By Product

June 4th, 2017 PM Sermon 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Turn to Daniel chapter number 12. Daniel, the book of Daniel, chapter number 12. And let me give you a scriptural sequence noting a couple of words. And remember this, Daniel chapter 12. Every word that God puts in the Bible is important in its place. Let's not take for granted that he put words in the Bible. And sometimes you'll look at the sequence and you'll go, I wonder why he worded it that way. It behooves us to study what words mean, and maybe we can see why he worded it quite that way. Daniel chapter number 12 is a scripture that maybe you read once a year, if you read your Bible through, and maybe it's been a while since you've read this particular scripture. It says this in verse number two. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Some to everlasting life. I hope that's you. I know it's me. I'm not saying that arrogantly, but I hope that we are the ones that wake to everlasting life. I hope you're in that category. Brethren, you're either a sheep or a goat. You're either wake up to everlasting life or everlasting eternal death. Praise the Lord, we get to wake up to eternal life. Amen. The Bible says some to everlasting life and some to shame. And everlasting contempt. If you want to know what's going on in hell tonight, that's it. Shame. An everlasting contempt. I'm not going to breach on that tonight, but it's a great start if you were just going to talk to somebody about the penalty of sin that's unforgiven, that leads to hell, the lake of fire. There's no party going on there. Shame and everlasting contempt. Verse 3, and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. And they that turn, and I want you to underline, if you have your own Bible, underline the word turn. And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars, doing what? Shining. As the stars forever and ever. Says, and they that turn many to righteousness. Turn. We understand what the word means. It means to influence a change. But if you look in the 1828 dictionary, it has a word synonym. It the word is persuade. To turn, to influence someone to change, is to persuade them. And brethren, I want to say this. This persuasion is not just human to human. This is God involved. I want you to look in your Bible, please, at Proverbs chapter 11. The word first word is turn. Turn to influence, to change. And now look at Proverbs chapter number 11, please. Proverbs chapter 11, famous scripture that we certainly have heard preaching about, Proverbs chapter 11. Remember, the first word is turn. Now, I want you to see another word, Proverbs chapter 11. Look at verse 30. Verse 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. And he that winneth souls is what? Now, we just read that those that are wise that help to turn people to righteousness shall shine like the stars in brightness. And that's wisdom. Wisdom is to be involved in the concept of persuading or helping to influence a turn, a change. It's the Great Commission. But here it says, and he that winneth souls is wise to win. To gain by persuasion. What do you mean? To turn is to persuade. To win is to gain by persuasion. But I want to make this very clear. Persuasion is to convince, but it's not a human convincing another human. It's God using the mouthpiece of a human to effect a change inside that we can only talk about. He has to do the change. But we're involved as ambassadors in the persuading, in the persuasion of turning, in the in the convincing. But we don't save anybody. Now wait a minute, stay away with me. This is not like a swap meet where you're pulling people in to sell them something. This is not like retail sales. This is not like what we did in sales and business, and you work towards the closing. Brethren, this is God involved. Sometimes, right in the middle of witnessing to someone in a persuading way, the Holy Ghost will give you something that you never even thought of before. The Holy Ghost, once in a while, say, testify right there. Just start talking about your testimony of how you receive Christ. Brethren, I don't know about you, but I don't think there's just a one, two, three cookie-cutter way. And I'm glad that we're teaching our people coming up and our young leaders, if you would, that sure we're teaching them the wordless book, but it's good that they know the scriptures and are memorizing scriptures and know how God, the Holy Ghost, can take them down a path with a particular individual that needs that path. Are you still with me tonight? Paul said he became all things to all men that he might win some. To gain by persuasion, to influence, to convince. And now with that in mind, look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, please. And we see the New Testament concept here. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We're halfway through the message, just so you know. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'm getting to something important in just a moment. This is all important, but I'm getting to the punchline just a moment. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now remember to turn is to convince, is to persuade, to influence a change. And the concept of win, to win someone is to is to convince. But it's not our convincing, it's God using our mouthpiece that way. And then it says this, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That every one may receive the things done in his body according to he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now remember, we want to be wise. He that winneth souls is wise, and that convincing, that persuasion by God's power. Verse 11, knowing, isn't it talks interesting? It talks about the judgment seat of Christ, those of us that are saved, and how we'll appear, not for salvation, if you would, but what we've done since we've been saved. Verse 11, knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we say the word. Persuade. Say it? Persuade. Everybody say it, what? Persuade. We ought to be involved in persuasion once in a while. We ought to be involved in winning once in a while. We ought to be involved in turning once in a while. We ought to be involved in seed planting. And don't go out here saying he made it out to be some sales pitch. I already told you, this is not a swap meet. This is an eternal soul. This is just not getting somebody convinced enough where they pray. It's the Holy Ghost doing the work inside of them. And praise the Lord, these uh had fruit to remain that Brother Northcutt talked to the other day over in Benson, and that they were still in church. Brother, that's when the Lord wins them. But we're used as mouthpieces. And we get to go and be a part of that. So knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. And we are made manifest unto God. And I trust you also are made manifest in your consciousness now. I think here's the key when you talk about turning and winning and persuading and convincing and all these types of things. The key in knowing that it's not a retail sales, it's not just here, you ought to buy this, you ought to say this. There's a little bit more to it. Look at Psalms 126. Psalms 126. And in Psalms 126, it tells us a little bit more about the seriousness of this. And this is where we're at tonight. And even if you haven't memorized, please listen, Psalms 126. Praise the Lord that our next generation is going out. And praise the Lord for the leaders that are going. Psalms 126, it says this, verse number 5. They that sow in tears. So we're not just sowing the seed of the word of God like just throwing it out there. I heard Brother Cow choke up a little bit. That wasn't the carnal man inside of him choking up. That was the Holy Ghost of God choking him up. You know what I'm talking about. That was that love for the Lord and love for the workers and love for the work of God. Watching the labors go into the harvest, seeing the fruit. It builds our faith. It makes us believe in what we're doing down here. Man, if you're a little stagnant in your Christianity, hey, get involved in something where the word of God's going out. It'll freshen you up a little bit. And the Bible says, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. And he that goeth forth weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Now, let's make a statement here. This is not a sales event. Sheaves are people. Sheaves deal with eternity. Shields, sheaves deal with the Lord's harvest. It's not our harvest, it's the Lord's harvest, but we get in and enter into that harvest, we wouldn't even know there was a harvest going on unless we knew this book. I mean, there's a harvest going on, and it's not just our church, it's worldwide. God is harvesting worldwide. Even now as we speak. Oh, the reports I've heard from overseas recently have been tremendous. Just tremendous hearing about things going on over in the over in the European theater and over in the in the in the Pacific Rim. I mean, it's just tremendous to hear about that of the harvest that's happening. And brother, never take the harvest for granted. Don't take for granted that these stood up here and said, we're going. Please, I don't want to be negative, but there's some churches that haven't even gone in a long time. What do you mean? There's some churches that haven't gone a long time. No, you mean individuals. There's some churches that haven't gone in a long time. Let me say that one more time. There's some churches that haven't gone in a long time. They're too busy fighting each other. You start fighting each other and you won't be concerned about souls. You'll be on that internet fighting. You'll be on that telephone fighting. Souls will walk by and we'll forget that we're supposed to persuade. We're giving out gospel tracts for God and country. Why? Brethren, all these big days provoke us. We use a big day. What's it used for? God and country. Let's put the flags us. Let's red, white, and blue this place. Let's be patriotic. Let's wear our uniforms. Let's uh let's invite uh all kinds of people in, civilian, active, retired, anybody, and let's bring them under the sound of the gospel. And let's motivate ourselves to go out and bring them to church. Brethren, the concept of church motivates us. It does. This Bible club motivates, gets us with a plan. But it's not a plan like a swap meet sales, like a retail sales. It's an explanation where the Holy Ghost is involved. But behind the scenes, there's the weeping. There's the prayer. There's the preparation. Because we know the parable of the sower, when that seed falls on a good heart. What's that heart that's good? It's a soft heart. It's a heart that's been tilled. Do you know what tilling is? T-I-L-L? It's when you break up the ground. You break up that ground before you plant that seed. In fact, before you plant that seed, listen to me, you plow the ground and then you cultivate that ground a little bit. If you know anything about farming, they'll take those eight and ten and now 15 bottom plows in and they'll break that ground up. It's not ready for planting yet. You put the cultivator in next and it gets in there and churns that dirt up a little bit more before you're getting ready to go. Then you put that seed in that churned up cultivated heart. Because otherwise it's just gonna fall by the wayside. Now I'll tell you something. That word of God came to me a few times before I got saved. What do you mean? It came to me a few times and it fell by the wayside for a while. That was not wasted seed. When I was in the Lutheran church, there was a seed planted. It wasn't planted quite properly for me. It fell by the wayside. But I heard about Christ. I didn't get saved in the Lutheran church. I went through their system, and that all kind of fell by the wayside, and the earth came up when I joined the Marine Corps and scorched it all. What am I talking about? It didn't take hold yet. And then God sent me to Paris, Ireland. And man, I was broke up. How'd you break you up? Not going to go into the story. I'm just going to tell you the heart was cultivated. I'm talking about the cultivator went through. If you know what a cultivator is, it's uh there's a couple different types. It's got little wheels on it, and they dig in and they break up that plowed up ground. Come on, you still with me? And that's before the seed goes in. And I'm not saying God's a farmer, but he knows harvest. And if he doesn't do all that work, that seed's just by the wayside, or that seed gets scorched. Come on, are you still with me? Those different ways that seed someone gets offended, that's not wasted seed. All that is a process leading towards what God wants. Because the seed will not return void. It has a, even that which is rejected has a purpose. Come on, is that right? Even you say, Well, I spent all that time and they didn't get saved, you didn't waste your time. You planted something. You're never going to waste your time. Because God can use it. I can't tell you how many times someone uh uh talked to me or said something to me about it, and I just kind of shoved it off. And may I say, but when it's time and God's in it, that seed planted goes a long way. Some with love, compassion, and some of us we had to go through fear. Come on, is that right? The fear worked. The concept is God in prayer, and it's the bearing precious seed with the weeping, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing of she's with him. Brethren, uh, we got to rejoice a little bit tonight. Praise the Lord, we're not rejoicing over carnal stuff. Hey, we have a good time. It's okay to laugh, it's okay, praise the Lord, God does different things. But I praise the Lord, we're still excited about a soul getting saved. Children hearing the word of God, adults coming. I'm glad they got a van route over there now. What a blessing. Brethren, brother, I remember when Brother Holder came to my office and said, Well, Pastor, I need to talk to you about something. Here's this man that's much older than me. And he says, Well, Pastor, I think God spoke to my heart. I said, I want to tell he said, I want to tell you about it. Uh, you know, I went over to Benson to cover and preach a couple times for the pastor over there. I said, I do know that. He said, Yeah, I've been over there about three times now covering for that pastor and preaching for that pastor. And I said, I know that. He said, you know, one night I I joked, it was just a joke. He said, I joked to the congregation, and I said, you know, I know you're all looking for a pastor, and I've been praying, and he said, if you're ever looking for a little bit older pastor, like in his 80s, I'm available. And he laughed and joked, and everybody laughed and joked about it. And then they called him and said, We've been thinking about what you said. And we've had a meeting, and we'd like to uh ask you to come and candidate to become pastor of our church. And he said, Pastor, I don't want to go over there without you know you knowing about it. And he said, I've talked to Dot, Dot's his wife, and and I'm thinking we might be being led of the Lord to go over there. He said, What do you think about that? And I said, I think I'm ashamed. Here I am thinking I'm tired and you're getting started. Here I am at 60 or whatever it was, and I think I'm tired and you're just getting fired up again to go at 80. I said, I just think I'm ashamed. And I thought I said, Dot, Jim, I think you ought to go while it's still in you. Brother Jim and Dot have been church planters and ministry planters all their lives. They planted military ministry, they've been in missions, and he said, Well, I just I just want to redeem the time, preacher. I said, I'm crying by that time, going, my, my, my. What a blessing. And then he gets a hold of Brother Northcutt, and they got this thing all going on. Brother, I want to tell you something. This is the work of God. This is not men putting this together. This is men and women obeying the will of God even when there's resistance. We mean resistance in the community? No, a little resistance in where the church was at at the time. And God took Jim over there, and they didn't know they were getting a go-getter. Well, maybe they did. But they didn't know how much of a go-getter they were getting. What do you mean? At 80, Jim still holds office hours. What do you mean? He goes to work at a certain time and stays there and works with people, and he's still motivated, and he's still got plans and visions. Man, he came over, he had that heart attack, came over here, got all fixed up pretty well, and he it wasn't, it wasn't too much later. He was back with vision again. Man, that's the Holy Ghost in a person. And to be a part of that, don't take that for granted. Don't take for granted being in church tonight and hearing about some of this stuff. They that are wise shall shine as the stars. They that turn to convince to persuade. They that win to gain by convincing, to turn, to change. I'm not talking about human sales. I'm not talking about retail sales. I'm talking about God using us as ambassadors, taking precious seed. Precious seed. Not our own thoughts, not our own imagination. We're not talking about reincarnation here. We're not talking about working to become a Mormon God here. We're not talking about Catholicism here. We're talking about precious seed doing the pure work of God by God giving the increase, but Him allowing us to labor with Him. We get to labor with Him. Somebody says, I get tired of church. I get tired of this stuff about outreach. Get tired of this commission. When we get to heaven at that judgment seat of Christ, we'll be glad somebody once in a while stirred us up and we saw some people go, we thought, man, I need to get going again too. Because once in a while we need a little re-energization and a little momentum and hear about someone getting saved. I'm so happy to hear about salvations in RU and salvations when some people were out witnessing, doing some follow-up on some people. And about three weeks ago, I got to lead somebody to Christ, and it was, I got in my car and cried. It was so humbling. Well, what were you thinking? I didn't plan on witnessing that way, Lord. I didn't plan on that. Thank you for giving scriptures that just seem to fit. Thank you for being involved. Thank you for letting me be involved. It's very humbling. Don't take it for granted when you give it to witness and they're open to listening. And even got some good questions. Don't take that for granted. So tonight it says to go forth weeping, bearing precious seed. It's the prayer behind it. It's the power of God behind it. And they'll doubtless come again rejoicing. And what we'd like to see is that sheave, that bringing the fruit, the fruit that remains. John 15 is a wonderful chapter. You're in Psalms 126. I just want to remind you of this. I was going to close, but I won't. Look at Psalms 127. Psalms 126 is followed by Psalms 127. Let me give you that again. Psalms 126 is followed by 127. And 127 starts out in verse 1: Except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain that build it. Unless God builds it, it's just man-made. Brothers Northcutt, you come. We're going to get ready for prayer. To win, to turn, to get gain, to convince, to persuade. But by God's Spirit, by God's word, by God's, if you would, method. And I'm not saying there's one method, there's multiple methods, but without the power of the Holy Ghost, brethren, we got nothing. It's the Holy Ghost that quickeneth. You say, why do you keep saying the Holy Ghost? I thought it was Jesus. Jesus did his work on the cross, and then he sent the Holy Ghost. Yes, it's Jesus that saves. I agree with that. How can you separate from the Father, from the Son, from the Holy Ghost? They're all one. It's Jesus that quickens. It's the Holy Ghost that quickens to make alive, to bring to life. Otherwise, we'd be in shame and everlasting contempt. Shame. To live eternity in shame. And then I'm not going to go into this tonight, but to live in contempt. Y'all look that word up. It's worth us going to help some. Somebody's waiting for us. I'm certainly glad cows taking the little tent. Just says he cares. But I'm glad we already went over and prepped with meeting with Pastor Holder and got it organized. Brother, may I say something to you? We want to go over with the Word of God, but in the power of the Holy Ghost. And that's why we pray tonight for the Northcut UCO.