If you have your Bible tonight, go to the book of Romans, chapter one. Romans, chapter one. I want to say to you that I believe that if we were to survey Christianity in general, we would discover that the church talks about keeping the main things the main thing and yet has gotten far away from that which we were brought into existence to do. Now, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my father once told me that he had a professor in seminary that had three earned doctorates, been in the ministry for 30 years, and with tears told my father, I have never led a single soul to Christ in my life. And I want to tell you that I know a great many people that live their Christian lives without ever sharing their faith with anyone, without ever knowing what it is to lead a soul to Christ personally. And in fact, statistically, only one person in ten that names the name of Jesus Christ will ever lead a soul to Christ. I believe in the average church that 20% of the people do 80% of the work and 80% of the giving. And I have to tell you that I believe what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse number 34. Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. And Paul was saying, listen, I want you to wake up. Because there are people that have not the knowledge of God. And the reality is this tonight, that we live in a nation that is Christian in its name only. We live in a nation where an atheist woman named Madeline Murray O'Hare is credited with having removed prayer from the public school system. Michael Newdow has waged a personal war against the Pledge of Allegiance and has won in the Ninth Circuit to eliminate the words under God from the Pledge of Allegiance. The Supreme Court has heard and again will hear cases involving the public display of the Ten Commandments in society and that case is losing in almost every court in America. Just this past weekend in Phoenix, the Rainbow Festival was held where tens of thousands of homosexuals gathered together to parade and celebrate their depravity. And it was lauded by the political world and the commercial world as being wonderful and honorable. And in the public school systems, homosexuality is being taught and portrayed as an acceptable alternative lifestyle. That's in America. That's in Phoenix, Arizona. That's in 2005. That's going on right now. And sometimes we come into church and we want to play the game of spirituality and play religion. And, you know, I got to tell you, some of us get A plus for visiting. Some of us get A-plus for hallwalking. Some of us get A-plus for singing hymns in church. And we get A-plus for offering suggestions in the suggestion box about how somebody else ought to do the work. But we get D-minus or F when it comes to communicating our faith effectively to others so that they may come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. And my friends, I've got to tell you this. That you could build a career, you could build a house, you could build a portfolio, and when you die, you'll take none of it with you. This past week, a copy of Forbes magazine came to my home and I was reading about the 400 wealthiest people in America. And there is David Gates, who owns Microsoft and a bunch of other things and worth $43.8 billion. And my friends, the man will go to hell in a handbasket and all the money in the world can never buy him. One second in heaven. And you know what? We live like we want what he has. Can I tell you, I wouldn't trade $44 billion for what I have in Jesus Christ. In Romans 1 16, the Bible says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would bless this time together. Lord, I pray that you would stir us up, strengthen us, we pray by thy word. May Jesus be magnified for we ask it in his wonderful name. Amen. Tonight, I want to bring a simple message titled excuses, excuses. Everybody's got them. You do, I do. We all have reasons why we don't do what we know we ought to be doing in the work of the Lord. I want to tell you that I believe that Christians have excuses, just like the nonbeliever has excuses as to why they will not be saved. Anyone who has been a soul winner for any measure of time has encountered the nonbeliever that is filled with excuses as to why they will not be saved. And one of the things, as I began to study some of those excuses that I discovered, is this, that the average Christian uses the exact same excuse as a nonbeliever for not sharing their faith. You say, what do you mean? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I'm going to share it with you. I want to just say that this month our theme is world evangelism, reaching the world. As you walk out the back door tonight or the entry door of our church and look up above you, you're going to see that the words printed there say you are now entering the mission field. Just as I mentioned today that it would be hypocritical of us to move heaven and earth to help feed the hungry in New Orleans who have been displaced because of the storm, and do nothing to help the people right here at home. It is hypocritical of us. to send missionary dollars around the world to save people in Romania, to save people in Chile, to save people in the Philippines, to save people in Taiwan, to save people in other parts of the world and not do anything to reach them in the fifth largest city in America. One of the fastest growing metropolitan areas anywhere in the nation. In some parts of this county, 2000 people are moving in every single week. And folks, I got to tell you, they need the Lord. And we've got to capture a vision. that says we're going to do everything we can to reach these people. We're not just going to kind of sit on our laurels and maintain the status quo and think, oh, well, you know, it's OK if we hit a certain plateau here and we fill the house up nicely each time we come to the house of the Lord and we kind of maintain that. Listen, I've got to tell you that God's not interested in us sort of maintaining the status quo. God is interested in us carrying the gospel to people that have never heard. to continuing to broaden our horizons and expand our outreach. And the way that that's going to happen is if you and if I do our part in this thing of personal evangelism. I was talking to Thumper after the class today, and his heart was broken because a man that he knew was killed over the weekend. And he said, I don't know, Pastor, but I may have been the only person that could have shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with that man. Brother Marcus, last week, attended the funeral of a co-worker in his 20s. And Marcus, with tears in his eyes, just said, he's probably in hell. I don't know where he went, but I went to the funeral and it was hopeless and helpless. A bunch of rantings of a priest talking about praying him in or out of some place or the other and offering no hope whatsoever. As I talk to people about their need of salvation, sometimes they don't want to make a decision. Sometimes I give an invitation for people to come forward and say, I wish, by the way, praise God, Brother Lyle, your niece got saved today. and her friend got saved today. And God is working. Praise the Lord that Daniel got saved on Wednesday, got baptized. Praise the Lord that these two young fellows beside him have gotten saved this summer. Praise the Lord, Alan got saved this summer. Praise the Lord, Al got saved this summer. Praise the Lord that many folks, Bill, praise the Lord, he came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. And I'm looking around here, I'm seeing people in every section of the auditorium that have gotten saved. And folks, that didn't all happen by an accident. It happened by design. But I got to tell you something. I give an invitation. I ask people to come forward. And you know what? Sometimes they don't step out and come. You know why? Because, number one, they're too afraid of what people will think. They're too afraid of what people will think. Have you ever known people that say, well, I don't know, you know, and they don't want anybody to think something ill or strange of them? I had the opportunity, I mentioned this morning, to talk to some of Sarah's co-workers at a workshop that they have every fall for their management team. And I gave them the plan of salvation. And as I was giving them the plan of salvation, I talked to them about hell. And I stopped for a moment. I said, some of you are probably wondering in your hearts, are you one of them hellfire and damnation type preachers? And you know what? Sarah will tell you. I looked at him just like this and I said, yep. I took them through the plan of salvation and I told them there's no salvation in a prayer. There's salvation in a person whose name is Jesus. But our mouth professes what our heart believes and out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And I said, if you believe with all of your heart and desire to be saved, I want to invite you to pray quietly in your heart as I pray out loud. And so I led them through a prayer. And then I said, I look at me. You know what I said? I said most of the time when I do this, I ask people to privately, quietly lift a hand so that I can have an indication that they took Christ as their savior. But I said the Bible tells us in Romans 10 and verse number 11, that the scripture sayeth, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. So if you prayed that prayer and you made that decision, tell someone. Praise the Lord, somebody told Sarah. Sarah, I prayed that prayer. Her name was Rebecca. You know, the Bible says in James chapter four and verse number six, that God resisted the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. And those that are too afraid of what people will think are lifted up with pride in their hearts. And folks, I got to tell you something, I'm not going to go to hell for anybody. I hope you come to the place in your life where you say, I'm not going to go to hell because of what anybody thinks about me or what I may be doing. It doesn't matter if the whole world thinks I'm being silly or foolish. I'm going to do what God wants me to do, but there are those who say I won't be saved because I'm too afraid of what people might think if I do. It's pride in the heart of the unsafe. And the answer is humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. The answer is just humble yourself under the almighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Sinners must be more concerned with escaping hell than they are with the thoughts and whims of those around them. But so, too, Christians that are called upon to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ say they don't want to appear to be fanatical. They're too afraid that people might think that they are one of them Bible thumpers or that they might be one of those hellfire and damnation type of Christians. And folks, today, as I said to the personal evangelism class, I say to you, if there is nothing to be saved from, why get saved? There's no need. We may as well just pack it in right now, close the Bible, go home and watch whatever it is, Law and Order reruns on TV. For all the good that it would do if there's no hell, there's no heaven. But I got to tell you this, that there are people that are here tonight that are trembling about the thought of sharing their faith. And the reason is because of pride in their hearts. Paul said in the book of First Corinthians, chapter three, that he was willing to be counted as a fool for Jesus' sake. You know what? I've just come to a place anymore where it doesn't matter what people think. What matters to me is what does God think about this? What does God have to say about this? And so when I'm given the opportunity to share the gospel and folks, I got to tell you, I'm moving up on 500 times I've stood in a funeral service and preached the word of God and tried to offer comfort and hope to folks. And you know what? You can say all you want to. I've written a book on it and taught about it at the college level and I've proven it out almost 500 times. And I'll tell you this. It's much better for me to stand eyeball to eyeball with grieving people and give them the honest truth about the fact that they need to be saved from hell, that this person's decisions that's laying right here have already been made. They're past and gone. Your decisions are yet ahead of you. And the reason why we've come together is not so they can hear us eulogize them. It's so that we can put perspective on life and immortality. And so I tell them, listen, there is a heaven to be won and a hell to be shunned. And you have a decision to make in the face of this death right here. And I tell people you need to be saved. And if you don't accept that Jesus Christ, that this Christian person accepted, then you're going to burn, die in your sins and burn in an eternal lake of fire. And I listen, I tell people that. Brother Glenn, did I not say that at Wanda Services? We had people get saved. I think they did. There's a young fellow who sat about where Emily was, raised his hand. Somebody else over here, about on the second row, raised their hand and said, Pastor, I prayed the prayer with you today for the first time. I meant it with all my heart. And you know what? There was a time when I was starting out in my ministry where I was real nervous about that. I was bold to do it in junior church, man. I was bold to do it on the Sunday school bus. But when I got in front of a bunch of mourners, man, I was scared to death thinking, Boy, what if I offend somebody? What do they think about me? I thought, these people don't come to my church. They've never met me before. I'll probably never see them after today. So you know what? Here goes. This is what Jesus wants me to do. And it's not about me inviting them to my church. It's about me inviting them into a personal relationship with a lover of their souls that wants them to spend eternity with him. And so I can't succumb to, I'm so, I'm so afraid of what people think of me, because you've got to swallow that thing and say, man, that's just pride in my heart. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And so I've got to go forward saying, I don't care what anybody thinks. All I care is what God thinks. And the fact that my loved ones are going to die in their sins and split hell wide open and I love them enough. to want them to escape that peril. Secondly, go to Matthew chapter 19. I want you to see something. This is a wonderful thought. Verse number 14. But he just said, suffering little children. And forbid them not to come to me, for such is the kingdom of heaven. Many that do not believe the gospel say that the salvation message that you give of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus is too simple. Secondly, it is too simple a message. There's got to be more to it than all of that. And because religion has fought, there has to be more to it than all that. They've added all sorts of stuff to it, just like the Pharisees were continuously adding to what God has said. They were trying to complicate and make more convoluted the laws of God according to what they saw. Not according to thus saith the Lord. But Jesus wanted it to be so simple that even a child could understand it. That's why he said, except ye come as a little child, ye shall all likewise perish. God wanted it to be so simple that everyone could understand it. Salvation is Jesus plus nothing. It's that simple. Listen, it's simple as coming when you're called. Jesus said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. It's simple as drinking a glass of water. Jesus said, whosoever will drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. It's simple as walking through the door. Jesus said, I am the door. as simple as taking a bath by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. My friend, salvation was made simple so that it would be available to whosoever will. Not just the educated, not just the intelligent, not just the philosophical, not just the analytical, but everyone. That's why we need to give the gospel to the kids. That's why we need to get them when they're early. Statistically, folks don't get saved much when they get older. And that's why every time I stand up in front of kids, I try to challenge them about eternal things and give them the gospel of Jesus Christ. You say, well, can a child understand? Absolutely, they can understand. How many of you were a kid when you got saved? Let me see your hand. All right. I see a majority of folks here. How many of you got saved after the age of 50? Not one person here. Got saved at the age of 50. Now, I know one person that did, Bob Gobb, two years ago in July, walked down the aisle right here about three or four weeks after his dad's funeral. Walked right down here crying like a little baby. He took my hand and he said, Pastor Mark, I can't go on living a lie any longer. I know that if Jesus came today, I'd go to hell and I need to be saved. Bob's what, 80? Years old. Close to it. And then you know what? He got up here in the baptistry. Followed the Lord and gave his baptism. He wasn't too concerned with what people thought. People thought that he might be simple minded because he accepted Christ as a little child. He did throw me a curve because he wore socks into the water. And he straightened out his legs and he became dead weight in the water. But we got him up anyway. I was thinking, man, we just had his dad's funeral. I don't want to have his. I got to get him up. But there are many Christians today that try to complicate the message. They try to add something to what God gave in simplicity. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 tells us that God has chosen simple things. God has chosen foolish things. God has chosen base things to confound the things that are complex and wise, according to the wisdom of the world. He wants to confound all of that and totally overthrow the thinking of the scholarly world today. But today there are many Christians that are thinking it's too simple a message. Somebody's going to think I'm a simpleton if I go over to the university and try and tell them that Jesus plus nothing equals heaven. It's got to be more complex than that. And folks, sometimes because we think that we are some kind of an intellectual, that we can improve upon what God said. I'll remind you what the Bible says there in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians chapter one, and that is that not many mighty, not many noble after the flesh are called I want you to understand that those people that try to complicate it and meet God on the basis of intellect and not on the basis of faith, they don't get it. And folks, today, if you're going to leave some of the Christ, you need to be willing to be counted a fool and counted a simpleton for Jesus' sake. The apostles, all they did was evangelize the entire known world without the means of the Internet, without television, without radio, without an automobile. They went about telling everybody about Jesus. They evangelize the entire known world in their day. And it was said of them that people said that they were uneducated and illiterate men, but they were willing to be counted as simpletons for Jesus sake so that others may hear. It would surprise you. I had a guy in my church one time, his name was Alvin. And Alvin had a hard time talking to people. But I got to tell you something, Alvin came to church every time we had visitation. Tuesday night, Saturday morning, Tuesday morning, any special visitations that we had. And he had a track. And he said, he'd stand there and he'd say, You come to my church, you come to my church, okay? You come to my church, and you hand them a track. And they take a track. And they say, I'm Alvin, Alvin, my name Alvin. You come to my church, you come to my church, okay? Okay. And you give them a track. And I thought, this guy's a moron. He's not going to get anybody to come to the church. He's going to drive them away from the church. My name's Alvin. You come to my church, you come to my church. OK. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. We printed every year one million gospel tracts. And our people pass them out. Our people. We didn't send a million tracts to the mission field for someone else to pass it. We pass out a million tracts every single year. And I'll bet Alvin probably handed out 10,000 of them all by himself. Riding on the above ground railway system there in Los Angeles County, giving something to everybody on the blue line. My name is Alvin. You come to my church. Here, okay? You come, okay? And then he'd give us some of this. He didn't care. And I gotta tell you something. He had a guy, a real sharp couple come into our church. And for the life of me right now, I can't think of his name, but I can see him. It's as clear as a bell. He owned three dry cleaning stores. Handsome guy, drove a Cadillac. Came into the church, he and his wife. I was greeting them one day after service. They visited the service and they were kind of hanging around. And we were chitchatting. And I said, how did you learn about our church? And they said, you know, there was a young fellow in your church. He was dressed so handsomely, wore a coat and tie. And I believe his name was Alvin. And he gave us an invitation to come to your church. Do you know those people joined our church? where a faithless day is long, did probably more to encourage and support their pastor, to encourage and support the work of the Lord financially, are probably still right there on the firing line in their church. All because some guy that everybody in the world thought was a simpleton said, I'm Alvin, my name Alvin, you come to my church. We're too intellectual, we're too complex, We're too smart. But you know how people come to church? Somebody asked them to come. They don't wake up one morning and say, hey, I think I'll find a church. No, listen, there's another reason, and I realize that time has passed, but I'm going to give this point a lick and a promise at least. Turn to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. Look at verse 17, And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one. That is God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Defraud not. Honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. And Jesus, beholding him, loved him and said unto him, One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me. And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he had great possessions. There are many that will not be saved because They believe that they have too much to give up. Too much to give up. The lost believe that if they take Christ, that they might lose something that they find enjoyable, that they might somehow lose some standing, lose some possession, lose some behavior that they enjoy in the interest of being a Christian. but they do not understand all the benefits that they gain, that according to Romans chapter 8 and verse 17, that they become a son of God by faith, an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, that we are kings and priests that will rule and reign with Jesus Christ upon the earth. They do not realize the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. They don't understand that God has chosen them before the foundations of the world to be holy and without blame before him in love. They don't realize that they have a heavenly father and that when their earthly parents disappoint them, we'll never let them down. They don't realize that they now have a power source that was unavailable to them before that time and that they could come like Paul to the point where they say, I can do all things through Christ, which strengthened me. All they focus in on is if I get saved and get religion in my life, I might have to give up golfing on Sundays or I might have to sell my boat or I might have to do something or take a vow of monasticism and shave my head and put on sackcloth and ashes. And I don't want to have to do that, that's much too high a price to pay. Jesus didn't ask anyone to take a vow of monasticism. Jesus never asked anyone to shave their head and take a vow or put on sackcloth and ashes. All Jesus said was, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest under your soul. My friend, I want to tell you this. There are many that are so consumed with the temporal. The love of the world is in them. The world, the flesh and the devil has got their claws into them and they cannot see the benefits and the absolute necessity of salvation. And yet, I want to tell you this, that there are many that name the name of the Lord Jesus Christ have been called upon to fulfill the great commission that think if I go soul winning, I might have to give something up. If I systematically plan on telling people about Jesus, I'll have to make some sacrifices in my life that I'm not willing to make. I think about Jonah, who was called to carry the gospel of the Ninevites, and he didn't want to give up his comfort. He didn't want to give up his own will or his own way. He didn't want to go to those people. He didn't want to go to that area. He was mad at God. And so because of those displaced priorities, he felt like there's too much that I'm going to have to sacrifice in the interest of doing what God wants me to do. Now, folks, let me tell you something. I've heard of a lot of people that have given all to the church and they sacrifice time with their family. But I've never known anybody that said, I spent way too much time out soul winning and all the other things in my life suffered. But I could point to a hundred thousand people through the years that I've come into contact with that were loving the world and the things of the world and all that it had to offer and were letting their next door neighbor go to hell unworn and untold. And today, untold millions are still untold. And we have people that are saying, you know what? You know what? I'm busy. I might have to give up some time. I got a mortgage to make. I need to work overtime. I might have to give up some money. Let me ask you a question, what do you think that you have to give up that God won't reward you a hundredfold in the kingdom? The disciples said to Jesus, oh, we've left all and we've followed you. And the Lord said no man has left houses and lands that it shall not be restored to him a hundredfold in the kingdom. You know what you're doing? You're saying there's too much to give up in the interest of telling people about Jesus. We'll have 204 people on Sunday morning and 100 people on Sunday night, 100 people on Wednesday night and six people on Tuesday night. Well, Pastor, you know, you see, the thing is, I know. Tell it to Jesus. I'm not your judge. You don't have to explain to me, but I don't have to be happy with your sinful conduct either. I, you know, listen, you can say this is hard. This is heavy, Pastor. Well, you know, I can I can just tell you something that would make you feel good and we could all go home and say, wasn't that great? And what good did it do you? Huh? And by the way, I don't preach that many messages like this. Probably only about half of them. I'm going to tell you this. The Bible says in Proverbs 11, 9, the hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor. The law says there are too many hypocrites in the church. There are too many hypocrites in the church, and so I'm not going to come to your church. I'm not going to get saved. Can I tell you something? Those lost people are right. There are too many hypocrites in the church. But they do not realize that they will not be judged by the conduct of another. The Bible says in Romans 14, 12, So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. How many of you in this room have ever been hurt by a hypocrite? Let me see your hand. Be honest. You've ever been hurt by a hypocrite? Raise your hand. My hands up. Have you ever been hurt by someone in a church? My hands up. I've been in church all my life. I got two hands up. Having me think, oh, I've been hurt in a way that I should have never been hurt in the church. Terrible things have happened in churches that I've been a part of, and I think maybe I'll never recover from it. Can I tell you something? You can treat me like dirt. You can run me out of town on a rail. And I can stand before God one day and say, but, you know, Lord, you see, the thing is, I got showered on it because of brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so. And he's going to say, what did you do with my word? What did you do with Jesus? Not what did you do with the words of someone else and their behavior towards you? But what did you do with me and my word? And I will not be able to pass the buck off. I'll give an account for myself and so will you. Too many hypocrites in the church. The unsaved say it. But do you know why people don't tell others about Jesus? Because there are too many hypocrites in the church. People that say, let's God, I wouldn't join a church that didn't have an outreach program, but they're never involved in the outreach program. You know what that is? Hypocrisy. People say, let's God, I wouldn't be a part of a church that wasn't given over to prayer because Jesus said that my house would be of all nations, a house of prayer. And then we announced prayer meeting and nobody turns out. You know what? Too many hypocrites in the church believe you ought to pray, but they don't pray. Believe you ought to have outreach, but they're not involved in outreach. Believe you ought to be faithful, but that doesn't apply to them. Believe the Bible says that the faithful man shall abound with blessing. Believe the Bible says that confidence in an unfaithful man in a time of trouble is like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint. They believe that they ought to be a part of it. They believe that the Bible says that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of some is. And so much the more as you see the day approaching, they believe all that, but they don't think it applies to them. You know what? The reason why people are not being saved in greater measure at the Freeway Baptist Church and in the area of Phoenix and in Maricopa County and in the surrounding Arizona area and across the world because of our influence is because there are too many hypocrites in the church that believe we ought to do something, but think that they're exempted from doing it. You know, one of the reasons why I'm so proud to have my uncle as the pastor emeritus here, I'll tell you why. Because he didn't count retirement as an abrogation of his duty to tell people about Christ. Because everywhere he goes, he tells them about Jesus. When he goes to Colorado, he's involved in the work of the Lord. When he comes to Phoenix, he's involved in the work of the Lord. Because there was never a time where he felt like, hey, I know the Bible says this, but it doesn't mean me. He sees it as God's finger pointing right at him. And that thrills my heart. There's more stuff I could give you tonight. But can I tell you this? We shouldn't be someone else's excuse for not coming to hear the gospel message. Nor should we be so hypocritical that we believe that people should be soul winners. But we never do it. Somebody said, well, I'm taking the class, Pastor. It's the first great step. You know what? You can't tell people what you don't know how to tell. But you know what you can tell? How many of you have been saved in the last six months? Raise your hand up big and high. You've been saved within the last six months. Raise your hand up big and high. Don't be ashamed. All right. Look at this. OK, put your hands down. How many have been saved in the last two years? Raise your hand up big and high. There's more yet. It's a great number. Can I tell you something? You may say, I don't know all the things to say, Daniel. But you know what you could tell your friends? I didn't know for sure if I was going to die and go to heaven. And I was really concerned about that. And so Bill took me into the pastor, and he showed me that I was a sinner. And he told me that I couldn't change that. There was no thing I could do to erase that. And so I needed someone to save me, and that was Jesus. And he came down to this earth and he died on the cross for my sins to pay the price for my sins. To pay the price for the forgiveness of my sins and offer me heaven. And I prayed to receive Jesus Christ because I believed that and I asked him to forgive me of all of my sins to come into my life so that I could go to heaven to be with him forever. And you know what? Every one of you has a testimony. Huh? You've been saved less than a week, you could tell that. You've been saved a few months, you could tell that. You've been saved a few weeks, you could tell that. You've been saved a few months, you could tell that. You've been saved two weeks, you could share that. I came down to church and the pastor asked the question, if you died tonight, would you spend forever in heaven? And I really didn't know. So something just nudged me to step out and go forward. And I had somebody from church show me from the Bible how I could be sure I'm on my way to heaven. And now I'm forgiven of all my sins, past, present and future. It's the most wonderful decision I've ever made in my life. You could tell that. You don't have to be some kind of theologian to be able to parse the scriptures and talk about the Greek and Hebrew and all of that. All you need to do is tell people about what Jesus did for you. That's what Paul went all over the world doing. Do you know that? He evangelized the Gentile world. You read the book of Acts. You know what he did? From place to place to place to place, he gave his testimony. Here's what Jesus did for me. You could do that. If you would. If you would. Do you know where missions begins? Right here. Right here. And with the God that we would say, I don't want to be one of those 10% of Christians that never share the gospel of anybody. I want to be... or the 90% that never... I want to be one of those 10% that share the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know what? Pastor Lyle, Tell me if this is not true. You had the privilege to lead by the trade of the Lord several months ago over here in the fellowship hall. Wasn't that a delight to your heart? And then a few weeks later, you had the joy of seeing him follow the Lord and believers baptism. Didn't you get to relive the joy all over again? Yeah. And then you got to help him grow up in the Lord, and then the life came on. Didn't you get to relive the joy? And then he went down to the market and led a young lady to the Lord and came home and told you about it. Didn't you get to live the joy all over again? And so it goes. You know, I'm going to tell you something. You go out and take a drug. You know what? You get high once and then you're searching for a high tomorrow and trying to rob somebody so you can get enough to get it. You go out and lead somebody to Christ, you have a high that you'll never come off of. You have the potential to rejoice and celebrate in your spiritual kids and grandkids, huh? In a way that you can't even imagine. You don't know what it does in my heart to have guys like Daniel and Bill come into the baptistry and know, I had the privilege of seeing them get born again. It's a joy like you can't even imagine. And then to see them being obedient. And then to see them concerned about others and then bringing others to church. Huh? Priscilla got saved here. Then she brought her mom and her family. And guess what? Crystal got saved and Apple got saved. Huh? Albert, what did I say? He's right there. Huh? And then she brought Medeja and she got saved. And the days you came to me tonight and said, can I get baptized next Sunday? My mom said it was OK. And you know what? I get to relive the joy. You know what, Priscilla? You get to live the joy of knowing that your friend's going to go to heaven because you love her enough to bring her to church so she can hear about Jesus. There's nothing in the world, there's nothing in the world that compares to that joy. Revel in it. It's a privilege that none of us deserves to have. But we so often look for reasons to avoid. Excuses. Excuses. What's yours? What's yours? Every one of us will stand and give an account for ourselves to God. And in the throne room of heaven, we will not stand and say, well, Lord, you know, you see, the thing is. He already knows. What did you do with his command? And then I'm going to tell you one thing and we'll close and go home. You know what I believe tonight? I believe there are people in this room that God has his mark on. That God is going to call to go plant a church somewhere that needs a church. To go to a mission field somewhere that needs a missionary. To say. It's not too much to ask, it's not too much a sacrifice. God's place to call on my life. Can I tell you this? Selfishly, you know what I'd like to do? Keep everybody right here. All of God's choices, servants at free, I'd like to keep you right here. But you know what the Bible says, cast your bread upon the water and after many days you'll find it. You know what God will do as we say, we're not going to hang selfishly on the people that can grow a kingdom here, but we want to spread them like seed to the wind so that people everywhere can hear the gospel. God will just bring them in. It's just like sowing seeds. And you know what? I believe that there are some teenagers right here, right now that are going to go off to Bible college and you're going to go to a mission field and you're going to become a champion for Christ. You're going to be used to bring multitudes. I believe that there's some married couples in this church. I believe there's some single people in this church. that God is going to raise up and call, and they're going to go to a mission field, or they're going to go to some great work, or they're going to stand in the gap and say, count on me to be a Sunday school teacher, count on me to be a bus worker, count on me to be involved in the work of the Lord in this place, and mean it and make the commitment to God and not to man. We'll get another bus. We have some money and a fund. We're going to buy another van. But you know the thing is, getting someone to drive it, Getting someone to be committed to it. Getting someone to pick up the phone and call those riders. There are a lot of them out there. How many of you have at least once ridden to church on a van with Perry? Let me see your hands. That's what I thought. That's a seven passenger. Most of those people came in either on the second or the third run tonight. Well, I'm busy. That's what I thought. We have so much need of Sunday school teachers that blow your mind. And can I tell you something honestly? There are some of you that I want to grab and press into service, but you're not ready. Can I tell you why? Because you can't be counted on. I don't know if I'm one service to the next where you're going to be. You let everyone and everything in the world govern your life except God. Why would I want to put that up as a role model in front of our young people? Huh? Why would I want to put anybody in a place of leadership who only comes to serve and never to eat? You know what? I don't want teenage workers out of the church services. Every time we come to church, they find themselves pressed and pulled hither and yon and they never hear preaching. And then we don't have workers six months later and we wonder why? Because they're always serving and never eating. And they come to church with problems and they think the answer to their problems is trying to help somebody else fix their problems. And they're not successful at fixing anybody else's and most of all their own. And they wash out. You know, can I talk candidly with you like this? Is this alright? I think God is searching for some folks that would say, I'm going to stand in the gap. Pastor, I want to be that faithful one. And if it takes me several months to demonstrate that degree of faithfulness, I'm submitting myself to whatever God wants me to do. I had a husband and wife tell me today, Pastor, whenever you think we're ready, you tell us, because we want to come off the bench and get in the game. I said, God's got great things in store for you. Punched him on the shoulder. You were there. And they're not here tonight, but they said, Pastor, we're not going to be absent without telling you. Because we want some spiritual accountability in our lives. God's looking for people that are willing to be in that place. Let's say, I'll tell people about Jesus when they want to hear it, when they don't want to hear it. When I'm afraid of what people think, when I'm not. When I think it's too simple, when it's not. When I think there's too much to give up and when not. And I'm going to give up my hypocrisy. By the way, I've got several. reasons, but tour's enough tonight. If you don't have enough conviction on you after those four, you just might be dead. And by the way, I can't impose conviction on you, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. But can I tell you something? I gave you exactly what I believe God put on my heart to give. And I'm so passionate right now and I'm so encouraged right now because here's an army of people that are saying, I want to be able to share my faith. Diane, praise the Lord for your initiative to email the pastor and say, could we have a class? Praise the Lord for many others like John back in the booth right there saying, Pastor, would you help me? I need some encouragement, witnessing Catholics. They got the pastor off the dime to start a class. God used you in my life. Thank you. You know, I have a vision that's so vast. That it requires God to do it. But it requires an army of people who will say. Here am I, Lord. Send me, use me. Use me up. We live our lives and we're trying to keep from being used. We don't want anybody to use us. But the object of the Christian is to be used up for Jesus. Would the God that tonight somebody would say, you know. Here am I, Lord. I want to be that one. I'll be that 10 percenter. Not stand up in church, make fanfare, give note to the passion and say, count on me. But in your heart, say, Lord, I'll be the one. I'll be the one. Maybe I'll bend the knee and say, Lord, I don't care what anybody thinks about me. All I care is what you think about me. I'll be all right.