Putting in the Work SEPTEMBER 20, 2026 Pastor Steven L. Anderson

Jesus name and pray, amen.

Man, the title of my sermon this morning

is Putting in the Work, Putting in the Work.

Now, we obviously talk a lot about the fact

that salvation is not of works, right?

For by grace are you saved through faith

and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,

not of works, let's say any man should boast.

The Bible says, but to him that worketh not,

but believeth on him that justified the ungodly,

his faith is counted for righteousness.

Even as David also described it,

the blessedness of the man unto him God

imputed righteousness without works.

Saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven

and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

And so we talk a lot about that.

We go out soul winning and we're preaching

that message to people that salvation is by faith.

It's not by works of righteousness which we have done,

but according to his mercy he saved us.

And of course in the process of talking to people about that,

we explain to people that the works of the law,

those are works too.

When you're obeying commandments like,

thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal,

thou shalt not commit adultery,

thou shalt not bear false witness.

That's also called work in the Bible.

It's not just doing good things that's works.

It's also not doing bad things

that is classified in the Bible as works.

So we don't get saved by anything that we do or don't do.

We simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

And of course the most famous verse in the Bible

tells us that whosoever believeth in him

should not perish but have everlasting life.

So we understand that being a Christian is hard work.

If somebody said, hey, you have to be a good Christian

in order to go to heaven.

You have to go to church, live a good life,

follow the commandments.

We would say that that's a works-based salvation.

Okay, well then here's what that means then.

After we're saved, if we want to live a good Christian life

by that logic, it's gonna take hard work.

I mean, if we're gonna sit there and tell people,

hey, living the good Christian life, that's works

and we're not saved by works, we're saved by faith.

Well, let's flip that over and say, okay,

we're already saved.

We've already believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,

our Savior, we're going to heaven.

Nothing could separate us from the love of God

which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

We have eternal life.

No man shall pluck us out of his hand.

But if we're gonna live a good Christian life,

if we're gonna be good Christians,

if we're gonna be good children of God,

if we're gonna be effective servants of God,

it's going to take hard work.

We're gonna have to put work into it.

It's gonna take effort.

But the sad thing is that today,

people want a Christianity that costs them nothing.

They want to just sort of incorporate Christianity

as this tiny part of their life,

but anything that caused them to go out of their comfort zone

or put in any actual hard work or effort,

they're not interested.

And it makes me think of back in 2 Samuel 24.

You don't have to turn there.

But back in 2 Samuel chapter 24,

2 Samuel 24 · chapter mention

David needs to make an offering unto the Lord

and this guy, Aaron of the Jebusite,

offers to just give him everything for free.

Everything that he needs is just gonna be gifted to him.

But the king said unto Aaron,

Nay, but I will surely buy it of the enterprise.

Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God

of that which doth cost me nothing.

So David brought the threshing floor

and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver.

So we see that David there,

he doesn't expect serving God to be free.

Now look, salvation's free.

Going to heaven's free.

It's the gift of God that's eternal life

through Jesus Christ the Lord.

But serving God isn't free.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ isn't free.

Being a good Christian isn't free.

Being an effective servant of God

is gonna cost you something.

Look at Luke chapter 14 verse 25.

Luke 14:25

The Bible says,

and there were great multitudes with them.

Now look, Jesus was often followed around

by great multitudes of people, huge crowds.

I mean, just the fact that he's feeding the 5,000

shows that there's 5,000 people there

listening to him preach.

And that was just the men

not even counting the women and children.

On another occasion, he's preaching to the 4,000

and he feeds the 4,000 with seven loaves and two fishes

just like he fed the 5,000

with five loaves and two fishes.

And so Jesus at other times

is preaching to an innumerable multitude.

And this is one of those times

when he just has great multitudes following him.

But isn't it interesting

that when we get to Acts chapter one,

the actual diehards who are actually showing up

for church in the early church,

ready to go, ready to serve God,

serious about their walk with God

in Acts chapter one is only 120 people

including women and children, right?

So the early church in Acts one

is 120 people including the women and children.

That's the diehards.

I mean, that's the people that are serious.

There's just multitudes and multitudes following him.

And I guarantee you that multitudes and multitudes

got saved and are in heaven

because the Bible talks about just thousands

and thousands of people believing on Christ,

getting saved, and then even getting baptized

or just thousands and thousands of people being baptized.

But how many people are actually panning out

as a really serious servant of God?

It's like 120 people that are the core

of the diehards in Acts chapter one.

And so look what Jesus says to the multitudes.

Great multitudes following him in verse 25,

but he says in verse 26,

if any man come to me and hate not his father

and his mother and wife and children

and brethren and sisters,

yea, and his own life also,

he cannot be my disciple

and whosoever does not bear his cross

and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Now does it sound to you

like Jesus is saying,

hey, following me is gonna cost you nothing.

You don't have to choose.

You don't have to sacrifice anything.

You don't have to give up anything.

It's gonna be easy.

It's not gonna be hard.

In fact, you can have it all.

You can have it both ways.

You can have the best of all worlds.

You can live your best life.

Now, is that what Jesus is saying here?

In Luke chapter 14, no.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

He's saying the opposite.

He's saying, look, you have to be ready

to give up everything.

He said, he that loveth father or mother

more than me is not worthy of me.

He that loveth son or daughter

more than me is not worthy of me.

And he that taketh not his cross

and followeth after me is not worthy of me.

He says in verse 28, for which of you

intending to build a tower

siteth not down first

and counteth the cost,

whether ye have sufficient to finish it.

Lest happily after ye have laid the foundation

and is not able to finish it,

all that behold it begin to mock him

saying this man began to build

and was not able to finish

or what king going to make war against another king

siteth not down first and consulteth

whether he be able with 10,000

to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000

or else while the other is yet a great way off,

he senteth an ambassage

and desire with conditions of peace.

So likewise, whosoever he be of you

that forsakeeth not all that he have,

he cannot be my disciple.

I mean, the Bible's saying,

look, you better know going in,

it's not going to be easy to be

a disciple of Jesus Christ,

to be a Christian,

it's going to take effort,

it's going to take hard work,

it's going to take diligence

and it is going to cost you

potentially everything

and you have to be willing

to give up anything.

The Bible says be thou faithful unto death

and I will give thee a crown of life.

Right, I mean, the Bible's crystal clear

on this score

that no, you can't just have it all

and have it both ways.

You got to choose as a trade off

and this is what the Bible says.

It's not necessarily going to be easy.

You got to put in the work as a Christian.

Go through into Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Here's another one of the most famous passages

in the entire Bible.

Romans chapter 12, verse number one.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And I'm going to start reading it as you get there.

It says, I beseech you there for brethren

by the mercies of God

that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,

holy, acceptable unto God,

which is your 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.

I mean, the Bible is saying here

that you have got to lay down your life on that altar

and be willing to give everything.

You got to be a living, breathing sacrifice, right?

Serving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

I mean, this is what the Bible,

and the Bible doesn't say

this makes you the most radical Christian ever.

This makes you super cool and super awesome.

I mean, the Bible says that presenting your body

a living sacrifice is your reasonable service.

You know, this is considered reasonable.

This makes sense.

You know, if Jesus Christ died on the cross for us

and took all of our sins

and has given us this inheritance in heaven,

and if we're just living on this short life

that's like a vapor that appears for a little time

and then vanishes away

and then we're gonna spend eternity in heaven,

you know, it's reasonable.

It makes sense to expect you to make some sacrifices

while you're here on this earth

and especially to even present your own self

as a living sacrifice.

But today, what do a lot of Christians wanna do?

They just wanna get along with everybody.

Just get along with everybody, no strife,

no friction, no problems, no issue.

And look, there are people who put other things

much higher on their regard

than the Lord Jesus Christ and serving Him.

You know, whether that's putting money first,

what does the Bible say?

You can't serve God and mammon, right?

They maybe put their fame and their prestige

or their good reputation or getting along with people.

Maybe that's number one to them.

That's what they care about the most

because what's the Bible say?

A good name is rather to be chosen than silver.

I mean, people would rather have respect and honor

and a good reputation many times than even money.

But you know what the Bible says?

Jesus Christ made Himself of no reputation

and took upon Him the form of a servant

and was made in the likeness of man

and being found in fashion as a man.

He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death,

even the death of the cross.

And you know what he just said a couple of verses earlier?

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

All right, so we've got to be willing to understand

that no, we're not gonna put money first.

No, we're not gonna put people liking us first.

And a lot of people will say,

yeah, but we gotta put family first.

It's family first.

But what did Jesus say here?

I mean, Jesus just finished telling us

that you know what, no.

He says, you know, in comparison

to how much you love God,

you got to be willing to hate family.

And I didn't make that up.

That's literally in the Bible, those exact words

in Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

That's what the Bible says.

He says, he that love a son or daughter more than me

is not worthy of me.

I mean, one of the most famous stories in the Bible

is in the book of Genesis

when Abraham is asked to sacrifice Isaac

in Genesis chapter 22,

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

ultimately picturing God the Father

sacrificing the Lord Jesus Christ,

sending the Son to be the savior of the world.

And of course, he didn't actually

have to sacrifice Isaac

because God provided himself a lamb for the sacrifice.

And Jesus Christ is the sacrifice

that takes away the sin of the world.

But the idea was that Abraham was being tested

and he had to show that his commitment to God

was greater than his commitment to family,

greater than his commitment to his son.

It's funny, I had a pastor just tell me

right to my face and say,

well, I know Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son,

but I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice my family

for ministry, family just comes first.

Well, then you don't belong in the pulpit.

You don't belong as a pastor.

And here's the thing, it'd be one thing

for some layman to say that

or emphasis on lame, okay?

But it'd be one thing for a woman to say that,

like, oh, I'm a mother and I just can't imagine,

or a layman or something.

But it's like, you're the pastor of the church.

That's Genesis.

That's what the Bible says.

That's what Luke 14 says.

You should have counted the cost

before getting into the ministry.

You shouldn't get into the ministry

and pastor if you want to pay nothing.

Look what the Bible says in Mark chapter four.

Flip over to Mark chapter four.

Mark chapter number four.

And so here's the bottom line.

Lame Christians, they're willing to sacrifice nothing

and they're immediately offended

whenever any persecution comes.

Look at Mark chapter four, verse 16.

The Bible talks about people like this

in the parable of the sower.

It talks about them being the ones

who are sown on stony ground.

And you know what's funny

is that often God's people

and especially preachers of God's word

will often be accused of being hard-hearted

or being mean, oh, this preacher's too mean.

And he's just so hard and so cold.

Part of that is just because

as a leader, sometimes you have to do hard things

and you have to say hard things.

And here's the thing, sometimes you have to preach

some cold hard truths without getting emotional

and rejecting what the Bible says because of emotion.

But at the end of the day,

you know who God actually classifies

as the one who is hard-hearted

is the lame Christian who quits when things get hard

and quits in persecution because the Bible says here

that they which are sown on stony ground,

it says who when they have heard the word,

immediately they receive it with gladness

and have no root in themselves.

And so endure but for a time afterward

when affliction or persecution arises

for the word's sake, immediately they're offended.

So you know who are the stony people?

You know who's got the stony heart

is the people who get immediately offended

by persecution and quit immediately.

Right, I mean, according to the Bible,

the productive soul-winning Christians

are the ones whose heart is a good, fertile, soft,

receptive soil that's actually receiving the word

and understanding it and loving it

and bringing forth fruit.

That's actually the tender heart right there

that's actually successfully doing the work of God.

The stony hearted person is actually the person

who shows up, yay, yeah, it's so fun

coming to Faithful Word Baptist Church.

And then as soon as there's a problem,

as soon as things get difficult,

as soon as things get hard,

they're just immediately offended.

Just by and by they're offended, they're gone.

And you know what's funny too

is that people expect the pastor

to continue preaching no matter what, right?

No matter what I go through,

no matter what persecutions,

no matter what torture I endure,

I am expected to keep going no matter what, right?

I just gotta keep on going and continue.

But then it's funny how church members

will just quit for no reason,

not even say anything, you know what I mean, right?

I have to continue until death,

but what about y'all, you know,

are you guys in it to win it?

Are you just gonna be immediately offended?

And you know, let me tell you something.

Why do people leave a church like ours

and go to some lame do nothing church?

I'll tell you why

is because they don't want to put in the work.

They're lazy.

Now look, the church does,

this church doesn't actually require anyone to do work,

but Jesus does and this church is gonna get up

and remind you of that and preach that

and tell you that we're not just gonna get up

and tell you, hey, we got the coffee bar out in the lobby.

Isn't God good?

Isn't life good?

Isn't family good?

Isn't it so great?

You know, and just hands across the water

and all you need is love, everybody!

All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

Oh wait, that's not even a hymn, I forgot.

That's a song by a bunch of Christ-rejecting,

fricking quasi-Hindu, whatever, rock and rollers.

You see, at the end of the day, okay,

the real big boy church is gonna preach the word of God

and it's gonna place some demands on you.

Not, nobody's enforcing anything,

but it's just, the Bible is demanding.

Living sacrifice, let's go!

Church down the street that has, you know,

rounded to zero salvations per capita,

if you do the math, okay?

Yeah, it's super comfortable, yay, fun, nice, pretty,

shiny, okay, but is it really about following Christ?

Or is it really just about, hey, let's just grind it out

and let's just kind of put in the time and get it done.

Now, I wanna go into some specific things

that are hard work today.

Go, if you would, to 1 Timothy, chapter five.

Because remember, we said this,

that salvation's not by works.

And so you don't have to do any work to be saved.

But that to be a good Christian,

you're gonna have to work hard.

You say, well, Pastor Anderson,

I just don't feel like a very good Christian.

I just don't think I'm a very good Christian.

I'm a little disappointed with myself

and I think that we all feel that way at times, right?

We're a little bit disappointed with ourselves

and thinking like, man, I should be a better Christian.

I should be a better person.

I should be a better husband, wife.

I should be a better child.

Whatever.

I should be a better brother, sister.

I should be a better friend.

I should be a better employee.

I should be a better church member.

I should be whatever.

We all feel sometimes like, man,

I just wish I were a better Christian.

At least I hope you feel that way.

And you might be sitting here this morning thinking,

man, I know I'm not that great of a Christian

and I'd like to do better.

Well, let me just tell you,

it's gonna take hard work to become a better Christian.

I mean, being a good Christian

doesn't happen without effort, okay?

So athletes don't just get good at their sport

without training, okay?

People don't learn a foreign language

in just five minutes a day,

just watching TV in Spanish.

I tried that as a kid, it didn't work, okay?

I watched a bunch of Spanish TV, I didn't learn Jack.

At the end of the day,

you gotta work at anything in life

to get good at your job.

You gotta work hard to study,

learn anything you gotta work hard

in order to develop any kind of skill or discipline.

I don't care if you're a ballerina or lifting weights.

It's all gonna take work.

And the Christian life is no different.

You're gonna have to put in the work

in order to succeed as a Christian.

And so point number one,

and you gotta be willing to pay a price.

You gotta make sacrifices.

Point number one is this,

reading the Bible is hard work.

Reading the Bible is work.

You can't just expect Bible reading

to just be super easy, phone it in.

No, you gotta put some effort and some work

into reading the Bible.

Let's look what the Bible says in 1 Timothy.

Did I return to 1 Timothy 5?

Look at verse 17.

It says, let the elders that rule well

be counted worthy of double honor,

especially they who watch this,

labor in the word and doctrine.

Now doctrine is referring to teaching.

Doctrine and teaching are synonymous.

Just a fancy word for teaching.

So if we say, what are the doctrines of the church?

We're saying, what are the teachings of the church?

What is the church teaching?

The doctrines of the Bible

are the things that the Bible teaches.

And so the Bible says here,

especially they who labor in the word and doctrine,

the word and doctrine has to do with number one,

first of all, learning the word,

that's laboring in the word, studying, reading,

study to show thyself approved unto God,

a workmen that needed not to be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth.

And then doctrine is teaching,

so it's like the input and the output.

So you're laboring as a pastor,

you're laboring to take in the word

and then you're laboring to output the word,

to teach the word.

This is considered work.

Also in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, it says this,

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

and further by these, my son be admonished

of making books there is no end

and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

The Bible says much study is a weariness of the flesh.

Now look, anybody who's actually done serious study

knows that it's exhausting.

It's tiring.

If you're memorizing things, studying things,

whether it's memorizing scripture, reading,

cramming for a test or learning something,

much study is a weariness of the flesh.

It's exhausting.

Reading the Bible is hard work.

But you know what?

God commands us to read our Bible.

We need to read the Bible every day.

Man does not live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.

Why don't you put some effort,

if you wanna be a good Christian,

part of being a good Christian

is knowing what the Bible says.

You know, I'm part of the reason why

some people get offended by my preaching

is because they don't know what the Bible says.

Part of the reason why pastors are preaching weak,

lame sermons that are doctrinally incorrect

is because they just don't know what the Bible says

because they didn't put in the hours and hours

and hours and hours of study

to learn what the Bible says.

Look, at a minimum, you should be reading the Bible

once a year.

That's only 15, 20 minutes a day.

But how about getting some labor in the word?

You know, and there can be times.

And look, I do think you should have a routine

that's reasonable and sustainable that you can manage.

Like you don't wanna just have some insane reading goal

and then you just get frustrated and you can't do it.

But you know what, why not set aside

a basic Bible reading time every day

just something really reasonable,

something easy where there's no excuse

not to put in that 15, 20 minutes, just super reasonable.

But you know what, there's nothing wrong

with every once in a while when you got some extra time,

when you're sitting around with nothing to do.

Why not actually go on a marathon

and read for a couple hours?

You know, I'm not saying you're gonna do that every day,

but what's wrong with just a Bible reading marathon

where you do the Twilight Zone marathon,

you do the Superman marathon.

Okay, that was 30 years ago, but 40 years ago.

But you know, it's like people go

and sit and watch a movie for three hours, four hours,

and people will read books for hours and hours.

There's nothing wrong with just sitting down

and just reading a whole book of the Bible.

You know, there's nothing wrong with just sitting down

and just doing some extra bowery.

I remember one time when I was a teenager,

I showed up for Sunday school on a Sunday morning

and they announced, hey, we're doing a thing

on the Book of Revelation, you know, it's a new series.

And I was excited about it.

I just went home and just read the Book of Revelation

that afternoon.

Just as a worldly teenager,

I just read the Book of Revelation

and it only takes to read the Book of Revelation

like maybe about an hour, a little more than an hour.

It's not a very long book.

I believe it's 303 verses or maybe it's 404.

Yeah, that sounds more right.

Yeah, it's 404 verses.

It's not that big of a deal, you know,

to just sit down and read the Bible

and crank it out from time to time.

But you know, reading the Bible is hard work,

but number two, you know, prayer is hard work.

And look, I'm backing this up from the Bible.

Go through it to Colossians chapter four.

Go to Colossians chapter four.

We said, Bible reading is hard work.

How do I know that?

Because the Bible talks about laboring in the word, right?

It talks about how much studies

the weariness of the flesh,

putting in the work of studying the Bible.

That diligence is gonna take effort.

But number two, prayer is hard work.

Look at Colossians chapter four verse 12.

It says, Epiphras, who is one of you,

a servant of Christ, saluted you.

Always laboring, and the word labor itself

is not just any kind of work.

The word labor itself implies that this is hard work.

You know, if somebody was doing an easy job,

you wouldn't call them a laborer

or saying that they're laboring, okay?

It says here, always laboring fervently for you

in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete

in all the will of God.

Now with that, Romans chapter 15 verse 30 says,

Romans 15:30

Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake

and for the love of the Spirit,

that you strive together with me

in your prayers to God for me.

And so he's saying, strive with me in prayer.

What does it mean to strive?

Well, the verb strive, here's a noun

to go with that, struggle.

You know, he's saying that prayer is a struggle.

You're struggling, you're laboring,

it's work, it's difficult.

If it were easy, everybody'd be doing it.

And look, we talked about recently,

there are pastors who haven't read the Bible cover to cover

or they've only read it cover to cover once, twice,

and they've been in the ministry for years.

This is out there, my friend.

And look, a lot of pastors,

that's the problem with their preaching

is just having only read the Bible a handful of times,

they don't know what they're talking about.

And not only that, not only did I have the information

that is studied from the Bible,

but they also don't have the spirit of the Bible.

You know, because it's like,

if you read the whole Bible over and over again,

you start getting a feel for like,

okay, I'm getting the gist of this,

I can see what God's doing,

I can see what God's saying,

I can see what God means,

I can see what things are like from his perspective.

Look, we have the mind of Christ

by being able to read the word

and know what he thinks about everything.

But if you're just barely touching on the Bible

and just getting worldly opinions all day,

then no surprise when you have all these worldly takes

that contradict the word of God.

Then Pastor Anderson gets up

and preaches something hard from the Bible

and you're just like,

oh, it's like, bro, hast thou read?

Have you not read?

How read is thou, friend?

You got a labor in the reading

and you got a labor in prayer.

Prayer is work.

You know, prayer is work.

You know, there's even a famous saying like that.

It's probably from some Catholic or something,

but you know,

laborare estorare, you know, or whatever.

But I'm telling you that it's not easy to pray,

it takes effort, it takes work, it takes diligence,

and it's something that's really easy to neglect

because you're just too lazy to do it.

Right, I mean, because it's work,

you gotta work at praying.

But not only that, soul winning is hard work.

Go through it to Philippians chapter four.

Philippians chapter four,

still in the epistles of Paul here,

Philippians chapter number four.

Bible reading is hard work.

Otherwise everybody'd be doing it.

Prayer is hard work.

You know, just taking that time

and just clearing your mind of other things

and focusing and talking to the Lord in prayer

and putting in the effort

to have that conversation with God

and speak to God in prayer, it takes work.

But look, if you wanna be a good Christian,

you gotta work to be a good Christian.

How are you gonna be a good Christian

if you don't read the Bible and you don't pray?

I mean, what does it even mean to be a good Christian?

Right, you gotta read the Bible,

you gotta pray, that's part of it.

And soul winning's part of it too.

And soul winning's hard work.

Philippians chapter four, verse three says this,

I entreat the also true yoke fellow.

And this whole phrase, yoke fellow,

it's kind of an odd phrase to our ears in 2026.

But a yoke fellow, yoke is something

that attaches two animals together

so that they can work together.

And so that they can actually pull the plow

and that their muscle and strength and effort

can go toward the same goal

so that they're not going in different directions.

They're yoked up so that they can pull

in the same direction.

And so he says, yoke fellow,

he's saying, look, you're my fellow laborer.

And that's a term that Paul uses all the time

in scripture too, fellow laborer.

Yoke fellow, you're in the yoke with me,

we're working hard together, we're laboring.

He says, help those women

which labored with me in the gospel.

Now look, women are not supposed to pastor churches,

they're supposed to keep silence in the church,

they're not preaching and teaching the word of God

or having any kind of a public ministry.

They're supposed to be silent, the Bible says.

But here's the thing, women are greatly used by God

to go soul winning, to win souls.

All throughout scripture,

they're out preaching the gospel to the lost.

In Acts chapter two in the famous passage

on the day of Pentecost,

God had promised that he would pour out of his spirit

upon the young men and upon the handmaidens

and that they would prophesy.

And so there were people soul winning

in Acts chapter two from the early church

and it wasn't just the men, it was the women

preaching the gospel and the spirit of the Lord

came upon them and they were able to miraculously

preach the gospel to people in languages

that they didn't even speak

and that they were able to communicate

with these pilgrims that had come

from all over the world to worship at Jerusalem

so that the gospel could go throughout the world.

And so here again, the apostle Paul is acknowledging

that there are women who are laboring with him,

not just doing menial work,

but actually laboring with him what?

In the gospel, right?

They're actually preaching the gospel.

They're actually doing soul winning.

They're doing evangelism.

He says, help those women

which labored with me in the gospel,

with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers

whose names are in the book of life.

And so again, laboring in the gospel

shows you that soul winning is hard work.

Soul winning is labor,

just like reading your Bible's labor,

just like praying is labor.

Going soul winning is exhausting.

I remember one time we had a preaching class

at Faithful Word and this is going back like

15 some odd years, 17 years.

We had this guy and he was a kid

who had grown up on a farm in West Virginia

and he said, I grew up on a farm

doing hard physical labor and he said,

soul winning is the hardest work

I've ever done in my life.

It's the most exhausting work

I've ever done in my life.

Even more exhausting than, you know,

I don't know what farmers even do,

but shoveling the hay or whatever,

but I've never been a farmer.

But the point is this guy had grown up

working hard on a farm and he said, soul winning is harder.

He says, soul winning is hard work.

And anybody who goes out soul winning

knows how draining it is, how exhausting it is.

It's not physically draining,

it's just mentally and spiritually draining

to go soul winning.

And so these women have labored

with the apostle Paul in the gospel.

Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number three.

1 Corinthians chapter number three.

And while you're turning to 1 Corinthians three,

I'm gonna read for you what Jesus said about this.

In John chapter four, verse 34,

John saith unto them,

my meat is to do the will of him

that sent me in to finish his work.

Say not ye there are yet four months

and then come with harvest.

Behold, I say unto you lift up your eyes

and look on the fields

for they are white all ready to harvest

and he that reapeth receiveeth wages

and gathereth fruit unto life eternal

that both he that soweth

and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

And here it is that saying true,

one soweth and another reapeth.

So look, he's talking about preaching the gospel

and you're not always gonna be the one

to get the person saved.

Sometimes you're just planting the seed.

And so one sows and another reaps.

You know, sometimes you're sowing the seed

for the first time.

Sometimes you're watering an existing seed.

Sometimes you're able to get the harvest.

And it says, herein is the saying true,

one soweth and another reapeth.

And then it says in verse 38,

I sent you to reap that

whereon you bestowed no labor.

Other men labored a year entered into their labor.

So what's the Bible saying?

Sowing the seed is labor.

Watering the seed is labor.

Harvesting the harvest is labor.

This is all hard work because soul winning is hard work.

And there's a similar illustration in first Corinthians

three, verse five, it says,

who then is Paul and who is Apollos,

but ministers by whom ye believed

even as the Lord gave to every man.

See every single man that is saved,

how did he get saved?

I mean, there's some minister by whom he believed

not necessarily someone who's a minister for a living,

but some man, woman, boy or girl

must have preached the gospel to him

and been a minister by whom he believed,

the person who won him to Christ.

And it's often not just one person

because of course sometimes one is planting,

the other is watering.

Ultimately it's God that gives the increase.

But it says here, ministers by whom ye believed

even as the Lord gave to every man.

I have planted Apollos watered

but God gave the increase, verse seven.

So then neither is he that planted anything,

neither he that watereth,

but God that give it the increase,

now he that planted and he that watereth are one.

Now what does that mean?

He that planted and he that watereth are one.

It means we don't have a guy who's just only planting.

Oh, I just plant,

and sometimes you'll have people say this,

like, oh yeah, I get zero people saved

but that's because my ministry is just planting.

Now I don't know because the one who plants,

the one who waters, it's all the same person

because it's like you knock one door and you're planting,

you knock another door, you're watering,

you knock another door, you're harvesting.

You know, he that goeth forth

and weepeth bearing precious seed

shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

bring in his sheaves with him.

It's not like, oh no, I just sow and sow

and sow and sow and never get any results.

Well, you're doing something wrong

because you should be getting results.

You know, and obviously the results don't come quick.

Sometimes you have to put in hours or even dozens of hours

or scores of hours even to get a single salvation.

That's just the way life is.

If you're in a really receptive area,

it's easy to get people saved one after the other

but if you're in a difficult area,

it can take literally dozens of hours

to get one salvation.

So we're not saying it's gonna instantly happen,

we're saying it's eventually gonna happen.

You know, you will eventually come again rejoicing,

bring in his sheaves with you

because it says here that, you know,

he that planteth and he that watereth, it's one.

He that planteth and he that watereth or one, Versaite,

and every man shall receive his own reward

according to his own labor.

Notice the word that's used here

to describe this process of planting and watering is labor.

You will receive according to your labor

for we are laborers together with God.

You're God's husbandry, you're God's building.

Over and over again, the Christian life

is compared not to a Kush office air-conditioned job

but to being a laborer, to being out sweating

and toiling and working and struggling.

And of course, I'm not down on you

if you have a white collar job

because we already said even just reading

and studying is labor.

Staring at a computer screen

and doing your work on a computer's labor too.

But I'm saying when God wants to use an illustration,

it's not an easy job of any kind.

It's hard physical work that he uses, okay?

It's not a Kush easy, relaxed job.

It's about working hard.

You say, well, I don't like this sermon

because it sounds hard.

Well, okay, Mr. Lazy Boy.

Well, you know what?

There's plenty of churches in this area

that are right on salvation, King James.

They have some anemic, weak,

barely phoning it in soul winning program

just so that they can kind of take a box

that they're a soul winning church

where they go out and put out door hangers

or go soul winning once a month,

just super weak, super ineffective,

but they still have all the right doctrine

and they're right on salvation and they're King James.

And you can go there and you can serve God

and have friends and you know what?

Here's the thing, they're not gonna preach hard.

They're not gonna preach hard

and so you can show up and just be super comfortable

and just be like, oh, it's so nice,

it's so refreshing, it's so cool.

But okay, but just realize that you're going nowhere

in your Christian life

and that you are just an unprofitable servant

that's not even doing the minimum.

If you just go to some babysitter

and you know, we could call it babysitter Baptist.

It's basically just babysitting the saints.

Just making sure they don't get into too much trouble.

Right?

Like here's the thing, you know, if I go somewhere

and I leave the kids with a babysitter, right?

You don't expect the babysitter to basically like

take your kids to the next level

on, you know, spiritual things

or schoolwork or sports or anything.

You know, the basic expectation of a babysitter

is kind of like, hey, I just want the kids

to be alive when I get home.

And that they're okay and nothing crazy happened, right?

It's just like people are just kind of watching the kids

making sure everything's cool,

making sure everything's fine.

And that's what these churches are.

They're like a babysitter Baptist church

where basically it's like, they're just kind of just

keeping Christians just kind of barely treading water

in their Christian lives

and just kind of like keeping them out of too much trouble

and just maybe they'll get one person saved

at every blue moon if you're lucky.

You know, whereas Faith Forward Baptist Church

has got you doing the butterfly stroke.

We got you doing the forward crawl.

We got you doing the back stroke.

We got you doing a freestyle.

We've got you doing all kinds of drills and work.

You know, why?

Because we're trying to make you a better Christian.

We're trying to get new people saved by the droves.

We're trying to take God's people

and thoroughly equip them and motivate them

and send them out as an army for the Lord.

We're not just trying to just babysit

the saints of God here.

And you know, something's wrong

when the church is just filled 100%

with people who got saved somewhere else.

It's just a babysitter Baptist.

Like they did not reach any of the people in the church.

No one in the church was reached by that ministry.

They're just babysitting all of the people

who wash up from Faithful Word.

All the people who can't cut it at Faithful Word.

All the people who got saved 30 years ago, 40 years ago

and are just kind of just treading water

and just trying to get by and just need a little,

you know, check a box on Sunday morning

that they went to church.

That's what a lot of these Baptist churches are.

They're just babysitters.

The babysitters club is what they could call it.

You know?

And it's like you show up

and you got saved 30 years ago

and 40 years ago and 50 years ago

or you got saved recently somewhere else.

And you know what's funny is that, you know,

obviously our church had a lot of people saved

and people are like, well,

why don't all these people go to your church?

Cause they are lame.

Because 99% of Christians can't handle hard preaching

because they don't want to work

because they don't even want to talk about work.

They don't even want to hear sermons about work.

They don't want to be challenged.

They'd rather be a big fish and a little pond

than a little fish and a big pond.

That's why.

Where are all these people?

I don't know.

Where are you?

You know, the people asking this question

don't go to our church.

So I always just ask people whenever they're like,

well, where are all these people you want to Christ?

Why don't they go to your church?

I always just ask them, why don't you go to my church?

And then they'll say, well, I live 1,000 miles away.

I'm like, so do most of the people that we want to the Lord.

Because most of the people that we want to the Lord

are on mission strips and soldiering marathons

across America and across the world.

Because obviously we fly to these super receptive places

and get the most salvation abroad.

Or we're getting people saved three hours away

on the Apache reservation,

four hours away on the Navajo reservation.

You know, so it's like, where are all these people?

Why don't they come to your church?

Well, why don't you come to the church?

Well, because I live in another city, state, area.

Yeah, so do most of the people that we want to the Lord.

You know, when COVID happened,

we got about a third as many salvation as we normally do

because we were pretty much only soul-winning locally.

We couldn't go to the res, we couldn't go to the mission field.

And so we literally had like one third

as many salvation as normal.

Because two thirds of our salvation

are out in these far-flung places.

And then it's like, why don't you go to my church?

Well, I don't go to your church

because you're too mean

and you preach all these mean, hard-nosed sermons.

Okay, well, that's the same reason why

other people don't come here.

Where are all these people?

Well, I don't know, why aren't you here?

Well, because you're this and you're that.

Well, they think the same thing.

Everybody wants the free gift of salvation,

but they don't necessarily want to get on board

with everything that the Bible teaches.

You know, and here's the thing,

there are parts of the Bible that are unsavory

and they don't want to be reminded of those parts.

They don't want to hear sermons about it.

I mean, look, they'd rather just pretend

that Luke chapter 14 just isn't in the Bible.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Right?

They're like, what the hate?

Father, mother, wife, children?

What the heck?

Psalm 23, let's go.

You know, where are all these people?

Most people can't cut it.

This is the special forces.

But lastly, let me say this,

go to 1 Corinthians chapter nine.

Lastly, self-control is hard work.

So we said, number one, reading your Bible's hard work.

Number two, prayer is hard work.

Number three, soul winning is hard work.

I mean, look, the famous verse where Jesus said

the harvest truly is plenty is, but the laborers are few.

Pray to you, therefore, the Lord of the harvest

that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.

Sounds like hard work.

But number four, self-control is hard work.

You know, it's hard work to abstain from sin.

It's not just easy.

You're not just gonna automatically by default

just be living this really clean and separated

and sanctified life.

No, it's gonna take hard work to fix your habits,

to change your habits, to change your behavior,

to get sin out of your life.

Look, quitting drinking can be hard work

for a lot of people.

Quitting smoking is probably even harder

than quitting drinking for most people.

I mean, quitting smoking is super difficult.

People struggle and work hard to get off the drugs

and whatever.

And you know what's interesting is,

you think about, you know, alcoholics anonymous,

which has obviously been wildly successful

at getting people sober for many, many decades.

Alcoholics anonymous has gotten people sober,

gotten people off of the drinking,

gotten people off of the drugs,

and there are all kinds of success stories and examples,

literally millions of people

that have followed those programs and succeeded, okay?

And here's the thing about it.

These people who go through alcoholics anonymous

and get sober, did you know that they go to meetings

every day?

Who knew that they go to meetings every day?

Who, you know, I see very few people

because most people would think,

oh, they probably go once a week.

Maybe they go once a month or once a week

or maybe twice a week.

No, they go to meetings every single day,

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

I mean, they go to work, they go to their meeting.

Go to work, go to their meeting, go to their meeting,

go to their meeting.

I mean, these people will go to meetings daily,

sometimes for years, okay?

And why?

Because a lot of times they quit going to their meetings,

they could fall off the wagon.

They need that continual encouragement.

Now, I think for a lot of people,

and I was talking to this one guy several months ago

when I was preaching about this,

and he came up to me and said,

hey, I've been sober for X amount of years.

I went through the program with Alcoholics Anonymous.

He said eventually, church replaced the meetings form.

You know, so he said, I don't go to meetings anymore

because I just go to church three times a week.

That's my meeting, you know?

Three times a week in church.

And I do think that church is superior

to Alcoholics Anonymous as a meeting, obviously.

So ultimately, church is God's institution.

Church is the place,

but I just want you to just stop and think

about how much work it would be

and how much effort it would take

for somebody to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting

seven days a week for months or years.

Why?

It sounds like getting sober is hard work.

It sounds like getting off drugs is hard work.

Sounds like staying sober

and staying clean of alcohol is hard work.

So, you know, the moral of the story is

don't get into that stuff in the first place.

Why would you even want to open that door?

Why would you even want to test alcohol or test drugs

and run the risk of getting addicted

and then having to just devote literally hundreds

and hundreds of hours of your life

to getting off of something

that you could have just not started in the first place.

Be a lot easier.

But here's the thing.

If Alcoholics Anonymous has people coming

every single day that shows you how hard it is,

it shows you how much work it is,

and then you'll see people

when they quick go to the meetings,

they fall off the wagon.

And as I said, I think that ultimately,

people who are in that situation

can replace three times a week at church

with, you know, seven days a week

at Alcoholics Anonymous or whatever.

And look, you can even listen to preaching

through the week even to help supplement

and keep you thinking about spiritual things.

We've got the technology with the internet

and our phones and headphones and everything.

You can be listening to sermons every day

to supplement and keep your mind on the things of God.

Keep yourself right.

But that just shows me that self-control is hard work.

Stopping sinning is hard work.

Getting right with God is hard work.

If people are having to go to meetings

every single day to fix it, right?

I mean, that should show you something.

Look at 1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse 24.

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all,

but one receive at the prize.

So run that you may obtain,

and every man that striveeth for the mastery

is temperate in all things.

And another word for temperance is self-control.

It means that you're controlling yourself.

You have temperance.

Every man that striveeth for the mastery

is temperate in all things, meaning that athletes,

literal physical athletes, runners,

and other sports practitioners,

they have to be temperate in all things.

They can't just be like, oh, well, I train hard,

but I eat whatever I want, right?

No, these athletes have to eat a certain way.

They have to train a certain way.

They have to sleep a certain way.

They're not just taking drugs and drinking alcohol

and smoking cigarettes willy-nilly.

No, they have to be temperate in all things.

They have to exercise extreme self-control.

They're getting up early.

They're going to bed early.

They're training hard.

They're putting in the effort.

Every single day, even on their rest day,

they're having to make an effort to make sure they rest.

And they're having to make sure

that they eat the right things on the rest day.

It's not like there's a seventh day

where they just do whatever they want.

They're temperate in all things.

In order to be an Olympic athlete,

they need a commitment to the cause.

And that's what he's saying here.

He says, every man that strives for the mastery,

and he's talking about mastering sports.

He's talking about winning a physical race.

Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,

but we, an incorruptible, and Olympic athletes,

we're talking thousands of years ago,

used to literally get a crown

that was made out of leaves.

Literal leaves.

So this isn't a gold medal

that you can have 30, 40, 50 years later.

And the idea here is that it's just temporary glory.

It's a corruptible crown.

It's made out of literal leaves.

He says they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,

but we an incorruptible.

Obviously as a Christian, we know

that even gold and silver are corruptible

because they're not going to last for eternity.

Right? You can't take it with you.

He says they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,

but we an incorruptible.

I therefore so run, not as uncertainty.

So fight I, not as one that beateth the air.

He said, I'm not just shadow boxing here.

I'm actually hitting a target.

I keep under my body and bring it into subjection,

lest that by any means, when I preach to others,

I myself should be a cast away.

Here's another translation for cast away, reject.

Right? Cause what is it?

What is a cast away?

A cast away is like, meh, you're going through

and oh yeah, we'll use this.

We use this.

This sparks joy.

This doesn't, you know, cast away is a reject.

And so look, do you want to be a reject?

And you know what?

Let me tell you something.

There are some people that have served God

in churches like ours or our church itself.

There have been some people that in the past

were in a fired up church, going soul winning,

doing great works for God, and they are now rejects.

You know, the XNIFB reject club.

You know, it's like, do you want to be a reject?

No, you want to keep going.

Well, you got to be temperate in all things.

Cause guess what?

Moralson is going to make you a reject.

Okay?

You know, if you crash and burn spiritually,

you're not going to lose your salvation.

You're not going to.

It's impossible to lose your salvation.

As soon as you lose your salvation,

God's going to have to stop being God.

Cause God promises eternal life and God cannot lie.

Okay?

Nobody's going to lose their salvation,

but you know what?

There are a lot of saved Christians

that are going to heaven when they die,

but they are living as total rejects

over a trash can Baptist,

total rejects doing nothing for God,

total failures, total losers.

Okay?

Why did they end up that way?

Because they did not practice self-control.

Right?

We don't want to become rejects

because we quit reading our Bible,

we quit praying, we quit going to church,

we quit soul winning,

we quit exercising self-control,

and you get drunk and become a drunken reject.

You become a drug addicted reject.

Right?

You become a gambling addicted reject.

Right?

You indulge in, you know, extra marital, whatever,

cause you become a total loser.

Look, we got to keep under our body

and bring it into subjection.

And you know, obviously, yeah,

that means abstaining from fornication,

abstaining from adultery,

but you know what it could also mean

is forcing yourself to read your Bible.

It also takes discipline to force yourself

to show up for church.

It takes discipline.

I mean, look,

for the guy who's going through alcoholics anonymous,

it takes discipline not to drink,

but it also takes discipline to get his butt to the meeting.

That's gonna take effort, planning, work,

driving down there,

building his whole schedule

and his whole life around these meetings.

Keep under my body and bring it into subjection

unless that by any means,

when I've preached to others,

I myself should be cast away.

It's like you're getting up

and preaching to other people

and then you end up crashing and burning and being a failure.

Obviously, that's not what any of us wants, right?

You don't want to go out and be this zealous soul winner,

maybe even preaching behind the pulpit,

maybe just preaching out there

on the mission field or whatever.

And then someday somebody's preaching at you.

I get right with God, man.

What is wrong with you?

Why are you a cast away?

So in conclusion, let me say this.

You know, we're not saved by works,

but we're saved unto good works.

The Bible says not of works a sending man should boast

for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus

unto good works,

which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.

So although we're not saved by work, we should work.

We need to put in the work.

If you want to be a good Christian,

it's gonna take hard work.

You say, why is this person a better Christian than me?

I'm kind of a lame Christian.

This other guy's just killing it.

Why is he such a great?

Because he's putting in the work.

Why does one person play piano better than another?

Because they put in more work.

It's that simple.

For the Son of man, this is what Jesus said,

shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels,

and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

Jesus is gonna return someday.

Matthew 16, 27 says he's rewarding people

based on their works.

Revelation 22, 12, behold, I come quickly,

my reward is with me,

to give every man according as his work shall be.

So look, work has nothing to do with getting saved.

You can do zero work and go to heaven

because Romans 4, 5 says,

put him that work is not,

but believe it on him that justified the ungodly,

his faith is counted for righteousness.

So it's possible to do no work

and be like that guy in 1 Corinthians 3

where all of your works are burned up,

all of your works are wood-hand stubble,

yet he himself shall be saved, right?

So salvation is a free gift, free lunch,

by grace, through faith, not of works,

paid for by the blood of Jesus.

Whereas being a successful Christian,

being a Christian who's still here five years,

10 years, 15 years from now,

actually winning souls to Christ,

actually being fruitful and multiplying,

actually being a serious Christian

that stays in Big Boy Church

and doesn't downgrade to some watered down,

and you know what's funny is that these people

who quit our church to go to some lame church,

you know what I never see?

I never see them promoting their church online.

You know what I mean?

Like me, like when I've gone to churches

that I was excited about,

I was telling everybody about my church.

I hope that you're excited about faith for word

and you're telling people about faith for word.

But I remember when I was a teenager

and I got into a soul-winning Baptist church,

I'm telling all my friends about it.

And we weren't really much on the internet in those days.

The internet was barely a thing

and most people weren't on the internet

at all.

And if you were on the internet,

it was so ridiculously painfully slow,

you couldn't really do anything on the internet.

But I mean, I'm just word of mouth

just telling people about it.

And you know what's funny is you see people

from Faithful Word and our sister churches,

don't you see them just constantly like posting sermons

and documentaries and soul-winning events

and talk about, oh, you gotta check out

this awesome sermon.

Here's a clip from this sermon.

Here's a clip from that sermon, right?

You know, where's all the awesome preaching,

awesome soul-winning events,

awesome mission strip from babysitting Baptist

is what I'd like to know.

You know, oh, it's so much better.

It's so awesome.

Oh, I'm so glad I love Faithful Word.

Oh, I just love it through sure.

It's funny how your pastor

doesn't preach any awesome sermons.

What's going on with that, right?

I mean, where's all the fruit?

Where's all the result?

Where's all the output?

Because at the end of the day,

the Christian life's hard work.

And people who aren't putting in the work

aren't getting the results.

And look, you might think that there's some prodigy

that just came out of the womb

and awesome Christian, but it doesn't exist.

I don't believe in it for one second.

I think everything, I don't care if it's music,

sports, you name it in this life,

it's 90% hard work, 10% talent.

Yeah, the people at the Olympics have talent

because they need that extra 10%.

Anybody can become a virtuoso pianist

if they put in the work.

You put in thousands of hours of playing,

and you know, what it is is people overestimate

how much time they put into things.

You know, I remember last year I was like,

dog gone it, I'm gonna get better at playing piano.

I started playing piano consistently

for like an hour and a half, two hours a day, you know?

And it was just like, but here's the thing,

on days that I felt like, I was like,

oh, I must have practiced for five hours today.

But then it's like hour and a half.

But it feels like you're just like,

dude, all I did was play piano all day.

It's like, I woke up in the morning,

I pretty much ate, slept and played piano the whole day

until you actually started looking at the clock

and realized that you put in an hour and 45 minutes,

you know, or two hours and 15 minutes or something.

Does everybody understand what I'm saying?

And here's the thing, so for several months

I put in effort and I actually made serious progress.

You know, eventually I was just like,

yeah, I don't love this enough

to put in this amount of time.

So I ended up, you know, getting away from it.

But that's how you get better.

I mean, to get, and I'm telling you,

the people who are good, it's like,

oh, they're so talented.

Oh, Kira is so talented.

You know, oh, Catherine is so talented.

It's like, who remembers Catherine Lynch

coming down here five days a week

and practicing for four hours a day, Monday through Friday?

She would literally come in here every day during the week

and she's just like, seriously, just like.

Just, all these just like drills

of just hand and studies and scales and whatever.

And just, she would play for four hours a day, every day.

And then she shows up on Sunday and plays

and she's like, oh, she's so talented.

It's like, no.

Talent is usually a code word for,

I really like it so I spend a lot of time doing it.

That's the talent, okay?

So guess what?

When it comes to Christian life,

the people who are succeeding,

people who are living for God,

they're putting in the time.

On Bible, prayer, soul winning, church attendance,

getting sin out of their lives, they're working.

And if you wanna succeed, you gotta work hard.

Let's bards and on board a prayer.

Father, we thank you so much for your word.

And Lord God, I just pray that you would just help us all

to put in the work, put in the effort,

not take the easy way, the lazy way,

path of least resistance, Lord.

Help us to put in the work necessary

to be the best Christians that we can possibly be.

And in Jesus' name we pray amen.