Man, the title of my sermon tonight is Jesus Revolution, Jesus Revolution.
Now I guess this is a big movie, I just actually found out about it today, but I'd
heard something about this, but I did a bunch of research on it this afternoon, and this
movie just came out a few weeks ago, and it's a big box office success, apparently
$15 million the first weekend, it's already made $30 million in movie theater ticket
sales, and it's all about the founding of Calvary Chapel, and the Jesus movement, the
Jesus people in the late 60s, early 70s, and so I'm going to be preaching about this
this evening from a biblical viewpoint.
Now full disclosure, I didn't watch the movie, but once you hear what I have to
say tonight, and the information that I'm going to give you about the events that
the movie depicts, then you're going to realize why I can condemn this garbage piece
of propaganda without having to watch it.
And I'm not answering a matter before, I've heard it because I've done the research
on the people involved, and I saw the trailer, and yeah, I got this, okay?
But the first thing I want to point out is that just because something has Jesus
in the name, and just because we talk about worshiping Jesus, it doesn't mean it's
the Jesus of the Bible.
Just like God isn't always the God of the Bible.
Now look what the Bible says, in verse 3 it says, but I fear lest by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus,
whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which ye have not received,
or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, you might well bear with me, and say man
I'm afraid that you guys are going to get sucked in by this stuff that's actually
not the Jesus of the Bible, it's another Jesus, it's another spirit, it's another
gospel.
Jump down to verse 13 if you would, it says, 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.
Now if you would flip over to 1 Timothy chapter number 4, 1 Timothy chapter number 4, and I'm
going to get into the information about the so-called Jesus movement, and this film
Jesus Revolution, but before we do I want to make an important point, and this really
has to do with the sermon that I just preached a few weeks ago about what does
revival look like, and that it seems to be a trend now, there's definitely something
up, there's definitely a movement happening right now, and you know what it is?
It's a movement that says doctrine doesn't matter.
Quit focusing on doctrine, quit thinking about doctrine, quit worrying about crossing
the doctrinal T and dotting the doctrinal I, because you know, it's just all about
just loving Jesus and just getting excited about Jesus and just getting all fired up
and emotional about Jesus, and that's what people think revival is, when in reality
a revival as we saw a few weeks ago with all the Bible that we looked at then is
about getting back to right doctrine, getting back to right practices, it starts and ends
at the Word of God, and it has to do with truth and accuracy in what's being preached
and taught, not just, hey let's all sing kubayah and isn't it wonderful, okay?
Now there's an emphasis in the Bible on doctrine and having right doctrine, okay?
Now you're turning there to 1 Timothy 4, but let me just quickly read for you from
Ephesians chapter 4, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro.
God doesn't want us to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait
to deceive.
There are people that are out there, they want to trick you, they want to deceive you,
they want to swap out Jesus with another Jesus, they want to swap out the Gospel with
another Gospel, and if you are a babe in Christ, it's going to be hard for you to
see through some of their trickery, you could fall for it.
That's what Paul was afraid of in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 6, if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these
things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words
of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou acetate.
But see when you get up and put people in remembrance of right doctrine, today you're
labeled as being pharisaical, legalistic, you're too strict, you're critical, you've
got a critical spirit, I don't remember reading that term in the Bible, but this attitude
that says that being a stickler for doctrine is somehow bad, it's not biblical.
Look what the Bible says in verse 13, till I come give attendance to reading, talk about
reading the Bible publicly, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Verse number 16, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, be careful about
the doctrine.
Isn't that what take heed means?
Be careful, watch out, watch out when it comes to the doctrine.
Take heed unto the doctrine.
Continue in them, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear
thee.
Flip over to 2 Timothy chapter 4.
This is just by way of introduction, the importance of right doctrine.
Not just, hey we got a big crowd, hey everybody's excited, hey everybody's packing
out the theater, everybody's packing out the beaches, everybody's getting baptized
by a long haired hippie, hey!
What about the doctrine?
What's being taught?
What gospel are we talking about here?
Because do the Roman Catholics have the same gospel we have?
Do the Mormons have the same gospel?
Do the Jehovah's false witnesses have the same gospel?
Do the Seventh-day Adventists have the same gospel?
Do the Charismaniacs have the same gospel?
No!
What doctrine are we talking about here?
Well, you know, you Baptist, you know, you want everything to be Baptist.
Yes, we do!
Folks, you know why we want it to be Baptist?
Because Baptists are actually believing and following what the Bible says.
Some denomination that just goes completely against scriptural salvation, that teaches
salvation by works, that teaches that you can lose your salvation or something like
that.
It's like, well wait a minute, how can we have fellowship with that?
But anyway, let's keep going with the scriptures here.
Look at first, where did I have you turn, 2 Timothy chapter 4, look at verse number
1, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the
quick and the dead and his appearing and his kingdom.
Preach the word, translation, preach the Bible.
Preach the Bible!
That's what needs to be preached, the word of God, what the Bible actually says.
Be instant, in season out of season.
You know what that means?
When it's popular and when it's not popular.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort.
What does reprove mean?
To tell somebody that they're wrong?
What does rebuke mean?
To tell somebody that they're wrong?
A little bit more harshly.
Exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall
be turned unto fables, and let me tell you something, they're going to do this in the
name of Jesus, okay?
They're going to heap to themselves teachers in the name of Jesus that will tell them
what they want to hear, that will not reprove them, that will not rebuke them, that
will not tell them that they're wrong, but will preach on anything goes type of a message.
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
At the end of the day, the problem with this is that what they're saying isn't true.
It's a fable.
It isn't real.
Go to Titus chapter 1.
Titus chapter 1 verse 9, this is actually where we get the name of our church, Titus
1, 9, holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught that he may be able by
sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
Sound doctrine.
Look at chapter 2 verse 1, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.
Titus chapter 2 verse 7, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine
showing uncorruptness, doctrine that's not corrupted, gravity.
What does that mean?
Gravity means seriousness, taking doctrine seriously, sincerity.
Sincerity means purity, right?
And also it refers to right motives.
Look at 2nd John, the little short epistle of 2nd John right before the book of Revelation.
You have these short little books, 2nd and 3rd John and Jude.
Go to 2nd John verse number 9, the Bible says, whosoever, you say why the emphasis
on doctrine?
Why do you get so wrapped up in doctrine?
Whosoever transgresseth, what does transgression mean?
It means the crossing of a line.
Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.
You know, when you see someone crossing certain doctrinal lines, you could say that
person doesn't have God.
Well how do you know?
Because they cross that line when it comes to the doctrine of Christ, they're not preaching
the truth anymore.
Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
If they're coming unto you and bring not this doctrine, they better be bringing this
doctrine, he says, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed for
he that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds.
You don't have to turn there, but Romans 16, 17, now I beseech you brethren, mark
them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you've learned and
avoid them.
People that are trying to peel you off and get you on some other doctrine, avoid those
people, right?
It's about the doctrine that we've learned from the Bible.
And look, I didn't even read every verse about doctrine, but how many verses did we
just look at?
Doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine.
But now it's all about being non-denominational, doctrine doesn't matter, it's just all
about rallying together, hands across the water, and just love, peace, and dope.
That's pretty much what it's about.
Now let's get to this movie, Jesus Revolution.
So this film, I went to their official website, and let me just read for you the description
of the film from the official website for the movie.
In the 1970s, young Greg Laurie is searching for all the right things in all the wrong
places, until he meets Lonnie Frisbee, a charismatic hippie street preacher.
Together with Pastor Chuck Smith, they open the doors of Smith's languishing church
to an unexpected revival of radical and newfound love, leading to what Time Magazine dubbed
a Jesus Revolution.
So the title of the film comes from a Time Magazine article about this church, Calvary
Chapel in Southern California.
They called it a Jesus Revolution.
And I just told you that it's all about, you know, Greg Laurie and Lonnie Frisbee
and Pastor Chuck Smith joining forces to open the doors to hippies and have this
exploding movement in the early 70s that has really had a profound impact on Christianity
in America.
I mean, make no mistake about it, Jesus Revolution is right, it was a revolution.
Because let me tell you something, today churches have been heavily influenced by this
movement in Southern California in the early 70s, which is why we have all of the liberal
neo-evangelical churches that we have.
But the question is, is this a good thing?
What has been the fruit of this movement?
Well we'll get to that.
But let's talk about these people.
Chuck Smith, Pastor Chuck Smith.
Now here's what's interesting.
I just read for you in the description for the film, and you can also read the history
of what actually happened and so forth, and you're going to find that Chuck Smith's
small church is getting smaller, right?
That's how the story begins, according to their own thing, right?
You know, this languishing church, languishing.
Here's another word for languishing, failing, struggling, weak, dying, not thriving, right?
That's what it starts with.
So basically, when it comes to just picking up a Bible and preaching the Word of God,
and actually just singing hymns, preaching the Bible, preaching the Gospel, it's just
not working for old Chuck.
So Lonnie Frisbee comes along, the Christian hippie street preacher and revolutionizes
his ministry.
Now all of a sudden he can grow.
Now all of a sudden he can thrive.
So let me ask you something.
Why couldn't the Holy Spirit work through Chuck Smith before a long-haired hippie came
along to help him do this?
Why does he need gimmicks?
If he's got the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, why can't he be just succeeding
as a pastor on just using the Word of God?
No, no, he's languishing until Lonnie Frisbee comes to the rescue.
Let's talk about Lonnie Frisbee.
Lonnie Frisbee is a homo who died of AIDS because he was being a homo with so
many other homos.
Okay.
Now, I mean, that should just be everything we need to know about old Lonnie Frisbee.
Okay.
So Lonnie Frisbee shows up, long-haired, drug-using hippie turned to Christ now, and
now that he's turned to Christ, you know, he has left the homo lifestyle.
Now for those of us who've actually studied the Bible and know what Romans chapter one
says, the whole reason why people are homos in the first place is because they've been
given over to a reprobate mind.
They've been rejected and given over to a reprobate mind.
That's why they're a homo in the first place, because those things don't come naturally
to normal people.
So guess what?
These people that were homos are still homos.
Okay.
But the way that this is portrayed by the people in this movement is, well, this is
something that he always struggled with.
And here's what they said.
They said that he would often party on Saturday nights and then preach on Sunday morning.
And by partying, we're talking about him being a sodomite, going out and having anonymous
sodomite encounters and then preaching on Sunday morning.
This is who Chuck Smith teamed up with, basically to found Calvary Chapel as we know
it, and this whole Jesus revolution and Jesus movement is built on this flaming sodomite
who kept just constantly relapsing into being a homo, because we just know that he
just was a homo and that he's just a reprobate.
And so that's why he keeps doing these things.
And so ultimately he just keeps being a homo, keeps being a homo, and then he's admitting
openly to being a homo eventually, and then eventually dies of AIDS.
The end.
Okay.
That's the Lonnie Frisbee story.
Okay.
So, I mean, this is what the movie's about.
The movie's about, I mean, the hero of the movie is Lonnie Frisbee.
So you say, oh, it's so exciting.
So many Christians are going and they're watching this Jesus movie and so many people
are going to get saved.
Isn't it great?
Yay, Calvary Chapel.
But hold on a second.
They're watching a movie praising a sodomite.
And in the movie they kind of gloss this over like they're just little hints at it
in the movie.
You know, they don't, you know, they don't horrify you with the reality of who this
guy is.
But it's just kind of hinted at that, like Greg Laurie said, well, you know, in the movie
he says, you know, well, you know, at Haight-Ashbury, you know, we did everything and everybody.
So that's how we kind of alluded to it in the movie.
Well, that's probably going to go over most people's heads, that you meant that
the guy's a flaming sodomite, okay.
So I found an interview, oh, and by the way, the trailer, if you watch the trailer,
so I, you know, I read you that paragraph.
Let me read it again now that you know a little more about Frisbee.
In the 1970s, young Greg Laurie is searching for all the right things in all the wrong
places until he meets Lonnie Frisbee.
I mean, do you see what I mean?
Like, man, this guy's all mixed up and then bam, the hero, salvation.
He meets Lonnie Frisbee.
He meets a faggot, a charismatic hippie street preacher together with Pastor Chuck Smith.
They opened the doors of Smith's languishing church to an unexpected revival of radical
and newfound love.
So then I click on the trailer and the trailer prominently features Greg Laurie being baptized
by Lonnie Frisbee.
That's like the main centerpiece of the trailer.
So then I clicked on a related YouTube video that said baptism scene from Jesus revolution
film and it shows, uh, this, this girl, she goes out in the ocean and gets baptized
by Chuck Smith.
He comes back and this is what Greg Laurie asked her.
How did that feel?
She gets baptized.
I wonder if that's how it was when John the Baptist was baptizing people.
Hey man, how did that feel?
Folks, it's not about how it felt to get back.
It felt wet.
Okay.
It's how it felt.
Maybe a little cold.
What does that mean?
How did that feel?
Because these people are charismatics.
They're Pentecostals.
It's not about doctrine.
It's not about truth.
It's not about what the word of God says.
It's about feelings for these people.
That's why it's like, well, how did that feel?
And here's what she says.
You'll see.
Then he goes out there, gets baptized and has some wild like out of body experience.
So when he gets dunked under the water, his body just keeps going down and he's
just like sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
And then he starts like floating back up, like, like going to the light, going to the light
and then he gets to the top and then it's like, boom.
And it all happened in like one second, but that's how it was for him.
This, we went out, had this like LSD trip during the, and then of course, what is Frisbee
asked him after he baptized as Frisbee finished baptizing?
He says, how do you feel?
He says alive.
And then it just doesn't like riding his bike, smiling.
So this is the religion that we have in the film.
How did that feel?
You'll see.
He goes out, has some wild experience.
How do you feel?
I feel alive.
Let's go on a bike ride in the sunset.
Ride my bike.
Yeah.
Folks, this is not the preaching of God's word.
This is not true biblical Christianity.
This is a charade.
So in real life, there was an interview where Greg Laurie is talking about Lonnie
Frisbee.
Okay.
For those of you who don't know who Greg Laurie is, he's this big, famous Harvest Church
evangelist guy, and he's one of the three main characters of the film, Chuck Smith,
Lonnie Frisbee, and Greg Laurie.
So Greg Laurie in this interview, here's what he says, well, Lonnie was flawed.
And the film reflects that.
Now you want to talk about an understatement.
You know, Lonnie was flawed.
Now here's the thing.
Let's say somebody made a chocolate cake, right?
And you know, they're frosting the chocolate cake, and let's say, you know, they got
a little sloppy on one end, or there's kind of like a little jagged in, or maybe
they made a beautiful chocolate cake, but one end of the chocolate cake is kind of
slumped a little bit, and so it's not totally level.
And you'd say, you know, that chocolate cake was a bit flawed.
Oh, this diamond has a flaw in it.
Does everybody understand what the word flawed means?
That's what a flaw means.
I mean, look, flawless would be like it's just like an immaculate, picture like an
immaculate chocolate cake, okay?
And it's just like one little part is smeared wrong, or a little jagged, a little ugly,
a little off-kilter.
Oh, you know, I found a flaw, it's a little flawed, the cake's a little flawed.
Okay, now picture a hot steaming pile of feces with chocolate frosting on it, and then
tell me if that's a flawed chocolate cake.
It's all feces, but with some chocolate frosting around the edges, and you say,
that's flawed.
This chocolate cake is flawed.
How dare you present me on my birthday with a flawed chocolate cake?
Folks, that is the worst, ridiculous understatement I've ever heard in my life, to say that an
open homo who's going out of being a homo on Saturday night and then preaching on
Sunday morning, indulging in the worst filth, the most disgusting sin that's mentioned
in scripture, and then he shows up and preaches, well, he's flawed, you know, and
the film reflects that, you know.
But Lonnie said, or sorry, Greg Laurie then says, you know, Lonnie prophesied over me.
He said Lonnie prophesied over me that I would preach to thousands of people, because
God uses flawed people, Samson, Noah, Gideon, so basically Samson, Noah, and Gideon are
like Lonnie Frisbee.
That's what they're basically saying, and in fact, Chuck Smith preached a funeral, from
what I understand, at Lonnie Frisbee's funeral, and you know, at the funeral he's compared
to Samson, you know, this godly man who just, you know, fell into some temptations
or whatever.
Folks, sorry, being a sodomite is not a temptation that is common to man.
Okay, that is not normal.
This is a guy who's a reprobate, wicked pervert, but that's the problem with these
people who reject the Bible's teaching on homos.
This is the kind of stupidity that they fall for.
And then Greg Laurie said Lonnie was a believer.
He said he believed that Lonnie was a true believer, according to this guy, Greg Laurie
says Lonnie Frisbee's in heaven, Lonnie was used by God, and Lonnie did play a key
role in the last great spiritual awakening in America, okay, according to Greg Laurie.
He died in a healthy place with the Lord, it seems like.
Greg Laurie, I would say so, 100%.
Dying of AIDS from being a fag, but you know, it's all good with the Lord.
Okay, so we've talked a little bit about Lonnie Frisbee, talked a little bit about
Chuck Smith, the failing pastor who resorted to gimmicks and bringing in hippies in order
to make his church grow, but now let's talk a little bit about Greg Laurie himself.
So I went over to Greg Laurie's official website, and by the way, all of this research
took me less than 90 minutes, okay, just full disclosure, I'm just being honest, but
I spent a lot of time reading my Bible this week, so in my defense, right?
I spent lots and lots and lots of time reading my Bible, but I spent only 90 minutes
researching this because it doesn't take long, folks, okay?
Here's the plan of salvation from Greg Laurie's website.
I just went there right away, first thing I did was let's go to the plan of salvation.
So I go to Greg Laurie's website, he has a video called One Minute Gospel.
Now right away, unless you're the guy on the Micro Machines ads, you're going to have
a hard time really presenting the gospel clearly in one minute.
And if it doesn't say Micro Machines, it's not the real thing, okay?
But I click on this video, and here's basically what he says in the one minute video,
you won't be lonely, you'll never be lonely again, and you're going to have a relationship
with God, and I'm not talking about religion, you've got to invite him into your life,
and then he just leads you in prayer to be saved.
No Bible, no Bible verse, he doesn't even talk about Jesus dying on the cross for
your sins, being buried, rising again.
In the one minute video, it's just you're not going to be lonely, it's going to be
great, invite him into your life, here let me lead you in prayer to do that right now.
You know, and it's just, it's just all of a sudden we're just already praying.
So the whole minute isn't even preaching the gospel because halfway through the video
you're already praying to get saved like, oh, well, I don't want to be lonely.
Let's go.
Let's do it.
What do I do?
Sign me up.
But then under that he actually has the text of his Bible, way to heaven or his plan
of salvation.
And it's a four-step process.
It's a four-point gospel presentation, and I'm going to read you the whole thing, okay?
Point number one, realize that you're a sinner.
Now it sounds so far so good, I mean, that sounds pretty good, right?
But you see, the devil is cunning.
He wants to make things seem familiar to you, make it seem like it's the right gospel,
make it seem like it's what you're used to, make it seem like it's truth.
Because of course real Bible-believing Christians would say, well, yeah, you want to acknowledge
that you're a sinner because if we need to be saved, we got to understand why we
need to be saved.
What do we need to be saved from, right?
Because we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But even in this first point, you can already see the seeds being planted of where he's
going with this, which is another gospel, which is not the gospel of Christ, which
is not the biblical plan of salvation.
But even in the very first point, he already starts to deviate from what you would expect,
from an actual biblically sound, doctrinally correct gospel presentation.
So number one, realize that you're a sinner.
No matter how good a life we try to live, we still fall miserably short of being a good
person.
That is because we're all sinners.
The Bible says no one is good, not even one.
We cannot become who we're supposed to be without Jesus Christ.
So notice already what is the gospel?
What is the good news according to this plan of salvation?
It's you can become a good person.
You can become who you're supposed to be.
Everybody get that?
I mean, look, listen to what it says.
Number one, realize that you're a sinner.
No matter how good a life we try to live, we still fall miserably short, not of the
glory of God.
We don't come short of the glory of God.
We fall miserably short of being a good person and we can't become who we're supposed
to be without Jesus.
So if we include Jesus in the process, we can become who we're supposed to be.
We can become a good person.
Now look, obviously there's some truth in that.
Of course the lie is going to mix interest, but notice what's conspicuously missing.
Like hey, you've sinned and so therefore you're condemned to hell.
You're damned eternally and if you believe on Jesus Christ, you'll be saved from hell.
You'll be saved eternally.
No, no, no, it's more just about you can become the good person that you were meant
to be, that you've been trying to be and failing.
Okay, number two, recognize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you.
Okay, sounds great.
So if you just glanced at these headings at first, it's kind of like, okay, yeah,
he's given the gospel.
Let's keep reading.
The Bible tells us that God showed his great love for us by, which is by the way,
a wrong translation because the King James Bible correctly has a different verb and the
present tense, just like the Greek New Testament that says that God commendeth, present tense,
commendeth means to, you know, to praise or to, you know, acknowledge its greatness
or to show how it stands out.
Like if a police officer gets a commendation or something like that.
God commends, but then the modern versions are changing this to a past tense of God showed
or demonstrated.
Now, did God demonstrate his love for us?
Sure he did, but that's not what the Bible says.
See, I could come up with a lot of true things, but it doesn't mean that we have the right
to change what the Bible says.
I mean, that's not what the Bible says in that verse.
So that's a wrong translation.
But he says, you know, God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for
us while we were still sinners.
This is the good news that God loves us so much that he sent his only son to die
in our place when we least deserved it.
So that was the first two points.
And the thing that's conspicuously absent there.
Point number one, what was conspicuously absent?
Hell.
No mention of you're going to go to hell because of your sins.
It's just like, ah, man, you can't really be as good a person as you want to be.
Yes, we can be better.
What about heaven and hell, right?
That's missing.
Then in point two, what's conspicuously absent from point two?
How about the fact that Jesus rose from the dead for a start?
You know, isn't the whole crux of the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ,
but instead it's just Jesus died for you.
I mean, how about the fact that he bodily rose again from the dead?
A little too doctrinal for you there?
A little too much doctrine for you there to acknowledge the fact that Jesus bodily
rose from the tomb?
Okay, now point number three is where this thing just goes all the way off the rails.
So points one and two, you're kind of like, you're missing some stuff, what are you doing
there?
Squirrely Bible translation.
Now in point three, there's a switch track on the train and the switch track gets thrown
and we go hurling off a cliff into just a flaming, exploding nightmare of carnage.
Number three, repent of your sin.
So how do I be saved?
Number one, you've just got to realize that you're a sinner.
Number two, recognize that Jesus died on the cross for you.
Number three, repent of your sin.
The Bible tells us, repent of your sins and turn to God so that your sins may be
wiped away.
That is not what the Bible says anywhere, by the way.
That is not what the Bible says, period.
That is just a lie to say that that's what the Bible says because it doesn't.
In fact, have fun finding the phrase, quote, repent of your sins.
Have fun finding that in the Bible in any verse, let alone this one that supposedly
says, repent of your sins and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped away.
The word repent means to change our direction in life.
Okay, so what about all the times that God repented?
Was he changing his direction in life?
And the Lord repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he
did it not.
So, okay, so the Lord changed the direction of his life.
In fact, God repents, I think what, 39 times?
In the Bible, it talks about God repenting.
So I guess 39 times God changed the direction of his life, huh?
This is garbage.
The word repent means to change our direction in life.
Instead of running from God, we can run toward him.
So notice instead of salvation being by faith, which is what the Bible says, for by grace
are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not
of works lest any man should boast.
Salvation is by believing in Jesus.
You know what point three should be?
Believe on Jesus.
Number one, admit you're a sinner.
Number two, recognize that Jesus died and was buried and rose again.
Number three, believe in Jesus.
But instead it's like, no, no, no, turn away from your sins.
Good luck with that, Lonnie Frisbee.
Good luck with that because guess what?
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
I would like you to show me the person who has turned from their sins because I'm
sure you could show me a lot of people that have turned from some of their sins
or certain sins, but I guarantee you that nobody has turned from all their sins because
nobody is perfect.
Nobody is without sin.
But thankfully the gospel isn't turned from your sins and you shall be saved.
And look, yes, the Bible does use the word repentance in regard to salvation, but it
doesn't say repent of your sins to be saved.
It's repent of your false belief, repent of unbelief, repent of trusting in works.
That's what the Bible is teaching.
He says they repented from idols.
They turned to God from idols.
They turned from a wrong way of salvation to the right way of salvation because you
know what repent actually means?
It just means to turn and it depends on the context what's being turned from.
That's why God can repent 39 times because God turned away from his fierce wrath.
He turned from a course of action that he was going to carry about and he changed
his mind and did something else.
God repented, meaning he was going to do this, but now he turns and does this instead.
Now repentance in regard to salvation is not about turning from your sins.
That would be a works based salvation because you know what?
We're all constantly turning from our sins and you know what that's called work, which
is why the Bible says in Jonah three 10 and God saw their works that they turned
from their evil way.
God saw their works that they turned from evil cause turning from your evil way is
works.
Now this should be common sense, my friend.
Who here has ever had a sin in your life and you tried to turn away from it?
Put up your hand.
Right?
Okay.
Was it easy?
Was it automatic or was it work?
It's work.
So even common sense should tell you that turning from your sins is works, right?
That keeping God's commandments is works.
What does the Bible even mean when it says you're not saved by your works?
You're not saved by keeping the laws of God.
You're not saved by keeping the commandments.
You're not saved because you didn't steal and didn't kill and didn't commit adultery
and didn't come.
That's not what saves you.
But then you got these repent of your sins preachers.
They come along and say, Oh, you want to be saved?
Well then you got to turn from stealing, turn from killing, turn from covening to
know you got to believe on Jesus to be saved.
You're saved by faith, not by works.
Repent of your sins and turn to God.
Change your direction in life.
And then number four, point number four is receive Jesus Christ into your life.
Notice receive him into your life.
What does that even mean?
Receive him in a, you know what?
Think about this now.
The devil's in the details, my friend.
Receive Jesus into your life because you know what?
This whole gospel is all about your life, isn't it?
Cause it's not about heaven and hell.
Are we talking about heaven and hell?
Did we bring up heaven and hell at all?
No.
Look at this, trying to get, be a good person, ah, can't do it.
Point two, Jesus died on the cross for me.
Oh, he's showing me an example.
He's a model.
He's a role model.
Number three, ah, I can turn from my sins and be the person that I'm supposed to be.
I can stop sinning and change my direction in life because Jesus is going to help me
do that.
And then I asked Jesus to come into my life so I can do what?
So I can live differently.
This is not the gospel.
The gospel is you're going to hell.
Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins that you could never pay for.
He lived the perfect life that you could never live.
He was buried and rose again and just as he rose again from the dead, you will
be raised up again at the last day and you will live eternally with God in heaven
because you believe in Jesus by putting your faith and trust in Jesus.
You're saved from your sin, heaven and hell, and it's all about faith in Jesus.
Receive Jesus.
Now here's what I want.
I want to see the word believe in this, in this gospel plan.
Don't you?
Who would like to see the word believe?
Since the Bible says in John 3 16 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have eternal life.
Since the question's asked in the Bible, what must I do to be saved and they said
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
If that's the answer to what must I do to be saved, if 90 times in the gospel
of John alone it says believe, and the gospel of John is the book that claims
to be written so that people could be saved.
The only book in the Bible that makes the claim this is written so that people will
believe in Jesus and have eternal life.
I'm paraphrasing but that's what it says at the end of the gospel of John.
Okay at the end of chapter 20 I believe.
And so it's claiming to be written for you to be saved 90 times believe.
What must I do to be saved in the book of Acts?
Believe!
Point one, I don't see the word believe.
Point two, I don't see the word believe.
Point three, I don't see the word believe.
It's all about changing the direction of your life so you can be the good person
that you're supposed to be.
But I got, I got good news and bad news for you my friend.
The word believe, the good news is the word believe is coming up in point four.
The bad news is what it says.
So number four, receive Jesus Christ into your life.
Becoming a Christian is not merely believing, it's not believing.
The first mention of believe is negative.
It's not just believing stuff.
Just the first mention of believe is to get negative about it.
He hasn't even told you, hey you need to believe in Jesus.
Put your faith in Jesus.
We're saved by faith.
It's not by works.
It's not turnover a good leap.
It's not a 12 step program.
No, no, it's believing in Jesus.
It's we're saved by faith.
It's a free gift purchased by the blood of Jesus.
The first mention of believe is negative.
Becoming a Christian is not merely believing some creed or going to church.
I don't know, salvation or becoming a Christian for the Ethiopian eunuch, what was becoming
a Christian like for the Ethiopian eunuch?
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
That's what becoming a Christian looked like for the Ethiopian eunuch.
Becoming a Christian is not merely believing some creed or going to church.
It's having Christ himself take residence in your life and heart.
Now look, obviously there's truth mixed in here.
Obviously yeah, when you believe in Christ, obviously yeah, Christ is going to take up
residence in your heart.
Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and open the door, I will come in, dot, dot, dot.
If you would like to have a relationship with Christ, simply pray this prayer and
mean it in your heart.
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner.
I believe you died for my sins.
Okay, thank you for finally using believe in a positive way for a second.
Right now I turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and life.
Now notice the constant mention of your life, your life, your life, your life.
Why?
Because according to these people, your salvation is based on how you live your life.
It is based on how you live your life.
That's what they base your salvation on.
That's why point one emphasizes it.
Point three emphasizes it.
Point four emphasizes it.
It's all about your life, your life, your life, your life, your life.
Folks, let me tell you something.
The way that I live my life has nothing to do with whether or not I or anyone else
will go to heaven because all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the eyes of God.
And you know what?
I'm going to heaven because Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins and was buried
and rose again and that is the only reason I'm going to heaven.
I have simply just put my trust in that.
Just believe in that, faith in that.
Now obviously when it comes to living the Christian life, there's a lot more to that,
but guess what?
Whether you do or don't live the Christian life, you're still saved if you believe in
Jesus because salvation is a free gift purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ and once
you have eternal life, nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord and he will never leave you before nor forsake you and you have
eternal life and you will never perish.
Right now I turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and life because apparently
opening the door of your heart is not enough.
It's not enough to just say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
I'm trusting Christ.
I want Christ in my heart.
No, no, no.
It's not enough.
You live your life because you have to change the way that you live your life because you
have to do works to be saved according to these people.
So he's got to come into your life because you got to do the works because faith isn't
enough and by the way, we're not going to mention faith until after the gospel
presentation while we're praying with you, we'll give a little nod to faith for a second.
I confess you as my personal Lord and Savior and of course all these words are packed
with false meaning to these people because when they say, well, I confess you as
my Lord and Savior, they say, well, if he's not Lord of all, he isn't Lord at all and
he's got to be your Lord, meaning your boss, meaning you got to obey him, meaning works.
Folks, these false prophets, these false teachers, they full time are just looking
for ways to smuggle works into the gospel.
All they do, all false prophets like Greg, Laurie and all the rest of them, all they
do all day is they're carpenters and they're just building wooden trojan horses all day.
Every single week they create multiple trojan horses.
They're just hammering out wooden horses that they can just pack with work salvation
and shove up that wooden horse's backside, all the fake work salvation, cram it in there
and then they say, look at the pretty little horsey on Sunday morning, the pretty little
horsey on Sunday night, the pretty little horsey on Wednesday night and inside that
horse are all the demons of hell teaching work salvation and another gospel and another
spirit and another Jesus and it's just all packaged up and bundled so nicely in
a Hollywood movie that's already made $30 million in the first couple of weeks as
God's people go out and say, oh, so wonderful, Jesus revolution and it's the same exact
phenomenon that we just saw three, four weeks ago with the so-called Asbury revival.
Same thing.
Doctrine doesn't matter because what am I doing picking apart this gospel presentation?
I'm talking doctrine.
Salvation doctrine matters.
How about that?
I wonder if this matters.
How about the Bible saying, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have
long hair it's a shame unto him?
But if a woman have long hair it's a glory to her for her hair is given her for a covering?
What about that?
Does that matter or should we just ignore that?
Should we just forget about that?
Am I being a Pharisee for bringing up what the Bible says in the New Testament?
In fact, turn if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
You say, well, it isn't Chuck Smith's fault that, you know, the guy that he teamed
up with turned out to be a faggot.
That's not his fault.
Right?
Hey, you didn't know that guy was a faggot.
He's just trying to grow his languishing, failing church.
You know, yeah, he's trying to grow his languishing church.
So he sold his soul to the devil and the church grew.
You know, it's, you know, he basically discovered what Led Zeppelin discovered, right?
The same exact thing.
He discovered what AC DC discovered when they said we sold our soul for rock and roll.
Okay.
Basically he discovered the same thing that just by turning away from biblical preaching,
teaching lies, ignoring the word of God, turning onto the devil and the devil's crowd,
he could succeed.
Let me tell you something.
It isn't right for us to go to the devil's trash can and go digging around in the devil's
trash can to try to figure out how to reach people in 2023.
You know what?
We're reaching people just fine in 2023.
We're getting people saved.
We're getting people baptized.
We're starting churches.
We're going on mission strips.
We're winning people to the Lord.
Hey, all without gimmicks.
And you know what?
There are Baptist churches all over America that are out knocking doors and giving the
gospel and preaching the gospel and you say, well, you know, isn't it good that they're
reaching hippies?
Hey, I am 100% in favor of preaching the gospel to every single hippie.
Amen.
I mean, it's not really a thing anymore.
I don't think as much, but you know, it was a thing back then.
Hey, guess what?
You know what independent Baptists were doing back in the late sixties and early seventies
in regard to the hippies.
You want to know what they're doing?
They're witnessing to the hippies.
Talk to people who were independent fundamentalist Baptist back then, and you know what they
would do?
They'd go out and they'd witness to people including hippies and they'd go out and witness
to hippies and they didn't say, oh, we're not going to give the gospel to these people.
They're hippies.
They don't get the gospel, right?
I mean, when we go out soul winning, do we go out and say, oh, not going to witness
to the hippies, but you know, there's a big difference between say, Hey, we want to reach
hippies with the gospel.
Let's go pray.
Hey, there's a bunch of hippies.
Let's go give them the gospel.
Amen.
There's a big difference between that.
Hey, let's pattern our church after the hippie movement and let's create a hippie church
and then all the hippies will want to come and then we can fill the church with hippies.
Now they say, oh, this is great because you're bringing so many people in, you're
bringing in all this new blood.
Let me tell you the last thing I want to do.
The last thing I want to do is fill Faithful Word Baptist Church with unsaved people.
It's the last thing I want to do.
You say, oh, how dare you, don't you want to fill it with unsaved people?
No, because the church, okay, you know that, that hip hop clothing brand, FUBU?
This is FUBU Baptist Church, for us, by us, okay?
This is FUBU Baptist.
Let me tell you something, the church is supposed to be a called out assembly of born
again baptized believers.
It's for us, by us.
You know what, when I preach on Sunday morning, you know who I'm gearing my sermon
to?
It isn't visitors.
It's not visitors.
You know who I'm gearing it to?
You.
Who's, I mean look, if you've been here for years, I'm preaching to you.
If you're new to the church, I'm preaching to you too.
But you know what, you know who I'm not preaching to?
Visitors.
You know who I'm not preaching to?
Unsaved people who stumble in here.
Now look, if an unsaved person stumbles in here, great, great, they'll hear some truth,
we'll give them the gospel, but you know what?
The reason why that's totally great if a few unsaved people stumble in is because it's
a few of them.
But you know what's scary is if there's more unsaved people than saved people, that's
not a church anymore.
That's not church.
That's just a crowd of people.
You know, I could look, I could go to a rock concert and I guarantee you that if
I could put on some kind of a spiritual glasses where everybody who's saved would
like glow white and everybody who's not saved would remain in darkness and I put on
those glasses, who thinks that I would see a bunch of saved people if I went to the
grocery store, a rock concert, if I went to anywhere pretty much, right?
I mean if I just went to a baseball game, I could just go to a baseball game, put
on the glasses, there'd be a mixture of saved people and unsaved people.
Totally unsaved with saved people sprinkled all throughout because there are a lot of
saved people out there in this world.
Okay, that's not what church is supposed to be, my friend.
Church is supposed to be predominantly saved people.
It's a place where saved people get together and we preach to the saved.
That's why you'll notice that in my sermons, I'm not just constantly giving the gospel
in every sermon.
Some sermons I won't even mention the plan of salvation at all because 90-some percent
of the people are already saved and that's who I'm preaching to.
I'm trying to feed them spiritually other things that they need in their lives.
Let me ask you this, okay, we just counted up the soul winning numbers from the last,
you know, we're going out and spending hours and hours and hours knocking doors,
talking to people one on one, giving them the gospel, and you know, we just counted
this up.
Two people got saved on Thursday through our soul winning program.
Ten people got saved on Friday, fifteen on Saturday, and today in all the different
soul winning times, seventeen people got saved today.
And look, that's a lot of man hours that go into that, you know.
If you see fifteen salvations, there's probably fifty man hours that went into that.
Or more.
Probably sixty man hours.
And if we're in unreceptive areas, we can sometimes put in eighty man hours to get
one or two people saved, right?
But you know what, we're getting people saved out there.
That's how we reach people.
We go out.
The Bible didn't say wait for them to come to you and bring them in.
He said bring the sheaves with you.
A sheave is an already bundled harvested crop.
We go out and preach the gospel to the lost.
So no, I'm not interested in filling the church with unsaved people, then it ceases
to be the church.
I'm interested in going out among the lost and getting them saved out there, and then
the ones who actually want to take the next steps and come to church and be baptized
and live for God, then yeah, let's bring them in.
Let's disciple them.
But you know what?
A lot of Christians can't handle this church anyway because they're just babies
and they don't want to grow up and they just want to stay in diapers for the next
twenty years spiritually and never grow spiritually or do anything for God, right?
This is big boy church.
Some people can't handle it.
And so the point is that this attitude that just says, oh, let's have hippie music, hippie
ethos, let's pattern our church after the hippies, and then oh wow, huge, huge success.
Thousands of people coming to the church.
Oh, isn't it so wonderful?
Old faggoty Lonnie Frisbee out there dunking person after person in the Pacific Ocean.
Here's the thing, an evil tree can't bring forth good fruit.
So you're going to tell me that that's good fruit that old faggot Frisbee is producing
out there in the ocean?
No, it's fruit, all right?
He's a fruit.
Tutti Frutti is what he is, okay?
He's out there producing bad fruit because he's an evil tree.
And you know what?
The Bible says that it's a shame for a man to have long hair and that a man who prays
or prophesies having long hair dishonors his head, which is Christ.
Study 1 Corinthians 11.
I was going to go over it with you right now, I don't have time, but I've gone over
it in many sermons and gone through 1 Corinthians 11 and taught that.
It's all right there in the chapter.
Okay, and here's the thing that Chuck Smith didn't know.
It's not Chuck Smith's fault.
Well, you know what?
Why is Chuck Smith putting a long-haired hippie behind his pulpit?
Because here's an idea, Chuck Smith, if you hadn't put a long-haired hippie behind
your pulpit when the Bible says that it dishonors Christ, then you wouldn't have
accidentally put a faggot behind your pulpit, would you?
Think about it.
If Chuck Smith would have obeyed God in the first place and actually followed what
the Bible said, then he wouldn't have accidentally teamed up with this queer, right?
So no, it's not like, oh, I didn't know, I didn't mean to.
That's like when somebody goes out and just starts firing a machine gun into a crowd
and says, I wasn't trying to kill anybody.
Or somebody gets in the car and drives drunk and then they run over someone and
they say, well, I didn't set out to kill anyone.
Of course you didn't.
But here's the thing, if you hadn't been driving drunk, that person wouldn't have died.
And so therefore, because you did wrong, you didn't commit murder, but you did drive
drunk.
You didn't commit murder, but you drove drunk and someone died.
So what are they going to charge you with?
Manslaughter, manslaughter, right?
So yeah.
So did Chuck Smith commit the crime of knowingly having a sodomite preaching and running his
church and building his ministry teamed up with a sodomite?
No, but he did commit doctrine slaughter, okay?
Because what did he do?
He ended up teaming up with a guy who's a long haired hippie, which is not biblical.
And look, the hippie movement was not of God.
What's the hippie movement about?
Drugs, not working, fornication, make love, not war.
Listen to the hippies talk.
If you watch old video footage, they don't have jobs, they don't work, they're lazy,
they're rebellious, they're rebelling against their parents, they're runaways from their
parents.
So is Chuck Smith telling them, hey, go home to your parents, go and sin no more, is what
Jesus said, right?
Hey, why don't you go home to your parents, take a bath, get a haircut, cut your fingernails,
get a job, go to church.
No, no, no.
Instead it's like, oh, you're going to turn a whole new direction in your life and,
you know, we're going to have a hippie church for you so that it feels like what
you wanted in the first place, to be a lazy, dirty, smelly hippie, but you can do it here
with us.
And isn't it ironic that the people who teach the works-based salvation are the ones who
basically have the loosest standards?
And then the ones like me who say that it's free and that you don't have to do
any works, you don't have to keep any commandments to be saved, you just have to
believe in Jesus, we're the ones who have all the rules.
Isn't that ironic?
You know why?
We have a bunch of rules that you do because you want to please God.
Not because you have to, not because you're forced to, but because you want to, because
you love God, and if you love me, keep my commandments, is what Jesus said.
Whereas the work salvation crowd is like, well you have to, you know, change the
direction of your life so they have to make it real easy for people since their
teaching is by works.
So they got to set the bar real low to make sure that the dirtiest, smelliest sodomite
hippie can still make the cut, and still make it to heaven, right?
I mean who here thinks that Lonnie Frisbee right now is up in heaven listening to me,
hearing the sermon right now, and just shaking his head like, bro, you just don't
get it.
Who thinks he's burning in hell right now as a reprobate, the false prophet that he
was?
And folks, I don't even have time, I mean I'm out of time.
Because I haven't even got to Chuck Smith.
I mean we're talking about Greg Laurie, we're talking about Lonnie Frisbee.
How about the third person in this trifecta, Chuck Smith, who by the way, what kind
of pastor was he?
Right?
Because remember his languishing church, according to promotional materials?
What kind of church was he?
Is he a Baptist, pastor, Christian pastor?
What is he?
Oh, he's a pastor in the denomination known as Foursquare, because it was started
by a female preacher, Sister Amy.
Sister Amy had a vision, this charismatic of the early 20th century, Sister Amy had
a vision of a Foursquare gospel.
Well you know what it is?
It's another gospel.
So let Sister Amy be accursed.
But this Sister Amy founded this holy roller, rolling in the aisles, barking like a dog,
charismatic garbage known as Foursquare, okay?
This wicked, charismatic denomination, false teaching, false doctrine, not even close to
being Baptist or the gospel or anything like that.
But Chuck Smith, you know, that's what he came out of.
He came out of Foursquare, he pastored a Foursquare church, then his church left
the denomination to start their own movement and they brought in the hippies and the
rest is history, the Jesus people, the Jesus movement, and exploded into what we know now
as the Calvary Chapel phenomenon.
Now look, let me say this.
You know, first of all, I think you see why I'm against this movie.
Because the main character is a literal homo.
Like we could have just closed our Bibles and went home at that point, okay?
The hero of the story that's baptizing everybody is a homo, before, during, and after he's
doing those baptisms, okay?
On the record.
But here's the thing about that, okay?
I do want to say this, okay?
I don't want you to misunderstand me, I'm not saying that everybody who goes to Calvary
Chapel isn't saved.
Because Calvary Chapel preaches so little doctrine that people who go to Calvary Chapel
believe all different things.
And so look, I believe that there are some good saved Christians who do go to Calvary
Chapel.
I've gone out soul-winding and knocked doors, and I've talked to people that went to various
Calvary Chapels that were very clear on salvation.
They definitely believed the Gospel.
And when I asked them how they knew they were going to Heaven, they didn't say, oh,
because I turned my life around and got the sin out of my life.
No, they said, hey, I'm going to Heaven because I believe in Jesus and it was all by faith.
They trust Jesus.
I know that there are a lot of saved people who go to Calvary Chapel.
I've had relatives and friends that have gone to Calvary Chapel, and look, some Calvary
Chapels are a lot worse than others because it's kind of a loose denomination.
So we've knocked all the doors around the Calvary Chapel in Tempe, and every single
person gave us the wrong answer on salvation.
They all said either that they didn't know if they were going to Heaven, or I hope
so, I'm living a good life, or you could lose your salvation.
Everything works based all the time.
But then there were other Calvary Chapels in other parts of the valley, I don't remember
which ones, where we knocked the doors and everybody from that Calvary Chapel seemed
to be giving us the right answer.
So it's a mixed bag.
I'm not condemning all of these pastors or members in the Calvary Chapel movement, but
let me tell you this though, the movement itself is a rotten movement.
It started from a rotten foundation, rotten people, Chuck Smith's rotten, Greg Laurie's
rotten, Lonnie Frisbee's rotten, these three people are rotten people, they're wicked
people, and you know what they've done is they've corrupted Christianity in this
nation so that it used to be that churches were places where you went and it was about
worshipping God, it was about reading the Bible, and people actually went there to
be different than this world, not to be conformed to the world.
They went to be transformed by the renewing of their mind not to be conformed.
Now the biggest churches in America now are what?
Calvary Chapel type churches.
Now they're not Calvary Chapels, but they're churches that have been influenced by that
same mentality.
And so they have names like Adventure Church, Sandals Church, Excitement Church, Saddleback
Church, what else are they called?
Inchurch.
The Grove, yeah.
The Rock Church.
They have these names, and I'm not making these up, these are all real church names.
When I was a teenager, a lot of my friends went to Adventure Church, it was called Adventure
Church.
Why?
Because they've been influenced by this rotten movement, and did this movement, oh
it's going to bring in so many people, look at all these thousands of people that
Loni Frisbee's baptizing, oh it's so great.
So has our nation become more Christian since this third great awakening?
Has our nation gotten more Christian?
What's the fruit of it?
The fruit of it is fruit, it's fruits.
Our country's getting more wicked, more sinful, churches are getting weaker, and in
the long run, less people are going to church because the church got so worldly, at some
point it's just like why even bother anymore if it gets that worldly, what's even the point?
And so let me just tell you something, our church isn't changing.
We're not changing.
You say, well I don't think your music's cool.
Well I don't really care if you like our music or not!
Well why you gotta wear a suit and tie, you know, why don't you just get a little
more laid back, man?
You know what?
Because I don't really care, that's why.
Because I'm not trying to make some kind of an impression on young people so that they
can feel like, I'm here for you, and I'm going to do what you want me to do.
Let me dress in a way that pleases you, and let me tailor everything to your Gen Z
music and culture and clothing, and let me have your hair, no no no, you know what?
Hey, you're in our house.
It's for us, by us.
And here's why I'm going to continue wearing a shirt and tie.
Not because I have to, there's nothing in the Bible that says I have to wear a shirt
and tie.
You know why I'm going to keep wearing a shirt and tie?
Because I don't really care, because it doesn't matter what I'm wearing, because if changing
what I'm wearing is going to bring in people, I don't want those people.
I want people to be here for one thing and it's not my wardrobe.
Like me putting on some tight t-shirt, with me wearing some tight t-shirt and ripped up
jeans and kind of walking around on a bar stool up here.
If that brings you in, then just don't even come in.
Because you know what?
The people that are here listening to me preach right now, they're here because they
want to hear the Word of God, and I could be up here in coveralls, I could be dressed
like a mechanic right now in coveralls with a big wrench in my hand, and they would still
be here listening to me preach because they don't care what I look like, they don't
care how I wear my hair, they don't care what clothes I'm wearing, they don't care
if I'm cool or not, they want to hear the Word of God.
They don't care if I'm cool.
And guess what?
These pastors, they're trying so hard to be cool, they're not.
Anybody who tries to be cool ends up not being cool.
Because coolness is like a cat, you ignore it and it comes to you.
Okay?
Look, I'm not saying it's a doctrine to wear a shirt and tie.
Look, would it be a sin for me to get up here and preach in swim trunks and a t-shirt?
No.
There's nothing in the Bible saying how I need to dress.
But you know what?
I'm putting on a suit and tie because it's, you know what it says when I put on a suit
and tie and come to church and preach?
You know what it says?
It says I mean business.
That's what it says.
You know why I'm wearing this outfit?
It's not to make you happy.
It's not to make your teenagers think I'm cool.
I'm wearing this outfit because I mean business.
And you know what?
I know that you mean business too.
And when you show up for church, we want to get down to business, okay?
And we're about the father's business and he's, oh, business.
Hey, you stinking communist hippie.
Business is not a bad word.
Jesus said, I want to be about my father's business and we're busy working for God.
And so that's why I'm wearing a suit and tie right now because I mean business because
I'm serious because the Bible says that the man of God should be sober.
He should be grave.
Now let me ask you something.
Do I look sober right now?
Do I look grave right now or do I look like a clown right now?
But you know, I've seen some pastors, they look like literal clowns.
They're wearing like neon rimmed glasses like Elton freaking John.
You know what I'm talking about?
They got like a turquoise rimmed glasses and like a turquoise suit and they look like
a stinking clown.
Well, you know what?
I'm sober.
I'm too sober to dress that way.
I'm too grave.
You know what?
You know, if you catch me during the week, you know, you're going to find a lot of
swim trunks and t-shirts and flip flops and you know, my son and I walked in the
gas station the other day and somebody asked me if I was looking for the beach, okay?
Because it was like 40 something degrees outside and I was wearing flip flops, swim trunks
and a t-shirt.
But you know what?
I'm not wearing flip flops, swim trunks and a t-shirt right now.
You know what?
Because I'm being serious right now.
I'm down to business right now.
I'm taking it seriously.
I'm being sober.
That's all I care about because it's not about gimmicks.
At the end of the day, it's about the Holy Spirit and the word of God.
And you know what?
If Jesus built, didn't build the church, I'm not interested.
I want to pastor a church built by Jesus.
I want to pastor a church built by the word of God, by the preaching of God's word,
by the Holy Spirit and prayer.
And if we have to bring in hippies, then apparently the spirit of God can't get it done.
We have to somehow bring in this new thing.
Hey, read my book about how to, you know, look, we don't need any new methods.
What we need to do is just keep on preaching the gospel, keep winning souls and nuts
to this Jesus revolution.
Give me the old time religion.
Spout our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Thank you that you never change.
And Lord God, I pray that you would help us to continue to stay by the stuff in 2023
and not to give in to social and societal pressures to weaken and water down our message,
Lord.
Help us to stay true to the old time religion.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.