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I first want to say thank you so much to Pastor Burzins and his family and Stronghold Baptist Church for inviting us out here and the accommodations and hospitality has been above and beyond it's been great it's great to have a cottage out there on the lake is beautiful and I never expect to see beach in the middle of the Georgia woods but you know hey it's been great and a lot of faces I recognize some faces I don't recognize my name is Pastor Jonathan Shelley this is my wife Carrie and our family we came out here we're in the Dallas-Fort Worth area from Steadfast Baptist Church and so we look forward to meeting anybody that we haven't met already I want to start here it in my sermon in Titus chapter 3 look at verse number 8 the Bible reads this is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou firm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these are good and profitable on the men and I want to just draw my sermon from this passage and the title of my sermon this evening is this zealous routines maintain zeal zealous routines maintain zeal and we have an admonition here that's very strong where it says we need to be careful to maintain good works it even says that this is something that preachers are supposed to preach on a regular basis they're supposed to affirm constantly and they're supposed to bring these things up constantly and I'm not going to bring up any topics that you wouldn't expect to hear constantly in church because you know good works are going to be very obvious you know your pastor is going to preach on a lot of things that you hear often but it's for a purpose that purpose is so that you maintain those zealous works and you know I love coming to events like this there's so much fun and I love the fact that we get to come to church on a regular basis come every single night and hear all kinds of different sermons and obviously anybody that's here that you obviously have zeal you know I can't say that you don't have any zeal you already showed that you have a lot of zeal to want to come out and hear the Word of God being preached you know it's something that a lot of people are not interested in today is hearing the Bible being preached but you've obviously shown a lot of great zeal but you know it's easy to show zeal or it's easier to show zeal for just one week then for the rest of your life it's easy to get zealous just for a short period of time it's harder to maintain that zeal over years decades over a lifetime and if that's your goal then you need to have a zealous routine so that you can maintain that zeal and the reality is any area of your life you need maintenance you know when it comes to your car if you're not constantly putting oil in that car it's not gonna work right and you can't just drive your car without putting oil in it you got to constantly put oil in it you know when it comes to your house you got to constantly clean it I bet the women know what I'm saying right now they'd love to yell amen but you know you got to keep maintaining that house or it's gonna have problems you know there's a lot of things in your life that you have to have a routine maintenance a routine zeal for in order to keep it in good working condition okay you know and I don't like coming to my house and being dirty or smelling bad or those type of things no one would enjoy that and so in order to live a life where you really enjoy your home you're gonna have to constantly perform maintenance you're gonna constantly have to clean it up you're gonna have to constantly put effort and energy into it even your physical body hey you got to maintain that thing you know if you can smell you've been stinking for at least three days if you can smell yourself that's what my dad always said but the reality is if you want to enjoy your body you got to maintain that thing you got to put some effort and some energy into your own body you have to wash it you have to take care of it in order to have a well-functioning body and the less you take care of it the worse it's going to be off the less you're even going to enjoy your body the less you maintain your house the less you're gonna enjoy your house the less you take care of your car the less you're gonna enjoy your car and it comes the same way these carnal truths come into your spiritual truth and the fact that if you're not maintaining your spiritual life you're not going to enjoy your spiritual life as much go to Hebrews chapter 10 and go to Hebrews chapter number 10 and when it comes to spiritual life you know there's a lot of things that are extremely important when it comes to your spiritual walk but you know this to me is probably one of the most important things that you can do just because it reminds you of all the other important spiritual things that you need but that is going to church and if I can say there's one thing I just think people need to have a really dedicated zealous routine is going to church because when you're going to church you're gonna be reminded of all the other spiritual things that you need to be doing and in the Bible commands that you go to church look at what it says in Hebrews chapter number 10 look at verse 24 and let us consider one another to evoke unto love and a good works now we read in Titus chapter 3 verse 8 they're supposed to maintain good works the Bible is going to tell us one of those good works right here look at verse 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching the Bible literally tells us that we need to constantly go to church we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together but we need to be going to church we need to be zealous for church we didn't have a zealous routine for going to church you say what does that look like well for an independent fundamental Baptist Church that's three to thrive there's a lot of churches that don't even have three service to offer but you know what I'm not gonna stop having I'm not gonna stop in three services I might have more you know and look this week we're having more and what a great thing to have you know 2020 and 2021 haven't been the greatest years as far as just enjoying this world or enjoying the things and and we can see kind of some birthing pains of the devil and his agenda and we can see a lot of evil is taking over in this world today and guess what every single second that ticks on that clock is just a second closer to the coming of Christ and when we keep getting closer and closer you say when's it gonna happen I don't know but we're getting closer by the time pastor minutes is preaching we're getting really close like two and a half hours closer or something he told me I had about two and a half hours or something we need that zealous routine now I want you to go if you would in your Bible to Proverbs 22 and I'll get there in a moment but you know it's really hard to provoke people under love and good works when you don't see them it's easier to provoke people into love and good works when you see them and you say well where am I gonna see you in church and you say well what are those other good works Bible reading soul winning you know it's easier for me to provoke somebody that's at church already there with me to say hey why don't you come so winning with us in the afternoon hey why don't you go so winning with us later this evening or why don't we go so winning on Saturday it's a lot easier to provoke somebody to serve God when they're there in the flesh and you're there and you're saying let's go you know hop in the car you know it's a lot easier to provoke somebody to memorize the Word of God when they're there and you know what I do is all my kids if they memorize the verse of the week they get ice cream for our Bible study so it encourages them to show up for the midweek service encourage them to show up for the Bible study and you know what I don't care if I give up give out a hundred ice creams every single week it's worth it to me because I want them to have the routine of memorizing a verse of the Bible every week and those zealous routines well guess what they'll maintain zeal to help those kids love the Word of God you know you're gonna be reminded to pray you're gonna be reminded to read your Bible and here's a benefit that you don't realize but church makes you normal church makes you normal when you're not going to church you're not normal when I meet people that don't go to church they're not normal you know they're believing in the Flat Earth Theory and I'm thinking like you don't go to a good church you go to my church and start bringing that up people are gonna start making fun of you they're gonna tell you you're dumb they're gonna say I'm not writing in your car cuz you're gonna drive me off the edge you have people they don't go to church and they'll come with you let's say did you know that Donald Trump is still the president and I'm like what yeah there's this secret you know White House down in Mar-a-Lago I think you're crazy man they're like have you heard of Q non like I'm not interested you know and people get so excited about Donald Trump because they're not going to church you know if you go to church you're gonna hear about sins like I don't know pride I don't know like covetousness I don't know like adultery and then you're gonna think oh wow this Trump guy doesn't sound so great after all you know it's weird how this world they constantly try to give you two different options that really suck to try and convince you that one of them's good you know what Donald Trump and Joe Biden it's like both of these options are so bad nobody would ever pick them in their right mind let me tell you what Donald Trump here's my parable for you okay Donald Trump is like the impossible burger who knows what impossible burger is I hope nobody's even tried it the impossible burger is somehow a meatless burger who comes up with these terrible inventions you know I want the exact opposite I want a burger that's only meat not a burger that's zero meat okay but someone comes up with this option here's the thing you present that to a Baptist he would always reject it you present that to a real man he's gonna say like no you should have never even tried but then they compare they say well you can have the impossible burger or rat poison and you're like well I guess I'm taking the impossible burger it's like hey yeah the Democrats are like rat poison no one wants that it'll kill you as soon as you eat it but no one in their right mind wants an impossible burger sorry I'm not offending you vegans but you know I don't care he said I supposed to preach something really hot okay I saw someone wearing a shirt PETA hey it was a good shirt people eating tasty animals but the reality is going to church is gonna make you more normal it's gonna help you not eat the impossible burger spiritually which is Donald Trump if you think Donald Trump is gonna save our society if he's gonna save America you're wrong you know people get all excited especially in Georgia because I mean talk about the epicenter of the election right talk about all kinds of crazy things going on and look if you think that the election was completely legitimate you need to also come to church so you can be more normal but people that get so enemy they're so excited they're like wow I can't wait for them to finally fix the elections you know and get voter ID in here or something but guess what I'm not excited about that because even if we could say our elections from now on are gonna be 100% pure perfect every single person is gonna get to vote well guess what we're still gonna be doomed I don't know if you realize but this world is not interested in the things of God if we have a hundred percent legitimate elections they're still not gonna vote pastor burzins as your governor they're gonna vote for Brian Kemp but he's not gonna fix the world he's not gonna fix our society look why would you get so zealous to make sure that they can correctly vote for someone who's wicked and you know what people get caught up in the wrong fights they get so zealous for the wrong things because they're not going to church because they don't have a zealous routine spiritually and they get sucked into all this weird crap the Bible says be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners people don't accidentally start serving God when they're not going to church people that do spiritual things are getting into church and they're serving the Lord and the reality is you know when you start hanging out with the wrong crowd you're gonna start believing weird things and when you let weird stuff come into your church your church is gonna get weird you start letting Jehovah's Witness get in your church and pretty certain you're gonna start saying well nobody burns in hell you're gonna start saying weird stuff like there's the God part and there's the human part why because the relationships that you have are going to affect you and if you're not in church you're gonna have a lot of bad relationships dragging you down you're gonna have a lot of people affecting you but not in a good thing you know it's good to have people iron sharp and iron but it doesn't help to have flat earth sharp and cunon because then pretty pretty sure pretty much you know Donald Trump is you know still the president and all the politicians in the White House are holograms and you know it's like look these people exist they come up to me and I'm just thinking like what have you been doing YouTube a little bit too much YouTube a little too much reddit or something or 4chan I don't know what is it anymore but the reality is you know what if you want to have zealous works you want to have good works you need to have a zealous routine you have a good routine and the things of this world are not going to provoke you into serving the Lord look what it says in Proverbs 22 verse 24 make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul look what the Bible is teaching is teaching a principle that when you hang out with someone who's angry he can make you angry you can start learning his ways and it's not limited to anger it's every single emotion it's every single attitude it's every single idea people often are just sheep and they just you know listen to the loudest voice that they're around they start becoming the people that they surround themselves with and they turn into a different person you know and I know when you start hanging out with the wrong friend the wrong person they could affect you very negatively that's why it's important to find people that are better than you and hang out with them so I'm glad pastor minutes here to preach later and clean everything up I want to find people that are you know serving Lord better than I am doing more than I am and go rub shoulders with them so that I can be better if I hang out with an angry person I'll just become angry you hang out with a complainer you're just gonna complain hang out with someone that doesn't like church pretty soon you won't be going to church you hang out and it's funny to me you hang out with someone that's a you know what it was Atlanta Falcons fan you'll become an Atlanta Falcons fan it's interesting to me when it comes to all these sports people just like the team that they're near I you know there's usually not very much loyalty you just like wherever you're at why because it's hard to go against the grain it's hard you know just stick to your own convictions wherever you're at you know it's just end up who you like and the things that you do and the behaviors that you take I mean your accent is dictated by around the people that you're around you don't even try it just happens automatically and you pick up so much more than you realize from the people you surround yourself with and I'm telling you if you get into church it's gonna affect you in a way that's positive it's gonna give you some good zeal and you know what you want to maintain that zeal you have to have a zealous routine get into church go to Ecclesiastes chapter 9 Ecclesiastes chapter number 9 and we all know that children act one way in front of their parents and another way with their friends you speak one way in front of your parents you speak another way when you're with your friends why because your environment is going to affect you the people that you're round is gonna affect you you know you start coming to church you might start saying some things differently you might start acting a little differently you might dress a little differently why because the environment you're putting yourself in is gonna dictate your behavior I remember growing up in school I was not a very good student okay as far as behavior I did good for grades but I was not good in the behavior department but there was a couple times where I'd be put in a classroom where I didn't have any friends I didn't know anybody I didn't like them and I would just be silent I would I wouldn't talk to anybody because there was no one to feed off of there was no one to you know get me riled up and I remember my teachers would be so confused because they would talk and they would say all this Jonathan Shelley he's such a hassle he's always you know making fun of things and then getting every riled up in class and they talked another cheese like he never talks I never even got a peep out of it and it was it was confounding to them but here's the reality depending on the environment you're in you change your attitude and behaviors they change hey the version of you in the bar is different than the version of you in church the version of you around the world is different than the version of you around God's people and so if you want to have zeal for the things of God you need around other people that have the zeal for the things of God you know three to thrive two to survive one is life support its life support and here's the thing with pastors is they have to constantly look at their flock and they can see people start to fade away and just as much as if you stopped showering for a couple weeks and we could we could all tell you can tell when people start to fade spiritually and they start to stink spiritually and you can tell the direction that they're headed and it's frustrating to you and look people that are going to church three times a week they don't just like randomly leave typically typically people start to fade typically they go from three times now that just Sundays just a couple times now that's just Sunday morning then pretty much just every once in a while and then just gone but the people that are putting themselves in the routine it's a lot harder for them to go it's a lot harder for them to walk away and the reality is you know if I miss one service but I'm going three times a week that's still two for that week if I go once every month and I miss once that's a whole month of services that I could be potentially missing and it's a lot easier to break a routine by just one thing you know it's easy to miss one time right kid gets sick your wife's pregnant that happens often right yeah I mean you got whatever you got things you know you got to give birth right go to the Ecclesiastes chapter 9 I have you turned there please yes chapter 9 the reality is you know we're all going to miss one service every once in a while but when you're going three times a week you just get right back in whenever you're kind of hanging loose and you're already kind of fading a little bit and you start missing it's a lot harder to get plugged back in it's a lot harder to keep showing up and the reality is I kind of thought with all the crazy stuff that's happening and how it's almost just obvious the devil's playbook I mean it's just like he's just telling us his strategy right before eyes and we see this world waxing worse and worse so readily I thought so many more people get more spiritual it kind of wake them up they kind of be like oh wow we need to take things more seriously but I've noticed it seems like more people are fading and and here's my theory about that this is why I think a lot of people are fading is because they're so busy with other stuff right now and they've gotten so tired from getting into the wrong fights they're so into their fights against racism and they're in the fight against the election and they're in the fight for their governor and for the president and they're in the fight for their job and they're in the fight you know do I wear the mask do I not wear the mask where we're 20 of them you know I mean it's just there's just so many though so much fighting and there's so many fights you could be in but the reality is you know that's just a distraction to get you out of the good fight we're supposed to fight the good fight of faith and I don't want to get to the point where I'm so concerned with all these other issues that I'm putting church on the back burner that is changing my zealous routine and you say well church has been shrinking not growing or you know we've gone through a dry spell or maybe it's growing it doesn't matter churches go up and down but the reality is the majority is never gonna want to hear the truth but who cares about the majority you can only affect yourself I like this verse look at Ecclesiastes chapter 9 look at verse 17 the words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools the reality is if you really want to hear something wise often it's heard often a quarter somewhere often the woods somewhere often a small Baptist Church somewhere is where you're gonna have the words of the wise yet the guy that's screaming for everybody here on Facebook and Twitter it's stupidity it's not worth listening to anyways why do you want to go hear what they have to say look you should find a church where you're gonna have the words of the wise men being taught to you even if it's just you and your family even if it's just Wednesday night oh man it's us and three other families well you're there the pastor's there it's interesting the pastor doesn't get you just take a break because not everybody's showing up or whatever it's interesting that the pastor prepared a Bible study for you and you know what he prepared it for every single person and you say well where am I gonna get all the good information I need you know it may not be with lots of people maybe a small crowd but look the words of wise men are heard in quiet more you want to hear the words of wise you need to seek them out you need to find them it's difficult to find them sometimes and the more you're in church the more spiritual you're gonna be the more you're in the world the more carnal you're gonna be you need to get a habit of going three times a week it's harder to get out of church at that point go into Proverbs 24 just flip back and go to Proverbs 24 I want to show you verse here people are just getting sucked into the wrong fights and it's not going to be any different as the world waxes worse and worse there's going to be even more distractions more difficulty more pestilences more evil you know I wish I could say COVID is gonna go away but the Bible promises is all kinds of pestilences in the future and I've noticed this thing the government when they take a whole bunch of power they never seem to be like I just want to give that right back when have they done that I don't remember it seems like they pass even more legislation and they pass even more rules and they say we didn't take as much power as we wanted we wanted even more power we're looking to take even more and look at this point you could tell people if you wear a mask you're gonna go to hell and they'll still wear it so you know even from an individualistic perspective you know that stuff's not going away it's going to be a constant fight and the devil wants you to be distracted with all of the the COVID issues and all these other things and look I hate it just as much as the next guy don't hear me wrong but I don't want to waste and spend all my energy on that I don't want to fight all the woke issues I don't want to fight for the dr. Seuss book to come back on the shelf I didn't read them before they're like another dr. Seuss book is banned and I'm thinking like which one I didn't read that either who cares who cares whatever they ban and whatever they do I mean these are just the wrong fights and look I'll talk about it I'll make fun of it and and you know what it's fine for a pastor to call out the stupidity of this world every once in a while but the reality is if it's interrupting your zealous routine you need to change something you need to get back in the cells routine when you start to stink spiritually you need to take a bath and you say where is it in the house of God that's where you get cleaned up like what it says in Proverbs 24 verse 10 if thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small you know it's easy to serve God when it's easy it's easy to serve God when everybody's going and it's fun and they got Starbucks in the lobby and just you know everything's just roses or whatever you know what that doesn't make you strong you know it doesn't make you strong to share an opinion online that everybody likes and it's going viral and everybody's so excited oh you're so strong you know what strength is is standing up in the day of adversity strength is when you get up and you preach a sermon where you feel like people are gonna like it where people might leave after you preach something you know strength is saying you know what I'm gonna stand with my pastor no matter who likes it whether my job likes it whether my parents like it whether my family likes it whether my friends like it hey he's my friend and that's interesting Peter had a crisis at a point is he friends with Jesus or not and look he failed if Peter can fail we can fail it was a little girl I know not the man can you imagine saying you don't even know Jesus it's a crazy thought but here's the thing that kind of pressure most of us probably haven't even gone through you know Peter's obviously looking at the fact that he could probably be killed his life is on the line he could be ridiculed horrible pressure coming upon him most of us have not stood the face of persecution where your life is on the line and a lot of people they'll get up and they'll say oh I'm with you pastor oh man I'm gonna stand against them I can't wait I love your sermon that was so great and then a little girl's like do you go to stronghold never heard of it that's a dumb name for a church stronghold what is this you know they still got Baptist on the sign I wouldn't go to a Baptist Church he's like what's that what's that stronger sure you got on oh this nothing don't worry about that you know where were you last week nothing you laugh but it's reality go to Romans chapter 12 for a moment go to Romans chapter 12 for a moment and let me tell you this you need to make habits that you can maintain it and I noticed some people they have zeal and you know what sometimes people are going three times a week or they're really plugged in but their lifestyle is not a maintainable lifestyle let me explain what I mean they're driving two or three hours to church every single week and the reality is sometimes that's just not maintainable that's just not real for a lot of people it's a very difficult struggle and the reality is I don't want to make serving God as hard as possible I want to make serving God as easy as possible when I moved to faith Lord Baptist Church to go there you know I didn't know is where I should live as far as the neighborhood or where my work is going to be necessarily or any of those factors and frankly I've never been there I bought my house online you know what I liked about it was four minutes from the church and I said I want zero excuse carnally to not serve God I just want to make sure that I'm taking out every single block every single roadblock every single stumbling block every single thing I can out of the way so I can serve the Lord and I can be zealous and you know I've seen people they're going to church three times a week they're they're going so winning on a regular basis they're serving the Lord and then they move three hours away from church and then they start going twice a week and then they're just waiting for the next life event and that life event is gonna change for them spiritually what's that life event I don't know someone dies or they move or they get a new job or they get married or they have a kid or they have another kid or they have some kind of a health crisis or they have some kind of a life event that happens and look life events are going to happen to you and when you don't have a zealous routine it's easy to get knocked out it's easy to stop serving God and then that person changes or they get married to the wrong person that person's not as zealous and you see them slowly changing as a person the person that was real zealous is now not as zealous for the things of God is not putting God first and eventually they're gone I've seen marriage ruin a lot of people's spiritual walk they marry the wrong person that person's not interested the person lies to them and look I'm not interested you know some people get married and like less than two weeks of knowing each other I don't recommend that people that have made it work praise the Lord that's great and you know what hey some people in the Bible got married like that you know Rebecca just took a step of faith that Isaac was gonna you know marry her I was gonna be a great person to marry and you know that picture is a picture of Christ right we haven't seen Christ but we just accept him by faith right but the end of the day you know this life is a long life and there's a lot of roadblocks there's a lot of difficulty and there's a lot of struggle and the Bible emphasizes being equally yoked and I just tell you you can't figure that out in two weeks because you can be really zealous for a week you can be really zealous for two weeks it's hard to be zealous for a lifetime and you know what you're gonna you're gonna have children with this person you're gonna spend a lot of time with this person you know you need to be careful who you marry what they do and you have habits that you can maintain you know that's why I also make sure I don't have any work conflicts some people they're showing up and it's like they barely can show up because they have all these weird work conflicts so they get a job where if they get promoted they're gonna stop serving God it's like they have this job but they're like I'm really hoping to get this next job and as soon as I get the next job I won't be able to come to church and I'm thinking like I hope you don't get that next job why would I want you to get the next job you know in this world doesn't understand the things of God because they're not of God they think that moving should be because you're gonna make more money they think that moving should be because you're gonna have a nicer house they think moving should be because you're gonna be closer to in-laws why would you ever want to be closer to in-laws ask a married person that's been married for a while do you want to go move in with the in-laws no look it causes problems and look some people have great in-laws that's that's wonderful see them every once in a while and have a great time but what I'm telling you hey you know it's a great way to have a happy great way to move closer to church and closer to a great church it says in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your body as a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is a reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God here's the reality you go out in the world and you get dirty you need to come into church and wash your brain from all that filth from all that smut you need to be constantly renewed so that you can prove what is that good and acceptable will of God the world will tell you what's acceptable but it's not the world will tell you what's good but it's not you need to hear from the Word of God what is good you hear from the Word of God what is acceptable you need to constantly renew your mind by getting into church and look you don't get zeal on accident you know where people get zeal from hearing a verse come off the lips of a preacher and it strikes something in your heart and I know in our churches we don't really do the old-fashioned altar call but the altar call shouldn't be a physical thing it's a spiritual thing in your heart it's where you hear something and church and you say you know what I need to make that change hey that Word of God pricked something in my heart and you know what that's going to give you that zeal you want to get zeal get into church and you know what if you're a pastor or preacher you want to give people zeal preach the Word of God preach what the Bible actually says you know one thing that pisses me off is when a young preacher gets an opportunity to preach on my pulpit and they preach their opinion not the Bible because opinions don't change people's lives opinions don't make people more zealous you know what makes people really zealous is the Word of God hey when you think of the change you made in your life I bet you there's a Bible verse you could think of that's tied to that change in your life there's something that the Word of God did to you and look that's why men of God are supposed to get up and to preach the Word of God because the Word of God will change your life but if you're not hearing the Word of God your life is not going to be changed for the better it's gonna be changed for the worse the message of the world wants to drag you down go to Psalms 119 for a moment go to Psalms 119 and I love this chapter of the Bible because it's emphasizing the Word of God every single verse in some way is a reference to the Word of God and it's the longest chapter in your Bible and here's the thing Church needs to constantly remind you some things like staying away from sin and you know where you hear that message only Church it seems like Church is the only is it's the pillar and ground of the truth and and I know as a pastor sometimes when I'm I'm thinking about a particular subject or I'm thinking about something that people do I think you know if I don't say that no one else will ever say that to that person and I think this person will never hear this message if they don't come to church and you prepare a message thinking you know what I'm really excited I hope the Word of God can make a positive change in this person's life and they're not there and you know what they never seem to magically come to church and like I made that change anyways no even people that sit in the church and you preach that message they sometimes don't make that change but you know what the changes are made in the hearts of men in the house of God and we need to constantly hear the Word of God being preached like what it says in Psalms 119 101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word I love this person's attitude notice they don't have Peters attitude oh I'll die with you Christ for sure no matter what this person's taking heat under their spiritual walk they're saying that I might they say hey I know it's difficult hey I know it's a struggle hey I know there's gonna be roadblocks hey I know there's gonna be things attacking me and I know in order for me to keep God's Word I have to do something I have to refrain my feet meaning what you're not going certain places you're not hanging out with certain people you know the best way to stop sending is be in church I notice people stop sending a lot more when they're in church presently it's a lot harder to get drunk in church it's a lot harder to look at filthy disgusting things when you're in church it's a lot harder to hear really stupid ideas when you're in church look at verse number nine also you say well how am I gonna get better wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word hey you want to clean yourself up hey you want to be zealous you got to take heed under the Word of God and you got to constantly hear it by being in church and look you say well why is my pastor always getting up and saying you need to come to church because the Bible tells us to constantly preach it cuz we look at people that are fading and we're saying wow you need to take a shower you need to clean up a little bit mom and dad are saying hey boys take a shower and you say where how is the young man gonna clean up spiritually by the Word of God by getting into the house of God and hearing God's Word being thundered forth that's how you need it cleaned up you're gonna be a better person when you're constantly being cleaned up by the Word of God and not only that look with Ephesians chapter 5 my first topic I want to bring to approach was church and I only have three I have two short ones that I want to kind of mention here for a moment but look zealous routines maintains ill you want to be zealous for a church you need to have a zealous routine and look you can hear the words that I'm saying but if you don't make a zealous routine eventually you'll probably fade and it's really life support because you know you look at these people going once just coming every once in a while they eventually typically leave and that's a sad reality that's a sad thing to watch someone slowly deteriorate and to get out of church and when you get out of church it doesn't just affect your spiritual life it even affect your carnal life it affects every part of your life because you're not being fed the things that you need you're not taking the spiritual showers that you need you're not cleaning yourself up and one area that I notice you know you're not going to get any good advice outside the churches in your marriage in your marriage you know there's not good advice outside the church in marriage there's a lot of really bad advice people you talk to your friends oh man he's so mean he so he told me something and I didn't like it well you should divorce him right away that's that's what they'll say oh he's so mean he wants me to dress nice and he wants me to cook and to clean I'm not gonna do that I'm gonna go work at the hotel where I cook and clean he wants me to teach the children I'm gonna go work at the elementary school and teach 150 and show him 150 brats that'll be way better you know the whole better divorce him you know all your husband made a mistake better better drop him like a bad habit that's what you device you'll get out in the world and you know what you're not constantly reminded to love your wife and to love your husband and to do right outside of the church and I noticed that marriages start to really deteriorate when they're not hearing the Word of God being preached who's been where are you getting constant reminded to have a good marriage outside of church who's trying to constantly tell you to love your wife and love your husband look I hear a different message outside of these walls you know when I see the billboards in Dallas Fort Worth you know what the billboards are oops call us at this divorce lawyer call so-and-so divorce lawyer you go to the mall call this so-and-so divorce lawyer I saw one billboard it says double your closet size call this divorce lawyer and I was like jokes on you because I don't even have half it's like add 1 10th your closet size you know have room for a extra pair of shoes you know the messages of this world and I encourage you to love your spouse my friend and you look hey you want to ruin every area of your life stop going to church Ephesians chapter number five the Bible says in verse 22 wives submit yourselves into 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 therefore as the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything that's it's funny to me that people that will come to a church like ours they'll literally say well what if my husband says X or what if my husband asked me to do this and I'm just thinking like everything everything obviously there's a caveat of your if your husband's asking to murder someone okay you know obviously he's telling you to break God's Commandments we ought to obey God rather than men but if it's not in violation of God's Word you say yes sir and you do it now it's not hard to understand it's hard to do and it's really hard when none of your friends are doing it and that's who you hang out with it's really hard when you're out in the world and your mom doesn't it's really hard when your aunt doesn't it's really hard when your grandma does it but you know what you should serve God and you should not care what the world's doing and when you're in the house of God you're gonna constantly be reminded of how to behave like I said when you're hanging out with the wrong crowd your behavior starts to change doesn't it the way you might talk to your husband might be different around your family then your spiritual family than in the house of God and the reality is we need people to be reminded to serve the Lord and to do it right and just as inappropriate as it would be for me to literally get up here and start ripping pages out of my Bible or to say I don't like that opinion of God I know the Bible said this but I'm gonna do X as blasphemous as that would be is for a wife to say that she's not gonna obey your husband that's the comparison that's made the church is supposed to be subject unto Christ the same way that a wife is supposed to be on her own husband and the reality is they say oh you just hate women you know women have to obey look I don't care who you are you have to obey someone in this room everyone in this room has to obey someone you have to obey your boss you have to be your parents you have to obey whoever it is you have to obey your pastor you have to obey your soul-winning leader you have to obey the people that are given into your life we all have people that are over us and in the same way that I'm supposed to obey my boss at work is the same way that my wife should obey me and everything that's not violating the Word of God and you say oh I don't like that well you just don't like the Bible and the reality is you know if your children are looking to your example and you're not going to obey your husband let me give you on a little secret they're not gonna obey you when you mouth off to your husband your children are gonna mouth off to you if you're always complaining about your husband your children are gonna be complaining about you why because when you don't have a zealous routine you're gonna lose zeal for the things of God hey you want things to go well in your life start serving the Lord 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 then he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish so I've been to love their wives as their own bodies he that loveth his wife loveth himself for no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourish it and cherish with it even as the Lord the church so again if you don't want to stink you got to wash your body but here's the thing if you don't want your marriage to stink you got to love your wife you got to nourish your wife you got to cherish your wife and just like it's three to thrive for a church why don't you get a three to thrive for your marriage why don't you have at least three quality times with your wife every week he say well why why would I do that so you can have a good marriage you say hey my marriage is not going well well do you ever spend time with your wife no it's like it's not a shock it's not it's not a it's very obvious why that's happening you know you're gonna get out of the things that you put into and if you really want to have a good marriage you have to put something into it and look no one's perfect here I'm not perfect up here but I'll tell you what I notice when I'm not putting effort and energy into my marriage my marriage is not as good as when I'm putting a lot of effort and energy into my marriage and I've noticed that marriage causes a lot of people to stop serving the Lord go to a first Corinthians chapter 7 go to 1st Corinthians chapter number 7 you know you need to take time to enjoy things with your wife enjoy things with your husband spending time with them putting effort and energy into your relationship and look marriage is not automatic that's infatuation that was dating ever you young couples I heard there's a couple gonna get married hey it's easy now you have to try you like every you like all the things they do wrong he burps cute you know oh man he stinks and it smells great you know everything's just wonderful when you're dating but pretty soon those burps start to smell pretty soon all those things that you thought were really cool and cute they kind of wear off a little bit and you have to start putting effort and energy into your relationship and really a great marriage comes with great effort people that have great marriages I guarantee they put a lot of effort into the marriage and you know some people say I don't fight me my spouse never fight and I'm thinking it's because you never talk you guys must not hang out with each other look if you're not fighting you're probably not even trying but the reality is you want to have a good marriage you got to put some effort you got to put some energy into it you know the Bible says drink water is out of thine own sister and in running waters of them well let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth you know you need to rejoice with your spouse you need to spend time with your spouse you need to put effort and energy into your relationship and when you're not you know it's not going to be a good marriage you know good marriages don't happen accidentally you know it takes a lot of effort takes a lot of energy and here's the reality if you want to maintain zeal zeal you say man I really want to be hot for my spouse I want it to be like it was at the beginning I want to have you know that honeymoon phase again you can you know what you have to have a zealous routine a zealous routine maintain zeal look what it says in 1st Corinthians chapter 7 look what it says in verse number 3 let the husband render unto the wife do benevolence and likewise also the wife unto the husband the wife hath not power of her own body but the husband and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife defraud ye not one the other except to be with consent for a time that you may give yourselves the fasting in prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinence see and let me tell you what you want to enjoy the aspects of your marriage that are related to marriage you know what you end up a zealous routine a lot of people they say oh I don't have that same fire I don't have that same burning for my spouse one of the same zeal for my spouse well let me tell you what they don't have a zealous routine with a zealous routine you can maintain that zeal just like people that barely go to church aren't that excited about church and people that you know barely work out they don't enjoy working out hey I took a while off of working out and I worked out again I was sore for like two weeks straight whereas people that work out on regular basis you enjoy working out you enjoy the benefits of those things and here's the thing when you're not working out in your marriage you're not being zealous in your marriage you don't have a good routine you're not gonna be enjoying that marriage I have one last point I want to talk about quickly go to your go to Ephesians chapter 6 zealous routines maintains zeal and look this could be applied to every area of your life I'm just focusing on a few here that I've noticed that really caused people to stop serving God and we already have a great group of people here that have zeal but you know what I want I don't want people to leave and say well I had zeal I remember that that great time when we were there I want them to maintain that zeal I want them to be maintaining good works and carry forward and we see it to the next event and the next event and the next event and the next event and then we're in the final event heaven and you're saying oh man I was just constantly on fire for God and you say how did I do it you had a zealous routine a zealous routine and let me say this when you make a zealous routine you may not have a lot of zeal in the moment what I'm saying is that zealous routine could take someone that's not that zealous and it'll give you that zeal it'll produce zeal it'll build zeal but it also to maintain that zeal it'll carry forward look at Ephesians chapter 6 and look at verse number 4 the Bible reads and he father's broken out your children wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord here's another area that I see people sometimes not having a zealous routine is in the area of children and what do I mean by that well go view into Proverbs 23 for a moment go to Proverbs chapter 23 but it takes a lot of effort and energy when it comes to children in fact this is what I say I say that children is the hardest thing you'll ever do but it's always worth it it's the hardest thing you'll ever do raising children but it's always worth it and you're gonna get out what you put in to your children and I've seen a lot of people sometimes I think they lose zeal when it comes to child raising because it's difficult because there's a lot of things and aspects and there's a lot of things you have to do in order to enjoy raising children but the Bible does say and I'll read for this for you it says I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and elect angels they'll observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by partiality according to the Bible if you want to be successful you can't do just one thing you kind of have to do it all just like your car you can't just make it on oil alone you need gas you can't make it on gas alone you need oil you need a lot of aspects to all kind of be running smoothly you can't just neglect certain areas and expect success and when it comes to child raising you know you can't just expect well the fact that we're having lots of children I'm gonna enjoy it no there's other things you have to do to continue having that zeal for children otherwise you can lose a zeal for children you know having lots of children doesn't automatically make you really zealous for raising children but here's something that will help and keep maintaining that zeal it's called discipline look at Proverbs 23 verse 13 withhold not correction from the child for thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell the Bible teaches that you're supposed to discipline your children on a regular basis and I'll tell you this I see lots of different families lots of different people with all kinds of different kids and you can tell the families that discipline well the families that don't and let me tell you something about the families that do versus the families that don't the families that do are enjoying their life are enjoying their children they enjoy going out to eat at a restaurant they enjoy going to church and I notice the families that are not disciplining well they're not using the rod of correction well you know what they don't enjoy anything they don't enjoy being at home they don't enjoy being at the restaurant they don't enjoy being at church and you can tell this is virtually everybody else in the world in fact a lot of the people in the world have one kid they have one child and they see a family of five six seven and they're like how do you do it they're freaking out they're like this one's a tyrant and I'm thinking it's you don't discipline them you know every time we go recently we had somebody look are they all yours and I'm thinking just look at them you know yeah all mine okay and and and frankly I don't even think that our kids are like exceptional or I don't think that they're more well-behaved than other people typically you know especially in a fundamental Baptist Church but it's such a stark contrast in the world that we're constantly complimented we go out to a restaurant I mean we're oftentimes we're not even thinking our kids are behaving well but then just strangers just come up and they're just like wow you know your kids are so well behaved I can't believe you take them out to a restaurant and it's like it's great you know we don't want to be at home and it's fun to go out every once in a while it's fun to enjoy these things but I want to keep having children and if you want to keep having children you need to enjoy the children that you have and if you want to enjoy the children that you have you need to discipline them and the people that are not disciplining I see that it it destroys the zeal they have in their heart I see they're not as excited when they have the next one when they're pregnant with the next one they're not as excited when they start to grow and to multiply and you know what the Bible says be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth you know it's a commandment for God's people to multiply physically and spiritually and you know I don't believe in birth control the Bible doesn't believe in birth control the guy that practice at Onan was killed for practicing birth control and the reality is it's called birth control not conception control okay conception is when a child is produced birth control is called murder Bibles says thou shalt not kill it's the Bible memory verse that we've been working on and the reality is I'm not trying to have as much birth control as I can by killing my children and I see that children are sorry children are not well disciplined often provide birth control to others because they're like well I don't want to be like them and I don't want to see all these rowdy kids and you know I don't want my church to be an advertisement for birth control when they look at all these rowdy children the reality is if you want to have zeal towards children you want to really love and cherish your children you know what it comes with discipline and if you don't discipline your children you're tempting hell with their life and I see a lot of people they have children already raised and they don't enjoy that child because they didn't discipline that child and you know what they lose the zeal and the love they have for that child because they didn't love them when they were little and use the rod the Bible says he that spareth the rod hated his son go over to 1st Peter chapter 2 I'm almost finished this evening but here's one other area that I'll give you just a tip and this is my suggestion also is obviously having lots of children can be stressful it's very difficult but I feel like some people aren't doing themselves any favors and when you're not disciplining you're not doing yourself any favors and the Bible already said we do things partially it doesn't work out as well well here's another thing that I feel like some people are doing partially and it's obviously circumstantial but the reality is the Bible talks positively about breastfeeding you know it says the blessings of the breast the Bible says even the sea monsters draw at the breast and give suck under their young ones and I see some people that are capable of breastfeeding they have that blessing from the Lord and they choose not to do it they choose to forego that and it oftentimes will complicate your child raising it can complicate in the fact that your child some people are basically bringing back Irish twins you say what's Irish twins it's where you have two children in less than a year okay and look if you have two children in less than a year praise the Lord you know children are always a blessing there's nothing negative with ever having a child and you know what I want to have as many children as I possibly can but the reality is when you forego something that the Bible is constantly mentioning and bringing up as a positive thing you know it sometimes can make things more difficult and zealous routines maintain zeal I've seen a lot of people forego breastfeeding and they have kids I've seen people have four or five kids and a period of three years and look I'm just being really honest here when they tell you that they're pregnant they're not even excited they're kind of they're kind of down about it they're kind of they're kind of frustrated they're like I'm pregnant again what am I going to do and I want people to be only excited when you have a child because that's the right reaction you know the right reaction to have a child is to be excited it's a blessing from the Lord it's a gift from God and the reality is children are always great and I don't want to discourage anybody from having as many kids as they possibly can you know what having kids you know the way God designed our bodies is going to be the best it's always going to be the best and you know if you do choose to breastfeed your child one thing happens you can't get pregnant within the first six months on a ninety nine point nine percent I mean with human error rate obviously that's there but you can't and it's going to protect your body and it's going to protect you from having so many kids close together that you may lose some zeal for child raising because it can be very difficult to have lots of littles if you're not disciplining if you're having so many so close together and I'll tell you this my wife is just a personal anecdote but my wife when we were first having children she did not want to breastfeed at all she thought it was like gross or she thought that it was weird and it's mostly from the baby boomer generation which really forsook a lot of breastfeeding they really decided they didn't want to do that they were very negative towards it and it's put this attitude into a lot of people and it's kind of given them a bad taste in their mouth but you know now my wife loves it she really enjoys it she says she's so excited to come back to it in fact there's been times where she's like I'm I miss the fact that I'm not nursing anyone she really enjoys it and look breastfeeding can be difficult to be painful obviously some people struggle with it and you know hey you got to get your kid fed I get that but what I'm saying is if you want to maintain zeal and having lots of children if you want to be enjoying it to the best of your ability you should be doing the things that the Bible emphasizes teaches promotes and the Bible promotes breastfeeding look what it says in first Peter chapter number two look at verse two as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby if so you've tasted that the Lord is gracious now here's the thing the Bible is a spiritual book and this is spiritual verse but God uses carnal truths to explain spiritual truths and the carnal truth just as a newborn babe desires that sincere milk of the word is how a new Christian should desire the Word of God and wants to be fed and wants these things to be nourished and the reality is when you do these things it's gonna help you and your child raising it's gonna help you and your family and and I really encourage this because I don't want people to be disheartened towards raising children having lots of children I want them to have as many kids as they can and they think that you can ride a mountain bike on first gear but you know sometimes you need to shift gears a little bit it makes it a little bit easier I don't want to do more effort than I have to I don't want to do more work than I have to and you know following all of God's plan is always gonna be the best and so I would encourage you you know to start creating zealous routines in your life go if you would to Titus to this last place we're going to look at Titus chapter number two zealous routines maintain zeal and a proper main take proper main maintenance creates a smoother ride you know if you don't put oil in the cars you know to jerk starts doing weird stuff you don't discipline your kids it starts to get a jerky ride you know you don't follow God's commitment you're not going to church your life's gonna start getting kind of jerky you're not spending time with your wife it's gonna be a rough marriage it's gonna be difficult it's gonna be frustrating and I want you to have zeal in these areas I want you to have zeal for your children I want to have zeal for your spouse I want you have zeal for the things of God but it's not gonna come automatically it's not gonna come magically what you have to do is you have to create a zealous routine look at Titus chapter 2 and look at verse 13 the Bible reads looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works we're looking to the coming of Christ that's that's what we're all looking forward forward to and we're excited about but I want my journey and I want your journey to the coming of Christ to be with zeal but I'm telling you what it's not gonna happen by accident you must create zealous routines in order to maintain that zeal you have this night let's close the word of prayer thank you Heavenly Father for the instructions and the commandments that you've given us I thank you for so many families that want to come out and hear the Word of God preached and I pray that you would just bless this week that you would help people to be inspired by the Word of God to create a zealous routine so they can maintain the zeal they have in their hearts