It stands supply.
Every good.
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Steadfast Baptist Church.
If we can go and find our seats, we will get started.
It's great to see everybody here tonight.
If we can go and find our hymnals, and then find song number 224, song number 224.
Song 224 let's all sing it out real loud
love you so much and we just thank you for all that you do here and thank you
for all that you're doing. We just ask now that you fill this room with your
spirit and just bless the singing and bless the preaching and it's in Jesus'
name we pray. Amen. Alright for our next song let's go to song number 119.
Song number 119, let's all sing it out together.
There's many storms in life, but we keep on going and the Lord keeps us safe, doesn't he?
On the front of our bulletin, we have Jude 1. If you don't already have a bulletin,
you'd like one, just lift your hand real quick. One of our ushers can come by and get you one of those.
We are working on the entire passage,
and if you can quote that, you can get a special prize.
And the inside is our service times, soul winning times,
our church stats, just to take note.
I don't think that there are bulletins up to date
with this week's data,
but we did have two baptisms on Sunday,
so actually we've already clipped our last year's baptisms.
And so we want to keep on going strong, though.
and we're really close to our year-end total
already beating last year's.
And so we're doing great.
We're also crushing Urbanic, Avengers Urbanic,
and so that's always a good sign
because he's doing good and he's gonna go hard
so we have to keep up the good work.
I think, according to Pastor Stuckey I was talking with him, I think the summer is kind of like a rough spot in the Philippines.
It's like they're more off-season than it is ours, so we need to just like push hard in the summer, right?
And get way ahead, and so I'm excited, and we've got lots of soul-winning opportunities.
Continue to pray for our expecting ladies. They're listed there up at the top of our upcoming events
There is a King James Bible conference. It's happening starting tomorrow in Vancouver, Washington
Pastor Aaron Thompson of Sure Foundation Baptist Church
If if you can go there obviously a lot of us probably won't be able to make it but
If you know people up in that area, it'd be a great opportunity to go out and hear some really good preaching on the King James Bible.
It'll be online. Hopefully we can send out some links to some of that. We're going to do some Baptist bias shows.
There's going to be Q&As. There's going to be a lot of stuff like that. So we're excited.
We're bringing all of our leftover King James shirts that we made from the preserved Bible.
So we'll try to hand all those out to people and get rid of them and give us some room for some new shirts, right?
and then So Whatting Marathon, we got the Cleburne event that's going to be happening on the 24th,
the So Whatting Marathon in Durant, Oklahoma, May 31st. We got a Streetport Reasley and a
Marathon June 28th. So excited about that. On the back is our prayer list.
If we continue to pray for the Carlson's mother and father for their health,
continue to pray for the Millers for her friend's mom's cancer,
treatments if we continue to pray for both the Scots, Miss Grace and Brother Horace,
and also if you'd pray for Miss Olivia, continue to pray for the Garcia's,
if you'd pray for Brother Tony and for his health,
we're continuing to pray for Miss Larky and her arm, which has gotten a lot better,
but we're continuing to pray that it'll have full recovery,
If you'd pray for Brother Diego's friend, Miss Sheila Morris.
If you'd pray for Miss Cindy's friend, Angela.
For her health brother Stewart's mother if you'd pray for her Alzheimer's
And pray for brother Alberto. I think I don't know if he's here this evening
I think that that went well, but we'll continue to keep him in his work in our prayers
Brother Jared. We're praying for his co-worker Josh
Praying for brother Alex's work
Brother Ben also if you pray for his
vehicle pray for brother Samson surgery
May 15th, so that's tomorrow. I don't know what time it is, but if you'd pray for him
Pray for brother Tanner's dad who's also having surgery on Friday. So lots of prayer requests
Lots of health prayer requests, and we'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church family
Thank you heavenly father so much for our church. Thank you for steadfast
Thank you for all the ladies who are expecting. Thank you for the blessing of their pregnancy
I pray that you just help them during that time. I pray that you'd help them have a
Timely birth. I pray that you would help those that have recently given birth. Please be with them and their children
We thank you so much for the children. I pray that you would also just
Be with our church family that's struggling with various health issues with their various sicknesses
I pray that you could just comfort them during this storm of life
I pray that you could give them that peace,
that you would just help get them through that if possible.
And I pray that those that need to hear a gospel
or need some comfort that we would be able
to come alongside them.
And we'd have that boldness to preach them to gospel
or just to be a shoulder to cry on to bear that burden.
I pray that you would also just help our friends
and family that need a blessing in their work
or with their vehicle or finances.
I pray that you could just give them favor.
And I pray anybody that's struggling with other issues
that you could just please give them favor, give them peace.
And I pray that you would bless all our upcoming conferences
and our soul-winning events.
Please help us to just continue to be bright shining light
and to get many people saved for your honor
and for your glory.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
We're gonna go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week,
Psalm 150.
Psalm 150 in our Psalm Binders.
If you can get those out, that'd be great.
All right, that was Psalm 150.
Psalm 150 in your binders.
Let's all sing it out together.
Psalm 150.
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.
Praise Him with the sultry and the heart.
Praise Him with the timbrely best.
Praise Him with string instruments and organs.
Praise God, the Father. Praise God, the Son. Praise God, the Holy Ghost. Praise God, in
pre-persons.
Great singing, everybody. Now, as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and
chapter number 21 the Bible reads and when they drew nigh into Jerusalem and
were come to be fake unto the Mount of Olives then sent Jesus to disciples
saying unto them go into the village over against you and straight way you shall
find an ass tied in a colt with her loose them and bring them unto me and if
any man say unto you ye shall say the Lord hath need of them and straight way
he will send them
All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold thy keen cometh unto thee, meek and sitting upon an ass,
And a colt in the full of an ass.
And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass and the colt,
And put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way, others cut down tree branches from the trees.
and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying,
Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,
Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come unto Jerusalem, all the city was moved saying,
who is this? And the multitude said, this is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.
And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple,
and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said
It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den
of thieves.
And the blind in the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the
children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they were sore
displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say?
And Jesus saith unto them.
yea, have ye never read, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast perfected praise,
and he left them, and went out of the city in Tibetany, and he lodged there.
Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered, and when he saw a fig tree in the way,
he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it,
and presently the fig tree withered away, and when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying,
How soon is the fig tree withered? Jesus answered and said unto them, Barely I say unto you,
If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only...
Do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain,
Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done, and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,
believing ye shall receive. And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he
was teaching and said by what authority doest thou these things and who gave thee this authority?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me,
I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John,
whence was it from heaven or of men? And they reasoned with themselves saying,
if we shall say from heaven, he will say unto us, why did ye then
not believe him.
But if we shall say of men, we fear the people, for all hold John as a prophet."
And they answered Jesus and said, We cannot tell, and he said unto them, Neither tell
I you by what authority I do these things.
But what think ye?
A certain man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in
my vineyard.
He answered and said, I will not, but afterward he repented and went.
And what not whether of them twain did the will of his father they say unto him the first
Jesus sayeth unto them barely I say unto you that the publicans in the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you for John came
Under you in the way of righteousness, and he believed him not
but the publicans and the harlots believed him, and ye when ye had seen it, repented not afterward,
that ye might believe him. Here in other parable, there was a certain householder
which planted a vineyard and hedged round about and digged a wine press in it, and built a tower
and let it out to husband men and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near,
he sent his servants to the husband men, that they might receive the fruits there of it.
And the husband took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another.
Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise.
But last of all, he said unto them, his son, saying, They will reverence my son.
But when the husband men saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
When the Lord thereof of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto these husband men?
They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
Jesus saith unto them, Did he never read in the Scriptures the stone which the builders rejected the same as become the head of the corner?
This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Therefore, say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, and whosoever shall fall in this stone shall be broken.
On whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
And when the chief priests and the Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.
But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a profit.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this church and thank you for our pastor.
I just pray that you'd fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit, that he would preach your word unto us.
And I pray that you would give us a heart to receive your word and make applicable changes into our lives.
We're getting into some of the chapters of Matthew that I really enjoy a lot and this
is a great chapter of the Bible.
It has so many great things.
It is a long chapter, so I'm going to kind of be going into like a big picture perspective
at a lot of these sections.
But there's a few parts that we want to focus in on too that, you know, I want to give some
spiritual pictures, but you know, I really love a lot of the parables that Jesus used
passage. And so I want to look at it. Now, because it's so lengthy, though, it does kind of approach
several different topics. And so, you know, we're going to be kind of bringing up some
different topics. Jesus obviously brings up a lot of different topics. And so we'll kind of
dig in here. Verse one, it says, And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Beth
Page unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus to disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village
and occult with her, loose them and bring them unto me.
And if any man say,
ought unto you,
ye shall say,
the Lord hath need of them,
and straightway,
he will send them.
The the person that I kind of like to focus in on verses one through three is is not even Jesus or the two disciples that are sent
but actually the person who was the owner of these particular beasts because as soon as they hear that
These people are messengers from the Lord or coming in the name of the Lord
This person, the Bible says, straight way he will send them.
Meaning this person's attitude is,
hey, if this is for God or this is needed for the Lord,
he is ready to just distribute his goods.
He's willing to communicate.
The Bible says about rich people that they should be
ready to distribute, willing to communicate.
And, you know, communicate is often misunderstood
by how we use the word.
commonly today because communication, a lot of times in the Bible is actually talking about money
or talking about financial goods whereas we typically think about like phones or talking
but and it can have that definition as well but a lot of times it's also just generally talking
about money or goods or possessions or assets and he's willing to communicate. This guy is ready
to just help out Christians. He's just ready to help out the work of the Lord and you know it's
When we go out soul winning and you knock on someone's door and they're saved or they're
pro-christian, they just say, hey, can we give you some water?
Hey, can we give you anything?
And they just kind of have this like attitude where, hey, you're here in the name of the
Lord, we just want to bless you right away.
We just want to take, we want to give you something, we want to help you.
And you know, as Christians, we should have this attitude.
We don't even know who this was.
But, you know, this person was important to the work of the ministry.
He was important to the cause of Christ, and he had these assets.
They were needed for God, and he just said,
hey, I'm ready to just help out Christians.
I'm ready to help out the cause of Christianity.
I've never even met you before, but, you know, I know this is for the Lord,
and he's just ready to distribute.
He's willing to oblige because they're coming in the name of the Lord.
And really, when you think about it, they're not...
They're not even necessarily able to, and we're not always able to just vet people right away,
but they're just so loyal to the cause.
They're just loyal to the name of the Lord.
The name of the Lord just has just some element to them that they're just ready to respect.
They just want the name of the Lord to be successful and to bless.
And in the same vein, you know, we should just have certain things in our lives
that we're just pretty much just already on board.
You know if someone comes to us, they're like, hey, I'm at King James only fundamental Baptist and I believe salvation by faith
We're just like we're already on board. We already like you. You know what I mean?
They're like, hey, I have the psalmite deception t-shirt. I already like you
You know, there's like, there's just some messages,
there's just some things that we just say,
hey, you know what, I'm just already on your team,
I'm already on your side, hey, you're Baptist,
I'm Baptist, let's be Baptist,
let's get the Baptist bias, right?
I mean, you just say, hey, blessed to be Baptist,
blessed to be the King James Bible.
And again, it's not to say that we don't take time to vet things occasionally,
and it's not to say we don't use discretion,
but just generally, we also need to just have an attitude where
certain messages, certain things, we're just already on board with,
we're already excited,
and we're ready to just use our assets and materials for the cause of Christ.
I like this attitude, I like these people. Look at verse 4.
All this was done that it might be fulfilled,
which was spoken by the prophet. So again, this is fulfilling
Prophecy, what this guy is doing, by giving these animals, he is part of fulfilling scripture.
He probably didn't even know that.
He probably didn't know he was going to be written in the book of Matthew
by doing such a thing,
but he just had the faith, hey, this guy's coming in the name of the Lord, he needs this.
Let's use it, right?
It says, saying,
and brought the ass in the cold and put on them their clothes,
and they set him there on.
And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way,
and others cut down branches from the trees and strawed them in the way.
And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying,
Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he that cometh the name of the Lord,
Hosanna in the highest.
I've already actually kind of touched on this idea of hosanna,
you know, blessed is he that come of the name of the Lord.
I preached the whole sermon on Easter,
where I really emphasized that particular phrase.
And I talked a lot about the palm tree,
and specifically how the palm tree, if you think about it,
it's a desert type plant,
or maybe it's a plant that thrives in a kind of harsher conditions,
and it's kind of symbolized, I think,
in a lot of ways Christianity and Christians,
Despite the environment in many cases and how you can end up producing fruit that brings life to people in a desert place
Or in a harsh condition in the same way that Christianity can bring life to people in a very harsh condition and
Extreme conditions and you know, it's a steadfast type plant
So there's a lot of things that you can really learn from this if you want to learn more go reference my Easter sermon
Where I talked about this particular
I talked about Palm Sunday
That's the title of the sermon. Palm Sunday talked a lot about palm trees.
Another thing I thought about though is, did you notice how he's writing on this
ass and on this colt, the full of an ass?
a full of an ass is typically understood as being about four years old or younger.
So it's kind of just a kid or a baby animal and it's coming in a pair here.
Well, you know, in thinking about the word ass, it's just a word for donkey
and it's mentioned a lot in the Bible.
Now, I don't think that you can just always compare
every single mention of a particular word or animal in the Bible and just always matches.
But I think a lot of times there is overlap and there are places where you can go and check this out.
So I want to take a second and look this up.
Look at Zechariah chapter 9.
Let's look at this quote and then I want to kind of just dwell on the animal, the ass,
the donkey that Jesus Christ is riding upon, okay?
Now, in Zechariah chapter 9, I've actually already even preached this.
when I preached through the book of Zechariah,
and I've already preached to Zechariah chapter number nine.
You could reference that
to get a little bit more detail in this passage,
but look at verse number nine.
It says,
lowly in riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the full of an ass.
So this is the quote that we get in Matthew chapter number 21.
Notice a little bit of the different wording here.
One of the things it says about him is that Jesus Christ is just, meaning what?
He's righteous, he's perfect, he's without sin, he's that spotless and perfect lamb,
and then there's another thing about him, he's having salvation.
And of course that salvation, we understand as spiritual salvation as going to heaven.
And you get this by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is a free gift purchased by the only one that was just
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus,
as the Bible says in Romans chapter number three.
The Bible says there's only one that's just.
Jesus Christ is the just one,
but he's also the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus
and that's how we get imputed righteousness.
That's how we get salvation.
Jesus was coming into town with having salvation.
What was the salvation? It's his words. His words are eternal life.
We believe the words of Jesus. We get saved. We believe the words of the Bible.
We believe in John 3.16. That's what actually saves us. It's believing.
words. It's believing the doctrine. It's believing the gospel message
is by putting our faith in Jesus Christ. And look, this is Jesus Christ. Welcome to Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. This is Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ was manifested among them, and they believed in the person of Jesus Christ.
But you know, we also have the word of God, which is also Jesus Christ. And that's what we have our
faith in, is that gospel message, what he said. Jesus Christ, of course, preached the gospel
and that's what we praise, that's what we believe in,
that's our life.
Our whole life is that.
Now, he's coming riding in, though,
upon an ass and upon a cold to fold and mess.
Now, going back to Exodus chapter 13,
go to Exodus chapter 13
and let's look at another Old Testament reference
of the ass in the Bible.
Of course, the animals in the Bible often allude to Jesus Christ, and they often allude to his sacrifice.
And I wouldn't want to take anything away from that, but I also think the animals can picture other things.
The Bible brings up oxen in the New Testament as representing pastors and preachers,
and how God does not God care for oxen, and it's like...
But he's like kind of saying it in jest.
He's like, hey, he's actually caring more about people than he is animals.
And so oxen can represent Jesus in some ways.
Oxen can represent pastors in some ways.
OK, I believe the ass can represent Jesus in some places.
But I also think the ass can represent us.
And the ass just represents mankind in general.
And just the average guy, the average person.
Look at chapters 13, verse 13, it says this.
In every firstling of an ass, thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou wilt not redeem it,
then thou shalt break his neck, and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem."
So it says you have the ass, and God wanted all the firstborn of all animals to be redeemed.
Meaning, you either had to kill it, or you had to offer an alternative sacrifice in order
to redeem that particular animal or would have to die.
And the same way, Adam's kind of that first man, and so there's where you kind of get
that first, and we have to be redeemed, or we're going to get our necks broken, which
is a picture of what?
Dying going to hell.
And so we're that ass that has to be redeemed by that lamb,
and who's that lamb, that lamb is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ had to die
in order for the ass to live,
and in the same way, Jesus had to die so that we could live.
Otherwise our necks would be broken
in the sense that we would be cast into hell
and perish for all of eternity.
So I'm showing you this example
to show you how the ass can represent mankind.
Okay, I wanna go to some other verses here.
Go over to 1st Kings chapter 13.
Go to 1st Kings chapter 13.
Just for sake of time, I'll bring up a couple examples.
You know, Samson ends up slaying 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass, as the Bible says.
And if you think about it, like, the jawbone obviously kind of represents, you know, the mouth and talking and speaking.
And again, if the ass is representing mankind, it's kind of interesting that he slays his enemies with the jawbone of an ass.
Hey, how do we accomplish great works by preaching the word of God,
and God can use an ass in the sense that he just uses a normal man,
just an average guy, to go out and just preach the gospel,
and that's how we get victory over our enemies,
and we can slay with the word of God.
And it doesn't matter that it's the ass or the jawbone or whatever,
because God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.
And so you kind of have another analogy.
You have an analogy of Saul,
looking for the lost asses and saw as anointed as king and it's really significant and important.
that Saul finds these asses and in the same way
I think it's kind of like picture of Jesus looking for the lost sheep Saul's the first king
He's looking for the asses and he finds them and redeems them in the same way that we're like those lost asses and
Saul is seeking us in the same way that Jesus was Jesus seeking us
Just like Saul was seeking those asses so another picture again of the asses being mankind being lost needing to be redeemed
and the saved
Here's another interesting parallel.
Look at 1 Kings chapter 13, verse 24.
For sake of context, you have a young man that's a godly preacher,
preaches the word of God, hardcore, new IFB, through and through, okay?
But here's the problem. The old man lies to him.
the old prophet lied.
And let me tell you something,
just because someone saved
and just because someone did good things in the past,
doesn't mean they can't lie.
And you have to be careful
about every single thing that you hear.
You should never just immediately agree with any preaching.
You should always search the Scriptures whether they're so.
Now look, I think you should have a good attitude towards church.
You should have a good attitude towards your pastor or preacher
because if you don't, find a different church.
But you should always make sure to vet everything that's coming from the preacher's mouth,
especially when it's not just a verse in the Bible.
Especially if they get up and say, this is my opinion.
Or especially if they're bringing up a concept or an idea that's not brought out in the Bible.
You know what? That's their opinion.
Because where the Bible is silent, God is silent, okay?
And where man likes to interject, can also be an error.
And the old man can lie, and the old man destroyed the young man
who was a great man of God, had a great future ahead of him.
But you know what? He listened to some bad preaching, some bad ideas,
when he knew what the Bible really said.
And he should have trusted God's word over the old prophet.
And you know what? We need to trust the Bible over what any preacher or any pastor will say, okay?
We get this interesting story where he harkens unto the old. He's told by God don't go to and get any food
Just go straight home. He doesn't go straight home. The old man lies. I said, oh, no God told me
It's okay. Just come on. Just come hang out with me
Then the old man then gets filled with the spirit of God was even weirder and then he's like, oh, yeah
You're gonna die for having disobeyed God. So then he goes out and he's killed look at verse 24
Okay, I'm just giving that to understand what we're reading
and when he was gone
a lion met him by the way and slew him.
So this is the young guy, he gets killed by the lion
and it says in his carcass was cast in the way
and the ass stood by it.
And it says the lion also stood by the carcass.
So you have this interesting story where the young man goes out,
then the lion kills him,
but then it leaves notice his ass.
His ass just stood by,
and then the ass isn't killed.
It's spared.
It's like delivered in a sense.
And why?
Because the young man prophet kind of pictures Jesus again
as that sacrificial lamb,
as that sacrifice,
and then the ass is spared and delivered,
just like we are.
the ass and we're spared and delivered from the destruction of the lion and again the lion can
represent the lion of the tribe of Judah it also represents the devil so you can't just run with
analogies but I think I've showed a consistent pattern here of an ass in many places just
representing man and the man being delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ let's go to one more go to
and look at verse number 20.
Bible says,
blessed are ye that sow beside all waters.
Let's use another,
just off the top of my head, let's use another place in the Bible that talks about waters.
What does waters represent in the book of Revelation?
peoples, nations, and tongues, right?
It represents all people.
So if you think about all waters,
what could this represent?
All nations doesn't the Bible say in Matthew 28 that you're supposed to teach all nations
What does it mean to so we're sowing the gospel we're sowing the word of God and it says that sent forth thither the feet of
The ox and the ass so the ass is supposed to go out there and plow and help sow the word of God to what to all waters
Which means all people and all nations and all languages now go back to Matthew chapter 21 if you would but think about what we've learned
Hey this cult
And this, this ass are carrying the Lord Jesus Christ into town, shouting Osanna.
What, what does the animal actually do?
What is, what is a donkey?
Like what's the purpose of a donkey?
I don't think, who has a donkey?
Anybody have a donkey?
Okay.
You have a donkey.
All right.
Didn't expect that.
Someone has a donkey.
All right.
But it's like historically
Donkeys are just there. They're a work animal
Associated I mean some people have them as like a pet just a ride or whatever
But for the most part throughout history you have donkeys you have asses as a work animal. It's a beast burden
It's a burden of it's a beast of burden, right? It basically is for transport mostly
So you got a lot of stuff that you got to carry you don't have
your little Mustang, you don't have your little car, your little chariot out here,
you have an ass, you have a donkey, and so you know what, you put your canteens,
you put your luggage, you put all your goods on an animal, and that's what carries it.
So anytime you got to travel, you got goods, you got cargo,
businesses that are selling goods, selling equipment,
selling all kinds of stuff. They have animals carrying all this stuff so they
don't have to carry it.
And the donkey or the ass is the one of the primary animals used for
just carrying equipment, carrying things.
So they're kind of like this traveling, working
animal that's bearing a burden.
So we see this traveling, carrying animal, carrying the Lord Jesus Christ into town.
So let's put all the puzzle pieces together now.
What is Jesus? He's having salvation.
And we have this ass which represents what? Just your average man, your average Joe.
And he's supposed to be a what?
A beast of burden, and what are we supposed to be carrying
and bearing the gospel message?
And we're supposed to carry it into all the world, isn't it?
So isn't this a great, humbling message that, hey,
the gospel message is carried by asses,
it's carried by the donkeys of this world,
where we just go out under all waters,
sowing the seed, sowing the gospel message,
and it has salvation with us.
And you know, with that lowly animal, a meek animal,
we come under somebody with meekness and lowliness,
and we just preach the gospel.
And you know what, it's Hosanna in the highest.
That's the guy that gets you saved.
You know, it's not about the ass, it's not about the animal,
but you know what, it doesn't get there
without that animal, doesn't it?
And that's where we come into play and that's where soul winning comes into play that we need to be like those donkeys
where we're constantly going out and bearing the gospel message and bearing the burden of the gospel message and
You know, I like that. It's even just it's not even just one animal. It's two, right?
It's the adult and the kid because you know what we can take our kids out soul winning with us. Can't we?
even kids can carry the gospel message out there with them.
And let me tell you something, I believe that children are soul winners
and that children get people saved. Hey, when I was five years old, I got saved
and I told my two neighbors how to get saved that same day.
And you know what? Blessed be children who, you know, sing the praises of the Lord Jesus
Christ but also preach the gospel and are willing to get people saved too.
And you know what? I don't think there's an age restriction on preaching the gospel.
Even the cult, the fold of an ass can go out there and preach the gospel and get people saved.
And we should encourage kids to learn how to preach the gospel and get other kids saved and get other people saved.
Let's keep reading. Look at verse number 10.
It says, And when he was coming to Jerusalem, all the city was moved saying,
the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.
Now, one thing I would note is it's kind of interesting
that they're like, he's the prophet of Nazareth,
which is true, and he's from Nazareth,
but he's actually born in Bethlehem.
And I just, I always like to point that out is just like,
sometimes you may think you understand someone's origin
or you may think you understand where someone's coming from
but you don't have all the facts.
And so you don't always want to just base every decision
on the little bit of information you have
because sometimes there could be information
that you don't know.
And so we should be careful about the information
that we don't know.
Is it true he's a prophet of Nazareth?
Yes, but does that for sure mean he was born there?
No, and I noticed that a lot of people make errors when they just make assumptions.
Oh, he's the prophet Nazareth. He must have been born in Nazareth.
Well, then some people might make the error and say, well, then he can't be the Christ because he's not from Bethlehem.
But wait a minute, we don't know that he's not from Bethlehem.
We just know he's from Nazareth, too.
So you don't want to just base your life on assumptions that you don't know are true.
You want to base your life on hard, clear facts, okay?
Let's keep reading verse 12 and Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple
and over through the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and said to them,
it is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Now this story is actually brought up in other Gospels, but go to John chapter 2, keep your finger and go to John chapter 2
because it brings up another detail about this particular
or these type of encounters, okay?
And what I think is kind of interesting
is kind of like the timeline, okay?
Because in Matthew 21,
we're definitely in the Passover week.
This is the last seven days of
Passover, where Jesus is going to be crucified.
But this is what I think is really interesting, is in John chapter number two, if you study
the timeline of John, we're not in the Passover week in John chapter number two, okay?
But look at John chapter number two and look at verse number fifteen.
And when he had made a scourge of small cords,
he drove them all out of the temple,
and the sheep, and the oxen,
and poured out the changers' money
and over through the tables,
and said it in the midst of all does,
take these things hence,
make not my father's house and house of merchandise.
So you actually have a story here in John chapter two,
which, you know, maybe someone could prove how I'm wrong,
but I'm pretty sure these are two separate events,
even though it's like very similar type of events.
But this would mean Jesus got mad more than once.
And yeah, he was real angry.
And look, this one in John's head, he makes a scourge of small chords, so he has a whip.
He's going in there and whipping, you know, at least the air at bare minimum.
I think you have to say, even beyond that, you'd probably whip the animals
because you're not going to just scare animals out of the temple.
You kind of have to give them a little bit of kick in the rear, okay?
You know what I mean?
You've got to give that spur into the hide.
And so, I even think he possibly and probably was whipping people.
And if you go back to Matthew 21, notice what it said in verses 12.
It says he overthrew tables of money changers, so he's just, he's just walking in just like causing chaos.
I mean, he's just like throwing tables with all kinds of goods on them, totally disrupting all business, all the stuff that's happening.
This is an extremely sacred area, then it says this, and the seats of them that Sol does.
How do you get someone out of a seat if you don't even touch them, right?
I mean, I would just anticipate like there's no, it says he got all the seats.
I mean, it seems like he might have gotten people out of their seat.
You know what I mean?
Probably took a little bit of force.
A lot of people have this weak-minded view of Jesus Christ.
This guy's not weak.
This guy's getting in there, taking care of business, taking charge, getting angry.
Look, sometimes it's okay to be angry.
The Bible even says, be ye angry.
That's just a statement in the Bible.
How could you be mad like, you know
How can people get mad at somebody for getting mad?
The Bible commands it the Bible says be ye angry and then it says and sit not
That also proves that being angry is not sinning
There is nothing wrong with being angry and in fact if you live in 2025 America and you're never mad
There's something wrong with you
There is something seriously wrong with you there should be a lot of things that are making you mad today
And again, some people are quick-tempered,
and some people get mad at all kinds of stuff they shouldn't get mad at.
So, hey, the Bible balances anger. Sometimes anger is wrong,
sometimes anger is inappropriate, it's immature,
it's not for the right reasons, it's carnal,
and we don't want to have that kind of anger.
But you know what, there's also a righteous anger,
and if you don't get mad about someone desecrating the house of God,
you know what, there's something wrong with you.
Like, that's got to be the most legitimate anger.
It's just being mad at church being desecrated,
church being treated like a place of just making money
and ripping people off financially.
I mean, we get mad about someone getting ripped off at the car dealership,
but how much more at the house of God?
You know, you expect to get ripped off at the bank that their business is ripping people off.
But not in the house of God, not in a place of worship, should you get ripped off and taken advantage of.
And you know, churches today don't even really seem to fear this particular commandment
because they buy and sell all kinds of stuff in the house of God.
And you know what, to me, I think we should just avoid that completely.
We just, this is just not be a place where we're transacting business,
where we're changing money and we're changing goods
and everybody comes and sets up their little shop where they're all selling
all their little goods, we just become like a farmers market in the house of God.
No, no, no, this isn't a farmers market, this is a place of worship where we worship God.
And it's not about money, it's not about making money
and it shouldn't be about trying to make money.
We are here to worship Jesus Christ and get people saved.
And that should be the main emphasis,
our main communication, our main talking point.
Now look, we all have to live our lives outside these walls,
outside of when we meet together as an actual church.
Yeah, we're gonna go out and we're gonna have business
and buy stuff and do things and work hard and make money.
And we gotta do that.
But you know what, there should be like one time
we just put all that on pause and say,
hey, we're here to sing about Jesus.
We're here about praying for our brethren, and praying for God to help us, and praying
for God to give us the right mindset.
And we're here to learn what the Bible has to say, and we're here to renew our minds
about the things of God, and not think about money for a few hours, right?
That's Pastor Shelley Sermon's time, you know, a couple hours, but you don't want to think about these things all the time
We want to put them in their place. And you know what? The house of God is just not the place about making money
And we don't want to make it about money. And so this church, you know, we don't sell things
We've never sold things like to the congregation.
Obviously, you know, we have used goods and sometimes we just get rid of them or whatever.
But I'm just saying, for our church services and for the house of God,
we're not selling things here.
Things aren't for sale.
We're not interested in making money.
That's not what we're here to do.
We're here to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he got really mad.
Not only did he get mad, he got physically violent and abusive,
is what a lot of people would say today.
And, you know, I mean, he's just a man.
I mean, the Bible says a rod for the fool's back.
I mean, hey, these guys are fools.
They're causing a lot of problems in the house of God.
Jesus just whips them out of there, okay?
And again, does that mean that you should just go around beating people up?
No.
But at the end of the day, like, I think we've gotten really soft as a society.
I mean, you know, in public school, in public school you would get whipped by your teachers.
You would get whipped by parents, by teachers, by all kinds of different people.
In the military, man, you could get court-martialed, you could get whipped,
and you could get physically, corporately punished in the United States military and times past.
In the laws of America, they had whippings as a common punishment for people
when they would do things that are wrong and do things that are bad.
Now our society says, let's just lock you into prison for 10 years.
And then they think like that's somehow humane
It's like if you asked
Any of those people would you take ten years in prison or ten lashes? They're like ten right now. Give me ten lashes
In fact, it was kind of funny. I did this is a thought experiment. Okay, don't I'm not recommending this
This is not I'm not saying this to try this at home. Okay
But I tried this, right?
I was asking my kids this question and I said, you know,
because they were not behaving appropriately,
not getting their work done, not doing stuff.
And I just said, hey, would you rather
receive, you know, physical punishment,
physical spanking and discipline,
and get a meal that you like for dinner,
or just get a meal you don't like?
And you know what my children said?
The spankings and the meal that I like.
I agree, I'm not even against that.
I'm just sitting here thinking like,
physical punishment is not the worst thing out there.
There's way worse punishments and way worse things out there
and like our society just becomes so shocked and horrified
acting like somehow physical punishment is the worst evil.
It's not even kind of the worst evil.
And, you know, why would I listen to America?
Why would I listen to constant therapists and stuff like that?
They say, time out in jail.
That is evil and wicked and it's a cruel and unusual punishment.
We have solitary confinement where people are just locked up in a room
where the lights never go off, with no human communication.
It is the worst psychological pain imaginable.
In fact, many people that are put in solitary confinement, meaning they're not around people,
they'll often hurt themselves on purpose just to feel pain because it's so painful psychologically.
Because, you know, people just need to talk to people and people just need to be around people.
You know, jail is an evil, wicked punishment.
You know, corporal punishment is not this evil that everybody wants to make it out to be.
And we need to have the right mindset, a biblical mindset.
You know let's think what's the worst punishment?
I don't know how about going to hell for all of eternity with no human contact?
And then mankind invents jail and thinks like this is somehow a better punishment. No, no the rod for the fool's back
That's the better punishment
Then being locked up in a prison in a cage and treated like a literal animal and treated like just some
Brain-dead zombie like apes planted of the apes or something like that
And he's, you know, he's just screaming, he's like,
the madness, it's madness, it's a mad house!
Why, because it's insane to lock people in cages.
Oh yeah, I think that physical punishment's bad.
No, you're crazy and insane.
And you know what, people do,
they'll trade physical punishment,
they'll be like, oh, you do physical punishment?
Let's lock you in a cage as a punishment for that.
You're insane.
You're insane to want to put people into a cage thinking that that's justice, thinking
that that's right because of physical punishment.
I mean, that's insane.
Our society is screwed up.
I want to go on a whole sermon about this, but it'll be a later date, all right?
It's insane.
Our society is screwed up on these issues.
We need to have Jesus' mentality where we just walk into the house of God with a scourge.
Indiana Jones.
And you know what? He also has a gun on his hip, too.
Because when the guy comes out with the swords and does all his dance,
he just pulls out the gun and just, bam, you know, just takes him out, right?
It's like...
But you know what? He also has that whip.
And you know what? Sometimes we need the whip, right?
Look at what it says in verse number 14,
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and healed them.
And when the chief priest and scribe saw the wonderful things that he did
and the children crying in the temple and saying,
Hosanna to the son of David!
They were sortest pleased.
Think about this logic.
You just saw people miraculously healed and then they're mad about it.
And you know what?
You know, we have these stories in the Bible for a reason
because human psychology is always the same.
People just react to these things in a similar way.
Now again, we're not Jesus, we don't perform physical healings, we can't do any of this stuff.
You know, there's nothing wrong with putting ourselves in these stories
and understanding them as an application for today as well.
And let me illustrate this for you.
You know what we do do? We preach the gospel and we perform miracles of salvation by
helping this person call upon the name of the Lord and get saved.
And you know what? There's people that get mad about the fact that we get people saved.
In fact, there's some people that are just so angry that we get people saved,
and not just that we get people saved, that we get a lot of people saved.
That's what they're really, really mad about.
Some people, they just hate the fact that Stem-Bast Baptist Church is getting thousands of people saved.
Some people just hate that the new IVB is getting thousands of people saved.
You know why? Because it just signifies that we're of God.
And they just hate that because they just want you to not be of God because they just don't like you
Because they want their preeminence because of envy and so they're just a Pharisee and just take it to the bank people
That are mad about Saul winning or Pharisees
They're like the Pharisees and you know what we're like in this story the people that are doing the healing and of course
It's not we're not doing anything special. We can't do anything special
All we can do is be that ass carrying
You know the Lord Jesus Christ to them and Jesus that sees them as Jesus the word of God that has the power
But we're the ones going out there bearing that burden
And you know what they're just mad that we got to be the one bearing that burden. They're mad that we're
doing these works because
Why? Well, verse 16,
and sending them, hear us thou at least say,
and Jesus sayeth them,
yea, have you never read out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings, thou's perfected praise?
So, they're mad
because when Jesus heals people,
they're just like, this guy is the son of God,
this guy is the son of David,
this guy is the Christ,
case closed, done deal,
and they're just so mad.
at the conclusion that's drawn from their works.
So here's the thing.
Why are people so mad that we're getting a lot of people saved?
Because then it's just a case closed there of God.
Oh, those are servants of God, that's a man of God, that's a great church.
And they just don't want to believe that it's a great church, they don't want to believe
that we're of God, they don't want to believe these things, so they have to get mad about
the soul winning.
And they want to attack the soul winning, and they want to destroy the church, and they
want to destroy the soul winning, and they want to destroy your life.
Why?
Because they hate knowing that you're of God and they're not.
And they're so mad about these things, and so they just want to attack,
and they want to go against it. Why? Because they feel bad about the fact that they're evil,
that they're not of God, they're envious, and so that's what happens.
And look, you are on the right path, and the devil would love to do anything he can to torture you to get you off this path.
You say, what path? The path of going to church, taking the Bible seriously, being a soul winner,
loving Jesus, and raising your family for God.
The devil will try to throw everything at you.
Look what he did to Job. He threw the book,
and the guy even had sores over his body.
Just everything you could imagine.
And don't think that you are so special that God won't allow you to be tempted or go through difficult storms of life.
I already know. I already know because as your pastor, I get to see things that a lot of people don't get to see.
And look, lots of people have lots of serious problems, serious issues, serious fights, and there's a lot of things trying to draw you away.
Why? Because they just hate the fact that you're on the right path.
And they hate the conclusion that can be drawn very easily.
Oh, they have to be of God because you just can't get thousands of people saved and do all the works that we're doing if God's not with us.
So they're mad about it.
Says, And he left them and went out of the city into Bethany, and he lodged there.
Now in the morning as he returned in the city, he hungered.
And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon, but leaves only and said unto it,
And when the disciples saw it, they marveled,
saying, how soon is the fig tree withered away?
I mean, this thing didn't even take six weeks.
It just took, hey, a day.
But isn't it crazy how some things can just be dissolved
instantly when there are leaves and no fruit?
There are just leaves and no fruit.
There's a lot of symbolism here.
Here's one, didn't Adam and Eve try to cover their sin
with leaves?
and it didn't work, what does the leaves represent?
Hey, your outward works, but you know what?
That doesn't save you, does it?
You got to have that fruit.
And here's the reality, people that are saved
are the ones that are going to produce fruit.
Where Jesus sees this tree, it's not producing fruit,
he's done with it.
And notice, it's just all about the works, isn't it?
What's the point of a tree that's a fruit bearing tree
if it doesn't produce fruit?
It has no purpose, no meaning.
What is the point of a church that doesn't produce fruit?
It has no purpose, it has no meaning.
Jesus wants nothing to do with it.
You know how you should evaluate a church?
What kind of fruit is it producing?
Is it producing fruit?
Because if it's not producing fruit,
what's the point in it?
And you know what? Jesus has no purpose for it.
And so Jesus will say,
hey, you just wither up, dry up like this.
I could think of a church that dried up about six weeks after it was taken over.
Why? Probably because it's not producing fruit.
And Jesus says, hey, I have no purpose for you, wither.
And it's just gone, just like that.
And you know, there's still that little part of it.
It didn't completely disappear.
It just withered so it looked like this ugly disgusting nasty tree
That's not producing fruit. That's preaching lies and communism and crap. Okay. It's still there
And then about six months later, it's like now we're closing or something like that
Oh, you're so you just you're always preaching against these people Jesus preaching against these people
I didn't write Matthew 21 and you know what the trees that don't produce fruit are meaningless and God will destroy them
They have no purpose. Yeah, he sees the tree. Hey, you have no fruit. Bye. Oh, why do you guys always bring up soul winning?
What do you mean?
The non-soul winning trees are gone the non-soul winning trees don't matter the non-soul winning trees are in danger of being withered and
Destroyed you got to produce fruit or God's not pleased with you
And you know what we're in the fruit producing business just like any business think about it every business is out there
If they don't make sales they close
It's like oh, man. Why is the sales department so worried about making sales? Hmm?
What if they just work on you know a servant leadership, man?
Why did they just so worried about how their employees feel and making them feel comfortable? Let's get some napping pods in here, man
Let's make sure everybody gets some naps and feels all comfortable.
Let's get an extra HR department in here.
Let's just make sure everybody feels wonderful and cool and what's your opinion?
You know, what do you think?
No, no.
It's the sales department saying, hey, we didn't make our goal.
We better make our goal or we have no company.
In the same vein, it's like, hey, we're a fruit producing industry organization.
We're about producing fruit for the Lord Jesus Christ and when we stop producing fruit,
Now, he might dung you and give you a little bit of space.
He might give you a little bit of ear.
But then, if you don't come back with fruit, gone, take it out, remove it.
No point, no purpose.
God is about work, and He wants people to work, and He wants people to produce results.
And you know what?
Why would you measure results, Pastor Shelley?
Well, you know what?
I don't want to be this withered fruit tree.
I don't want to know where we're at.
I want to know what direction we're headed.
I want to know if we're heading in a good direction, a safe direction,
or if we're heading in an unsafe direction.
And at the end of the day, yeah, we do count numbers, we count soul winning,
we count these statistics, you know, why?
So that we can motivate ourselves to do more works.
I mean, hey, we're like competing, and we're iron sharpening iron here,
and we're trying to do this stuff.
And it's not like I can go out and do anything special to get people saved.
I should have put more hours in, right?
Just go out there and spend more time selling if I want to get more bills saved.
Find more receptive areas.
Be more engaging.
You know, that's how you get more people saved.
How could that even be bad?
How could it be bad to talk to more people, go out for more hours,
work on being more efficient, try to go to more receptive areas.
All of these things are good things.
And so, you know what?
Counting numbers, I think, encourage us to be even better.
Our church will always count numbers and when you stop counting you stop growing when you stop growing
Well, let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever
That's harsh. That's Jesus and notice this how soon is the fig tree withered away?
Man when God's against you he can close that door fast. Bam
Says in verse 21 Jesus answered instead of them very nice and you if you have faith and doubt not you shall not only do this
Which is done to the fig tree
But also, if ye shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast in the sea, it shall be done, and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
Now, oh, how dare you put yourself in the story? I didn't put myself in the story. Jesus put me in the story.
He said, hey, now, you know what I just did? You can do it.
What does that mean? That means that when I look at a tree and I think that it's a garbage tree, you know what I do? I pray and say to God, remove this tree.
And you know what God does? He removes that tree.
And let me tell you something, we were attacked and there was a big spiritual war a couple months ago.
And you know what I prayed? Multiple times, repeatedly to God, I said this,
Hey, I don't know what's going on with these people that are attacking us.
I don't know what's going on with these churches. I don't know what's going on with these pastors.
But either humble them right now and help them to get right so they can produce fruit,
or confound them and make them look like complete idiots.
And let us all see their folly and let me tell you something.
We've been seeing a lot of idiot pastors say some idiot things lately.
Why? Because prayer works.
And boy, you don't want to fight against God because he can make you look like a complete fool real quick.
Our flesh isn't that great.
It's the spirit of God that makes us great.
And when the spirit of the Lord's turned against you, boy, you can look foolish real quick.
You can look dumb real quick. I mean King Saul is a highly respected guy then towards the end of his life
He's a trainwreck man, and King Saul saved. It's not like it's always about saved or unsaved
It's just like hey, are you right with God or not right with God?
And of course the unsaved are always not right with God
But even the saved you can get on the wrong track the wrong path the wrong ideas get in the flesh too much
And you know what God will destroy you God will confound you
You know you need to be careful that you're right with God, but let me tell you something prayer works
And hey, if you have an area in your life that you're concerned about pray about it
There's been people in my life that I thought they wouldn't change I was worried about them and I'll be honest with you
I personally didn't even think they would change
But I thought you know how I believe the Bible enough to overcome my thought because the Bible says the trust not on my own wisdom
So and even in my own wisdom, I was like, I don't know how this is gonna change
Bible says it can change and I'm just gonna believe God's bigger than me and it's smarter than me and knows how to work this thing
And so I said hey God put changes person's heart. I
Just prayed and months later that person's heart change had nothing to do with me. I
Get none of the glory none of I had nothing to do with it. God changed their heart
It was the word of God. It was the Bible and look you should just pray for miracles
We have a big God that can do miracles,
but we need to pray and believe and trust in the Lord.
And you know what, God can perform miracles
and not just good miracles,
sometimes in preclatory prayers,
like, hey, cast this mountain into the city.
I've been praying against Gateway for a long time.
Look what happened to Robert Morris.
Bam!
Hey, don't mess with God.
God will destroy you.
If you're against him, hey, you know what?
We can cause all kinds of things to perish.
And you know what, I'm glad I prayed against Robert Morris.
I'm glad I prayed against these evil people
because you know what, they're destroying people's lives.
And how dare you not get offended
at evil people and evil workers?
We should want these mountains to be cast into the sea.
Verse 23, And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching and said,
By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority?
They're always so like annoying and liberal, you know what I mean?
Sassy. And Jesus answered and said unto them,
I also ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
The baptism of John wins, was it, from heaven or of men?
And they reason within themselves, saying,
If we shall say from heaven, he will say unto us, Why did you not then believe it?
But if we shall say of men, fear the people for all hold John as a prophet.
They answered Jesus and said, We cannot tell.
And he said to them,
Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
So this is interesting.
Jesus gets to expose them and not even answer their question.
Now again, we get to put ourselves in the story.
Okay?
Let's think about what just happened
and then let's apply it to ourselves for a second.
Jesus is doing these things by the authority of God.
But they don't believe in the authority of God.
They don't believe in the confirmation of God.
They don't believe anything because they just figured out,
well, if we say this, it won't work. If we say this, it won't work.
We don't care what the truth is.
We just want to figure out how to trap him and it didn't work, okay?
Jesus is trying to point to the authority it's coming from God.
And he's saying, look, if you won't even recognize it in John the Baptist,
why would you not, why would you even recognize it in me?
Okay?
So he asked them this clever question about John the Baptist
And they don't want to answer the question because if they say well, he's not of God
Then all the people are gonna be like what's wrong with you. He's obviously got all like all these people got saved from John
They're pretty much all baptized by John. They're not gonna turn on John
So if they say he's not of God, they're gonna totally ruin their reputation and lose their respect of all the people and lose their position
But if they say well, he's of God then they're gonna look like giant hypocrites and weirdos and freaks for all the preaching against John and not believing in him
So it's like they're kind of doomed because they have a bad teaching. They have a bad idea and he's exposing them
So let's apply this today. Okay. How about a pastor like Manly Perry? Let's say, all right
Manly Perry had a church full of people that was won over by Pastor Stephen Anderson
A lot of people got saved by Pastor Stephen Anderson
Well, then he gets in a really big pickle because then the question is is pastor Anderson of God?
Because then it's like if Pastor Anderson's of God, why the heck are you attacking him and preaching against him and doing all this evil stuff to him?
But then if he says Pastor Anderson's not of God, well all the people in that room got saved by Pastor Anderson.
So then it's going to be real awkward.
But you know what? The Pharisees are smarter than Manly Perry because they just kept their mouth shut.
But then Manly Perry, this is how he answers it.
Well, you know, I can't I can't prove this or anything, but I personally believe that
Judas got more people saved than any other disciple
You said like where did that stupidity come from who in the world would teach that Judas was the best soul winner
But think about it. Why did he say that?
Because he's trying to solve this riddle
He's trying to solve this riddle of hey, I can explain why you're all saved from Pastor Anderson
We don't want to turn on him for that reason
But at the same time he's somehow bad enough for me to get to preach against so he invents this in this
Goofiest auction I've ever heard of trying to say that Judas is the greatest soul winner
So therefore Pastor Anderson's Judas and got all these people saved
Boy, you know the worst thing that ever happened to Christianity was when Judas killed himself
I mean, you take out the best soul in her.
You know what I mean?
Like that really foiled the plan, didn't it?
But see, that's where these people come from
is they just, he doesn't want to recognize
that Pastor Anderson's a God.
Why?
Because then you'd have to actually respect him.
Then you'd actually have to believe his message.
Then you would actually have to get on his program.
So again, why do people attack Pastor Anderson
and attack the new IFB?
Why?
Because they don't want to attribute us to being of God.
because they don't want to be like us.
Why? Because they can't compete with Pastor Anderson.
But you know, it's about selfish ambition for them.
They want to have more people listen to their sermon.
They want their people to show up and be more excited to hear him preach
than if he came in and preached and more people showed up
or more people are excited or something like that.
But you know what? It's not about you.
It's not about...like they're all mad about Jesus.
Why? Because more people came to hear him preach.
It's the same thing when people are mad that if the a better preacher comes in and preaches a better sermon if they get mad
About it. They're not right with God
You should you should just want people to be on Jesus team period
It's not about you and that's why John the Baptist is the greatest because he said I must decrease but he must increase
Who cares about the person who cares about you cares about your church who cares about your number?
Let's just increase Christianity
It's not about us, it's about Christianity.
Hey, you know, that was a big heart movement that I had for even taking over this church.
I was a pastor of Pure Words Baptist Church.
And, you know, it was really heartbreaking for me to want to walk away from that church
and to try and come up here.
But it wasn't about pure words, it wasn't about me, it wasn't about my vision, it was
about, hey, what's just going to be the better move for Christianity?
And you know what, it probably hurt that church a little bit for me to walk away from it as
being just their every single service and having to pass it from afar.
But at the end of the day, it helped Christianity.
It helped Christianity, and you know, sometimes we just have to make decisions and think about this.
Does this help Christianity?
Because it's about Christianity.
It's not about us.
It's not about our opinion.
And let me tell you something.
When you just humble yourself and you just make it about Christ,
God will elevate you if He wants to anyways.
You know, it's not like God can't elevate you.
It's not like God won't put you in a position of power.
It's not like God won't allow you to have your message heard by thousands of people.
But you know what?
The only way that will happen is if you first tumble yourself.
If you first put other people above your own needs and wants, and you care about other
people, then God will elevate you in due time.
And, you know, in the same way, hey, let me tell you something, the new IFB is of God.
And people just need to humble themselves and just say, hey, Pastor Anderson is of God,
he's a man of God, he's getting thousands of people saved.
Why can't we just believe that and just not turn on that idea?
It's just a fact.
Just fact, he's of God, he's got thousands of people saved, he's leading revival in
this country and this nation.
Just get that in your brain and just accept it.
And then once you just accept reality then you know and you humble yourself and say hey
I'm not as good a Christian as he is. I'm not a good a preacher as he is
I'm probably not gonna do as much works as he is, but I'm just gonna get on the team
And I'm just gonna do stuff for Christ. Hey, then he'll elevate you and do time
Hey, you'll do great works
Hey, if you look at some of the Christian, some of the evangelists, you look at some
of the pastors and say, hey, this guy's better than me, but you know what, they're of God.
Just get on their team, get on their program, and don't fight against the man of God.
And don't fight against the system.
And just recognize the movement of God and get on the team.
Stop getting against the new IFB.
Boy, I sure notice a pattern that every attack on the new IFB always fails, loses, gets one
dies in an alley somewhere, I mean why in the world would you want to join the losing team?
I sure notice the Pharisees keep losing and losing and losing
and Jesus and John the Baptist keep winning and winning and winning.
Hey just get on the new IFB team and you say like ah I don't want to be new IFB.
Well you know I've noticed people that just like this book end up becoming new IFB
whether they like it or not.
because it's not about the new IP.
We're just about the King's Day Bible.
We're about what the Bible says.
And when you really like this book
and you really do a lot of what this book says,
you end up noticing, hey, I'm really a lot like you.
And then this is what people always criticize me like,
ah, he's like Pastor Anderson.
Well good, because we're using the same book.
We got the same instruction manual.
He trained me.
I talk him on the phone all the time.
Shocker, we're similar.
We're also really different, you know, he's he doesn't like Texas food. I don't get it. There's something wrong with him
I'm trying to work on him. Okay. He's not perfect, but you know what? He's of God
He's a great preacher. He's 1000s of people to Christ quit quit attacking this person quit going against that person
You know, you're it's a fool's errand
It's a fool's errand, it doesn't make sense, and of course, just like the Pharisees were afraid to answer that question,
a lot of people are afraid to answer that question.
Why? Because these don't have the right heart.
They don't have the right mindset.
And in the same way, look, I'm not saying that any of us is Jesus, none of us are Jesus, we're not even close to Jesus.
We're not close to any of the men in the Bible.
But you know what, somebody on this planet is of God, somebody on this planet is doing
the work of God.
And when we see it, we should not attack it, we should join it and celebrate it and we
should even be like the guy at the beginning of the story, we're willing to give our ass
and our colt the full of an ass to him right away.
Hey, we're just ready to get on board.
Here's what can I do to help?
What can I do to further the cause of Jesus Christ? And again, they always like with is with the authority
Are you passes you you just you just put yourselves in charge of everything? Yep
And
Who put you in charge of anything
It's like hey, you know, I didn't install myself as a pastor this church
Pastor Anderson installed me in this church.
And he also installed me as the Word of God because it had certain parameters.
He also installed me as the congregation because I made it real clear.
If you don't want me, I don't even want to come.
So, you know, hey, don't get mad at the person in charge.
Don't get mad at the guy that has authority.
Get mad at the guy that has authority and it's not using it for the cause of Christ.
I'm not picking on people that have authority for having authority.
I'm mad at people that have authority and aren't doing anything with it.
That's what we should get mad about is the people that are pastors and aren't using it to actually do something
You preach people out the door. Why don't you?
You yell and scream well, Jesus is I mean Jesus throw in tables folks
You don't think you don't think that was I've never even been that I thought about one time. I almost did it
I might in the future, but you know, hey, I I don't even think I can compete with this
Let's keep reading it says this in verse 28, but what think ye?
A certain man had two sons and he came to the first and said son go work today in my vineyard
He answered to said I will not but afterward he repented went they came to the second and said likewise
And he answered and said I go sir and we're not with them twain to the will of his father
They say in them the first Jesus say of none of them verily
I say in you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness and you believe them not
But the publicans and the harlots believed him, and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.
Here's another parable. John the Baptist comes, preaches the Word of God.
Who ends up getting saved? Who ends up doing the works of God?
All the people that weren't that great.
The people that didn't start out on the right track.
But then they got on the right track later.
And you know, let's keep with our analogy here for a second.
Who's that voice in the wilderness? Well, you know, Tempe seems like a pretty big wilderness and there's a guy out there
Pastor Anderson getting a lot of people saved and you know, he's bringing in a lot of people people that didn't really grow up being very Christian
A lot of the public ends in the harlots.
A lot of people that are rough around the edges.
A lot of people that weren't saved
and living this super awesome, you know, IFB life.
Hey, you know, there's a lot of first-time Christians
and first-generation Christians being one to Christ right now.
And you always say, hey, who are the people
doing the work of God?
Is it these people that were just raised,
old IFB through and through?
Where's that soul-winning army
that was born with an old IFB spoon in their mouth?
I don't even see it.
rough backgrounds, rough paths, use rough words,
and boy, they're going out there preaching the everlasting gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
and getting a lot of people to say, and doing the work of God.
You know what?
There's never a bad time to start serving God and get your life cleaned up, and you
know what?
God often times used those people that first said, you know what, I'm not going to serve
God in my life, maybe you lived a bad part of your first life, but now you say I'm on
And God used publicans and harlots and fishermen, and look, there is nothing wrong with being raised in a great home and a great church.
And you can still be greatly used by God, and I think a lot of the great people in the Bible are like that.
But at the end of the day, there's also nothing stopping you from serving God even if you weren't raised that way.
Even if you are someone that had a rough past, God got a lot of those people saved and used a lot of them.
They believed that guy screaming in the wilderness.
They got on a program with Soul Winning.
They got on the program with doing the great works of God
and they were greatly used by God.
And you know what, I think our movement is the same.
We're reaching lots of rough people where they're at
and we're bringing them in and we're getting them saved.
We're not like the stupid street preacher
that I saw last night screaming and yelling
about how everybody's so bad
because they wanna go see a sporting event.
Screaming and yelling about how people are gonna turn
and burn or whatever.
That guy is gonna go to hell.
You know and it's like he thinks he's better than all the publicans in the harlots
Just like the Pharisees thought that they were better than all the publicans harlots
But you know what a lot of the public in the harlots will believe the gospel, but they won't believe these Pharisees
They won't believe these overly, you know
Holier-than-thou types that just like to pontificate how they've never done anything bad and they never had a bad thought and they've
Never argued with their wife one time and they've never said a bad word and they're just so great and it's just like boy
You're going to reach a lot of people with that message.
But you know, Jesus' message is like,
hey, I don't care what you did, come on to me,
and I'll give you a turn of life.
Paul's the chief of sinners.
And he got to say, oh, oh yeah, he happened
to be the biggest Christian, didn't he?
Oh yeah, the chief of sinners, greatest evangelist.
So you know what there's nothing stopping you from serving God and doing great things
Don't let your past drag you down. Just count it all done forget it move on and start serving God wherever you're at
We get another parable. It's just just just keep verse. They're here another parable. All right
There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it around about and digged wine present it and built a tower and
Let it out to husband and went into a far country and when the time of the fruit drew near
He sent his servants to the husband that they might receive the fruits of it
And the husband took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another again
He sent on other servants more than the first and they did unto them likewise
But last of all he sent unto them his son saying oh reverence my son
When the husband saw the son they said among themselves
This is the air come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance
And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him
When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh,
what will he do out of those husbandmen?
They say in him,
he will miserably destroy those wicked men,
and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen,
which shall render unto him the fruits in their seasons."
Now, it's too much to unpack on this portion.
We don't have enough time, but quickly,
we can understand that Jesus is preaching against them.
Notice in verse 45,
when the chief priests and Pharisees heard these parables,
they perceived that he spake of them.
That's because he did.
This is against the Jews. He said, hey, you guys the Jews
Hey, I sent unto you all kinds of prophets and you just didn't want to listen to them. You didn't listen to Jeremiah
He didn't listen to Amos. He didn't listen to the men of God
You just kept killing them and stoning them and not harkening unto me not returning unto me
And so I said well, what if I sent Jesus? What if I send my son the Lord Jesus Christ and they said hey, this is the air
This is the guy that all these promises were about if we kill him
Then you know all the promises will be ours and if you think about the Pharisees attitude
They even said specifically that it was necessary that one should die
For the benefit of the whole nation because they were afraid of losing their nation
So they felt like they had to kill Jesus to keep their nation
But by killing Jesus they ended up losing their nation
And, of course, what is God's attitude, because they say the husband-men in this parable is God the Father,
the Son is obviously Jesus Christ,
he says they're like, what is the Father going to do? What is God the Father going to do?
He will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard unto other husband-men.
Now, again, let's apply that to today.
Obviously, we don't Jesus on the earth, you know, we have men of God, we have pastors
and preachers on this earth.
What happens when you won't listen to them and you attack them?
What is God the Father going to do to those people?
He's going to miserably destroy those wicked men.
He's going to give them lesions all over their body and they're going to hurt like no one's
ever hurt before.
And then he's going to bring in other people that'll do what?
What does it say he will let out his vineyard and other has been which shall render him the fruits in their seasons
Oh, why do you constantly bring up soul winning because hey, you don't want to be a soul winner
He won't attack soul winning. Well, God will destroy you miserably and bring in someone that'll do the soul
That's gonna render the fruits
We like to we like to read this variable and think about Jews and how bad they are
You know what?
What about people that are attacking the work of the ministry attacking the word of God attacking men of God not wanting to get
See people get saved. They're disappointed when people are getting saved. They can't answer the question. Hey, it's John the Baptist of God
I don't know. I can't tell
Why because they're just so angry and bitter and mad because they don't produce any fruit
In verse 42, Jesus said to them,
Did ye never read in the Scriptures the stone which the builders rejected,
the same as it came to the head of the corner?
This is the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes.
Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you,
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof,
and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken,
but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to power.
When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables,
they received that he spake of them,
but when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude
because they took him for a profit.
So again, Jesus preaches against people right to their face.
calls them out right to their face.
Of course, the stone which the builders rejected is Jesus.
Jesus is the head of the corner.
The corner stone is the first stone that's laid in a building project
and it sets the course for the entire project.
In the same vein, Jesus is that first stone that's laid in the New Testament
and of course then we're stones that are laid with it.
And of course Jesus Christ says unto Peter that he's a rock
and he's going to be one of those stones that's also laid
early on as one of the first pastors and leaders of that New Testament church
and upon this rock will he build his church and of course we're built upon the apostles and the
prophets and upon Jesus Christ and he's that chief cornerstone but we're also stones, we're
lively stones. Go to 1 Peter 2, we'll finish. Go to 1 Peter 2 and we'll finish.
And notice he said, hey, this nation is going to be taken away from you,
like this kingdom of God is going to be taken away from you
and given unto, you know, a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
So what is the kingdom of God?
It's the gospel.
It's getting people saved. It's Christianity.
Who had Christianity from the point of you know Adam and Eve up to this point? It is the Hebrews
It's the Israelites. It's the nation of Israel. It's the Jews
Salvation is of the Jews. They're the ones that had the gospel message
They were the ones bearing the gospel message
They were the ones supposed to get all the Gentiles saved
They were the ones going out and evangelizing the world if you wanted to hear about the true religion of God
It was the Jews
But he says the king of God is gonna be taken from you
So what does that mean?
Hey, the Gospel is going to be taken from you and then it's going to be given unto somebody
else who?
Unto a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
But did God take the Gospel away from him, a physical nation of Israel, and give it to
a different physical nation?
No, because there's not one physical nation on this earth that just has the Gospel.
But what does the Bible teach?
The Bible teaches that God gave it unto the church and that the church is the saved believers
That which is first is natural, is earthly, but that which is second is heavenly.
The first nation was earthly, the second nation is heavenly.
And of course, we are that church, we are that new nation, we are that spiritual nation
of believers, and we have the Kingdom of God, not the Jews.
And, of course, you know, the religion of Judaism today, the modern religion of Judaism,
rejects the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and hates Jesus Christ and has a very similar
feel to what these Jews were like in the New Testament.
I don't think it's exactly the same.
There's some differences there.
But hey, they're like their spiritual fathers, the Jews, in the sense that they reject the gospel
and the kingdom of God has been taken from them.
And they have the wrath of God come upon them under the uttermost.
And the kingdom of God is not in the physical nation of Israel today.
Despite the fact that I'm sure there's a few saved people over there.
But that's not where the gospel is.
The gospel is in here.
The gospel is with us and we are those asses that are supposed to go forth and bear Jesus Christ and bear that gospel
Unto all waters and preach the gospel all nations and get them saved look at first Peter chapter 2 verse 4
The Bible says to whom coming as unto a light living stone
disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious so that stone that was
Disallowed indeed of men that's that chief cornerstone that was rejected
But it was chosen of God, and it's special, and it says he also has lively stones are built upon a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Wherefore also it contained in the scripture behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Undo you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed,
The same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
even meaning specifically to them which stumble at the word being disobedient,
wherein to also they were appointed, but you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of him
who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. The people of God are in this room, not in Israel.
They are not the chosen. We are the chosen. They are not the elect. We are the elect. They're not even the Jews. We are the Jews.
The Romans chapter 2 makes it super clear that the Jew is not an outward circumcision.
It is an inward circumcision of the heart and you know what, we believe the Gospel and that circumcision was performed and we became new and we became part of that elect special nation, we are living stones built upon that foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are God's people, we are a nation, a spiritual nation of believers and the Kingdom of God was taken from the physical
And it was given to a nation that would bring forth the fruits thereof which was the church and let me tell you something
It was clearly taken from them because as soon as you get done with the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles
You know you have the book of Romans which was written to the church
It wasn't written to a nation of Israel
It was written to those which were at Rome and then to those which were at Corinth and to the Galatians and the
Ephesians the Philippians and the Colossians and the Thessalonikans
Then it's written to all the pastors of these churches, Titus and Timothy.
It's written unto Philemon.
Then we finally get an epistle to the Hebrews and it's saying stop being Hebrew.
Stop being a Jew.
Become part of the spiritual nation.
You've been replaced.
You don't need to do those sacrifices.
They're done.
They were disobedient.
Don't be like them.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then you've got, of course, other advanced epistles written from James and Peter, but they're written to churches.
We have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, John, Jude, and then we have Revelation, which is the seven churches of Asia.
Why? Because the Kingdom of God was taken from the nation of Israel and it was given unto a spiritual nation of
Romans and Thessalonians and Corinthians and the Greeks. It was given to the Greeks which represents Gentiles which
represents us. And you know what? It was given unto those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Church.
those who have called upon the name of the Lord in faith.
Those are the saved and the believers.
And of course, he rejected the carnal Jews.
And you know what, praise God,
that the God of the universe doesn't just pick
who goes to heaven and hell based on nothing.
The Calvinist God that doesn't exist. Praise God that the God of the universe didn't just pick a specific group of
race, a specific line and just said those people are saved and if you're not in that family tree, you're not saved.
Praise God that our God is an adoptive father.
that said, hey anybody that believes you're a part of my family you're a part of my fold and we got saved
And you know what? We have that message and we need to bear that to all waters to all peoples to all nations to all languages
including the Jews
The worst thing you can say to a Jew is that he's of God you can say you can become of God
But you have to be born again
You have to accept the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't don't stumble at that stumbling stone believe on it
Don't allow Jesus Christ to crush you in the powder like he will to many Jews
but you know what believe on him and
Put away Jew and Gentile and just become one in Christ Jesus
We're all one nation. We're all one blood. Hey, you know what?
We've all been sanctified by that blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what a great passage
You can see why so many Jews got mad about this message, huh?
Hey, you're not special. You're not even saved. You're not of God. You have to believe in me
Well, what are the people that didn't believe in him do?
They crucified him, didn't they?
They killed him.
You can see why they're getting so mad.
You can see why Jesus is kind of holding back this message until the last week.
You know?
He's like, now it's just like, all right, I'm unload the truck.
Hey, they should have got, hey, the king of God is going to be taking from you guys and
bringing forth unto a nation and bringing fruits.
And they know he's talking about Gentiles because everybody else is Gentiles.
That just makes them even more mad because they're racist.
Jews are racist.
I'm not racist. I love all races. There's only one race the human race and we need to give them the gospel
Let's go to work. Thank you only father so much for giving us such a beautiful gospel
Thank you for giving us such an important job to bear the gospel the Lord Jesus Christ
I pray that we would be like that donkey that we would go out there and we would just bear the gospel
We realize it's not about us
I pray that when we see the Kingdom of God, when we see men of God, when we see the works
of God, that we wouldn't get envious and disgruntled and attack that, but rather we would just
join up.
We'd be ready to just give our assets and we're ready to distribute, willing to communicate.
We wouldn't attack men of God.
And I pray that when we see people that are evil and wicked and bad trees, that we'd have
the faith to just pray that you would just destroy them.
Pray that you would just destroy all those wicked evil mountains and trees that are attacking the work of God
You just cast them into the sea that you would just tie a millstone around their neck and just throw them in there
And I pray that you would just help us to be a bright and shining light so that we get more people saved in Jesus name
We pray amen
All right for tonight's last song let's go to song number 136
Song number 136.
Master the Tempest is raging.
Song number 136.
Last song, let's sing it out.
Song 136, so I'll sing it out on that first verse.
Master the Tempest is raging.
The pillows are closing high.
The sky is your shadow with black mist.
You
Or deep into the middle
The depths of my sad heart are troubled, Awaken and save my grave.
Torrents of sin and of anguish, Sing o'er my singing song,
Oh, hasten and take control
The winds and the waves now obey my will
Peace be still
When in the wrath of the storm
Don't seek for demons or men
Shall make the flesh smarter, and rest on the blissful shore.
Though it's in the way, shall obey my will.
Peace be still, whether the wrath of the storm