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...our hearts through the power of your word this morning and help us to have our lives changed in the service so that we would come out of the service today more like you wanting to live for you more. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now my text verse is found in your Bible there, if you were just looking at it, in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse number 9 and most notably in this latter part of the verse where Paul says most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Did you catch that? He says I'll glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Now I want to preach to you on this subject the power of God upon you, the power of God upon you. Okay, what does that mean to have the power of God on your life? Well let's look at it. Now we're going to be looking at five different chapters, just excerpts from five different chapters. We just looked at two of them, 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And these five chapters deal with one particular subject and that subject is suffering, suffering. Now whenever I've read these five chapters, and these are all written by the Apostle Paul in the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians, these always got my attention. You ever read the Bible and something just grips you, something just arrests your attention and so you find something just fascinating and just interesting. And that's the way I've always been about these five chapters, they've just compelled me. And as I read through these five chapters and I was looking at these and I was just, I didn't really know how to put into words what I understood from these chapters, but then I saw something as I was looking at these five chapters. I saw a common thread that all of these chapters about suffering had in common. They all mentioned this phrase about having the power of God upon you, or the power of God working through your life, or the power of God resting upon you. And I saw that and it got my attention even more and I started looking through here. For some reason, God has associated the suffering that we go through in our Christian lives. The suffering that all of us face, especially if we're living for God, the sufferings that we go through have been associated in the Bible with having God's power working in and through our life. Well, let me show you. Look if you would at 2 Corinthians chapter 11 where we just were and I'm going to go through these scriptures. Look at verse number 22, or I'm sorry verse, let's see here, verse number 23. It says right here in 2 Corinthians 11, 23, he says, in labor is more abundant. He's talking about his own life. He said, I worked harder than any of the other apostles, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in debts off. He's saying, look, I've spent more time in prison than any other preacher I've ever heard about is what Paul's saying. He's saying, I've been, had stripes, I've been beaten so many times I can't even remember. I mean, it's above measure. I can't even count how many times I've been whipped. He's saying, he says of the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes, save one. So five different times the apostle Paul was beaten by the Jews 39 times, just like Jesus was beaten before he died on the cross. Paul went through that five times, thrice was I beaten with rods. Look at verse number 25. Once was I stoned. This was when he was outside the city of Lystra and the Jews who hated him and who envied him, they took rocks and they actually stoned him to death and they thought he was dead so they left, but he was still alive. He got up and walked back into town and some of the brethren there helped him out and nursed him back to health and so forth. He says a night and a day, he said thrice I suffered shipwreck. Three times the apostle Paul was in a ship that shipwrecked where he was thrown out of the boat and had to find a way to get to land on some driftwood or whatever. It says here a night and a day have I been in the deep. I mean he spent a whole day and a night, like a 24 hour period, just out in the water from one of these shipwrecks. Just floating around on some piece of driftwood out in the cold water, suffering out there. I mean listen to this litany of stuff that he's been through. He says in journeys often, he says I was always traveling in perils of waters, peril means danger, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. In weariness, look at verse 27. Weariness means he was tired. He says I was tired, constantly tired. In painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Now look at what this man went through, Paul. Now you think of the Apostle Paul, most people are just thinking of the victory. I mean they're thinking of him preaching the great messages. They're thinking of him starting just scores of churches. I mean this man went all over Europe and Asia, starting churches, preaching the gospel, getting people saved. At one point in his life he could look back and say I have preached the gospel to everyone in Asia. He said everybody's heard the gospel in Asia because I made sure that everybody heard the gospel in Asia. This is a phenomenal man unlike no other, but here we're seeing another side of his life, some of the sufferings that he went through. Now look he was tired. You say this was a real person. This wasn't just some mythical character, the Apostle Paul, he said no look I'm just like you. He said I got tired. He said I'm like you, I experienced pain. There were times when I was very uncomfortable. There were times when I was very cold. Now we live in Arizona, so maybe that doesn't really get us as much, but you know he could probably just as well have said there were times when it was hot. And I still went to church. I still went soul winning when it was hot, when it was uncomfortable. You see, what we see from reading about the Apostle Paul here is that being a sold out Christian, being a Christian that's on fire for God, being a Christian that gives the Lord a hundred percent, he's not going to be a bed of roses. This isn't like the preacher that you saw on television that said if you put your hand on the screen I'll heal you of any sickness that you have. If you send me a hundred dollars then God's going to send you a thousand and then you send me a thousand and God's going to send you a hundred thousand and you're never going to get sick again. You're going to live to be a hundred and thirty years old and you're going to have all the money and the wealth. Look that's a bunch of garbage. God says here that the greatest man, the greatest Christian who ever lived, the man who God blessed more than any other man, you say blessed? Blessed by being hungry? Blessed by being tired? Blessed by being in pain? Look if you want the power of God to rest upon you, you're going to have to go through some suffering in life. Let's face it, now you say why would I want the power of God upon me? Why would I want, as it said in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 where we just read, the power of Christ to rest upon me? Why would I want that? Well let me ask you something, do you want your kids to turn out right for the glory of God? You're going to need the power of God to do that because it's not going to be done in the flesh. You look at the world and let's face it, let's go down to the public school and let's see how good a job the world is doing with their kids. We'll see all the gang bangers, we'll see all the punks, we'll see all the colored spiked out hairdo and piercings all over their face mutilating their body, we'll see all the wickedness and the ungodliness produced by people raising their kids apart from God. That's why you need the power of God because to raise kids in our day, in our wicked society that we live in, you're going to need the power of God and let me tell you something, it can be done. You can raise your kids to serve God. The God said you may make your children princes the Bible says, it's up to you to do it, that's in Psalm 45 and so God says you must raise your children for the glory of God but you're going to need the power of God to do that. You say why else would I need the power of God? Well when you go out soul winning, do you want to be a door knocker or do you want to be a soul winner? Do you want to be some kind of an inviter to church-er? Do you want to be some kind of a, just spinning your wheels and ringing the doorbell? Because let me tell you something, God is the one that saves people. The Holy Ghost is the one who regenerates people and if you don't have the power of God upon you while you're out soul winning, you can't get anybody saved in the flesh. Get some unsaved guy out there and he could go tell people about Jesus, he's not going to get anybody saved because in order to get people saved, you've got to have the power of God upon you. You say why else would I need the power of God? Well look, do you want to be used of God like Paul? Do you want to be a great man of God or a great woman of God or do you want to just be average and mediocre like everybody else? Well look, Paul said the power of Christ rests upon me and let me tell you why it rests upon me. That's why you want to have the power of God on your life. Well I just don't want to live the boring, plain Jane kind of Christian life that is just totally apart from the supernatural. I want to live a life where I see God step in supernaturally. You say well Pastor Anderson, are you talking about some light appearing to you and some audible voice speaking to you? No I'm not talking about that at all. I have no desire, you know, I have no desire to have some voice come talk to me because I got the whole thing right, I got the whole voice of God right here. If I want to know what God says, I got it in the King James Bible right here. I can pick it up and read it whenever I want and I do that. But I'm talking about where I pray to God and God answers my prayer. That's what I want. I'm talking about where I pray for God to do something and he doesn't. I'm not talking about some kind of a spooky experience. I'm talking about where I go out soul winning and people get saved. I'm talking about where people in my family, I went into the Lord and they get baptized and live for God. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about where my friends at work get saved and live for God. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about seeing something supernatural, the hard case, the guy who nobody believed would get saved. I want to see him get saved and then I want to see his life change and then I want to see him become a soul winner. That's the kind of supernatural things I want. Where everybody steps back and says you know what, God did that. You see that's where I'm talking about the power of God. The power of God is not some service where we get together and have a Christian rock band and we all just felt the spirit move. Every time I feel the spirit, no I'm talking about something that's real. I'm not talking about where you go home and boy that was fun and exciting and then the next day you go back and you're watching Frazier and Seinfeld and Friends and cutting up with your friends at work and all the filthy jokes. I'm talking about something where you are a sold out Christian for God, where you get people saved who live for God, who fight for God and who love God. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the power of Christ resting upon you. See in the flesh we can do nothing. Jesus said without me you can do nothing. He said I'm the vine and you're the branches. He says if you abide in me you're going to bring forth a lot of fruit. He says without me you can do nothing. Well skip down if you would in the passage there to 2 Corinthians 12.7 and I want to show you something. In 2 Corinthians 12.7 the Bible says, and lest I should be exalted above measure. So here he's going to give us the reason why Paul went through some of these sufferings. Part of the reason why Paul went through some of the terrible things that he went through, well it tells us right here in verse number 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. The messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. He said just to keep me humble, just to keep me from being exalted above measure, just to keep people from worshipping me and thinking that I was wonderful and me thinking that I was wonderful and getting puffed up and prideful. He said God gave me a thorn in the flesh. Let me tell you something. There is always, always going to be a thorn in your flesh, period. You say well everything in my life is going great except just this one thing. And if I could just get this one thing, and you know a lot of times it's finances. You know everything's going great, but just man my finances are just in the drain. Or boy my finances are right, everything's going well, it's just this health problem that I deal with, or man you know everything's going great except just this terrible marriage I'm in. And you could go on and on down the line, but look everybody has a thorn in the flesh. I can tell you something, from my experience in the Christian life, you will never have all your ducks in a row, ever. It's never going to happen. You're never going to come to the place where you say my health is right, my finances are right, my kids are right, my schedule's right, my job is right, everything's going great. It's never going to happen. And I've found that when you get rid of one thorn in the flesh, you know what comes? The next one is right there. You say man I'm just about to turn the corner financially, boom the next thing comes up. You say why? Why is that? I'll tell you why. Because if we had all our ducks in a row, if everything was going smoothly, if the bank account was full, and our health was great, and our family was great, and our marriage was great, and our church was great, everything was great, you know what we'd do? We'd just start taking it easy. We'd just get laid back, we'd relax, we'd quit praying to God, we'd feel like well we don't need God right now. And we'd start just living it up man, and we'd get comfortable and complacent. And so God says I have to just keep you under just a little bit of pressure so that you don't get too high and mighty. He says look, it's not my fault, you're the one that would get high and mighty if I didn't give you the thorn in the flesh, and so sometimes God just has to keep us under just a little more pressure than we like to be under, just to keep us sharp, just to keep us on our toes. And that's what God does. He puts that thorn in our flesh. So don't live your life trying to say I'm just trying to get everything squared away. I just got to get everything just lined out exactly the way I want it to be. It's never going to happen. You say well, and then once I get it all set up, then I'm going to live for God. You'll never live for God then, if that's your mentality, because you're never going to have it set up. You say but my marriage is terrible. Listen, while your marriage is terrible, win people to Christ, be a soul winner. You say my finances are all messed up, hey while your finances are messed up, raise kids for the glory of God and send them out as preachers and soul winners. You say but my health is terrible, hey listen, while your health is terrible, win somebody to Christ. You say but I'm just down and depressed, why don't you bring somebody else a little joy if you're down and depressed, and don't worry about getting all your ducks in a row. Your ducks will never be in a row, and you'll never do anything for God. And when you're just constantly trying to take care of yourself and yourself, it's never going to happen. God wants you to have a little bit of a thorn in the flesh. Let's face it. Paul says here, I asked God three times to take it away from me, and he said no. Look what he said in the next verse, in verse number nine. He said, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. He says, God says, you know when my strength can really do the most? You say, when can my power rest upon you the mightiest, is when you're weak. Because here's why. Think about it. Let's say I was talented, or let's say I just had it all together, man, and I had all my ducks in a row, and I was smooth and sharp and eloquent and just debonair and everything, okay? And then let's say God used me to do something great for God. Well, you know what people would say? People would say, well yeah, I mean, look at this guy. He's got all this talent. He's got all this ability. Would God get the glory in that case? No. God wouldn't get the glory. Man would get the glory. But when God takes somebody who's maybe the least likely candidate, when God takes somebody who's weak, when God takes somebody who doesn't have the talent, when God takes somebody who doesn't have all their ducks in a row, and he uses them in a mighty way for God, then that's when he gets all the glory. When he takes an apostle Paul, who's a man who does not have a lot of things going for him, who's an ungodly man, and when he takes him and uses him as the greatest preacher in the New Testament, he gets the glory for that because his strength is made perfect in weakness. That's why God's power can rest upon you through sometimes the hard times, through the suffering, through the trials. And then he even takes it a step further, and he says, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, if my infirmities, if my problems, if my illnesses, if my sufferings, if my persecutions, if my financial problems, if my marriage problems, if that is what I have to go through in order to have the power of Christ rest upon me, he says, I'll gladly make that exchange. I'll gladly suffer if it'll mean that I have God's power on my life. I'll gladly suffer if I can make my kiss turn out right. I'll gladly suffer and endure suffering if I can be a soul winner that wins people to Christ, that sees the victory and sees people saved. It's not even a question. A little bit of suffering to have God's power on my life any day of the week. And that was Paul's attitude. And that's why God said, okay, I'll take you up on that, Paul. Here's a whole lot of suffering, and here's a whole lot of power of God in your life. And that's, that's the life that Paul lived. So number one, the first reason why we have to suffer in order to have God's power resting on us is because if we don't suffer at all, we'll get too comfortable, we'll get too laid back. But number two is that God can only give you your power, give you his power if you're humble enough to receive it, because then you're going to give him the glory and not take the credit and the accolades yourself because of some kind of talent or ability that you have. Now, humility is one of the biggest things in the Christian life, humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God so that he can lift you up. And so unless you get in your mind that it's not you, it's the power of God that can get anything done. God can't give you his power because he doesn't want you to abuse his power and take credit for the glory yourself. You know, think about how people try to take credit for salvation, right? Think about it. Everybody throughout mankind has always been trying to take credit for their salvation. They try to mix in some kind of work salvation and say, well, I'm going to heaven. Yes, I believe in Jesus, but I also live a pretty good life, but I also go to church. And they're trying to somehow get some of the glory for their salvation. And they're trying to get some of the credit like it's something that they did. Or they'll say, man, I used to live this wicked life, but I turned away from my sins and now I'm trusting Jesus Christ. And they're trying, they're just trying to work in some kind of way where they can take credit for their salvation, where it's something that they gave up or something that they used to do that they don't do or something that they didn't do. And now they do it. Listen, my friend to God be the glory, great things he had done. It's through salvation. It's through Jesus Christ. By the faith of Jesus Christ, we're justified alone. No baptism, no turning over a new leaf, no living a good life, no church attendance, nothing like that can get you to heaven, my friend. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I got out this old Bible and this Bible's a little bit beat up here as you can see. Okay. This Bible's messed up. Now I got this Bible, it has a date in it. I got this Bible July 28th, 2005, so I got this about 10 months ago. And this is the Bible that I used until about three or four months ago. This is my soul winning Bible. This is the Bible that I went out soul winning with for the first several months I was here in town and for several months where I used to live. And so I was looking through this Bible and I was seeing just, you know, names and addresses of different people that I've won to the Lord or people that we were picking up for church. Little notes in here that says, you know, to bring a shirt and tie for this guy that was coming to church. He wanted to wear a shirt and tie to church and I was just looking through just lists of names of people that I've won to the Lord and different phone numbers and addresses of different people that were coming to church and everything. And I got out my soul winning Bible that I've been soul winning with and I opened it up and I opened up to three books of the Bible, John, Acts, and Romans. I mean those are just the soul winning books of the Bible to me. Those are just the trilogy right there. John, Acts, and Romans. I got out my Bible and I just got out the concordance and just looked up the word believe and I just started just highlighting every verse that said believe or believed or believeth. And I went through here and highlighted this and it was like, can you all see that? How much it's highlighted? That's only the verses that say believe, believe, believeth. And I just went through just going through these soul winning books of the Bible. Just look at all that highlight. Hardly a page. This is where Jesus gets crucified. That's why that page doesn't have much. Hardly a page that's not just filled with highlighting because the Bible is constantly trying to affirm to us, look friend, you're going to heaven by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now let me, let me teach you something also. The word faith and the word believe are the same word because here's the thing. The word belief is a noun, right? B-E-L-I-E-F is a noun. Believeth is a verb. The word belief is only used in the Bible one time. And the reason for that is because the word faith is the noun for believe. You'll see this all throughout the Bible. Faith is the exact noun of the word believe. There's no, there's no verb for faith. There's the verb is believe. The Bible talks about having faith sometimes, but the only reason that it uses belief one time is because if you put faith in there, it wouldn't really make sense grammatically. And so God uses these two words interchangeably. And so I was looking through this and let me just read you. I was, man, I was shouting. That's how I looked through these. I highlighted, first I just highlighted them all and then I just started reading them. And I came unglued. I mean, I was like, glory to God. I was so excited as I read this. Let me just read you a few. And I didn't really plan out which ones I was going to read, but this is just some of these verses that I saw about believing on Jesus Christ. And I just love this first one obviously. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. He said, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned. Hallelujah. You say, but Pastor Anderson, haven't you sinned, haven't you done so much wrong in your life? But I'm not condemned because I believe. And then he says, but he that believeth not is condemned already. Why? Because he's not believed on the name of the only begotten son of God. That's why he's condemned, because he doesn't believe on Jesus Christ. Not because of his bad life, because he's not believed on the name of the son of God. Verse 36, he that believeth on the son of half everlasting life, glory. And he that believeth not the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Let's see, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. How about this one? And he have not his word abiding in you, for whom he hath sent, him you believe not. He said, here's your problem, unsaved crowd, you don't believe on Jesus Christ. He said, you don't have his word abiding in you, because you don't believe him that God has sent. It's not because of the beer in your hand. It's not because of the drugs that you consume. It's because you've not believed on Jesus Christ. Let me go on here. How about this one? And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone, everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. Everyone that believeth. Not those who are good enough, not those who live the good life. Everyone that believeth. Verse 47, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me has everlasting life. It's like, man, God, why are you being so repetitive? I mean, I get the idea. I just have to believe on Jesus to be saved. He says, well, a lot of people don't believe that, so we've got to be repetitive. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, this spake he of the spirit, which they that believe on him should afterward receive, which they that believe on him should afterward receive. And then it says here, I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins. This is Jesus preaching. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins. So I think we can establish two things from this. Is that number one, believing on Jesus Christ is what saves you, and number two, not believing on Jesus Christ is why people die in their sins, because they don't believe on Jesus. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when they found him, he said unto him, just one sentence, dost thou believe on the son of God? That's the only thing he asked of them, and he said, Lord, I believe. Jesus answered them, I told you and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Wow, what a promise. See here, and if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him. Let's see here, on and on, and you can go on and on, there's just a ton of them, I'm just kind of hitting the highlights. It's like about the Holy Ghost coming into the world, and when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, why? Because they believe not in me, that's the whole verse. John 16, 9, on and on here, I'm skipping a lot of these just for time. It says, and he that saw it bear record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true that you might believe. And so on and on, you go through the book of John here, and I was just reading about, you know, this very small portion of these. On and on, read the book of John, God is just hammering to you, the prerequisite for going to heaven, aside from what the Catholic Church may tell you, aside from what the Charismatics may tell you, aside from what a lot of Baptists will tell you, the prerequisite for salvation is believing. On and on it goes throughout the Bible. But then I want to read you just a few from the book of Acts and Romans quickly, and I'll move on from this. How about this one? To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. You say, what if they keep sinning? Well what's it say? It says, through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. It says that sins will be forgiven as long as they believe in Jesus Christ. Well, it says here, and by him all that believe, you say, what about the guy who keeps on sinning after he believes? And by him all that believe, well what about this guy, he doesn't live right? And by him all that believe, what about the guy that still drinks? And by him all that believe, what about the guy who isn't willing to stop living and sin with his girlfriend? And by him all that believe are justified, and from all things, wait, from what I'm saying, justification? From all things. From alcohol? From all things. All things, that's clear. From which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. That's by not doing the things that God told you not to do in the book of Moses, and by doing the things that he told you to do, he said, that won't justify you. But all that believe will be justified of all things. On and on it goes, of course, Acts 16, 31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved, on and on. And then into the Romans real quick, I'm just going to read a few out of Romans here that I saw. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference, all them that believe, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And on and on the list goes. And all that to illustrate this. You see this Bible right here that I went out so early that it's falling apart in my hands. This Bible has preached that Gospel to hundreds of people who have bowed their heads and prayed and received Christ as Savior. Don't tell me that that's not what gets people to heaven because I used that Bible for years to win people to Christ and I've been preaching that Gospel since I got saved when I was six years old. And that's the Gospel I'm going to preach until I die. Don't tell me that that's not what gets people to heaven because believing on Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Don't tell me that somebody's not saved because they don't turn their life around. Yeah, you're right. Some people say that they got saved. They pray and say they got saved and they're not really saved. They're a liar and they're going to go to hell if they say that. But I'm going to tell you something. If anybody goes to hell, it's because they didn't believe. It's not because they didn't give up their sins. It's not because they didn't get willing to get baptized and go to church. And anybody who preaches that is a heretic out of hell. Anybody who preaches that somebody has to give up their sins to go to heaven is a heretic out of hell because they might as well go join the Roman Catholic Church down the street. I'm going to tell you something. I knock up and down these doors in this city and you know what they say? We're Catholic. No thanks. Slam the door in my face and you know what? I love those people. I don't want those people to go to hell. I wish that they'd just give me a chance to just open my Bible, that old beat up Bible, and just show them where the Bible says if they believe on Jesus they'd be saved. I wish they'd just let them show me that. Because then a lot of people, they would just see that and understand that they'd get saved. But Baptists all over America are going the way of the mother whore Roman Catholic Church and they're going around telling people you've got to be willing to give up your sins to go to heaven. Well, why don't they confess their sins to you like you're the priest also? Why don't they go perform the sacraments to go to heaven, Mr. Work's salvation? Because my Bible says that Jesus is the justifier of everyone that believeth. And if that's not true, then I'm going to throw my Bible in the trash can. I'm going to go make money with my life. I'm going to go have fun, man. I'm going to go live it up. But if Jesus Christ is the justifier of everyone that believeth, then praise God, I'm going to be a soul winner till I die. And that's what I'm going to do. You say, man, I'm not used to this kind of radical preaching. Well, I'm just trying to emphasize something that God emphasized in a Bible that I highlighted half the pages of. Because God emphasized this thing of believing on Jesus Christ. And you say, well, I just don't see it. I just don't get it. Look, let me explain something to you. If you don't see what I just showed you where I just read 40 verses from the Bible that say that believing on Jesus is what gets you to heaven, then you need to get saved if you don't see that. I'm serious. I mean, if you don't see that believing on Jesus Christ is what saves you, this is what the Bible says. He that is of God heareth God's words. You, therefore, hear them not because you're not of God. And if the Bible says that it's by believing in Jesus Christ, you've got to say, that's what I believe. And if you don't believe that, then you're not saved because that's what the Bible says. But on from that point, turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. I'm going to finish up the message here. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 4 and look at verse number 9. 1 Corinthians 4, 9, the Bible reads, For I think that God hath set us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We're weak, but you're strong. See, he's saying this kind of tongue-in-cheek if you read this. You're honorable, but we are despised. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, look, yeah, the world makes fun of us. That's what he's saying. He says, yeah, we're a reproach of Christ. He says, we're a spectacle to the whole world. He says, the whole world looks at us and says, you idiot. You believe that salvation's by grace through faith? Keep in mind, you mean to tell me that somebody can just be saved just by believing in Jesus? That's stupid. That's ridiculous. Yeah, you know, we're a spectacle. You know what Paul said in the book of Galatians? He said, if I preached that people had to be circumcised in order to go to heaven, he said, the Jews wouldn't beat me anymore. That's what he said. Read the book of Galatians. He said, if I preached circumcision, then the reproach of Christ would cease. He said, do you think the Jews would take me out and beat me 39 times if I was preaching that people had to be circumcised and believe in Jesus? If I preached that they had to keep the Bible and believe in Jesus? He said, they wouldn't have beaten me all those times. He said, don't you think I got sick of being beat up sometimes? Don't you think I got sick of somebody hitting me with a stick 39 times? Don't you think I got sick of being thrown in prison and made fun of and ridiculed? He said, yeah, I could be like you. He's saying here, he's saying, look, I'm sorry I lost my place, but he says, look, we're fools, but you're wise. We're weak. You're strong. We're despised. You're honorable. He said, the world loves you, man. The world loves you because you don't preach the gospel, and the world loves you because you're of the world, and the world hates us because we're of God. He's saying, look, any time I wanted to, I could just start preaching work salvation. I could just start preaching that people have to be circumcised in order to go to heaven, and you know what? He said, the world would love me. The Jews would love me. The Jews would accept me, but he says, no. He says, under this present hour, he's saying all the way up to right now, he says, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted. He said people beat us up and have no certain dwelling place. He said, I don't even know where I'm going to sleep tonight, and labor working with our own hands. Look at verse number 12 of 1 Corinthians 4. Being reviled, that's when somebody mocks you and tells you off. He says, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world. Wow, can you believe that? I mean, listen to these words that he's using. And are they off scouring of all things unto this day. He says, you know what, to this present day, he says people don't respect him. He says he's like the filth of the world to them. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. And then go down to verse 19, and I want to show you the correlation here. But I will come to you shortly if the Lord will and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. He's saying, look, yes, I'm mocked. Yes, I'm beaten. Yes, I'm spat upon. Yes, I'm hungry and cold and naked. But he said, you know what? He said, I've got the power of God. How are you doing? That's what he's saying to them. He said, I've got the power of God in my life, and I want to see the power of those who are preaching this other gospel, who are fighting against us. Well, turn, if you would, just a few more passages and we'll be done. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 quickly. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And look at verse number 3, if you would. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse number 3. The Bible says, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. But who did he blind? Them that believe not. Oh, okay. Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And this verse is very special to me. Look at verse number 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. So you look at the context here. Verse number 3, he's talking about our gospel being hid to the lost. He's talking about winning people to Christ. He's talking about preaching the gospel to people who have been blinded. He's talking about shining the light of the glorious gospel to those that need to be saved. But in verse number 7, he says, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. He says our power to win souls is not us. It's not our suave presentation. It's not our fancy Bible and our fancy clothing and our breath mints. He says no, it's the power of God if anybody gets saved. And let me tell you what I do. When I was in Chicago, I had a buddy that I went soul winning with. His name was Brother Reggie. And me and Brother Reggie would go soul winning and we'd pray together and go soul winning. And I remember I said to Brother Reggie, I said, I want this verse to be our theme verse, 2 Corinthians 4-7. I said, I want this verse to be our soul winning verse. And I said, every time we get together and go soul winning, let's read this verse. And so that's what we did, I mean, for years. We would get together and we'd read this verse. But we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. And to this day, every time I go soul winning, if I go soul winning by myself, which is about 90% of the time, just this week, every time I went soul winning this week, I sat in the car, I prayed to God, I got my tracks together and I got ready to go, and I prayed this verse. I just quote this verse every time for years. I say, but we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. It's not us. It's God that wins these people to Christ. It's God's power that I need. And I've used the illustration before about how when I first went out soul winning, I've seen no results for years. And then I started to clean up some of the things in my life and I started to see God open up the door so you're talking to somebody who knows that it's God and not us. My friend, Brother Reggie, he told me a story. He said when he first went to college, he went to, they put him on a bus route and he ended up being made the bus captain. And he was doing a bus route, like bringing people to church and kind of a low income area he was going to and they were filling up buses and bringing people to church. Well, he went there and he was just consistently just having maybe like five people on his bus. I mean, he's got a big giant bus, like 66 passenger bus. Everybody else is filling their bus with kids and it's exciting and fun. And his bus route just had like five or six people on it, just week after week after week. So a guy from North Carolina came to college and started to work on his bus route with him and just the same thing. And he told this guy, he told me this, he said he took this guy from North Carolina aside and he said, you know what? He said, look, you came here to college because you wanted to learn how to have a big ministry or how to build a church or whatever. And he said, you know what? I don't think you're going to get what you came for, you know, working on my bus route because I'm really failing at this. And maybe you should go on somebody else's bus route who's having more success. And the guy from North Carolina just said, you know, I think I'm just going to stick with you. You know, I think I'm just going to stay with this thing and we'll see something happen. And just on and on, nothing was happening. And then finally Brother Reggie just got to the point, and this was a close friend of mine, he got to the point where he just said, you know what? God, he got on his knees and his couch in his house and he said, you know what, God? He said, maybe you don't even want me in the ministry. You know, maybe you just obviously don't even want to bless me. Maybe you just don't want to do anything with me because I'm just not seeing anything happen and it's like you're not using me. And he just came to the point where he just said, I'm through with this. This is not going to work. I'm just going to go back to the world. He said, obviously you don't want to use me. And something just came into his mind. He said he just had kind of a weird thought. Something just came into his mind, just these two words. He said, I just thought about something, about a supernatural bus route, like something where God did something. And boy, the next week I think he said he had like 13 people show up on his bus, which was a lot for him. You know, he was like, wow. And boy, it just started growing. And within a month his bus was just filled up. And from then on his bus was one of the bigger bus routes in the church, just always packed, just a lot of success. A lot of people started coming and working on his bus route because he was having a lot of success. And I think what God was trying to show him was the same thing that God was trying to show me in my early days of soul winning. And I think what God was trying to show him is saying, look, I'm going to make you go through something for a little while where you fail and fail and fail and fail, not because I want you to fail, but because I'm going to teach you something, Brother Reggie, for the rest of your life that you're never going to forget for the rest of your life, is that it's not you that does it, Reggie. It's God that does it. It's the power of God. And without me you can do nothing. He says, let me just, it's not anything that you're doing wrong, but let me just let you just do it by yourself for a while because I want you to know that it's me. And I'll guarantee you, I will never think that it's me. And I never think that it's not God that does anything, that getting people saved, the power of God, seeing things happen, I'll never think it's me. And Brother Reggie will never think it's him because we've been there. We know what it's like to be barren and bear not. But look at verse number 8, and I'll close, 2 Corinthians 4-8. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. Now flip the page over just one chapter to 2 Corinthians 6. Flip over the page, 2 Corinthians 6. He goes, I'll skip some of this for the sake of time, but he goes again through this litany of things that he's been through. Verse number 5, in stripes, that's beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings and fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God. And he goes on and on, but look at that verse, number 10. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. That's the thought that I want to close on. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. You see, the Christian life is a life of, it's kind of a dichotomy. There's kind of a dual nature to it, of yes, we're sorrowful, but we're always rejoicing. He says, yes, we're poor, but we're making many rich. We have nothing, but we possess all things. He's saying, look, the Christian life is a life where you suffer, but God's power rests upon you. Now you say, well, that's not the way my life is. Well, I'm talking about a sold-out Christian life, where you're in the fight for God, where you're winning people to Christ, where you're doing something for God. He says, these are the two things that you're going to find. You're going to find sorrow and suffering. You're going to find hard times. You're going to find trials. You're going to find battles. But he says, you're going to be sorrowful, but always rejoicing. He says, you're going to be poor, but you're going to be making others rich. And so, yes, in the Christian life, when you go through sorrow, you can respond to that sorrow. You can respond to that thorn that God has put in your flesh and say, you know what, God, you've put this thorn in my flesh, and so I'm going to not do anything for God. I'm going to roll over and die. Or you can say, God, thank you for the thorn in my flesh. Thank you for giving me sorrow. Thank you for putting me under pressure. Thank you for pushing me to my limits, God, because thank you that I can have the power of Christ rest upon me. Thank you that I can be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. See, the world, they're not sorrowful. They're eat, drink, and be merry, but they're not rejoicing either. They don't know what the true joy of the Christian life is. They don't know what the joy is to love God and to live for God and to live the Christian life and to be blessed by God and to be used by God to help someone else. The world doesn't know what that's like. The world is, rah, rah, rah, the gang's all here, but the Christian is sorrowful, yes, but always rejoicing. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. God, I thank you so much for the Bible. What an encouragement, dear God.