that rock we got to get down there and we're the ones that have to lay the foundation and we can't just lay our foundation on the grass in the christian life it won't last it's exposed the elements we have to put forth the effort to dig down to drive these stakes deep in our lives to dig down and just do the the you know the the nuts and bolts of the christian life is really where it's at how do we make it to five years by people figuring out oh you're supposed to be in church you know if people if nobody in this room you know all of our members were just like well you know church isn't that important we wouldn't have made it this far and is church attendance like some far out you know hard to understand complex doctrine no it's a real basic isn't it but you know what a lot of people struggle with it but the only reason we're here today is because some people figured that out they said you know rather than just you know uh of being overly concerned with just end times prophecy and you know all the uh hard sermons and this and that and the other thing and all just the radical preaching from the new ifbs you know some people figured out hey for me to grow and expand as a christian for me to to stretch myself and to start to see things uh the right way i'm just gonna have to get myself in church you know i woke up this morning and i was like man it's been five years and then i thought i mean i've only been here in temp or in arizona for 10 years and when i got here you know i pastor anderson had already been preaching for seven and i'm sorry to feel like five years man that's it's an accomplishment but we still got a long way to go there's still a lot of life to live and i think live and i think man how did i how did i get to where i'm at today and i thought all the way back to when i first got saved and i thought all the way back to that first time i said you know what i'm going to church and i left my mom's house and i and i walked a few miles on foot because i wanted to i had a car i just felt like walking that sunday morning and walking into a little baptist church i was meeting a uaw hall they had just finished sweeping out all the cigarette butts and mopping up all the beer and throwing out the cans from the union guys the night before and set up all their little plastic chairs and walking in and sitting down and hearing a baptist preacher get up and just tear it up and i said that's where i want to be you know that was almost 20 years ago but you know and i'm not trying to brag and say well look at me look where i've come but you know you say where did it all start that's where it started by me just figuring out i need to be in church i just need to go to church and you know and figuring that out real quick it's like i'm going to be in every church service and i'm not and i was in that church three times a week from there on out that's pretty basic isn't it you know what that really is as unattractive and dull as topic as church attendance is you know what it really is it's it's digging a deep foundation you know digging is not uh exactly the most attractive job you know hey sign me up for digging let me go out there and get you know blisters on my hands and break my back and be sore at the end of the day it's not exactly the most uh you know attractive job you know you say you want a phd you don't mean post-hole digger you know you guys some of you never heard that joke i can't believe it some of the old ones still work you know what that that that digging is necessary isn't it you gotta have the guy who's willing to dig you gotta be willing to dig in the christian life you gotta be willing to do just the the the nitty-gritty work that no one's gonna recognize of going to church no one's gonna come slap you on the back and say good job coming to church because it's so basic good job driving that steak but you know what if we don't do those things people will notice you got you had the job of being the guy that had to drive all the stakes for some tent and you didn't do it you know no one's gonna slap you on the back and say attaboy for having done it but don't do it and watch what happens it's the same way in our christian lives we can just blow that off you can say i have bible reading it's not that important prayers not that important soul winning not that important church attendance not important and give it time and watch what happens in your life watch what happens as jesus said here in our in where we're at verse 48 he is like a man which built an house and dig deep and laid the foundation on a rock why and when the flood arose and the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon a rock he didn't say oh you build upon the rock and then storms never come he's saying you build upon the rock you do the digging that's necessary you lay the foundation because the storms are coming you know and the guy verse 49 but he that heareth and doeth not is like a man without a foundation he built in house upon the earth and against the stream did vehemently beat and immediately it fell it didn't withstand for a second you know what these guys have in common the stream came the storm came resistance came into both of their lives one guy was prepared one wasn't and that's that's how it is in our christian lives you know that's just life we're all going to go through life the advantage that we have as god's people is that there's a rock that we can build our life upon called the word of god upon jesus christ and if we would just do the daily digging in this book if we would just bolster our bible reading if we would just prop up our prayer life if we would just shore up our soul winning you know we would build in the the disciplines of the christian life we would deepen those things we would drive those stakes deeper and we would be able to withstand the storms as individuals you know and that's how churches stand the test of time as well that's how they stand through the storms that come against a church as a corporate body it's because it's filled with people that have done these things they have already read that you're going to be hated of all men for my name's sake they've already read yay all that live godly christ jesus shall suffer persecution it comes as no shock to them why because they've read it they've read it in the bible and they know it's true and they're prepared for it you know it's we need to strengthen our stakes in our lives of course we want to do all these other things we want to stretch the curtains and we want to lengthen the cords we want to be able to hold more in our lives we want to be able to do more we want to be able to as a church bring more people in and accomplish more and grow the spiritual family but we in order to do that we have to strengthen the stakes that's the most important part it's the most important part but you know it's also the unseen support of that structure isn't it you know it's kind of it's kind of ironic the part that just you know most people don't even notice the part that probably goes the most you know uh unaccredited that we don't get a lot of attaboys for are the most important things you know we shouldn't be doing these things for for the sake of others do these things for yourself do your bible reading for yourself pray for yourself go slow winning you know obviously to get people saved but you know do it for yourself too obey the command to go strengthen these things in our lives strengthen your stakes this morning that's how we're going to grow that's how we're going to expand as a church that's how we're going to grow and expand as individuals by strengthening our stakes let's go and have a word of prayer dear lord again thank you for this church thank you for five great years lord of service here in tucson lord i pray that it would be one of many to come lord that you would continue to establish this church to add to it to build it lord to grow it as you see fit and lord i pray help us all to do our part as individuals lord to as leaders and as followers lord to to make sure that we're just doing the basics in our lives lord that we're doing the things that we ought to be doing as god's people and lord that we would just give you something to bless lord in our lives and as a church we ask these things in christ's name amen all right we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we dismiss uh also real quick so the way this will work for um let's just talk about the the uh choreography here i guess what we're gonna do is we're gonna we're gonna have to set up the tables in here so we got these tables on the side so we only need a few men but uh you can get some help but basically this is the hard part when it's over when the song's done you said all of you can just get up and get out of here so basically everyone that's been here needs to just for a few moments kind of go hang out in the back and then go stretch your legs outside or something like that and then we'll rearrange these chairs and tables and also bring anything with you too don't need bags and vitals and books of time i know it's kind of an inconvenience but it's just what we're working with here so if you bring all your stuff with you and just for a few moments go back there and then we'll just set up a couple rows so if we can just get some men also when we're done just kind of come forward up here and we'll kind of work all that out but that'll do it for that we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we get into the power amen uh let's open up our windows to start over 119 till the storm passes thank you is is holy is O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. In the land where the dead least never come for a night, How we'll be in your way to soar at so high. Till the storm that lasts till the wind, Till the thunder that sets the floor, Till the clouds fall forever, From the sky, O'er the past that we spend, In the hollow of my hand, Keep me safe, Till the storm that lasts till the wind. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the thunder that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind. Till the storm that lasts till the wind.