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

So you're there in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and I want to preach a sermon called a three-fold cord, a three-fold cord. So in verse 8 there, this is where this is brought up and just to kind of give you the context of what it's even talking about when it talks about a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. So in verse 8 there it says, There is one alone, and there is not a second. Yea, he hath neither child nor brother. Yet is there no end of all his labor. Neither is his eye satisfied with riches. Neither saith he, for whom do I labor, and bereave my soul of good. This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat. But how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. Now this is usually brought up at weddings. So who here has heard something about a three-fold cord at a wedding? No one? Okay, alright, thank you. So I've definitely been at a wedding where this is brought up as far as a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. It's broken dealing with marriage. So when you're dealing with marriage, you have the husband, the wife, and God. So that's the whole sermon usually that's going in there. I'm going to get into that a little bit, but that's not the main point of my sermon that I want to get to. But first I want to talk about what is a three-fold cord. Well, if you know about rope, basically most rope is twisted strands of some type of material. Now, there's different types of material that's used as far as steel cables or nylon, different things like that that they use. But typically, even today and back in the day, the most typical twisted rope is a three-strand twisted rope. And you say, well, is it stronger because of that? And I remember this being brought up one time because I'm an engineer, so they ask me, is a three-fold cord stronger than three separate strands that aren't twisted? And the answer is it's actually not stronger. You say, well, why do they twist it then? Well, they twist it because basically if you didn't twist it, all those strands would just kind of go all over the place, meaning that if it wasn't tightened, they would just be flopping all over the place. So the twisting holds it together, and it also makes it more reliable, meaning that the whole purpose, it says, is a three-fold cord. It doesn't say it's stronger than three separate cords. Does that make sense? It says it's not quickly broken. Now, you say, well, okay, but it's not as strong. So basically, for example, if you had three separate strands, and let's say each strand could hold 100 pounds. Let's say you just put 100 pounds on it and tied it up to the ceiling. It could hold 100 pounds. Then you should say, well, a three-fold cord should hold 300 pounds. Well, it doesn't exactly. It actually holds a little less than 300 pounds. And the reason for that, not to get into the engineering too much on it, but what you're doing is when you twist it and you pull it, you're putting friction between them, which is putting an extra force into it than just the tension of the rope. So each strand is taking a little bit of tension, but in the end, that is better than three separate strands. I want to get into that as far as the idea of why a three-fold cord is better, meaning that three together is better than three separate, even though you're a little stronger by yourself. And marriage is, I think, a good place to show this, to explain this, and then I'm going to get into the main point of my sermon. So I go to 1 Corinthians 11, because I remember someone telling me, saying, you're an engineer. You know that a three-fold cord is stronger than three strands, and I didn't have an answer because I never studied that, because I'm not dealing with rope most of the time. And if I am dealing with rope, just give me the capacity. You don't have to do the calculations yourself on all three strands and all the friction and the sheer force compared to the tension and adding it together. So I don't have to figure all that out. What rope are you going to use? What's the maximum tension force that can be put on it, allowable tension force with all the safety factors? All right, good, I'll use that. I'm not in there in the test lab trying to figure this out. So I did study it out, though. After someone brought that to my attention, it's actually, you know, a three-fold cord is a little weaker than three strands that are basically just put the weight on them all together at once, okay, without twisting it. Now, in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 3, it says this. It says, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. Okay, go to Ephesians 5, verse 22. And this is a simple truth, but the idea is that this is why you're not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Okay, when it comes to marriage especially, because the idea of marriage is that you have your wife, you know, as a man, you have your wife, and God is in the midst of that, okay? The union between God, man, and woman, and what is that? It's a three-fold cord, okay? And if you find someone that's an unbeliever, guess what? You don't have God in that equation as much as you would because if you're a believer and then you have an unbeliever as a spouse, then, you know, it's not going to be this three-fold cord, okay, because can two walk together or can two walk together and not be agreed, right? And so, in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 22, it says, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body, okay? And we know that Christ is the head of the man and the man is the head of the wife, okay? So the idea is that you have this umbrella, right? God, man, wife, okay? And that's the three-fold cord. And you say, well, okay, so what's the principle then, you know, as far as, well, why would you be a little weaker if you're married, okay? Well, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Now, ultimately, I believe it's better, okay? He that findeth the wife findeth a good thing. It's not good that the man should be alone, so I'm not here to preach against marriage, okay, or against the idea, the principle of marriage, but what you have to do is you have to sacrifice a little strength to be married, okay? Meaning that what I'm going to get to is that when I was single, I could read more, I could go soul-winding more. I had a lot more time on my hands that I could do for the Lord as a single man. Same thing as a single woman, okay? And this is what the principle that Paul's getting across here, okay, but here's the thing, most people don't fit this bill as far as being able to do this, okay, meaning that the whole chapter starts off saying that you abstain from fornication, you know, basically married. You know, the whole point is that, you know, so that you don't commit fornication, you better get married, okay? But there are some people that can handle not being married and some people that can handle that that's not that big of a, you know, I guess a temptation for them, and Paul was one of those people, okay? Now in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 25, notice what it says, Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. So he's basically not giving a commandment here. He's not saying that this is a commandment of the Lord to stay single, okay? But he's basically saying I have been faithful. He's talking about virgins and he's saying I've been faithful, meaning this is that he's a virgin and he's not married and he's holding faithful to that and he's given his reasons as far as why that would be profitable, okay? Notice what it says. It says, I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress. I say that it is good for a man so to be. Art thou bound unto the wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. So he's basically saying if you're married, you know, you're not going out to get unmarried, okay? And he's basically saying, what his advice or what he's giving here is saying that if you're not married, don't seek a wife, okay? Now this isn't a commandment from the Lord because the Bible says, you know, God is saying be fruitful and multiply and all this, so this is his advice from his own desires that he has and he's saying basically if you could be like me, this is the profitability to that. And notice what it says in verse 28. It says, but if thou marry, thou hast not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh, but I spare you. So he's basically saying if you marry, you're going to have trouble in the flesh, okay? So this is the, you know, this is the weakening, if you will, by getting married, okay? This is the idea of a threefold core. It's not quickly broken but each individual has to give up a little bit of their strength in order for this to work, okay? For a threefold core to work, you have to basically take a little bit of pressure and you have to take a little bit of strength away to deal with, you know, that other part of the core, okay? So notice in the, so he's going to explain it in verse 29. It says, but this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none. What's that talking about? Well, in the resurrection, neither marry nor are given a marriage. So, you know, those that don't want to, you know, that just want to, you know, be married forever, sorry. Sorry, it's just not going to be the case, okay? Now, I'll say this, I'm sure it's going to be great, okay? I'm sure you're not going to be like, man, I wish I could still be married. Now, listen, some of you are like, man, I can't wait for the resurrection. So, no, I'm sure everybody here is just like, yeah, you know, forever. But it's till death do us part is when we're married, okay? Now, I'm not saying you're not going to be friends in heaven. You're not going to still have that special connection, okay? But at the same time, it's not marriage in heaven. So basically what he's saying is that, hey, whether we die, you know, or whether Jesus comes back in our lifetime, it's a short amount of time as far as being married and doing that. So that's his whole argument here, okay? It says in verse 30, it says, and they that weep, as though they wept not, and they that rejoice, as though they rejoice not, and they that buy, as though they possess not, and they that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passes away. So he's basically saying, listen, the things of this life, it's very short, you know, what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. So he's kind of giving that kind of aspect to understand, hey, you know, we only have a short time anyway, and it's going to be soon that that's all going to be done away with anyway. Now, notice what it says in verse 32, because he's going to explain the disadvantage to marriage, okay? Now, I'm going to give you the fact that there's a huge advantage to marriage, but this is something that has to be sacrificed in order to be married, okay? In verse 32, it says, but I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But he that is married cares for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit, and she that is married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. In this I speak for your own profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction, okay? So, what he's basically saying here is that married people are more easily distracted, okay? Because they have a wife to please, right? Or they have a husband to please, okay? And so, I'm not here to preach against marriage because obviously I'm married, and I believe, you know, and I'm glad I got married. But the idea is that, you know, just as much as the engineering that goes into the fact of a three-fold cord and the fact that each strand is a little less capable of handling the actual tensile strength that it could take before, in the end, it's not quickly broken though, okay? Meaning that you sacrifice a little bit of strength, you sacrifice a little bit more of your time, you sacrifice a little bit more of, you know, the things that you could have been doing, but in the end, you together, there's a lot of stability. And basically, if you were to take a, the principle here is this, if you have cords that are twisted together, and let's say one of those is weakened, guess what? The rest of the cords are holding it together, okay? So, if let's say my wife is a little, you know, gets a little weakened at some point, you know, she has a bad day, well, there I am to help her to where she doesn't fall. Same with me, okay? Now, God is always that strand that's not going to be weakened, okay? So, the idea is that if you have God in your marriage, there's no way that that cord can be broken, okay? There's so many avenues I can go with this three-fold cord, and the fact that where the cord is broken, you know, talking about at the end of Ecclesiastes, he's talking about death. Well, if you have God, can that cord be broken when he is life, okay? So, in turn, that cord will never be broken, meaning you'll never die. And there's so many avenues I want to go with that, but what I want to really get to with this sermon. So, you understand that, right, as far as the idea of a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. It's not saying it's stronger than three separate strands together. It's saying that it's not quickly broken, meaning this is that because it's twisted together, because it has that friction together on that, is that if one strand were to weaken, then the rest would hold it, okay? And what's the whole principle of Ecclesiastes 4 talking about? It's basically saying if one fall, the other one's there to pick them up. That's the whole principle, right, is the fact that two are better than one, okay? And this isn't just marriage. I know that passage is used for marriage a lot of times, but this just could be with brothers. Actually, the passage is talking about brothers, right, having children or brothers. And the idea is the fact that, you know, you're walking together with a brother, you know, you're going to be a lot less likely to fall when you have someone else there with you. That's why we go two by two, out-soul winning. Now, is it, can you go by yourself? Sure. But, you know, when you have two people together and the Lord's with you, where two or three are gathered together in my name, you know, this isn't talking about church. It's just talking about life and how you're working there. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. And so there's a lot of principles of that. But what I want to get to is the threefold cord of church. Now, go to 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. I believe there's a threefold cord when it comes to a church that's going to be alive and to be effective for the cause of Christ. A threefold cord, okay. Now, obviously God being in that equation is true, but what I want to get to is that the three things I believe, okay, and you could disagree with me on what those three things would be. I believe hard preaching, sound doctrine, and soul winning. Those are the three things that if you do that in a church, that will not be quickly broken, okay. And I believe this was missing today, and I think that some churches have some of that, right. Because you'll have churches that will have some good doctrine, right, but they don't go soul winning. Or they'll preach hard, but they don't go soul winning. Or they go soul winning, but they don't preach hard, right. Or they go soul winning, but they don't have good doctrine, you know. And you don't want to let any of these slip, okay. Now, if you at least have some of these, you can somehow, you can get by, right. Because if one slips a little bit, the others will hold it together, okay. But I believe these three things, if you have these in your church, it will not be quickly broken. It'll be stable. It'll be held together. And you know what, this is what a lot of churches are missing, okay. A lot of churches are missing all of these, let's be honest. They don't even have a cord. They don't have a strand, right. They don't have hard preaching. They don't have sound doctrine. And they don't go soul winning, right. It's like no soul winning, you know, one Bible verse. And let's just have a prayer and a poem and an illustration. However, okay, prayer is at the end, right. You know, a poem, illustration, and a prayer at the end. No doctrine, no hard preaching, you know, no soul winning. But 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1 here, it says, I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make foolproof of thy ministry. And actually there's those three things that I just mentioned to you in these verses here. What do you have? You have hard preaching at the beginning. Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season. That means when it's popular and when it's unpopular, reprove, rebuke, exhort. Two of those are hard, meaning that a reprove and a rebuke is not something fun, right. Exhortation's fun, right, when I exhort you and try to lift you up and try to do that, right. But a reprove and a rebuke, would anyone say, yeah, I can't wait to get reproved and rebuked at church, okay. But that principle of hard preaching needs to be there. And notice how two of those are negative, one of them's positive. Now I believe in each sermon there should be those in general there a lot of times, meaning that the reprove, the rebuke, and exhort. Now I'm not saying every sermon has to have reprove in it, okay. But in the end, when it comes to even a Bible study, a lot of times we need to have some kind of reproof in there to where we're saying, hey, I need to get this better, right. We need to use this more, okay. If anything, even into a deep document you'd be like, man, I need to know that document more. Get a little bit of rebuke and like, hey, I need to know this more. I don't know as much as I should. Stuff like that, right. Let's go to some verses about hard preaching. So I believe this is a hard preaching church, okay. Now you may say, hey, I've heard harder preachers. Well, that's fine, you know. Everybody's got different personalities and you will find people that preach harder than me, that will yell louder than me. But you know what, a lot of times it's not even the volume. Go to Isaiah 58. Although I do believe in general, when it comes to preaching, you need to not be this monotone person, okay. And the reason for that is because you need to be interesting, okay. You need to catch the ear of people. You need to basically be exciting. And the reason I say not monotone is because if you're monotone, people think that you don't really care about what you're preaching, okay. Now you may actually care in that you may just be struggling with public speaking. But in the end, if you're not excited about it, then why in the world would anybody want to listen to it, okay. If I got up here and be like, well, I got to go through this sermon, but man, I really just don't care. You're going to be like, well, why should we care, right, if you don't care? And you know, and I was talking to brother, I think I was talking to brother Aaron. We were talking about tithing, like preaching on tithing. And I did one sermon on tithing. And I'm just going to be honest with you, it wasn't a sermon that I want to preach because it's not something that I really care like to. But the reason that I was excited about preaching it is because many people in the church had questions. You know, they had questions about, well, do you tithe on a gift? What do you tithe on? You know, is it gross, net? And it was just different questions. And I was excited because I was excited to answer those questions, right. I was excited to give an answer as far as what the Bible teaches on that. Not to be like, hey, it's time to put a thermometer on the wall here. It's time to raise some money for the building. It's time to do this or that. You know, I'm not excited about doing that. And listen, we'll never have a thermometer on the wall that has some building fund or anything like that. If we can't afford it, if we can't just shell out the money and say, hey, here's a check, let me write you a church check today for that, then we're not buying it, okay. And we just bought some equipment and all that stuff. But listen, we have plenty of money to do that, okay. To have, you know, some nicer things so you can hear better, to livestream better, all this other stuff, although that's not working great right now. But I will get that fixed. But the idea is that, go to Isaiah 58, is that you need to be excited about what you're preaching, okay. Even if it's on tithing, you should be excited to preach it and be like, it's a biblical doctrine and I'm excited to preach it even if it's not your favorite subject, okay. But in Isaiah 58, in verse 1 here, it says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sin. So Isaiah was told to cry aloud, spare not, and lift up his voice like a trumpet. Now, I played the trumpet when I was in high school and middle school and all that stuff, played concert, marching band, all that stuff. And it's not a quiet instrument, okay. It's not one of those instruments where you have to work hard to have it be heard outside of all the other instruments, right. The trumpet is one that's very pronounced. It's why, when you're going to war, what are you blowing? What are you sounding off? You're not playing a guitar or a harp, right. Sound off the harp, they're coming, you know. You wouldn't hear any of that, right. The trumpet will peel through everything else, right. It'll peel through all that noise and all the commotion and you'll hear that trumpet, okay. So the idea is the trumpet's very loud. So when you hear that I heard a voice as of a trumpet, the idea is it's a loud noise, right. It's very pronounced, loud noise, okay. And so the idea of preaching against sin, okay, this is what I mean by harp preaching, okay. Not necessarily how loud you're preaching, although I think you should get a little excited about sin, you know, as far as like getting excited about hating sin and preaching against it and all that stuff. But the idea of preaching against sin, okay, rebuking sin, reproving sin and, you know, preaching against that. And you know what, churches that don't have harp preaching on that end up getting into more sin, okay. Because a lot of times people don't even know that there's certain things that are sins. It's just not taught, okay. And so the idea is that it needs to be hit. But here's the thing, a lot of you know that fornication is wrong. A lot of you know adultery is wrong. A lot of you know a lot of these things like stealing, lying, you know, covetousness, all this stuff is wrong, but it needs to be reminded over and over and over again. You know what, there's sermons that I hear that I'll listen to and I'm like, man, I need to hear that again. And it wasn't like, man, I found a nugget of a truth that covetousness is wrong, that stealing is wrong, or that, you know, whatever is wrong, you know, and you just go through this list of things that we all knew that, but the idea is that you need to hear it over and over and over and over and over again. And the young people in this auditorium right now need to hear that fornication is wicked and wrong, you need to flee from it. You hear that over and over and over and over again to the point where if you were ever in that position, you should say, man, I've heard so much preaching on this that it should be really hard to get in, you know. It should be something that's just like, I need to stay away from this, I need to have the fear of God, because if it's never preached, then you're like, well, everybody else is doing it. But if you're like, man, pastor hits hard on this all the time, he's always preaching against it, he's always saying how it's going to ruin your life, all this stuff, I read it in the Bible, I hear it at church, and then if you were to ever get into a situation where it's possible, then you're going to be like, hey, you know what, I want to stay away from that. You know, I've been warned so much about this, okay. I'm good at Ezekiel chapter 6, Ezekiel chapter 6. Ezekiel chapter 6. Because the idea is that you're supposed to cry aloud, spare or not, lift up that voice like a trumpet. It even talks about Ezekiel here smiting his hand and stamping his foot. So like hitting the pulpit, you know, making noises, you're like, I can't believe you're up here just shaking things, you know, like hitting stuff. I'm going to kick this because I don't want to break my foot because this thing, if I had this part, maybe I could kick it more, but this, that's going to hurt. That's like a maple tree right there. So if you don't see me kicking the pulpit, you know, there's a reason for that. But in Ezekiel chapter 6 and verse 11, it says, Thus saith the Lord God, smite with thine hand and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. So why is he stamping his foot? Why is he smiting his hand? Because of their sins, because of the abominations that they're committing. And so he's basically saying, get, you know, listen to me, you know, stomping your feet. And if I stomp it on here, you're not going to hear it because it's concrete. Okay, so maybe a little bit. So the idea is that you're getting someone's attention. You're grabbing their attention and saying, listen to me, this is wicked. God's going to judge you for the sin. God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. And so the idea is that you need hard preaching because of that. Now, hard preaching is not popular because most preachers are afraid to preach on sin because they're afraid of what the congregation is going to think. Okay, go to Jeremiah chapter 1, Jeremiah chapter 1. Now, I'm just going to be honest with you. A lot of times people, preachers don't want to preach on it because they're afraid of persecution. They're also afraid that people are going to leave the church and you're going to take their finances with them. And so, you know what, a lot of that has to do with the thermometer on the wall. Okay, that mentality of we need a building. We need a gymnasium. What do we need a gymnasium for? Okay, I've never understood that. You know, we need a Christian school. Well, that's out of the question. I mean, we're all homeschooling anyway. So there's a lot of these things where it's like, we need a Christian school. We need a gymnasium and we don't need any of that. You know, we might need a bigger space soon, right, because our church is growing, praise the Lord. But you know what, I'll rent till Jesus comes, okay. As far as, you know, and you're saying, well, you're not, you know, the money's just kind of going off into nothing because you're paying in rent. Let your money perish with you. You know, as far as the, you're like, oh, you're just kind of wasting church funds. I'm not wasting it. The idea, though, is that I don't have a million dollar debt hanging over my head when I preach hard against sin. To where I'm like, man, I better hope I don't hurt someone's feelings and everybody leaves or half the church leaves and now I got this big debt over our head that somehow we got to deal with. We got zero debt, okay. You know what that can also cause is that we can go on missions trips. We can, you know, we can do soul winning marathons and pay for everybody to eat, do all this stuff and not worry about it at all. We can buy Bibles to send out to people. We can go on retreats and just have some time of leisure together. You know why? Because we don't have a million dollar building that we're paying for, right. We don't have all this stupid stuff that doesn't matter over our head. And I believe our building's nice. I believe, you know, now that the air conditioner's working, right. But, you know, it's clean. It's, you know, it's not like a horrible place. I think it's great. I think it works great. I think the location's fine, all that stuff. But the idea though is that preachers are afraid of the congregation a lot of times, okay. And go to Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 7 there. It says, But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, said the Lord. So notice that he's saying, don't be afraid of their faces, right. Because you could preach a sermon and people would just scowl at you, you know. They're just like, ah, you're hitting on me. They're just angrily looking at you. And he's basically, don't be afraid of their faces. Go to verse 17. Thou, therefore, gird up thy loins and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. So he's basically saying, if you are afraid of their faces, I'm going to confound you before them. So you can't, there's no way out of this, okay. You either aren't afraid of their faces and preach boldly and preach hard against sin, or the other round is that God's going to be against you then. Because he's telling you to do that, okay. Verse 18, it says, for behold, I have made thee this day a defensed city and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, and against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land, and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, said the Lord to deliver thee. And so the idea is that the preacher should have this idea, hey, I have a defense. God's my defense, and I'm going to preach hard because he told me to. He said to preach the word in season, out of season. That means whether you like it or not, the word's going to get preached, and you're going to be reproved, rebuked, and exhorted, and that's how you're going to have a good, strong church, okay. Ezekiel chapter 33, and you say, well, why do you preach hard against sin? Well, first of all, the Bible says it, but the other thing is, is that I don't want blood on my hands, okay. There's a principle here that if I don't do it, I'm going to be blamed for it, okay. You know, with the position of being a pastor, a bishop, an elder of a church, right, the idea is that I have a responsibility, and if I don't do that responsibility, then I'm not holding the office like I should be holding the office, okay. Meaning that, notice what it says in verse 7, so Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 7. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore, thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me. You know what, another way of saying this is an overseer. You know what a bishop means, is overseer. And even in Acts, it talks about how the Holy Ghost had made you overseers over the church of God, and so the idea is that I'm a watchman, and what I hear from the word of God, I'm supposed to take that and warn you with it, okay. Notice what it says in verse 8. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die, if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that the wicked man shall die in his iniquity, I'm sorry, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. So notice that this wicked man is doing something wrong, not you. Right, I'm not doing it wrong, but someone's doing something wrong, and I don't warn them about it. The Bible says their blood is on my hands. Notice what it says in verse 9. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way, to turn from it, if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou has delivered thy soul. So I'm not, I don't have to force them not to do it, okay. All I have to do is warn them. This goes for soul winning as well, right, because you can't force someone to get saved, but you can warn them, and if you warn them, guess what, it's not on your hands. You did your part, you did what you're supposed to do. And so that's hard preaching, that's a part of the three-fold court, I believe, of church, that if you have hard preaching, then what you're going to in turn have is a lot more of a righteous congregation. People are going to be living a lot more righteous than if they didn't have the hard preaching. It doesn't mean that everybody's going to be doing right, no one ever messes up, no one ever sins, of course not, right. Obviously, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, okay. But the idea is that hard preaching is going to help that. It's going to help that there's not major sins, or that there's not, you know, more of it, okay. Now, sound doctrine is another portion here that I believe is missing in a lot of churches. I believe this is a part of that three-fold court. Okay, go to Deuteronomy chapter 32, Deuteronomy chapter 32. Sound doctrine, okay. I'm just going to read, you know, Hosea chapter 4 and verse 6, it says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, okay. And in churches today, people are being duped by a lot of stuff in the world today, and they're falling for the traps of the unsaved, and the wickedness, and all this stuff, because they lack knowledge. Now, in the end, they should be the ones that's finding that knowledge, right, because they had the Holy Ghost inside them. I'm talking about saved people here. Saved people should be reading their Bible and finding that knowledge out for themselves, okay. So I'm not here to say, well, it's just a preacher. But in the end, you know, the Bible talks about how he manifested his word through preaching, and so the idea of preaching the word in church, and the church edifying the believer, is a principle in the Bible, okay, meaning that that is supposed to be part of your edifying process, is that you're hearing good preaching, you're hearing good doctrine from a preacher, and on top of that, you're doing your reading and learning yourself, okay. So in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 1, it says, Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak. And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. Now, the idea here is that, basically, he's just saying, my doctrine's going to drop down. Notice that it says, the words of my mouth, though, okay. Listen, I've been to many churches where it's like, we're going to talk about some teachings and some doctrines, but the Bible's barely brought up. You know, when you're learning doctrine, there should be chapter and verse, okay. If you're making a point and there's no chapter and verse to that, what's the point of making the point? You know, where's the doctrine coming from, okay? Is it coming from your commentary? Is it coming from, you know, your Bible college? Is it coming from your secular reading, okay? The idea is that there should be a Bible principle, there should be a Bible verse that's backing up the doctrine that you're saying. There should be multiple Bible verses for that, okay. And so, the idea is that, you know, doctrine should be dropping down like rain, okay. And there should be in a church where, hey, you know what, you shouldn't have to go months before you've heard some good doctrine, okay. And, you know, we've all been probably, and I say all, but, you know, I'm not sure where everybody's at as far as going to churches and stuff like that, but I'm sure you've been in churches and heard preaching that's just lacking any type of teaching, right. You're just not getting fed at all, okay. And you can get fed on doctrines that you already know, but you can maybe find out some more information on that same doctrine, okay. So I'm not saying like, well, I know eternal security and he preached on eternal security today. Well, maybe he brought up something that you didn't know about that subject, okay. But go to Hebrews chapter 5, Hebrews chapter 5. We have a lot of preachers today in Baptist churches that have needed milk, to be honest with you. There's a lot of preachers that shouldn't be preaching. They should be sitting down and listening to preaching and reading their Bible, okay. And, you know what, those that have been to Bible college could probably testify to this that there's many people that come out of Bible college that are preachers that haven't even read through the Bible once. And there's other preachers that I've heard that they've been in conferences for pastors. Like it's a pastors conference and they've asked this question, who here has not read through their Bible one time and just many people raising their hands. I mean that's ludicrous to think that you're going to be an overseer of a church that's going to teach sound doctrine and you've never even read every book in the Bible. Let alone you should have read it many times, okay. And, you know, I know some people, you know, as far as being ordained to be a pastor, you need to read through it 10 times. You know, I'd say that you're still, you're going to struggle, okay, being a pastor reading through it only 10 times, okay. And I'm not saying you can't do it, okay. I think that's a good mark to have that you've read through it 10 times to be a pastor. But if you want it to be a lot easier, then you better read through that thing like 40 times before you start pastoring, okay. And be on a schedule that you're reading it constantly, okay. Because when you're up here pastoring and you're teaching doctrine, you don't want to have to like eat crow every single time you make a mistake on something, okay. And Hebrew chapter 5 here in verse 12, it says this. It says, for when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. So he's basically saying you should be teaching right now but you are, you can't even handle strong meat. You can't handle that, you need milk. You need to go back to the basics. And he goes into the basics which is salvation, baptism, eternal judgment, resurrection of the dead and laying on of hands. And he's basically saying these are the, actually the first principles of salvation and then it goes on, let's go on to perfection and let's go on to the other ones. It's like they can't, they're struggling with salvation, right. You know, they can't even understand what the word repent means. And you know, just going into different things as far as you need the foundations of the milk and notice what it says in verse 13, it says, for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. And a lot of the reason of why pastors don't actually preach good doctrine or sound doctrine because they're not doing anything. If you're not doing anything and you're not preaching the gospel, you're not actually doing any of the word, then you're not going to be given more, you know, nuggets of truth in your reading. And a lot of times you're just not even reading, okay. It's like, oh, I've read through the Bible once, I did my time. Good night, I can't imagine that. To this day I feel like I don't know enough and I need to know more. It's just baffling to me that someone would think, I've read through the Bible once and I've grasped it all, now it's time to go to commentaries and look up all these different things on how these little series on marriage and different things like that and go through that with not reading the Bible extensively, okay. Because there are still passages today, I'll read through it and be like, man, I've never seen that before. I'm like, how many times have I read through this and I haven't noticed that or I haven't picked up on that? And the idea though is that there's many people out there that are babes in Christ that are leading. And who here wants a baby to lead them? Okay, I love babies, okay. I love having children, but do you want children leading you in the church when it comes to spirituality, okay. That's why you're not supposed to be a novice, okay. And that's not talking about age, that's talking about age when it comes to spirituality, okay. There could be someone that's 80 years old that's a babe in Christ. If you have someone that's 20, that's not a novice. So, but in first, or in Titus chapter one, Titus chapter one, and there's many verses on this as far as the idea of sound doctrine, okay. What's the point of sound doctrine? Well, in Titus dealing with the qualifications for a pastor, notice what it says in verse seven, it says, For a bishop must be blameless as the stewards of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given a wine, no striker, not given a filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Listen, the pastor needs to have sound doctrine because if he doesn't, how's he going to, you know, basically stop the mouths of the gainsayers when it comes to false doctrine. But how much more are those in the church as well, okay. What if I had all this sound doctrine and I'm just like, you know what, you can't handle it. You can't handle that sound doctrine. You can't handle it. And there's been times though, honestly, where I'm like, that's really deep. I wonder if they're going to follow me on that subject because it's a very deep subject, okay. And you know what, every single time, everybody's just like, yeah, that's great. I understood it and all this. Now I'm sure there's been a sermon where you're like, I was kind of out there and just a little too high up or something like that or you just didn't understand where I was going with it. But in the end, there's no doctrine that I believe in, that I believe is sound doctrine that I'm like, nope, they can't handle that, it's too deep. But I've actually heard pastors say that because I've been to churches where I'm like, hey, can you preach on this subject here? Can you preach on this or that because it's a crucial thing that's going on or this is something I want to hear what your opinion is on it or what you believe on this. And they'd be like, well, maybe we could do a thing apart where it's kind of like for just people that want to be preachers. Because I don't think the congregation can handle that. I've actually heard pastors say that. I've heard preachers say that. The congregation can't handle that deep of doctrine. They need to go to Bible college or they need to go to this special class. Maybe we'll have a special class where we teach on that. I'm like, what, why? If I want to know it and I'm a church member, why wouldn't everybody else want to know it? Why don't you try it? And what you'll find out is if the deeper doctrine you give, the more people love it. Because they're like, man, I actually haven't heard that before. Or I haven't seen that before. And it's exciting because you actually want to actually listen to the sermon because you actually might learn something. God forbid you come to church and actually learn something about the Bible. And so, and even if it's engineering, you're like, I don't care about that or something like that. But the idea, though, is that we need sound doctrine. The Bible says in Titus chapter five, I'm sorry, not Titus, 1 Timothy, Titus chapter five, 1 Timothy. I somehow deleted the one on there so I just see TI. So 1 Timothy chapter five and verse 17, it says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in word and doctrine. So notice how that's putting that up on a higher level and saying, hey, they're ruling well, but especially those that labor in the word and doctrine. But just think, what's good is doctrine if I don't share it with you? And Paul talks about this when speaking other languages. He's like, what good is it if my understanding is unfruitful? If you don't get it and you don't understand what I'm telling you or I don't let you know, then how is that profiting you? How is that edifying you? What does it matter if I know everything up here and you don't know any of it? And it's just the mentality a lot of times with these preachers. And sometimes I'll say this, preachers want to be higher than the rest of everybody else. They don't wanna let you in. It's like a secret, right? It's like, I got the secret doctrine. I don't wanna let them know about it because I always wanna be a step above those in the congregation. And that's a wicked mentality. I'm just gonna be honest with you. That's a wicked mentality. And you know what that is? Insecurity, right? And the idea that, hey, I don't wanna let you know about all this doctrine I know because I want you to know that I know more than you. That's insecurity. I'd rather that there's someone in the church right now that knows more than me, okay? Do you know that you could have people in the church that have everybody knows the exact same amount? And that would be fine. But you know what? It takes someone that's insecure to say, I don't want you to know that because I need to be a step above you. How about this? I want you to know everything that I know, but you better keep up because I'm going higher. That's my mentality is that, you know what? I want you to know everything so that I have to say, you know what? I need to keep learning. I need to keep knowing more because next year, I need to be able to know more than I knew last year so that my sermons aren't boring, right? So that I'm not preaching the same thing over and over and over again to where I actually have to keep on my toes when it comes to sound doctrine. But you know what? That takes work. And a lot of people are just lazy when it comes to that. But you know what? You know what you need to do? You need to make it fun. You need to actually enjoy it. And I enjoy learning doctrine. I enjoy learning more, okay? It takes work, but you know what? When you get into it, you actually learn to enjoy it. You know what? I take pleasure in learning something new. And you know what? You know what I take more pleasure in? It's telling you about it. That's when I get excited. When I preach a sermon and I figured out something, it's like the puzzle piece came together. I'm like, I can't wait to preach this at church for them to see it too. And it's not because it's like, well, you know, look at Pastor Robbins and he's so smart, okay? Or, you know, it's not about that. It's about the fact that, hey, you know what? There's more to the Bible. You know, the Bible is just so perfect. It's so true. It's so infinite. Look at all the stuff we're still finding out about it. And you know what? I enjoy that. The Bible says, Study the show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And if you don't study as a pastor and you don't study doctrine, you won't be able to rightly divide, okay? And when someone comes at you, you know, it says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. And it says, The righteous man studyeth the answer. So the idea is that, hey, you need to know doctrine. Why? You need to give an answer. You need to give an answer to that person that has a question about a certain doctrine, okay? And you know, the Bible says, and then 1 Timothy chapter 4, you know, going back a chapter, and you were in chapter 5 there, it says, Till I come, in verse 13, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Doctrine, sound doctrine, just constantly over and over and over again. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 3, 1 Timothy chapter 3, and look down in verse 14 there. It says, These things write I entity, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. See, church should be a place where you say, hey, listen, that has a lot of sound doctrine. Sound doctrine is the pillar and ground of the truth. The word of truth, right? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Listen, Jesus Christ is ultimate truth, and that's what we need to know. We need to know the mind of Christ. We need to know His doctrine, what the Bible has to say, and that should be coming from church. Obviously, the anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you, and need not that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you shall abide in Him. So it's very true, right, that you as a believer had the Holy Ghost inside of you, so you're reading this Bible. You can know everything that anybody else knows. You can know everything I know. But the idea with preaching, though, is that you have someone that's preaching to you that maybe has been saved longer or been reading more, or maybe that's his modus operandi in life, is to actually be able to learn some doctrines to preach to you, and the idea that, hey, you know what, I don't know everything. And listen, I still listen to sermons. I don't just, like, listen to myself all the time, you know, and just repeat. Obviously, I'm preaching right now, so I already know what I'm preaching. I wrote it, okay? But I listen to other sermons, and I listen to other preaching, and you know what, I'm gonna be like, that's awesome. I never knew that. All the time. And not like things like, oh, well, you know, salvation's different, or I was wrong about baptism, or I was wrong, you know what I mean? Like, nothing like major, obviously, but it's just like, oh, that's what that verse means. And just constantly, and I'll hear something, and I'll be like, oh, man, that's such a great look at that verse right there. And so I'm still learning, and you should be too. And preaching should be the idea of, like, hey, you know, this person over here studying this subject, I want to know what he learned from that. And you could get that from anybody. Somebody else in the church could be studying something else, and they've been studying this up, and a lot of times, they'll bring it up to me and say, hey, I've been studying this out. You know, this is what I've been kind of finding out. What do you think? And a lot of times, you know what? Guess what you did? You did some more work. You did work for me that I didn't have to do. Okay? We can work together in edifying the church of itself as well. So, but the pillar and ground of truth, and the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. So the idea is that, hey, listen, you need the Bible, and you need good preaching. You need sound doctrine, and this is part of that chord, right? So you have hard preaching, sound doctrine. And what's the third part? Soul winning, the work, okay? Soul winning, doing the work of evangelists. Now, I believe that this is very crucial. Go to Revelation chapter two, Revelation chapter two. I believe if you don't do this, then you're not a legitimate church. There I said it. Okay? You can have good doctrine. You can even have hard preaching. But if you don't do soul winning as a church, then I don't believe Jesus is recognizing that as a church. I believe it's a dead church, okay? And I believe that he's warning Ephesus about this, okay? And that's what it says in verse one there. It says, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works. And what are the seven golden candlesticks? The churches, the seven churches in Asia. Okay, that's what those candlesticks represent. Verse two, it says, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and I know thou canst not bear them, which are evil, and thou hast tried them, which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne and hast patience, and for my namesake hast labored and hast not fainted. Okay, so this isn't like just some wicked church here. I mean, you're dealing with a church that's throwing out false preachers, that's, you know, and even talking about their, you know, what they're teaching and all this other stuff, it's good stuff, okay? But notice in verse four, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works, okay? So it's basically saying, you're leaving this off, okay? The first works, it says, and if you don't do that, if you don't repent and start doing the first works, it says, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest not, but this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. So it's basically they hate, and the doctrine of Nicolaitans, right? So they hate false doctrine, they hate wickedness, you know, and they're preaching against that. So all that stuff, that's good, okay? But he's saying also, hey, if you don't do the first works, though, I'm taking away your candlestick. What does that mean? I'm taking away you as a church, okay? And Sardis was almost there. Sardis was almost there. Sardis had a name that they lived and are dead. And the only reason that the candlestick, I believe, hasn't been taken away from them is because there's still some people in there that were doing right, okay? He said there's still some in there that are walking with me and white raiment, meaning they're walking in the spirit. They're actually doing the work. And so, but the idea is that the first works, but what's the first works? I believe it's crystal clear that the first works would be the Great Commission, would be soul winning, okay? Go to Mark chapter 16, Mark chapter 16. What's the first thing that Jesus told his disciples to do when he ascended up and sat on the right hand of the Father? We're in the New Testament, right? When did the New Testament start? When Jesus died on the cross, right? The death of the testator. And what is the first actions that he's telling them to do? And notice in Mark 16, verse 15, it says, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You'll find the same thing stated in Matthew chapter 28, but go to Luke chapter 24, Luke chapter 24. Because ultimately, isn't hard preaching, doctrine, what's the point of that? So people get saved. So people that are added to the kingdom of God. Isn't that the ultimate goal? What's the point of sound doctrine if you don't use it? What's the point of hard preaching if you don't use it? The idea of hard preaching is to make you righteous. The idea of sound doctrine is to make you know the Bible that you can give an answer to every man that asks you the reason that the hope is in you. But what's the ultimate goal of that? So you'll be righteous and have knowledge so that you can give someone the gospel and get them saved. But if you have all that, if you're righteous and you're living right, you separate yourselves from the world and you have all this knowledge and doctrine, but you're not using it, you're not telling anybody about it, what's the point? Okay, and notice in Luke chapter 24 and verse 45, it says, then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and said unto them, thus it was written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day in that repentance. So notice that the behooved part is going into the repentance and the preaching, meaning that the ultimate goal of him dying on the cross is that people would believe on him. Does that make sense? What's the point of him dying on the cross if no one believes on him, no one gets saved? So it behooved Christ to die on the cross, rising in the third day, but then it says, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high, and it talks about it, then he ascends up into heaven. So what happens in Acts? They're endued with power by the Holy Ghost, right? They had the baptism of the Holy Ghost, they're filled with the Spirit, and they win tons of people to Christ, and in Acts chapter 1, it says a similar thing before he's taken up before them. Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. Talking about the first works, this is the first acts of the apostles, if you will. We're talking about the first chapter of the acts of the apostles. And verse 8 there says, But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in the Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Sound familiar to Luke chapter 24? Same thing, just worded it, definitely got a little more specific on the areas they're going to, right? The idea is that they're going everywhere, preaching the gospel, okay? And the principle here is that the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few, okay? And go to John chapter 4, John chapter 4. I don't believe it's any doubt this is the first works, this is the first love, okay? And so, we are to love the lost, for God's to love the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But God commended His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It behooved Christ to die for our sins, to die on the cross, and to be raised to rise again the third day, and that what? That we preach that you need to repent for a remission of sins, right? And we know that repent is coupled with repent and believe the gospel, right? Basically, you stop believing in doing good works and stop believing in your dead works to get you to heaven, and repent, believe the gospel, believe on the death and resurrection of Christ, and guess what? You'll receive a remission of sins. That's what behooved Christ to die on the cross, and that is the first works of the New Testament, okay? Is that, that's the first love. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and we need to love the world and preach them the gospel. And if we don't do that, the candlestick's getting taken away. So if we ever stop soul winning here, then you might as well just say that we're not a real church. We're congregating. We have hard preaching. We have, you know, we have doctrine. But I believe all these work together, okay? Meaning this is that, if you just went soul winning, but you didn't have hard preaching and good doctrine, it's gonna fade, okay? You need the hard preaching and the soul winning to keep you on track with the soul winning, okay? Hard preaching and sound doctrine to keep you on with the soul winning. And you need the soul winning to keep you excited about the hard preaching and the sound doctrine. And you need the sound doctrine to keep you excited about the other two, right? Does that make sense? Meaning that you need all three of those, and the problem is is that some churches have just part of that. They have two of them or they have one of them or they have none of them. But you need all three, okay? If you just have sound doctrine and soul winning, you're missing something. You're missing something, okay? Because that's where sin can come in and completely destroy the church, okay? And then the work's not getting done. Now you know what you should do, and you know that you should go with soul winning, but now you've completely just messed up the church, okay? In John chapter four and verse 34, notice that what he likens soul winning unto, he likens it unto food, okay? He likens it unto meat. And what we need to realize is that when it comes to soul winning, if we don't do it, our church will die of starvation. It'll be dead, okay? I'm not saying it couldn't get back on track, right? That it couldn't be revived. Like Sardis, I believe Sardis could have been revived. We don't really know what happened with Sardis, but it was dead and it had a name that it lived because it was doing right. Then it fell off and became dead and there's still people in there that are alive. But you know what? It can be revived again. But the idea though is that you will be emaciated. You will die of starvation if you don't go soul winning. And you will die of starvation if you don't have sound doctrine. And you will die of starvation if you don't have hard preaching, okay? Now in John chapter four and verse 34, it says, Jesus saith unto them, my need is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. So we're talking about the first works here. You know, people use this verse too to be like, you know, tell us what the work of God is, right? This is the work of God that you may believe on his son, right? So, you know, and this is in the whole sermon on the first works, okay? But I believe it's very clear that that's talking about soul winning. Now he's talking about work. He's talking about meat. And that's what he says here. Verse 35, say not ye there are yet four months and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and behold on the fields, for they are white already to harvest and he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. This is where it says, God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth, that shall also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. This is what it's talking about, okay? But you can't reap life everlasting if you're reaping, if you're sowing in the flesh, okay? You can't win someone to Christ if you're walking in the flesh. You have to be walking in the spirit, okay? And notice what it says, I lost my place there. Did I read verse 36? Yeah, in verse 37 it says, herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor, other men labored and ye are entered into their labors. Listen, this has been going on since the beginning of time. That train of salvation that the righteous of God has revealed from faith to faith has been going since the beginning of time and you're just jumping into it, right? You get into this church, you're just jumping on the train. Listen, people were winning people to Christ before I ever got saved, praise the Lord because I wouldn't have gotten saved if that wasn't the case. But we're jumping into men's labors, we're going into this and we're pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day, but if you leave off this, you're going to be famished and that cord will be broken, okay? And you know what, it may not be broken immediately because the threefold cord is not quickly broken, okay? Because there's churches that'll leave off soul winning and they're still kind of limping along, okay? Or they don't have hard preaching but they're going soul winning, they have some doctrine, but they're limping along. It's not sustainable though, okay? It's not sustainable to not have hard preaching and sound doctrine and go soul winning. It's not sustainable, okay? You need those things to keep you going. And listen, I could probably do a whole series on threefold cord to be honest with you. I mean, good night, the great commission is to get people saved, baptize them and to teach them to serve all things. There's a threefold cord. I mean, you could go into a lot of avenues where you have a threefold cord and how that works together, but I want you to know that that's what I believe. That's my mentality when it comes to what's important in our church, okay? Hard preaching, sound doctrine, soul winning. And I believe if you have those three things, everything else will take care of itself, right? You say, well, what about false prophets? Well, if you have sound doctrine, you'll take care of that. If you have hard preaching, you're gonna preach them out the door, okay? See how a lot of that takes care of itself when you have that? So yeah, I mean, and you say, well, is that gonna get people in church? Listen, Jesus said that he would build a church. You notice I didn't mention anything about some kind of like outreach to get people to come into church. That's not in the threefold cord. I didn't read that in 2 Timothy 4. Make sure you somehow have a rock band, you have this, obviously I wouldn't say that in the Bible, but have these things to bring people in. No, it says, preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering. It says to have sound doctrine and it says to do the work of an evangelist. That's what it says to do. That's what he told the preacher to do and that's where my priorities lie and I believe that's how we're gonna stay in a live church. So let's end with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you today and thank you for your word and just pray to help Mountain Baptist Church to always stay in the realm of having the candlestick here, having a church that's alive by having hard preaching, having sound doctrine and going soul winning and Lord, we just pray that you'd help us to continue in that and Lord, just help us to not be broken and Lord, we just love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name, amen.