The part of the chapter that I want to focus on there is beginning in verse 13, where the Bible reads "Till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophesy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbitery. Meditate upon these things, give thyself holy to them that thy propheting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them. For in doing this, thou shalt both save they self and then that hear thee." Of course, this morning we're having the ordination service for brother Dave Berzins. Brother Dave, come on up here. I'm going to put you in the hot seat up here. Let's get you a chair and have you sit up here where I can look at you. You're sitting too far away from me. Today is the ordination service for Brother Dave Berzins who's going up to start a church in Prescott Valley.
Before we get into that, I just want to lay a doctrinal foundation for the purpose of our service this morning and the event that's taking place as we send out Brother Dave to start a church. Of course, we want to do everything in a scriptural way. Go back with you in Numbers chapter number 27. Numbers chapter number 27. In Numbers 27, we're he's going to back and get his Bible. Number 27, we see an event of the laying on of hands and a charge being given unto Joshua by Moses. This concept of giving a charge unto a man of God or laying on of hands goes back to the Old Testament and something that we can trace through the Old Testament and also throughout the New Testament. Look at Numbers 27 verse 18, the Bible reads "And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit and lay thine hand upon him. And set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and give him a charge in their sight."
What we see here is that Moses is going to take Joshua, he's going to put him in front of all the people, he's going to lay hands upon him and he's going to give him a charge in their sight. What is a charge? A charge would be like for example marching orders, giving him a commission. Giving him a mission or something that he is supposed to accomplish, a task that he's supposed to perform. The Bible says here that he's going to be charged in their sight, verse 20 "And thou shalt put some of thine honor upon him that all the congregation of the children of Israel maybe obedient. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest who shall ask counsel for him after the judgement of Urim before the Lord and his Word shall they go out, and at his Word they shall come in, both he and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation. Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and he took Joshua and send him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and he laid his hands upon him and gave him a charge as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses."
Go to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6 for again in the New Testament. If you want to see this is not just an Old Testament concept but also a New Testament concept. What we saw there in the Old Testament is that the laying out of hands and the charge that was gi- ... had to do with the few different things. First of all, it had to do with conferring authority upon him. He said, "Look. You're going to lay your hands upon Joshua and then the people are going to obey him. You're basically putting him in a position of authority here." Not only that, when we study the concept of the laying out of hands in the Bible, it also has to do with the power of God or the power of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture that we read earlier in 1 Timothy 4 said, "Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophesy.' Prophesy means preaching in the Bible, 'with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery."
The laying on of the hands of the presbytery had to do with the gift that was given unto him, the gift of prophesy. What is the word presbytery mean? Presbytery means elder or elders. If you know the Bible pretty well, we're going to get into this a little more about the elder or elders. If you understand the word elder, it's not just saying someone who's older. This is talking about the bishop or the pastor and we'll get into that a little bit more as we go. Look at Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1, the Bible reads "Therefore leaving the principals of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgement."
What's interesting is that by putting the laying on of hands in this list, we see that this is a fundamental doctrine. This is one of the basic doctrines of Christ, we have of course repentance from dead works, faith toward God, baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgement. Go to Acts 13 and let's see this throughout the Book of Acts. Acts chapter number 13. Act's 13. You say, what is repentance from dead works mean? I like how Brother Gary explained it. He said, "Dead faith is when you have faith but you have no works. Dead works is when you have works but you don't have faith." I think that's prior to the best explanation I've ever heard. Anyway, look down if you would there in Acts chapter 13 verse 1 "Now there were in the church that was in Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manean which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch and Saul.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, 'Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work where unto I have called them.' And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." Go back to Acts chapter 8. In Acts chapter 13, what we saw there is that they're being separated unto a specific work that they're going to be doing. He said, "Lay hands on them, pray because they're being separated or set apart or appointed to do a specific job." Look at Acts chapter 8 verse 14 "Now when the Apostles which where at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John who when they come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost.
Go to chapter 14. What happened there in chapter 8? They laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. This is not just saying, "Oh, they're indwelled by the Holy Spirit." Every believers indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor:
The Bible says "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his." If we trace this back to the beginnings of the Book of Acts, at the end of the Book of John, in John chapter 20 Jesus Christ breathed on his disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." When Jesus breathed on his disciples after he was glorified, they were indwelled by the Holy Spirit just like all believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. Even after they were indwelled by the Holy Spirit, he still told them to wait at Jerusalem until they will be endued with power from on high. He said that they should not depart from Jerusalem until they had received the promise that John the Baptist had given when he said John through the baptize with water but you should be baptized with the Holy Ghost, it's not many days [inaudible 00:07:33]. You see, there are two ministries of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. There's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is permanent which is some of that all believers have. then there is the Holy Ghost upon you or the fullness of the Spirit which has to do with God's power or the power of Christ resting upon you.
Do you remember in the Old Testament, men would have the Holy Spirit come upon them? Remember men like Samson, King Saul, Oded the prophet, Micah the prophet. I mean, all these prophets, all these warriors in the Old Testament, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon them. If you remember when they begin to live a sinful life, when they began to forsake God's commandments, the Spirit would be removed from them. They would no longer have the power of God resting upon them. In the New Testament, that has not been done away with. That has not been replaced but God has added the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Old Testament believers were not indwelled by the Holy Spirit. We in the New Testament have the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling us after salvation. Does that mean we're filled with the Spirit?
Congregation:
No.
Pastor:
No, because otherwise there would be no need for a commandment to be filled with the Spirit. Otherwise, there'll be no need for the disciples to wait at Jerusalem 'til they were endued with power from on high. If you remember, when they had prayed in Acts 4:31 for example, when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God with boldness. When we talk about the Holy Ghost here, when we talk about the Spirit of the Lord upon you, when we talk about the laying on of hands, we're not just talking about being indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we're talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit. We're talking about being endued with the power of God to preach the Word of God with boldness and to do a great work for God not by might nor by power but by God's Spirit. Not in the power of our own flesh but in the power of the Spirit of God.
You see, what you're setting out to do, Brother Dave, is something that humanly speaking is impossible. It's not going to work. It's too hard. You know what? I'm sure there are a lot of naysayers that will tell you, "Oh, what you're doing, it's not going to work. You're going to fail. It's short." You know what it is? Too hard. It reminds me of what the angels said unto Elijah. He said, "The journey is too great for thee. It's too hard for you, Elijah but I'm going to give you the power and the strength to do it supernaturally even though it's too hard." Faithful Word Baptist Church was started seven and a half years ago, not based upon tried and true methods of church planters and seminaries and Bible colleges that have taught the methods of the purpose driven church planting model. No. Faithful Word Baptist Church was founded in a way that anybody would look at it and say, "That's not going to work. Oh, the style of preaching, that's not going to work.
Nobody's going to come to hear that. Nobody want ... Door to door soul winning? That was great in the 1960s you know. That's outdated, that's not something that works anymore. The old hymns need to go. The King James needs to go. The suit and tie needs to go." I mean, they looked at it and they'd say, "Look. You can't do it that way anymore. Look, there are plenty of churches today that are being founded, that are independent, fundamental baptist church, churches that are King James only, so many and they're failing, Brother Dave. There are people out there who are trying to do what you're going to do and are failing or have already failed." It's a very difficult task, it's very hard. It's only going to be done through the power of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not going to be done by men. These rock and roll mega churches, they're built by men.
Congregation:
That's right.
Pastor:
I mean, they're built by men. If you were going out and starting that kind of a liberal water down fun center, you would need the power. I'll just skip the laying out of hands. Let's just skip the prayer and fasting because you don't need it to start a rock and roll fun center. To start a New Testament Bible believing church in the midst of a crooked and perversed nation, it's going to take you being endue with power from on high.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor:
It's going to take the power of God. You see, I'm going to lay my hands on you, Brother Dave because I'm someone that God has used. Look, I'm not a great person. I'm a weak person. I am a person who has many faults and those who know me well could probably tell you my faults and tell you my weaknesses and tell you areas that I am not as strong as I should be. That's not the point. The point is that God has used me in spite of my weakness. God has used me in spite of my faults because God has chosen to use the fullest things of this world to confound the wise. If you feel that you're not sufficient, you're not. That's not the point. God's strength is made perfect in weakness. Here's the thing. This church did not exist eight years ago. This church wasn't here. We've gone from being nothing to a church of a hundred people and not just a church of a hundred people.
A church of a hundred people that are zealous of the Bible, zealous of soul winning, zealous of good works. It's a rare thing in the day that we live. How did it happened? How was it done? Was it done by men? Was it done by men's wisdom, men's methods, tried and true? No. It was done through prayer. It was done through the power of God's Word and the power of the Holy Ghost. That's how this church is going to be starting in Prescott Valley the same way. It's going to be done by the power of God. That's why it's important that we pray as a church. That's why it's important that we seek God's face and pray and ask him to give Brother Dave the power of God on his life as he goes and knocks on doors that he be filled with the Spirit of God. That as he gets up to preach whether or not he is the most eloquent in the world, whether or not he is the most knowledgeable in the world, whether that God's power would use the Word of God in a powerful way.
I'm frankly not the most eloquent. I'm not the most intelligent. I'm not any of those things. It's God's Spirit that will do the work when we trust and rely on him. When you're trimming the message, you're not relying on him. When you're using modernistic methods that are unbiblical, you're not relying on him. You're relying on yourself. We need to rely on the Lord to get this done. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain the builder. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen waketh but in vain. Did I return to Acts 14?
Congregation:
Yes.
Pastor:
Look at Acts 14:21 it says, "When they had preached the Gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and Iconium and Antioch confirming the souls of disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation and enter the kingdom of God. When they had ordained them elders in every city and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believe." Keep your finger there in Act's 14 and go to Titus chapter 1, toward the end of the New Testament is Titus. Go to Titus chapter 1. In Titus chapter 1 verse 5, the Bible reads "For this cause, left I thee in Crete that thou should have said in order the things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city as I've appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of bribe or unruly,' verse 7 'for a bishop must be blameless."
The thing I want to point out first of all is that the word elder and bishop are being used interchangeably. He says, "You're going to ordain elders in every city that are this way because the bishop must be blameless." The elder and the bishop are used interchangeably in the Bible also with the word pastor. The reason that God uses these three words is because they show us three aspects of what a pastor should be. The word elder there gives us the idea of maturity, someone who's not a novice, not a beginner, someone who has a lot of knowledge and experience to be able to lead. That's what we get from the word elder. The word bishop carries with it the idea of being an overseer. That has to do with the authority that is placed upon a pastor where he basically is ruling the house of God, according to Hebrews chapter 13 and other places, 1 Timothy 5.
The word pastor has to do with the shepherding aspect, of feeding the flock and caring for the flock. These are three words that God uses and three words that we use to refer to a pastor, an elder, a bishop or a pastor. These words are used interchangeably as we see in Titus chapter 1. It says that elders are to be ordained in every city and they must live up to this qualifications, verse 7, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy looker but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught that he maybe able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince to gain [share 00:16:57]. What we're saying today when we ordain Brother Dave here, and when we send them out to start this church in Prescott Valley, we're saying that as a church, we believe that Brother Dave has lived up to the standard that is expected of a bishop or an elder or a pastor. We're saying that Brother Dave has been found faithful.
The Bible says, "Moreover, it is required in steward that a man be found faithful." The Bible says the things which thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit out of faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. What we're saying today is the church is that we have found Brother Dave faithful. We believe that he has the ability to teach others also. We believe that he is mature in the faith, that he is not a novice in his knowledge of the Bible or in his skills as a preacher, as a soul winner, as a leader. He has proven himself and shown himself to be worthy of us to put our stamp approval on him and to choose him, ordain him, set him apart, appoint him to perform a task that we're sending him to do. Back where you were at, I told you to keep your finger there in Acts chapter 14. It says, "When they had ordained them elders and every church," so therefore there should be an elder or elders in every church. Right?
Congregation:
Right.
Pastor:
Therefore, is it really a scriptural church when there's just no elder? There's a movement today getting away from pastors that just says, "Hey, I just get together with a bunch of my, you know, Christian friends in a living room and we all just take turns preaching to each other and fellowshipping and it's great." It sounds great but it's not scriptural because there's supposed to be a leader. There need to be or leaders but there needs to be leadership in the church that lives up to this qualifications that can lead the church. That's what the Bible teaches clearly over and over again. People say, "Well, elder just means that they're old or it just means old people." That's not what it means. It means bishop and we saw the qua- ... I mean, good. There's no qualification for being old.
You'll notice that people get old without being the husband of one wife. They get old even though they are striker and a drunk and everything else. That's not the point. It says here, "When they'd ordained them elders in every church and then prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believe." What does it mean to commend them to the Lord? What he's saying is he's basically saying, "You're on your own now. You know, I'm turning you over to the Lord now. I've been here. I've led you. I've talked to you. I've guided you but now, we're commending you over to the Lord. This has to do with the fact that we are independent Baptist.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor:
We're not part of a denomination. There are many reasons why we're not part of a denomination. We believe that the church is the local congregation, the local assembly of baptized believers and that local church should have Christ as it's head. Not some organizations somewhere, not some prophet or president somewhere that basically is giving the orders to that church and ruling over that church at a higher level. We believe that each church should be independent and autonomous and self governing with Christ as the chief shepherd and the pastor is the under shepherd. Ruling the church on this earth but accountable unto Jesus Christ and accountable unto Christ's work that he has left behind for us. Why is it important to be independent? The biggest reason why it's important to be independent is so that when one church goes bad they don't have to go all bad.
Congregation:
That's right.
Pastor:
For example, we're sending Brother Dave out to start a church in Prescott Valley, let's say many years from now Faithful Word Baptist Church, God forbid, apostatizes. Let's say Faithful Word Baptist Church gets away from soul winning, gets away from biblical preaching, gets away from the King James Bible, gets away from the methods that we've used to get where we are. We start to become worldly and sinful. We start to have all the problems that the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 dealt with and we started to become a shadow of what we once where. That doesn't mean that Brother Dave has to go that way because Brother Dave's church is going to be independent. The church that sent me out, if they change doctrine or change you know, I don't have to change. What I'm saying is that by having independent churches, the devil would have to attack each church individually and take down each church.
When you have a denomination, all the devil has to do is just take over the top and then it all filters down. We see that all the time today in the world we live in. We see denominations voting to allow homosexuals in the church or voting to have woman preacher. Then the individual churches, many of them are saying, "We don't believe in it. We don't want this but okay, how do you like that pension?" The pastor's pension is tied up in denomination. The building is owned by the denomination. There's so many financial ties and there are so many conflicts of interest that the pastor has to decide, "Am I going to stay with my denomination and compromise the truth? Or am I going to stand up for what's right and lose everything financially? The church could lose the buildings." Look, this is not just a made up hypothetical.
We were out soul winning, Brother Dave, you remember we ran into a guy from a Baptist Church in [Tempe 00:22:36] or close by. He was the assistant pastor and he said, "Our church has had to leave so and so the Baptist denomination because they're starting to allow homosexuality and they said there's only one time in the whole Bible that it even says anything negative about homosexuals." There's some bogus thing that they voted on and this guy said, "We're having to leave the denomination." He said, "I don't even know what's going to happen. We're going to lose everything." He said, "We're losing our building, the pastor's losing his retirement but he said we have to do what's right. He said we have to leave the denomination. It's getting so bad and it was a struggle." You're not going to have that kind of a struggle ever, because you're independent, because I'm independent. We answer to God.
Look, answering to God is hard enough. God's got enough rules. Pleasing God is a full time job. I don't have time to please men. I don't have time to please some denomination, some headquarters. Brother Dave, you don't have to please me. You don't have to make me happy. You would need to please God and make God happy. You know what? I'm not your boss anymore. I mean, now that you're going out to start your own church, you were doing your own thing. I'm commanding you to the Lord. We are trusting you that you can stand on your own two feet, that between you and the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, you are going to be the pastor that God wants you to be. We don't need to rule over you and intimidate you and hold money over your head. No. You're doing it on your own. You are the pastor of that church. You're accountable to Jesus Christ. You're not accountable to me. Don't feel accountable to me. You're not. For another week, you are not. I'm just kidding.
Anyway, you're not accountable to me, you're independent. That's the importance of being independent so that Brother Dave can feel free to do what's right in the sight of God in spite of what I or anyone else think. It says when they'd ordained elders in every church and then prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believe. That's what we're doing, we're commending you to the Lord. In Titus 1:5, he had said, "For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou should have said in order to things that are wanting or lacking and ordained elders in every city as I had appointed thee." Okay. Now, do we understand the concept of the laying on of hands and the ordination, the ordaining? Ordaining means to set apart, to select, to appoint someone for a specific task. It's a vote of confidence. It's saying, "Look. We believe that God is going to equip you and enable you to do this job that we're sending you out to do. We believe that you're qualified. The prayer and the laying out of hands will be number one, a transfer of authority, giving you the authority to lead that church.
Number two, a transfer of the power of the Holy Spirit that were basically saying as the Holy Spirit has rested upon Pastor Anderson to allow him to do a task that was not possible by his own ability and own strength, that that same power of God and that same Spirit will rest upon you, and that you would be enabled to do a difficult yea even impossible task of starting this type of church in 2013 in America. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 31. Let's get to the actual charge itself. Now that we've laid a doctrinal foundation, let's see the charge that Moses gave to Joshua. It's pretty similar to the charge that David gave to Solomon. It's very similar to the charge that Paul gave to Timothy. All throughout the Bible we see men of God passing the torch to another man of God saying, "You are going to go out and do a great work for God. Let me give you some instructions to remember and to follow." That's what I'm going to do now.
We're going to charge Brother Dave and then lay hands on him and pray for him and send him out to start the church. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 7. The Bible reads "And Moses called unto Joshua and said unto him, 'In the sight of all Israel." This is not a private conversation, this is a public charge that he's being charged with. It says, "In the sight of all Israel, be strong and of a good courage for now I must go with this people unto the Lamb which the Lord has sworn unto their fathers to give them. And thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord he it is that doth go before thee. He will be with thee. He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed."
Jump down to verse 23. "And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge and said, "Be strong and of a good courage for thou shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swear unto them. And I will be with thee. And it came to pass when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book until they were finished that Moses commanded the Levites which bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord saying, 'Take this Book of the Law and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God that it maybe there for a witness against thee." Flip over to chapter 34 verse 9, Deuteronomy 34 verse 9. The Bible says "And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the Spirit of wisdom for,' what does for mean?
Congregation:
Because.
Pastor:
Because. "Because for Moses had laid his hands upon him." Do you see how that's part of the Spirit being upon him? "And the children of Israel hearken unto him and did as the Lord commanded Moses." Go to Joshua 1, just one page over in your Bible. In Joshua 1, this isn't Moses giving the charge to Joshua, it's the Lord himself charging Joshua but he uses a lot of the same words as what Moses did. Look at Joshua chapter 1 verse 5 "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of m life, as I was with Moses so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage." I mean, isn't that what? The third time we've seen those exact words? Be strong and of a good courage for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance of the land which I swear unto their fathers that give them."
Here it is again. "Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right head or to the left that thou mayest prosper with us so ever thou goest. This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shall meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success." Just in case you didn't get it the first time, "Have I not commanded thee be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord they God is with thee with those wherever thou goest." Now, if God's going to emphasize something that many times and repeat something that many times, don't you think it's pretty important? I mean, how many times could he say over, "Be strong. Be strong. Be strong. Be strong." He said, "Be courageous. Be courageous. Be courageous. Be courageous. Be courageous." I mean, five times.
Then he says, "Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. I'm going to be with you. No one's going to be able to stand before you. Don't be dismayed. Don't be afraid. Keep the law. Keep the Word of God. Keep the commandments. Do my will and meditate upon these words day and night. You will have success. You will prosper." It doesn't matter what man says. It doesn't matter what man thinks. If God is with us, who can be against us?
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor:
One of you shall taste a thousand and two of you shall put ten thousand to flight, the Bible says. God is with us, no one can stand against us. Now look, the last thing that we need Brother Dave is another week preacher. Why do you think he said, "Be strong. Be strong. Be strong." Then we have weaklings. I mean, maybe he should have said this six times. Weakness my friend is what we don't want in the pulpits of America today. What we need is that Word of Truth Baptist Church will be a church and pastored by a strong leader, a strong man, a strong preacher who preaches a strong message, not weak, not pondering, not cowtowing, not one that looks for men's approval, that is soft and sissy and sweet. No. You need to get up and you need to be a man and preach the whole counsel of God. It's going to take strength to do that. It's going to strength to stand up against the adversary the devil, to stand up against the principalities and the powers with whom we wrestle. It's going to take a man who is strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. There's too much weak preaching, there's too much weak leadership.
We need a man who will stand up and say, "This is the way. Walk ye in it. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." You know, you can choose what you want to do. You can choose what you want to be a part of this church but this church is going to preach the Word of God and not going to change, not going to back down, not going to go soft. No. We're going to endure hardness. We're going to stand up and be strong in the Lord in the power of his might. That's the kind of leader that you need to be. You need to be strong. You need to have the word strong be your major characteristics here. The another one that ties you with them is you're to be of a good courage. See, your enemy is fear. I mean, all throughout this passage, whether it's Deuteronomy 31, 34, whether it's Joshua chapter 1, the enemy is fear. God is not giving us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Fear is going to be your greatest enemy because you're going into unchartered waters. You're going out into the unknown and fears will creep in your mind.
Fear is like this, "You know, what if I fail? What if it doesn't work out? What if nobody comes to the church?" That type of fear didn't come from God. You need to understand, "If God's with me, I shouldn't be dismayed. I will succeed. I will prosper." I'm not saying you're going to prosper and succeed overnight. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. Did Joshua have it easy? He had to work hard. He had to fight hard. Seven years it took to take over that land. Seven years of hard fought battling and seven years of soul searching and purging of iniquity. Seven years of fighting and battling and meditating on God's Word and following the will of the Lord. Look, it's not going to be easy but with God, all things are possible and you will prosper and succeed. Be of a good courage. Be courageous in your preaching. Be bold. Be bold when you put ... Don't get up and have fear that says, "Well, you know what? I'm just starting out and the church is small. I've only got a few people here. I'd better make sure not to offend on anybody."
I mean, that's going to be the fear that creeps in. Let me say this, you should never set out to offend anybody. You shouldn't just offend people for the sake of offending people. Obviously, I wish that no one would ever be offended. I would never set out to offend anyone but we must preach the whole council of God. We must preach God's Word. There are things in God's Word that are offensive and that are an abomination unto the world that we live in. Will you trim those things from the message? I mean, are you going to censor the message to make it palatable unto an American 2013 artist? If you just trim a little bit, where does it stop? You trim a little bit, well, you might as well trim a little more. You know what I mean? You've got to just decide, "Am I going to preach all of it? Am I going to preach to please God? Am I going to preach what God wants and trust God to build the church? Or am I going to preach what man wants because I don't have to trust God to build the church.
My preach where man wants and man's going to come to the church. I don't have to trust God. I don't need the power of God. Just preach what people want to hear and they'll sure to hear it." Be strong. Be of a good courage. Fear not. Be brave. Be courageous and keep God's commandments. The one thing more than anything that's going to derail the power of God on your life, that's going to derail the fullness of the Holy Spirit, that's going to derail the Holy Ghost upon you is sin in your life. Why did Saul lose the Spirit of the Lord upon him? Sin? Sin in his life. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him. That's what David feared when sin entered into David's life and David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then he murdered Uriah the Hittite. David's greatest fear he said, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." Again, I'm not talking about the indwelling, didn't even exist back then. I'm talking about the Spirit of the Lord upon him. He said, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." He knew it'd been removed from Saul because of sin.
David didn't want the same thing to happened to him so he wanted to make sure to confess his sins and to stay in a state of close fellowship with God, walking in the light as he is in the light. The Bible says, "Be not drunk with wine wearing a success but be filled with the Spirit." You see, being drunk with wine is going to derail being filled with the Spirit. That's not the only sin. When we're living a life of sin that means we're walking in the flesh. If we walk in the Spirit, then we won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. If we walk in the flesh, we're going to do the lust of the flesh. In order to be filled with the Spirit, you must walk in the Spirit. You must die to self. You must deny self and take up the cross daily. You must walk in the Spirit and not according to the flesh. Being filled with the Spirit will be derailed by sin and breaking of God's commandments. When did Joshua and his army lose the power of God? Through ache and sin.
They lost the power of God when sin entered into the camp, when iniquity was found in the camp. How do you become filled with the Holy Spirit? Meditating upon these words day and night. The Bible said this Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. The Bible says "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." In a parallel passage he says, "Be filled with the Spirit." Those two were used interchangeably between Ephesians 5:18 and Colossian 3, I believe 16. We see that having the Word of God dwelling in you, meditating on it, memorizing it, studying it, learning it, you can't say, "I'm filled with the Spirit," when you're not filled with the Word. Jesus said, "The Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. There's a correlation between the power of the Holy Ghost upon you and meditating upon God's Word day and night. We see those things associated in Scripture.
The Spirit of God rested upon Joshua because Moses had laid hands on him but in order to continue in that, in order to continue to have the power of God on him, he had to keep sin out of his life. He also needed to meditate on the Word of God day and night in order to stay in that position where God's blessing him. Obviously, no one's ever going to be perfect or sinless. No one is ever without. I'm not without sin, you're not without sin. Obviously, the more sin we have in our life and the more major the sin, the more God's Spirit and he's working upon us is going to be derailed. Let me finish up in 2 Timothy chapter 4. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 4. Let's finish up there. Let's go to a New Testament charge. We saw a great Old Testament charge that Moses gave to Joshua. Tell him to be strong. Tell him to have courage, not to be afraid, not to fear, just to realize, "Hey, if God's with you, you have nothing to fear."
The only thing we have to fear, Brother Dave, is God. I mean, what you ought to do is just make sure that God's happy with you. I mean, that's your biggest goal. In the next year, you're starting a church. What's my goal for the first year? Make sure that God's happy with what you're doing and he likes what you're doing. Make sure that God looks down and he's pleased. He said, "Well, what is Pastor Anderson think about?" It doesn't matter. "Oh, what is Brother Odie Jimenez ..." It doesn't matter. "Oh, what will my parents think?" It doesn't matter. What does your pastor think? It doesn't matter. What is ... No. What matters is one thing, what does God think about how I'm pastoring this church and how I'm preaching? Is my preaching something that God looks at and is pleased with? That's all that matters. If you do that, everything else will be fine. If God's with you, we could fear no evil for God's with us. It's that simple.
Look at 2 Timothy 4. Look at the first two words "I charge." Do you see that? This is another charge just like Moses charged Joshua. "I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead and is appearing in his kingdom. Preach the Word. This is what you're being in charge with. Preach the Word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. He says, "Look, preach the Bible. Preach the Word." Help preach man's ideas and man's wisdom and some devotional books somewhere that's 90% what man says and 10% we got ... Look, preach the Word. You know what that means? Use the Bible when you preach. Don't be one of these preachers who reads one verse and then just talks for an hour. I mean, we've all been to those services.
One verse is read at the beginning and then it's just man's opinion blah-blah-blah. Look. Obviously, you need to expound the Word. Obviously, illustrations are helpful. Obviously, parables and illustrations can help people understand the work. Obviously, you need to enlighten and illuminate but let me say this, you need to preach the Word. You need to preach the substantial amount of Bible in your sermons. That's about the thing. Preach the Word. He says, "Be instant in season, out of season." That ties in with verse 3 when it says, "For the time will come and no not endure sound doctrine." There are going to times when God's Word being preached is just not popular, it's not in season. There are going to be times when you preach and everybody that's at your church said they will love what you preached and enjoy what you preached. Other times, there going to be times when you step on some toes. Not because you like stepping on toes but because you're trying to please God not men. You've got to be ready.
Instant means you're ready. You've got to be ready to preach the Word whether it's in season or out of season. You've got to reprove, that means you can't be afraid to preach a negative message. Reprove and rebuke are not positive words. It's telling what's wrong but then you also need to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. What does long suffering mean? Long suffering means that your patient with people. Long suffering means that you don't just instantly write people off, you don't just instantly lose your temper. You just instantly, are quick to just condemn. Long suffering means you give people a chance to grow. You're patient with people. The Bible talks about the bishop ... Let me turn that. I don't want to quote this wrong. You could stay there in 2 Timothy chapter 4 but I just want to get this right in 2 Timothy chapter 2.
There's a few pages to the left where he says in verse number 24 "The servant of the Lord must not strife but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patient and meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves if God [inaudible 00:42:49] will give them repentance to acknowledging the truth." What God is saying there in 2 Timothy 24 and 25 is that people don't just grow and change and become what they need to be overnight. He's saying, "You need to be gentle. You need to be patient with people and you need to have the ability to teach people and bring them along. You see, when you first came, Brother Dave, there was a growth that needed to take place and it didn't all happen the first Sunday. You've got to be patient. You've got to be gentle with people and realize that just as I took time to get where I am, you took time to get where you are. You've got to patiently lead people. Look, that's why teaching is so important. He said, "With all long suffering and doctrine."
Doctrine means teaching. Number one, you don't want to become the preacher who just gets up and preaches one verse and then rattles on for an hour. That's not preaching the Word. Okay, number one. Number two, you don't want to be the positive only preacher. You've got to reprove, rebuke and exhort. Number three, there are some preachers out there also who are, they're all reprove, rebuke and exhort all day long without the doctrine. You'll go to some preachers, they're yelling, they're screaming, they're rebuking sins, they're ripping on sin, but they're not really teaching you the doctrines of the Bible. A lot of times they'll preach to get sins that they've never even really thought why they're wrong. Look, one thing that I've tried to do, Brother Dave, is that whenever I preach on sin, before I preach against sin, I teach against sin. You've got to show people biblically why things are wrong. Then preach against sins.
The problem is if you don't teach against sin, then what happens is some people will just get mad at you because they're saying, "Well, Brother Dave or Pastor Berzins, well, he's going to be. Pastor Berzins has said that I can't do this and that. You don't want people to say that about you. Are you the one that came up any of this? No. What you want them to realize is that, "No, it's not Pastor Berzins that's saying that these things are wrong, it's the Bible that said they were wrong. Pastor Berzins is just the one who explained it to me. He just the one who was the messenger." Don't shoot the messenger as it were. That's why it's important to teach God's Word. Not just preach God's Word but you need to teach the doctrine. You need to patiently understand that people need to learn what's right before they can even do what's right, they've got to learn what's right. You've got to teach it to them. You've got to break it down. You've got to make it understandable to them.
You're going to be dealing with a lot of new believers just like we have a lot of new believers all the time. You are all ... Look, I don't care if the church's been around for a hundred and fifty years. They should have a lot of new believers because they're reaching people. Especially in the beginning, you're going to put dominantly will have new believers. Predominantly you're going to have people that are babes in Christ. You need to not just put a T-bone steak in front of them without putting it through the blender first and mix it in with some sweet potatoes and gravy and put it in a little jar for him and then give it to him in a format. You know, isn't that what they do with this baby food. We don't do baby food but sometimes it cracks me up with some baby food. Turkey, rice, sweet potatoes, beefs, beef stew, dinner. It's all just like slime. It's just you know, but supposedly it's a steak and potatoes. Yeah, it's in a form where they can handle it at that age.
He says here, long suffering and doctrine. I think you understand. I mean, you understand all these things. I'm just stirring up your pure mind by way of remembrance. If you didn't understand these things, you wouldn't be being ordained today. We just want to emphasize these things to you. He says, "The time will come,' verse 3, ' when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching years and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables but ..." He's not saying, "Look, they're going to turn away there is from the truth and be turned on to fables so you better learn to be a pretty good fable teller." You better learn how to tell those fables. No. He says, "But watch thou and all things." Thou is singular. He said, "Look, everybody else is doing, everybody else on different program. But thou, you're going to be doing something different.
You're going to watch in all things. You're going to endure afflictions. You're not going to buckle under the pressure. You're not going to cave in when there's resistance and pressure on your. You're going to be strong in the Lord in the power of his might. He said, "Endure afflictions." Watch this, "Do the work of an evangelist." Brother Dave, do I even need to say you're not going to succeed in starting a church if you're not doing the soul winning? I mean he says, "You've got to do the work of an evangelist." What does evangelist mean? Evangelist means one who preaches the Gospel. One who preaches the Good News. An evangelist is someone who goes somewhere and gets people saved. I mean, you cannot go to Prescott and just think, "Well, I'm just going to build a church by just trying to get everybody to switch from a different church and come to this church. You know what? You're going to need to do the soul winning and win people to Christ and do the work and being an evangelist is hard work.
Going out soul winning, knocking doors and giving people the Gospel, go into the lost, go into the unsaved. That's hard work to be that evangelist. Then to take those new babes in Christ and to teach them and guide them and to make full proof of thy ministry. What does that mean make full proof of thy ministry? The Bible says prove all things. Prove comes from the word proof. Prove all things. Hold fast thou which is good. You know what it means to make full proof of your ministry? It means you shouldn't do or say anything, just "Uh, I get ... That's just what we do. That's just what Pastor Anderson did or that's what you ..." Make full proof means you prove all things. I mean, every single aspect of your ministry, you should check it out with Scripture to make sure that it's right. Not just assume, "Well, if that's what Faithful Word did, that's what I'm going to do. Or if that's what so and so did, that's what I read in this book somewhere." No, no.
Make full proof of your ministry and prove all things in your ministry and say, "I'm going to check everything that we do, every method, everything I'm standing on and make sure that it's actually from the Word of God. If it's not, I'm going to adjust to get on this program right here of the Word of God." That's what it means to have a full proof ministry, one that's been checked out and proven and tested whether it lines up with God's Word. Fully, all aspects, everything. You are responsible to God for that church. No one else, you're responsible. The Bible says in Hebrews 13 that you must give an account for what you do. It says in Hebrews chapter 13, it says in verse 17 "Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you." What's God saying? God holds you accountable for the flock that you're going to pastor. He holds you accountable to watch for their souls.
You know what? When you have people in your church that are going into sin, because you didn't teach them that it was wrong, not because they just shows to disregard. I mean, look, if you want them, you preach it to them and they just ignore you, that's their problem. You know what? God holds you accountable when you hold back on preaching against sin and then people go into sin. Why didn't you watch for their soul? Why didn't you warn? You're a watchman. You're there to warn. Let me tell you, just to bring up one specific controversial doctrine that many people, many people have left our church or quit the church or only came once or twice because of this controversial doctrine. I mean, so many people, there's so many examples of people, as soon as they heard this, they're gone. It is the doctrine about divorce and remarriage that's found in the Bible.
Look, there's going to be, I'm sure other Baptist Churches in Prescott that are going to condone of their sin. The Bible teaches that divorce is a sin and the Bible teaches that to marry a woman that is divorced is to commit adultery. To divorce your wife and marrying other, you're causing her to commit adultery. The Bible says in Matthew 5, so what the Bible says in Matthew 19, so what the Bible says in Luke 16, so what the Bible teaches in Romans 7, so the Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 7, but you know what? Somewhere in the Book of Mark, I don't remember the chapter but it's there. Let me say this, that's not a popular doctrine. That's not a popular doctrine. That's a doctrine has caused many people and even though I was kind about it, even though I said, "You know, I love you. I'm not ... I've said I just, you know I just want to tell you what the Bible says, it's up ..." I even tell people, "You know what? It's up to you what you do. I mean, you could do whatever you want.
I'm not telling you what to do but I'm telling you what the Bible says." People will say, "Oh, perform my wedding ceremony." "Have you ever been married before?" "Yeah." "Well, can't do it." You know, that's obviously your spouse has died. I'm telling you, you're going to lose people over that. You will lose people if you preach that. I mean, it says it's a fact. I want to tell you something. We wouldn't have the rampant divorce rates in America today if pastors preach that. That almost never gets preached. I talked to people on their third wife or third husband and you know what they said? I've never heard that before. I've had many people say, "Man, I wish I would have known that, I would have taken my vows more seriously if I would have known what God said about it. You know, I didn't realize that that's what the Bible taught." You know what? A lot of people don't realize that's what the Bible teaches.
A lot of people don't know that doctrine. You know why they don't know it? Because of weak pastors, pastors who aren't courageous and pastors who aren't meditating in the Word of God day and night. Those are three reasons. That's just one tiny example. I'm not singling that out. I just want to give you an example. I mean, I could go down a bunch of other examples of things that are not popular that the Bible teaches that causes people to quit the church. What's it going to be, Brother Dave? Are you going to ponder the man and say, "Well, you know. I just want to ... Look, I'm not saying not to be nice. I'm not saying not to be gentle but you better not compromise any doctrine. That included to please people. I promise you there are churches in Prescott and all around the area that are compromised on that doctrine. Just like there are churches all around us that are compromised on that doctrine. You know what? They're going to leave your church and they're going to go there. You know what? You're going to be right with God.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor:
You warned, you told the truth. It's a very serious job that you're taking on, Brother Dave. It's a very serious responsibility. You're being entrusted with authority. You're being entrusted with the power of the Holy Spirit upon you. You're being entrusted with the stamp of approval and the support of our church spiritually behind you, right there with you. I want you to understand the difficulty of the task that you're going to take on because if you think it's easier than it's going to be, you might get discouraged. I remember when my friend, Brother Roger Jimenez started a church in Sacramento, I remember just telling him over and over again, "You know, this is really hard. It's going to be really challenging. There are going to be times when you feel like quitting. There are many times that I thought about quitting. I mean, I never did and I never seriously thought about quitting but the thought still enters your mind. They'll just, "You know, I'm wasting my time. I'm failing. I'm you know ..."
These thoughts will enter your mind, it's going to be hard. The devil doesn't want this to succeed. He's going to try to stop it. He's going to attack. We're not ignorant of his devices. You are going to go through a fiery trial. The Bible says, "Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as those some strange things happen unto you." Just know that it's coming because if you know it's coming, you'll be better able to withstand. Know that it's coming. I remember I told Brother Jimenez I said, "You know, it's going to be hard. It's going to be ..." I remember he says, "Oh, yeah. I know. I know, I know." Then after he's like, he told me after he's like, "You know, you told me it's going to be hard. It's a lot harder than I thought." It's going to be. You know what? You're up to the challenge, Brother Dave, that's why we are here. If you believe that Brother Dave is up to this say amen.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor:
Amen. There you go, Brother Dave. Let's bow our heads and pray. I'm going to lay my hands on Brother Dave as an elder and I'm going to put my hands on him and we're going to pray that God will bless his ministry. I want you to pray from the bottom of your heart just silently in your chair as I pray out loud. I don't want you to just stop praying this warning. But you know what? You need to keep Brother Dave in your prayers and not just a week from now, not just a month from now but six months from now. You know, it's a long journey. This is not a sprint. This is an ultra marathon. This is a long race that you're running and so you need to be in it for the long hole. One last word that I want to give you is the only way to fail is to quit. The only way because as long as you stay in it and keep on plugging away and keep on trusting God, you will succeed. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. We're going to pray for Brother Dave.
Dear Lord, I pray that you would please just fill Brother Dave with your Spirit and your power. He's embarking upon a journey that's too great form, it's too difficult and in the power of his flesh he will fail. Father, we just pray that you would please just fill him with your Spirit, give him your grace, guide him and direct him. Give him boldness and power from on high. God, I pray that you please just prepare a group of people in Prescott Valley that would join this church and that would be a good foundation to the church. Just as in the Bible, you said that there went with Saul a band of men who's hearts God had touched. I just pray that you'd please just touch the hearts of people in Prescott Valley that they would rally behind Brother Dave, that they would follow him, that they would be ready to learn from him and to follow him as he follows you. Touch their hearts, dear God.
Guide them and direct them in those early days of soul winning, that you would knock the doors of people that are ready to hear the Gospel, that will be a part of this church. Strengthen them. Please Father, just put a hedge around not only him but also around his family. We know that the devil's going to attack his wife, his children. He'll try to do just anything he can to stop Brother Dave from accomplishing the mission. I just pray that you just strengthen his wife, strengthen his children. Just put a hedge around that whole family. Encourage them and just build them up, Lord, as he studies your Word, as he meditates on it day and night. Keep him free from sin and help him to do his very best as he sets out on this very difficult task. We thank you for hearing and answering our prayer. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
