(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're here in John chapter 2, and we're continuing our series on the Old Paths question mark series. And I make it a point to say question mark because these are things we do not agree with. These are things we don't do in church. And we had an introductory sermon, and then we talked about the old-fashioned altar. We showed that this is not an altar, and there is no altar call in the Bible. The only time you ever see it is when people are doing something God tells them not to do, where He says, quit coming down to the altar. Last week we talked about children's ministries and why we don't do those. We don't have a Sunday school. We don't have a junior church. And today what we're going to be talking about is the house of merchandise. And what that means is basically buying and selling in church. Because almost every Baptist church you go to will sell things in church. They'll have a bookstore. They'll have all these things. And we'll go on to that during the sermon. But let's just see right off the bat what the Bible says about this here in John chapter 2. And then I'll kind of explain more in detail. John chapter 2. It says in verse 13, John 2 verse 13, and the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now verse 13 is an important verse, okay? It's giving you the timeline, and the Passover is about to take place. It is at hand. It kind of reminds you of that verse where the Bible says the coming of the Lord is not at hand, okay? It's not about to take place. At hand means about to take place. And he's saying the Passover is about to take place. So in verse 14, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. So during this time period, in the temple they're selling animals. The reason why they're doing that is because people need to buy animals for Passover, for the sacrifices. It's kind of like at Christmas time. During Christmas time, they have all these people out trying to market for that season, okay? Because they know during Christmas people are going to be buying things. So during Christmas time, they will make it a point to be in certain places to sell things, okay? Here, the Passover is about to take place, so people that want to make money say, hey, now's a great time to sell in church. Why? People in church are going to need to buy this. And so people are leaving and saying, man, I guess I'll buy this because it's convenient. It's easy. It's right there. And so they're making it a point to sell because they know they're going to make money during this time of year because the Passover is at hand, okay? That's what's taking place in verse 14. Well, what does God think about that? Well, notice what it says in verse 15. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple. And so what it says in verse 15 is that Jesus made a scourge of small cords, okay? Now look, I don't know how long it takes to make a scourge of small cords. Just basically think of like a rope that's intertwined. But basically he takes time to sit down, and Jesus is kind of just sitting down and just making this to basically drive them out. So he's being very patient. Now I'm sure Jesus was angry. He sees this. He's mad. But he's patient, okay? And he takes time, and he just makes this. And then what does he do? He drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changer's money and overthrew the tables. Now just imagine if we were having a Baptist conference on money, okay? If we were like, a lot of these Baptist churches, we had just the big amount in the end, and our goal is like one million pesos to get today donated or something like that. And they're counting it up on the back table, and someone just runs over there and just throws the table over and is like beating people out of this room, okay? That is what's going on in John chapter 2. Look, this is pretty extreme because Jesus doesn't normally have this sort of reaction. This is not something you see in every single chapter. He's even patient with false prophets. But he's not real patient with selling in church. And he overthrows the money, drives them all out. And I want you to notice what it says in John chapter 2, and let me turn there myself, John 2. And this is where we get the title for our sermon. And in John chapter 2 verse 16 it says, and said unto them that sold doves, take these things hence. He's saying, get this out of here. Make it some other place, make not my Father's house in house of merchandise. What he says is, you know what, I do not want buying and selling in church. That's not what church is about. And he's saying, you're making this place a house of merchandise. Those are his words. That's where we get the title for this sermon. Now when I read this, it's pretty clear to me that we're not going to buy and sell stuff in church. It just seems pretty obvious that Jesus is very angry about this. Yet Baptist churches do this. You say, why do they do this? Well, there's no new thing under the sun. The exact things that the Bible preaches against and Jesus preaches against, they do the same things in Baptist churches. They do exactly what the Bible says don't do. Don't come down to the altar and weep. He has to say that because people are doing it, and what do people do now? They come down to the altar and they weep. Exactly like he said, do not do this. And what we're doing in this series is we're going through these Baptist traditions and not all traditions are bad, but we're looking at things that are just not in the Bible. And selling in church is something Jesus was very angry about. So what is the excuse for Baptist churches to buy and sell in church? Because we look at this and say we're not going to sell anything. We're not going to buy anything. And also none of our members are going to do that either. This is not the place for that. But what do they say? Well, this is one of their excuses. They say, well, they were selling unspiritual things. They said that was a problem. They were selling animals, and there would be a problem if they were selling Bibles and sermon CDs and stuff like that. But there wouldn't be a problem with that. But there's a problem when you're selling animals because that's a non-spiritual thing. That is what they say. This is a non-spiritual thing, and we should not sell non-spiritual things in the house of God. So it's wrong to sell banana bread, but it's okay to sell Bibles. That's what they're saying. Okay? It's wrong to sell banana bread, but it's okay to sell Bibles in the house of God. That's their excuse. Well, wait a minute. Go back to verse 13. Let's see if what they say is actually true, because I would say these are actually spiritual things. John 2, verse 13, keep in mind, and the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Look, these people were not just buying sheep because they wanted a companion to be friends with and hang out with, like a dog. No, they're buying these animals because they need to make sacrifices, because the Jews' Passover is at hand. It's about to take place. So in verse 14, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. They are intentionally selling in the temple because this is a great place to sell. People are needing these things. They intentionally do that. These are spiritual things. This is for the offerings. This is for the sacrifices. This is a spiritual thing. It's not a non-spiritual thing. So look, if God's angry about this, He's angry about selling Bibles in the house of God. He's angry about selling sermon CDs in the house of God, and these are things that churches actually do. I've known of churches that sold invitations for soul winning. If you want to go soul winning, it's like you can have a sack for 100. Just give me 100 pesos, one peso per invitation. Churches actually do that. They actually sell stuff, and they make money off it. Pastors will sell their sermon CDs. Now we just put all of our sermons online. Get the word of God out there, but most churches, they sell sermon CDs. They sell Bibles. They sell all of these things, and the reason why they do that is they can make good money because it's a great amount of people to market to. They sell sermon CDs. I mean, you have 200 people in a room, and there's going to be some people that really like a sermon. If we sold sermon CDs, there would be people that would buy them because they'd say, man, I like that sermon. I want to be able to hear it again. Why do you think Baptist churches don't put their sermons online? Because they're selling those sermons to their members. That's the reason why. That's why you cannot find the famous Baptist preachers. You don't see their sermons online. You try to find them, it's like there's nothing. They don't put them online. Why? Because they sell them to the members. They'll lose all their money if they just put it free on YouTube or whatever. That's the reality. Now, notice what it says in ... We'll turn to Revelation 18, Revelation chapter 18. I want you to realize that selling spiritual things, look, that's wrong. It's wrong to sell Bibles. It's wrong to sell sermon CDs and things such as that. Whether it's spiritual or unspiritual, it doesn't really make a difference. You just don't use the house of God to sell things. You don't use the house of God for money. That's what the Bible's saying. But remember what Jesus said, the house of merchandise. What is merchandise? Because anything that's merchandise, Jesus would be mad about selling in church. What exactly does that mean? Because in this day, they didn't have sermon CDs. They didn't have a lot of things that we have today. They didn't have DVDs of preaching conferences and things such as that. How do we know whether or not it'd be right or wrong to sell those things? Now, I think it's pretty obvious. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and go to Revelation 18, and we're going to see what exactly is merchandise that Jesus would be mad about. Verse 11, and the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her. For no man buyeth their merchandise anymore. And so it's going to kind of give us a definition of merchandise. What does it mean by merchandise? Now, let me just say this. Merchandise is anything a merchant sells, and we're going to see that. But it's anything. But let's see what merchandise is. The merchandise of gold. So it's wrong to sell gold in church. The merchandise of gold and silver, it's wrong to sell silver in church. And precious stones, it's wrong to sell precious stones. And of pearls and fine linen, so basically clothing you shouldn't sell. And purple, so don't sell things that are colored purple because that was a commodity back then. And silk and scarlet and all thigh and wood, so things of wood, you know, don't sell those. And all manner of vessels of ivory and all manner of vessels of most precious wood and of brass and iron and marble and cinnamon, so forget about your spices, and odors and ointments and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves and souls of men. Let me just kind of explain what that means. Don't sell anything. He lists like a million things. Basically, I mean, do you want to just go on and on? Don't sell bananas. Don't sell tinopi. Don't sell, I mean, he's listed pretty much everything, okay? Don't sell anything in church is what he's saying because you could put these under categories and every single thing is getting hit. Don't sell anything. So yeah, they didn't have sermon CDs back then, but that would fit under this. Anything that you're selling is going to be merchandise. And so Jesus is against selling anything in church, okay? Now turn in your Bible to Romans 10, Romans 10. Now let me say this. There's nothing wrong with having a business and selling things. That's a great way to make money, especially in today's world. I think that's great because you get to pick your own schedule. There's a lot of benefits. It's hard to start a business. You put in a lot of time up front, but I think it's a great idea. Start a business and sell things. Nothing wrong with that. Now let me say this. It's not even wrong if somebody at church buys something from you, but you don't use church to sell those things. There's a difference there. There's nothing wrong with, you know, you sell something and somebody from church wants to buy something from you. Nothing wrong with that, but you don't just like bring your supplies in here and you're just like selling them, okay? You don't do that, okay? So there's nothing wrong with having a business. There's nothing wrong with selling anything. I think that's great in today's world and there's nothing wrong with someone at church buying something from you, but I will say this, that at some churches people will come to church just to sell things. That can be an issue at churches where they'll come in and they'll see, they'll go to a big church and they're probably not going to come to our church, they'll probably go to Victory or CCF. You say why? Because those people probably have like a lot of money and they'll just, you know, buy whatever. And so that's what they'll do. They'll go to churches like that and they can sell lots of things. Hey, there's nothing wrong with selling something to someone in church, but you're not using the house of God in order to make money. That's where the problem comes in, okay? Now, turn in your Bible to Romans 10. And some of the things I want to talk about in terms of spiritual things that people sell, in churches they sell sermons, they sell Bibles, they sell hymnal CDs. And especially this is true when you have like a conference or some evangelist comes in to preach, because in America they have traveling evangelists who never go soul winning. They never go soul winning. They just preach from church to church. And whenever they start their sermon or whatever, it's about for 10 minutes they talk about this back table where they're selling their books and everything like that. And they're trying to sell their ministry to you for like the first 10 minutes of the sermon. That's what every evangelist I ever saw in the U.S. did. They're always selling their stuff and, you know, hey, this book is only $9.99, but if you buy three, want to give a gift to your wife, you know, three for $25. Right? You got a good deal there. You know, you got a 15% discount or whatever. They will literally sell things like that in the house of God. It's very common. And guess what? People will often buy it. It's how they make some of their money. Okay? So anything like that, that would be wrong to do. We don't sell anything in church. We certainly don't sell invitations for soul winning. We're certainly not going to sell Bibles. I mean, if we were going to sell anything, we'd be selling the brownies, not the Bibles. Okay? We're not going to sell like spiritual things. I would rather sell unspiritual things. So I mean, the excuse, well, you know, we're just selling spiritual things. It's like, man, I mean, how do you sleep at night, right? But let me show you in Romans 10 an example of why, you know, we would never sell invitations in church. And I mention that because, you know, churches do that. And me and my friends were at a church a long time ago, and we bought invitations online. We bought invitations because we wanted to keep going soul winning. And if we didn't buy invitations, then, you know what, we wouldn't be able to go soul winning. And so basically, it's just like, you know, the church ran out of invitations. And every week we talk to them, yeah, yeah, we'll get invitations here in the future. It's like they didn't want us to go soul winning, is what we figured out. And so for months and months, there was no invitations. And so, you know, we just bought invitations online, and just started going soul winning. You know, but this is reality. This is what Baptist churches do. Romans 10, verse 14. Romans 10, verse 14, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? And so in verse 15, how are you going to preach the gospel unless a church is sending you to preach the gospel? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Look, going soul winning is not easy. It's difficult. It takes work. It takes effort. And if your church is not supporting you, you're not going to do it. I mean, when they're making it difficult to go soul winning. And look, I know people in the Philippines that have told me that their church has said, hey, we don't want you soul winning with the name of our church. We don't want to be attached to that. It's like, what in the world? These are Baptist churches that just don't want soul winners at the church. Well, just come to our church then. Just like remove all those people from your church and just have them come right here. We're going to be happy with as many soul winners as we can. The Bible says, how shall they preach except they be sent? And so if the church is not sending you to preach the gospel and giving you soul winning times and soul winning marathons and soul winning events, you're really not going to do a whole lot of soul winning. Even more so when churches are basically restricting the soul winning and they're making it difficult. Turn back to John 2, John chapter 2. So, one excuse they give for selling in church, and this is pretty much every Baptist church, is they say, well, they were selling non-spiritual things. And as we saw, it doesn't matter whether it's spiritual or not. It's still going to be wrong. It's still merchandise. But the other excuse they have is this, you know, it's not that they were doing anything wrong by selling in church, but they were ripping people off. They were charging too much money. So it's not wrong to sell an oxen for like 1,000 pesos, but if it's 1,200 pesos, get out of here, okay? That's what they say. Now, first off, when Jesus comes in, he doesn't stop and talk about, well, how much are you selling this for? He's just immediately angry, okay? And so I don't think he has an indication, oh, wait a minute, this is how much the doves are. That's too much, okay? No, he seems just mad at them selling at all, okay? But I want you to see in John chapter 2, verse 16, I want you to see how this is not true what they say. And said unto them that sold doves, take these things hence. Hence means some other place, basically away from here. Take these things and go somewhere else. He does not tell them to quit selling. He tells them to quit selling in church. It's not wrong that they were selling animals. Look, you can sell whatever you want that's not sinful at this church. Don't sell wine or vodka or beer or whatever, but hey, you can sell books or whatever you want to sell. I don't have a problem with it. The problem is selling it at church. Jesus does not say this is wrong to sell at all. He says take these things hence, because here's the thing, somebody has to sell the animals. Somebody needs to sell animals so they can do the offerings. There's no problem with selling animals because they need to buy the animals for the offerings, because Passover is at hand. The problem is doing it in the house of God. That's the problem. Look, there's no problem if you sell things. You just don't do it in the house of God. It's not that they were ripping people off. It's that they were selling at all. If you're going to give something away, that's one thing, but then selling it in church, that's where it's wrong. Turn to 2 Peter 2, 2 Peter 2. I read some articles online trying to find justification because usually Baptists don't even try to bring this up because they can't really answer the verses. I read from compellingtruth.org, and I did not find it some compelling truth. I found compelling lies about compellingtruth.org slash selling dash in dash church dot html. I also read from gotquestions.org slash selling dash in dash church dot html. They said the same thing. They're basically ripping people off. They say don't allow anyone to confuse you by saying that Jesus was mad they were selling in church. The problem is they're ripping people off. They don't even have a verse they're using for that. They're just trying to make up some sort of justification. They don't have any verse they use. They say, well, we just think that's what's taking place. Why don't you just read what it says, and Jesus is mad at selling in church and just say, hey, it looks like it's wrong to sell in church. Look, I've been at churches when I was younger, and guess what? I bought some things at church because I didn't realize this. If you've done that before, I'm not preaching against you. Look, I've done the same thing before. I realized what the Bible said, but I remember being in college, and there was a sermon I really wanted to hear that my pastor preached because he would put sermons on the shelves, and I told my pastor, hey, that sermon was really helpful for me. I'd love to get a copy if you make one, and he said, oh, it's only like $3 or something. I was like, what? He was nice to me, and I liked him. He's a good guy. He came to me a week later. He said, hey, if you don't have money, that's fine. If you want to put in an offering, you can. If you don't, that's okay. So he wasn't a bad guy. I'm not saying he was a bad guy, but just the concept of selling sermon CDs, and they teach them this in Bible college because it costs money to make the CDs. So if it costs money to make the CDs and time is money, you spend 30 minutes to make that CD. Time is money, so then just multiply by three or whatever, then you've got $3. That's what they say, and they make good money by selling things in church. Now I was at a small local church in West Virginia, but here's the thing. Bigger churches, they sell a lot of stuff, and they have a lot of products. When you look at like-minded churches in the U.S. in terms of that are like-minded to us, they have a big reach of people that will visit their church, and if they started selling things in church, they would make a lot of money. Now all their members would probably leave after a couple months, but they would make a lot of money in those couple months. They'd be able to retire. It's like, man, I'm retired from pastoring, I've got all the money I need. Why? Because they've got a lot of great products, documentaries, DVDs, CDs, and especially we don't have access to a lot of those things here in the Philippines, and a lot of people visiting are saying, man, I want this and this and this, and if they sold them, you know what, they would make a lot of money. But what does the Bible say about that? Second Peter chapter two. Now here's the thing. Why do some people sell at church? Why do churches do this? Well notice what it says in Second Peter two verse one, and this isn't necessarily true with every church, but I will show you why a lot of churches do this. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. The Bible says there will be false prophets that will basically lie in order to get people to come to their church and basically have tithes and offerings and things such as that. Why do they do that? Well verse three, and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. They're basically selling things to you and making money off of you. They're using you, okay? Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. The Bible speaks about false prophets, who basically they make merchandise of the people, and they basically are stealing money from people. Why? Because they're covetous. They will say whatever, they'll lie and do whatever, and look, a lot of churches do this. They sell in church because there's false prophets behind that, and they make money off it. That's the reality. And here in the Philippines, the vast majority of Baptist pastors are false prophets. Because they preach a false gospel. I'm not just saying that. They preach a false gospel, okay? They're not even close to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And so look, a lot of those pastors, they're just making money off you. They have conferences here in the Philippines about money. Lots of conferences. Every year it's a new conference with a cute name, okay? They're always having these conferences, and it's about money. It almost seemed like a joke to me at first. You literally have a conference about money? In the U.S., they've had a lot of cool conferences like Marching to Zion, the Prophecy Conference, Soul Winning Conferences, a lot of great things. But a conference on money. It's like, good night. It's like that shows what's in your heart. You can't help but speak the things that are inside of your heart. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, the Bible says. And so what's in their heart is money. That's all they talk about. It's time for the offering. Let's have a five-minute prayer for basically more money coming in. It shows what is inside of their heart. They have these conferences about money. That is what they care about. And look, they have good money. They make good money. But I want you to realize the only reason why they do this and they sell in church and they make merchandise off people is because people are willing to buy their product. That's the reason why they do it. And when it comes to the house of merchandise, there's two problems here. One problem is the people that would use church and sell things, but the other problem is those that would buy. That's a problem as well. And look, I was once in ignorance when I was 19 years old, 20 years old, and I'd have a product I wanted and I'd get like this sermon CD series or whatever when I'd go to preaching conferences. But that's actually part of the problem as well. Because they won't sell in church if nobody's buying, right? And so this problem is twofold. And so look, it's wrong to sell in church. It's also wrong to buy in church as well. And look, someone who buys in church, they might not realize, like I used to be in ignorance, but let me tell you something. It is wrong for anyone to be buying in church, okay? It doesn't matter if it's a product you want, go on Amazon, go wherever and buy that product. You don't do it in the house of God. That's what the Bible teaches, okay? Now turn in your Bible to Matthew 21. And look, this is just very clear in the Bible. One thing I'm kind of happy about is although I'm trying to cover like every topic in the Bible, pretty much the last topic I'm going to hit is tithing because I've never preached on it before. The only time I ever mentioned it was when we went through the book of Malachi because I'm not going to intentionally avoid verses in the Bible when you're going verse by verse. But I've never preached a sermon on tithing. I've never preached a sermon. I've preached sermons against what they do in these Baptist churches. I've never preached a sermon about how you should give money. You say, why? Because honestly, that's the last thing I care about. And quite honestly, God has blessed our church as well. We haven't even asked for money. And look, people at our church, they do tithe because they love God and they know what the Bible says. We have offerings from people online that have paid for things and we use it for soul winning events and things such as that. I've never preached on it and I will eventually, but it's like the last topic I want to cover. Matthew 21 verse 12. Matthew 21 verse 12. And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple. So notice, he didn't just cast out those selling in the temple. He cast out those buying in the temple. As I said, selling or buying, that's both part of the problem. He cast out those that bought in the temple. And here's the thing, you might say, well, I wasn't aware of it. Well, Jesus is still angry if you're not aware of it. Have you not read is what he would say. Now look, I was once in ignorance as well. And you know what Jesus probably would have said? Have you not read? It's like, I don't care if you didn't know, get this out of here. Why? Because it's wrong to do. And I'll tell you what, to be honest, it just always felt wrong. You know what I mean? Like selling in church, you're like, you have to buy a Bible? It just seems weird. Okay. Just kind of inherently know, and that's what the Bible teaches. He cast out those that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, it is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, be it mated a den of thieves. Now this phrase, den of thieves, is where they try to say, well, see, they're ripping people off. But when you look at John 2 and Matthew 21, this is clearly not the case. And look, this event takes place twice, okay? It's not just one time, okay? That's why the stories are a little bit different. But he says, my house shall be called the house of prayer. And so when you have a godly church, it should be known as something like the house of prayer. Or how about the house of soul winning? Amen. That's pretty cool, right? We love soul winning. We do lots of soul winning, lots of soul winning events. The house of church planting. That's pretty cool, getting churches started. The house of singing the praises of God. The house of Bible reading. The house of Bible memorization. The house of prayer. Many of those things are great. If people ask, what is Verity Baptist Church Manila about when you visited? If they said any of those things, I would be like, praise the Lord. Even if they said the house of fellowship, I'd be like, praise the Lord. We love to have fellowship with one another. But the house of merchandise? And here's the reality. When there's various Baptist pastors here in the Philippines we talk about, you know what we think of immediately? Money. Right. Number one, that is the first thing that comes into our minds. You say, why? Because that's what they care about. You think the house of merchandise. That's the reality. And they're using their members. They're ripping them off. And they make them feel guilty if they're not giving lots of money. They're using their members to make money. Look, you say, how does Jesus feel about it? Well, I don't think it's really too hard to tell. He seems pretty angry about it. And you know, most of these Baptist churches, what you're going to think of is, why don't you just say house of merchandise Baptist church? Why don't you just call your church that name? Because that's what comes to my mind when I think of you. Look at 1 Kings 10. 1 Kings 10. You say, oh, Brother Stuckey, one of these Baptists might be offended. I'm sure they'll be offended by this entire series. Doth the words of God offend you? Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? This is what the Bible says. You don't sell in church. It's very, very obvious. Okay? Now, look, let me say this. I'm not saying that every single Baptist church that sells things in church means the pastor is a false prophet, because I've been at churches where they sold in church, and I don't think the pastor was a false prophet. I will say that in the Philippines, I would say the majority are false prophets. There are some exceptions. There are some Baptist pastors that are saved, you know, absolutely, that have the right gospel. I'm not saying we're the only church with the right gospel. But I would say this, that, you know, if somebody tells you they're Baptist, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're saved. It doesn't necessarily mean that in the U.S. either, but at least it's more likely to be the case. Okay? 1 Kings 10. So in terms of just the basic material, we kind of covered that. Let me just go through a couple last things, because quite honestly, this just comes up a couple times in the Bible. It's just very clear. I would go through more arguments the other side had, but the problem is they don't really have any arguments. They just say they're ripping people off or basically they're selling non-spiritual things. And neither one of those is true, and it's very obvious. But let me just say this for point number one. When it comes to churches, look, churches should work within their means of how much that they have. Okay? 1 Kings 10, because here's what I want you to understand, that, look, we don't sell anything in church, but that does not necessarily mean that we have everything in church to give you. Like if you walk up to me and say, hey, Brother Stuckey, can I have a free microwave? It's like, no. It's like, you can't. Okay? It's like we might not be able to have stuff to give you. Like if you ask for something and we don't have that product, we might not be able to just buy it for you and give it to you. And the reality is a church in the Philippines is not going to have the same money as churches in the US or churches in Europe or some of those churches. They have much higher salaries that come in. And the reality is a church here, we're not going to have the same materials that some other churches do. Look, some of the churches I know in the US, they have so many products they give out like, hey, here's these DVDs and all these things. We don't really have that stuff. We have a small selection that we give away for rewards, but we don't have the sort of money to just give away every single thing. Some things we just don't have. We'll never sell anything at church, but it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to have everything that every church has. Okay? Now, God has blessed us financially. We're doing fine. There's no problems there. I'm just saying we don't necessarily have every single thing, though, that some other churches do. So here's the thing. Every church needs to work within their means of the money that comes in. You pay for the necessities like, you know, we pay for the rent here, the utility bills, and if you have extra money, you choose what will I spend this money on. If you don't have extra money, you just go without. That's the way it works. First Kings 10, verse 6. First Kings 10, verse 6. Now, this is in the Old Testament, but if I were to look at a chapter in the Bible that really kind of looks at like the perfect church or ideal church, it's really the story with Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Okay? We even preached a sermon series on that like a year ago. First Kings 10, verse 6. This is when the Queen of Sheba visits. Verse 6. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy accent of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen it, and behold the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom. So according to verse 8, basically the people were happy, the servants, when they heard the wisdom of Solomon, which means there's a time to serve and then there's a time to have church service where you're hearing the word of God preached. Okay? There's both of those things. And then in verse 9, blessed be the Lord thy God which delighted in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made he the king to do judgment and justice. So the queen of Sheba visits and she basically says Solomon exceeded everything I expected. His wisdom, his knowledge, the members were happy, just like, man, this is like the greatest thing I've ever seen. She comes and she's skeptical. She says I didn't, you know, really think it was going to be like this. She says the half was not told me. Basically you're twice as wise as I thought. This place is twice as great. And that's the goal of any church. People visit and say, man, it's a lot better than I expected. The preaching's better, the fellowship's better, the soul winning's better, the attitudes are better. I mean, everything was just great. Okay? So that's what you see in the first nine verses. Now, several years ago I memorized 1 Kings chapter 10, because I was preaching a sermon on it. And the first 40% of that chapter is really interesting. I mean, these first like nine, 10 verses are just really, really interesting. Then the last 60% is kind of boring. Okay? Because the last 60% of the chapter is just going through all this just different list of stuff. But you know what made me realize the reason why it's kind of drier reading is because God's trying to drive home a point. And the point He's trying to drive home is that if a church does what they need to do, they're preaching the Word of God, they're getting people saved, they're doing hard preaching, they're doing everything right, God will bless them financially with what they need. That's the point of the last 60% of the chapter. Because the first 40% is really interesting. The last 60%, when I was trying to memorize this, I was like, oh, man, you know, it's so hard. Okay? It says in verse 10, and she gave the king in 120 talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones, there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. And so notice, basically, she just gives them money. This is the Queen of Sheba. She has a lot of money. He doesn't ask for it, and she just gives the money. What that's trying to teach you is that when a church is doing what's right, the money that is necessary will come in to fund that church. Okay? Now, here's the thing. If the money doesn't come in, it doesn't come in. You can't use it. We do a lot of soul-winning trips. We've got one coming up to the Quezon province, we've got Pampang, we've got everything. The reason why we're able to do that is because money has come in to use it for soul-winning. If it doesn't come in, we've got to just be excited about the soul-winning right around this area. That's the way it is. Now, as we've had money come in, we have all-day soul-winning on Saturday, we provide lunch, and we are able to do that at this point in time. But if one day the money dries up, you know what, it's like we just got to keep going soul-winning anyway. You use money if it comes in, but if it doesn't come in, then you know what, you just don't have it. Verse 11. And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of Almag trees and precious stones, and the king made of the Almag trees pillars for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, harps also and salt trees for singers. There came no such Almag trees, nor were seen unto this day. And so it mentions basically the pillars of the house of God in verse 12, mentions harps or musical instruments. And look, as money has come in, we've bought musical instruments, we've bought air conditioning units and things such as that, but here's the thing, if the money doesn't come in, you've got to live without. If we didn't have air conditioning units, then tough luck, it's going to be hot in here. We have to deal with it. That's the way it works. So if money comes in, you can use it. If it doesn't come in, you just don't use it. That's the way it works. Look, you don't have to have every single thing like the church down the road has. That's like the richest place in the world. You don't have to have everything, okay? If you don't have everything, you just do without. It's not the end of the world. If we don't have money to get pandesala in the morning, then just do without. It's not the end of the world. You can go without your morning coffee or bread, okay? It's just the way it is. Turn in your Bible to Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4. And here's the reality. Every single person running a church would love to have more money that comes in. Look, we have our weekly offerings. We have it all written down. We scan our offerings every Sunday to keep track of everything. And look, when I see the amount, of course I'm rooting for it to be higher than lower. You know, if all of a sudden a big offering comes in, I'm thinking, nah, that's great, you know? If it doesn't, then obviously, you know, I'm like, ah, man, I wish more came in, okay? But here's the thing. Just because everybody would like to have more money that comes in, that preaches sermons or runs churches, look, it doesn't mean that you're going to beg for the money. It doesn't mean your services are going to be geared around that. It doesn't mean you're going to have conferences or say, we need to raise this much money by this date, okay? Of course I would love it if the offerings are higher. Of course everyone would love that. What we're not going to do is just go soul winning in the rich neighborhoods, though, to try to bring some rich person to our church so we'll get more offerings. We're not going to do those things. What we're going to do is do like 1 Kings 10. You do what God expects you to do, and you trust in God that He's going to provide the money. If the money doesn't come in, it's not the end of the world, because it doesn't really cost money to go soul winning. It doesn't cost money to do the basics. It doesn't cost money to preach the Word of God. Now obviously we pay for the rent here, but outside of basic necessities, look, you can still do whatever. And even if we didn't have a building, you could still just meet at a public place. It wouldn't be the greatest thing in the world, but look, if it's a church preaching the truth, it's worth it. Like in Pampanga, we meet in a house. Why? It's a new church. You start in a house. You start basic. Eventually, one day, you move up to getting a building or whatever. But when you start, you start basic, and you know what? As more money comes in, you add on to what you have. If not, then you just do without. It's not the end of the world. And so in Ephesians 4, let me read you verse 28, and so look, as money comes in, obviously as a church, we use that, so we work within the means of what we have. But also, as I mentioned before, don't feel like the church owes you something. I don't think we have a problem with this right now. I honestly don't think we have a problem, but I do know that at churches, sometimes there can be kind of this attitude, since the church doesn't sell anything, we'll just take whatever we want. It's like, man, it's kind of hot in our house. We'll just like take off the fans and just bring it. Like I said, we don't have a problem with this, but look, I've seen this problem at churches before. Okay? Ephesians 4, verse 28. Notice what it says. Ephesians 4, verse 28. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good. This is talking about basically a man going out and working that he may have to give to him that needeth. You say, why should I work so hard and make money? So you can help provide money if people need it. That's what the Bible says. Now, first and foremost, as a guy and as a married guy with kids, the Bible says the fathers are supposed to lay up for their children. That's what the Bible teaches. Now, I don't want to make life too easy on my son. I don't want to just give him everything from day one, because he's got to learn to work for it. That can be a problem, okay? When I think about my parents, my parents did a wonderful job raising me. When I started in middle school, I started to be homeschooled when homeschooling was not very common. My mom stayed home. She raised me and my older sister, who was homeschooled two years before me once she hit middle school. My parents stayed with, you know, I was homeschooled. Every single Saturday, my dad would take me out to the park and just play sports with me. It was his day off from work. I have great memories, because my parents did a wonderful job raising me. There is one area, though, that I think they could have done better, and that is they made life a little bit too easy for me growing up. And here's the thing, my dad's life was very difficult when he grew up. They didn't have much money at all. My dad worked very hard to make a life for himself, and he did. But because it was so difficult for him, he wanted to make it easy for me, okay? That can be a mistake. You say, why? Because when I'm in college, I'm just kind of like, well, I'll just get whatever degree and just get out and just make money, whatever, no big deal. No, it's actually very important to learn to work, to survive. That's the reality of the matter. And one thing I don't want to do with Zeph, although I want to be able to help provide for him when he needs it, I do not want to make life too easy for him. You say, why? That can be detrimental for him in the long run, okay? And see, the Bible says that you're supposed to lay up for your kids. So yeah, I should work hard so I have the money and the means to help out my kids if they need it in a big situation. But I'm not just going to, if I have the money one day, just buy my son a house when he's like 18 years old. Here's your house, all paid for. Here's your car. Everything you want in life. No, he's got to learn to work because life is difficult. He needs to learn to work and do the same thing, basically work hard, develop a career, and he can have to give to him that need it, okay? Now turn to 1st Timothy 5, 1st Timothy 5. Now look, I want you to understand, this does not mean that a church cannot help people if they're in need from time to time. Because look, there are people in this room, and I'm not going to name any names, but people that we have helped before, you know, that were in a need and we gave them money and everything like that. And so a church is meant to help their members if necessary. But that doesn't necessarily mean the church is going to be able to all the time. And so yeah, people sometimes fall on tough times. And look, you know, I don't really like quoting like a bad person like JFK, although I'm about to quote John F. Kennedy, okay? And he made a quote like, don't ask what the country can do for you, but what you can do for the country. Now I don't really agree with that, okay, because I don't believe being obsessed with the country that you live in, because every country is wicked. But ask not what your church can do for you, but what can you do for your church. And that is the reality. What can you do to help the church out? Now part of that is just going soul winning, being at church, volunteering, and helping. And in some ways, some people are blessed financially, and maybe one of their big things is they can provide financially to really help out. And other people, maybe they aren't, they can still help the church though. Whether you have a lot of money or little, we could use you, okay? But ask what can you do to help the church out? And look, the reality is, there's lots you can do to help a church out. We have lots of people that volunteer, but here's the thing, churches do more ministries if they have people that are willing to volunteer. If you don't have people that are willing to volunteer, look, I'm not going to do everything. I don't have the ability to do everything, okay? I'm not, look, I can lead music. I've done it before and it is, you know, okay. It's not good, it's not terrible, it's okay, all right? But I don't have the means to basically run a choir and things such as that. I don't have that ability, I don't know how to do that, okay? I know how to do the timing on leading music, that's fine. That's about all I have, okay? So when it comes to doing various ministries and things such as that, you need people to volunteer to do those things, okay? Notice what it says in 1 Timothy 5 though, going back to the idea of realizing the church doesn't necessarily owe you something. In 1 Timothy 5 verse 9, let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old having been the wife of one man. And so basically threescore is 60 years old and this is a woman who was married to just one man but her husband has passed away, okay? It's saying she's a widow. What it's referring to is helping her out financially because she's not going to have the means to help herself out at that advanced age probably, okay? Now here's the thing, if she's under the age of 60, even though she's in a tough position in life, you know what, the reality is she's probably going to have to work to provide for herself. That's what it's saying. Now obviously in ideal scenario, you know, the wife can be a stay-at-home mom, I think that's great, but that might not be the scenario for you. If it's not possible, then you know what, they might have to work. That's the way it is. And look, you know, obviously I would do the best I can to provide for our family and, you know, have money saved up and prepare a life for my family that if I were to tragically pass away, basically they're going to be okay, okay? But something could happen. If I happen to die in a couple years, and obviously I'm not hoping this happens, if I preach some sermon and, you know, they arrest me and whatever, then yeah, you know what, you know, it's possible my wife would have to work to make ends meet. It is a possibility, okay? Even though that's not the ideal scenario, look, Ruth worked in the Bible, because it's not always the ideal scenario. It's great if it is, it's not always going to be like that, okay? And there's nothing wrong if you're in that position of having to work like Ruth did. There's ladies at her church that work, and look, there's nothing wrong with that. If you're in the position, you know, you need to make ends meet, sometimes there's a calling for that. Sometimes you have to do that, okay? Now obviously I don't want that to be the case, and the Bible would say I should lay up for my children and provide for my family to the best of my ability. Sometimes it's not always going to work that way. Now what it said in verse 9 was basically if there's a widow who's basically 60 years old and she was just married to one guy, and it's basically saying, you know, that she's a godly person, okay? Verse 10, well reported of for good works. If she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saint's feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. This is a lady that you would think of that's a soul-winning lady that loves God. Everybody says this is like the greatest lady in the world, and just unfortunately her husband happens to pass away. And she's helped so many people out that the church should be willing to help her out. But first it starts with the family, according to 1 Timothy 5, and the family should be willing to help out. Look, if something were to happen to, let's say, someone who's younger, let's say something happens to your dad and your mom's left herself, the first thing you should be willing to do is say, hey, if you need a place to live, you can stay with us. You helped us out, it's our time to return the favor. The Bible teaches that. That's what's going on here, okay? Now obviously that's not a perfect or ideal situation, but you know, sometimes that happens. What you don't see in the Bible is just throw these parents in a nursing home, just fend for yourself, mom. You were there for me when I was one month old changing all my diapers, but now you know what, just go to a nursing home. You do not see that in the Bible, and that is wicked, and the family should be willing to be the ones to step out and help if necessary, okay? And notice what it says in verse 11, but the younger widows refuse for when they have begun to wax one against Christ, they will marry, having damnation because they cast off their first faith. And what it's saying in verses 11 and 12, a younger widow would be, I guess, under the age of 60, but let's say somebody's 30 years old and their husband dies. Look, the church is not obligated to help that person out the rest of their lives. That would be very expensive. The reality is in that situation, honestly, they should just go, and it depends on if they have kids and things such as that that can change the situation. Their family, first off, should be willing to help if necessary. Now here's the thing, if you're respectful to your family, then you know what, your family's gonna love you. Look, if something crazy happened in my life and I needed help financially, my parents would let me stay with them from day one. It wouldn't even be a question in my mind. If I needed a plane ticket back to the US, look, from day one, they'd be willing to let me stay there. You say, why? Because I'm nice to my parents. I'm respectful to my parents. I love my parents. I talk to them every week. But if your family's not willing to take you in, there might be a problem there. It might be a reason why they don't wanna take you in, okay? And so I want you to see that first off, the family would be the ones to step in, but if somebody's let's say 30 years old, they might just have to work and make ends meet. Now of course nobody wants this to happen, but I'm sure Ruth and Orpah didn't want their husbands to die when they were young. That's what took place though, okay? The Bible says that if they don't do that, they're gonna basically wax one against Christ. And it says in verse 13, and withal they learned to be idle, wandering about from house to house and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. So basically if someone has too much free time on their hand, the Bible refers to women and says they'll be busybodies. In today's world, going house to house just means on your cell phone, and you go from house to house. And see the Bible's stating, you know what, it's not good for anyone to have too much free time, especially someone who's younger, because when you're younger, you're just less mature. That's just the way it is. In 10 years, I'm gonna be more mature than I am now. That's the way it is. You learn lessons from being a father, from being a husband, being a wife, and all those things. You're less mature when you're younger. That's the way it is. And when someone's young and they have all the free time in the world, prepare for problems that take place. And see the Bible specifically refers to with women, it's gonna be basically their busybodies, their gossipers. Too much free time's a bad thing, okay? So when women get married, guess what? Hopefully they have kids, and guess what? Kids will keep you busy. Kids will keep you tired every single night. You'll be exhausted, okay? Once you have kids, forget about having problems with too much free time. You don't have to worry about that anymore, okay? Trust me, I'm learning, especially as a second child now, it's like, man, one child not so bad, the second child's like, wow, we're always tired. That's the way it is, okay? There's no free time, okay? But see, let's say somebody's young and let's say their husband dies, they don't have any kids. The best thing for them is to stay busy and work, because otherwise they'll get into trouble. It's not good to just have everything free to you and you don't have free time, okay? That's what it's stating here. Verse 14, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. So the best case scenario is for a young woman to get married and to have children and guide the house, be a homemaker or housekeeper, okay? Basically keep the house, run the house, raise the kids, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Now if you remember earlier in this book, 1 Timothy, it talks about women being saved in childbearing. That does not mean that nothing can go wrong during childbearing, because Rachel died when she was giving birth. What it's stating is that by having kids, it will save you from destroying your life. Why? Because you can't be a busybody if you have kids. Having kids, you'll be saved in childbearing. Having kids saves you from destroying your life. That's what it's stating, okay? Verse 15, for some are already turned aside after Satan. If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them and let not the church be charged, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. And see this was the main point from this passage in verse 16. Basically if any man or woman have widows, it's saying from the family. There's somebody in your family that life just didn't work out for them. And they were a good person, they didn't really do anything wrong, it's just like sometimes that happens. Okay? It says let not the church be charged. So first off, it does go to the family first in an ideal situation. And if you're, you know what, honestly, a good child or a good brother, a good cousin, your family is probably going to be willing to help you out when you fall in rough times. If they're not willing to help you out, it doesn't mean the church is responsible. It depends on the situation. And look, we had somebody who came to this church like eight months ago or so. Someone that we had to tell not to come back. Because he was coming to this church and he had a real illness, you know, he wasn't faking that. But he's basically expecting everybody in the church to give him money because he was sick. Now this guy visited our church two times at this location. And it's like he had visited when we had our missions trip a year ago and then he came back months later and he told us he was sick and everything and then he's trying to get us to give him money. It's like, first off, I don't know who you are. It's like we met him one time at the missions trip. And then he was coming back a couple months later, you know, and basically he did the same thing and he's asking members of our church for money. And when I asked him about it, he said, oh, no, no, I didn't ask that many members. I just asked Timothy. That's what he told me. It's like, well, why are you trying to use Timothy? It's like, I didn't ask everybody. I just asked Timothy because he's a nice guy. So none of us are nice, okay? Just Timothy is nice. That's what he told me. Okay? And look, and I heard he was planning to come back again and I told him, hey, don't come back to our church. I was like, you know, and I try to be long suffering about that, but it's like don't come into our church and use our church and our members for money. That's what I told him. And see, that's what you're seeing here in First Timothy because the church is not responsible for everything in your life, okay? Sometimes life doesn't work out for you. That doesn't mean the church automatically is going to help you. Now depending on who it is, they might be more willing to help. If somebody just doesn't really come to church, they're not really a member, they're not really involved in the church, but then they just come from time to time and they want all this help, you know what? We will be less likely to help them. You say, why? Because we're going to help the people that actually need it that we know are members and they've basically served, and if they've been willing to put forth an effort, we'll help them out if necessary, if we can. There's no guarantee we can help with everything, but we'll try to help given on the situation, okay? But the church is not always responsible. So this idea, going back to this idea of a house of merchandise, for one, we don't buy in church, we don't sell in church, and that goes for everybody and not just me, and we do not have a problem with this, but let me just say our stance of our church, you know, we don't come into the house of God and just, I'm going to sell my product in the back row. I don't know if it's taking place, but look, it will never take place here, okay? That's not what we do in the house of God. But also just because the church doesn't sell anything, that does not mean the church is obligated to help you with every single thing in life. And look, people in this room know that we have helped some people at this church based on various situations, so I'm not saying we would never help, but I'm also saying don't use the church for money. It works both ways, okay? But this church is never going to be a house of merchandise, and the reality is, with most Baptist churches, when you think of them, the first thing you think about is house of merchandise, not house of prayer, not house of soul winning, but Baptist house of merchandise. Let's close in with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today in your house, and help us just to remember these things in the Bible, and this is very clear about not buying or selling a church, and for some people, this is probably new material. Maybe they didn't know it, but it's very clear in John chapter 2 and Matthew 21, I encourage everyone to go back and look at those verses if this is new to them, God, and help us realize, you know, this is not a place to buy and sell things. This is a place to get edified from the word of God and to have great fellowship, and we have events, and we do get things for church members from time to time, like we have events and pay for things, but we also don't use the church for money, God. Help us to remember all these things in Jesus' name, amen.