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

Now the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is there beginning in verse 22 where the Bible talks about being a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. And what I want to preach about tonight is the subject of taking immediate action on what you hear. Now the Bible says in James 1-22, but be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway, and straightway means immediately, straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. And what the Bible is explaining here is that when someone hears the Word of God, they're either going to immediately take action, they're immediately going to do something with it, or they're going to immediately forget what they've heard. And a lot of times people will deceive themselves, as it says at the end of verse 22, thinking hey, I'm going to do this, I'm going to make these changes. But if they don't make the changes right away, it's just simply never going to happen. Now it's very true when you learn something, unless you act upon that knowledge, you do forget that. How many things did we learn in school? Well, it's coming up, whether it be math class, I mean whether it be science class, and we never put those things into practice in our lives, and therefore we do not remember them at all. I mean, I did Algebra 2, precalculus, calculus, trigonometry, but how much of that do I really remember? I'll tell you exactly how much of it I remember. The stuff that I use in my job. And a lot of advanced math factors into my job sometimes, and I end up using it, and that's the only stuff I remember, because when you hear things and you don't do the work, you forget about it. You don't remember it. And so it's important that when we hear God's word, we need to take immediate action. We need to immediately put these things into practice in our lives. Now go to Matthew chapter 4, because you see there are so many people who have these vague ideas about things that they would like to do, or changes that they'd like to make in their mind. But because they don't take action, these things never happen. You know, basically the New Year's resolution mentality where people have an attitude that says, hey, this year's going to be different. I'm going to change this. I'm going to do this. But because they have no concrete action plan, because they're not immediately doing something along those lines to make that change and to make that improvement, it just ends up never happening. Now, here's an example about soul winning in Matthew chapter 4 verse 18. The Bible says, And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren. Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting an head into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. So here we have the destination is that these guys are going to become fishers of men. That's the goal. That's what needs to change about their life. Right now they're not a fisher of men. They need to become a fisher of men. And Jesus is telling them, Hey, if you do X, I'm going to do Y. He says, If you follow me, I will make you fishers of men. And it says they straightway, meaning immediately, they dropped everything. He said they left their nets and followed him. Look at verse 21. Going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. Now, fishing is a great illustration of soul winning for a lot of reasons, okay? And that's why he's using it here to picture soul winning. Now think about this. What if we were to just take this illustration that Jesus uses repeatedly in the Bible of fishing in regard to soul winning? What if we were to just think about literal fishing for a moment, okay? Let's say you have this goal that says, I want to become a fisherman, right? Now I don't know about you, I have very little experience fishing, okay? Now I've done a lot of, you know, fishing of men, but I have very little experience with fishing. I think I've been fishing about three or four times in my entire life. And whenever I was fishing, I was always with someone who was a lot more experienced than me, had all the equipment, had all the gear, and was guiding me and telling me, okay, now we're going to do this, now we're going to do that. I can only remember one time in my entire life catching a fish. And this is when I was about 17 years old, I was out on a dirt bike riding trip and there was a river right by where we were camped and I was riding dirt bikes and that's what I was interested in. But you know, a young guy was there and he was, you know, casting a line into the river and he was fishing. And I said, hey, would you mind if I try? He said, not at all. I took it, I cast it in, and just boom, something bit. You know, and right away I reeled this thing in and caught it and it was really a fun thing, it was a thrilling thing to catch that fish, it was a pretty good sized fish. I climbed down into the water, pulled out a pocket knife, gutted it right there, and then my friend told me, he said, I'm going to show you how to cook it now. And he just went into his camper, pulled out some tin foil, we wrapped it in foil, threw it in the fire, just in the middle of the fire. I don't know if that's the right way to do it, but it worked. And we just waited until it was just black and then we flipped it over and made it black on the other side, pulled it out and ate it, swallowed a lot of bones, you know, but it was a really fun experience. But here's the thing, I don't know anything about fishing, okay? I've been fishing a couple, that's the only fish I've ever caught. Somebody else did a lot of the work, okay? But the thing is, if I wanted to become a fisherman, there would actually be a lot of steps that I would have to take, not just telling myself every day, man, you know what, I just need to get into fishing. I just need to go, I just need to be a better fisherman. I think I'm going to pray about it. Now, some of the things I'd have to do is I'd probably have to get some gear, I'd have to get some equipment. And then I'd have to pick a place and say, okay, here, the place that I'm going to go fishing is this place. And then I'd probably find someone that's going to have to teach me how to go fishing. Or I'm going to have to go on YouTube or something and find some fishing video that's going to teach me how to fish. Or I'm going to have to, you know, buy some equipment, set aside some time and say, okay, I'm going to go fishing on Saturdays or whatever the case may be. You're not going to become a fisherman by accident is what I'm trying to say. Not just going to accidentally, I just found myself fishing one afternoon and I really liked it. No, because it takes an effort to go fishing and to take the steps necessary. And you know what, it's going to be the same thing with solvending and it's going to be the same thing with every other area of life. Just like I had someone guiding me through fishing. You know, if you're going to become a fisher of men, you need somebody to guide you on that and to help you on that. And you say, well, how do you know? Well, because you know what, I grew up, I got saved when I was six years old. And immediately at six years old, I had a desire to get other people saved and I've always had a desire to get other people saved, even since I was six. But you know how old I was when I first got someone saved? Seventeen. So what was the problem? I mean, at age six, I really wanted to get people saved. And I remember I used to go around and put tracts, even as a six year old, I put tracts on the doors of my neighbors and put a tract on a car. But I didn't know what I was doing. I was not effective. And it was not until I was 17 years old that I got into a church that did solvending. And then I had someone that would take me out, show me the ropes, I could observe them, they taught me how to do it, and that's when I started to be able to preach the Gospel and be a fisher of men. You know, and Jesus is saying the same thing, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. You know, you're not going to be a fisher of men unless you're following me, is what I'm saying. And if you follow me, you're guaranteed to be a fisher of men. And so that was a step that they had to take, and they had to take it immediately. Because if you would have said, hey, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men, and they say, you know what, I'm going to think about that for a while. You know, a lot of times the devil will come and just catch that immediately away that was sown in your heart, and you'll walk away, and look, the Bible flat out said it, even about believers in James 1, that you know what, if you don't do the work, you're going to be like a man who beholds his natural face in a glass. And he says, he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. You see, we look in the mirror of God's Word, and let me ask you this, why do we look into a physical mirror? To see what we look like. And why are we trying to see what we look like? And maybe ladies are different on this, but from a man's perspective, we're just making sure nothing's just glaringly wrong. You know what I mean? We're not sitting there, we're not looking in the mirror trying to look perfect or trying to get everything just right, oh no. We just want to make sure that something's not just glaringly wrong. And I go several days without looking into a mirror. But you know, we look into a mirror and we just want to make sure, okay, I don't just have something just completely ridiculous about my appearance. Okay, I'm dressed, let's go, you know, let's do it. So what do we look in the mirror for? To see what's wrong, to see what needs to be fixed. And when we look in the Bible, don't we see things that are wrong with ourself? When we read the Bible, we see things that are different in the Bible from how we live our lives and we say, wait a minute, I've got something wrong here. I've got a problem here. There's something about myself that I need to fix. I'm not a fisher of men. That needs to change. And when we look at ourself in that mirror, we need to take immediate action. That'd be like if I, think about this now, what if I walked in and looked in the mirror and I see that I just have this, you know, the food on the side of my face or, you know, I was eating a barbecue lunch or something and I've got barbecue sauce all over my cheek and I say, you know what, I need to deal, it's 4 o'clock, church starts at 630, I'm going to deal with that before church. I mean, wouldn't that be ridiculous? You'd say, no, you better do it right now or you're going to forget about it and then you're going to look like a fool, you know, and I did not look in the mirror before coming. I hope everything's okay, you know, because I haven't looked in the mirror today, at least not in the last several hours. So God is using an illustration here telling us that we must take immediate action. We must take decisive action. We must have a plan of how we're going to get to the destination. Look, if you want to be a fisher of men, you need to follow somebody that's going to show you how to be a fisher of men. As Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. You know how I learned soul winning? I went out soul winning and I didn't just go out and start knocking doors and doing it because, you know, I needed some help, I needed some teaching, I needed some training and God has provided teachers, God has provided preachers for the perfecting of the saints and for the work of the ministry and for the edification of the body of Christ. You know, if you're going to say I'm going to be more of a soul winner, you know, showing up at the soul winning time is a start. Show up at the time. You know, you've got to set aside a time to go fishing, well, that's a great start. Look, and I'm not saying you're not going to do other fishing at your job or with your family or with your friends or with your neighbors, but you know what? If you want to make that change, you better show up at a time and have a plan and have somebody train you and teach you so that you can become a fisher of men, but that's just one area. But there are so many other areas, go to Deuteronomy 17, there's so many other areas where people make some kind of a resolution, whether it be New Year's or not New Year's, but they just make a resolution of, you know, here's something that needs to change about myself or maybe they're reading the Bible and they come to that conclusion, or maybe they're hearing preaching, and I hope that when you hear preaching from the Word of God that shows you an area in your life that you can improve that you will then take decisive, immediate action to make the changes necessary and not put it off, because look, if you put it off, you will be a forgetful hearer, you will not make the changes. You need to do it now, and you need to take decisive action, not just a vague idea. You know, what's the number one most popular New Year's resolution that people come up with? What do you think? What is it? The diet. You know, isn't that the cliché New Year's resolution? Hey, I'm going to lose weight, or you know, I'm going to start eating healthy, or I'm going to start exercising, I'm going to fix that. You know what? Do you really think someone's going to reach that goal just by saying, you know what, I'm going to start eating better, just a vague idea, just eat better. Eat a little less. Eat a little bit healthier. No, the people who reach that goal, they have a plan, and they take decisive action immediately. You know, and maybe that's just something as simple as, you know, I'm going to just cut out all soda, or Coca Cola, or whatever. You know, because let's face it, that stuff's not doing anything good for your body when you drink it. You know, caramel color, sodium benzoate, high fructose corn syrup that's been genetically modified everywhere, and I'm not trying to get on you about soda, you know, I can carry less, how many sodas you drink. You know, eat, drink, and be merry, and tomorrow you die, whatever. But the bottom line is, I'm saying that just to use that as an illustration, and by the way, it probably would be a good idea for you to take care of your body. Your body's the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you. You're not your own, you're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's, and so taking care of your body is a good idea not to smoke, not to drink alcohol, not to eat junk food and trash your body and so forth. But look, if I were going to make that resolution that said, hey, I'm going to lose weight, or hey, I'm going to be healthy, I'm going to start eating healthy, you know, you have to take some decisive action, you have to put some kind of a plan into play to make that happen. You know, and you might say, you know, I'm not going to drink any soda anymore. You know, at least that is a step that you're taking, and I've talked to people, I talked to a friend of mine who said that he lost like 20 pounds just by, that was the only thing he changed. You know, he had a big gut and he just made that one change and it just, 20 pounds over the course of several months, you know. But if you were going to make that resolution, you'd have to take some action. Maybe you decide, you know, here's the other drink that I'm going to drink instead. You know, maybe I'm going to get some carbonated water and mix it with a little bit of fruit juice or something, you know, it would be something that will give me a similar feeling of drinking soda without the harmful effects of a mainline, you know, Coca-Cola type soda or whatever. But again, I'm not really emphasizing that tonight, but I'm just saying, you know, let's say somebody says, hey, I'm going to get out of debt, I'm going to spend less money. You know, it's just this vague idea. The people who effectively achieve that are people who sit down and write up a budget and sit down and make a plan and say, okay, here's where I'm going to save, here's what I'm going to change, here's what I'm going to do differently. But you know, if we move on to spiritual things, what about all the spiritual goals that we have? You know, for example, a righteous resolution for you, and again, I don't care if it's not New Year's, you know, we need to be making changes all the time. We need to be constantly repenting. We need to be constantly improving ourselves, constantly growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Look, one of the things that we all should be focused on if we don't already have this straight is reading our Bible. And you know, I thank God that our church is a church where people actually read their Bibles and know the Bible for themself, but let's not change that and let's not get complacent with that. You know, I want every single person here to be a person who searches the Scriptures daily whether those things be so. And you know yourself whether that is something that you have in your life or whether it is not something that you have in your life. Reading the Bible every day. So the question is, if you're hearing this right now and you say, well Pastor Anderson, I agree with you, I think I'm going to read the Bible more. But what action are you going to take? Well look at the Bible here, here's some good advice in Deuteronomy 17 about how to read your Bible every day. It says in verse 18, and it shall be, talking about the king of Israel, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law. Talking about the word of God. And it says he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites. So basically the priests, the Levites, are going to supply him with a copy of the law. He's going to take that copy of the law and he is going to personally, with his own hand, write out his own copy of the law that will be his personal Bible, because this is before the printing press. Now Richard Miller is the only person I know who has actually done this, because he actually, he didn't do it by hand, but he actually made his own Bible. It was just a project that he did. But this is what the king of Israel was commanded to do, and I ask myself, how many kings of Israel actually did this? What do you think? I mean the Bible doesn't really tell us, but when we see the failures in their life, we can probably guess that this scripture was probably seen by them as a little more figurative. They probably looked at this and said, well I think he's just figurative. He just wants me to read the Bible. And I'm not saying that we literally need to write out our own Bible, that's not what I'm saying, but I'm saying that the king of Israel had better write out his own Bible if he's living in the Old Testament, because I'll tell you right now, that's his job to lead the people, to be a ruler, to be a leader, and if God tells him to do this, he needs to do it. And it says here he'll write out the copy of the law in a book out of that which is before the priests of the Levites, watch this, and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord as God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. You know what that tells me? That tells me that Saul, David, Solomon, Rehoboam were not doing this. Because I mean they were lifted up, their heart was lifted up above their brethren. They did multiply wives. They did turn aside from the commandment, and they did not pass the kingdom on to their children as it should have been. That tells me that they didn't do this, and they didn't take it seriously. But I think the key here about reading the word of God every day of your life, he says in order to read the word of God every day, it says the word of God has to be with you. Because he said write out your own personal copy. Now you say what's the point of writing out your own personal copy? Basically today, again I'm not saying that that is something that we need to do, but I am saying this, you need to have your own Bible. And back then they didn't have a printing press, and so basically he had to write out his own copy. He didn't want to rely on the copy that's at church or the copy that's with the Levites. Because when the king goes out to battle, he's gone for three months. And he should not go three months without reading his Bible. So he has to have his own personal copy that he takes with him and brings along with him to read in every day. So let me say this, if you're one that's sitting there thinking, hey, I need to increase my Bible reading, I need to read more Bible, I need to read the Bible period, because some people don't read it at all, or I'm only reading it once or twice a week, I need to read it every day. You know what you need to do? You have the Bible with you. So here's a decisive action that you can take so that you're not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work. Something that you can immediately change is the first thing I would do is get a pocket New Testament and put it in your pocket. That right there is something that can help you have the Word of God at your fingertips all the time. Or if you're a lady, you could stick it in your purse and have a pocket New Testament and then make a decision that says at X time, or in this situation, I'm going to pull out that New Testament every day, I'm going to read that New Testament. And that could be a way to just increase your Bible reading. Or maybe you do a lot of driving like I do. You could say, you know what, I'm going to get the Bible on CD and I'm going to listen to the Bible. I'm going to listen to it in an audio format. That's how I'm going to read therein all the days of my life by having it with me, whether it be a New Testament or whether it be a CD or something. Maybe it's flashcards of Bible verses and you say, you know what, I'm going to read the Bible more, I'm going to write out verses and I'm going to put them on a card and I'm going to pull out those verses throughout the day and read those verses to make a change in my life in the area of Bible reading where I'm suffering. It's not going to happen by accident. Just yeah, I'd like to read the Bible more, yeah I'd like to be a soul winner, yeah I'd like to pray. No, put a plan into action now to fix it now is what we need to do so that we're not just a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work. This starts today, this starts tomorrow morning, this starts immediately, immediate action because a week from now you're going to forget all about this sermon. I mean people ask me what I preached a week ago and I can't even remember and I'm the one who preached it, you know, let alone you the listener. Why? You know, because we need to immediately act and make the changes necessary before we forget because you're not going to remember. You know, Amanda here has been here since the second Sunday that our church existed. She has heard me preach literally like 1,100 hours of preaching, okay, because she's only missed a handful of services. So in the last seven years she's heard me preach like 1,100 sermons. I mean she can't remember, she cannot stand up right now and tell you well let me just run through all 1,100 of them. Let me give you the titles, let me tell you what they're about, but the fruit is evidence in her life. Do you see what I mean? So even if she can't tell you well, you know, I heard this sermon on this day and here's the change I made and I heard this sermon and I made this change and I heard this sermon and I made this change. You know what, the changes are there even after the sermon is forgotten. You're still living the life after you forget that message, you're still living the life if you put it into practice immediately. Not later, not vaguely, or yeah that sounds good, no let's do it. Let's do it now. Decisive action. Okay, we talked about Bible reading, let's talk about prayer. Go to Daniel chapter 6, Daniel chapter 6, and as you're turning there, 1 Samuel 12.23 says this, Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way. The Bible teaches that it is a sin not to pray. First of all the Bible commands us, pray without ceasing. Here he says, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. And so we see over and over again God commanding us to pray, God telling us that men ought always to pray and not to faint, and over and over again the Bible tells us to pray. But do we pray? Do we spend time praying? Do we pray on a daily basis? Do we pray more than just a few words? Do we actually spend time talking to God and praying? Or do we pray like the Pharisee where we just pray thus with ourselves? You know, where we basically just, you know, sit down at the table, oh dear Jesus, thank you for the food, amen. You know, we're not even talking to God. We're not even thinking about God. We're not even really thankful in our heart, we're just going through the motions. Okay, how are we going to effectively change this in our lives if we look at ourselves and say, you know what, the Bible keeps talking about prayer, the Bible's telling me it's a sin to cease from praying. The Bible's commanding me to pray without ceasing. This is something that I need to change. I'm looking in the mirror of God's Word saying, hey, I need to pray. I need to start praying every day. I need to make a change here. I need to follow Jesus' example, the apostle's example, of being someone who prays. How are you going to make that change? Well, you know, one thing you could do is to have a specific time that you set aside to pray, okay? And maybe that's on your walk to work or your drive to work or maybe that's first thing in the morning or maybe that's right before you go to bed at night or maybe that's on your lunch break, whatever. But look what the Bible says in Daniel chapter 6 verse 10. It says, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four time, showing that this was a habit that Daniel had in his life of three times a day praying, getting on his knees. And you say, well, when I pray I get distracted. You know, sometimes I'll start praying and then I become distracted. Well, here's how you pray without getting distracted. You get on your knees or you get on your face. Then it's a lot harder to be distracted. Here's another way not to get distracted. Pray out loud. Open your mouth and pray. Because you know, sometimes, and obviously we know that when we pray within our heart, God hears us. We just saw this morning that Jesus was talking to that Pharisee and everything that Pharisee said within himself, Jesus answered him and knew what he was saying. So yes, when we pray within ourselves as Nehemiah, as he stood before the king, when Nehemiah prayed in his heart and God heard him and answered his prayer, he didn't open his mouth and speak any audible words. We know God hears us, but let me tell you something. If you struggle with being distracted while you pray, then pray out loud. Pray out loud. Get on your knees and pray. Yeah, you could pray behind the wheel of the car, you could pray walking, but you know what, if it helps to pray on your knees, to get on your face, to bow down yourself before the Lord, then you know what, that's something you could do to say, you know what, my prayer is not what it should be, I'm going to start getting on my knees when I pray. My prayer is not what it should be, I'm going to pray out loud. I'm going to set aside a prayer time. I'm going to have a place where I go to pray because the Bible says, but thou when thy prayers enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father in secret. So the Bible there is teaching having a private place to go and do prayer. Why? Because if you have a time and a place and a habit and it's three times a day, it's going to happen. And you know the great thing about praying three times a day is that when you miss one, you haven't just not prayed at all. The threefold cord, as the Proverb says, is not quickly broken. And the threefold cord of morning, noon, and night prayer, we're all going to make mistakes, we're all going to mess up and miss prayer time, but you know what, if we have three prayer times, it's probably going to get done, it's probably going to happen. And so there are a lot of things you could do. Maybe it's keeping a clean mind. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. A lot of people might look at the Word of God and say, you know what, I need to really clean up my thought life. And this is something that's a really big problem today in 2013, is our thoughts. And the reason why is that there is an agenda of evil in this world to get inside our heads and mess with our thoughts. And it's a concerted agenda. I mean it is a plan of the devil. It is the rulers of the darkness of this world getting together in a smoke-filled room talking about how they're going to get into your mind and pervert your mind. You say, oh you sound like a conspiracy wacko, you sound like a paranoid whatever. You know what, if you don't believe that, then I don't know what to tell you. I mean how can you actually be that blind and that ignorant and that naive to think that there is not a plan that is being carried out every year and this plan did not start yesterday or last year or when Obama became president or something. This plan has been going, I mean in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, there is a slow brainwashing of the American people that's been taking place. And I'm sure it's happening all over the world of basically just tearing down your belief on Jesus Christ, tearing down your view of marriage, tearing down your view of having children and there's so many things that we've just been brainwashed by. And look, I'm telling you, every Hollywood movie that's put out and every TV show that's on the air has an agenda to corrupt you and pervert you. It's so easy to see, I mean it's not that hard to see. And you know what I've often done is whenever I'm at a place where there are a lot of movie posters up, I always just point at the movie posters and I don't know anything about the movies and I just say I bet I can guess what the agenda is behind this movie. You know I'm walking down the thing and there's a movie called Ice Age, it's like well okay I know the agenda behind that, evolution, atheism, this theory that there is no God. You know I walk up and I see another movie and look, I grew up watching a lot of movies. When I was young, before I was married, I watched a lot of movies. I was a movie guy, I probably watched 4 or 5 hours of TV every day and I'm not bragging about that. And I'm going to tell you something, I watched a lot of TV and a lot of movies and I'll tell you something, people will often say this, they'll watch a movie and they'll say man it was such a good movie except for this one part. I mean isn't that true? And see you may have not grown up in a Christian home, but when you grow up in a Christian home, that's how your attitude is about movies. Oh man I love that movie, oh it's just that one part. But what you need to understand right now is that that one part is the only reason why the movie was even made in the first place. Are you hearing what I'm saying? That movie was made for that one part. And a lot of times that one part is totally unnecessary, has nothing to do with the plot, has nothing to do with the movie, and you're like why do they have to put this in there? Why do they have to ruin a good movie? You know why they have to ruin a good movie? Because there is no good movie, they are using the movie to put trash into your mind. Whether it's that one bedroom scene or that one blasphemy against Jesus Christ or that one scene that promotes rebelling against your parents or that one scene that promotes drunkenness or drug use or fornication or adultery or covetousness or wickedness or that rips on church or rips on the Bible. It's there for a reason. And look, the devil is not going to just give you all the garbage in one movie because you'd stay away from that movie. You'd say well I don't want to watch that movie, that movie's a devil movie. But you know what he'll do? He'll just do it little by little. I mean it's just like tonight, I'm not trying to teach you the whole Bible tonight, I'm just trying to teach you one point about taking immediate action when you hear God's word preached to immediately put those things into practice. You know this morning I wasn't trying to teach the entire Bible, I was just trying to teach one concept, forgiveness. And I feel that a good sermon usually has one good point that it's trying to make. Sometimes sermons that I've preached had too many points in them. And then you know people don't really get anything out of it because you're hitting them with too many different things. But you see a good sermon has one point that it drives in, hey you need to have a plan, you need to take action now, you need to be a doer of the work. Okay well movies are the same way, they just have, the devil's just got one point that he's trying to get to you. He doesn't care if the rest of the movie's clean and fun and good. It's all about that one scene. It's all about getting you to watch pornography for 20 seconds. It's all about getting you to hear the world's philosophies and just think, and it's not, and here's what people think, oh I'll just cut that part out, we'll just bleep that part out. They'll buy this device that cleans everything up, I guess they sell devices like that where it cleans up the movie for you. But the problem is the philosophies, the underlying philosophies are getting in there and they're brainwashing you, they're brainwashing your children, they're teaching you everything that is wrong, everything that is wicked. And so today our minds are filled with garbage today. Because we drive down the road, we see filthy billboards. We go into the grocery store, we see a bunch of filthy magazines. We turn on the TV, if we're not right with God, and watch all this garbage that puts all this filth into our mind. You know, you go down to the movies and it's more brainwashing, more garbage, more filth. How are we going to keep a clean mind? It's not going to happen by accident, my friend. In today's world in 2013, you're going to have to make an effort to have a clean mind. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4. The Bible says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, meaning fleshly or physical weapons, but mighty, through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. And watch this, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Do you think that's going to happen by accident, or is that going to be you taking decisive action that says, hey, I'm going to listen to this sermon and I'm going to take heed to what the Word of God is saying, and I'm going to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And you know, the Bible says in Genesis 6 that the days of Noah, that the imaginations, same word, the imaginations of man's heart were only evil continually. And you know what, here we are living in the last days, and the Bible says as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. And here we are in the last days, and it's getting to the point where people's imaginations and their thought life has become perverse and corrupt, and it's only evil continually. We must bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. How are we going to do it? What are you going to do? What change are you going to make right now, today, tonight, tomorrow, that will say, you know what, I'm going to clean up my thought life. Because you know what, if you just walk away and say, yeah, that's right, man, yeah, I do need to keep a clean mind, a couple days from now you're going to forget this sermon. But what changes have you implemented? Well first of all, you know, you could get rid of your TV, would be one thing, and say, you know what, I'm not going to watch TV, I'm tired of the brainwashing, I'm tired of the news brainwashing me politically, I'm tired of all the beer, and the naked women, and the worldliness, and the wickedness, and the covetousness, and the sensuality, and the blasphemy, I'm just, you know, that's, I mean, that's a real decisive action. You're not going to forget that decision. You know, you might forget the sermon, but when you keep looking at that big void empty place in your living room, you know, you've taken an action there. You're not going to forget that word. And you say, you know, and why don't you just replace it with a big piece of paper where you write out with your own head, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. Okay, so that's one decisive action you could take. You know, another decisive action you could take is to memorize verses that have to do with your thought life, or whatever it is that you're struggling with in your thought life. And this is something that I've put into place a long time ago that has helped me, is just Bible verses associated with certain sins, or certain thoughts, or certain wrong philosophies, and basically those verses can be called upon at times of temptation, to allow us to resist temptation. For example, probably a big one today, because of the world that we live in, is the lust of the eyes. You know, especially this is something that men struggle with, okay? And there are a lot of scriptures that you could memorize that would help you with this. I already told you Psalm 103, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes, I hate the work of them that turn aside, it shall not cleave to me. Or for example, you could use the verse that says, but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Or how about the verse that says in Job 31, 1, I made a covenant with mine eyes, why then should I think upon a maid? Okay, so there are a lot of scriptures that deal with that subject, but really whatever the bad thought, because you know what, bad thought, when we hear bad thoughts, that's kind of the first thing that comes to mind, would be like a, you know, maybe a pornographic thought, or a thought of, you know, just because that's crammed down our throat everywhere we go, every gas station, every billboard, every drug store, but you know what, there are a lot of other wicked thoughts we could have, like maybe hatred for our brother in our heart, or hatred for someone in our heart. Or what about a thought, what about a negative thought toward our spouse? What about a thought, what about a wife who has a thought of, oh my husband, he doesn't know what he's doing. You know, or he's not leading right, he's not doing right. You know, that's a wicked thought, because the Bible says see that the wife reverence her husband, you know, or maybe a husband who thinks bad thoughts about his wife that are not loving thoughts, that are not thoughts of affection. You know what, those are bad thoughts too, and Bible verses could be memorized to fix those thoughts. Or what about the big one, covetousness. What about a thought that says, hey I wish I had this thing that I don't have or that I can't afford, man it sure would be nice to have that car, man I wish I had that. You know, why don't you then have a Bible verse you could go to for that evil thought that says hey, I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. What about a verse that says, you know, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have, for you have said I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. I mean there's so many things, I mean we can go on and on, when it comes to a bad thought life. Your bad thoughts might not be the same as my bad thoughts. And the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. And so one way to take decisive action about a thought life would be number one, take away all these things that are putting bad thoughts into your mind, like a television program, like the Hollywood movies, like the magazine rack. You know, maybe just make it some kind of a change or a decision about not looking at the magazines, you know, not looking at these things. You could also memorize Bible verses that help you in that particular area. I mean there's so many things that you can do. You know, for example, people have a vague idea that says, you know, I'm going to improve my marriage. You know, I want to have a better marriage. Yep, I'm going to be a better husband, I'm going to be a better wife. You know what, that's not going to get you anywhere. Just some vague resolution. I want to be the spiritual leader in my home. I'm going to take charge in my home. I'm going to lead my family. That's not going to get you anywhere, just some vague resolution. Because you know what, you're just going to get in about your life and you're not really taking any action, you're not really doing the work. It's not going to happen. Or maybe a wife has an attitude that says, you know, I'm going to be more submissive. I'm going to be more of an obedient wife. Or maybe a husband says, you know, I'm going to be more loving to my wife. But is there a, but how are you going to do that? What are you going to do specifically? What change can you implement now, today, immediately that's going to help you grow in that area? Because if you don't make a specific move, if you don't say, hey, I'm showing up at this particular soul winning time, I'm going to this time, I'm going to bring my Bible, I'm going to be paired up with someone who's going to show me how to do it. You know, I'm going to be, what about being on time to church? That's a good thing to do, right? Well, you know, just say, yeah, I'm going to be on time, I'm going to be on time. You know, maybe there should be something that says, hey, we're going to leave by X time. Or how about this, we're going to start leaving 10 minutes extra. Because we're always the exact same amount of time late every time. Let's leave 10 minutes early. Let's be on time. You know, you could basically have a concrete plan. And don't set your clocks wrong. That doesn't work. That works for a little while, and then pretty soon you just get used to it and you just know that the clocks are wrong. Setting clocks wrong, I hate that, okay? Don't set the clock. Just set every clock to show the right time, all the time. You know, this false weight and this false measure is an abomination to the Lord, okay? You know, and I'm kind of kidding, but you know what I mean. Set the clock right, okay? And you say, you're getting on me. You're preaching against me. No, my clock in my house has been set wrong many times, so, you know. And you know, I've done it. I've been guilty of it. But I'm just saying, don't do it. Just decide, instead of saying your clock wrong, why don't you just decide the church starts at 10.20 on Sunday mornings, and 6.20 on Sunday nights, and it starts at 6.50 on Wednesday nights. I mean, you know, and just decide, you know what, I'm going to get there early. I'm going to be there on time. I'm going to be there early. Now, a lot of people have an attitude that says, well, I didn't miss any of the preaching. But you know what, there's more to church than just the preaching. I don't want to miss the singing. I don't want to miss the prayer. I don't want to miss the announcements. I want to be there for the whole thing. And you know, I understand. And look, I'm not down on you if you're late to church, because you know what, sometimes things do happen. You know, things get held up. I remember when I first got married, and this is not when it always starts. But anyway, no, I'm just kidding. But anyway, when I first got married, man, we were on time. I mean, we were always, I mean, I was like, I put my foot down, and I was like, we're going to be on time. You know, because I hate being late, and I was just like, we will be on time. And I remember we used to, and here's what we did. We just, we just, our church was about 15, 20 minutes away, and we left a half hour before church time, every time. And it was like, if we're leaving the house at 6.31, and it starts at 7, like, I'm already considering us late, because we're late out the door, okay. And I remember one time we were late, one time we were late, and it was because we had a blowout on the way to church. You know, the tire blew out. So we had to pull over. I had to change the tire. So we walked into church on Sunday morning, very late, hands black from changing the tire. You know what I mean? But I mean, when you're just habitually late every time, and you know, I'm not mad at you. I don't care if you're late. You're the one who's losing when you're late. It doesn't bother you. Because some pastors get distracted by, you know what, walk around, do whatever you want. It doesn't distract me at all, but you know what, you're missing out when you're late to church, and you're developing a bad habit. You know, and you've got to take decisive action. I don't know how I got off on that. But anyway, you know, when it comes to your marriage, you know, you want to take a decisive action to improve your marriage as a leader, okay? And say, you know what, I'm going to be more loving to your wife. You know, why don't you think of some specific loving things to do for your wife? Instead of just saying, I'm going to treat her more lovingly, I'm going to be more loving. Why don't you think of something nice that you could do for your wife? And put that into place. And put that into action immediately and say, you know what, I'm going to start writing my wife a note, or writing my wife a letter. Because you know what, women like to get notes and letters and cards and things. They like to read things, and that's a way that they feel loved, you know. Or maybe it's buying her flowers, or maybe it's just, you know, just something that she likes and just doing it for her, or just something that she doesn't like, and you're going to stop doing it. You know, why don't you take a concrete plan of action and say, well if I'm going to be a more loving husband, here's something I'm going to do to start expressing more love. Or maybe it's something I'm going to say, or maybe it's something I'm going to write, or just something that you can make a change. Or say, you know what, I want to be a stronger leader in my home. You know, what can you change to be a stronger leader in your home? Maybe there are things right now that are happening in your home that you don't like, that you don't approve of, that you don't, you know, they're not following your leadership. Maybe you could pick a specific area and say, you know what, I'm going to put my foot down on that one area, as a start. And say, you know what, I'm not going to let this go anymore, I'm going to step in and take charge here and I'm going to fix this problem. You know, and look, you must take decisive action to make that happen. You know, one thing that my wife and I, you know, actually not my wife and I, you know, I instituted this as the leader. And I instituted this to help my marriage just recently, and it's been great, it's been very helpful. And that is this, you know, when my wife and I first got married, we used to pray and read the Bible together, right? And we would read a lot, I mean, we'd sit down and read the Bible for hours, we'd take turns reading, read it out loud, we'd pray together. And we did that when we were first married, but then comes children. And then what happens is that that kind of evolves into a family Bible time, right? And it evolves into a time where the whole family is sitting around reading the Bible or praying. But you know, recently I just started to realize, you know what, family Bible time, which we do at our house, you know, we do sit around and read the Bible together as a family. I realized, you know, family Bible time is not the same as what I had when I was first married with just my wife and I. It was just a different thing. It was just something that was good for us, you know, and it was more personal and private between us. And so recently I instituted and said, you know what, let's keep family Bible time the way it is, let's keep that in place, let's not change that at all. But I said, you know what, I'm instituting a new time that is basically a time for my wife and I, every morning, we have a ritual now that we've instituted, I instituted, and I said, hey, this is what we're going to do. I said, every morning we're going to do three things. I said, we're going to get up in the morning and the first thing we're going to do is we're going to get on our knees, side by side, by the bedside, and we're going to pray. You know, and part of this was, you know, deciding, okay, how are we going to get up in the morning at the same time? Because sometimes, you know, we can be on different schedules and different wavelengths, so we decided, okay, here's what we're going to do, we're going to do it every single day, nothing is going to stop us from doing this, nothing is going to get in the way of this, we're going to get up first thing in the morning, every day, we're going to get on our knees together and we're going to pray together. And I pray out loud, and then she prays out loud, and then I pray out loud. And we're praying together. So that right there is a good time for us to right in the morning start the day off right. Right there we're walking in the Spirit. Right there we're praying to God, we're getting him on our side. Right away we're also spending a personal time together, because look, yeah, I can pray by myself, I can pray with my family, but when it's just me and my wife, that's something that's good for our marriage, that's something that's good for our relationship. And so we get up in the morning and the first thing we do is we pray together on our knees out loud. And then the second thing we do is we read the Bible together. And I read out loud to my wife, we sit side by side, you know, all cuddled up and cozy, and we read the Bible together and I read the Bible out loud to my wife and we read the Proverb of the Day, okay? Because that's something that's very helpful and it's very practical. And then we read something else that I choose, you know, some other scripture that I feel like could be helpful or some book that we're going to work our way through. And so we do the Proverb of the Day and then we do some... and it's not... this is not a really long... it doesn't have to be a long time, you know, because we have other Bible reading and other things that we do and other prayer times. But this is just... even if it's just a really short time, I mean one Proverb... how long does it take to read one Proverb? Three minutes? Think about it. How long does it take to read a Proverb? You know, three, four minutes to get through one chapter of Proverbs. It's real easy to know where you're at, I just look at the date, you know, okay, today's the 10th, we're going to read Proverbs 10, that's what we read this morning. And so we read that Proverb and then we just read something else. And if we're pressed for time, we just read something very short, you know, just a Psalm or whatever. And if we have more time, we might read a little bit more. But we do that right away. So the first thing we do, we pray together and then we read the Bible together, and it's going to sound a little weird, but the third thing we do is I pick up my wife, I pick her up like this, you know like in the old days when they'd carry them across the threshold, I pick up my wife like this and I carry her from one side of the house and back. And you say, well what is the purpose of part three to the ritual? So my wife's been trying to figure out the same thing. But number one, number one, let me just explain to you, number one this proves that this was my idea, okay, number one, because she would have never come up with such a thing, okay. So this is me being the leader, number one, saying here's what we're going to do, we're going to do it my way, we're going to get up in the morning, we're going to pray on our knees, we're going to read the Bible together, and I'm going to pick you up like this with my arms and carry you from one side of the house and back. You know, she wouldn't have dreamed up such a thing, she never would have thought of such a thing, but that's what I thought of. And you say, well why? You're insane. Well, but here's why, but there are several things that that does, and you know what, if you're smart you'll listen to what I'm saying. There's several things that that does. Number one, it starts out by being something fun, right, I mean it's kind of fun and lighthearted. Number two, it's something romantic. So right away in the morning we're kind of connecting on that level in the morning, even if it's a real busy morning, even if the kids, and look, many times when we do this morning ritual, the kids are coming in and interrupting and so, you know what I mean, they're bursting in and stuff. So, you know, it has to be something that's short, that's sweet, that can just take, you know, so we do our prayer, we do our Bible reading, and then this is something that's romantic, so it connects us on a, you know, because frankly when I married my wife I wasn't looking for a roommate, you know what I mean, I was looking for a wife. And so I want to have that relationship with my wife that's a relationship that goes beyond just we're roommates, we're business partners, we're friends, okay. So basically, number one, it's something that's fun and lighthearted. Number two, it's something that's romantic, and so, and number three, it puts us in a right role of our marriage showing like, hey, I'm stronger than you. I'm the boss, you know, and look, obviously a man carrying his wife across the threshold in the old days, does anybody know what I'm talking about? Did you do that? Who did that when you got married? Well, that's your problem, that's why your marriage is messed up. No, I'm just kidding, because when I married my wife I carried her across the threshold, but I haven't, you know, but only recently did I reinstitute that as a daily thing, okay. But here's why, because right away it's a masculine thing and it's a feminine thing to be carried, okay. So basically what it is, is it's putting us psychologically and mentally in our proper roles of husband and wife, hey, I'm a man and you're a woman, I'm going to pick you up, I'm going to carry you to that side of the house and carry you back, okay. And look, maybe, and I'm not saying that this is a necessary part of your morning ritual, okay. I'm not saying, you know, you need to be just like me, but I'm just showing you that I'm taking a decisive action that says, hey, I want my marriage to be right. I want it to be spiritually right, I want God on my side, I want to have the wisdom of God from the book of Proverbs, I want to be in the Spirit first thing in the morning, and I want to have a close relationship with my wife that is a male-female relationship, not this 50-50 relationship, the garbage that our world puts out. It's a male-female relationship, I'm the man, you're the woman, I'm going to pick you up and show you that. And if I ever want you to go somewhere that you don't want to go, you know what, I'm just showing you, I have the power to pick you up and take you there, alright. So, you know, I'm getting kind of quiet in here right now, but you know what, I'll tell you right now, like, I'm not ashamed to preach that, because you know what, I have a good marriage, because of the fact that I have these things in place, and you're not going to have a good marriage by accident, and you're not going to be the boss in your home by accident, and you're not going to love your wife by accident, and be affectionate and kind toward your wife by accident, you're not going to have loving feelings toward your wife by accident, she's not going to have loving and reverential feelings toward you by accident, you're not going to read the Bible every day by accident, you're not going to pray every day by accident, you're not going to accidentally find yourself a fisherman, you're not just going to wake up one morning and be a soul winner, you're not just going to wake up one morning and have clean thoughts, and you're going to have, you know, a healthy body, and you're going to have a good marriage, and you're going to have all your finances in a row, no, these are things that we look at the Bible and say, you know what, something about my life is wrong and it needs to change, and I'm going to change it. And I'm going to take whatever steps necessary to make that change. And I'm not just going to sit around and just say, yeah, I'd like, yeah, you know, and complain and whine about, oh, I wish I were this, or I wish this were different about my life, or I wish that I would do this, I wish I had your character, I wish I had your, no, you need to get it. You need to do it. You need to fix it. And you know what, I'm not saying that I have everything fixed in my life. I've fixed a lot of things recently in my life, and I plan on fixing more next week, and I plan on several months from now looking in the mirror once again and figuring out what's wrong and fixing it. Nobody's perfect, I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, and we can all make changes in our life. The question for you is this, what specific change are you going to make tonight? What specific, and I don't need an answer, but in your mind, you better decide, and you know what, maybe some of the things I brought up in the sermon, you already have those down pat. I mean, there are a lot of people in here who do plenty of Bible reading, but how's their prayer? There may be people in here that do plenty of praying, but how's their soul winning? There may be people in here who are very good about Bible reading, prayer, and soul winning, but they have a bad thought life. And look, I'm telling you, everybody in here, one of the areas I brought up could use work. I mean, I don't think there's anybody in here who has a perfect marriage, perfect Bible reading, perfect prayer life, perfect soul winning record, perfect thought life, I mean nobody's perfect, and look, you know what it is that God's speaking to you about the most right now in your life. You know what it is that you've heard tonight from the Word that kind of pricked you and you kind of, oh man, that is something I need to work on, or wow, I really need that. That's an area where you need to make a change now. I talked about some of the things that I did to improve my marriage. That's me as the husband. You say, well, I'm a wife, and I hear this all the time about wives complaining about their husbands, and I'm sick. You know what? No wife should ever complain about their husband to another person, period. That's wicked, and no husband should complain about his wife to someone else. I mean, how wicked is that if I'm going to go around telling people what's wrong with my wife, and my wife's going to go around telling everybody what's wrong with me, and you don't think we could do that? I mean, you don't think I know what's wrong with my wife, and you don't think she knows what's wrong with me when we've lived together for 12 and a half years, but you know what? That is so wrong. That is such a backbiting thing to do. You should never do that, but you know what? So many wives today will do this, and husbands, don't get me wrong, it goes both ways, but so many wives will go out and say, you know, my husband just won't lead. He just won't take the reins. He just will not be a leader. He just will not take charge, and you know what? I look at these people, and I see that they always think it's the other person's fault. Or husbands look at their wife, and it's all her fault. She just won't follow. She just won't submit. My husband doesn't love me, or my wife doesn't love me. They always want to blame the other person, but you know what I would say? If you're a wife, and you say, I want my husband to be the leader. I want my husband to take charge. You know what, you need to start being more submissive to your husband, and then he'll step into that role, because frankly, in 2013, the reason a lot of husbands are not leading is because they're sick of you not following, and then they've been rejected so many times that they start to give up, and let me tell you something. As a wife, if you want to do something to fix your marriage, let me give you some advice to fix your marriage, oh, thou wife. Here's what you can do to fix your marriage. Why don't you pick something concrete, instead of just like, yeah, I need to be more submissive. Why don't you just think of something concrete that you know that you do every day or every week that your husband doesn't like, and decide, you know what, I'm going to stop doing that. You know what, a lot of husbands don't always tell their wife, hey, don't do this. A lot of them just say, you know what, I don't like it when you do that, or I'd rather you didn't do that, or I would prefer it if you didn't do that, but you know what, you as a wife, you know what your husband doesn't want you to do, and yet you do it again and again, right? So here's a specific thing you could change. You could say, you know what, here's that thing I'm thinking of that my husband doesn't like me doing, I'm going to quit doing it right now. And you know, when your husband sees you quit doing that, he's going to be so happy, he's probably going to love you more, he's probably going to be, you know, he's probably going to start leading in other areas, he's going to be a better husband. And you know the other thing, you're a husband, and you know, you could start basically taking charge in your home in one area at a time, and making new rules and new changes about the way you run your home to fix things. Or you know, maybe you're not a loving enough husband. Maybe you could say, you know, I'm going to write my wife a note every day, or every week, or at this time I'm going to send her an email, or send her a text message, whatever it is, I'm going to buy flowers on Fridays, or whatever it is. And everybody's different, I'm not telling you how to do it, okay? Because everybody's different, but you need to do something to fix that problem, if that's the problem. If Bible reading's the problem, do something to fix it. If prayer's the problem, do something to fix it. Quit just sitting around and just failing again and again, fix the problem. You're hearing the Word every week. You're hearing it Sunday morning, you're hearing it Sunday night, you're hearing it Wednesday night. Why is nothing changing? Because you're forgetting what you've heard. Because you're not immediately taking action. And I challenge every single person in this room to pick one area that I mentioned and immediately put it into action, immediately. Just decide right now, here's the change I'm going to make, I'm going to do it right now, I'm going to do it tomorrow morning, I'm going to do it tonight. And you know what? It'll get done. And long after you forget this sermon, those changes will still be in place. Because you will now be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your Word, dear God, and thank you for your wisdom that we would all do well to take heed to. None of us is perfect. I'm not perfect. I am far from perfect. But Father, help me to take decisive action in the areas that I find myself lacking. Help me as I read the Word of God to figure out, you know, what I'm doing wrong in different areas of life so that I can make the changes necessary.