A church that still sings not to bring glory and honor to self, but glory and honor to the Savior. And that's what it ought to be. And that's good preaching whether you like it or not. And the music that we listen to is very important and it's very encouraging to have people singing about the blood of Jesus. And aren't you glad we're free? If you're saved, we're free, free, free from this world of sin. And that doesn't mean you're never gonna sin, but guess what? We can be free because it cost him something. It cost Jesus something. And so it's free to us. We didn't have to pay for it. We should have. But he paid for it. We just get to receive it. And if you'll be willing to receive Christ as your Savior, that'd be a tremendous, tremendous blessing. You say, well, preacher, how do you know? Because I am saved. And I know what He did for me. And listen, you're missing out. If you're trying to trust in your works or any other way to get to heaven, that's not the Bible way. John 14, 6, Jesus said unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. A lot of teachings out there try to make you believe that there's many ways to God. And contrary to what Joel Osteen says, there's not. The Bible says there's one way. Many ways to God. You can't be good enough in and of yourself to earn salvation. Brother Miller was teaching in Sunday school this morning. So he talked to a lady who wouldn't get saved because she just thought she was too wicked a sinner. And by the way, we are too wicked of sinners. But the fact is she thought she had to clean her life up before God would accept her. And we're incapable of cleaning up our lives without the one who is righteous living inside of us. And so he's the one, what you need to do is just get saved, come to God and let him clean you up. And he'll do that. So let me have you take your Bibles to Matthew chapter number 24. Matthew chapter number 24 Now while you're turning there if you would stand with me out of respect for the Word of God I'm going to read some verses this morning Number 24 Starting in verse 1, the Bible says, And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple. And his disciples came to him, for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he had sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the signs of thy coming and the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. and ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars see that ye be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet for nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famine and pestilence and earthquakes in diverse places And all these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to the afflicted, and shall kill you, and you shall be hated of all the nations for my sake. Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. Sounds like a time we're living in, doesn't it? And many false prophets shall rise, and many shall deceive you. In verse 12 it says, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. shall endure unto the end, and the same shall be saved. For this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." I want you to look back to verse number 12 in this passage of Scripture. It says, "...and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." I'm going to preach this message to you this morning on Has Your Love Waxed Cold? And I want to share some things with you about this passage of scripture this morning. Lord, we love you. Thank you for the day that you've given to us. Thank you for the opportunity we have to be in your house. Lord, I thank you for the people being here today. Thank you for the wonderful song the choir sang, the wonderful special from Brother Travis and Miss Bree. I thank you for that. Lord, I just pray that you'll help us to give you all the glory and praise and honor out of what happens in this place today. If there's anyone here that does not know you as their personal Lord and Savior, Lord, I pray that they'll trust you today. Lord, if there's anyone here today whose love has been turned towards something else, I pray that you'll help us to turn it back to you. And Lord, we sure love you and thank you for all that you've done. In Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated. Thank you for standing. And this passage of scripture, they're wanting to show him the things that have taken place. And he said, they come to him and they said, Lord, what's going to happen? When's the church going to be thrown down? When's this building going to be torn apart? And he's given them some instruction about the end times and what's going to take place. later on, how there's going to be signs and wars and rumors of wars and all kinds of things. We see a lot of that stuff taking place today. We see a lot of that stuff happening even now as it goes on. But one thing I want to focus on is this verse, verse number 12. It says, And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. In this passage, the disciples are asking Jesus for a sign of when the second coming would be. He responds with many things, and we're seeing a lot of them today. But iniquity abounds all over the place in our world, in our churches, all over the place. Iniquity is defined as this, a motivation of sin, a heart towards sin, worthlessness for God, guilt or hardness. I looked that up and I thought, man, what is the difference between iniquity and sin? See, sin is the action that you're doing. Iniquity is where it begins, inside the heart. It's the hardness inside of you. It's the motivator that brings you to sin. That's that iniquity, that hardness inside of us. That's what the Bible's teaching about these things. When iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. God tells us that we're not to love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And so we need to make sure that we love God the way God intends for us to love Him. You say, well, how do we know what love is? I'm glad you asked. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 13. This is what you would consider the love chapter in the Bible. And in 1 Corinthians chapter number 13, while you're finding your place, I'll just go ahead and begin reading. It said, though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaugneth not itself, is not puffed up. does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, charity never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but look at verse 10, but when that which is perfect is come, and that which is in part. shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as also I am known. And now abide of faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. You want to know what love is, You have to look at what love is not. See, if you go through there, you say, what are you talking about? It talks about what charity is not in this passage of scripture. It says, charity suffereth long and is kind and envieth not, it vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own. See, charity or love is not something that you're looking inwardly about. Love is something that you're looking outwardly about. You say, what are you talking about? It's not channeled in on yourself. It's channeled in on others. That's what Christ did for us. His love was not just for himself. It said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. See, God's love for you and God's love for me was channeled through Jesus Christ, his son, who came to this earth to take the punishment for my sin and your sin upon himself. He showed us what that love is that this passage of scripture talks about to the church at Corinth. He's saying, charity never faileth. If you have God's love, it never fails. And so it's very important for us to understand what love is, because if we don't understand what love is, then we're doing the opposite of love. And when you have the opposite of love, it makes you calloused and hard. Matthew 24, it said, because iniquity shall abound. The love of many shall wax cold. Have you ever lit a candle before and watched it over time as that heat begins to start on that candle? What happens to the wax on that candle? it begins to melt, it becomes liquid. Guess what you can do with it? You can pour it out. You can do something with it. You could melt it down, make it part of another candle out of it. You can do a lot of things as long as there's that heat that's applied. As long as that flame is burning, as long as that fire's going, guess what? You could mold that candle in a way that you want it to be molded. You could shape it in the way you want to be shaped. And we talked about the potter last week, but as this candle, I'm thinking about this, it said, the love of many waxed cold. I began to think about when I blow that candle out, Within a matter of minutes, what takes place? It gets hard. It gets hard. I remember Carter. I told Carter, hey, go blow out. My wife loves candles, and I'm glad for that. It's pretty and things like that. But Carter went up there one day and he went to blow out a candle. Let me give you some advice. When there's a lot of wax in that candle, don't blow really hard. Okay, especially when your face is right over top of it and you're blowing really hard Carter went and all that wax went and hit him on his his forehead and around here and he was going and It guess what happened to it though as soon as it left the heat and hit him guess what it did it got hard See what happens is miss Lisa when we quit loving that fire dwindles out We allow iniquity to happen in our heart We get cold. The Bible said, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. In society we live in today, we've been bombarded by technology on every side. Technology itself, in and of that instrument by itself, is not sin. Just so you understand, a TV never did anything wrong on its own. It was the operator who turned it on. It doesn't do things by itself. It has to have somebody who does those things. So we look at technology a lot of times and we think, well, that's just horrible. That's just wicked. There's a lot of preachers that preach. If you have a television in your home that you're wicked and you're dying and going to hell, all that kind of stuff. Well, listen, it's not the instrument that's wrong. It's how the instrument is used. OK, you understand that. But the problem is we have so much technology today that people don't understand what it is to get along with God. They don't understand it. Why? Because they're so bombarded with technology on every side. Their mind is consumed with everything going on around them. Sin and immorality are just a click away from everybody. I was talking with our kids the other day. I said, you know, it's just amazing that here I am as a 38-year-old man. I don't consider myself old by any stretch of the imagination. I like to tell people I'm in the prime of life. When I turn 40, I'll still be in the prime of life because I keep moving it up as I go. It's the prime of life. Brother Jim Beck's still in his prime. He keeps moving it up. And Brother Jim Coggins keeps moving it up. They're still in their prime. See, we understand stuff. As we get older, I just thought, you know what? It's not been that long ago that I was a teenager. It's getting longer and longer time away, and I feel more old when I see guys like Silas graduating, and I'm thinking, man, I'm old enough to be his dad, you know, and all this kind of stuff. It kind of puts things into perspective of where you're getting really. I'm not as old as Brother Shane, but hey, praise the Lord. I had to get a dig in on him. I was teasing him on his birthday this year. I said, I'll get you a walker. You can come into church, and we'll have a good time with that. But the fact is, just when I was a teenager, The difference in technology between then and now is amazing. We used to think about internet back when I was a kid, or not a kid, a teenager. It took you 45 minutes just to Google something and find out what it is. It was quicker just to open the phone book and find a number. It was quicker just to call and figure it out on your own. It took forever. Remember that? And you had to wait and then you heard all this beeping and trying to get these kids are looking like what? Are you kidding me? That's boring. You get high-speed high-def stuff You know, they didn't have it then and some of you that are older than me. They didn't have any of that I really Jim Beck remembers talking in them metal cans across the little wire thing going to other people See the fact is technology has just creeped up on us and we've gotten to the place now where our young people are Just that quick it's exposed to them. And we can look at them and say, preacher, that's exactly right, but adults, let me explain something to you, it's that quick for you too. We have a lot of adults that have gone back into their childhood now. Because you know what they're saying? They're like, hey, I can get back on here, and I can find friends back when I was this young, and all this stuff. And they're all technology savvy and all this stuff. Listen, I'm not very computer literate. I know how to check emails. I know how to do things like that. I have a smartphone, and it's smarter than me. I'll tell you that. I don't know about those kind of things when I can talk to it and say, hey, what do you do here? And it tells me some instruction. We got some things going on. That's crazy. But I get the thing about technology in and of itself is not a bad thing. It's how it's used. See, but what we've done is we've replaced the Bible for other things. See, the fact of the matter is that we have so much iniquity in our generation today that it isn't just on the outside of the church. It is crept to the inside of the church. And the Bible says, where iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. I believe we've forgotten what it means to be a Christian. We've forgotten what it means to have the love of Christ. We have allowed our love for the things of God to wax cold because we've channeled our love to things that are not of God. You say, preacher, how do you know what I love? What do you spend time with? What do you invest in? I want to say firstly, I believe that our churches are in the state that they're in today because our love for searching God's word has waxed cold. You say, what are you talking about? Our love, our desire for reading the Bible. The most precious book that has ever been penned, that has ever been given to humanity, we have in the pages of this King James Bible. I'm so glad that we have this letter from God, this love letter that's been written to us, how God expresses his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How are we exposed to those things? gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that's given to us from the Word of God. See, we need to get back to searching God's Word again, but our desire, our love for it has waxed cold. Why? I believe we've allowed Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all these other things to come into place, that technology. We go back to our phones all the time. Let me explain something to you. Don't use your phone as a substitute for the Bible. You say, preacher, why not? I got a Bible app and it's a King James Bible app. Listen, there's something about having this in your hand. There's just something about it. Guess what? The battery never goes dead. Never goes dead. It doesn't ever send me a message in between and distract me from what I'm reading for God. You don't think Satan is gonna be inside of that worldwide web? What's a web do? entangles people, doesn't it? You say, preacher, why are you so hyped up on this internet and social media and all this? I'll tell you why. Because in churches today, in this church even, while people are preaching, while people are singing, while people are doing that, here's what I see sometimes. Because you're so worried about what's going on out there, and your love for the things of God and searching his word have waxed cold, and you wonder why we're hard and God never does anything. See, because our love for searching God's word has waxed cold. We've allowed all these things on the social media. We think if we have a 10,000 followers on Instagram, that that makes us somebody important. Listen, if I have a communication with God and nobody else knows me from the outside world, guess what? I have been a success in the eyes of God. God's not going to, when I stand at that judgment seat of Christ, brother Miller, he's not going to say, well, how many Facebook friends did you have? Because when we go back to rule and reign for a thousand years, you got to have more than this guy did. He's not going to ask you what your Twitter account says as far as how many people followed you. It doesn't matter to God. What matters to God is that you're studying God's Word, that you're getting into it. You have a desire for the Word of God. Do you remember when you got saved? Think back to that time when you first got saved. Guess what you hungered and thirsted for? As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby. You know what I remember growing up and hearing the word of God, but the day I got saved, Brother Shane, it just had a new light to me. I had heard the Bible, memorized scripture, all that stuff when I was younger, but I'll tell you what, the day I got saved, it just really became alive. Because I was made alive through Jesus Christ. And when I got saved, I began to study God's word. Things just, just jumped off the pages at me. And I just, I desired it. I desired the word of God. I remember leading people to Christ. I remember them trying to quote scripture and guess what? They would just mess it up completely, but they loved it. They put Noah, you know, as parting the Red Sea and all kinds of stuff. And they put Jonah on the ark and all kinds of stuff. But they were just hungry for God's Word. They desired God's Word. Why? Because guess what there was? There was that flame. going on the side of them and they were soft to the things of God. Iniquity wasn't raging in their heart because they were studying God's word and they were going through the Bible and you say, well, how do I keep iniquity out of my heart? How do I keep that motivator of that flesh or that desire that I have of the flesh to keep towards the things of God? As you let this saturate your life, the love of God to saturate you. Our love for God's word is wax cold. We couldn't quote many verses, but we can tell you the stats of every sports star we know. We can tell you how many teams LeBron James has played on. Tell you how many touchdown passes such and such players passed. We can tell you what our college team is, man. I know God-fearing preachers, or say they're God-fearing preachers, man, that will dress up like a Georgia Bulldog, or they'll dress up like something else, and man, they will just lose their mind. at a game. Listen, West Virginia Mountaineers, those people are crazy. Telling you, they're crazy. When I lived in West Virginia, I liked the Mountaineers, but I'll tell you what, they were nuts. The Green Bay Packers, those people are nuts. You say, all right, they wear this big block of cheese on their head. They paint themselves half green, half yellow. It's sub-thermal temperatures. It's snowing like a blizzard. And here they are, no shirt on, just these shorts. They're standing out there, ah! You know why? Because they love it. It's entertaining to them. But we can't even get God's people to wave their hand in church. We can't even get God's people to say, praise God, hallelujah. We can't get God's people to just have that love for God in such a way that we just desire His Word. That we will purposely get up in the morning and go to the Word of God and read our Bible even when we don't feel like it. Why? Because we love Him. We love Him. And we go to the Bible. And we ask God to help us through things. We can tell you how many times our favorite episode comes on TV. We can't even tell you what time Sunday school starts. You know why? Because our love's wax cold. Our love's wax cold. You say, Preacher, why are you being so hard on this passage? Because the world's dying and going to hell, and it's our problem. It's our problem. You say, why is it our problem, Preacher? I thought it was your problem, it's not just my problem. If you're a born-again child of God in this room today, it is your job. It's your job. Firstly, I don't believe you're ever gonna be a soul winner, you're ever gonna do anything for God until you get a love for His Word. You say, why? Because this shows you what you're supposed to do. This is our roadmap for life. It's God's love letter to us, but it's also his instructions on how to follow. If you take the letters of the Bible, I've heard somebody say it means basic instructions before leaving earth. And you know what? It's so true. The fact is, this is God's instructions for me and you. You know why a lot of people, Brother Doug, don't follow God? They don't know the instructions. And they won't go to them to find out. They're like most men, putting things together. What's this piece of paper for? And then our wives say, what are these three screws for? I don't know, they came extra in the bag. What do you need those for? I don't have any idea. I just did my own thing, putting it in here. And we'll laugh and we'll cut up about that, but we do it. We do it, but we do it with the Bible. We'll say, what's this? And we put off the side. I'm just going to do it the way I want to do it. Because our love for searching God's word is wax cold. We ought to be searching God's word. I wonder if I were to go through the room and I won't do it. But if I were to go through and just ask you, can you tell me the books of the Bible? I wonder, could you do it? If I were to ask you, hey, can you tell me what the 10 commandments are? Could you do it? I wonder if I were to come through and say, hey, do you know where the book of Malachi is? Is that Old or New Testament? Oh, he's just trying to trick me. That's just a person in the Bible, isn't it? Listen, I've told people turn to Hezekiah chapter number five, and I have people searching, Brother Shane. They're looking all through the Bible trying to find Hezekiah chapter five. By the way, Hezekiah is not a book of the Bible, okay? It's a person in the Bible. You're not gonna find the book of Hezekiah. If you do, throw that book out, okay, because it's not the Bible, all right? You're not going to find the book of Hezekiah. But why don't we know these things? You say, Preacher, I'm just not good at reading. Really? Let me go to your Facebook screen and find out if you can read what they say. Let me go to your Twitter account and see if you can read what they say. Well, they're talking on videos. You know what? You can find a way to hear God's Word as well. I know Brother Jason was telling me, too, when he's driving his truck, sometimes he hears audio Bible. You can do that if you have a desire for God's Word. But you know what? We need to search the Scriptures daily. Why? Because we love Him. Because we love Him. You know why we don't? Because our love for searching God's Word has waxed cold. And it's made us hard. But not only has our love for searching God's Word waxed cold, our love for sharing the Gospel has waxed cold. Our love for sharing the Gospel has waxed cold. If I were to ask you, hey, how many of you carry Gospel tracts? Most of you would say, I got them somewhere. Listen, my children have put me to shame on this sometimes. They'll say, Daddy, you got a gospel track? And to be honest with you, it's in the car, and I didn't carry it into the store with me. You say, Preacher, that's just a simple insight. No, I'll tell you what it is. If we really genuinely had a desire to see people saved, we would have these things close by all the time. Why? Because all we have to do is get it in somebody's hand, and guess what's inside of it? The greatest story that anybody could ever hear, how God loved them. and he took their place upon the cross, sending his son Jesus to die. He took upon flesh, became flesh, who knew no sin, who wasn't deserving of a cross, but he died on that cross for you and I. He was buried and rose again and offers life everlasting to anyone who will receive it, not just to an elect group of people who they think have been predestined to be saved. The fact is God predestined every person that's ever been alive on the face of the earth to be saved. God wants everybody to be saved. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That means the people you don't like. Guess what? Chuck Schumer needs to be saved. Hillary Clinton needs to be saved. Maxine Waters needs to be saved. Listen, I don't like their names any more than you. But the fact of the matter is this, they need Jesus. You know why they are the way they are? Because they don't know Him. They don't know Him. The person down the street doesn't know God. That's why they do the things they do. You say, then how can a child of God act that way because they don't know God? You say, what do you mean? I thought you said they were saved. There's a difference between being saved and knowing God. You can be saved and not know him. You can be a part of the family and not know him. You say, how do you know? I'm sure there's people all across this room that can say you have relatives that are distant relatives that you really don't know. If you even pass by them in a store, you may not even recognize them. You know why? Because you don't ever spend time together. You don't ever communicate. And that's why we don't know God, because we don't spend time with Him. We don't communicate with Him. And we just need to get back to studying the Word of God and going about the love of God. About the love of God for us, man. Searching God's Word, but sharing the Gospel. We have lost our compassion for lost souls. We've lost the joy that comes from seeing others get saved. Why? I believe because we've allowed the world's mindset to creep into our churches. We think about what's in it for me. Bill Miller, you talked about that this morning in Sunday school. What motives are we doing it for? Am I going out to witness just so I can say, God, look at me. I'm doing something important. Or am I doing it because I love a lost soul and I want to see him go to heaven? If I were to ask you, somebody raise your hand, how many of you really want to see people die and go to hell? If you raise your hand, you're warped. I'll just tell you that. I don't want my worst enemy to die and go to hell. Why? Because it's a place of everlasting torment. It's a place of where the fire's not quenched. Where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. There's sorrow and heartache. All of that. Listen, I don't wish that on anybody. You know what I wish for them is to have everlasting life in heaven with God. But why won't we go soul with him? Why don't we pass out gospel tracts? Why don't we share the gospel anymore? Why have we lost our compassion? The Bible says, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, will doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Let me ask you the last time you brought somebody to Christ. When's the last time you brought somebody to Christ? When's the last time you say, preacher, it's not always about results. You're right. But a lot of people don't have results because they don't even go. We can say, well, preacher, it's not about results. And you're exactly right. It's not about the number of people that get saved. But you know what we ought to desire? To tell everyone we come in contact with about Jesus. To the point where they're like, listen, everybody from that church has said this to me when they came through the line. Praise God for that. That ought to be the testimony. When we go through Food Lion, when we go through these other places, be able to say, man, I have these things, enough of these things to wallpaper my room, OK? Give them to somebody else. You say, well, have you obeyed what's in it? Have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior? Listen, if you really genuinely think back to the day you got saved and understood what Jesus did for you and how the love of God has manifested towards your life, it will bring a desire to win other people to Christ. We ought to win people to Christ. We ought to win people to Christ. I've told you the story before. Brother Penix said to me that there was a preacher that wouldn't support him as a missionary because he said, what's the cost per soul? The cost is the blood of Jesus. I loved his response. The cost was the blood of Jesus. It doesn't matter if they reach five people or if they reach 5,000 people. Heaven rejoices over one sinner that repents. We're supposed to go where there's only two people, where there's only five people, where there's a thousand people, where there's a hundred thousand people, where there's a million people. He said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, not just those in the 1040 window, not just those in the high society areas, but we ought to go and tell all the world about Jesus. We're not afraid to tell the world on Facebook about our bad day. We're not afraid to tell them when we're going on vacation. We're not afraid to tell them what we had to eat or what color socks we're wearing. We're not afraid to air out our dirty laundry to everybody else in the world, but we don't have any compassion and desire to win people to Christ. And listen, if that doesn't apply to you, then don't let it apply. If you have a heart for the things of God and you have the heart for lost souls, then praise the Lord. But there's a lot of people that don't. We need to get a compassion for reaching the lost again. Why don't we see more people out on soul winning visitation? I know it's a day that people have been working all week, and Saturday's their day off, and I understand it, and you don't have to just come on a set period of time, but you say, why do we have that set period of time? Because a lot of times when we don't set a time, nobody does it. Nobody does it. But why don't we see more people come out on Saturday soul winning? I'll tell you why, because that's our day off. It's our day off. Guess what? You never have a day off in serving God. You never have a day off. You never have a day off from reading your Bible. You never have a day off. You don't go on vacation from God. You don't. I know people say, well, we're going on vacation. Listen, I know a preacher that went on a hunt. I'm all for hunting. I love hunting. But hunting doesn't take the place of God. I know a preacher who went there, and the guys were going to go off to church. And he said, hey, don't tell people that I'm a preacher. I don't want people bothering me while I'm here. I'm on vacation. He didn't even want to go to church because he was out on a hunting trip. You say, well, preacher, he needs a break. Never need a break from God. Never need a break from God. You go on vacation, let me explain something. Find a church to go to. You say, well, what if it's not like mine? Do the best you can. Go there and read the Bible, chew up the meat, spit out the bones and go home, amen. But go to church. Show God that you mean business with Him. But why won't we see more people out on Saturday soul winning? Because it's our day off or whatever other excuse we can come up with. The truth of the matter is we become cold hearted towards winning souls. Because if you're honest with yourself before God today, 90% of people who won't come out to church soul winning won't do it individually either. You say, well, preacher, I disagree with that. You can disagree if you want to. But there's statistics that show 90% of people who won't come to a church organized soul wedding won't even do it on their own. You say, well, preacher, I'm just not good at talking with people. Neither was Moses. But God made a way. God made a way for his word. Remember when Pentecost happened? Remember when the apostles began to preach and God did a miracle and he changed their words into the language where other people could understand it? God gets his word to people's hearts. You know what he tells us to do? Go. Go. We have to get back to going once again. When you go down this road and you come to that stoplight, if it's green, none of you usually stop. Unless you're on your phone. And when it changes to green, you don't go. But most of the time, green means go, right? We go. And we get frustrated when people don't go. Listen, you don't think God gets frustrated when he says go and people just sit there? They won't go. If you were to put that into spiritual road rage, you know what would happen? People would be blowing their horns. They'd be beating on the back of your car. They'd be saying, move forward. Why? Because I need to go. I need to go somewhere. I need to go forward for God. But sometimes we're held back because people won't go. People won't go. We need to go into all the world and preach the gospel. We've become cold hearted towards so many. Aren't you glad that the person that told you about heaven was willing to go. Aren't you glad they did? Aren't you glad they had enough love for God to tell you about the things of God? Aren't you glad for, if it was your wife who prayed for you for years or whatever it may be, aren't you glad that they loved you enough to keep on pressing on and giving you the gospel? Brother Shane, aren't you glad for that man who led your dad to Christ? Who wouldn't give up even when your dad said, get out of here? I'm glad and led my granddad to the Lord. I'm glad for these people that just had enough compassion for lost people to go out and win souls. Listen, it's not about numbers, it's not about a popularity thing on, oh, I led 500 people to Christ. It's not about that, it's why you're doing it. Because you love God, you wanna obey God, you wanna obey his commands out of his word, and you have compassion for the lost. The Bible says, he that winneth souls is wise. We need to get back to winning souls again, but why are we hard in that area? Because our love is wax cold. Our love's wax cold. Our love for sharing the gospel, our love for searching God's word is wax cold. Our love for serving God, not just in soul winning, but I'm talking about service for Him. Where's the young men that'll stand up and say, Lord, here am I? Use me. I'll be a preacher. I'll be a missionary. God, here am I. Use me. Where's the mom and dads that'll be willing to take their hands off of their children's life and quit trying to live out your dreams through your kids and just let God have control of their life? There's a lot of parents that have done a lot of disservice to their kids because they tell their kids, well, no, I want you to do this, when their kid desires to serve God. You say, that doesn't happen. Oh, yes, it does all over the place in churches. Just like this it happens all over You understand those kids do not belong to you Their heritage of the Lord They belong to him Now one day they're gonna get to the age where they have to decide whether they're going to heaven or they're going to hell and they have to make that choice but God gave them to you for a purpose mom and dad to raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and we need more young people that'll serve God and We need more young people that are willing to step out and serve God. But before we point the finger at the young people, and before we tell them, hey, you ought to serve God, guess what we should do? Set the example for them to follow. Why don't we serve God? Because our love for serving Him has waxed cold. We're hard. We don't want to get involved. We don't want to build a Sunday school class. We don't want to get on a bus route. We don't want to do any of those things. Why? Because I just don't have time, preacher. I'm too busy. If you're too busy to serve God, friend, you're too busy. You need to re-evaluate your life and put your priorities back in perspective. Because serving God has greater rewards than anything you'll ever earn here on earth. The Bible says, set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. Lay up treasures in heaven. I'm still that phrase that Brother Mark Jones said when he came to our missions conference a couple of years ago. If you're going to lay up treasures in heaven, then you need to invest in what's going to heaven. And that's people. Yeah, invest in people. There's hurting people all over the place, but guess what? We need to serve God. We need to serve God. We need to quit worrying about going out here and trying to do all this other junk that doesn't mean anything for the cause of Christ, doesn't do anything for eternity's sake, but we're willing to serve God no matter what. It ought not to just be the faithful few that do everything in the church. And the sad part is that's a testimony everywhere you go. Across this country, across this world. 10% of the people do 100% of the work. But a lot of us wanna sit here and we wanna enjoy the benefits of what happens from the work that's being done, but we don't wanna get out there and do the work. You know what our mindset is? And Brother Shane, nobody's said this to me, but here's the mindset in most churches today. Pastor, that's what we pay you for. By the way, you don't have to pay me to serve God. I need to serve God because I love him and I desire him. You don't pay me to do your job for God. If that's what your mindset is, you're missing out on the whole idea of what God puts a pastor in a church for. It's not my job to earn rewards for you in heaven. It's not. Guess what? It's your job. You're going to stand face-to-face with God, as Brother Miller said this morning. You're going to stand face-to-face with God. And I'm not going to be able to give an account for your life. Now, I will give an account for how I lead you as a pastor. And I don't want to do it with grief. I want to do it with joy. But the fact of the matter is this, you're going to stand face-to-face. Understand this. I'm not talking about a judge at Rowan County Courthouse. I'm talking about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You're going to stand before Him and you're going to give an account for the works that you've done for Him. And I believe there's many of us that are going to hang our head in shame because they're going to say, see all these rewards that you could have given back to me, but you didn't do anything. And we're going to get to go to heaven because we're saved. But those rewards that we could have given back for God. Listen, that ought to motivate you. See, Paul said, I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not for me only. See, it's available for you as well, if you'll serve Him. If you'll serve Him. Guess what service takes? Humility. Humbling yourselves. You say, well, I don't think I, listen, preacher, I'm just too busy to serve. I got too much stuff to do. Really, you think you're busier than Jesus was? Jesus is busier than any of us. But guess what he took upon himself the form of a servant. He was a servant. Whoa, the King of kings, Lord of lords comes to this earth, takes upon himself man, And he served. He washed the disciples' feet. I don't know about you, but there's not much things more gross than washing people's feet, touching some people's feet, just, eh, no thank you. But Jesus washed their feet. Why? Because he was a servant. He was setting an example for what we're to do. We're to be servants. Why don't we serve? Because our love has waxed cold. We're like that wax in the candle. The fire's gone out. And so we get hard. Candles are pretty. They smell good sometimes. But they don't put off any light. Unless there's a flame. Unless there's some heat. And once that candle's lit, it begins to get soft. Begins to get soft. You know what needs to happen? Fire needs to be lit inside of you again. That love. that you once had for God? Has your love for serving God waxed cold? And lastly this morning, has your love for sacrificial giving waxed cold? You say, what are you talking about? I'm not talking about just obeying Him in tithes. What about offerings? What about above and beyond those things? You say, preacher, God commands us to give, yeah, but He says with tithes and offerings. If you read Malachi chapter 3, where he says, where in have we robbed thee? He didn't just say in tithes. He said in tithes and offerings. Because offering is something you offer over and above, like missions giving, building fund, people that have a need in a church, things like that. Those are extra things that we do to help people. You say, well, Preacher, I just can't afford to give to those things. I'm pretty sure if you went through and budgeted what you spend money on, you could find more money to give to God's work. And listen, I know a lot of people, we don't like hearing about money in church. We don't like, well preacher, that's all you talk about. Go back and listen to all the messages and find out how much I talk about tithing and giving. The fact of the matter is, more than offerings is more than that paper that we put in the offering plate. It's about you. You don't have a problem giving if God has your heart. God has your heart, you don't have a problem giving. My cousin Jason told me a story one time about a man that was in the church up there where they attend. And I remember this man and God was, man, God was blessing this guy, Brother Doug. And he called my cousin Jason. He said, Jason, can I meet you for lunch? He goes, I'll take care of the lunch. I just need to talk to you. And Jason's like, free lunch? Sure, no problem. I'll meet you, no big deal. And the guy's talking to him and he says, Jason, I'm just really, I'm upset about something. He goes, well, what's the matter? He said, I just, it seems like No matter where I turn, I just have opportunities and opportunities that just open up. And it just seems like all these deals just fall in my lap. And God just keeps blessing me with all this stuff. And Jason says, how is this a problem? Guy says, why am I special? Why does God see me as special? Why am I getting all this stuff? And it seems like other people are hurting. Why is God doing this? Jason said, let me ask you a question. Do you care about money? Guy said, I don't care at all about money. He said, do you ever give money away? I said, I give money away every day. Jesus said, I understand exactly what's going on. He said, you're a piece of pipe that God can use. He said, the problem with most of us is when that money gets put in that tube, we squeeze it because we don't want to let it flow through where God intends for it to go. See, this guy was so distraught wondering why God was blessing with this. I'll tell you why, because he was giving just as quick as it was coming. He was giving. He was giving. He was helping. He was doing. He was giving. He was giving. And because He was giving, God was giving. You know why God doesn't give to you most of the time? Because when God does, we do this. Instead of this. That's what we're supposed to do. That's what we're supposed to do. But most of the time, we squeeze. We try to take a penny and cut it into a thousand pieces and say, well, I'm gonna make all this stuff. And we try to squeeze a penny out of a penny and try to make it. Listen, money is a great servant, but it's a terrible master. And the fact is, you mentioned it again this morning, some guy said, well, how much money do you want? He said, just a little bit more. Listen, money's not a bad thing if you have money and you've been a good steward with things. That's a blessing, but keep giving. I promise you somebody who's been smart and loves God the way that they're supposed to love God. God never said he would give you, make you be a millionaire. But you know what he said? I will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. He never said I'm going to dump all this money in you. You know, I think people have this misconception, Brother Shane, if I give in the offer and play, God's just going to send checks to my house. No, that's the welfare system. Okay? They just send money to your house and you don't have to do anything for it. Here's what God does. We give, we have a need, and God provides that need. You give because God lays on your heart to do so, and you're obedient to God, and you give, and then you find out, whoa, I'm a little short for groceries, and just what a miracle it is when you walk home and find groceries on your porch. How did that happen? Coincidence? No, it's God. It's God. But why doesn't that happen? Why don't we hear testimonies about that all the time? We hear it sometimes, but why don't we hear it all the time? Because I believe God would do it all the time. If we would give. If we would give. We hear about it sometimes, but we don't hear it all the time. Why? Because our love for sacrificial giving is wax cold. There's needs that this church has. God puts it on your heart to give, you better give. Because God's telling you, hey, I want you to give towards it. And you ought to. Why? It's all his anyway. You think about it, it's not worth robbing God because God will get it one way or another. He'll either give it to the tire shop down the road, the mechanic shop down the road. You think I'm joking. You know I'm telling the truth. Rob God of tithe and find out what happens. You know, it is amazing to me when I grasp this principle about giving to God, is I make less money last longer. How does that happen? The same way five loaves and two fishes can feed the multitudes. It's God. It's God. He makes your car last a little longer. You have to have less maintenance on it. I mean, Brother Shane, his testimony of that one, that suburban buddy just keeps on going, man, I'm telling you. That van we have, it's a 2005, 230,000 miles on it, but guess what? It's still going. Why? You give. And then when it does break down because you've given, God blesses and provides for it to be fixed. You say, well, why does God do that? Because he loveth the cheerful giver. Somebody that's willing to sacrifice some things to give. Not just in financial gain, understand this, but in you. When God has you, he'll have everything about you. He'll have your money. He'll have your house. He'll have your car. He'll have your music. He'll have your standards. He'll have everything when he has you. That verse said, when iniquity abounds, the love of many shall wax cold. Where's your love at today? Are you like the blown out candle that's hard, really not putting forth any light, not being used for the purpose that it was designed? Or are you that little light that's shining? Isn't it amazing that one little candle in a room full of darkness can put off a whole lot of light? One person serving God, letting their light so shine before men, can put out a whole lot of light and a whole lot of darkness. But the churches are even getting more dark today because the love of men has left them. With heads bowed, eyes closed,