back if you would in your Bible to Matthew chapter 21, we'll come back to John chapter
2, but Matthew 21.
And I want to preach this morning about this story where Jesus Christ casts out the money
changers and then the bought and sold from the temple.
The title of my sermon this morning is buying and selling at church.
Buying and selling at church.
Now this is a story that is recorded in all four gospels.
Now Matthew, Mark, and Luke record one instance of Jesus clearing out the temple.
And then John chapter 2 records a different instance where Jesus clears out the temple.
So this is something that he actually did twice.
And the thing about that is that when something is recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
it must be pretty important to get that kind of emphasis where all four gospels deal with
it.
So we look at Matthew 21 verse 11, and the multitude said this is Jesus the prophet of
Nazareth of Galilee.
And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in
the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that
sold doves and said unto them it is written my house shall be called the house of prayer
but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Flip over to Mark chapter number 11.
The Bible says in verse 15, and they come to Jerusalem.
And Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold and bought.
Now notice the pattern over and over again.
The Bible is telling us who's getting thrown out.
Those who sold and those who bought.
And this was in the temple of the Lord.
This is in God's house at that time, but the Bible teaches that the church is now God's
house.
The Bible says in First Timothy 3.15 that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave
thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground
of the truth.
What's the church?
Well, it's not a building, but it's the assembly, the congregation.
When God's people come together and congregate Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night,
that constitutes the church.
Some people will just say, oh, we're the church.
That's true in a sense because the church is made up of the people.
But when you're off by yourself, you're not the church because church means congregation.
To congregate means to assemble, to come together.
And so the Bible says here that he cast out them that sold and bought.
Look down at your Bible there in Mark 11.15.
And overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and
would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
Now it sounds like he's being pretty strict when he says, no, you can't even carry that
vessel through the temple, let alone buy or sell there.
He says in verse 17, is it not written, my house shall be called of all nations the house
of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves and the scribes and chief priests heard it
and sought how they might destroy him for they feared him because all the people was
astonished at his doctrine.
So this teaching made people upset whenever it's recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
They didn't like having the tables flipped over.
They didn't like being cast out of the temple.
And sometimes I think we just read over this without actually picturing the intensity of
a scene where Jesus literally walks in and flips over tables.
I mean stuff's flying everywhere, merchandise is crashing and flying.
It says he dumped out their money.
He's just dumping the money on the ground, flipping things over.
I mean think about the boldness it would take to do that and think about how angry you'd
have to be to just start flipping the tables over.
I'm not going to do it this morning, but one time when I was preaching this I actually
had a table up here and I flipped it over.
And it just shows how dramatic it is because sometimes you just hear those words but you
don't picture what it would really be like if somebody started flipping over.
I mean just imagine walking into a clothing store or something and just start flipping
the tables over, dumping out the cash register.
I mean that would make quite a scene, wouldn't it?
Look at Luke chapter 19.
Luke chapter number 19.
Of course those are appropriate places for buying and selling.
Nothing wrong with buying and selling in a store, but church is not a store.
You don't buy and sell things here.
Well it doesn't matter.
Well it seems like it mattered a lot to Jesus.
Look at Luke chapter 19 verse 45, and he went into the temple and began to cast out them
that sold therein and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written my house is the house
of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.
And he taught daily in the temple that the chief priests and the scribes and the chief
of the people sought to destroy him and could not find what they might do, for all the people
were very attentive to hear him.
Go to John chapter 2.
Now a lot of people, in order to justify the sinful practice of buying and selling at church,
will try to twist this story and say, Well, because he said that they made it a den of
thieves, the sin there was just that they were not dealing honestly.
Now the Bible doesn't mention anything about them dealing dishonestly or about the money
changers charging too exorbitant of an exchange rate.
That's what I've heard my whole life about this passage.
My whole life I never heard anybody teach this passage properly when I was growing up.
Why?
Because they're selling things.
The church is selling things, so they find some other way.
You know, I'm preaching it the way it reads this morning.
He cast out those that sold and bought.
So if it was a problem with the exchange rate, then why would the buyer be in sin?
You know, if all the people that were selling stuff were ripping people up, okay, why is
the buyer being condemned in all four passages?
And I'll tell you why he said you made it a den of thieves, because when you're using
God's house for your financial gain, you've made it a den of thieves.
It'd be like, and this is the illustration that explains it best, you know, if I were
to go stand outside Walmart this morning and I were to stand out there with my own merchandise,
if I just brought in a table and just set it up in front of Walmart and just had my
own merchandise, do you think that Walmart would allow me to do that?
No way.
Why not?
Why can't I stand on the public sidewalk and sell things?
Here's why.
Because they're the ones who advertise and brought in the customers.
Everybody who's going to Walmart is a Walmart customer because Walmart spent money advertising
to get their name out there and get people to come and I would be riding on the coattails
of Walmart, standing out there selling stuff, just basically stealing customers from them.
That's why I'd be a thief.
It's a den of thieves when we take God's house.
People didn't come here to buy your junk.
They came here to worship the Lord.
They came here to hear God's word preached.
They came here to buy stuff and sell stuff.
But then you're stepping in as a merchandiser and stealing God's customers basically and
coming in and taking people that didn't come to hear that and you're stealing God's glory
and he should have the preeminence here and we shouldn't be selling and buying.
There's a time and a place for everything.
To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
Nothing wrong with buying.
Nothing wrong with selling.
But there's something wrong when you're doing it at God's house.
Another twisted interpretation that some people will have of this story is they'll say, well,
it's okay to buy and sell at church as long as you're buying and selling that which is
spiritual.
You know, don't come to church selling Tupperware and Mary Kay, but as long as you're selling
something spiritual, like let's say you're selling Bibles or selling Christian CDs, preaching
CDs, then they say, well, that's okay because you're selling that which is spiritual.
Well, the reason we know that's a lie is because in this story they were selling that which
was spiritual.
What does it say they were selling?
Doves.
What was the purpose of selling doves?
Because doves were major sacrifice items.
And the Bible even commanded people, we don't have time this morning, he commanded people,
we just looked at it last Sunday night, to take their tithes and if the way was too far,
instead of bringing their tithe in the form of animals or crops, bringing the tenth unto
the Lord, he said turn it into money, bring the money, and then buy the offerings when
you get there.
So God even said come to Jerusalem and buy offerings.
It was a spiritual thing that was being sold.
But you know what the problem was?
They weren't supposed to be buying and selling in God's house.
God's house was supposed to be a house of prayer.
It was not supposed to be a merchandising zone.
The doves were a spiritual item that were being sold.
Look at John chapter 2 verse 13.
And the Jews' Passover was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the temple
those that sold oxen and sheep and doves.
These three items are all used in the worship of the Lord, all three of them.
And the changers of money sitting, you say well why do they need a money changer?
Because people are coming from all different nations and when they show up they have all
kinds of currency so they have to exchange their money into the local currency.
What's the big deal Jesus?
What's wrong with people coming and exchanging their money?
What's wrong with buying sacrifices?
That's what you told us to do because God's house is not the place for it.
You go to a business.
You go to a merchant and you buy oxen, sheep and doves but you don't buy them in church.
You don't buy them at God's house.
It says when he had made a scourge of small cords.
What is he doing?
He's making a weapon.
A scourge is an implement that you would use to drive cattle.
He's making a bullwhip and he chases them out of the temple.
He drives them out.
See when we see the word drive we need to understand.
You know he wasn't like alright hop in the back of the truck guys.
It's not that kind of driving kids.
Drive it you know for the young children here they hear drive you know.
No drive them out is like a cattle drive.
They go running out because they're scared.
And by the way quit painting Jesus as some girly man when you know some girly sissified
guy that looks like these paintings we see of Jesus wouldn't have had the guts to do
something like this.
And if he would have tried it they would have stopped him.
Nobody stopped him.
He walked in.
He was a manly guy.
He walked in.
He's flipping tables.
He's whipping people out the door and what does the Bible say?
He poured out the changer's money and overthrew the tables and said unto them that souls
doves stop selling doves.
Is that what he said?
Don't sell doves.
Quit being a dove salesman.
No he said unto them that sold doves take these things hence.
What does hence mean?
From here.
He's not saying you're doing wrong by selling doves.
You need to stop ripping people off on that exchange rate.
No he just says take it out of here.
Take these things hence.
Make not my father's house a house of merchandise.
And his disciples remembered that it was written the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
Flip over to Revelation 18.
Let's get a biblical definition of merchandise.
Revelation chapter 18.
Now again there's nothing wrong with buying and selling.
There's nothing wrong with operating a store.
And there's nothing wrong with operating a store that sells spiritual things.
Opening up a bookstore and selling Bibles.
You know selling Christian CDs.
Sell whatever you want.
Don't sell it here.
I don't care whether you're selling that which is spiritual or unspiritual.
This is the wrong place to do it.
You don't come.
And there are people who literally their marketing strategy is church.
And some of these multi-level type marketing deals like your Amway, Tupperware, Mary Kay,
Vitamin whatever.
A lot of this stuff will actually even tell their people that a strategy is to go get
involved in church and that's where you'll get all your pampered chef and your Tupperware
and your Mary Kay customers.
You know that is not right to use church like that.
And you know what?
My parents were very hurt one time.
They went to a brand new church, independent fundamental Baptist church.
When they got there, this couple came and was friendly to them as we should be.
You know when visitors come and new people come.
It's great when people reach out to them and are friendly to them, invite them out to eat,
invite them over for dinner, invite them out to ice cream after the service.
That's wonderful.
So this couple invited my parents over for dinner.
And my parents were excited like wow this church is great.
People are so friendly.
We already got invited to dinner and it's our first time at church.
They showed up for the dinner, had dinner and then the Amway presentation began.
You know and then they realized how insincere the whole thing was and how they're just being
used and it makes people upset.
I remember when we were in a church and people started joining Amway and here's how you could
tell.
My dad called it invasion of the body snatchers.
That's what my dad called it.
He said it's like invasion of the body snatchers because basically these people would become
like completely different people.
When they got in Amway they would turn into this weird Amway zombie.
So the first sign that one of them had been infected was like we'd see them park backwards
in the parking lot.
We're like oh no.
You know.
We're like worried.
Because you know they might just be parking backwards.
We don't know but Amway taught their people back then to park backwards.
So we'd see somebody park backwards in the parking lot and we'd be like check.
See if he still has a beard.
Because Amway also taught you got to be clean shaven.
So guys who previously had had a mustache or a beard, it'd be shaven.
Okay.
So that was like strike two.
So it was like strike one they're park backwards.
Strike two all facial hair is gone.
Then they'd be sitting down.
They're reaching into their pocket and we're like no please no no please no.
And then they'd pull out the Amway binocca.
No!
You know another one.
Because that was when you saw the binocca come out because these Amway people it's always
like you know.
It was like that's when you knew that they'd gone over to the dark side.
And so you know I've grown up with this in churches and seen it.
I remember there was a lady at another church.
She would never come to church.
She'd show up like every month and a half to church and be like alright I'm having my
next pampered chef party.
And my theory is that she went to church every Sunday at a different church and is just going
around marketing stuff.
You know that is wicked.
Don't sell stuff here.
Don't buy stuff here.
You know it's great if you run a business and people contact you and want to use your
business.
Great.
I'm not saying it's wrong to do business for people in church.
You got to be real careful with it and make sure you're on your best business behavior
both buyer and seller.
But let me tell you something that should never go on here while you know walking around
handing out business cards and making deals here.
Don't carry that vessel through this house.
Don't be paying people here.
And you know the only money that should ever change hands here is just the offering going
into the plate.
That's the Lord's money.
And you know any kind of other transactions going on you know during church are not something
that we should be doing.
But you say well what's merchandise?
He said make it not a house of merchandise.
What did he mean by that?
Because people just they try to just get hung up and twist things just because they don't
like the truth that's being preached right now.
Okay and I'm not saying that every church that has the bookstore in the back is a horrible
wicked church.
A lot of people have just never even thought of this and they've been brainwashed their
whole life like I was that oh that's not what that means.
That's not what that means.
So I'm not saying that every pastor is a horrible person or the church is a horrible church.
But I will say this.
Jesus is angry.
Fix it.
But anyway I don't know where I was going with that.
But anyway the bottom line is people will try to twist this passage because of the fact
that they'll try to say like well but what's what's merchandise really mean?
I mean is it really merchandise to sell a Bible?
You know is it really merchandise to sell you know this Christian CD or preaching CDs
or whatever?
But look what the Bible says just to get a biblical definition of merchandise Revelation
18 11.
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man buyeth their
merchandise anymore.
The merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones and of pearls and fine linen and purple
and silk and scarlet and all thine wood and all manner vessels of ivory and all manner
of all manner of vessels of most precious wood and of brass and iron and marble and
cinnamon and odors and ointments and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat
and look you get the picture anything that is bought or sold is merchandise.
That's what merchandise means just anything that you buy or sell sheep horses chariots
you know today that would be cars slaves and souls of men anything that is bought or sold
period spiritual unspiritual food textile wood anything is merchandise.
I remember one time my brother or I wasn't there but he told me the story he won a guy
unto the Lord and he was at the church and they had a little bookstore in the back of
the church where they sold Bibles and sold CDs and sold different things and he just
walked up and just unpackaged a Bible and just handed it to the new convert and said
well here you know you just got saved here's a new Bible.
And everybody kind of looked at him like whoa you're supposed to pay for that you know.
And he just said well that Bible is God's Bible and I'm certain that you know this is
what God wanted it to do you know was to go to this guy.
This guy just got saved why wouldn't God give him one of his Bibles they're all just sitting
here you know people are like oh you're stealing or whatever.
No you're stealing when you sell stuff at church okay.
You're the thief according to the Bible.
Now we have in the back Bibles, New Testaments, CDs, DVDs and they're all free.
Everything back there is always free.
Nothing is ever sold here period okay because we should not make God's house a house of
merchandise.
Speaking of merchandise flip over to 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter number 2.
Now you know some people will say like well you know is it wrong to sell a preaching CD.
At church yes it's wrong to sell preaching CDs at church and I by the way also I don't
think that the church should sell anything period like I don't even think that the church
itself as an entity should sell things during the week.
I think that businesses, merchants should sell things during the week.
You know I'm the author of a church piano course okay but I don't sell that at church
ever.
In fact people try to buy it in fact I refuse to even sell that course to anyone who lives
in the state of Arizona.
I just tell people if you want that course come to church and I will give it to you for
free and I've given away hundreds of copies of it for free I refuse to sell it at church.
But here's the thing I do sell it online to people who live far away.
Why?
Because it's not the church selling it it's me selling it and I'm doing it during the
week on my own time.
It's a business.
There's nothing in the world wrong with operating a business and you know what if a bookstore
opened up that's a Bible bookstore nothing in the world wrong with that.
I'm not against Christian bookstores.
I'm not against Barnes and Noble being a bookstore.
I'm not against anybody selling preaching CDs.
I'm not against anyone selling preaching DVDs.
I'm not against anyone selling Christian materials outside of the church in a business setting
where it belongs.
It does not belong in church.
It belongs somewhere else.
Take it hence.
You know we buy our hymnals we buy our Bibles from businesses and I appreciate the fact
that those businesses exist.
You know I appreciate the fact that I can call up the sword of the Lord and buy more
hymnals and buy music books and I can go on Christianbook.com or buy Bibles or go to
sword of the Lord and buy Bibles or whatever.
You know what that's great that those businesses exist because we will never sell anything.
Somebody said well you need to be buying your Bibles from you know local church Bible publishers.
Why would I want to buy it because it's the church's job.
It's not the church's job to buy and sell to their people.
That's a merchandise job.
That's why when we have a meal after the service the food is given away for free.
That's why when we when we have any kind of a potluck any kind of a picnic any kind of
a chili cook off all of the food is given away for free.
There's no oh it's five dollars for that plate of spaghetti.
But every church I've ever been in they'd sell you your food at the church they'd sell
you your ice cream.
They would sell you your preaching CD.
Oh you want a preaching CD three bucks five bucks.
So I didn't charge only one buck and I'm just like why don't you just give it away for free.
But they want to charge money.
Okay now let me say this even though I did say you know a lot of good people could be
mixed up on this I'm not just condemning people but you know what.
It is kind of disturbing though when you teach somebody this truth and they still won't accept
it.
I mean I can understand being wrong about it it's like whoa this seems pretty clear.
Seems pretty cut and dried.
But let me say this even though there are a lot of good people who are mixed up on this
false prophets are real big on merchandise.
Look what the Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 2.
But there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers
among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought
them and bring upon themselves swift destruction and many shall follow their pernicious ways
by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of watch this and through covetousness.
So these false prophets are in it for the money.
They're covetous.
The Bible says elsewhere teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake.
Through covetousness shall they with fainted words make merchandise of you.
Do you see that?
Through fainted words meaning that they seem to be sincere nice people but really they're
just making merchandise of you.
They see you as a sucker that's going to give them a bunch of money for their junk, for
their false teaching and lies.
I have found that the most valuable things in life, the most valuable information available
is always free.
When you have to pay for information, what does the Bible say?
Buy the truth and sell it not.
Also wisdom and instruction are saying.
When you have to pay for information, when you have to pay for doctrine, it ends up being
about as valuable as those Scientologists get when they pay for doctrine.
You know when these Scientologists cough up thousands and thousands of dollars for the
next Thetan level of you know Zemu and all that.
You know they basically are paying for the doctrine.
You know what it reminds me of?
It reminds me of these infomercials where they spend like a half hour telling you how
great the product is and you never really find out what the info is but they're like
this information transformed my life you know and I was living in a one bedroom apartment
and now I'm making $10,000 a week from my home.
I'm on a boat with all these bikini babes and you just call this you know and look I'll
give you this information.
I don't even know why I'm sharing this information.
I'm crazy to share this information.
You know I could just keep on making money but I want to share this with you because
I love you and it's $99 and I will share this valuable information with you and you will
have a boat and you will be surrounded by bikini babes.
Call right now operators are standing by and you know what you call.
You know I had a buddy one time he said you know what I called.
I broke.
He said I finally broke down and I called and I sent him the hundred bucks and basically
it was basically because they say oh you just you put these ads in newspapers and you just
operate these.
It's all porno.
That's what it turned out it was.
It was like you're putting ads in the newspaper to get people into porno.
Okay so that's what that you know he tried to get his money back.
Who thinks he got his money back?
Of course not.
But see it's this fraud like oh you pay for this information.
But you know what?
Buy the truth and sell it not.
We shouldn't sell the truth.
If we really have such valuable truth to offer the world we should be shouting them from
the housetops and they should be free.
You know that's why every sermon that I preach is posted online unedited.
The whole uncensored raw unfiltered.
It's posted online.
Why?
Get it out there.
But you know there are there are preachers out there who literally enforce copyrights
on their preaching and literally will file copyright violations with YouTube if anybody
tries to post their preaching.
Look let me just say it right now.
Anybody who wants to can steal my preaching.
How do you steal information?
And see this is what happens when we get away from the Bible's morality and start inventing
our own morality.
Let me just teach you something about the Bible.
The Bible has a lot of rules in it.
Right?
Who thinks there are a lot of commandments in the Bible?
A lot of do's and don'ts.
You know what you're not going to find in the Bible?
Rules about intellectual property.
This whole stupid copyright intellectual property.
It's a fraud.
It's not biblical.
And this is what it is.
It's these Hollywood actors and these overpaid, over worshiped musicians just want to just
make multi-million dollars for the rest of their life off that song they wrote in the
60's.
Okay?
It's like they just want to live off that for the rest of their life.
It's like oh we've got to protect it.
You know it used to be that copyrights would expire after like 25 years or they would expire
like after 50 years.
You know, songs that were written after 1924, the copyright will never expire.
1924.
I mean if you want to have copyright free music, you've got to go back before 1924.
Literally.
Most things after that are copyrighted.
And then they just keep extending and extending.
It's like I want to live off this forever and I want my kids and my grandkids.
No you just have to keep working.
You can't just do one piece of work and just try to live off the rest of your life.
And then it's like oh people are pirating Microsoft and oh they're pirating.
Look I think Bill Gates has enough money.
He has so much money he has extra to spend on sterilizing people in Africa and injecting
them with formaldehyde and mercury.
And he has enough to spoon maltomeal into their mouth and everything and vaccinate them
with poisons.
You know, I think he's got enough money.
Who thinks Bill Gates is really suffering because people are pirating Microsoft software?
Oh yeah.
So terrible.
Oh and who thinks that the band U2 is really suffering financially because people are pirating
their music?
Oh the internet.
Oh YouTube.
Everybody's getting our music for free.
It's not fair because I only made like a billion dollars last year.
Who here thinks that Bono is struggling financially right now?
These people are overpaid.
And then they take all their millions and billions of dollars and you know what they
do?
They pay off politicians to make all these copyright laws literally.
There will be some company down in South America that's like uploading movies to the internet
or uploading songs to the internet.
We sent down our government a federal like SWAT team type group to go down and raid some
warehouse down in South America because they're pirating.
You know, you used to be the pirate with somebody that actually shot people.
It used to be that a pirate actually robbed people and shot them and killed them and said
argh, now a pirate is somebody who steals somebody's information, stealing intellectual
property.
Hey, you know what?
I don't have any intellectual property.
Everything I own is yours.
If I could take my brain out of my head and hand it to you and you could take all the
information, I'd give it to you right now.
Here you go.
You know what?
This whole thing of intellectual property is stupid.
It's a fraud and you know what?
It's part of what's leading us into this one world government because they're like we've
got to have one world government because what if somebody in South America starts uploading
the Hollywood movies?
We got to have a global, you know, we got to be able to send our guys down there to
enforce it in South America because of the internet because God forbid, you know, that
these Hollywood actors would have to take a zero off the end of their income.
It's stupid folks, but we've all been deceived and we're like, oh man, let's, you know, let's
be sure to report everybody who's violating copyright.
Let's turn each other in.
Isn't that what they say?
Report pirated software.
We'll give you a $50 reward if you turn in your boss at work.
Turn in your boss at work for pirated software.
Who's seen those ads?
It's a fraud.
Show me.
And when people say like, well, no, you're just immoral.
You just like to pirate stuff.
Yeah, so what?
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, no, no, but here's the thing, but here, look, I, and look, I, here's the
thing about when you believe, when you believe like I do that, that intellectual property
doesn't exist, you still end up buying stuff all the time just because you want the CD,
you want the DVD or it's just more convenient to just pay the money to get it than to sit
there.
Most people don't even know how to get the stuff for free anyway.
But it's just like, ah, you're pirates, you know, it's, it's, it's stupid.
And here's what I say to people who want to accuse me of that.
I just say this.
Show me in the Bible.
Well, those are not sealed.
No, stealing is when you actually take something and then they don't have it anymore.
It's not like you take it and they still have the same amount as you have.
I mean, you know, it's not like Jesus feeding the 5,000 or just keeps coming, you know,
if you take something and then you take it away from them, that's stealing.
If you take it and they still have it, you didn't steal anything.
Show me in the Bible.
Show me intellectual property, all these laws.
Show me copyright.
Show me patent.
I don't see it.
I defy anyone to show it to me.
But it's, what it does is it slows down the process of people getting information is all
it does, you know.
And people have all their Jew justifications for it, but you know what, it isn't biblical,
period.
Okay, so the bottom line is that when we have preaching and we have doctrine, especially
about spiritual things, why in the world would we copyright?
And so I encourage everyone to pirate everything that I preach.
People literally, they email me and ask me, hey, do I have permission to preach this point
that you made?
I'm like, do you think I made that up?
I got it from the Bible.
And hey, half the stuff I preach I stole from some other preacher.
Hello?
Stealing, you stole my sermon, you plagiarized my sermon.
Look, we're all plagiarizing God every week.
It's the Bible.
Look, if I hear a sermon that I like, I'm going to preach it.
If I hear a title of a sermon, I heard a title of a sermon, but the sermon wasn't that good,
I'll do my own sermon, I'll use your title and make it a better sermon.
What now?
And people sometimes will even, you know, they'll ask me like, hey, can I have permission
to upload your sermon to my channel?
I'm like, you don't need my permission.
Upload every sermon I preach to your YouTube channel.
And well, as long as I don't alter it, right, and give you the credit, no, put it up as
anonymous.
Anonymous preacher, don't give me any credit, edit it, edit it down.
Pop things out, add things in, who cares?
Anything I preach is public domain, for the record, for all eternity.
Anything I preach is public domain.
Upload it, copy it, mirror it, and I love it.
I love it when people take one of my sermons, they just take one part of the sermon and
make it its own YouTube video.
And some people have reported it to me like, did you know that this guy's uploading your
videos?
Yeah, I just finished emailing him and thanking him for doing that.
There are like 20, 30 channels on YouTube that carry my sermons like all the time, and
I hope it becomes 200 or 300.
Give them a different title than what I gave them.
Then it'll just get out to more, more people will find it.
Get it out there.
But it's so funny how preachers are so protective of their sermons and stuff.
And they're all protective of it.
There are preachers that sell their sermons for just crazy amounts of money.
They'll want like $12 for one CD.
One sermon CD.
Who's the guy with the real expensive sermons?
SM Davis.
It's like, he's got these sermons on the family, it's gonna solve your family problems, $12
for a CD.
I mean, good night.
I mean, I've seen, and the John Hegies of this world, they'll be like, $30 for this
DVD about Israel.
Like $25 for this movie.
They'll sell like a 55 minute DVD for 30 bucks.
An audio, I mean, I can see charging $20 for a DVD, that's the going rate, but like, you're
charging $12 for an audio CD that costs like a buck to make, and you're charging $12 for
it.
It's like, whoa, what are you doing?
But here's the thing, I wouldn't mind, I don't care if he wants to sell his sermons for $120
for free, or I mean $120 if he'd put the sermon online for free.
Like if he puts the sermon online for free and says, hey, it's free online, but if you
want the CD, it's 20 bucks, or 120 bucks.
Who cares?
Because he's selling it to you, but he's not selling the truth.
It's like when you have to buy it is the only way to hear the sermon.
It's one thing to put things online for free and then sell, but it's like your preaching
is like hidden under a bushel, and then people upload your stuff to YouTube and you're flagging
them for a copyright violation.
But you know what, the way I look at it, because I know Peter Ruckman's like that, his stuff's
always getting flagged and taken down from YouTube, Phil Kidd, his stuff is always getting
taken down, taken down, well you guys are stealing, you're desiring, no we're not stealing.
Bible preaching should be free for everybody, free for all.
It's preaching.
But they're like, oh, you're stealing, you know, you're pirating my stuff.
But you know what, I'm glad these preachers hide their sermons.
I just heard about a church recently where their sermons are password protected.
You have to fill out an application process to show them that you're worthy to download
their sermons, and you have to get a recommendation from your pastor like, yes, this guy can
listen to your sermons.
And that's why, because they're afraid that the homos are going to get a hold of it, or
they're afraid that the government's going to get a hold of it or whatever.
Hey, put this in your pipe and smoke it, every stupid faggot who's listening to this sermon.
It's live streamed in the world!
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and I'm not afraid what some sodomite thinks
about it.
But it's like, oh, let's all hide it, let's keep it, you know, why?
Why is John Hagee selling stuff for $50 a DVD and $30 a DVD and your prayer shawl is
included or whatever?
It's like, why?
They're making merchandise out of you.
I mean, John Hagee's just as much of a con man as that guy who's getting people to put
ads in the newspaper.
I mean, it's the same fraud.
Beware of people who have this really good information for you, but you've got to pay
to get it.
Because if they really thought it was that good, they'd want to get it in everybody's
hand.
I mean, what if you had the cure for cancer?
Would you just hide it and say, well, you've got to pay $1,000 for it?
Or you'd just be like, no, let's cure everybody, let's just get this out to everybody.
No, no, let's patent it and make sure nobody else can use the cure except us.
Think about how weird that is.
And you say, well, people got to make a living.
Yeah, but it's funny, some people don't copyright stuff and they still make a living.
Some people will give stuff away for free and still find a way to make a living.
I mean, I bet you U2 could still make a living even without enforcing all these copyrights
on their music because they could just have a concert and make $10 million.
And I'm not promoting U2, U2 is a wicked band.
I did a whole sermon called The Gospel According to Bono where I showed how ungodly his world
view is.
I'm just using that as an example because U2 has been one of these ones that goes to
Congress and whines about it.
They've been one that pushes for these copyright laws and many others also.
Okay, well, let's keep moving in the sermon here.
Go to Matthew chapter 6 verse 21.
And again, I'm not against somebody selling sermon CDs or sermon DVDs, but I think that
the information, the truths on the DVDs and CDs should be out for free anyway.
The CDs are just a convenience, an icing on the cake.
I remember one time I called a local church in town.
They were having a youth conference and my niece was going to be at the youth conference
so I wanted to go see my niece at the youth conference.
And they said, well, you know, to come to this conference, all I want to do is come
to the evening service and listen to the preaching.
That's all I want to do.
I called them up and they said, well, it's $20.
You know, you have to register.
And I said, no, I'm not going to pay to go to church.
I'm not going to pay to listen to preaching.
I'm going to come for free.
And she said, well, okay, I guess that's okay just as long as you sit in the back.
That's literally what she said.
What in the world?
And there was a church when I lived in Indiana, there was a church in Illinois where you bought
tickets for Sunday morning, $20, $15, depending on what seats you get.
And if you weren't good looking enough, you can't sit in the first two rows.
No joke, that is a true story.
They would choose who could sit in the first couple rows because it's being televised.
And we want to put the really beautiful people up front, make it look good.
You know what?
If I were a pastor in that church, I'd put the ugliest people up front that I can because
God's not a respecter of persons.
Hey, sit here under my footstool.
Sit thou there.
It's not what the Bible teaches.
Now, you might ask yourself this question.
If the Bible talks so much about this, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John telling you to not buy or
sell in the house of God, why do they do it?
Have you ever wondered that?
Why do they do it?
Why do they sell stuff?
Well, I'll tell you this.
When I was in Bible college at Howells Anderson, they taught us never give away anything for
free.
That's literally what they taught us.
They said never give anything away for free.
When I was at Howells Anderson, when you went soul winning, the tracts that you handed out
on soul winning, you had to buy them.
Church invitations to give out and invite people to church, you bought them.
You paid for them.
You want to go soul winning?
You buy a pack of 50 invites and you go out soul winning.
You paid for everything.
And here's why they taught us.
Look at Matthew 6 21.
Did I have you turn to Matthew 6?
Look at verse 21.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
So what they basically said was that if you give stuff to people for free, they won't
appreciate it.
You give stuff to people for free, they don't appreciate it.
Whereas if they pay a little bit of money for it, then they treasure it, they take care
of it, they appreciate it.
Whereas when they get things for free, they don't appreciate it.
Now let me say this, they're right about that.
They are right that when you give stuff to people for free, they don't appreciate it.
Period.
Okay, flip over to Matthew 20 though.
Matthew chapter 20.
So from a worldly logic and a worldly perspective, what they're saying makes sense.
You give stuff to people that they paid for and they're going to take care of it.
Whereas if you give it to them for free, they just think nothing of it.
They don't really appreciate it because that is human nature.
They're right about that.
Now look at Matthew chapter 20 though.
Here's a story that's kind of like that and I don't want to read the whole story for sake
of time.
But this is the story where the different laborers are hired and he agrees with the
laborers for a penny a day.
So then he ends up hiring people at the very last hour.
Instead of working a 12 hour day, they only work one hour and he still gives them a penny.
So they're basically getting paid extra because the other people worked all day receive a
penny.
These guys worked one hour, received the same amount and they're mad like, whoa, what's
going on?
Why'd you give them that extra?
Why did I, you know, but they got what they agreed for.
They agreed for a penny.
They got a penny.
They had no reason to be upset, but they were upset because they saw someone else getting
more free money.
Now look down at the Bible and look at the response.
Verse 12 saying these have, these last have wrought but one hour and thou hast made them
equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
But he answered one of them and said, friend, I do thee no wrong.
Take that thine is and go thy way.
I will give unto this last even as unto thee.
Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?
And watch, this is the phrase I really want to focus on.
Is thine eye evil because I'm good?
Do you hear what he's saying there?
Is thine eye evil because I am good?
Now what does it mean to have the evil eye?
Covetousness, envy, and he's saying, is thine eye evil because I'm good?
Now let me ask you this.
If you're good, will that cause some people to have an evil eye?
Absolutely.
But does that mean we should stop being good?
Is thine eye evil because I'm good?
No.
Thine eye's evil because you're not right with God.
Me being good has nothing to do with that.
So what I'm saying is, if we do what's right, God tells us not to sell things in church.
Therefore we're left with one option.
Give everything away for free.
Well how are you going to afford that?
Well there's these things called tithes and offerings that come in that are supposed to
be God's way of financing the church.
So we don't have to sell things because the tithes and offerings are what finance the
church.
That's God's model.
That's God's plan.
That was his plan in the Old Testament.
That's what financed the Levites, the tithes and offerings, not sales.
So if we give things away for free, we just have to go into it understanding that a lot
of people are not going to appreciate it.
And they're going to get a bad attitude and have an evil eye.
What?
Does that mean we should stop being good?
Absolutely not.
Think about the one thing that's given away for free that's of the greatest value of all
time.
What is it that's given for free?
Salvation, right?
The gift of God is eternal life.
The free gift hath appeared in all men.
Think about how people don't appreciate it because it's free.
Think about that.
Everybody gets salvation for free if they get it.
They get it by believing in Jesus as free.
So then how many Christians do you see that don't appreciate it, do nothing for God, don't
go to church, don't read their Bible, don't keep the commandments because they don't value
their salvation.
Why?
Because it was given them for free.
Did that make God say, well that's it, I'm going to quit giving this away for free.
I'm going to make people work for it then they'll appreciate it more.
No.
He just says, you know what, if you have an evil eye, shame on you, but I'm good.
I'm going to be good.
I'm going to give it to you for free.
His salvation is a free gift.
He wants all men to be saved.
He's going to give it away for free.
Isn't that wonderful?
Isn't that generous of him?
Isn't he the most generous being of all time, God, to give away salvation.
He gives away eternal life for free.
Forgiveness of sins, it's free.
I guess the Catholics wanted people to appreciate it back in the dark ages so they sold it indulgences.
You know, they sold the tickets into heaven.
Make people appreciate it when they get there, except they're not going to get there.
But you know what, I've seen in our church over the years, I've been pastoring now for
almost 10 years, I've seen a lot of people with an evil eye because we give stuff away
for free.
Now, it's a minority.
Most people appreciate, you know, getting stuff for free and they like getting stuff
for free and they think it's great that we give stuff away for free.
But I've seen people where they literally look a gift horse in the mouth.
You know, you give somebody something for free and then they complain about it and it's
free.
And I'm thinking to myself, what church have you ever been to that'll give you anything
for free?
They'll never give you, and then people complain when they get free stuff.
Or you know, you'll have an activity, people will RSVP to the activity and then just not
show up on a whim.
Just on a whim, ah, sorry not to go.
But this is what they taught us at Alice Anderson, if they paid, they'll show up.
Make them put down a $5 deposit.
You know, make them put down $10, put down $20.
And then when they're thinking like, nah, let's skip it.
You know, after all the work and money and planning went into it, nah, let's skip it.
They'll be like, whoa, I put in my $5.
They don't care that we already put in our $5, that we already spent hours planning it.
But when they put in their little $5 bill, it's like, well, I already paid so I guess
I gotta go.
Why?
Because they appreciate that which they paid for.
Because where your treasure is, they're where your heart be also.
You know, there are people who, you know, we've done weddings for lots of people.
And we try to give people as nice a wedding as we can.
But not all weddings are going to be the same.
Some weddings are going to come out nicer than others.
Now a lot of that is because the people that were getting married put in their own, they
put in some of their own, you know, because we provide a lot of it and we pay for a lot
of it.
But a lot of people, you know, bring their own extras and they upgrade things and stuff,
which is great.
But literally, you know, we'll do a wedding for one person.
Maybe we're just more busy that week.
Or maybe we're less busy this week.
But guess what?
Some of the weddings are going to be better than others.
But name the church that gives you a free wedding at your church and buys your cake
for you and your punch.
Can somebody show me a church on this planet that does that besides Faithful Word?
And the bottom line is, there are people who will have an attitude that literally like,
well, why was their wedding better than ours?
Whoa, you got it for free.
You can make it as good as you want somewhere else.
You can go rent the Taj Mahal and get married there.
And you can cater it in with filet mignon and lobster tails.
You know, when you're getting something for free, anything you get is better than nothing.
And you know why I think this is a good truth to preach this time of year?
Because we're getting into the Christmas season when people are just this entitled mentality
of my name's Jimmy, I'll take all you give me.
Right?
Because, yeah, gimme, gimme, gimme.
And what are you getting me for Christmas and I better make sure that I don't give too
much and get too little and make sure that we all agree on how much we're spending this
year.
I want to spend a bunch of money and get a Whitman sampler as my full gift.
Four chocolates, you know.
I bought you the whole one pound box from C's.
You got me a Whitman sampler.
You know, but people get this stupid attitude.
You know what?
If you're right with God, you ought to go in to Christmas with an attitude that says
I expect nothing.
Expect nothing.
If I go to, look, if nothing comes as a gift for me for Christmas, I'm just going to praise
the birth of Christ.
Just get excited about that.
Hey, you know what will make a good Christmas for me?
A cup of hot chocolate and singing Christmas carols.
That's all I need to be happy.
Jesus in my heart.
But yet, you know and I know that people go into Christmas with real big expectations
don't they?
It's called being spoiled.
See there are kids in this world who have one toy and they love and cherish that toy
and if they got another toy they'd be really excited.
Then there are kids that are just surrounded by toys.
Hey, you want to play with this?
Because they're spoiled.
You know?
There are kids that are eating out of a garbage can today in other parts of the world and
then there are other kids like, I don't like this food.
Why?
Because they're spoiled.
Isn't that what it means to be spoiled?
Well listen, when you give stuff away for free at church, you end up spoiling people.
Right?
But is thine eye evil because I'm good or because our church is good or because Jesus
is good or because the Bible says to do it that way?
No.
But I mean there are people who, you know, baby showers.
We do all these baby showers, right?
Oh, my baby shower wasn't as good as so and so's baby shower.
What in the world?
You got free stuff.
Anything is better than nothing.
The world does not owe you a living.
And you know what this church owes you?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
You know what Jesus owes you?
Nothing.
You know what I owe you personally?
Nothing.
There is not a person in this room that I owe anything to.
But I, you know, I want to be a blessing and I want to be generous and help you and do
everything I can for you.
But I don't owe you anything.
And you know who definitely doesn't owe you anything?
My wife doesn't owe you anything.
You know, if she's been borrowing money without me knowing about it, talk to me and I'll deal
with it.
But as far as I know, my wife doesn't owe you anything.
But sometimes people sure act like they owe her something.
They sure act like I owe them something.
They sure act like the church owes them something.
You know, because you give stuff away for free and people get this entitled attitude
or why did they get more or theirs was better and when in reality, even if you got nothing,
we owe you nothing.
We've done you no wrong.
Friend.
Friend, I do thee no wrong.
Take that thine is and go thy way.
You know, if you have a problem with it, it's like what in the world do people think when
they come to church and just expect everything for free?
I feel bad for the next church that people go to after they leave our church because
we just train them for years.
Everything's free.
They get somewhere.
It's like, whoa, you know, you're charging for everything.
But you know, I mean, here's, we just did these portraits.
These portraits are amazing.
Beautiful portraits.
I mean, Teresa Wittenberger, talented photographer, better at that.
If we would have hired a professional company to come in, like if we would have brought
Olin Mills or whoever in here, the quality would have been lower period.
Okay.
And not only does she take these amazing pictures, she went above and beyond because I thought
she was just going to take a few pictures and then pick the best one.
That's what I do.
Just, you know, throw something at the wall and see what sticks.
You know what I mean?
Just take as many pictures.
You know, I thought she's going to take a bunch of pictures and just, you know, pick
the best one.
She's going into Photoshop and using technology to take like the best dad picture, put it
with the best mom, the best child, do a head swap on the baby and make it all just perfect.
And people are just like, nah.
What in the world?
It's free.
Why don't you go down to the mall and stick five bucks in the photo booth and get a stupid
picture?
Yeah.
Amen.
You know, you're getting a perfect picture for free.
It's like, whoa.
And, you know, I'm not, I'm just throwing that out there.
I'm not saying that a bunch of people were complaining about the pictures.
The pictures looked awesome.
Right.
They looked amazing.
I was just floored by how good they looked.
But the bottom line is though, we need to make sure that we don't get this entitlement
mentality and this covetous evil eye of, well, theirs came out better.
That's because they're better looking than you.
That has nothing to do with the photography.
We can't make you look totally different than how you were born.
That's DNA.
Well, so and so's picture looks amazing.
That's because they look amazing and you don't.
You're ugly.
No, I'm kidding.
I'm just kidding.
But kidding, but not kidding.
You know, their kid smiled.
It's like, well, you know, you need to make your kid happier.
I don't know what to tell you.
You forgot to give it a sucker on the way in.
Whatever, you know, and plus that's just life.
You know, sometimes kids are just fussy and cry.
I call those reality pictures.
My call is we got a good reality shot where the baby's, you know, everybody's like, everybody's
like, and then the baby's like, you know, it's a reality shot.
And you know, you look back at those and they're cool later.
Oh, isn't that funny?
Get over it, but you know, you can't beat the price.
It's free.
Anytime something's free, you can't complain about it.
It's ridiculous.
But anyway, I got to wrap up the sermon here.
I want to go to one last verse, Luke chapter 6 verse 38.
Luke chapter 6 verse 38.
Our church will always give things away for free for two reasons.
For one reason is because it's a sin not to.
It's a sin to sell the preaching CDs.
So we have two options.
Have no preaching CDs.
That's an option.
Just not have.
Can somebody show me a Bible verse where we have to have preaching CDs?
No.
But if we have them, they're free.
If we're going to have them out on the shelf, it's free.
I'm not like these traveling circus evangelist clowns who are like, now I've got my book
table in the back there and let me spend 15 minutes of the sermon advertising you my CDs
and my books and my DVD and all this stuff.
You know, we're not going to be that kind of a clown.
We're not going to disregard the words of Christ here.
You know, it would be a sin for us to sell things in the church.
And again, let me just reiterate.
Not a sin to sell things outside the church.
Okay to sell Bibles.
Okay to sell New Testaments.
Okay to sell preaching CDs and DVDs if a business is doing it.
A merchant that sells merchandise.
But pastors are not supposed to merchandise you, okay.
There's a second reason why we will continue to give things away for free.
Reason number one, because it's a sin not to.
Reason number two is Luke 6 38.
What does the Bible say?
Give and it shall be given unto you.
Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give unto your
bosom.
With the same measure that ye meet withal it shall be measured unto you again.
Honestly I do not believe it is a coincidence that we have always given everything away
for free and we have never run out of money and we've never had any debt.
In ten years of our church we've never had any debt.
Never borrowed money.
Never run out of money.
Always had enough money.
Why?
Because we give.
We're generous and if you give it shall be given unto you.
So because our church gives everything away for free God looks down and is pleased with
that and then he blesses us.
Plus you know there are people who have an evil eye but there are a lot of people who
when they get stuff for free they really appreciate it and like it and then they give.
Not by constraint but willingly they give.
You know they give a donation because they want to.
Not because they're buying something.
They're not buying tickets to church or buying a CD or anything.
No they give.
Bible promises that if we give it shall be given unto us.
So I believe that Faith Forward Baptist Church has never had to have a fundraiser.
Never had to ask people to give extra.
Never had to sell anything because when you're generous God will cause men to give unto you
and I believe that's been in the history of our church and then the third reason why we'll
never sell the preaching CDs or anything else for that matter is because I want you to watch
them and more people will watch it if it's free.
If it's free exponentially more people will watch it or listen to it and I remember the
first time somebody asked me can I buy one of these preaching CDs I said how about I
can pay you to listen to it because why would I you know I mean I want people to hear it.
I want people because why?
Because the truths of the Bible are life changing.
We got to get this out this message out and let's not let a little thing like copyright
violation get in our way of getting the truth out the word of God.
You know that's what I love about the King James the copyright was broken in the United
States when this book came to the US they broke the copyright and they broke it back
in the 1700s and said we don't care whether people on the other side of the ocean have
this book copyrighted we're going to print it and say nuts to you and we've been saying
nuts to you ever since with the King James version and that's why the King James is public
domain no copyright can't say the same thing for the NIV can't quote if I stood up here
right now and recited the book of Philemon from the ESV I'd be in copyright violation
I need to get written permission to do that you know because you can't quote more than
a thousand words at one time without permission and it can't be more than 50% of one book
so I can't even quote half of Philemon you know I mean what in the world because it's
copyrighted we don't want anyone writing our coattails you know what no one wants your
stupid ESV anyway you know what I'm glad the ESV is copyrighted I'm glad the NIV yeah shut
that stupid thing down let's get a King James in people's heads you know that's why the
Dollar Tree will only ever carry King James you know why Dollar Tree is King James only
because that's the only one you can sell for a dollar because otherwise the dollar's gotta
go to the publisher then it's like whoa where's our money the King James is the only Dollar
Tree Bible and let's just close the sermon with that all right to have a word of prayer
father we thank you so much Lord for the ultimate free gift salvation through the blood of Jesus
Lord freely we've received freely we should give and Lord I pray that you would just help
us when we get things for free Lord when we get a Christmas present when someone invites
us out to lunch when someone invites us over for dinner when someone gives us a card or
a gift or a treat Lord help us to be thankful people help us to be appreciative people when
someone takes our picture or throws us a baby shower or cooks us a meal Lord help us not
to be a spoiled brat about it help us to actually be thankful and grateful Lord and to cherish
things without having to pay for them Lord and and Lord I thank you so much for salvation and
I love the fact that it's free and in Jesus name we pray amen