Man, the title of the sermon this morning is What You Need, What You Need.
Now people don't always know what they need.
You don't know all the time what you actually need.
I don't always know what I need, but God knows what you need.
The Word of God tells us what we need, and a good preacher will tell you what you need.
Not necessarily what you want, but what you need.
Now the first point I want to make this morning is that unsaved people don't know what they
need, and this is why they're called lost.
Now look down at your Bible there in verse 9.
It says, What then?
Are we better than they?
No, and no lies.
For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they were all under sin.
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.
There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God.
They're all gone out of the way.
They're together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one.
So man in his natural sinful condition, just going through life, doesn't understand the
things of God, and he's not seeking after the true God of the Bible.
Oftentimes he's just going about his life, or going after a false god, or just not caring
about God, and just eating, and drinking, and being married.
That's why we need to preach the word of God, and proclaim the word of God to people, because
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
And if we will preach the word, and plant a seed in people's heart, then they'll begin
to be interested, and then they can begin to seek the Lord, and begin to fall after
him.
But every person in this world isn't just out there understanding the gospel, and you
know, looking for it, or just deciding, well, I understand it, but I don't want it.
Look, people are in ignorance today.
They're lost.
They're totally in the dark today, and we need to shine the glorious light of the gospel.
Look, the Bible says if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, whom the God
of this world, referring to the devil, the God of this world, has blinded the minds of
them that believe not.
And so the Bible says in Luke chapter 19, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to
save that which was lost.
Now flip over to Acts chapter 17, and I want you to let that statement sink in that Jesus
made, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
And the part I want to emphasize is the seek part.
Seek means to search out, to go look for, okay?
To seek and to save is what Christ came to do, and to seek and to save is what Christ
has commanded us to do.
We're not to sit here and wait for people to come to us and just assume that they're
going to know what they need, or assume that they even know that they have a need, or assume
that they even know that they're lost.
No, people don't know what they need.
Unsafe people don't necessarily even know that they're not safe.
They don't know what the need is.
They don't even know the danger that they face of dying without the Lord Jesus Christ
their Savior.
We've got to go seek them out and save them.
We've got to go and bring them the Gospel so that they can look to Jesus and be saved.
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
That's why the message of the Gospel is always go.
Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost.
Go, Son, work today in my vineyard.
Go into the highways and hedges and compel them to command that my house may be filled.
Not be ready for them to come to you and just sit and wait and the people will come.
If you build it, they will come, right?
No.
You've got to go seek and to save the lost to follow Christ's command.
Now what do the apartments and the police tell us?
Can the police try to shut down our evangelism or tell us, hey, you can't knock doors here
or you can't go soul winning here.
You've got to do this somewhere else.
I've been told the same thing many times by the police.
They said, well, if people want to find out more about your church or if they want to
come to your church or if they want to hear the preaching of God's Word, they're going
to have to come to you.
Who's ever heard somebody tell them that out there with police or some apartment manager
or something like that that will come at you with that?
But the problem is they don't know what they need.
They don't know that they're interested yet because they haven't heard the preaching yet.
They haven't heard the Gospel yet.
So people aren't just necessarily sitting around in their houses and apartments saying,
boy, I wonder if I'm going to go to heaven when I die.
I wonder if I'm saved.
I wonder what we have to do to be saved.
Now there are some people like that.
It's pretty cool when you're out soul winning, knocking doors and you run into people that
say, wow, I was just thinking about this.
I was just praying about this.
I've been really worried about this.
Boy, you love those doors.
But there are other times when somebody's just going through their life without a care
in the world.
Like Brother Donnie Romero, you know, when he was saved, was playing a video game.
And I hope I don't get the story wrong.
I believe that's the correct story.
But Pastor Donnie Romero, before he was Pastor Donnie Romero, was just a young guy playing
a video game.
The pastor knocked on his door for soul winning.
And I think he even continued playing the game for part of the time while the pastor's
preaching to him.
Okay?
So this guy's not just seeking God and just really super interested in the things of God.
But no, the pastor came and brought it to him and sat down with him, shut off the game,
and preached to him the gospel, and he got saved as a result of door-to-door soul winning.
He was reached through that door-to-door soul winning.
Now did he right away get baptized, join the church, and change his life around?
No.
For about four years, he didn't get in church and he pretty much continued to live his life
the way he'd been living before that, but he was saved.
And he knew he was saved and he had the Holy Spirit inside of him.
But then after four years, he finally got in church and began to grow.
And I could tell you testimony after testimony about people who got saved and it took them
many years before they got in church.
Pastor David Berzins was like that, where he was nine years from when he got saved to
when he got baptized, joined the church, started living for God.
And that whole time, he knew he was saved.
That whole time, the Holy Spirit was living inside of him because they were not saved
by works.
They were saved by faith.
And they believed and they got saved, but people brought them the gospel.
Okay?
They didn't just wait for them to come to them.
Now look at Acts 17, verse 32.
This is after Paul has just finished preaching to the crowd and it gives the people's response
to Paul's preaching of the gospel.
And when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.
So some people made fun of the gospel and thought it was foolish.
Others said, we will hear thee again of this matter.
So Paul departed from among them, howbeit certain men clave unto him and believed, among
the which was Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
So these are three possible reactions to the preaching of the gospel, right?
The gospel is preached and there's a certain element that just scoffs at it, blows it off,
doesn't believe in it.
There's another element that's not sure and they say, well, you know, we'll hear you again
on this matter.
I need to think about it.
I need to digest it.
And look, when you give someone the gospel and that's their reaction, that's not rejecting
the gospel at that point.
I mean, you know, that person is someone that's likely to get saved down the road.
So don't be rude to that person or mistreat that person because they're not getting saved
right then and there.
Obviously, we want to encourage people to get saved immediately because now is the day
of salvation.
But there are going to be some people that just aren't ready to take that step when they
first hear the gospel.
So they're going to say, hey, we'll hear you again of this matter.
And then there's the third group that believes right then and there.
I mean, the first time they hear the gospel preached, they believe in it and they get
saved.
The people who get saved, the people who don't get saved, and then the people that are sort
of undecided, right?
So I was talking to this guy and if you would flip over to the book of Jude.
I was talking to this guy the other day and he was a Calvinist.
He was one of those who believes that, you know, God decides who goes to heaven and who
goes to hell and it's already all been predetermined by God.
So if anyone gets saved, it's because God made them get saved.
And other people who didn't get saved, it's because God didn't do that work in their heart.
So they don't believe that it's a decision based on our free will whether or not we get
saved.
They think it's just, well, you're either going to get saved or not and it's really
nothing up to you.
It's all up to God, which is a ridiculous doctrine, very foolish doctrine.
It's contrary to scripture.
It's contrary to common sense.
It's a very weird doctrine.
Sometimes it's known as Reformed Theology or Calvinism or Predestination Doctrine.
We don't believe in it at all around here and I'm not going to preach a whole sermon
against Calvinism, but this guy, he believed that way and here's what he said to me.
He said, yeah, but Pastor Anderson, you know, because I was quoting him scripture defeating
Calvinism.
He said, but haven't you just noticed that when you're out evangelizing, when you're
out giving people the gospel, there are some people who are just interested and they just
receive it and, you know, like these people in the story who got saved right away and
they just have a desire to hear God's word and they are just hungry for it.
He said, you know, that's the people that God chose.
That's the elect.
That's the people who God gave them the grace and then he said, have you noticed that other
people when you give them the gospel, they just have no interest and they're just not
interested at all.
That's because they're not the chosen, you know, they don't have that grace.
And I told him, I said, yeah, but wait a minute, what about the people that we give the gospel
to?
And they have zero interest.
They're not craving or looking for it or seeking it or whatever, but then we keep hitting them
with the gospel anyway.
We keep preaching to them.
People keep talking to them.
People pray for them or even fast for them and then those people end up getting saved.
The hard cases.
What about that?
See, the Calvinist would just talk to somebody and say, oh, this guy's not interested in
spiritual things.
He's just not one of the elect.
We'd say, hey, let's pray for that guy.
Let's talk to that guy a little more.
Maybe someone else can talk to him or maybe we can give him some other preaching to listen
to or something.
You know, some people, they don't have any interest, but through hearing the word of
God, through seeing the testimonies of those around them, good examples of Christians
around them, positive influences on them in that way or through prayer or fasting, a lot
of times those people can be reached.
That's why I love this scripture in Jude.
Look down at your Bible.
Jude 22 says, and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear,
pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
You know, there are some people that you pull them out of the fire, you know, and you work
hard to compel them to come in.
Like Agrippa said to Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, right?
So we don't just sit there and say, well, you know, either people are going to receive
it or they're not.
Just kind of sit back and let it happen.
No, let's try to persuade some people to get saved.
Let's preach it to them.
Let's give them another chance.
Let's spend some time praying for them and not just write them off as not elect.
No, I have not had that experience of just, well, they're either into it or they're not
because I've seen a lot of people who were not into it at all and they got into it, amen,
through the influence of the people around them, preaching to them, loving them, caring
about them, being a good influence on them.
And so let's pull them out of the fire, amen.
What's the title of the sermon?
What you need.
A lot of times people don't know what they need.
Lost people don't know what they need.
Unsaved people don't know what they need.
We have to come to them and tell them what the problem is and then tell them what the
solution is.
Many times we have to get them lost before we can get them saved.
We have to get them to see that they're lost so that they can even see the need for the
Savior.
So people don't know what they need, do they?
What did Jesus say when he was on the cross?
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
People don't know.
They just simply don't even know what they need.
Number two, turn to Revelation chapter three, backslidden Christians don't know what they
need, okay?
Number one, we said that unsaved people don't know what they need.
But not only that, backslidden Christians do not know what they need, okay?
They don't know what the problem is often, let alone do they know what the solution is.
Look at Revelation chapter three, verse 14, and under the angel of the church of the Laodiceans
write, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God.
I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot.
I would thou work cold or hot, so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot,
I will spew thee out of my mouth.
So he's using an illustration of a beverage.
People like to drink a cold beverage, maybe a hot, a cold iced coffee, or they would like
a hot coffee, but they don't want the lukewarm beverage.
So the image is of someone taking a sip of something or tasting something and then spitting
it out like, yeah, this is lukewarm, this is not cold or this is not hot, it's not what
I expected, okay?
So he says, you're lukewarm, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth.
And by the way, he's not saying that they're going to lose their salvation, okay?
You can't lose your salvation.
God gives unto them eternal life, they shall never perish.
No man shall pluck them out of God's hand.
Jesus said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Our sins are gone and separated us as far as the east is from the west.
But what it's saying is that he'll be disgusted with you.
The idea of being spat out of his mouth is like, ugh, gross.
You know, God takes a taste of certain churches, certain congregations, certain Christians,
and he's disgusted by the fact that they're so lukewarm, that they're so watered down.
It gives a bad taste in his mouth, okay?
And so he's saying here in this passage, too, that the churches that don't repent are going
to get their candlestick removed, meaning that they're going to cease to be a church
that God is using or where God is dwelling there, okay?
And that's similar to this thing of being spewed out of his mouth.
It has nothing to do with the personal salvation of the individual who has believed in Christ.
But the Bible says that the reason why he's going to spew them out of his mouth, in verse
17, he says, because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of
nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
Let me ask you something.
Do these people know what they need?
They don't even know what they need.
They think that they're doing great.
They don't know that they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
And then it says in verse 18, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou
mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
Look, why does he have to tell them that he's standing at the door and knocking?
Because they don't know that he's standing at the door and knocking.
They don't know that they're naked.
They don't know that they're miserable, that they're poor.
They don't know that they're blind.
He's saying, look, let me tell you what you need to buy.
Let me tell you what you need to get.
Let me tell you what you need.
You don't know what you need.
I'll tell you what you need.
You need to be rebuked, and you need to be chastened.
You know, a lot of people that are just lukewarm, watered down, they're in a comfortable church,
where it's not too hot, it's not too cold, it's just a perfect Goldilocks temperature
in that church.
You know, they're sitting there, and if you ask them, what do you need?
What do you need God to do for you?
Or what do you need the preacher to do for you?
You know what they'd probably say?
Oh, I just need a little more money.
Or I just need, you know, this obstacle in my life removed.
Or I just need more blessings on my business.
Or I just need this health problem removed.
What do you need the pastor to do?
Oh, I just need him to encourage me, and lift me up, and edify me, and build me up.
They're not going to say, you know, I think I need the pastor to just really give me a
swift kick in the pants.
I think I just need somebody to rebuke me.
You know, I just need chastening.
I mean, how many times have your children come to you and said, Mom, would you spank
me?
Dad, would you please spank me?
I am in need of chastening.
Tell me I'm wrong.
You know, just chew me out.
Rebuke me.
Chasing me.
People that need to be rebuked and chastened usually don't know that they need to be rebuked
and chastened.
They don't know what they need.
Now, children often need a spanking, but they don't know that they need it.
Christians often need a face-ripping sermon or to be preached at, but they often don't
know that that's what they need.
People don't know what they need.
Backslidden Christians don't know what they need.
Go to Proverbs chapter 4.
Proverbs chapter number 4.
So I was on a little missions trip this week.
I'm not going to say where I was because of the fact that I have a little game or a little
contest going on on my blog right now for people to look at pictures and guess where
I was.
So if you want to know, just come up to me after the service.
I'll tell you where I was, but then you've just been disqualified from the contest, all
right, because the contest is for people who don't know.
So I don't want to spoil the fun for people that have guessed or are going to guess on
my blog where I was.
But I was in basically a country that's, I don't want to say it's a third world country,
but it's one of the developing nations, a little bit less developed, right?
So we're down there and the radio is big down there.
Not a lot of great internet bandwidth available in a lot of places, so they really listen
to the radio down there and they only have a few radio stations and there's one station
that's kind of just the big radio station that everybody's listening to.
I mean, everywhere we went, everybody was listening to this radio station.
It was just everywhere, okay?
Well, because this country has a religious atmosphere to it to some extent, they block
out from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. for religious programming.
So they're playing a lot of Christian music and having a lot of preaching on there from
3 to 8.
And a lot of people told us they start listening to it every morning at 3 because people tend
to get up pretty early there.
So a lot of people are saying, yeah, I'm up at 3.
I flip that thing on every morning at 3 and I plow through and that just plays as I go
through my morning and do my chores and drive to work, whatever.
So I mean, this thing was everywhere.
So the preaching that they have on there was Joel Osteen, TD Jakes, John Hagee, okay?
Those are the main preachers that they have every day and then they featured some others.
But it was that type of televangelist type of preacher that was on there.
So the house that I was staying in, they had this thing playing in the morning.
So I was listening to Joel Osteen every morning.
So if you wonder why I'm in such a good mood, it was all that encouragement, you know.
Joel has really been encouraging me and motivating me in such a positive message.
So I, you know, and I heard some of TD Jakes as well.
I'd never heard TD Jakes preach before.
Wow, that was weird.
I've seen him do interviews and stuff.
I knew he's a false teacher.
By the way, a lot of people don't know he's a oneness Pentecostal.
You know, defying irony, TD Jakes on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
That's ironic.
Okay.
And now I think he's kind of watered down and has like a half Trinitarian view because
he was getting so much flack about being oneness.
But anyway, you know, you listen to this stuff, it's not what people need down there.
I mean, we're going through the streets of the city and drinking is everywhere.
I mean, just everybody's drinking just so much alcohol.
You know, there are a lot of sins that need to be preached against.
That's not what you're hearing though.
And then we talked to people about the gospel and we asked them, do you know for sure that
you're going to heaven?
And almost everybody said, no, I don't know if I'm going to heaven.
Or if we asked them, what does a person have to do to get to heaven?
They told us, live a good life, serve God, keep the commandments, be good.
Just a total workspace salvation, not salvation through faith in Jesus as we just read in
Romans chapter three.
And so, you know, as I'm listening to these radio preachers playing in the morning, you
know, Joel Osteen's message was just a really positive message about just, you know, just
get along with people and be nice and it was just really a soft watered down thing.
And then when you get to TD Jakes, okay, let me just describe for you TD Jakes preaching,
okay, for those of you who haven't heard it, because I heard a sample of it on the radio
down there and he has a half hour slot, okay?
And basically, if I went to somebody and said, hey, can you make like a parody or a spoof
or a comedy making fun of black preachers?
You know what I mean?
Like a comedy routine where you just do your wildest, silliest, crazy impression of a black
preacher, charismatic, holy roller kind of a woo kind of a preacher.
But just go crazy, just over the top, make it ridiculous.
That's what it was like listening to TD Jakes.
He starts out and he spends just a few minutes talking about a Bible story.
Then he just goes berserk for like 20 minutes straight where they're just playing music
and just dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
I mean they're just slamming drums and playing music and he's just working up the crowd into
a frenzy and you hear all these women in the crowd just woo, yeah, you know.
I mean it was like, it was wilder than any concert I ever went to.
You know, I went to some rock concerts as a teenager.
I'd never been anything this wild.
I mean he's just up there, yeah.
And literally for 20 minutes he yelled but he wasn't saying anything.
There's no doctrine.
You're not learning the Bible.
You're not learning doctrine.
He's not preaching against sin.
I mean he's, but he just for 20 minutes he just said, you know, God is going to do something
that he's never done before.
I mean I'm talking it's going to be something that has never happened before.
Woo!
It's going to be something that's never been seen.
I mean it's going to go to a whole new level.
I mean you're going to step out in faith and it's going to be something brand new.
It was like an infomercial where they never tell you what the product is.
You know and I, forgive me if I can't remember exactly what it was about because it wasn't
about anything.
He was just getting up and just yelling.
It's going to be huge.
It's going to be big.
You know, God is going to do something that no one has ever even thought possible.
And everybody's woo!
It was weird.
Isaac, am I exaggerating?
Isaac was there.
He just whips up the crowd into a frenzy.
And then at the very end he's got like three or four minutes left.
He kind of calms down and revisits that Bible story.
And then it's over.
I was like, what?
I was like, who listens to this?
Now I don't know if his preaching is always like that but it was super weird.
I was blown away by it.
Bottom line is these people are not getting biblical teaching.
Somebody's not going verse by verse through the Bible teaching these people the Word of
God.
It's either a big wild pep rally or it's just Joel telling you, in a time of need, sew the
seed.
Amen?
You know, and just kind of giving them all these little sayings.
Let me just break down Joel's sermon.
His sermon was pretty much just, you know, I'm constantly wrong about things and my wife's
always right and I just need to listen to her and do what she says.
When my wife disagrees with me, it's just not worth fighting with her so I just need
to do it her way all the time.
And she's always right anyway 100% of the time and he's just giving illustrations, yeah,
we got lost in the car.
She was right all along.
I wanted to wash my hands in the kitchen.
She didn't like me washing my hands in the kitchen so I'm never going to wash my hands
in the kitchen again.
I was just like, did you hear that one too, Isaac?
Yeah, man, Isaac has been indoctrinated.
He knows his ulstein now.
And there was this illustration after illustration, just, you know, we've got, and then he's quoting
these Bible verses but you can't even recognize them as being from the Bible because they're
not King James.
So it's like the Bible says that we have got to adapt and adjust.
So in order to keep the peace, adapt and adjust.
So he said, you know, I'd get home from the gym all sweaty and every once in a while my
wife would tell me, boy, Joel, I just sure wish you wouldn't wash your hands in the sink,
Joel.
I just wish you wouldn't put all that sweat around where all the food is and everything
like that.
But I just, you know, and I, you know, and then finally the Lord spoke to me and just
told me, Joel, just walk a little further and go wash your hands in the bathroom, Joel,
because you got to adapt and adjust.
I mean, it's just like, it's just, and you can verify this stuff with Isaac.
All right.
This is what we heard all week.
So yeah, look, but that's what people want.
Look, how many doors have you knocked where people say, Oh, I love Joel's, I listened
to Joel's.
I mean, all the time, but people eat up.
That's I mean, TD Jakes is huge and I'm not just saying that he's overweight.
I mean, TD Jakes is huge.
I mean, he's popular, you know, Joel's things popular, John Hagee's popular.
Okay.
I mean, look, people eat this stuff up.
Why?
Because they don't know what they need.
Same reason why they eat up all the junk food, junk, fast food places are the most popular
restaurants in America because people don't know what they need.
Okay.
So yeah, I lost everybody on that point.
Okay.
All right.
Proverbs chapter four.
Oh, and by the way, so I went down there on Friday to that radio station, you know, the
radio station that everybody's listening to.
I went down there and plunk down a big stack of cash on the table and said, I want my sermons
playing every morning.
So then the next morning I played between TD Jakes and Joel Osteen and we're on the
radio every day down there now for a half hour from 5 30 AM to 6 AM.
So we'll see how long that party lasts, but I'm, I'm hoping to just hit him every day
for the next six months at least with the preaching of God's word.
Cause I mean, tens of thousands of people are tuned in, maybe even more than a hundred
thousand people.
I mean, it's, everybody was listening to it as a nationwide radio station in the unnamed
country.
And so we literally turn on the radio the next morning after we went and paid for airtime
and we literally heard it roll from TD Jakes.
He got them all hyped up.
Wow.
And it's like, all right, here's pastor Anderson, you can actually learn something.
So, and then Joel will like comfort them afterward.
So TD Jakes, so kind of whip them up into a frenzy and then they're ready to get the
sermon for pastor Anderson.
And then Joel, you know, when they're, if they're a little bit, you know, upset or perturbed
by the hard preaching, Joel will kind of come in and put a bandaid on it for him.
I think it's a perfect lineup.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, the perfect lineup would be like pastor Joe major, you know, pastor Anderson roll
into brother Jimenez, brother Mejia, but anyway, all right, I got to move on.
Proverbs chapter four verse 18 says, but the path of the just is as the shining light that
shine is more and more under the perfect day.
Watch this.
The way of the wicked is as darkness.
They know not at what they stumble.
See wicked people.
They're in the dark.
The Bible says, and they don't even know what they're stumbling at.
Now a lot of people out in this world, they know that they have a problem.
They know that their life is wrong.
They know that their heart is wrong.
They know that their family is wrong and a lot of people are stumbling through life frustrated
and they're in the dark, but you know what?
They don't know.
They don't know what they stumble at.
They need somebody to tell them what the problem is.
They need somebody to take the word of God and say, here's your problem and here's your
solution from the word of God.
Okay.
They don't know at what they stumble.
The Bible says now flip over to Luke five.
So point number one was that unsaved people don't know what they need.
Number two, we said backslidden Christians don't know what they need and you know, in
places where these radio preachers and TV preachers are playing, you got a mixture of
unsaved people and backslidden Christians eating this stuff up and they think it's what
they need.
They think, oh man, this really helps me.
I listen to this every morning.
This is what I need, but it's not what they need.
They think it's what they need.
They need somebody to come tell them, no, actually here's what you need.
Okay.
So number three, it's the preacher's job to give you what you need.
The preacher's job is to give you what you need.
Now a preacher is like unto a doctor, okay?
And Jesus actually likened himself unto a doctor in his capacity as a preacher.
Okay.
You're turning to Luke five, but I'll read for you from Matthew nine, 12.
But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick.
Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.
For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
So Christ is calling sinners to repentance and he says that's like being a doctor, right?
Going to the sinner and telling him to change or repent or turn, change his mind or change
his behavior, whatever the context of the repentance is, that's like a doctor, right?
Diagnosing the problem and fixing it or telling the patient how to fix it, amen.
Isn't that what a good doctor would do?
They would diagnose the patient and they give the medicine or tell them, here's what you
need to do.
Here's what you need to change.
Mark 2 17, when Jesus heard it, he sayeth unto them, they that are whole have no need
of the physician, but they that are sick.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Look down at Luke 5 31, and Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
He's saying, look, I'm a doctor, healthy people don't need me.
I'm here to seek and to save the lost, right?
I am here to find those that are sick, spiritually sick, and cure them.
Jesus is the great physician, amen, but when he called himself a physician, the context
of that was in calling sinners to repentance.
That was the context of being a doctor.
So therefore, any preacher who's following in the footsteps of Jesus is like a doctor.
When Jesus sent out the 12 apostles, they're like a doctor.
They're going out and seeking and saving the lost.
They're going out diagnosing the problem and curing it.
That's what a doctor does, right?
Now think about this.
Does a doctor, do you just go to a doctor and just tell the doctor, hi doctor, here's
what I need?
No, just shut up.
I'm not here to hear a diagnosis from you.
I'm going to tell you what I need.
Write me a prescription for X, Y, and Z.
That's not how it works, right?
The doctor, he looks in your ear, he looks at the back of your tongue, he checks the
blood pressure, he checks the blood work, and then he says, all right, I've examined
you.
Let me tell you what your problem is and let me tell you how to fix it, right?
That's what the doctor does.
Now the only exception I can think of is the marijuana doctor, okay?
Now many churches today are like a marijuana dispensary, right?
Because the doctor is supposed to be, you go to him, you're sick, he tells you what's
wrong with you, he gives you the medicine, but the marijuana doctor, you just walk in
and just say, give me what I want.
Give me a prescription for marijuana.
Give me something that I think is going to make me feel good.
That's what we want.
And look, we got Mary Jane Baptist Church where people go there and they just say, give
me something that feels good.
Give me what I want.
And the doctor behind the pulpit, and what's funny is that sometimes pastors even call
themselves doctor, so and so.
Well then they need to start dispensing the medicine and not just be a spiritual marijuana
dispensary where people just show up and get the marijuana that they want, and I guess
that gives a whole new meaning to dispensational.
The dispensary, the dispensary Baptist Church, just yeah, just give me what you want.
Like these prescription websites where you chat with the doctor online and he just prescribes
you marijuana or prescribes you pain pills or prescribes you sleeping pills and you can
buy them from Canada or Mexico or China or whatever.
You know what I'm talking about?
These fake doctors.
That's not a real doctor.
Now go if you would to Hebrews chapter number five.
Hebrews chapter number five, what's the point here?
The point is that preachers have a job to do and that is to give you what you need,
not to give you what you want.
I don't get up in the pulpit and decide what people want to hear.
What's going to be a popular sermon?
What are the people in my church like the most?
What can I do to just kind of work up the crowd or get them happy or get them to like
me or what can I do just to get more people to attend?
What can I do just to get more people to give or just get more people?
No.
What I have to decide as a preacher is what do people need to hear?
What are the problems that are out there?
What are the false doctrines that are out there?
What are the sins that are out there?
What's the medicine that needs to be dispensed or what are the nutritional deficiencies that
people need to have?
That's what we'll serve for dinner.
Okay, we're not just going to serve a dinner of brownies, cupcakes, donuts.
No, we're going to serve what people need.
We're going to get them some protein on their plate, right?
We're going to get them fruits and vegetables.
We're going to make sure that we're giving them all the vitamins and nutrients and minerals
that they need, that they're getting a balanced diet.
That's a preacher's job.
Now think about this.
Do kids make the best decisions about the food that they eat or do their parents make
a better decision about the food that they eat, right?
So kids, they would just roll out of bed and just eat the Pringles and the Snickers and
the Skittles and the chocolate milk, right?
But it's mom and dad's job to put something nutritious on their plate, right?
To give them the eggs and the toast and the bacon and the fruit and whatever that's actually
giving them some nutrition.
Not just junk calories or processed foods and sugars, but actually giving them some
home cooking, amen?
Real food.
And not just letting them just snack all day, but giving them a real breakfast, lunch and
dinner of nutritious food.
Well isn't the pastor the same way?
He's supposed to feed the flock of God.
So does he just ask, well what do you want to hear?
Snickers?
No problem.
Milky Way?
Sure, yeah.
Let's do a whole series through all the candies in the candy aisle.
You know, we got Twizzler on Sunday morning.
We got Abba Zabba on Sunday night.
On Wednesday night, we've got Fifth Avenue and then come back next Sunday morning for
Score and Hershey's and Mr. Goodbar.
And then on Wednesday night, it's going to be Crackle and we're going to just go through
the whole candy aisle, the Sweet Tarts and the, I'm running out of candy, okay.
But see, it's the pastor's job to bring the brussel sprouts, to bring the broccoli, right?
To put down the big slab of liver on your plate.
Get those B vitamins, right?
It's the pastor's job to give you your vegetables, make you eat your salad, okay?
Make you eat something nutritious.
And some of the things, I kind of like it, well tough.
Because you're going to clean your plate or you don't get any dessert, amen?
So, look at Hebrews chapter 5 verse 12 and we see the same illustration.
For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which
be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk
and not of strong meat.
Let me ask you this.
Based on verse 12, did these people know what they needed?
Do they know what they need?
No, so he's having to tell them, look, you need milk.
You need the basics.
You need the milk of the word.
You need foundations.
You need the simple principles, the basic principles.
They thought they needed strong meat and he's telling them, nope, you need milk, okay?
This would be sort of like if you went into a martial arts studio and said, you know,
okay, day one, lesson one, let's do the flying jump kick and then let's roll into the spinning
back fist, right?
And we're going to do all this wild stuff.
And in reality, you go in there and they're going to teach you how to jab and cross, jab
and cross, jab and cross, right?
And you're going to have to learn basics.
Or they might even just spend a long time just working on your footwork or your stance.
You're like, man, this is too basic.
I know this.
Obviously, I know how to throw a jab.
You know, teach me the wild stuff, right?
I want to do the flips and the somersaults and all the exotic work.
Or like when you go to basketball practice, when you first get on the basketball team
and what are you doing?
A bounce pass.
What are you doing?
Layups.
You know, you're not necessarily looking like the Harlem Globetrotters as spinning it around
and, you know, right?
Why?
You learn the basics.
And the team that's going to win is the one that has the fundamentals right, the foundation
right, the principles down.
And that's what he's saying here.
Look, you've got to have, you need the milk of the word.
They thought they wanted dessert, but they need the main course.
They needed something that was basic.
You know, they need a baby bottle in this particular case.
But who is it that decides what they need?
You know, the preacher, his job is to get up and preach what people need to hear.
To give you what you need, not what you want.
And today we have too many preachers that are sending around a survey of what people
want to hear.
What kind of preaching do you want to hear?
What is it that gets the most likes on Facebook or whatever, that gets the most thumbs up
on YouTube?
What is it that's going to make me popular?
You know what?
None of that stuff matters.
A real preacher worth his salt gets up and dispenses the meals that God's people need
to eat and dispenses the medicine that God's people need to take spiritually and he doesn't
care what they want, but he cares a lot what they need, what they need.
And you know what?
I was joking about the false teachers that are on the radio in all these various places,
but you know, the biggest problem with Joel Osteen is not anything that he says, it's
what he doesn't say.
I mean, think about it.
If you listen to Joel Osteen, you'll probably agree with 99% of what he says.
I mean, if Joel Osteen gets up and tells you, isn't God good, yeah, he's good, yeah.
Don't you just love Jesus?
Yeah, I do actually.
This is my Bible.
It is what he tells me it is.
I am what it says I am.
I can do what, yeah, I agree with all that.
Yeah, that is my Bible.
I am what it says I am or whatever his spiel is.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
You know?
Yeah.
Here's the thing.
If you listen to these guys, yeah, you're going to agree with 99% of it because there's
just nothing there.
He's not giving them much false doctrine because he's just not giving them doctrine.
So it's just, you know, there's just nothing there, okay?
So the problem with most preachers is not what they say.
It's what they don't say because they're leaving out 80% of the Bible, 90% of the Bible.
They're leaving out 90% of the message.
And so we have people that are spiritually anemic or deficient.
They're not getting any spiritual iron in their diet.
They're not getting any vitamin C. They're not getting vitamin A. They're not getting
vitamin D. They're sick today because they do not get any nutrition because they just
go to breakfast, lunch, and dinner and it's just candy and sweets and there's no real
nutrients there, okay?
So lastly this, go to Matthew Chapter 6, the last point.
The first point was unsaved people don't know what they need.
That's why we can't wait for them to come to us.
We can't just wait for them to Google it.
We can't wait for them to go find us on YouTube.
They're not looking for us on YouTube.
You know what they're looking for on YouTube?
They're actually looking for pop music.
They're actually looking for Hollywood movies to watch on YouTube, right?
They're actually looking for prank videos.
They're looking for fail videos.
They're looking for comedy videos.
They're looking for cheap entertainment.
They're not typing in Baptist preaching.
They're not typing in the Trinity.
They're not typing in Bible way to heaven.
They're typing in funny video, entertain me, right, or celebrity gossip.
That's what they're typing in, friend.
They don't know what they need.
We've got to go to them, knock on their door, or approach them in our personal lives and
go up to people and say, hey, let me tell you about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Are you a Christian?
Do you know for sure if you died today you'd go to heaven?
May I show you from the Bible?
Well, hey, listen, you don't have time?
Okay.
Well, here's a card with some videos.
Later on when you do have time, watch this video, The Bible Way to Heaven.
It's eight minutes long.
Watch that video, right?
Put that bug in their ear.
Say, hey, can I leave you with one Bible verse?
Leave them with a Bible verse.
Leave them with a card.
Put something in their mind.
Preach something to them, and then that seed can germinate, and pretty soon they'll start
to realize, you know what?
I need that.
But at this moment, most people don't know what they need.
Number two, backslidden Christians, they don't know what they need.
They think they need encouragement.
I mean, how many Christians have I heard say, you know, I go to church on Sunday morning,
and I just need that encouragement to get me through the week.
They're on life support spiritually.
They're limping along, and they're just dragging, and they're just like, if I could just make
it till Sunday, and I can just get that.
Okay, I'm not going to dehydrate.
I can just make it a little groovy.
Right?
That's what they do.
Right?
And what they really need is to go to Faithful Word.
Faithful Word.
Amen.
Right?
That's what they need.
There's no reason to go thirsty.
There's no reason to go to some church that puts a little grain of rice on your plate.
Come down to Faithful Word cafeteria, and we're going to load up your plate.
And then when you come to church, you're not going to be like, oh, I just need that little
bit of encouragement to get me through the week.
You're going to say, I don't need any encouragement.
I feel great.
Rip my face.
Or you're going to come to church and say, you know what?
I feel great.
Teach me doctrine.
Let's go deep in the Word, because you know what?
I'm already encouraged.
Teach me the book of Jeremiah.
Teach me the book of Ezekiel.
Teach me the minor prophet.
Well, don't you need some encouragement from Joel?
Nope.
I'm already feeling good today.
I don't know about you.
I don't wake up every day just depressed, needing Joel to give me a pep talk.
I don't wake up every morning like, oh, man, I hate my life.
Please, Joel, give me something to get me going today.
I don't need that.
I wake up in the morning, and I pull out my Bible, and I read it because I want to learn
more.
I'm already feeling good.
I'm already praising God.
My life's not falling apart, friends.
My marriage isn't falling apart.
My children aren't falling apart.
My job's not falling apart.
My church isn't falling apart.
I'm not falling apart emotionally or mentally or spiritually.
I feel pretty good today.
So teach me the Bible.
You know, people walk into our church, well, that wasn't very encouraging.
Well, it wasn't meant to be.
It was meant to teach you the Bible.
You're supposed to learn something.
Well, that wasn't very encouraging.
It wasn't meant to be.
It was supposed to rebuke you.
This was a chastening sermon, you know?
Well, that's not what I need.
You don't know what you need.
Let me just give you what you need because you don't know what you need.
I don't always know what I need, right?
So God is ultimately the one.
So the second point was backslidden Christians don't know what they need.
The third point was a preacher's job is to give you what you need.
And then the fourth point is that the Lord knows what you need.
God always knows what you need.
Matthew chapter 6 verse 7 says,
But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do.
For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them,
for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him.
Look, God knows what you need before you ask him.
The Bible says in verse 32,
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.
What things?
Verse 31 says,
What do we eat?
What do we drink, right?
Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
The Gentiles are seeking God?
No, what are they seeking?
They're seeking food, drink, clothing, money.
That's what the Gentiles are seeking.
But your Heavenly Father already knows that you need those things.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
What's the Bible saying?
Look, you don't know what you need.
You think that your greatest need is food, drink, and clothing,
but I'm telling you, your greatest need is the kingdom of God.
Your greatest need is the word of God.
Your greatest need is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's what you need.
God knows what you need.
The preacher should know what you need, or he's not a very good preacher.
Just like the doctor's not a very good doctor if he can't tell you what you need.
If he can't diagnose and fix the problem, he's not much of a doctor, is he?
Jesus is the great physician.
The Lord always knows what you need.
So what's the moral of the story here?
Hey, read your Bible every day.
You don't know what you need.
Now, when I was a kid, this was my Bible reading when I was a kid.
I would either read Psalms, Proverbs, the red letters from the Gospels,
or 1 and 2 Timothy or Titus.
That's all I read in the Bible.
And the reason why is because preachers said,
read until you get something out of it.
So I decided to be very efficient
and go to parts of the Bible where I was going to get something out of it real fast.
When you open Proverbs, you get something out of it fast.
So then I only had to spend like 60 seconds.
Got it.
There's a thought for the day.
All right, let's go.
Back to the video games and the partying and whatever, right?
Or I'd go to 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus because it's just very dense with information.
But you know what?
Don't approach your Bible reading that way thinking,
I need encouragement, let's go to Psalms.
I need wisdom, let's go to Proverbs.
There's a place for that.
But you know what?
There's also something to be said for reading the entire Bible.
Because there's nothing wrong with reading what you want to read today.
If you want to go home today and read Proverbs,
God bless you, read Proverbs. Amen.
You want to go home and read 1 and 2 Timothy,
that'd be a great thing to do.
But not if that's all you ever do.
That's what I'm trying to say today.
And what I mean by that is that there are things that you need
in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy that you don't even know that you need.
But you need them.
There are things in 1 and 2 Chronicles that you don't know that you need,
but you need them.
There are things that are in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel
that you don't know that you need, but you need them.
There are things in the book of 2 Corinthians that you may not know that you need,
but you need those things from 2 Corinthians.
So, nobody who just flips open the Bible says,
well, I'm just going to read what I feel like.
They're not just going to be like, Leviticus sounds good.
They're not necessarily going to seek out the book of Ezekiel in that situation, right?
So, yeah, read what you want, but also make sure you read the whole Bible.
The whole Bible.
And look, we're coming up on the New Year.
That's a great opportunity to make a New Year's resolution.
I'm going to read the whole Bible cover to cover in 2019.
You know, it only takes 15 minutes a day.
And there are plans all over the Internet where you just type in,
read through the Bible in a year, and it'll give you a chart to follow.
And, you know, day one, you'll read Genesis 1-3,
and then you'll read Matthew 1.
And then on the second day, you'll read Genesis 4-6 and Matthew 2.
So, you're getting a little bit from the New and the Old Testament every day,
and you get through the Bible in a year.
You say, well, what do I need to read Leviticus for?
Well, you don't know what you need.
Read the Bible, and God will give you what you need.
He knows what you need.
And, you know, sometimes I find myself reading through Jeremiah.
I was reading through Jeremiah recently, and I was thinking, man,
you know, I already preached through all of it.
You know, I did that Wednesday night series on Jeremiah,
and I studied Jeremiah so much and read it over and over and over.
So, as I was reading it, I was getting a little gormative,
because I was thinking, man, I've already gone through this so much,
and I just preached that huge series on this.
And I was thinking to myself, man, I'm not going to get a sermon idea out of this,
because I've already preached everything that's here.
You know, I need to be reading somewhere else to get ideas for sermons.
But then, you know, an idea jumped out at me that I ended up preaching.
So, why? I didn't know what I needed.
So, the point is, read the whole Bible.
Let God give you what you need.
God knows what you need. Read the entire Bible.
Also, listen to other people's advice.
You don't always know what you need.
Listen to your parents' advice, children, teenagers.
Oh, I know what I need. No, no.
Listen to what your parents say,
because your parents will often know what you need better than you know what you need.
Or your friends. Listen to Godly friends, Christian friends, brothers and sisters in Christ.
Listen to advice. Listen to Godly counsel. Read your Bible every day.
Look, I don't always know what I need.
Sometimes I need to get advice from other people, and I ask people, what do I do?
Or someone might even, unsolicited, call me up and say, hey, Pastor Anderson,
you know, I don't think what you're doing is a good idea.
Let me give you some advice.
Or let me give you an idea of how to fix things or improve things or do better.
You know, we need to be willing to at least listen to advice
and realize that we don't always have all the answers.
God does have all the answers.
The preacher should give us a lot of answers.
Godly friends should give us answers.
Mom and Dad should be giving us answers.
We don't know what we need.
The title of the sermon is What You Need.
Not what you want, what you need.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord,
and thank you for knowing what we need,
and thank you for providing what we need in the Bible.
And, Lord, I pray that every day as we read our Bibles,
you would give us what we need,
and I pray that every week as we come to church on Sunday morning,
Sunday night, and Wednesday night, we would get what we need out of it, Lord.
And, Lord, I pray that people that are starving
and dying of thirst on a steady diet of T.D. Jakes and Joel Osteen,
Lord, I pray that they would get what they need,
that they would actually get some biblical preaching
that would actually feed them with real Bible doctrine
and not a bunch of fluff and artificial flavor
and artificial color, Lord.
And we just pray that you would just bless our needs,
and, Lord, help us to meet other people's needs
and diagnose and help meet the needs of others.
Lord, give us what we need. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.