your seats and we'll begin with our congregational singing this evening let's go to him number 296
to start in your hymnals number 296 follow on number 296
once you find your place we'll start together on that first verse down in the valley with
my savior i would go number 296 let's sing it out together on that first verse number 296
down in the valley with my savior i would go where the flowers are blooming and the sweet
waters flow everywhere he leads me i would follow follow on walking in this foot steps down the
ground me one follow follow i would follow jesus anywhere everywhere i would follow on
everywhere he leads me i would follow on down in the valley with my savior i would go
where the storms are sleeping and the dark waters flow with this and to lead me i will never never
fear danger cannot find me if my lord is near follow follow i would follow jesus anywhere
everywhere i would follow on
everywhere he leads me i would follow
down down in the valley or among the mountain sea close to your side my savior with my soul
ever he will lead me safely in the path that he has drawn up to where they gather on the hills of god
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus, anywhere, everywhere I will follow on.
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus, everywhere he leads me I will follow on.
Amen.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this chance to gather together in your house.
Please let your blessing and your spirit be upon us.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen, number 198.
198, joy unspeakable, number 198.
I have found his graces, all come clean, number 198.
Let's sing it out on this first verse all together.
I have found his graces, all come clean, he supplyeth everything.
While I sit and learn at Jesus' feet, I am free and free indeed.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that Adam has never yet been told.
I have found the pleasure I once drank, this joy at peace with him.
What a wondrous blessing I am safe from the awful gulf of sin.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that Adam has never yet been told.
I have found that hope so bright and clear, living in the realm of grace.
Oh, the Savior's presence is so near, I can see his smiling face.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that Adam has never yet been told.
I have found the joy no tongue can tell, how it's made the glory roll.
It is like a great or flowing cloud, raining out within my soul.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that Adam has never yet been told.
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6, Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week will be in Ezekiel chapter 29.
We've got the so many times listed there below, as well as salvation and baptisms.
And then congratulations to the Martin family on the birth of baby Sebastian Hosea,
born Wednesday, February 23rd, and also the Cooper family on the birth of baby Sarah Rose,
born on February 24th.
Be sure to congratulate both of them.
We've got the music emphasis night coming up this Thursday at 7 p.m.
And you can sign up and see brother Daniel Hernandez if you need more details on that.
On the back, home school field trip is also this Thursday at noon.
Be sure to be there promptly by 1145 at the very latest or you will not be admitted as part of the group.
Read all the rest of the indications there.
And then below that, there's a movie night in Tucson this Friday at 7 o'clock.
Sign up if you're planning on attending.
And then join us next Sunday for the donuts and coffee before the service starting at 10 a.m.
Mexico Monday is not this Monday but next Monday.
Soul winning marathon in San Diego, California is March 12th.
Brother Daniel Reiter is going to be hosting a bunch of soul winning marathons in a bunch of different countries all over the place.
And San Diego is the first of those.
And we're trying to get some new people out soul winning.
We're going to go to some different cities and try to get some locals to get out and do some soul winning.
Some of the people are just kind of at home listening to preaching.
Or maybe they go to a local church but their church doesn't have a soul winning program.
And look, I have friends and people that I talk to that go to a doctrinally sound independent fundamental Baptist church somewhere across America.
But they just don't have a soul winning program.
That's a lot of people's situation right now.
A lot of fundamental Baptist churches are getting away from soul winning.
Here in Arizona tons of the good independent fundamental soul winning Baptist churches are going to once a month soul winning, twice a month soul winning, and then it just becomes a door hanger, an invite to church time.
Not a bona fide soul winning.
I'm telling you that is just their way of slowly phasing it out is what they're doing.
Okay.
And so we don't want to phase it out.
We want to do more.
All right.
Soul winning will never become obsolete.
It cannot ever become obsolete.
I mean, how in the world could it ever be obsolete to walk up to someone, open your Bible, and show them how to be saved?
How do you ever replace that?
What could you possibly replace that with?
Nothing.
But the reason that people are getting away from it is because it's not as effective as it used to be at getting people to come to church.
But my goal when I go out soul winning is not to get people to come to church.
My goal when I go out soul winning is to get somebody saved and it will always be effective at getting someone saved.
Now as our country becomes more de-Christianized and more negative toward the things of God, you're going to get less bang for your buck when you go out soul winning.
So if you go out soul winning for an hour or two hours or three hours, maybe you're going to get less people saved than you did ten years ago or twenty years ago.
You're going to get less out of it.
But let me explain something to you.
That means that you will also get less out of any other evangelism method that you do.
Because that's just life.
If you're in a place that's less receptive, you're not going to get as many people saved.
But still, in a given place, the most people are going to get saved through a one-on-one conversation.
Because that's just a timeless truth about human nature that more people get saved from someone walking up to them and giving them the gospel than they do searching for something online
or, you know, attending a public church service or something like that.
It's just a lot easier for people to grasp the gospel when someone's explaining it to them one-on-one and dialoguing with them and working with them.
So soul winning will never be obsolete.
Soul winning is effective at getting people saved.
Whether it's effective at getting people in church or not, that isn't the point.
You know, in the 1960s, it used to be that churches that would go out and knock doors, man, they would get tons of visitors.
Why? Because it was a different world in the 60s than it is now.
Let me tell you something. I went to Botswana and we started a church there.
And the church lasted for one Sunday before we were all deported and thrown out of the country.
But for that one Sunday, it was a great church for a minute there, okay?
But we had, you know, we had church building and the chairs and everything set up.
But here's what's funny about that.
We went soul winning on Sunday afternoon and we won people to Christ that afternoon.
And a whole bunch of them came to church for the evening service.
Guess what? That rarely happens here in Tempe.
It's not like every single Sunday we go out soul winning in the afternoon and then, you know, every soul winner is bringing a visitor.
Otherwise, our Sunday night services would be super packed, wouldn't they?
So that's a little difference between soul winning in Botswana versus soul winning in the United States.
Well, guess what? There's a little difference between soul winning in 2022 United States,
de-Christianized United States versus in the 1960s.
It was a different culture, different style, and it's just the way life is.
So that's why churches were big on soul winning in the 60s and then now some of them are getting away from it
because they're not getting those visitors.
But we need to understand that it's about getting people saved.
That's the goal.
We're not using soul winning to build the church.
We're building the church to use it for soul winning, right?
Soul winning is the end goal. The church is the tool.
These people are looking at it as soul winning is the tool to build the church.
Well, they're going to get frustrated and quit because, let's face it,
it's not as effective as it used to be at getting people to show up
because it's just the world that we live in.
It's just our culture is not as much of a church going culture
and, you know, people are more negative toward the things of God
and people are more awkward about coming to churches where they don't know anyone
because they're so plugged in to social media and everything.
They've become awkward at meeting people in real life.
You know, I guess we have to text them for a while
and warm them up before they can come to church or something.
You know, that's just the world that we live in.
So, you know, it might become obsolete as a way to build your church
but I'm relying on Christ to build our church
and I'm not worried about building a church.
I'm just worried about winning people to the Lord.
It's all the matter.
And even if they never come to church, they're still going to heaven
because last time I checked, you don't have to go to church to go to heaven.
You don't have to believe on Jesus.
All right, let's pray and go home.
That was the sermon.
All right, that's about it for announcements.
And let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Actually, we need to count up, speaking of soul winning,
speaking of how effective soul winning is,
let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days.
So going back to Thursday, anything from Thursday.
Okay.
Wait, you mean soul winning worked on Thursday?
What about Friday?
Oh, see, it doesn't work.
All right, how about Saturday?
Anything from Saturday?
It worked!
All right.
Anything else from Saturday?
And then what about today?
Eight for the main group with brother Scott.
Okay, anything outside the main group?
Gotcha.
Anything else from today?
Is that a two I see back there?
All right.
Anything else from today?
Very good, keep up the great work on soul winning.
Is that another two?
You sneaking that in there?
All right.
Yup, it still works.
Amazing.
I'm shocked.
All right, come lead us to the next song.
All right, turn your song books to number 129.
Rock of Ages, number 129.
Let's sing it out on that first verse.
Hymn number 129.
Rock of ages, platforming.
Left behind, myself in need.
Let the water and the blood,
From thy wounded side which flowed,
Be a sinner, double cured.
Save from wrath and make me pure.
Could my tears forever flow?
Could my zeal, the lager know,
These forsaken not atone?
Thou must save and thou alone,
In my hand, all price I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling,
While I draw this fleeting breath.
When my eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold, beyond thy throne,
Rock of ages, platforming.
Let me hide, myself in need.
Amen, let's go up to hymn number 227.
Now that you're warmed up, let's sing number 227,
Save by the Blood, number 227.
Let's really sing it out on that first verse together.
Number 227, Save by the Blood of the Crucified One.
Sing it out.
Save by the blood of the crucified one,
Now ransom from sin and a new work begun.
Sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son.
Save by the blood of the crucified one.
Save, save.
My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone.
Save, save.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.
The angels rejoicing because it is done.
A child of the Father joined there with the Son.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.
Save, save.
My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone.
Save, save.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.
The Father he spake and his will it was done.
Great rise to my part and his own precious Son.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.
Save, save.
My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone.
Save, save.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.
All hail to the Father, all hail to the Son.
All hail to the Spirit, the Great Three in one.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.
Save, save.
My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone.
Save, save.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one.
Amen, good singing.
All right, this time we'll pass the offering plates around.
And as the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 14.
Isaiah chapter number 14, as we always do.
We will read the whole chapter, beginning in verse number one.
Follow along silently with brother Nick as he reads.
Isaiah chapter 14, beginning in verse number one.
For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel,
and set them in their own land, and the stranger shall be joined with them,
and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
And the people shall take them and bring them to their place,
and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord
for servants and handmaids, and they shall take them captives,
whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors.
And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest
from thy sorrow and from thy fear and from the hard bondage
wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb
against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased,
the golden city ceased? The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked
and the scepter of the rulers.
He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet, they break forth from the singing.
Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon saying,
Since thou art laid down, no feller has come up against us.
Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming.
It stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth.
It hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we?
Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave,
and the noise of thy vials. The worm is spread under thee,
and the worms cover thee.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?
How art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations?
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven.
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee,
saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble,
that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness
and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of his prisoners?
All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory,
everyone in his own house.
But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch,
and as the raiment of those that are slain.
Thrust through with a sword that go down to the stones of the pit,
as a carcass trodden under feet, thou shalt not be joined with them in burial,
because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people.
The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
Prepare slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers,
that they do not rise nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities,
for I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of Hosts,
and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and son and nephew, saith the Lord.
I will also make it a possession for the bittern and pools of water,
and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts.
The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, saying,
Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,
that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him underfoot.
Then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?
And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
In the year that King Ahaz died was this burden.
Rejoice not, thou whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken,
for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice,
and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety,
and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
How, O Lo-gate, cry, O city, thou whole Palestina art dissolved,
for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation,
that the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it?
Dear Father in Heaven, please fill the pastor's spirit to teach us and give us wisdom,
and please guide us this night we pray, and we thank you for this day we pray.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Man, tonight I want to finish my sermon from this morning.
I only got through about half of what I wanted to preach this morning about Ezekiel chapter 28.
So if you would turn back to Ezekiel chapter number 28,
and we're going to pick up a little bit where we left off on this chapter.
Again, this is such a key chapter in Ezekiel.
I think it's really important, and so I didn't want to just blow past it,
and I want to do justice to it and spend a little more time on it tonight,
because the Bible tells in the New Testament that our adversary the devil
walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
And the Bible says we are not ignorant of his devices.
Well, the only way that we're not ignorant of his devices
is that we have the Word of God to tell us about his devices.
This is how we know what he's up to, what his approach is.
We want to be warned about our adversary the devil,
and Ezekiel chapter 28 is really an insightful passage about Satan.
It's not like the Bible just spends a ton of time talking about Satan.
So when we get this kind of detail, it's really a blessing to have this chapter
and be able to look at it and learn about this a little bit when it comes to who Satan is.
We saw this morning, I'm not going to review this morning's sermon
because I'd rather just get into the new material,
but Satan was this covering cherub, he was perfect in the day he was created
until iniquity was found in him.
And one of the things we talked about was the fact that his pipes
and his tabrets in him, if you look at the end of verse 13,
if you're there in Ezekiel 28 verse 13,
the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in the day that thou was created.
You see, the way that the devil appeals unto us is through the lust of the flesh.
He and his minions allure through the lust of the flesh, the Bible says.
And so the book of 1 John warns us about all that is in the world,
you know, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
And these are the things of this world that are there to allure us and entice us.
And we know that the devil is even called the god of this world.
And so he is the one who would use the lures of the flesh to get us on his program.
And so one of the ways that he's going to do that is through beautiful music.
One of the ways he's going to do that is through his beautiful appearance.
So he appeals through the eyes, he appeals through the ears,
and then of course he appeals through pride, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
He's a king over all the children of pride.
He wants to get you chasing after money,
valuing people based on how much money they have or how much money they make,
and looking at a church and deciding the value of that church based on the music.
You know, the beautiful quality of the music or the stained glass windows
or the choirs or these kind of carnal things that are not really the emphasis of our Christian lives.
You know, when we go to church, it's not just about having a religious experience,
smelling the incense and looking at the stained glass, listening to the beautiful music,
looking at the beautiful cathedral and the artwork.
You know, the Roman Catholic Church for years has used those things to create an image of godliness.
You know, you walk in and you've got the smell and the sight and the sound.
And so many people who were not saved, who convert from evangelicalism to Catholicism,
because let me just be real clear, anybody who leaves evangelicalism and goes to Roman Catholicism
was never saved in the first place, period.
They went out from us because they were not of us,
for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us,
but they went out that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us.
They were already not of us, just when they went out, that's when it became manifest.
That's when it became clear to us or apparent or obvious.
They were not all of us, but they went out so that that would become obvious that they were not all of us, okay.
But when people go from being an evangelical, from being an unsaved fake evangelical Christian, I should say,
an unsaved fake Baptist or whatever, and then they go to the Roman Catholic Church,
and this is what they'll say, oh, you know, I just walked in and I just felt, I just felt the godliness,
I just felt, you know, it's just like, oh man, it was just so great.
Of course, it's great, but you know, you can get that same feeling at any kind of a symphony orchestra
or art gallery or rock concert or any number of other places where you could go and just have your eyes
or your ears or your nose or your taste buds impressed by the flesh, by the things of this world.
And the devil, he knows that human beings will fall for this, and so he uses these things in order to corrupt religion.
Now, let's go down and see that more clearly. The Bible says in verse number 17,
thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, watch, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.
I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee.
And here's the thing I want to emphasize, beginning in verse 18, thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries.
Now, the thing I want to point out here is that the word sanctuaries literally means holy places, okay?
In the Bible, the term sanctuary and holy place are used interchangeably.
In the New Testament, it's called the sanctuary and the Old Testament is called the holy place.
That's what sanctuary means. Think about our word saint, sanctuary, right?
If something is sacrosanct or sanctification, right?
So a sanctuary is a holy place. So, according to the Bible here, the devil has his holy places, doesn't he?
He has his sanctuaries and he has corrupted and defiled those sanctuaries.
Now, keep your finger here in Ezekiel 28 and go if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter number 11.
2 Corinthians chapter number 11. So, in Ezekiel 28, we saw the devil's outward visual beauty discussed
and then also his beautiful sound of his music, his pipes and his tablets.
He's got his own sanctuaries, his holy places.
And look at the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter number 11, verse number 13,
2 Corinthians 11, 13, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ
and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness
whose end shall be according to their works.
So the Bible talks about how the devil's got his own fake ministers who pose as the ministers of righteousness
but they are the ministers of Satan.
Okay, they're of the devil, they're demonic, they're the ministers of Satan.
He's got his fake holy places. He's got his fake ministers.
He uses music and beautiful imagery in order to suck you in, maybe even beautiful smells and things like that.
But back up in the same chapter and look at verse 3.
But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom you've not preached,
or if ye receive another spirit which you've not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted,
you might well bear with him and that's what I'm nervous about.
You know, you might go along with it. You might get sucked in. You might be tricked.
And so there is another Jesus out there in the devil's sanctuary with the devil's minister
talking about another Jesus doling out another Holy Spirit.
There is a complete fraud out there, a complete counterfeit of the things of God and that's what the devil does.
He's got his corrupt sanctuary that is a counterfeit for the real thing.
That's what the devil is doing.
And so just because it has Jesus in the name doesn't mean that it's actually of Jesus.
A lot of people say, well, they're preaching about Jesus.
Hold on a second. Just because you say the word Jesus, it doesn't mean you're talking about the Jesus of the Bible
because there's another Jesus. There's another Jesus.
So just because someone says God or Jesus or Christ, it's not necessarily the biblical Jesus.
The biblical Jesus is the Son of God. The biblical Jesus is deity.
The biblical Jesus is the Savior of the world. He's the only way to heaven. He's the Creator.
He saves us by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast.
That's the gospel. But there's another gospel that Satan's minister will teach about another Jesus in another sanctuary and so forth.
So we need to be careful that we don't just assume that everything that's called Jesus is Jesus, okay?
And by the way, while we're on the subject, everything that's called Israel is in Israel.
You know, how have evangelical Christians been sucked in to supporting the nation of Israel?
Well, that's easy because you just name it Israel, right?
I mean, you put a country in that spot and name it Israel and all of a sudden now we have to support it.
But in reality, that country is not Israel, okay?
That is a fake counterfeit fraud. It's not actually the Israel that you read about in the Bible.
I mean, think about it. I mean, we could just, I could just start a city and call it Babylon or just call it Jerusalem, right?
I could just start a city and just call it, you know, Ur of the Chaldees or something.
I mean, does that really mean that that's what it is just because you call it that? No.
And so that nation of Israel is another fake Israel just like you got another Jesus, another spirit.
And so don't be sucked in by these things just because they have the right name.
That doesn't mean that it's the right entity, okay?
And so we're being warned in 2 Corinthians 11 that Paul's nervous that people could get sucked in by stuff because it's in the name of Jesus.
But it's another Jesus, okay?
Now, back in Ezekiel chapter 28, if you're there, it says thou has defiled thy sanctuaries.
And again, I want to emphasize that sanctuaries means holy places, okay?
That's what he has.
By the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic, therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and so forth.
So notice that the devil's sanctuaries are defiled by the iniquity of his traffic.
Now, what does traffic mean?
This is not our modern word of traffic because obviously in Bible times they didn't get into traffic jams, okay?
Because they did not have cars and it wasn't the same world that we're living in right now.
So when the Bible says traffic, it's more like our modern word, human trafficking.
When we talk about human trafficking, we're talking about people buying and selling humans.
And when we talk about drug trafficking, what are we talking about?
Buying and selling of drugs.
So what we have here is the iniquity of his traffic or buying and selling defiling his sanctuaries.
Now remember, the big thing about the devil listed in this chapter was over and over again the merchandise, the merchandise, the merchandise.
That was what was brought up if you were here this morning and if you've been at Wednesday night the last few weeks, the merchandise was big with the devil.
Now, there's nothing wrong with merchandise in and of itself, nothing wrong with buying things and selling things.
The problem is twofold.
Here we see, A, the king of Tyre being puffed up by reason of his merchandise and traffic so he's filled with pride because his business is booming.
Nothing wrong with business but there is a problem with getting proud and puffed up and arrogant because business is booming.
But secondly, mixing traffic or merchandise with that which is holy is wickedness.
So we must keep the holy things separate from merchandise and trafficking.
We don't want to mix merchandise and spiritual things or the things of God.
Now go through to John chapter 2, John chapter 2 in the New Testament.
You see, there are many churches today that are turning God's house into a house of merchandise.
Through the iniquity of their trafficking, they have defiled God's sanctuaries.
They've taken the house of God which is supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations and they've made it into a den of thieves.
Now I've heard Baptist preachers my entire life twist scripture to try to justify selling things in church.
So most Baptist churches that I went to growing up, they'd always be selling something.
They'd have a little bookstore in the back, they'd be selling sermon tapes and sermon CDs.
They'd have different dinners on the grounds where they would sell plates of food.
They'd sell drinks, they'd have vending machines, snack machines.
And today the trendy liberal churches have got the little coffee shop with the barista and all that kind of stuff.
And my whole life I've heard them twist scripture to try and justify this practice of selling things in church.
But let me just come out and tell you, buying and selling in the church is a sin.
It is wrong and it's so funny how someone would say, oh why you make a big deal out of that?
You're splitting hairs, you're making a big deal out of nothing.
Well isn't that what made Jesus flip the tables?
Because Jesus was on this earth for about 33 years.
His ministry lasted about some three and a half years or so.
How many times did he flip the tables?
How many times did he chase anyone with a whip?
How many times did he dump out money?
What was it that made him so mad?
And I'll tell you what it was, it was the merchandise in the temple of the Lord that just ate him up.
That's the wording that the Bible uses.
Because when Jesus did it, the apostles had this scripture pop into their mind.
The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
And they're like, wow!
That's what that Bible verse was prophesying when Jesus would be eaten up
and just enraged to the point where he actually was flipping tables and cracking a whip and dumping money on the ground.
I mean, you never see Jesus like that anywhere else in scripture.
At least not on his earthly ministry.
Shouldn't that make us stop and take notice a little bit?
Now, the way that the scripture will be twisted is they'll say, well, you know, he told them,
my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of thieves.
And what he meant by that was that they were ripping people off.
And so basically they were cheating people.
So they were like weighing things wrong and like overcharging people.
They weren't giving people the correct change.
You know, it wasn't the fact that they were selling stuff.
It was the fact that they didn't give the correct change.
Folks, this is what I've heard in church after church.
Probably like every church I've ever been in growing up was just always teaching like,
yeah, they were cheating people and ripping them off.
You know that's not mentioned in the story at all.
This is what the story said.
The Bible said, you know, that, you know, the house of God is supposed to be a house of prayer.
You've made it a den of thieves.
They're just interpreting that as, oh, den of thieves.
It must have been that they're ripping people off and stealing stuff.
But here's the thing.
You've got to interpret scripture with scripture.
So let's look at a parallel passage in John chapter 2.
And I realize that this is two different cleansings of the temple.
Jesus did this a couple times apparently.
He got, he blew his top a couple times about this.
But that's not the point.
Because I guarantee you the same reason why he did it the first time is the same reason why he did it the second time.
Okay.
Because Jesus is Jesus and the same sin is involved.
But look at John chapter 2.
It says in verse 14, or let's start in verse 13.
The Jews passed over words at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting.
And when he had made a scourge, a scourge is a whip that's used to beat humans.
And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple.
Now the word drove, this is like a cattle drive.
This is like, yeah!
I mean, he chased them.
He scared them.
He cracked the whip.
I don't know, did he hit them?
I don't know, but I mean, whatever he did with that whip, they knew he was serious because they didn't, they didn't just stand there like, okay, what are you going to do with that whip?
Apparently they knew it was serious because they left.
You know, he's cracking that whip.
He made a whip.
He's out there making a homemade whip.
And then taking that whip in there and chasing them out of the temple and it says he drove them all out of the temple and, and the sheep and the oxen.
So he's doing, he is doing a literal cattle drive as well.
Yeah!
Sending the cattle out and the humans and poured out the changers money.
You know, everybody talks about flipping the tables, but my favorite part is pouring out the money.
You know, talk about just creating pandemonium, just creating a mess.
Just, just messing everything up, just dumping money, just, just dumping money on the ground, throwing it on the ground, flipping over the tables.
He overthrew the tables.
Means he threw them over, meaning he grabbed them and just flipped them upside down.
And said unto them that sold doves, stop ripping people off.
Why did you charge the wrong price?
Why did you not give me my correct change?
Why did you weigh out the prices wrong?
No, he didn't say that.
In fact, he does not condemn what they're doing at all.
But here's what he actually says.
Here's what the Bible actually says, my friend.
Take these things hence.
Now you know what the word hence means?
It means from here.
Hence is just an old word for from here.
Take these things from here.
So he's not saying it's bad to sell sheep, it's bad to sell doves, it's bad to change currency.
None of those things are bad.
What's bad is doing it in God's house.
So he says get this out of here.
Take these things hence.
That's what he's saying.
So what's the problem?
The problem is not the activity, the problem is the location.
That's why he didn't say stop ripping people off.
And look, it's not like the Bible doesn't know how to say that.
Because we could go to the minor prophets and we could show you a whole bunch of scripture in the minor prophets
talking about how you are making the ephos small and the shekel great and you're cheating in weights and measures.
I mean I could show you verse after verse after verse where the prophets condemn people for weighing things incorrectly
and charging people the wrong price and ripping people off.
But is that what the Bible says here?
Absolutely not.
The Bible specifically just says take these things hence.
Make not my father's house a house of merchandise.
Did he say houses of merchandise are bad?
Did he say it's bad to have a house of merchandise?
Is merchandise bad?
Is buying bad?
Is selling bad?
No, it isn't.
The thing that is bad is doing it in God's house.
He said to them that sold doves, take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise.
Other people have tried to twist this and say, well, you know the problem is that they shouldn't be selling animal sacrifices.
You know, people are supposed to take that from their own flock
and they're supposed to take their firstlings of their own sheep and goats and doves and things.
First of all, nobody's raising doves in the first place, number one.
I don't think they are. Maybe they are, but I don't think that was a huge thing in the ancient world.
But the point is that they're claiming that, oh, you shouldn't be buying the sacrifices.
Folks, anybody who says that is just showing they haven't read the Old Testament much
because the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy specifically tells you that if you have a long way to go to get to the temple, buy the sacrifices when you get there.
I mean, Deuteronomy flat out commands you that if the way is too far, turn your offering into money.
You know, whether it be first fruits of grain, fruits, vegetables, animals, goats, whatever.
Turn it into money and then you can go to Jerusalem and buy the sacrifices at Jerusalem.
But the problem is that you're not supposed to buy them in the temple, in God's house.
That was the problem.
Folks, I don't think this is really hard to understand.
I think it's just that some people don't want to understand it because they really want to sell things at church for some strange reason.
Now, if you would go to Matthew 21 and let me explain to you even more reasons why this doesn't make any sense, okay, why this makes no sense.
Why would I sell cassette tapes in 2022?
Okay, but anyway, you know, why would I sell cassette tapes of the preaching or CDs or MP3s of the preaching for $3, $5?
I mean, when I was growing up, I'd have to buy a sermon tape for $3, $5 or whatever.
Why would I sell it for $10 or $15?
Like, how much is that $10 really going to help the church?
Like, okay, we sold eight CDs, we got $80.
Folks, in a church running 300 to 400 people, do you really think $80 is really a big deal?
Do you really think that's going to make or break anything around here?
100 bucks. Oh, we sold 50 of them.
400 bucks? Wow.
Is that really worth that to mess with what Jesus has taught us in the Bible to get your 400 bucks?
I don't care if it's 4 million bucks, I'd rather have Christ on my side.
But just the stupidity of being like, oh, you want that preaching tape.
I mean, here I am, a teenage boy, I'm still a little bit annoyed with this, even decades later.
Here I am, a teenage boy, a young adult, and I'm trying to get preaching, I'm trying to grow in the Lord,
and it's like they're trying to charge me money all the time to buy these preaching tapes.
So, okay, whatever, I forked over the money, but then I started realizing I don't even think I should be buying it.
I think I'm sinning even by buying it.
So then they did this program at our church where they said, well, if your wife works in the nursery,
then you can get a preaching tape for free so that she can catch the sermon that she missed.
Because this is, you know, in the real early days of the internet.
So internet preaching wasn't really a thing.
And so my wife was working in the nursery all the time. We had a baby, so she was in the nursery a lot.
So every time she was in the nursery, I was like claiming that cassette tape.
Because I loved having preaching tapes. I liked to listen to them when I was at work.
And so I was loading up on preaching tapes all the time.
So I was like the only person who took advantage of this.
You know, most people, when they offered the free preaching tape to the nursery worker,
they didn't go through the trouble to get the tape. They didn't really care.
But I was like really wanting those preaching tapes.
So I would keep showing up at the sound booth every couple weeks and saying, hey, my wife was in the nursery last week.
I would like my complimentary sermon from last week.
And I mean the guy was so bitter about it all the time.
Like the sound man would act like I was trying to use too many coupons or something.
And the preaching tapes were literally three bucks.
It was three bucks or something.
And he's just like, are you sure she's in the nursery?
Like, oh, I mean, you're getting a lot of tapes.
I'm like, well, my wife's in the nursery a lot.
I mean, is there a limit or something?
Well, I mean, I guess not.
It was like three bucks.
What are you? What?
Now, look, let me tell you something.
I would have paid someone three bucks to listen to my preaching.
I'm not kidding.
A smart church.
OK, let's just forget. Let's just forget for a second.
Let's just forget for a moment that Jesus got so mad he flipped over tables,
dumped out money and chased people with a whip.
Let's just push that out of our minds.
Let's pretend for a minute that selling things at church is OK.
Let's pretend that it's OK to sell preaching tapes.
It's OK to sell sermon CDs in the house of God.
Let's pretend that for a moment.
OK, it's still stupid and makes no sense.
Because why would I withhold preaching from someone for three bucks or five bucks or ten bucks
when if I were smart, I would want as many people to hear the preaching of God's word as possible?
If I were smart.
And in fact, I would actually be willing to pay people to listen to my preaching.
Which you're like, how do I get on this program?
Well, you know, but here's the thing.
I mean, tons of times I have done like paid advertising on Facebook and stuff for my sermons.
Where I've put down a bunch of money on sermons so that they would get advertised so that people would listen to preaching.
Not trying to get money for my preaching.
I'm putting my preaching out there for free and even paying money so that people will listen to it.
Because if you think about it, even just from just a wisdom perspective, not even thinking about what's right and wrong for a moment.
Isn't it smarter just to get the preaching out there?
Because it's literally advertising the church.
It's advertising the church.
And by the way, when you're generous, you know what the Bible says?
Give and it shall be given unto you.
The church that is generous and gives things away, you know what people are going to do?
They're going to donate anyway because they're going to be thankful.
And the people that don't have the money to donate, they get to enjoy the preaching anyway.
Amen!
You know, it's a win-win because, you know, the people in Africa and the Philippines and, you know, places across the world.
They're downloading MP3s for free on their cell phone and listening to it all for free.
Not like, well, put in your name and password and pay a subscription to watch it.
You know what I'm saying?
Now, you say, well, Pastor Anderson, you know, your preaching has been sold in the past.
Number one, it's never been sold by me.
My preaching has always been free to listen to, period.
Now, there have been people who have made CDs or DVDs of my preaching and sold them because they were a private business somewhere else.
Not the church that just, they just made a product that people wanted to buy.
But you could always still listen to that same sermon for free.
On faithfulwordbaptist.org, you can listen to every sermon that I've ever preached that's online for free right now.
For free and it will always be free.
Because what kind of, number one, what kind of an idiot would charge people to listen to the preaching of God's word from the church?
And number two, you know, why would I want to withhold that, that knowledge from people?
Isn't my goal to get the word of God out?
You know, and not only that, I don't want to abuse the privilege of preaching God's word three times a week.
And to basically hang it over somebody's head like, oh, it's going to cost you to get this.
Okay.
And look, we in the past, we teamed up with Paul Wittenberger and we made a bunch of documentary films.
And obviously Paul Wittenberger who's running a private business, he sold DVDs of those films.
Never here, never at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
And he and I always had an agreement from the beginning, you listening Paul?
We always had an agreement from the beginning that I was allowed to give those things away for free.
That I was allowed to put them online for free after the tribulation was to be online for free for anybody who wanted to watch it.
That was always the agreement from the beginning.
And we were allowed to hand out as many physical copies of it as we wanted for free.
And that's why right now on the back shelf you've got all of our church's preaching materials and our music CDs and whatever is back there.
Whether it's documentary films on DVDs is all free.
It's always been free.
And you say, well, how do you afford to do that?
Folks, because it's just stupid to nickel and dime it and sell it for five bucks or ten bucks or whatever, you know, when I can just give it away for free.
Okay.
And then more people are going to hear it because at the end of the day it's about people being saved.
I can't even count how many times people have walked up to me and said, I got saved watching After the Tribulation.
I got saved watching New World Order Bible versions.
I got saved watching Marching to Zion.
I got saved watching Babylon USA.
All the time I go and preach places and people come up to me and they say they got saved through watching that film.
So, you know, I understand that obviously, yeah, Paul Wittenberger is running a private business selling a product that people want to buy.
Selling T-shirts, selling CDs, selling DVDs that people want to buy.
That makes sense.
I totally get it.
But when I agreed to do those projects, it was always under the stipulation that I would be able to post it online for free eventually and that I would be able to hand out as many physical copies as I wanted.
That's how it's always been for the last ten years.
Since After the Tribulation was released in 2012, that's how it's always been.
It's supposed to be free.
When people donated to those films, they expected it to be eventually released and freely distributed for free.
And it is.
There it is back there.
On the shelf, there it is, folks.
And people have lied about our church and said, oh, you know, you guys are selling DVDs and blah, blah, blah.
Or you're using Paul Wittenberger to sell your DVDs and blah, blah.
Folks, that is a lie.
Number one, that is a private business that does not profit our church at all and has never filtered funds into our church.
It's not like we're splitting the profits or something.
He did the work of editing and, you know, all that.
And basically, he sells the films.
He makes the profit.
None of that goes to our church.
But our church benefits how?
Because our benefit, you want to know what our benefit is?
People got saved.
People heard the Gospel.
People heard the Word of God.
People heard the preaching.
That's our benefit.
But also, even carnally we benefited because by people hearing about our church, guess what they did?
They donated to our church.
They joined our church.
They visited our church.
They contributed to our church with their time and energy and talents, their friendship.
They gave financially, whatever.
And so we benefited because if you give, it shall be given unto you.
And so we've been generous.
We've given.
We've put stuff out for free.
We've handed out literally tens of thousands of copies of After the Tribulation, tens of thousands of copies of New World Order Bible versions, tens of thousands.
I'm not exaggerating.
I guarantee you we've moved over 100,000 units of just those three films alone over the last decade.
Folks, on certain mission strips alone, we've brought 10,000 of those on a single mission strip before.
I mean, we go crazy with stuff around here.
We've given out some serious films over the years.
We're constantly reordering and hitting the mission field with these things and hitting the Indian reservations with these things and giving them out.
But let me ask you this.
Oh, and by the way, the Spanish version of After the Tribulation, Spanish dub version, over 15 million views on one upload, 15 million.
Okay, so let me ask this.
I wonder how many people would have watched it if it was pay-per-view.
You think 15, you think 15 million of our amigos from Latin America would have put any pesos on that?
Now, look, what amount of money would people have paid to watch it versus 15 million viewers?
Hmm, 15 million viewers or a few hundred bucks or a few thousand bucks or whatever.
You know, and by the way, that's why I always told Paul Wittenberger any time, hey, Paul, you know, if you ever need us to donate toward these films or if you ever need more money or something, just let me know.
You know, we'll keep you rolling, Paul.
And, you know, we were always willing to donate to his film projects that were spiritual projects that he was doing for our church, of course, because of the fact that they provided value to our church spiritually, number one.
And number two, they were also getting the word out about our church so that more people could hear the word of God.
And so honestly, I believe it paid for itself.
You know, giving stuff away pays for itself.
Okay, it's just smart.
But forget all that for a second.
Jesus said no to selling it, period.
And again, I am not against someone outside of the church buying and selling stuff.
I'm not against a company printing Bibles and selling them, a company manufacturing Bibles and printing and selling them.
Great.
Because, folks, giving away Bibles for free is great, but some people would rather buy a Bible.
Well, then there needs to be someplace where they can buy a Bible.
You know, some people want to buy a shirt.
Some people want to buy a DVD.
Some people want a physical CD.
Some people want to download it for free.
I want it all to be out there.
And let me tell you something else.
You know, our YouTube channel is not monetized.
Our church's YouTube channel is not monetized.
Now, here's the thing.
Sometimes ads will come up on our videos, but we did not do that.
That's YouTube doing that.
We don't monetize our channel.
But I will say this.
I encourage other people to mirror the videos from our channel and to monetize them.
Over the years, I've always said, hey, upload our videos and monetize them.
You know, go for it.
But see, what we want to do, though, is just keep these things separate from church.
Nobody should ever walk into church and buy something.
No one should ever walk into church and sell something.
Now, every once in a while, I will have some kind of a financial dealing with someone at church.
You know, for example, you know, maybe I'm buying something from them or selling something from them.
Rarely, but these type of financial transactions will happen.
Or sometimes we would have like raw milk being delivered to our house or something.
And then, you know, somebody is supposed to give us money for that.
And I strictly forbade my wife or any of these people or myself from exchanging any of that money on the church property.
Even if it's just something as simple as, oh, hey, you know, I'm going to be picking up a gallon of milk.
I want to give you that 10 bucks.
I would say, like, you've got to bring that to my house.
Oh, you know, you're buying something from me?
You're buying something?
You know, we're not going to do that in the parking lot here.
We're not going to do that in this assembly.
No, no, no.
Do that stuff somewhere else.
So if you have a financial dealing with somebody at church, take that somewhere else.
Does everybody understand?
The only money that should be changing hands on this property is just if somebody is putting money in the offering plate or something.
That's the legitimate money transfer that would happen is if someone gives an offering.
But as far as, like, oh, hey, you know, I'm going to buy something from you.
Bring that thing I'm buying and then I'll give you the money.
Folks, I, you know, I would say don't do it.
Are we in Matthew 21 there?
It says in Matthew 21, we're going to get the parallel passage, verse 12,
And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all them that sold, don't miss the next two words, and bought.
So in the John passage, what was the smoking gun that it was the location that was wrong,
not the activity, was the statement, take these things hence, get it out of here.
Not condemning the activity, but saying, take it somewhere else.
Here, what we see is that he cast out all them that sold and bought.
So this proves that the interpretation that says, well, they're ripping people off,
that proves that that's a wrong interpretation because how could the buyers be ripping people off?
Do you see what I'm saying?
If supposedly like, oh, they're ripping people off, they're charging people the wrong prices,
they're, they're gypping foreigners when it comes to currency exchange.
Okay, then why is he mad at the buyers?
Why is he chasing the buyer out?
Can you explain that?
And this is why eventually I decided out of conviction to quit buying the sermon tapes from my local church
because I was like, you know what, I'm not going to walk into church and buy a tape.
It's wrong for them to sell it, but I don't even want to participate in it.
I don't even want to buy it.
I'm just going to keep on getting the free ones when my wife's in the nursery.
And I'm just only going to get the free ones.
So I remember like if I knew it was going to be a really hot sermon, I'd be like,
you need to work in the nursery tonight because I'm going to want the tape on this one.
You know, the pastor is going to pre, because sometimes he'd advertise on Sunday morning,
he's literally going to rip on something that night.
I'm like, all right, hit the nursery.
That way we can enjoy this one for, for years to come.
I'm kidding.
I think I did do that before though.
So maybe I'm not kidding.
But he 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 you've made it a den of thieves.
Now, how is it a den of thieves?
How is it a den of thieves?
Okay, well, let me explain to you how.
Let's say I went down to Walmart, right?
And I got in front of the Walmart parking lot and I just set up my own little kiosk
in front of Walmart where I'm selling a lot of the same, you know,
I'm just selling stuff, maybe even some of the same stuff that's inside Walmart
and I'm just selling it for a better deal and I'm right in front of Walmart
and I just set up a little kiosk and I'm just, I just got my own little gig going.
You think that's going to fly with Walmart?
You know, what if I just go outside of say Nathan's Hot Dogs
or what's this place, Ted's Hot Dogs or something?
Let's say I go outside Ted's Hot Dogs and I just have my own hot dog cart
in the parking lot of Ted's Hot Dogs and I've got a hot dog cart
and I'm selling hot dogs.
You think that's going to go?
No, it's not going to work, right?
Now, what am I doing wrong is that Ted's Hot Dogs has paid to put up the sign
and they have paid for the parking lot, they're maintaining the property
and the facility and they brought in the customers.
People came because they knew this was a hot dog place
and then they're like, oh, well, I don't even have to walk another 20 feet
because I got my hot dog right here.
I'm stealing from Ted's Hot Dogs at that point.
Does everybody understand?
I am a thief at that point because I'm using their resource,
I'm stealing their resources, okay?
Now, if I have a hot dog stand across the street, all of a sudden now it's okay.
But when I'm on their property, it's not okay.
So the problem is if you're on God's property buying and selling,
what you're doing is you're using church, you're using God to bring in your customers.
That's the problem.
That makes you a thief because you're stealing the glory from God,
you're stealing the preeminence from God,
you're stealing possibly revenue from God,
but the point is you are stealing the show, you're stealing his square footage.
This is a facility that God designed as a house of prayer, as a place of worship.
They're turning it into a place of merchandise.
That makes it a den of thieves, okay?
There is no indication that it's the fact that they were being dishonest
and that if they would have been honest, it would have been fine.
No.
And buying isn't the problem
because Deuteronomy specifically says you can buy it in Jerusalem,
but you're not supposed to buy it in the temple.
And so there's nothing wrong with hitting up the coffee shop across the street from church.
The problem is when you have a coffee shop in the church, okay?
And I am dogmatic about this.
I take a stand on this.
I am not, I do not think that this is just a small issue or a minor issue.
I think it's a big deal.
I think that a lot of churches are being pretty stupid
selling stuff in the back of their church.
And they'd be way smarter just giving the stuff away for free
and just relying on donations because God would bless that
and people would respond to that anyway.
You know, every once in a while, we have a giveaway where we go on YouTube
and we say like, hey, we're going to give out everybody who sends us their address.
We're going to give them this flash drive.
We're going to give them this DVD or we're going to give them this CD set or whatever.
And whenever we do that, our donations go through the roof whenever we do that.
It's just like donations go, why?
Because people are like, wow, thank you for the free stuff.
Here, let me make it.
And people ask like, hey, what's the suggested donation?
I always tell them zero.
And they're like, hey, where do I donate for this?
I always tell them, hey, we just want you to know we're not expecting a donation here.
Do not donate.
Just take the free stuff.
Take it.
We don't want the donation.
And yet the donations just flood in.
Isn't that interesting?
Why?
Because if you give, it shall be given unto you.
Now, I understand that businesses operate differently than churches.
Businesses, they're not going to rely on this principle of, hey, let's just give everything away for free.
You know, they're going to go out of business.
I get that.
But church is a different kind of institution, isn't it?
At least it's supposed to be.
And it is supposed to rely upon tithes and offerings and not on merchandise.
Merchandise is merchandise.
Church is church.
And when you bring merchandise and trafficking into the church, you are defiling the sanctuary.
You are defiling God's house.
You are corrupting it.
And you are angering the Lord.
And you're also not a very smart manager of the church because you don't understand that, like, that stupid five bucks you're charging is a drop of water on a hot stove.
You know what I mean?
Like, is it really?
Like, how many people?
I mean, look, I probably bought more sermon tapes from that church than anyone before I decided I wouldn't anymore.
I was constantly buying tapes.
I was just constantly buy the tape, buy the tape, three bucks, three bucks, three bucks, constantly.
But you know what?
I never had to wait in line to do that.
You know, that church had about 150 people in it, 160 people in it.
But it was amazing.
I always just walked right up to the sound booth and just bought the tape.
And there was no line.
Now, I have a feeling that if the tapes would have just been on the shelf in the back, if the tapes would have just been free for the taking, I believe that a whole lot more people would have listened to those tapes.
And more people would have come to the church.
More people would have learned the gospel and so forth.
And you know, Wilma, you came to our church because you got free preaching CDs.
I remember because I remember the very first time, in 2006, we first started the church and I was like, I'm going to make a bunch of preaching CDs.
So I made all these preaching CDs and I put them out on the kitchen counter because our church met in the living room in those days.
So, you know, I had them on the kitchen counter.
We had the auditorium set up.
And I remember just week after week announcing like, hey, you know, I've got all these preaching tapes.
They're free.
Just, you know, take as many as you want.
And just no one ever took them.
And I was like, man, nobody wants to hear my preaching.
Like, my preaching must be kind of rough because nobody wants to listen to it.
So I felt kind of bad.
Like, I was like, man, I made all these CDs and nobody wants them.
You know, I wasn't like, give me my three dollars.
I was just like, I just want somebody to listen to them.
And I was a little disappointed that nobody was taking them.
And then one day, Amanda just loaded up and she just took like one of each.
And she's like, I'm going to bring these home to my mom to play these tapes for my mom.
And she loaded up a bag of them on Sunday morning and her mom came that Sunday night the same day.
And she's like, I've been listening to these all afternoon and this is great.
And then she joined the church.
And I was like, and then she was just came to the church after that.
OK, so the point is that, you know, the very first time we ever gave out a free preaching CD at Faith Forward Baptist Church,
it resulted in a new member six hours later.
That's how fast you get the results, folks.
You know, other churches out there listening, pastors, you know, results immediately guaranteed or your money back.
OK, or I'll send you three bucks, OK, if it didn't work.
We literally, it literally, we turned, we turned CDs into a church member in six hours.
You think I regret that?
You think I wish that I'd been selling them?
Because I really doubt that Amanda was just going to, you know, pull out her checkbook and just write me a check for, you know, 60 bucks for, you know, 15 CDs or something.
No, she just grabbed 15 CDs, took them to her mom and we got it.
Oh, and by the way, here she is right in 2022.
That was in 2006.
She's here 16 years later sitting and listening to me preach right now because of what?
Because we gave away the free CDs.
But no, go ahead and anger the Lord.
Go ahead and lean upon your own understanding.
Do things in your own wisdom, your own way.
And go ahead and have your little book table and your CDs and your DVDs.
Hey, I'll tell you this, my friend.
We've been around here for 16 years and we've never run out of money yet.
Our church has never run out of money.
We've always had the money to pay the bills.
And guess what we've never done in 16 years?
We've never had a fundraiser.
Never.
We've never said, all right, people, we need some extra money.
We need you to dig deep.
Whole Paycheck Sunday is coming up.
Folks, there are churches out there that are having a Whole Paycheck Sunday and building fund and missions fund and raising money.
And we've got to raise the money.
And look, I'm not saying it's bad for a church to have a fundraiser.
That's not a sin.
Selling things in church is a sin.
Having a fundraiser is not a sin as far as like just saying, hey, we're trying to raise extra money.
But we've never done it.
And we're not going to do it.
We've never done it.
We're not going to do it.
I'm not against those who do it.
I'm not saying it's wrong.
But I'm just saying, isn't it amazing how other churches are in debt?
We've never been in debt.
We've bought everything in cash.
We've never been in debt.
We've always paid the bills.
And we give away an amount of free stuff that's mind numbing.
It's mind blowing how much free stuff we've given away.
Don't you think that's a coincidence that we've given away this incredible amount of stuff and we never run out of money?
Folks, Jesus said, if you give, it shall be given unto you.
Okay?
If you water, you'll be watered yourself.
That's what the Bible says.
And so I get, the sermon went a little off track and just became a sermon about the house of merchandise.
But that's okay.
Because that's a subject that's worth talking about.
You know?
And while we're on the subject, I've got a couple minutes here.
I'm watching the clock.
But, you know, while we're on the subject, let me just say this.
Don't you peddle your business at church either.
Do not use church as your customer base.
Okay?
You know, I can't even count how many times people come to church.
They barely show up for church.
And then it's like, oh, my Tupperware party.
Oh, Pampered Chef.
Oh, Amway.
Oh, Vitamix or Vitaworld.
I don't know.
What's it called?
Somebody tell me what it's called.
Herbalife.
Herbalife or whatever.
Yeah.
You know.
And look, I'm not against you having those things.
But just take them hints.
Take them hints.
Now look, I will say this.
A lot of people in our church own businesses or have their side hustle or whatever.
If someone comes up to you and says, hey, I heard you're a plumber.
Can you do some plumbing for me?
That's fine.
That's not you making the church a house of merchandise.
If somebody comes up and says, oh, hey, I heard you do garage doors or I heard you clean
pools or whatever.
Hey, you know, I'd like to hire you for that or whatever.
You know, make that transaction happen somewhere else, of course.
Exchange the money somewhere else.
Exchange the goods somewhere else.
But there's nothing wrong with doing business with people from church.
But the problem is if we come to church and we're advertising our business at church.
Advertising the business at church.
Do you see the difference?
Just handing out, hey, everybody, just want you to know I'm selling this stuff.
I'm doing this stuff.
Some people, that's why they go to church.
I'm not kidding.
There was, I mean, at my old fundamental Baptist Church in California that we went to, you
know, this lady would show up to church like every two or three weeks.
It was the only time she showed up and she would announce a Tupperware party.
And I, my theory was that she was going to five other churches and just cycling through
and that she only goes to each church when she's announcing the next party and she's
just working like five churches.
That's what I believe was happening.
Okay.
And by the way, you know, there are so many reasons why this is wrong.
Number one, we don't want to make God's house into a house of merchandise.
We don't want to cross over that line.
Again, if people are interested, if people ask you about it, then that's fine.
There's nothing wrong with you out in your personal life advertising your business and
then they ask you about it or whatever.
But you don't want to advertise it to the church or bring it to church to advertise.
Okay.
But I remember, this is really dear to my heart because when I was growing up, my parents
dealt with this.
In the eighties, in the late eighties Amway was big.
Okay.
Who knows what Amway is?
And people would literally like invite my parents over for dinner and my parents would
get all excited.
Like, hey, friends, you know, it was cool.
You know how it is like you go to a church and you're not necessarily kind of plugged
in and it's kind of cool when somebody invites you to dinner, you feel like, yeah, you know,
we're making friends.
And they'd go over to somebody's house, they'd go for dinner and they'd think, hey,
somebody is reaching out to us, someone likes us, someone is providing fellowship to us
and then after dinner they would present Amway.
And my parents were crushed.
Like, wow, like we thought you wanted to be our friend, but really you just want to use
us for financial gain.
And no, we don't want your stinking weird off-brand toothpaste and snacks and soap,
weird chemical soaps and junk.
But you see how that could hurt somebody's feelings too?
Just, you know, keeping things in their proper place is important, right?
Some things are sinful in certain contexts and right in other contexts.
You know, the marriage bed is undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge.
It's the same activity, but when you put it in a different context, it's very different,
isn't it?
And so we want to keep merchandise and trafficking in its proper context and keep it separate
from the assembly, separate from the congregation, separate from the local church.
And for the record, all of our films that are back there, the ones that we teamed up
with Paul Wittenberger on or the ones that we made ourselves, we are distributing freely
to anyone who wants them.
Go back there and grab as many as you want and there's no cost and that's the way it is.
We give that stuff away for free.
That's always been the agreement and that's what we will do.
I mean, we don't sell stuff here.
Now, other people, again, are welcome to sell things.
Other people are welcome to monetize and do what they want, that's fine, but not us
because we're a church, okay?
Now, the only thing that I've personally sold is my piano books, but I only sell it to people
who live somewhere else because I want people to be able to buy it online.
So people do purchase my piano books online, but who here has gotten one of my piano books
for free?
Put up your hand if you've gotten a free piano book.
Yeah, it's everybody's collecting them like Beanie Babies.
Look around the room.
So everybody's got the piano book for free, but not only that, not only that, anyone,
Brother Segura, what do you do if someone emails the church and says,
I want a piano book and I don't have any money or can I have a PDF?
What have I told you to do?
Send them the PDF.
Send them the PDF every time, no questions asked.
If anybody just-
We had a book one too.
What's that?
We had a book one piano, you gave everything away.
I gave it all away.
We got to get more book one in stock.
All right.
But the point is that everybody at our church is like, you want book one?
Sure.
It's out of stock.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, but we give, but look, people in Australia have contacted us, Canada, Europe,
South Africa.
Hey, I like those piano books here.
Let me send you the PDFs for all four of them for free.
We always give the PDFs and I've told my staff, don't even ask.
Quit asking me.
Just send it for, just send it.
Give it to whoever wants it.
If you're listening to a story right now, you want my piano book, ask for the PDF and
you have a PDF.
Folks, but that's my personal piano book that I wrote myself like 12 years ago or something.
But guess what?
I would never sell that at church or use the church to sell that.
That's why if anybody requests it through church, it's just send it to them.
Send them the PDF.
If anybody walks up and asks for it, hand it to them.
Give it to them.
Put it in their hand.
Because, you know, it's okay to sell things, but it's not okay to use church as the vehicle
or the location or the conduit for selling things.
And I hope you can see the difference.
I think you can.
Let's borrow this and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we just pray that, Lord, you would
continue to bless our church.
We've always had the money that we needed financially to operate, Lord, and I pray that
you would continue to bless, Lord.
I pray that we would continue to be generous and that you would continue to pour out upon
us a blessing and allow us to continue to do your work, Lord, because ultimately it's
all about getting your word out.
And so help us to do our best to preach your word to every creature.
And, Lord, the devil's out there.
He wants us to get enamored by all the glitz and glam and the lights and the images and
the sounds and the smells and the money and the merchandise.
Lord, help us not to get sucked into his program and help our church not to resemble his church.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Let's take our song with us, please, and go to hymn number 301.
301, sweet hour of prayer, number 301.
And let's sing it together on that first verse, number 301.
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer.
That calls me from the world of care.
And bids me and my Father strong.
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief my soul has often found relief.
And off this gate the tenters flare.
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
thy wings shall find the dish and bear.
To hear the truth and faithfulness, engage the waiting soul to bless.
In sense he bids me seek his ways.
Believe his word and trust his grace.
I'll cast on him my every care.
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer.
May I thy consolation share.
Till from out this God's lofty height, I view my home and take my flight.
This hope of flesh shall drop and rise to seize the everlasting Christ.
And shout while passing through the air.
Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.