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you you you all right everybody welcome to steadfast Baptist Church if you would take your seats and turn to song number 196 we're gonna sing I will sing the wonder story in that song number 196 we're sing I will sing the wonder story 196 I will see the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me how he left his home in glory for the cross of Calvary yes I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me singing it with the saints and glory gathered by the Crystal Sea I was lost but Jesus found me found the sheep that went astray through his loving arms around me drew me back into his way yes I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me singing it with the saints in glory gathered by the Crystal Sea I was bruised but Jesus healed me thank was I from man of all sight was gone and fears possessed me but he freed me from them all yes I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me singing it with the Saints in glory gathered by the Crystal Sea days of darkness still come for me sorrows path I often tread but the Savior still is with me by his hand I'm safely led yes I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me singing it with the Saints in glory gathered by the Crystal Sea he will keep me till the river rolls its waters at my feet then he'll bear me safely over where the loved ones I shall meet yes I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me singing it with the Saints in glory gathered by the Crystal Sea all right let's open the word prayer five things time you've given us company to gather together sing praise name help think for help everyone here to get here safely Lord and pray all the people that are sick Lord that they would just recover from their sickness as quick fast hurry Lord so they can come back here and serve you and Lord just uh we thank you all the blessing you've given us thank you for all the souls that got saved this week out soul winning Lord and I pray bless the service today let everything be done for your honor and glory and we praise things in Jesus name amen all right next song we're gonna sing a song number 98 the name of Jesus song number 98 the name of Jesus the name of Jesus is so sweet I love its music to repeat it makes my George was full and clean the precious name of Jesus Jesus so how sweet the name Jesus every day the same Jesus let all Saints proclaim it's worthy praise forever I love the name of him whose heart knows all my griefs and bears apart who bids all anxious fears depart I love the name of Jesus Jesus so how sweet the name Jesus every day the same Jesus let all Saints proclaim his worthy praise forever that name I thought we love to hear it never fails my yard to cheer his music tries the falling tear exalt the name of Jesus Jesus ho how sweet the name Jesus every day the same Jesus let all Saints proclaim his worthy praise forever no word of man can ever tell how sweet the name my love so well oh let this praise is ever swell Oh praise the name of Jesus Jesus ho how sweet the name Jesus every day the same Jesus let all Saints proclaim it's worthy praise forever good morning thank you so much for coming to steadfast Baptist Church if you didn't get a bulletin already you can slip up your hand real quick and Usher will come by get a bulletin to you on the front we have our Bible memory passage Exodus 20 we're on week 6 and then on the inside we have our service and so many times as well as our church stats and then a list of our expecting ladies please be in prayer for all of them also for our prayer list if you have any prayer requests throughout the week you can try to email those in to our web or I'm sorry email steadfast Baptist kjv at gmail.com just put prayer lists or prayer requests in the title that way we are aware of that also we have our Texas Oklahoma Easter Memorial weekend April 1st through the 4th and we have a sign-up sheet on this cabinet and it's basically for those that are willing to potentially lead a time and so and it's okay if there's overlapping names that people fill out as many times they want but the goal is to try and have as many soul winning times throughout Thursday to Sunday and really all in Texas and all in Oklahoma but specifically here we want to have times and the sheet basically has two blocks it has one block that's just basically your name and then the other blocks of the comments if you do want to help sign up basically in the comments you need to place where you're doing the soul winning so if you're either willing to help participate at a time that's meeting at the church you could just put at the church or if it's another area just make sure you're putting another area for people that live outside of the Dallas-Forth area you know they just can email me or give me that information directly as far as you know there's another city or another town or anything like that and so and basically what the goal is is that I'll have a video and I'll put it on a website and our events page and everything like that and point people to it and say hey here's different times in different areas throughout Texas and Oklahoma here's the soul winning leaders name here's where they're meeting here's their phone number things like that and then we'll just try to encourage other people to join us to go soul winning during this time there's definitely people that live in other areas that are interested in going soul winning doing those things so it's great to have events like this and to try and encourage other people to go so winning I know in Oklahoma I believe they're gonna have times in Oklahoma City and Tulsa pretty much the whole time I know their brother Scott Dunn was gonna do a time over in kind of the northeast portion of Texas I can't remember the name of this yeah I thought he's gonna do our Texarkana but I'll look it up again brother Nick canary was gonna do some times in Austin area and so hopefully and in Houston obviously we'll have times and everything like that and so I'm really excited about this event if you are willing to lead a time you need to fill that out today though because basically Monday and Tuesday we're gonna try and take all the information we have organize it and then present it so if you would like to help lead if you're just gonna show up you know you're good to go we'll get you that information and you can have that and we're basically gonna have soul winning Thursday evening and then Friday morning afternoon evening Saturday morning afternoon evening and then we're gonna have our Easter Sunday services we have some really nice new invitations that are specific to our Easter services and so and we ordered a lot of these things so please don't feel shy about handing these out grabbing a huge stack we tried to order 5,000 of these and so I mean you should have plenty to go out there and we want to have lots whenever we have our Memorial weekend but basically it just has our Easter service advertised it also has a QR code on the back and it's to our most recent documentary from the sodomite deception it actually goes to the website and then from there they can click on the video link and watch that film also we have some stickers that we made that are the exact same QR code and so if you want one you can take one or two we only heard about 200 of these but basically the goal was you could stick it on you know maybe a Bible or stick it on something that you use on a regular basis and then just you can say hey check this out we also put it on some of our psych pretty much all the psychopath rubberbait DVDs if you see a sticker on there that's what that's for and so hopefully you know this will just help spread the word I have a lot of I think the QR code things pretty cool and I think we can use a that to our advantage and we'll keep coming up with new ideas to share and spread our information there's also another signup sheet that's on the cabinet and it's about volunteering there is an apartment complex that wanted us to come and host an easter egg hunt for their complex and basically preach them the gospel and so I get calls from apartments all the time and I was just like oh okay it's one of those but then she's like hey we want we I got your card on the door and I was like yeah and she's like y'all do outreach and I was like yep and she's like do y'all want to do it again in our apartment complex and I was like sure and so she's wanting to advertise all of her tenants I think they have about 114 residents or something like that in their apartments and so basically we're just gonna go well maybe sing a couple of kids songs preach them like a short 20-minute gospel presentation and then we'll have some tables set up with just church information we'll do the Easter egg hunt and then afterwards we'll basically just be handing out information and trying to just do personal soul-winning to the families there if you'd like to help participate volunteer and one other thing is you're welcome to bring your children to this don't feel like you can't but the Easter egg is for their children it's not for our children so just keep that in mind that it's not for us to go and party and have a good time it's for us to minister and to love and serve them and so you know the Easter egg hunt will be for their kids but you can do it on your own whenever you want and we've ordered the material but we're gonna see if we can get a few people to help volunteer putting some of these things together we printed out a bunch of Bible verses that we just want to cut up and put a Bible verse with a piece of candy and each every single egg I think we have about a thousand of them and so that's just another opportunity if you'd like to participate it's gonna be March 27th so Easter is April 4th and March 27th is not the Saturday right before Easter but it's basically the weekend before the Easter weekend okay so if you want to keep that on your radar also other upcoming events May 8th we have the ladies tea May 20th through the 22nd we have our men's conference and then on the back we have some notes there for you that's pretty much all I had for announcements this morning let's go ahead and go to our third song Psalm 150 in our handouts brother Jesse can lead for us Psalm 150 you praise you Lord praise God in his sanctuary praise him and all her moment of his power praise him for his mighty acts excellent goodness praise him with all sound of the trumpet raise it with all salt three and all heart praise him with the timbrel and dance praise him with strength instruments and organs praise him how simple crazy upon the high-sounding simple and everything that have breath praise the Lord praise God the father praise God the son praise God the Holy Ghost praise God all right and while the offer plane is being passed around please turn view in your Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter number 12 1st Corinthians chapter number 12 in 1st Corinthians chapter number 12 the Bible reads now concerning spiritual gifts brethren I wouldn't have you ignorant you know that ye were Gentiles carried away into these dumb idols even as ye were led wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit to another faith by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another diverse kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues but all these work at that one in the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will for as the body is one hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit for the body is not one member but many if the foot shall say because I am NOT the hand I am NOT of the body is it therefore not of the body and the ear shall say because I am NOT the eye I am NOT of the body is it therefore not of the body if the whole body were an eye where were the hearing if the whole were hearing where were the smelling but now have God said the members every one of them in the body as it had pleased him and if they were all one member where were the body but now are they many members yet but one body and the eye cannot say into the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more people are necessary and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these we bestow more abundant honor and our um comely parts have more abundant comeliness for our comely parts have no need but God hath tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked that there should be no schism in the body but that the member should have the same care one for another and whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honored all the members rejoice with it now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular and God set some in the church first apostles secondarily prophets thirdly teachers after that miracles then gifts of healing helps governments diversities of tongues are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers are all workers of miracles have all the gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret but covet earnestly the best gifts and yet show I unto you a more excellent way let's pray father we think it's time to give them to hear the teaching of God's word and pray bless pastor Shelley right now fill with the Holy Ghost so you can preach and teach the Word of God effectively with clarity with boldness and so they call be edified in the faith Lord and we thank you for giving us a church Lord and thank you for sending your son to die for our sins and we praise things in Jesus name amen and look at verse number 27 sorry about that you really need to pay attention though okay verse 27 now you're the body of Christ and members in particular and God has set some in the church first apostles secondarily prophets thirdly teachers after that miracles then gifts of healing helps governments diversity of tongues are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers are all workers of miracles have all the gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret but covet earnestly the best gifts and yet show I unto you a more excellent way now first Corinthians chapter 12 is a very unique chapter in that it's very specific and doling out the distinctions within a church and talking about the church as a whole body and how every single person that's saved and part of the local church is actually a member of that body and the Bible's also emphasizing here that not every body part not every member does the same function it brings up very specific parts like the eye or the hand or you know we have different functions for every single one of our body parts yet we need every single one of them you know it's not like I want to trade my hands for more eyes today or trade my eyes for more hands today you know that would be something that wouldn't work very well and so we need all the different pieces we need all the different functions and I think this is a question that a lot of people think about or they have in mind and they really struggle with exactly what to do with this question and so what I want to do is I want a very practical sermon on how to answer this question but this is the question how do I get involved in church how do I get involved in church and I even specifically put notes on this back in case you want to but I'm gonna give you a lot of information this morning pretty quickly and so if you need to you might take a few notes here this morning but also use the board to kind of help us but when it talks about here you know having all these body parts these members people having different giftings you know there's not really much benefit in having these giftings if you're not using them if you're not putting them to work and so it's important to realize how you as a person can get involved in church and what's the best way to get involved now I'm gonna give you a couple guiding principles and this doesn't only apply to church I believe this applies to every area of your life but just how do you get involved in any case how do you end up helping people how if you want to be used by someone or something for any reason what do you need to do well go to Proverbs chapter 29 go to Proverbs 29 I'm gonna give you four quick points of how you can actually get involved the first step if you want to be used or get involved in any scenario is to plan now I had you turn to Proverbs chapter number 29 and the Bible is going to give us some good wisdom here Proverbs chapter 29 look at verse number 18 the Bible says where there is no vision the people perish but he that keep at the law happy is you know the Bible uses the word here vision and having a vision is really going to be the first step in any way of getting involved if you want to get involved in anything if you want to do anything really you kind of have to visualize that or think about it or make a plan for the future you want to work for a particular company you have to actually think about that many cases you know you want to do anything you want to live somewhere you want to go somewhere you want to do something it starts with a planning stage and it's no different with church you want to be used in church you want to get involved in church it starts with a planning phase of thinking about okay what can I do what are my functions what capabilities do I have you know where am I at basically you know if I said hey I want to be a fireman tomorrow can I just walk up to the fire department say like put me in coach or do I have to look at what kind of requirements they have to become a fireman and then I have to kind of evaluate myself and see you know where I'm at you know do I meet the requirements or am I lacking in their requirements you know can I just walk up to Jerry Jones and say hey I'm the best quarterback put me in coach he's like you just paid Dak Prescott 160 million I don't think he's about to put me in okay but this is the same mentality that some people have in every area of their life they walk up and just expect to be plugged in just to go ahead and be put into some kind of position and they've had no planning they're like when'd you come up with that idea five minutes ago it's like whoa okay well have you actually considered what it takes to do this job or what it takes to be involved or why you even want to do this so in any case if you want to be used or you want to help or you want to get involved in some area of your life it first takes some planning to think about okay what is it I really want to do what does it take to get there now after you've formulated a plan go if you would to Luke chapter number 12 go to Luke and I'm just going to kind of skip around and show you some some verses that give you these points but if you really want to be used not only you have to plan number two you have to then prepare and like I said I'm just gonna go through these these these points really quickly and then we're gonna get some application but number one you got a plan and then once you realize okay I want to do this but I'm not quite there yet you know I I'm missing some prerequisites or I'm missing some education or I'm missing some physical endurance or I'm missing some kind of knowledge or experience or wisdom or whatever it is then you have to start preparing yourself in order to accomplish this task or to be used or to help in a particular way you know whenever I was looking for jobs and I was considering making a career change I did not only look at what it would take to get a job right away but I also looked at what it would take to get that same job five years from now or what the career path look like and how many things that I had to accomplish and all the things that I'd have to do in order to get to that position and so when it comes to your workplace it comes to your personal life it comes your personal finances it comes to raising your children it comes to their education all these things take planning and they take preparation they take a lot of effort and diligence look at Luke chapter 12 verse 40 the Bible says be there for ready also for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when you think not then Peter said unto him Lord speakest thou this parable unto us or even all and Lord said who then is a that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat and do season blessed is that servant whom is Lord when he cometh shall find so doing of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath but and if that servant say in his heart my Lord delay this coming and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink and to be drunken or that servant will come in the day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he's not aware and will cut him in sunder and report him his portion with the unbelievers and that servant which knew his Lord's will notice this and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes so this guy is someone he actually knows the Lord's will so it's it's arguably he went through the planning phase he knows what he needs to do it's not that he's not aware of his strategy it's not aware it's not that he's not aware of what you know should be happening the problem is he didn't prepare himself he didn't get himself ready he decided to slack off and be lazy and just do whatever he wants rather than preparing for the future and know people that are gonna be greatly used often at the sacrifice their will have to sacrifice what they're doing in order to eventually get to the point where they're gonna be greatly used you want to be greatly used and often take someone that greatly sacrifices themselves and prepares themselves and gets ready for that task you know jobs in the job market that require a lot of skill people don't automatically get those jobs are actually stumbling those jobs know those people they spend a lot of time studying doing the work thinking about it asking other people getting mentored and doing the work for a long period of time and and making all this effort and then eventually they get into that type of a position they get into that type of a role and so it's no different in the church you want to be greatly used by the church well let me ask this question how are you preparing yourself what are you doing to prepare yourself and you know another aspect of preparation could be that you need to ask permission even you know maybe you make a great plan and before you invest a whole bunch of time preparing you may even go to the person that is going to basically hire you use you or get you involved and say here's my plan here's what I'm going to do to prepare what do you think this makes sense is this going to be adequate and then they can basically give you some kind of a judgment because you wouldn't want to do a bunch of preparation that's not even legitimate that's not even going to work I remember thinking about making a career change at one point my life and I was working in the banking industry and I had a management degree and I was thinking about going back to school and either becoming an accountant or going into computer programming and I was kind of evaluating how much more schooling and I have to get how much more education and when I was looking into the accounting degree I was gonna take more undergraduate courses before I can start my master's degree and I was really unappealing to me and when I looked I could go straight into the master's program and get an MBA in finance and economics and when I looked in the computer science industry they were going to make me required to get more undergraduate work as well and so I just decided to just go straight into the master's program and do finance and economics which I didn't like but now I don't know if that was really not the best decision I probably should have just gone ahead and bit the bullet and done more undergraduate work if I want to do that however I talked to somebody that I said hey I'm thinking about making a career change here's some of my options he was in the software industry so I was just saying what do you think you know as a software industry a realistic you know venture for me how much schooling did I need and he says well if you want to go into the software industry he says don't waste money going to school because he said they won't teach you anything that we're gonna use he's like they're all using archaic technologies and whatever he says we'll hire you if you really want to do it and take a year and why don't you study these books so then I just studied other books and did my own self education for a year and prepared myself and it wouldn't have been as beneficial if I had just gone to the university and wasted all this money effort and energy preparing myself in a way that I wasn't going to be as prepared by doing the education he wanted me to do okay so of course permission may be something that's realistic you know if you come to me and you say hey I want to be serving in the church I want to do something in the local church my plan is to memorize the entire new living version the new living translation like that's not going to be very beneficial for you you know that's not proper education right well you know I'm going to go work in this this ministry of Joel Osteen never heard of him you know to prepare myself see obviously there can be bad ways to prepare yourself so asking permission at times can be appropriate you know in your workplace if you want a promotion sometimes you might ask your manager or supervisors and say hey what would be the best course of action what's the best pathway to get to this particular position and that then can secure your preparation go to Proverbs 24 go to Proverbs chapter 24 Proverbs chapter number 24 and let me tell you this this sermon is not a sermon that you can necessarily just apply in five minutes or right after it's something that takes a lot of work this is a long-term strategy that I'm employing today and I'm trying to teach you but you'd be surprised how many people they don't make any plans and they never prepare themselves for anything their whole life they just basically live by the seat of their pants they don't even know if you said hey what do you what do you want to accomplish in one year they're like survive I don't know not have to wear a mask again you know like they don't really have any vision they don't have any goals they don't know where they want to live they don't know what they want to do in their career they don't know what they want to do in church they don't want to know if they want to have a family they don't know what they want to do with their children I mean they literally just go around just aimlessly basically what dictates their life is whatever is on Facebook or something that day or whatever they see you know in the media or you know you can live a life apart from the world today you can have your own plans and your own vision and not care what everybody else is doing rather than just following their vision and their goal and whatever they want look at Proverbs 24 verse 27 repair thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build thine house so notice the Bible is telling you here to prepare something you know the good advice is this you know don't buy a house before you have a job look it sounds it sounds like really common sense but some people don't understand this don't sign you know a huge lease on some property before you even know what you're gonna be doing or where you're going you know some people they just have no planning in their lives and they'll just move somewhere and they'll just make really permanent decisions but look work is gonna be one of the most driving factors as far as where you live what you're doing because if you can't work you can't eat and if you can't eat you can't live okay and so it's really important to make sure you're establishing yourself in the right way you're preparing yourselves in the right way and making sure hey my work has been secured I know what I'm gonna be doing now I can go ahead and establish myself in other ways look at Proverbs 30 verse 25 Proverbs 30 look at verse 25 the ants are not a people not strong are people not strong yet they prepare their meat in the summer so notice ants are given a really positive mention here answers said you know they by themselves are not like really strong you know it's not like an ant is something that you're afraid is gonna pick you up and carry you off okay they might carry off your lunch but they're not gonna carry you off but at the same time they're very diligent they just work and they don't work and think like do I have to work right now no but they actually work ahead they plan ahead they're preparing for themselves in the future they're making preparations okay go to James chapter 1 James chapter 1 so point one plan point to prepare but then when that day of fruition finally comes number three you have to perform you know you can do have all the great planning you can have all the great preparations but eventually you actually have to do it too eventually actually I have to accomplish the work you have to do something you know it's one thing to make great plans and have all these great ideas and and have everything prepared but then if you don't really do it well I have a plan to go out soul winning today and I prepared myself I have every verse memorized but I went and took a nap you know what what what benefit is there to that you know you actually have to do the plans that you actually put in place James chapter 1 look at verse 23 for if any be here of the word and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass for he behold himself and go this way and straight way forget of what man or man he was but who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continue it there in he being not a forgetful here but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed and indeed hey you really want to be blessed you got to do something the planning and the preparing is not the blessing that is just what gets you set up for the blessing the blessing comes from the actual doing the blessing comes from the actual performing the blessing comes from actually not just hearing and thinking about it but actually exercising you going to a soul winning church and hearing about how great soul winning is does not earn you rewards in heaven because you know what there are people they go to a soul winning church and they hear about how great it is and they know how great it is and they don't go so winning they don't get rewards and there's some people that go to church where they don't hear about how great so any is and they don't have a great so winning program and they themselves got so many anyways and guess what they're getting greatly rewarded well you know if I was going to a great soul winning church then I would you know do it is like look you can just do it whenever you want and you know the person is going to be blessed the person that's doing it not the person that's so smart no going to a church where they educate you and teach you things and and you learn good doctrine that's a that's a blessing because you have that information but if you really want that blessing to come to fruition to your self you have to do it you accept the dress godly you actually have to read the Bible you have to show up at church you have to go out and preach the gospel you have to raise your kids correctly you know just hearing about it from the pulpit is not going to fix your problems you have to do it don't be a forgetful here actually perform and you know even if you had great plans and preparations you need to actually perform the things that you plan to do here's my last quick point and look this is just how you get involved you want to get involved plan you want to get involved prepare you want to get involved do it perform and then number four is purge purge hey you want to get involved purge okay now there's a couple different ways that we can look at this but look at second Timothy chapter 2 and look at verse 21 Bible says if a man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work hey if you really really want to get used you got to purge yourself okay and there's two ways I want to look at this first way is this the more you free up all the junk in your life the more you get rid of all the junk in your life the more time effort energy you can invest and the things that you really want to accomplish you know if you're just well I just have to play video games for six hours a day that's gonna cramp on your work that's gonna cramp on your marriage that's gonna cramp on your children that's gonna cramp on church there's a cramp on God hey you might need to purge yourself from that activity you know bad friends bad relationships sinful habits these type of things the more you can purge yourself the more you can be prepared for every good work and look you could not purge yourself and still do some good works now some people get this idea that well if I'm sinful I can't do anything well you know sinful people can do lots of stuff hey the woman at the well was a very sinful woman and she got a lot of people saved one day you know some people say I feel too sinful to go soul-winning unless you're a reprobate go soul-winning okay I mean the only reason he shouldn't is because he can't get anybody saved sorry Judas isn't the best evangelist all right look you can always preach the gospel because you know what even if you're chief of sinners hey you can still go out and preach the gospel you can still get people saved but you know what you want to be greatly used you want to use in other areas of your life it comes through purging it comes from saying no to certain things cutting certain things out of your life go to John chapter 15 go to John chapter number 15 and Jesus Christ will also try his best to purge us and if you're bringing forth fruit if you're showing yourself to be someone that can actually do something for God he'll often try to purge you of other things in your life so that you can even bring forth more fruit look what it says in John 15 verse 2 every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away every branch that beareth fruit he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit so notice the Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to try and purge the fruit bearing branches so that it'll bring forth more fruit now what is pruning well pruning when it comes to a tree you can have all kinds of different branches or twigs or different little sprouts coming off of this tree and every single one of those branches requires water nutrients sunlight energy for this tree and if the tree is exercising all this effort energy and resource to these branches that are not bringing forth any fruit it's a waste and so what arborists do or what a gardener would do is he goes through his garden he looks at the tree and he finds a branch that's worthless and he just cuts it off but hurt you know yeah it's just what happens and you know he just trims it off and then more water more nutrients more energy can go to the branch that's bringing fruit on it that has the little blossoms on it or has you know the the beginning of fruit because if you don't prune or trim a tree sometimes fruit that started to develop will end up not getting sufficient enough water and nutrients and they end up you know just dying withering away not producing that type of fruit so they try to prune them to bring forth more fruit and to perfect the fruit that they have so if God looks at your life and he looks at certain areas of your life and says you know what I'm not getting any fruit in this area of his life I'm gonna try and get rid of that in his life I'm gonna try and purge that in his life and I'm trying to clear it out you know sometimes we might plan and prepare to do something in our lives but it's not a fruitful branch and sometimes you need to just throw those plans away you know Bible talks about this I'm denying yourself taking up your cross you know the Bible talks about losing your life a lot of these things are you know well I just want to be a professional sports athlete or you know I just want to be the next movie star I just want to be you know these plans are bad plans I just want to be the next Bill Gates bad bad branch okay trim that one okay there's certain ideas there's certain visions there's certain goals that we may have that don't fit with the Bible's narrative and we need to be willing to purge those and in any area of your life in any way if you want to get involved in something but it's just not the right path for you you need to be willing to purge it you know if you come up to me say pastor Shelley I really want to lead the songs but your tone deaf that's the wrong tree for you okay there's gonna be certain areas of your life that you just you know what I really see you going down a different path here buddy you know I really feel like you got a new you have a different vision you know just like the hand what if the hand told the eye I'm ready to be the eye today you know it's not gonna work you're gonna look just as foolish as the tone deaf guy getting up and leading the music and look if you're tone deaf don't get mad about being tone deaf don't try to force your way into being the song leader because it's just not worth it just like an eye trying to be a hand that's not gonna work you know I can't pick anything up try opening the door with your eye but I just really want to you know it's it's foolish it's silly and so the reality is sometimes you have to purge yourself of certain paths because it just doesn't make sense it's just not applicable it doesn't fit it's just not the right way to go about it go to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 go to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 so what you do plan prepare perform purge okay and you know what advice that my one of my bosses gave me and I know I bring up software development a lot but it's easy for me to think of okay but in software development you always have to like solve problems and create applications and one of my bosses said this he said if you're not willing to completely trash the application that you've built you'll never be a good developer because sometimes you'll you'll create an application you'll spend all this time effort and energy building this application but it's just flawed or it's just there's something wrong with it and really the only way to fix it is just to completely just get rid of it and just start over and honestly that was great advice because any area of your life you should always be willing to start over if necessary in any area of your life you know and sometimes people I almost fear that they won't get saved because of this or they won't be used by God by this you know you knock on someone's door and they've been the Sunday school teacher for 20 years in their church but they're not saved and the reality of them not being saved is too horrifying for them to end up getting saved no I was already saved or no I don't need to pray or no I I already got it why because they're too afraid of saying that they were wrong for so long or maybe they do get saved but then they're too afraid to say you know what I need to go to a different church I've been learning wrong doctrine I've been in the wrong ministry in the wrong place doing the wrong thing and let me tell you this there's never a bad time to get right with God there's never a bad time to get on the right path there's never a bad time to start over okay sometimes you just need to start over and get on the right path going down the wrong path more is never going to be the right decision even if you're like well I have to start at the very bottom of the right path well that's better than continuing down the wrong path anymore than going down and doing something wrong now if you want to get involved in church because that was the title of the sermon right I'm gonna get real practical with this okay plan prepare perform purge but here's the thing before you can help anyone else okay before you get involved and do anything for anybody else here's the reality you need to first help yourself okay and this would sound really self-explanatory but they tell you every time you get an airplane put the mask on yourself first and then assist others around you okay and when it comes to church here's a really really important point for everyone to get please put on the mask first before you start helping other people okay and let me get I'm gonna get real specific on this but number one get saved if you're not saved you're not gonna be helping anybody else in the Christian world okay step one you have to get yourself saved and that's like the picture of putting the mask on right you're getting saved first okay and before you get saved you can't do anything for Christ you're not serving him you're not you know inside of his will you're not accomplishing anything okay number two you need to get baptized so I want to get involved in church have you been baptized no okay step one get baptized right here's number two or three read your Bible you want to get like people don't read the Bible and then they want to get used by the church and I'm thinking like you need to start helping yourself buddy do you even know can you spell Bible you know can you even tell me the books in the Bible I mean if I said you know if I said where is this book would you be able to find it even but you want to help other people already here's another one pray look some people they're so excited can't wait to get involved in church well let me tell you how you can be really involved in church okay you can get saved get baptized or read your Bible and pray well I don't do that well then you're not going to get involved you're not gonna really be used that greatly okay we're talking about the very very basic essential steps how about this go to church three times a week you know it's funny to me people want to come and ask me how they can get involved in church and I'm thinking like how about just show up I mean you want you want to know how the best way you can get involved in church come every time the doors are open I mean why not I mean it's literally it's like what would be easier I mean I'm saying like ways to get involved in church come physically be present right if you really want to get involved in church show up and you say why would I show up well you know what when you show up you encourage other people to show up it's funny whenever I don't come lots of people don't want to come when they find out about someone else not coming they don't want to come they don't want to show up when their spouse isn't coming they don't want to come you know when their friends not coming they don't want to come right I mean look when you come to church you encourage other people to come to church don't undervalue that point and look I love seeing all of you guys it gets me excited if if all of you called me and said we're not coming to church every single person called me that would be discouraging it'd be hard for me to want to show up I still would and I'd preach a scathing sermon that email all of you but you know what at the end of the day it's it's one of the most important ways to get involved in church is just literally be here be present you know get involved by just showing up and look if you can't even show up at church how are you gonna expect to help other people right here's another one go so winning and look to go so winning you literally have to show up again you don't even have to be a talker be a silent partner but just show up get involved in the soul winning look and these seem really basic but I tell you there are people they're not they're coming to church rarely they're not going so winning they haven't even read the Bible cover to cover one time and they're coming up to me asking how they can get more involved in church and I'm thinking like here's a bulletin it's got service times on it here's a Bible memory verse I'm just thinking like you know is there any events yeah it's called Sunday morning Sunday evening and Wednesday night Bible study you know it's have you seen the soul winning times listed you know it's like why would I want to emphasize some kind of event above those events those are the most important events right I mean going to church going to the soul winning time these are the most important events you're not going to be used greater than going to those those are the most basic those are the most simple you know get to the foundation get to the the fundamentals go back to those that's how you can get really involved in church go to the second Thessalonians and look at chapter number three verse number six here's another one provide for yourself verse six now we command you brethren the name of our Lord Jesus Christ they withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us yourselves know how you ought to follow us for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you neither do we any men's bread for not but rot with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you not because we have not power but to make ourselves in sample and you to follow us for even when we were with you this we commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eat the Bible makes it clear if you can't even provide for yourself you're not even welcome to come to church it's crazy how many people think that they can just literally not work in any way and expect to come here and I'm gonna provide for them or have the gall to say I can't wait to come help you guys I'm thinking like help me you're coming you don't even have food you don't even have a place to stay you know this is not a homeless shelter I don't know where people get this idea that this is a place for you to just show up and yeah you can just sleep on the front row you know it's like look how are you gonna help other people when you need daily food for yourself step one get a job start providing for yourself like it's silly to think you can provide for other people or help other people when you yourself can't even help yourself and look this is not a homeless shelter this is not a socialist utopia here we don't just redistribute everyone's wealth to the lowest common denominator we're not trying to figure out how to be a communist and a Marxist here today you know what you not working are a drain on society if you're not working you're everything that's wrong with America today you know what's wrong with America apathy today laziness today people are so lazy and derelict today they don't want to work and you know what because they don't want to even work of course they don't want to read a Bible of course they don't want to open the Word of God of course they don't want to be righteous in any way and look you're such a drain on society that God compares you to an unbeliever it's sick and people show up and they're like oh you know I just want to get used by the church I can't wait to be here and I'm thinking like okay well you know but do you have five bucks for a meal it's like no but I guarantee if you go work you can make your own money and then you can eat that's God's program God is not a socialist sorry if you don't like that I like that I don't have a problem with that doctrine other people have a problem with this doctrine go if you would to first Corinthians chapter number seven first Corinthians chapter number seven here's another one groom yourself it's you think I'm joking it's like people won't even groom themselves and then they're gonna ask me how they can get involved take a shower step one take a shower groom yourself take care of yourself you know whenever you don't have proper clothing and you don't have proper food you're an assistance of others other people have to take care of you this is what we call children my children can't properly clothe themselves and they can't properly feed themselves so we have to put their diaper on and we have to feed them and clothe them and spank them and tell them no and give them guidelines and you know what that is not the person that's gonna help people the person that's gonna help people is an adult today an adult get jobs and adults clothe themselves and they feed themselves and they bathe themselves and they take care of themselves now another way to help is you know getting plugged into a really good church and I like this verse I want to look at a few verses here look at this verse 17 but it's got to distributed every man as the Lord hath called everyone so let him walk and so ordain I in all the churches is any man being called circumcised let him not become uncircumcised as any called an uncircumcision let him not be circumcised circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called art thou called being a servant care not for it but if thou mayst be made free use it rather now here's what I would say there are some people who are in an area or a position of their life where they cannot go to a really great church you know maybe they live in an area where there's not a very good option or their best option is just unsatisfactory to them or whatever or maybe the church they're going to is not great on soul winning or you know is pre-tramp or something or has some kind of issues look you can still get involved in that church you can still go and if that's where God has you at that moment you know what just serve in that area of your life you know Joseph had to serve in the prison for a while you think that there was a great church down there in the prison think there was some new IFB movement going on down in the prison for Joseph or did he just have to serve at that time in his life there okay and look no one's living in that type of situation but here's the thing if you're free use it rather so here's the thing if I have the opportunity if it's easy for me to move and go to a better church why not right and you know one of the greatest ways to get involved is just to go to the best church you possibly can you know you only live one time in your life why would you not want to go to the best church in your area or if you have the possibility to go to an area where there's an even better church we can get plugged in even more and do even more for God why not look if I'm gonna have one life to live I might as well do as much as I possibly can you know if I have the decision why I can stay here and serve with John the Baptist Oh Jesus Christ walked by bye now I'm gonna start serving with Jesus right why would I not want to then be a follower of Jesus Christ but what if I just physically can't what if there was some reason I couldn't which there's not a good reason but I'm just saying then you just serve with John the Baptist until he dies and then you're thinking like I should have got one that Jesus got and then he dies and you're like oh then you're with the Apostles and then they start dying and you're like I wonder what my fate is but at the end of the day you know what how can I get involved in church will show up and get into the best church that you possibly can and here's go to you would to first Timothy chapter 5 here's my second point once you've taken care of yourself and I know maybe you're lacking one of those areas that's your step one you want to get involved start working on yourself but number two is your family and here's kind of a bridge comment for you singles okay you may not have to worry about other people because you don't have like a wife or kids or anything like that tying you down but here's what you could do be more desirable so you can enter into this stage so how can I get involved in church be a more desirable person because you know what when all the singles are weird and awkward and goofy and lazy it's just like people don't want to come back you know the only little if the only pretty girl comes and every guy ignores her or they're super awkward or they're like you know just weird-looking and smell weird and look weird hey why don't you actually dress nice and carry yourself and have a good job and be desirable you know what that's going to make our church more attractive it's funny because my my wife always liked this one business I don't even know if they could do it anymore but there was this business is called like the water still and it's in Amarillo and the only people that they would hire are like really attractive fit and muscular young guys that's the only thing that they would hire and they had certain requirements because you had to lift at least 50 pounds and you had to do you know because they're carrying big jugs of water and whatever you know what that business model worked because guess where every young pretty girl wanted to go get tea the water still why because all the guys there and look if our church is full of West Coast effeminate queer looking dudes you know what women aren't going to want to come and shop for a husband at steadfast Baptist Church you know what if all the men are well-groomed and they're manly and they love the Lord and they have a good job and they're you know just at top-notch scale you know what it's going to be really attractive you say we're all the women well why do you keep scaring them off maybe that's the question you should be asking yourself or why don't you go out and find one and bring her in if you're such a stud if you're such a you know great-looking guy you know be more desirable and then you can enter into stage two family okay first Timothy chapter 5 look at verse 8 that was mostly for the dudes all right verse 8 therefore let us I'm sorry I'm in 1st Corinthians 1st Timothy chapter 5 look at verse 8 but if any provide not for his own especially for those of his own house he had denied the faith and it's worse than an infidel is what the Bible says now here's the thing provide for yourself but you also provide for your family hey I want to get involved in church okay how about you start providing for your family then how about you start providing for your wife and your kids that's a great way to start getting involved okay and if you're not providing for your family you're worse than an unbeliever there's nothing worse that I think God could compare me to there's someone just unsaved you have to and need to start taking care of your family you know be the best father be the best mother be the best child that you possibly can be look at verse 14 I will therefore the younger women marry bear children guide the house given an occasion the adversary to speak reproachfully you say how can I as a young lady how can I as a mother get involved in church you know you can get involved in church you can marry you can bear children a lot of women are doing good on that one have you seen our expecting list and obviously you can't control that necessarily but it says guide the house give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully you know it makes a church bad when women are not doing this you want to get involved in our church make our church look like this do this to the best of your ability don't give the enemy a reason to blaspheme or to attack our church we're going around causing problems gossiping and going around causing issues and forming clicks and forming these factions and and talking bad about other women and abusing other women look churches can be run by the women there's there's churches where you go and it's just a gossip fest and they talk bad about everyone they try to run off pastors and leadership which praise the Lord our leadership structure is not like that but go to Proverbs 13 you try to run us off it'll be bad news for you but you know there's some churches where it's a deacon-led church or whatever and look women will just run a gossip circle about the deacons of the pastors and whatever and run them off like I want to get involved in church okay we'll start doing these steps be the best person you can for yourself then make sure your family's in order okay and you say well why don't you do that well the Bible talks about if a pastor wants to you know be qualified he has to know how to rule his own house that's like step one and you say well that's a pastor no that's the example for every man is to know how to rule his own house it's silly how people come to me and they want to get more involved in church they want to take a position of leadership in church yet they don't know how to rule their own house oh there's a problem there you need to first take care of things at home and get things at home in order before you're gonna start leading others and helping others Proverbs chapter 13 look at verse 24 he that spirit is rod hate if his son but he that love them chasing them behind you know if you don't think your discipline your children you hate them and look this doesn't say love taps this doesn't say you know look do not reward bad behavior if your children are misbehaving or doing bad you need to discipline them that's one of the best ways to get involved in church look our church is a family integrated church and some people don't like that I love it I'm just saying some people come in and they're like a kid screamed once you know or whatever but if every kid just screaming and no parent ever disciplines their kids or every crowds them or ever helps them figure it out you know that's gonna be a bad report that's gonna be a bad reputation that's gonna drive people away from not only our church but even having lots of kids potentially they walk in they see all these kids well-behaved and and doing well you know I have honestly it's sad good would he was chapter 12 it's sad I literally have people complain about other people's kids to me every single week and it's funny because then you preach on it once in a blue moon and everybody's like you're talking about me it's because it is everyone look people are constantly frustrated because kids are misbehaving running around not doing right and their parents are oblivious the parents don't care they're apathetic and let me tell you what if you are not paying attention to your kids if you're not disciplining your kids you hate your kids you say I don't like I don't like that God said it if you are not disciplining your children appropriately it's because you hate them and not only you hate your kids you hate yourself look at proper look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse 9 furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection of the father spirits and live for they verily for a few days chasing us notice this after their own pleasure did you know that disciplining your children makes your life better it makes your life easier not disciplining your children will ruin your life it will destroy your life you have no peace of mind you'll be frustrated every day you'll resent your children your children will resent you and then when they grow up and they're the little monsters that they continue to stay being you know what it's gonna cause you even more grief in the future discipline your children get your children hey I want to help in the church master Shelly okay your kids over there running your kids over there screaming you're never even paying attention to little Johnny you're never a little paying attention to little Susie you don't even know what they're doing look you want to get involved in church take care of your family so this is this is intense sorry go to Ephesians chapter 5 the Bible is intense you say why right why preach a sermon because I want you to get involved look I'm not preaching these things because I want to be mad at people what I want is for you to get better involved people I think sincerely want to get involved and I'm trying to help you answer this question what does that look like take care of yourself start being fully sufficient of yourself and then be sufficient of hate your family taking care of those people in your life Ephesians chapter 5 look at verse 25 husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word they might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot a wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish so I mean to love their wives as their own bodies in the love of his wife love themself for no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourished and cherished it even as the Lord the church we are members of his body notice that he brings up that body again that we talked about the very beginning 1st Corinthians chapter number 12 were bodies you know we're the body of Christ were the members of Christ and in a marriage you're also in this relationship where you both are one body now and you shouldn't hate your own flesh and really you know you want to get involved in church will have a good marriage having a bad marriage will destroy a lot of people in church if you want to say what's what's one of the most common denominators when it comes to people stopping to serve God not getting in church you know not going so many not doing things it's always it's always like a marriage related issue it feels like marriage related issues will destroy people spiritually and if you really want to get involved in church you know you've entered into that union you need to take care of your spouse and love your spouse and do good under your spouse the Bible says husbands love your wives you know it's frustrating how men love everything but their wife it seems like they love their job they love their hobbies they might even in their mind love church but they're not really loving their wife and I'm thinking like you know if you really want to get involved in church start loving your wife more encouraging her to do good things and you know here's one how about let your wife go soul winning or take your wife out so encourage your wife to go so you know it's not just for the pastor's wife to go so all of us are supposed to go so and you know if your husband's taking out so winning or trying to encourage you go so he's because he loves you and the reality is if you can't get your wife out so winning if you can't take your family out so winning why would you think that you're going to start helping other people but first help yourself then help your family and then you can help your church family help yourself help your family then you can start helping your church family look at Romans chapter 16 look at verse 1 I commend unto you Phoebe her sister which is the servant of the church which is at Centuria the receiver and the Lord has become his Saints may you assist her and whatsoever business she hath need of you she has been a sucker of many and of myself also greet my helpers in Christ Jesus who have for my life laid down their own necks unto whom not only I give thanks but also all the churches of the Gentiles so we see a huge admonition in the Bible to help one another to love one another to look not only our own things but the things of others right and to humble ourselves and see mother better than ourselves but here's the reality you still kind of have to help yourself and your family before you can really start effectively helping other people now this is a great goal this is a great vision to have this is a great plan but you know what how you get here is you got to prepare by fixing this verse and then this one and then getting to this one and I'll tell you this the people that seem to do the most are already doing so much the people that seem to do the most are already doing so much they're already just like knocking out of the park here they're already knocking out of the park here and then they just somehow knock it out of the park on that one too and you're just like wow and the people that are not doing good here they're often not doing good here and here either they're just not doing good in any of the areas it's a stair-stepping process and it's important to realize how you can help others what some practical examples and I only have a few more verses this this morning but I'm just gonna get real practical with you okay and look this applies to any church not just mine applies to every church that you can possibly go to go to the soul winning times go to the fellowships you know cleaning up and look cleaning up doesn't have to be an official thing how about just clean your area just clean up after yourself so much crumbs and trash and just filth people just leave everywhere I mean there's just like water bottles everywhere and trash everywhere and your kids little bracelet and you're you know their little dinosaur and their little you know 18 water bottles and it's like what is what's happening did you camp here last night look clean up after yourself and you know clean up other areas potentially you know if you see something that's obviously trash take care of it you know maybe get involved by using a musical instrument you know I like singing that song praise them with the trumpet you know how about the salt tree and the heart and we have the string instrument but you know sometimes we need backups we need other people you know a violin the organ hey I'm just these are instruments in the Bible that would be great hey I hope our music program gets better you know what don't come up to me and say hey pastor Shelley I'm ready to play the violin do you own one no you got one I could borrow I've ever played it never but I'm ready it's like that's not how you get involved you know I actually have a good story of this but whenever I first came to steadfast Baptist Church Kevin Edelman his daughter Abigail she came up to me I was like one of the first services maybe even the first service she came up to me and real respectfully she waited for my time and then when she came up to me she handed me a couple pieces of paper stapled together and she said here's every single song that I know how to play and I'm willing to play whenever you want me to you want to talk about someone that already knows this serpent I was thinking like wow this is exactly what I like this is exactly what I want she wasn't even saying like put me in coach she's usually like I'm expected to play these times she's just like whenever you want here's my list here's my paper I'm ready to go and you know what that's a great way to get involved in something you know you go to your boss you go to anywhere you say hey I want to do this you already have things prepared you're already ready you're presenting a solution not more work hey I want to get involved what skills do you have none when are you free never okay how about start getting free time that's step one get free time get some skills then come talk to me then present to me an idea of how you can get involved you know you could usher here's one you could just be friendly how can I get involved pastor be friendly talk to visitors take them to lunch invite them over minister to other people you know I can't minister to every single person I can't invite everybody to lunch I can't shake everyone's hand necessarily I can't do all those things so you doing it actually helps us in church how about meal trains that's a great way to get involved you know sometimes it's hard to find anybody that wants to do a meal train you want to get involved that's a great way to get involved you know donating money the preaching class you want to preach at our church come to the preaching class in fact I often I decide who I want to preach for me based on how well they do in the preaching class because if you can't preach a good five-minute sermon why would I want you to preach for longer some people I'm ready to pull the plug after 30 seconds I'm just kidding sometimes events show up to the events you know there's all kinds of things that you can do that are already there on the surface why don't you start doing all the on the surface stuff and then you can get to the next layer go to Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrews chapter 13 and I'm going to finish on this last point you can help yourself you can you can get involved by helping your family involved by helping your church family and then number four you can help the leadership and let's read this verse and then I'll explain a little bit of here and I'll get real specific Hebrews chapter 13 look at verse number 16 the Bible says but to do good and to communicate forget not for such sacrifices God is well pleased obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give in a give account they may do with joy now agree for that is unprofitable for you Bible says you're supposed to obey them have the rule over you and if you want to help leadership in the church you know one of the best things you can do is just do what they said it's funny how you know when I'm talking about all these three points these are things that I've already preached and then people don't want to do these and then they ask me how they get involved and I'm thinking like do these you've already said start start employing all the tactics that you've already been given and then then can you help the leadership in other ways before you ask for more work finish the work you've been given to do imagine your kids coming you dad I want more work well did you clean your room no did your homework no did you clean up the table nope did you take a shower nope but I'm ready for more and it's like no you're not do what I already told you ok and here's the thing if you want to get involved in your church once you start knocking out number one two and three before you really start coming to the leadership and offering yourself to do more what you already do what you have on your plate it just makes perfect sense and look I need more help leadership needs more help you know what kind of help we need we need the help that's already knocked out one two and three we don't need more help that says I don't even have a place to lay my head I don't have any food I don't have any clothes I'm here to help it's like whoa you need to start at step one again ok and the people that do the best help I'm telling you they're knocking these things these top three out they're doing it and you know if you want to help someone let it be known what you can do and be ready when the time comes you know sometimes you can be planned and prepared and ready but the timings not right and so you can let it be known hey I'm ready to serve in this way but the timings not right so then you have to wait you know I'm fine with that there's plenty of people that come to me and express an interest in serving or helping or doing things and I can't use them right then but I think about it have a back my memory and then the next time the opportunity comes then I can use that person most of the time I think about him thinking like I'm never gonna use that person you need to start fixing yourself you need to start doing that before you're gonna get used in another way ok now why would I preach a sermon like this but go to Nehemiah chapter 2 go to Nehemiah chapter 2 you know Jesus said that he was gonna do great works but his disciples would do greater and when it talked about Jesus baptizing it said he didn't baptize anyone his disciples baptized and here's the reality good leadership empowers the people that he's leading to do more think about David and his mighty men you know David couldn't accomplish all the things he did by himself he needed the mighty men to accomplish with him and the reality is a church is not one member it's a body of members today you know it doesn't matter hey I've got the greatest elbow in the world but the rest of my body is decrepit you know the rest of my body I can't even use that's not gonna be very beneficial you need all the body functioning very healthy and working together and doing great and look I want our church to be the best church it possibly can be be the best body for Christ that we can possibly we need every member to be healthy and I want to empower people to serve God together but at the end of the day you have to fix you know yourself and you have to address a lot of these other issues before you can be used in new ways and other ways and maybe even your mind better ways but some people you know and some people this this is basically where your life is your only existence is one two and three you don't have to get to number four don't think you have to get to number four because number four may not be your goal in life it may not be your plan in life you may just be here to minister to other people in the church not to the leadership specifically ok and the way that you actually out you are still helping me by doing this don't get me wrong what I am saying is not in a very specific way ok looking at my chapter 2 verse 17 the Bible says then said I unto them you see the distress that we're in how Jerusalem lies waste in the gates there of our burn with fire come let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that we be no more approach then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me as also the king's words that he has spoken to me and they said let us rise up and build so they strengthen their hands for this good work notice Nehemiah when he comes into town and say I'm here now I'm gonna build everything no he inspires everyone else to build with him and and when I look at the church and I look at the world today I feel like it's been destroyed godliness in America has been destroyed the church has been destroyed God's people have been destroyed for lack of knowledge and you know what we are in a phase we're in a period where we need to be building we need to be building and we building ourselves and building our families and building our church families and then we can help the leadership to build a great Jerusalem to build a great church and let me tell you something the gates of hell are attacking the church today and every area of life they are attacking your personal finances they are attacking your mental stability they're attacking your emotions they're attacking your family members they're attacking your marriage they're attacking everything they're attacking soul winning they're attacking the Bible they're talking Bible preaching they're attacking godliness hey it's a full-scale war today it is a full-scale attack today and if you want to protect yourself you have to build you know what I'm planning on preaching some very practical sermons in the future to try and help God's people to fight against this full-scale attack on you and you know the reality is if you really want to get involved if you really want to help you have to employ these tactics you have to start going to church reading the Bible praying and then you know what you need to get your family doing it and then you need to encourage your church family to start doing it and then you can start getting the next level now let me tell you some of the cool things that I really want to do but again who am I gonna be able to use the people that are employing these tactics okay but I want to you know have a gospel video and as many languages as possible and and have this out there like I built the God resource site I started getting that going and I have some languages but see here's the thing all of you could come up to me is like I'm ready to get plugged in well do you speak any language other than English no you're not prepared right but then there's some people I know people they speak a little bit of Hindi they speak a little bit of another foreign language or they speak something and they have the ability to get to the point where they could help me with that or they know other people and they could help me accomplish that look that would be a great thing to do have even more gospel presentations and even more languages would be a great goal you know I'd like to have a very language can you imagine just walk to the door no matter what you can just hey here's the gospel here's a here's a video hey scan this QR code and you got look QR code surpasses language you just say phone phone phone and you just scan it for them and then you just hand it back to them and then you just pick the language and they have the gospel didn't that wouldn't that be great hey I want to make the God resource site even better maybe even make it into a mobile application improve our site and that takes people with specific skill if you come to me I'm ready to build that site have you ever used a computer no you know you're not the right person okay I need to cut finish the cover for the sodomite deception which takes some artwork and look there's so much work that I have that I have to constantly neglect because I'm just trying to fix other things but if I had skilled people that can help in some of these areas or they get skills or they prepare themselves I could use them that would be a great thing someone finished the sodomite deception cover art for me you know all of our websites someone wants to manage our websites that would be great because they could be better and our sermon lists don't always get updated but that takes someone with skill in those areas you know here's another thing I want to have a podcast a weekly podcast and you know I've been working on this idea of Brother Ben for a few years and we've been talking about it kicking around but I'm kind of there you know I want to build a podcast there in the back which takes physical skilled labor you know putting in nice walls putting in the furniture putting the lighting putting in the cameras getting that all set up which just takes effort time energy and things like that someone that's skilled in that area could help us get the podcast stuff set up and then we can start pumping out even more content and trying to reach new people and bringing them in you know I want to improve our sound room you know put in a custom desk organize all those shelves you know put in maybe some new cameras so that whenever we produce another documentary we can have it be a 4k documentary you know have good camera quality everywhere and produce because one of my goals is to produce a King James Bible documentary that's the next one and I really want to emphasize the history and I really want to make a really strong case for why we use the King James Bible and leave all the David Ike stuff out of it okay and then also you know I want to get our Spanish New Testament I want to make an economic version of the Spanish New Testament that doesn't have a false gospel in the back of it I mean it's like you know why do you want to produce your own Bible because the only ones I can buy have a false gospel attached to them it's like can I please find an economical Spanish Bible without a false gospel attached to it you know a way someone can help me that speaks Spanish is pick it up and look at it and tell me if there's anything stupid because if there's something stupid you know they pull it up they're like I don't read this you know that would be a great way to help me it is looking at that reviewing it making sure it's good it's gonna reach the Spanish people how about this preach good sermons hey when you get the opportunity to preach preach a good sermon that really helps me you know it doesn't help me when people preach terrible sermons false doctrine heresy just all those extra issues I have to deal with you know and it's just frustrating how about mission trips you know the thing you can do on missions trips just be a blessing show up and help and be an assistance some people their goal on a missions trip is for me to cater on their personal family vacation it's like you know where's this and where's this where's my toothbrush and you know where's my goodie bag and where's my sneakers and where's my shirt and you know did you plan did you pack this for me and I'm thinking like no yourself your family your church family leadership you know that's how you help the leadership is by taking care of all these things you know and someone says oh man I didn't pack this and you're like oh I got one for you and I'm thinking like sweet I don't have to deal with that you know what I mean that's helping the leadership is by doing these type of things other stuff you could do help with baby showers you know we have ladies in our church that I was baby showers and you may not be the leader you know it's either my wife or a couple other ladies that often are planning it but you know you could show up early you could set up you could help tear down you can help decorate you could help do whatever you know that's how you help the leadership you know show up for the soul winning time you can help your soul winning time leader make maps you could help your soul winning time leader you know bring material or get water or do anything you know if you want to help the leadership you gotta help yourself you help the family you gotta help your church family and then what you have to start planning how can I help how can I see the leadership in my life and help them how can I prepare and be ready to help that person okay then I'm ready to perform and then I'm even willing to purge and do things better or learn you know one of the best quality somebody can have is the ability to receive correction or improve themselves to do better you know I want to do even more soul-winning more so winning trips hey we want to get all of Fort Worth done I had a five-year vision to get all of Fort Worth completely shaded in and I think we're like in a year and some months or something into it we've done a decent job but hey you can help me by figuring out how to get that whole area shaded in hey we can have more so winning events and more so winning times and more people willing to step in and lead and more work to be done because obviously we're talking about a lot of good works but the most important work is so winning getting the gospel out to everyone and look I went over a lot of information this morning a lot of stuff maybe you go back and you review it but there are so many ways to get involved in church and one of the things that will frustrate leadership this is not just me this is anybody where they'll frustrate leadership is when someone just asked this question you know hey I want to get involved what can I do and then you say well what can you do I don't know I'm not prepared I'm not plan I don't I can't do anything and look sometimes you just genuinely don't know you're just like hey I'm here to help fix anything or do anything do you want me to move anything you know and then it's easier to use people but it's the best way to present yourself is to say hey I've noticed this could be done do you want me to help with that maybe you show up at church hey do you want me to set chairs out do you want me to get water out you want me to do these things rather than just always like how can I help you know go to your boss what can I do and it's just like look around one of the most frustrated things I've ever had in my life is I was working a construction project and when I was working with someone close to me and it was just like you walk in it's just an obvious wreck you know there's all this work that needs to be done it's just super obvious it's right there to be seen and they're just like hey what do I do and I'm just thinking like open your eyes you know like grab a hammer start doing I mean do something you know don't have to be spoon fed and told everything you have to actually plan then prepare then perform and then purge let's close in prayer thank you father so much for your word thank you for letting us be a part of the body of Christ having such a great and important task of being part of your body and being ambassador of Christ I pray that we take our job seriously today and I pray that as we go out and we do our work today that we would think about all the plans and the preparations that go into it that you'd help us when we perform those operations and that you would help us also purge ourselves from unnecessary things that we would be willing to constantly adapt and evolve and get better and improve ourselves and I pray that our church could do great works for you we know all the works that we do is for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ and I pray that we get that deep down in our hearts so that we could be a good representative in Jesus name we pray amen all right for the final song we're seeing we're seeing song number 47 let the Sun shine again in my heart that is song number 47 47 let the Sun shine again in my heart I remember the time when I first knew the Savior when the sunlight of blessing so flooded my heart oh the sweetness of first love with Jesus so near me and I thought such devotion would never depart let the Sun shine again let the flowers bloom again stir the embers of love in my heart holy spirit reprove then embrace me again let the Sun shine again in my heart then how sweet where the scriptures they spoke to me daily how they guided my steps but my zeal did not last and the sweet place of prayer where I met with my Savior high neglected and so soon my joys were all past let the Sun shine again let the flowers bloom again stir the embers of love in my heart holy spirit reprove then embrace me again let the Sun shine again in my heart oh I loved well to walk in the way with God's children when we met with that hard enough fellow shifts we but the pull of the flesh and some worldly companions in the past of sins pleasure attracted my feet let the Sun shine again let the flowers bloom again stir the embers of love in my heart holy spirit reprove then embrace me again let the Sun shine again in my heart Lord I come now again for forgiveness and blessings as thy penitent child I am seeking my peace for the blood paid my debt and thy spirit within me bids me come to my father my wandering to seize let the Sun shine again let the flowers bloom again stir the embers of love in my heart holy spirit reprove then embrace me again let the Sun shine again in my heart amen you're dismissed