Man, Exodus chapter 35, the Bible reads in verse number 1,
And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together and said unto them,
These are the words which the Lord hath commanded that you should do them.
That seems like a pretty simple statement, obviously, right on the surface.
Hey, these are the words that the Lord has commanded that you should do them.
It kind of would just go without saying that God's commandments are to be done.
They're not to just be read or talked about or studied or meditated upon,
but he actually wants us to do what he told us to do, right?
It's interesting, if you speak to the Jews today,
who obviously the Jews claim to be pretty big on the Torah, right?
This is their most exalted scripture supposedly in their religion of rabbinical Judaism,
the first five books of the Bible, right?
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
and the really zealous and religious Jews are going and studying Torah X amount of times per week,
and they're going to Torah school and they're studying this stuff.
But you know, it's interesting how they don't do it, though.
There are so many things that we could just point to in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
and say, you guys don't do this.
I don't see you doing this burnt offering here.
I don't see you doing this animal sacrifice over here.
And you know, the Bible's crystal clear in the Torah when it says,
without shedding of blood, there's no remission.
You know, I mean, the shedding of blood is what brings remission.
God says in the Torah, I've given the blood upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, right?
So where is the atonement in Judaism? Where's the blood?
Say, well, we don't have the temple.
You know what? That temple wasn't even original to the Torah.
There's no mention of the temple in the Torah.
The Torah talks about the tabernacle.
We say, well, we don't have the tabernacle.
But you know what? Right away, God makes allowance for that in Exodus chapter 20.
He says you can build an altar of earth unto the Lord, or you can build an altar of whole stones.
And even in the period when the temple existed,
do you remember when Elijah just piled up stones and built an altar to the Lord and did a burnt offering?
You know, you don't have to have the temple or the tabernacle to do a burnt offering according to the law of Moses.
And let's say you do.
Let's just give them that argument for a second and say, nope, you've got to be in the land.
You've got to be in Israel.
You've got to have the temple.
You've got to have the tabernacle.
Well, then guess what?
God took away your temple so you can't do your religion anymore because he wants you to be a Christian.
That's all that would show.
If you have to have the temple and God took it away from you for thousands of years, shouldn't that tell you something?
If it's essential, if it's absolutely essential, well, we've got to be in the land.
Well, if he took you out of the land, what does that tell you about your religion?
See, we understand why we don't do animal sacrifices because Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain once for all,
and we know that he was once offered for sins and that it's done.
So from our perspective as Christians, it makes perfect sense why we don't do animal sacrifices
because it was all leading up to and pointing to Jesus Christ.
He fulfilled all that.
They have no Jesus Christ.
They have no Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
So why aren't they doing these things?
But here's what they'll tell you if you ask them why they can practice Judaism
or follow the Torah without doing the sacrifices, which are such a huge part of the Torah.
Here's what they'll say.
They'll say, well, you know, just studying, if we just spend time studying Torah
and if we just study about doing an animal sacrifice, that's like as if we did one.
So if we read about it, think about it, ponder it, meditate upon that burnt offering,
it's like we did a burnt offering like in our minds.
You know, it's like a fantasy burnt offering that they did because they studied about it.
Folks, is that what the Bible says in this verse?
The Bible says that these commandments are not for you to fantasize about them.
It's to do them.
And what does the Bible say?
If any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man,
beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way
and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was,
but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
The Bible says be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
If you're just a hearer of the word and not a doer, you're deceiving yourself.
Now we as Christians, we know what we need to do because we read the New Testament
and the Bible in the New Testament tells us what to do.
We don't look at the Old Testament necessarily for what to do.
We look at the Old Testament for doctrine and instruction and righteousness, reproof, wisdom,
and we learn about Jesus.
You know, when we go to these sacrifices, we're not reading them so that we can do sacrifices.
We're reading them so we can learn about the sacrifice of Jesus.
And then we get our marching orders of what to do from the New Testament.
But to say that God intended the law of Moses or the Torah to just be something that we
study and read and meditate on and that that's how somehow fulfills the law,
that doesn't fulfill the law.
The law must be executed.
Okay, these things have to be done.
And obviously we believe in a fulfillment through the Lord Jesus Christ and the New Testament explains that.
So he says at the end of verse one there, these are the words which the Lord has commanded that you should do them.
Verse two, six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you in holy day,
a Sabbath of rest to the Lord, whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.
You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day.
Now this might seem like an extreme punishment here because as we study the Old Testament law,
the punishment fits the crime.
And God only puts the death penalty on relatively few crimes.
You know, especially things like rape and murder and kidnapping.
And you would expect the death penalty to be on those kind of severe crimes, right?
I mean, we would all agree that someone who commits murder or just, you know, kidnaps someone and rapes them,
we would all agree that that person should be put to death.
Amen?
I mean, that's just like a no-brainer.
Those are big sins.
Major crimes and violent, horrible things that need to be punished, need to be dealt with.
You know, we don't want to live in a society where people who do those things get a slap on the wrist, okay?
We want people to get punished severely if they're going to rape and kidnap and murder and things like that.
And there are lots of other crimes in the Bible where there's a much lighter punishment.
You know, for example, stealing.
You know, if someone steals, they're not put to death.
They don't have some huge punishment.
If they steal, they pay back double.
And so, you know, that makes sense.
Sometimes the punishment for stealing can be too severe in many places in modern times.
You know, some places they'll cut off your hand for stealing.
That's too much.
That's overkill.
Even locking someone up in prison for years is too much.
That's too much of a punishment.
And so, you know, the Bible has an equitable punishment where the crime and the punishment are equal.
You know, the punishment fits the crime.
But when you look at this, this seems extreme on the surface of, like, why would you get the death penalty for working on the Sabbath?
But the reason why is because of the fact that this is symbolic of salvation.
Because the Bible teaches us, and I'm not going to re-preach this because I've already taught it multiple times in this Exodus series already.
And I've done whole sermons on it.
But the Bible is clear in the New Testament that Jesus is our Sabbath.
Jesus has fulfilled the Sabbath.
And that the Sabbath was a picture of us resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ and not trying to work our way to heaven.
But basically ceasing from our own works and resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Jesus did all the work for us to be saved.
It's his perfect sinless life, his death, burial, resurrection, and everything that goes into the Gospel that saves us.
It's not any work that we do.
It's the finished work of Christ that saves us.
And that's what the Sabbath represents.
So it makes sense from a symbolic perspective why breaking the Sabbath would be punished by the death penalty.
If someone is just going to just ignore this or desecrate this, the picture is that if you try to work your way to heaven, you're going to hell.
If you violate that Sabbath principle by saying, oh, I'm not going to rest in what Jesus has done, I'm going to heaven because I go to church, because I've repented of all my sins, and I've turned over a new leaf, and I don't do this anymore, and I don't do that anymore, and I got baptized, and I joined the church, and I paid the tithe, and all that.
You know, if you're going to trust in your works to get you to heaven, you are not saved, and so that's death for you.
I mean, you're going to the second death, right? You're going to the lake of fire.
And so the reason why there's such a strict punishment here on the Sabbath is to send us a strong message that salvation is not by works.
Salvation is by rest, not by works, right?
We rest in the finished work of Christ.
We trust the work of Christ.
Now, again, that's a whole sermon of itself.
I've preached it many times, even recently.
Hebrews chapter 4 is the chapter to read on that.
Let's move on.
So he says, no work shall be done, et cetera.
Look at verse 4.
We enter a new phase in the chapter here.
It says, And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord, whosoever is of a willing heart, and let him bring it an offering of the Lord, gold and silver and brass.
So stop right there.
Basically, up to this point, we've had a lot of chapters that explain how the tabernacle is going to be built and the outfits that they're going to wear.
Well, obviously, there are a lot of building materials needed.
You know, if you're going to make 50 hooks over here and 50 rings and you're going to make these 11 curtains and, you know, all these different materials that go into the layers of the tabernacle, obviously, they have to get the gold from somewhere, the silver.
They have to get the linen, the purple, the blue, the scarlet.
They have to get all those materials.
So they're taking up in this chapter a free will offering.
Just whoever wants to pitch in, they would bring these things, and he begins to go through all the things.
You know, they could bring gold, silver, brass, verse six.
They could bring blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and goat's hair, and he basically goes through all the things that they could bring.
And then he explains how we're going to use these items that come in to make the things that God commanded.
And then he does like a review, starting in verse 11, of what they're going to build.
They're going to build the tabernacle, his tent and his covering, his tatches, his boards, his bars, his pillars, his sockets, the ark, the staves thereof, the mercy seat.
He goes into all the different things, you know, the table, the candlestick.
So this chapter 35, in many ways, just kind of provides a review or a rundown of everything that we've already been talking about up to this point of, hey, these are the materials we're going to need.
This is what we're going to build.
And the emphasis is on the fact that they're taking up this free will offering, where people are going to bring of these things so that they can build it.
But there's a phrase that jumps out throughout this chapter.
It's pretty hard to miss this phrase that comes up over and over again in this chapter.
And I want to point it out to you.
Look at verse number five.
It says, take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord.
And this is the phrase I want to point out.
Whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it.
Now jump down to verse number 21.
It says, and they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whom his spirit made willing.
And they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, et cetera.
Look at verse 22.
And they came both men and women as many as were willing hearted.
Jump down to verse number 26.
And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats here.
Verse 29.
The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.
So there's a huge emphasis.
You see something repeated over and over again like this?
It has significance.
It has meaning when God keeps bringing up the fact that they did this willingly.
And the thing that I really thought was interesting is the way it words it in verse 21.
And it kind of words it a little different each time.
But it says, they came everyone whose heart stirred him up and whom his spirit made willing.
So God's really clear here that this is coming from these people's desire to pitch in.
Right?
They're willing.
Over and over again.
They're willing.
But he specifically says that their heart stirred them up and their spirit made them willing.
Okay?
So think about this from our perspective.
You know, we're living in 2020.
We're living in the New Testament.
We're Christians.
We're part of the local church.
And we have the mission that God has given us to preach the gospel to every creature,
to baptize, to teach people to observe all things that Christ commanded.
And obviously there's work that needs to be done.
And there's a contribution that needs to be made.
You know, mainly of people's time and energy and works.
Obviously our church is doing a lot of work for God.
And it's a team effort where literally hundreds of people pitch in.
Even on a weekly basis, hundreds of people pitch in.
This is not a church where people come and just enjoy the show.
And that's what a lot of churches are.
Literally, you show up once a week on Sunday morning, you enjoy the show.
And I'll bet you a lot of people, when they walk out of those type of fun center type churches,
what I call them, on a Sunday morning and they enjoy the show,
I bet you they might even walk out and say, you know what?
My heart was stirred.
My spirit was moved. Right?
You'll hear people say things like that.
You know, maybe there's a lot of music or a really tear-jerking illustration
or some heartfelt sermon or maybe even just the Scripture.
I mean, the Scripture stirs up our hearts. Amen?
You know, our heart burns within us when we read the Scriptures.
And so I guarantee you there are a lot of people who are walking out of church
and they're having feelings of being stirred or moved.
And forget the fun centers.
How about even independent fundamental Baptist churches
where 80 to 90% of the people are showing up on Sunday morning and just enjoying the show?
It's a different kind of show.
But they're still not necessarily getting involved in the work.
You know, what we see here is we see people whose heart is stirred and their spirit is moved,
so then they do something.
They do something about it.
And again, this kind of goes back to verse 1 where he said,
look, I'm commanding you these words so that you can do them.
It almost seems redundant, but the idea here in this chapter is people being moved to action,
being stirred up to action, right?
And their heart is moved.
Now, if you are going to be someone who does great things for God,
you know, it's going to have to come from the heart.
You know, if you see people that are making sacrifices for the Lord,
you know, they're sacrificing their time, they're sacrificing their energy,
maybe they're sacrificing the best years of their life to serve God.
Or maybe they're taking vacation time and saying,
hey, I'm going to take that vacation time and use it for a mission strip.
You know, obviously something's going on in that person's heart
that has moved them to want to do that because none of that's required.
You know, this church is preaching the freest salvation ever.
I mean, we're preaching whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
And we're making it crystal clear week after week that you don't have to do any work to go to heaven.
Zero.
So we're preaching the freest salvation that you could ever imagine,
and yet we have so many people showing up who want to do the work.
You know, we have so many people signing up to go on the Apache trip,
it's almost like, all right, this trip's getting full, all right?
We've got to make another trip. We've got to do both Apache reservations that day
just because it's filling up because people want to pitch in.
People want to be a part of it.
Just our week in, week out soul winning times on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
People show up at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
People are showing up day after day to go soul winning.
Why? Because their heart is moved. Their heart is stirred.
And you know what? We need to have this pattern as a church where we hear God's word,
whether that's reading our Bible in our daily devotions
or whether that's coming to church and hearing preaching
or whether that's downloading a sermon and getting some extracurricular preaching
that we downloaded, sound Bible preaching off the internet.
And you know what? We need to hear that stuff, and it should result in us being moved.
We shouldn't just listen to it and be like, oh, ho, hum.
You know, it should get us fired up.
Right? We should get excited.
We should listen to preaching, and it motivates us.
And that's what I'm trying to do as a preacher, and I know that that's what other good preachers
throughout America, independent Baptists that are preaching the Word of God,
that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to get you fired up.
They're trying to get you stirred up. They're trying to get you motivated about something.
Right? We're trying to make the Word of God exciting
and so that you can understand the urgency of the mission and get fired up and say,
you know what? I can be a part of this. I have something to contribute.
You know, here in this chapter, obviously they're building a physical building.
So it's like, here, I've got this piece of silver. I've got this piece of gold.
I've got some blue cloth. I've got linen. I've got whatever.
Or I've got skills to twine the linen or whatever, to do the embroidery work.
We're not building a physical building. You know, we're building a spiritual building.
The Church is a spiritual house. God's workmanship. Okay?
And we are asked to contribute to that.
You know, we are asked to be a part of not bringing physical objects
so that we can build a physical structure,
but to be a part of the mission of preaching the Gospel to every creature,
to be a part of the mission of taking new converts and discipling them
and getting people baptized, getting people grounded in the Word of God
and teaching them to observe all things Christ commanded.
You know, God has a job for us to do. There's something for us to contribute.
You know, we may not have the gold and the silver and the brass,
but maybe we have the blue and the purple.
You know, maybe we've got some ram skins dyed red laying around. Right?
You know, everybody has something different to contribute,
but we all have something to contribute to the work of God.
So the pattern is we hear the Word of God. We hear the commandments.
We hear the preaching of Moses or the preaching of whoever our preacher is,
or we read the Bible ourselves in our devotions.
We get moved. We get stirred. We get fired up.
And then that shouldn't just result in a feeling. That should result in action.
And I remember back when I used to go to the more liberal churches
when I was growing up, especially as a teenager in my teenage years,
man, they'd preach some emotional sermons.
And, you know, the Word of God's powerful.
And so even in a liberal church, you know, you're hearing the Word of God
from time to time. You know, maybe not a lot, but you'll hear the Word of God
and you'll hear sometimes a powerful sermon or a powerful truth.
And, you know, I can't even count how many times I just got moved.
My spirit was stirred. Right?
What we see in the Bible here, what does it say in verse 21?
Everyone whose heart stirred him up. You know, times that my heart stirred me up.
And times when my spirit made me willing.
And so I'm sitting there in the pew, and it's like my spirit's making me willing,
my heart is stirring me up, and it's just like, what do I do?
And there was no answer to that question in the liberal church.
There was no answer to that question. You're just sitting there.
And they're just like getting you all fired up.
You know, maybe they'll preach some sermon about Jesus dying on the cross
and they're going blow by blow through the crucifixion.
And it's just your heart is so moved.
And you want to take up the cross and follow Jesus.
You know, what do I do?
There's no answer.
It's like you go home, you go about your week.
Because why? Because there's no soul winning.
There's no life in the church. You know, nobody's being baptized.
You know, lives aren't being changed.
It was just like you go to church, you hear the sermon,
and you go away and you don't really do anything with it.
You know, what we need to do is have a clear directive.
You know, what's Moses saying here?
He's saying, look, here's exactly what we need.
We need gold, silver, brass.
We need ram skins that are dyed red, all right?
We need fine linen.
We need oil for the light.
We need spices for the anointing oil.
So notice he's giving a clear directive of like, here's what we need.
Here's what you do.
What a waste of stirred up motivated people
when they're not told what to do.
I mean, what if they heard all this preaching, they hear all these commandments,
and they're like just, they're willing, they're ready to go.
What do you need, Moses?
And he's just like, just love God.
Just serve him.
Keep God number one.
See, the kind of preaching that we need is the kind of preaching that says,
hey, look, these are the sins the Bible describes.
Get these sins out of your life.
So that when your spirit's moved, you're stirred up, you're fired up,
you're like, okay, here's an action I need to take.
I need to get this sin out of my life.
I'm going to fix this.
I'm going to change this.
We need that kind of specific preaching that's like a list here.
This is like a list, isn't it, of things that are needed to be contributed by God's people.
So our preaching should be giving people a list like, okay, don't do this sin.
Don't do that sin.
Don't do that.
And then here's the things that you should do.
Read your Bible every day.
You need to be praying.
You know, hey, show up to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
Show up for soul winning.
And look, maybe some people might feel like we push soul winning too hard at our church.
But we just believe that soul winning's for everybody.
That's what we believe.
We believe that it's something that everyone should be involved in, every single person.
That's what we believe.
So we believe.
And you say, well, it's just not my gift.
Be a silent partner.
No gift required.
Be a silent partner.
Like, you know, you just show up and be a silent partner.
Just tag along.
And that's a huge help to our soul winning program, you know.
So we just believe that every man, woman, boy, and girl can be used to win souls to Christ.
I've seen little children win souls.
I've seen a little girl win souls.
I've seen a little boy win souls.
I've seen a person with Down syndrome win souls, okay.
I mean, this is something that everyone can be involved in, okay.
So that's why the reason that we make a big deal about it and talk a lot about it is because it's something that's just so easy for everybody to just jump in and just show up.
And here's the thing.
We're not giving you some menial job.
It's not like you show up and you're like, pastor, you know, I want to do something for the Lord.
And we're like, all right, here's a toilet brush, you know.
Clean our toilets.
Now, look, we need somebody to clean the toilets and we appreciate the people who do clean the toilets.
Praise the Lord for people that are humble and they want to clean toilets and do the things that need to be done.
But you know what?
Being given the job of soul winning is actually the coolest job.
You know, it's actually an amazing job.
So it's not like a bottom end job.
I mean, we're starting you out with a cool job.
And being a silent partner is a cool job, okay.
And so, you know, the good thing about our church is that it could never be said that we didn't give you something to do.
We didn't give you a chance to pitch in.
And obviously there are chances to pitch in and help clean the building and do other things like that.
But you know, the main thing that we want to do as a church is we want to win souls to Christ.
We want to evangelize.
I mean, there are people out there in a lost and dying world that need the gospel.
And so we're serious about getting it done.
And so we want everybody to pitch in.
And of course, our church has literally 90-some percent participation on these things.
And we're thankful for that.
So we see here that people's hearts stirred them up.
Their spirit makes them willing.
The Bible says, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life, okay.
Our heart being right is going to lead us to the right action, okay.
And so we need to make sure that we have the right things coming into our heart.
We have the preaching coming in.
We have the Bible reading coming in.
You know, if you're just watching TV all week, listening to the radio, reading worldly magazines,
you're not listening to preaching.
You're not reading your Bible.
You're not showing up to church but maybe three times a month.
Don't be surprised if your heart's not moved, if your spirit doesn't make you willing.
And then you're looking at other people saying like, man, I'm seeing other people.
They're so fired up about, you know, going soul winning.
And they're going to San Francisco to go soul winning.
And they're going to the Apache reservation to go soul winning.
And they're going to South Phoenix.
They're going to Chandler.
They're going to Scottsdale.
They're going all over the place doing this stuff.
You know, why don't I feel it?
Well, I guess that's just them.
I guess I'm just not like that.
I guess that's just not my personality.
I guess that's just them.
You know what?
You can change though.
You can get more fired up.
Get more scripture coming in.
Get more preaching coming in.
And you know what?
I'll bet you'll start getting a little more motivated to get out and do some stuff.
And obviously, look, I know different people's schedules are different.
People are at different phases of life.
But you know what?
Everybody can get involved.
And here's the thing about this.
It's a free will thing.
I love this chapter and many chapters like it in Exodus and in the law where it talks about the free will
and people doing things because they want to.
Because the Bible says God loves a cheerful giver.
So it's not that we want to force you to do anything.
We're just trying to get you excited, get you motivated, and let you know that this is what God has
commanded us to do as a church.
This is the mission.
This is what we're trying to accomplish.
But you know, God doesn't force us to do anything.
And I believe that if you just show up at least one time per week, even just going out and
sowing just for one hour a week, you know, you do that every week.
You're doing a lot.
You know, it adds up over the course of a year, over the course of a decade.
I mean, think about it.
Do the math.
You know, you do that for a decade.
You're out, you know, 52 hours a year for a decade.
You know, you're out, you know, 500 some hours.
I mean, you're going to do a lot in that amount of time.
Okay.
But you know what?
There are some people who do more than that.
You know, they come out sowing multiple times per week.
And then maybe they build in the free will trip, you know, where they say, hey, we're
going to go to that res trip.
We're going to go on that missions trip.
We're going to fly to this country or drive to this place or go down to Mexico or hey,
I'm going to learn Spanish and do that.
You know, God loves a cheerful giver.
Okay.
And God likes people who want to work for him.
And that's part of why, and there are many reasons why, but that's part of the reason
why salvation is free.
You know, God wants us to love him because we want to.
He wants us to get the sin out of our life because we want to.
He wants us to come to church because we want to, not just because I'm scared I'm going
to go to hell if I don't do these things.
And think about this.
You know, God, when he made the garden of Eden, he put the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil.
Why did he do that?
Because he wants people to make a choice and he wants people to choose to love him.
And he didn't want to just create robots who just do exactly what they're programmed
to do and exactly what they're told to do.
You know, we as human beings, we have free will and we can either choose to be willing
and serve God and give unto the Lord's work and contribute and volunteer and be a part
of the team, or we could choose to do nothing, you know, and just live our lives, just do
the worldly stuff and just kind of just phone it in.
Come to church three times a month, do the minimum, check it off.
But you know what?
God is glorified when we, just out of the goodness of our heart, just volunteer, just
show up and just do stuff for him, you know, and just say, hey, I'm going to do extra.
I'm going to go the second mile.
I'm going to go above and beyond.
And that's what's beautiful about this chapter is people are doing it.
Why?
Why are they giving all this stuff?
Why are they giving up these precious items?
It's because they want to.
And why do they want to?
Because their spirit is moving them.
You know, their heart has made them willing.
They're fired up.
They're excited.
They're motivated.
You know, I hope that's what preaching does for you.
And I hope that's what reading the Bible does for you.
It gets you fired up about living the Christian life, gets you excited about it.
And we try hard to keep things exciting around here as much as we can.
But at the end of the day, you know, it's really the Holy Spirit and the word of God
and the power of God that's really going to move you on the inside and get you motivated
to do great exploits for him in these last days.
And so, you know, I'm thankful for our church because I think that our church is exemplary
in this area.
And especially I love how when you continue reading this in the next chapter and everything,
they have to tell the people to stop bringing stuff because it's too much stuff.
Totally the opposite of a lot of ministries these days that are always asking for money
and begging for money.
Do you think Kenneth Copeland is ever going to tell you to stop sending money?
No.
You know, the televangelist was like, all right, folks, we're going to have to shut this down.
You know, I already bought every possible personal aircraft, you know.
I don't know what else.
My suit is full of Armanis.
I don't know what to do with this.
You think Joel Osteen is going to tell you to stop giving money?
You know, this work had enough material coming in and instead of Moses and Aaron just saying,
well, hey, you know, maybe we can spice up our tent a little bit with some of these badger skins.
You know what I mean?
Hey, maybe I can get some ram skin dyed red in my living room or whatever.
You know, I'm going to take some of the gold.
You know, instead they have the integrity to say, hey, we got enough here.
Stop.
Stop bringing it.
It's too much, okay.
But that just shows you the abundance.
When people love the Lord and they have a willing heart and their heart stirs them up
and their spirit makes them willing, the abundance is there.
You know, there is not a shortage of manpower in this world to get the work of the Lord done.
If every Christian would contribute, it would get done so fast.
I mean, like in this chapter, it's like everybody pitches in.
It's just like, whoa, that's enough.
We got everything we need done, built, finished.
I mean, think about it.
Just in the United States alone, there are 50 million people who claim to be Baptist in the United States.
Now, obviously not all of them are saved.
There are a lot of Baptists that aren't saved and there are a lot of people who are saved that aren't Baptists.
But the point is, 50 million Baptists, I'm sure a lot of them are saved.
A great percentage of them are saved.
A huge portion of them are saved.
Okay, hey, if they all went soul winning for like one day, one soul winning marathon,
the whole nation would be evangelized in like one afternoon.
Think about it.
It's not that there's not enough badger skins.
It's not that there's not enough linen.
It's not that there's not enough silver and brat.
You know what it is?
It's that God's people just aren't willing.
Their heart isn't making them willing.
Their spirit has not moved them to get involved and to participate in the work of the Lord.
That's the issue.
It's not that there isn't enough talent, you know, to have a pastor in every city that's a fire breathing preacher,
that's leading a red hot soul winning church.
But you know what?
We have a huge shortage of qualified pastors in this country that we could send out to start churches.
You know, I mean, every single week people are begging us,
can you send somebody to start a church here?
Can you send somebody here?
Just this week somebody came to me and said, you got to start a church in El Paso.
You know, I mean, people are asking us about just cities across America every single week after week after week.
And then there are churches that are already existing churches that are good churches that don't have a pastor, that need a pastor.
The pulpit is vacant and they just have people filling in.
Tons of churches like that.
And then you have tons of churches across America where the pastor is very old and he's about to retire
and they don't know who's going to step in.
They don't know who's going to fill that pulpit.
Folks, there are just so many opportunities for a man to step up and be a pastor in that area where it's desperately needed.
The leadership is desperately needed.
What's the issue?
Did God just not dole out enough speaking ability?
Did God just not dole out enough, you know, ability to lead?
Or are there just a lot of people who have the ability that basically are just living for the world and they're not interested in doing anything for God?
I guarantee you that we have everything that we need to do the work and more.
We just need to be willing to give what we have, you know, and to participate.
Because it's not that there isn't enough material to go around.
It's just that the hearts need to be willing, you know.
And again, our church is good in this area because of the fact that, you know, we have almost universal participation at our church in the program of the church.
There are very few spectators at our church.
You know, 97% of the people are participants and I praise God for that.
We're the kind of church where it's like, all right, we got enough, back off, you know, which is a blessing.
Because, you know, we've, and even financially, you know, our church now has been around for over 14 years.
We've never had a fundraiser one time.
We've never had like a building fund, you know, a big missions fundraiser.
Hey, we got to raise money, folks.
Hey, everybody, dig deep.
Full paycheck Sunday.
You know, we got to get you to give extra.
We've never done it.
And I'm not saying that churches that have done it are bad or that they're wrong.
I'm just saying we've never done it and we're not going to do it.
We don't raise money here.
We never even have any fundraisers or anything like that.
And guess what?
We always have enough money.
And we've never borrowed any money in the history of our church.
We have no debt.
We've never borrowed any money.
We don't have credit cards.
We don't have loans or anything like that.
We've operated in the black.
We've always been able to pay our bills.
We've never run out of money and said like, oh, we can't pay the bills.
We've had abundance.
Okay.
Why have we had abundance?
Is it because we're constantly begging for money?
Nope, because that literally never happens.
We've never one time in 15 years gotten up and said, hey, everybody, we're a little short on money.
You know, we need you to dig deeper.
We're doing the budget this month.
Never has happened.
It's because the people who go to our church love God and are willing.
They have a willingness to keep the commandments of God, to follow the commandments of God, to get involved in the work of God.
And you know what?
If you have a group of people that are willing, the sky's the limit what you can accomplish.
Because little is much when God's in it.
You know, God can take five loaves and two fishes and feed 5,000 people.
He doesn't need an abundance that we don't have.
All he needs is just for us to take what we have and say, you know what?
Here am I.
Send me.
Here's what I have to contribute.
Let me contribute it.
And you know what?
If everybody pitches in, then you know what?
Everybody only has to pitch in a little bit and it gets done.
I mean, can you imagine if it was just our staff only?
And we said, hey, we're going to knock every door on every Indian reservation.
We would literally not be able to even do that in our lifetime, I don't think.
Literally.
I mean, we could be working at it for the next like 30 to 40 years and wouldn't finish it.
But when a hundred people show up, I mean, the doors get knocked like you wouldn't believe.
We had that one big trip to the Navajo reservation a few years ago where we went to the real Grand Canyon.
And I think we had like 150 people show up.
We knocked a lot of doors.
I mean, when you have 150 people out zoning up on the rez, I mean, we're just like we're just like come through there like a swarm of of locusts, you know, and just just consuming the doors.
And the map is just getting shaded in.
It's just like you were just like running out of stuff to do.
It's like, all right.
All right, let's help them get done.
Oh, they're done.
All right.
They're done.
Oh, we got the whole town done.
Well, let's go to the next town.
That's fun.
It's fun watching that map turn orange.
You know, it's it's fun seeing huge amounts of work getting done for the Lord.
That's a lot more fun than just four guys in it.
You know, a church of 400 people and you got four guys out.
So when you're 10 guys out, so winning, you know.
Yeah, that's going to be exciting.
It's going to be fun.
It's a lot more fun when you have 200 people out.
And you're just and it's just like, all right, let's count up the salvation.
There's tons of salvation and tons of visitors and and people are being saved, people being baptized.
I mean, it's it's it's it's exciting when people get involved.
And again, we're not we don't we don't try to push anyone to do a lot.
We just want you to do.
A little.
You know, we're just saying, hey, get out so winning every week for like an hour.
That's what we're saying.
You know what I mean? That's what we've been promoting for the last 15 years.
Come out so winning for an hour or if you can do more, come out for two, three hours.
And that's what people do.
They come out on Sunday for two, three hours or they show up here for an hour or whatever.
And you know what? We're not up here saying, hey, put in the whole paycheck and you can't outgive God and put your hand on the screen.
You know, all we're just telling people to do is just pay the tithe.
You know, it's just pay the tithe. That's it. Because you know what?
If everybody in the church pays their tithe, there's no need for special offerings.
There's no need for big fundraisers and thermometers and stuff.
And you know what? There are always going to be those people that God's heart makes willing where they'll give that extra donation.
You know, the people that'll write a check for $10,000 or $50,000 or $75,000.
You know, people do that not because anybody's asking them to but because their heart makes them willing because you know what?
They have an abundance and they see that we're doing a good work for the Lord and they want to be involved so they pitch in.
You know, they see the soul winning going on. They want to get involved. They jump in.
So I don't want, and look, we don't, at our church, we don't push like an extreme Christian lifestyle here.
Anybody who knows me and has been around our church for a long time, we don't push people to extremes.
Because I don't believe in living a life of extremes, like extreme asceticism.
Although, you know, we practiced a few austerities over the last couple days.
But the point is, you know, I don't believe in a life of asceticism.
I believe in living a middle type life.
You know, where the author of Proverbs says, you know, give me neither poverty nor riches.
Feed me with food convenient for me, right?
And I don't believe that we should just, you know, live in a monastery and just get up and, you know, we're going to read the Bible for three hours.
Then we're going to pray for three hours.
Then we're going to just smite our breasts for an hour and think about how wretched we are.
And then we're going to go out soul winning for five hours and everything.
You know, I'm not talking about those extremes.
You know, I believe in living a balanced life.
You know, I believe in marriage and children and having your family.
And I believe in, you know, working at your secular job and succeeding in that area.
And just, you know, balancing these things, right?
Taking care of your body physically, taking care of your job, taking care of your family.
But you know what? Jesus Christ needs to have the preeminence in our lives though.
Even though we're doing all these other things and God wants us to do those other things.
He wants us to go to work.
He wants us to have a family.
He wants us to raise our children.
He wants us to go to work and work hard.
He talks a lot about that, okay?
He wants us to have friends.
He wants us to have fellowship.
He wants us to sit and eat and drink and enjoy the good things that he gives us.
But you know what we need to do though?
We need to give him the first fruits.
And we need to set aside the first day of the week to come to church on Sunday.
And then we need to take some time out every week and preach the gospel to someone else.
Because you know what?
It's great that we're going to heaven, but what about everybody else?
They're going to hell and we need to get them the gospel.
So we need to take a little time and carve out some time and make it a priority to carve out some time to tell someone else about Jesus.
And the easiest way to do that, the most effective way to do that is to show up at an organized soul winning time,
pair up with a partner and just go out there for an hour and knock some doors.
That's the easy way to do it.
And it's kind of just our reasonable service.
It just makes sense if God is daily loading us with benefits.
That's what the Bible says.
He daily loaded us with benefits.
He saved our soul.
He gives us all these good things.
Doesn't it just make sense that we could spend a little time reading our Bible, spend a little bit of time in prayer,
spend a little bit of time each week giving the gospel and show up at the church house and worship the Lord
and hear preaching and fellowship.
You know what, there's still many hours in the week to do all the other things that we do, that we need to do,
that everybody does and there's nothing wrong with doing normal things.
So I'm not up here saying, you need to be out soul winning every single day, seven days a week.
You need to be praying for an hour every day.
You need to read your Bible for an hour.
You know, I'm not loading on you these heavy burdens that the Bible doesn't load on you.
Did you know that the Bible doesn't tell you how much to read your Bible each day?
It tells you to read it every day, but it doesn't tell you how much.
It doesn't tell you how many minutes to spend praying.
It doesn't tell you how many hours to spend out soul winning, does it?
Does it mention any of those numbers?
It doesn't tell you how many services you have to attend.
It doesn't tell you those things and I'll tell you why.
It's because God wants you to do those things not just out of a necessity, but because you want to.
He wants you to like reading your Bible.
And obviously there's a minimum of, yeah, you need to read your Bible.
You need to pray.
You need to go to church.
You need to give the gospel.
But you know what?
He wants you to desire to do these things.
And like I said, obviously we need to live a balanced life and there are some people who get over the top on these things
and then they could burn out because they're just overboard.
They're taking good things and taking them too far.
But God wants us to have that stirring in our heart that makes us willing and then will contribute.
And then the work's going to get done and God's work goes forward.
And you know what?
Our church, and again, I'm not, this is nothing of a scolding of our church.
This is more of a pat on the back to our church.
We just need to keep doing what we're doing.
Amen?
But if you're one of the few people in our church that doesn't really get involved or doesn't really do anything,
you know, I just want to just encourage you to get on board.
And I hope you're already stirred.
I hope your heart is already moved.
But if it's not, you know what?
You need to listen to more preaching or read your Bible more until you feel something.
You know what I mean?
Because, you know, when I hear preaching, when I read my Bible, I get excited.
And if you're not getting excited when you read your Bible, maybe you need to read a little more.
Or maybe, I don't know, maybe you're in the wrong book of the Bible or something.
You know, maybe you've been stuck in, you know, Nehemiah too long or something.
But, you know, even that should get you fired up.
But honestly, if you're not fired up, get fired up.
And if you are fired up, well then take that fire-up-edness and point it towards some actual work.
Don't be like the guy in the liberal church like, yes, yes, I'll do anything.
And then you're just like, I don't know what to do.
All right, go to work the next day and forget about it.
That's life in a liberal church, I know, because I've been there.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the Holy Spirit, Lord.
And Lord, I just pray that you would just motivate people.
Lord, I pray that in their daily life when they just, you know, drive around and go to work and go places,
I pray that when they would see lost people, they would actually love and have compassion for the lost people that they see.
I pray that they would see those people and love them and want them to be saved.
Because I know that if they have that feeling enough, then they're probably going to show up and go soul-winding eventually,
because they'll want to do something about that feeling.
And Lord, I just pray that as we read the Bible and we read about the exploits of men like Moses and Joshua
and New Testament characters like John and Paul and Peter, Lord, I pray that when we would read those stories,
we would get moved and excited and want to be like them and want to do those same works, Lord.
Please just speak to every heart and help us all to stay willing and keep our hearts and spirits moved,
to be willing to do the work that you have laid out for us, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.