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

This evening I want to preach about the subject, Babes in Christ. In this chapter, 1 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul talks about how the Corinthians are babes in Christ and that he's not able to feed them with strong meat. He's not really able to preach what he wants to preach unto them because they're not mature enough to receive it. They're not ready to hear difficult things because they're spiritually babies, right? When the Bible says babes, obviously that's just an antiquated way of saying babies. That's how we would say that in 2024. Oh, no, we better get a new Bible version. You know, this thing's just so hard to understand, right? Obviously the language changes a little bit, but we have no trouble understanding when it says babes in Christ, even though we don't talk that way, even though we would say babies in 2024. Now if you would flip over to 1 Peter, chapter number 2, we're going to look at three passages in the New Testament this evening on the subject of babes in Christ. The first thing I want to point out to you is that there's nothing wrong with being a babe in Christ because everyone starts out as being a baby, right? All of us started our natural lives as being babies, and, you know, I'm not going to look at an actual literally baby and be like, hey, man, you're such a baby. Why are you being such a baby? He is a baby, right? He's supposed to be a baby. And so we all started as babies. Well, just like that, when it comes to our spiritual development, we also all started as babies, right? We all got saved at some point. We were all new to Christ at some point, maybe new to church at some point, and we had to learn the most basic things about the Gospel, about doctrine, about just the Bible, the way church operates, right? So a lot of times people are going to come in here and they don't really know the lingo. They don't know what things mean. Maybe they don't know the right way to act or the right way to live their lives, right? And this is totally normal, and we have to understand that people are going to be at different stages along their spiritual journey. We should never be down on someone who's new or a beginner or inexperienced or, you know, because they don't cross all the T's and dot the I's because neither did you and neither did I if we go back far enough. And so there's nothing wrong with being a baby. The problem is when someone stays a baby, right? If someone is 15 years old and they're still acting like a literal baby, right? Then there's obviously something wrong with them. They're not normal. They're disabled. We don't want to be spiritually disabled, spiritually stunted in our growth. Look what the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 1. Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now one thing that I want to show you here is that in verse number 1 we have the things that are going to stunt your growth spiritually, right? You want to desire that sincere milk of the word because that's going to make you grow. Whereas the stuff in verse number 1 is the stuff that you need to lay aside if you want to grow. You know, we can get up and say, hey, quit being a babe in Christ. Grow up. Be mature. How do we do that? Well, we all know the part about desiring the sincere milk of the word. But you know what? There are some things that we need to get rid of in order to be mature Christians. And what's interesting is that if you compare 1 Corinthians chapter 3 with 1 Peter chapter 2, you will find that envy and hypocrisy is kind of a common denominator with this thing of being a baby or being carnal. Think about a literal baby or a toddler. They are consumed by envy. Just try giving an ice cream to one toddler and not to the other. You think that's going to work out? Just try giving them any kind of a privilege. How about just try letting them stay up an additional 5 minutes later than their younger sibling? Put the older one away to bed 5 minutes sooner and see how that goes over. Right? Why? Because envy is a big thing with little babies, little toddlers. Man, they want to make sure that someone else isn't getting something that they should be getting. Right? They want to be number 1 because they're a baby. Now look, babies don't say, oh you know what, I've been screaming and crying so much. I know that you haven't had enough time with your husband and so I'm just going to call it an early night. You two kids go out and have a good time. You know, I'm just going to go to bed on my own tonight. No because babies are only thinking of one person and that's theyself. Alright? They're thinking about themselves. That's it. They're not thinking about you. They're not thinking about their siblings. They're not thinking about their parents. They only care about themselves and not only that, they're big on envy. They do not want someone else to get something that they are not getting. Right? Everything's got to be fair or it can be heavily slanted in their favor. That's okay of course. In fact, that's extra good for them. And so the Bible says that if we're going to grow in grace, if we're going to desire the sincere milk of the word that we may grow there by, we need to lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings. So we have to get rid of this mentality where we're kind of against other people, competing with other people, envying other people. The mature Christian understands that what we do, we do for the cause of Christ, for the greater good, for the edification of the body, for the church, for our fellow churches, not personal gain, personal glory, personal aggrandizement, right? It's about thinking about other people and thinking about the greater cause of Christ rather than just being envious and think about hypocrisy. What is hypocrisy? Hypocrisy is when you're pretending to be something that you're not, right? Hypocrisy is you say one thing and you do another because you're doing it for show, right? The Pharisees, all their righteousness as they did for to be seen of men. Outside they put on a big show because they wanted people to think that they were spiritual. And again, this goes hand in hand with the envy and the evil speaking because envy wants to be number one, right? Like I'm the most important person. So hypocrisy works together with that of, hey, let me be a show off. Let me show how spiritual I am. Let me show how godly I am. And then evil speaking, let me put down someone else, right, so I can lift myself up and you can see how all these things work together and they're childish and they're juvenile and they're what babies in real life do. They're what toddlers in real life do. I mean, look, if I try to correct one of my children and tell them not to do something, one of the little toddlers will pipe up and say, well, I'm not doing that, dad. I don't do that. Hey, dad, look at me. I eat my vegetables or what you know, hey, dad, I'm being, I'm obeying, not like him. And then when you see Christians act in that same way, it's because they're acting like a child, right? They're being childish. And so God's saying, look, put away the malice, the guile, the hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking. You don't have to drag someone else down in order to lift yourself up. It doesn't matter what people think. Quit doing things for show. Quit envying and comparing yourself to other people, you know, sort of like when Jesus is talking to Peter and then he points at John and said, what shall this man do? And Jesus said, what is that to thee? What do you care? That's none of your business. You know, God deals with people on an individual basis. It doesn't have to be fair. It's not always going to be the same. And so we, if we compare ourselves amongst ourselves, we're not wise, the Bible says. We need to just run our own race, love the Lord, love other people, do what we're supposed to do and not worry about what other people think or what other people are doing and have all this malice and envy and hypocrisy. We need to think about the big picture of the cause of Christ, right? And as I pastor this church, when I think about our other friends that have churches across the country, other good churches, even in this area that are King James Bible preaching soul winning type churches, you know, I want them to succeed. And if a person leaves our church and goes to another church that's also preaching King James Bible, that's also soul winning, then you know what? It doesn't matter. It's not like, oh, we lost someone. No, we didn't because the cause of Christ didn't lose anyone. We're not building our own little kingdom or our own little empire here. So if a person moves from one to the other, it's just, it's a zero. It's not a gain. It's not a loss. It's just a lateral move because they're still serving Christ. They're still serving God and that's what matters, right? If our church donates money to another church or something, it's, you know, it's, it's really not even like a donation. It's just, we're just, we're just giving money that, you know, someone else needs some money. We have some extra money. Who cares? Because it's all going to the same place, the work of Christ. That's the idea. Now, if you would flip over to Hebrews chapter five, Hebrews chapter five, now in Hebrews chapter five, we see that the problem with being a baby is that you should grow out of that phase, right? In first Peter two, being a baby is a good thing. You're a newborn babe. It's exciting. You're saved and now you want to desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow there by and put aside all those petty childish behaviors and desire the word of God, right? The sincere milk of the word that you may grow there by. Look what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter number five, it says of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing your dull of hearing for when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. And what he's saying here is that based on how long you have been saved, you should be teaching this stuff rather than needing to be taught the first principles of the oracles of God. You know, he, you know, he doesn't give a timeframe, but these people have obviously been saved for many years and he's expecting them to not only know these things, but to be preaching them and teaching them to other people yet they have to be taught even the first principles of the oracles of God. And this is a shameful thing saying shame on you for still being a babe after all these years. Shame on you that you need milk and not strong meat. Verse 13, for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe, but strong meat belonging to them that are full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So there are going to be a few different elements involved in maturing out of that baby stage. One of them is just time. One of them is just time, right? Because the Bible says strong meat belong to them that are full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. It doesn't matter how good your parenting is. It doesn't matter how precocious the child is. They're not just going to start talking when they're one week old or be potty trained at six months old, right? There are certain things that just take time, right? And no matter how advanced the child is, it still takes time to grow up and become an adult. It's the same thing in your Christian life. It doesn't matter how quick you are, you're not just going to be a mature Christian week one or month one or even year one, okay? Now you might think that you're like, well, no, I just got saved a few months ago and I'm pretty much there. Just the fact that you're thinking that way is a sign of immaturity, okay? The Christian life is a long endurance run and it's not something that's just a sprint that's about just a quick burst of energy. No, it's about settling into a lifestyle that you can actually see through all the way to the end and it's about serving God in the long run. And look, the Bible's a huge book. You're not going to learn all this in a week. You're not going to learn all this in a year. You know, those of us who've been saved for decades, we're still learning new things out of the Bible every single day if we're reading it every day. And we're constantly reading and studying because it's a lifetime task to learn what the Bible has to say. And so time is necessary, okay? And this is why the Bible says that the pastor should not be a novice. Novice simply means someone who's new. And so you don't want to have somebody who just got saved a couple of years ago and now all of a sudden they're pastoring the church. I don't care how godly they are, how righteous they are, how fast of a learner they are, they're too new. They just need time to grow and get to that point. And so the Bible is saying here that it takes time but then it also takes using the Word of God, right? Because it says, strong meat belonging to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. It says a child is not going to develop simply by breastfeeding, simply by having food spooned into its mouth. It has to actually use its limbs and use its mouth and use its brain. And the more it uses those things, the faster its growth and development is going to be. And if it doesn't ever use those things, if it never talks, if it never listens to people talking, if it never interacts with the physical world, then its growth is going to be stunted, right? And you hear about children who have been neglected and people aren't talking to the child or playing with it and then it's developmentally disabled because you've got to use the things that you ingest. You eat the food, then you burn those calories. That's why little babies, even though they can't walk, run, swim, hike, do anything, yet they're still active because you see what they do. They just squirm around and they're just kind of just doing little aerobics and just kicking their legs and like, you know, there's not really any pattern, but they're just kind of figuring out how to use their arms, how to use their legs, how to use their facial muscles, and they're just kind of doing stuff, right? Because they're learning, they're putting it into practice. And so if you want to grow as a Christian and become mature, it's not enough just to hear the Word of God. It's not enough to just say, well, I've been in church for 40 years. You know, you could be in church for 40 years and listen to every sermon and still be a babe in Christ if you're not a doer of the Word. Time is not enough. It's not enough just to be 20 years old, right? There are 20-year-olds out there that are in a diaper. There are 20-year-olds out there that have to be fed because they're developmentally disabled. And here's the thing, spiritually, if you're not doing anything for God, if you're not putting into practice the Word of God that you've learned, then you're not growing. And so you could still be a babe in Christ even after being in church for 50 years, literally. And that's what Paul is even talking about when he says, well, for the time you ought to be teachers, you need the one to teach you again. Like, why do you need me to teach you this when you're so old? You're still a babe in Christ. Because it's not enough to hear the Word. You've got to be a doer of the Word, right? The Bible makes that clear in the book of James as well. We've got to be a doer of the Word. You've got to use the Word of God. So look, this is what you have to be doing. You need to read your Bible every day, listen to preaching every week, but then you need to be practicing these things and saying, like, okay, what can I take from my reading? What can I take from the sermon and put into practice in my life, making changes and actually doing what the Bible says? Also, by the way, a great way to learn yourself is to teach other people, right? If you can explain something to someone else, usually that means that you understand it. If you learn something and you're like, well, I can't really explain it, I can't really articulate it, you probably haven't fully learned it because a good test of your understanding is to explain it to other people. That's why when I learn something new, I always like to teach it to someone else right away. I like to get on the phone or talk to someone in my family and tell them about what I'm learning and explain it to them. I'm not just doing that for their benefit. It also helps me internalize these things because the Bible says, thou therefore that teaches another, teaches thou not thyself also, right? And so if you're out there, for example, knocking doors and preaching the gospel, man, you're going to know the gospel like the back of your hand. You're going to have your salvation doctrine really nailed down. You're not going to be this babe in Christ that barely knows which way is up. You're going to be very solid on what salvation is, what it takes to be saved. What does the Bible say? Why? Because you're out there teaching it to other people. You're out there using it and practicing it, and that's why you're good at it. I mean, the Bible verses that we all know better than any Bible verses are the ones that are in our gospel presentation. You know, we don't have to sit down and say, oh man, I better, you know, sit down and memorize John 3 16 or I need to sit down and memorize Romans 3 23. We have these things memorized without even trying simply because we use them so much. We're just using them all the time and preaching the gospel will do that for you. A lot of times when I'm out soul winning, I'll knock on somebody's door and I'll ask them some really just basic questions like, hey, do you know for sure if you were to die today that you would go to heaven? Well, what do you believe it takes for a person to go to heaven? That's a really basic question, right? I mean, that's something that every Christian should easily be able to answer. What does it take in order to get to heaven or hey, is there anything you could ever do to lose your salvation, right? These are just really basic, simple, easy questions that no one in this room would probably have any trouble just rattling off an answer to those from the heart and understanding it and being really clear on it. But you know what? It's amazing is you'll talk to people and, and I believe that many of these people are truly saved people, people who actually are truly saved and they will give some weird answers to those questions or even just stumble and stammer and try to express themselves and struggle to articulate to me what it takes to go to heaven. And these are people who go to church. I mean, how can you go to church for years and call yourself a Christian and you don't have an answer on the tip of your tongue when somebody says, what must I do to be saved? What does it take to go to heaven? What do you think a person has to do to go to heaven? Yeah, oh, and why is that? Because this is a person that's not explaining that to other people because if this person were explaining that to other people, they'd be used to explaining it and they'd have no trouble explaining it to you. The reason they're struggling to explain it is because they never talk about it because they don't explain it to anyone because they're not using it. So even if they've heard the gospel, even if they believe the gospel, even if they're saved, if they've never explained it to someone else, they're not going to be good at explaining it to someone else. You've got to take what you learn and use it. You say, well, I'm a new Christian. I don't really know that much about the Bible. Well, do you know how to be saved? Use that and then learn the next thing and then use the next thing and keep using and putting into practice the word of God that you learn. I mean, if you would've asked me when I was 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, if you could just get in a time machine and go back in time and go find 13 year old Steven Anderson or 14 year old, 15 year old, 16 year old, you know, and ask me about going to heaven. Look, I would not have given a heretical answer, but I probably would have given a kind of stupid answer. I probably would have said, oh, you got to have a personal relationship with Jesus or something like that. You know, I would have said something that isn't really very accurate, even though in my heart I knew 100 percent I was going to heaven. It was all because of Jesus. It was all through faith. I could never lose my salvation. If you would have asked me if you could lose your salvation, I would have nailed that one. I would have been like, no way. You can never lose your salvation, but here's the thing about that. I would have probably said some dumb, inaccurate things and probably struggled to explain it because I was not evangelizing because I was not using that which I had been taught. Now if you would talk to the 17 year old Steven Anderson, he'd easily be able to just rattle off great answers to those things or 18 year old. Why? Because that's when I started soul winning. And then I'm going out and constantly talking about those subjects. It's all in the tip of my tongue. I'd read the Bible cover to cover at that point and I wasn't a babe anymore, right? And so we need to be careful when we're out soul winning that we don't just automatically just declare people to be unsaved because they give kind of a weird answer or struggle to give you the right answer sometimes because sometimes they're just babes in Christ and they're just going to a church that is just not making these things clear for them. Now obviously there are some answers that are just straight wrong. If somebody says, well, you know, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person, obviously they're not saved. If someone says, well, of course you can lose your salvation, you can't just live any way you want, right? If someone says, yes, you can lose your salvation, then they're not saved. Sorry, but the gospel is that God has given to us eternal life and that this life is in his son and it's not of works that any man should boast. And so people who think that they have to live a certain way or do something to stay saved are not saved, right? They don't understand that Christ has already saved us. But people can sometimes, you'll ask people sometimes and you'll say, hey, do you believe it's possible that you could ever do anything to lose your salvation? And people are like, they're like, um, well, no, no, you can't. I don't think you could because, you know, Jesus already died for all our sins and so, you know, we're saved. But the fact that they even have to think about it for those two or three, four seconds is kind of like, what in the world? Because it's like no one's ever asked them that before. Do you see what I'm saying? Like even though they give the right answer, they're like, um, and they're thinking in and then they come to the right answer because they do believe right, but they're just sometimes confused or just not really thinking about it or like, oh wow, I haven't thought about that. It's kind of crazy to not think about that, right? I mean for us, cause we think about that all the time because we're, we're constantly talking to people about salvation, constantly talking to people about the gospel and about what it takes to be saved. But people who are never soul winning, you know what? It's different for them. They don't know. They don't spend any time witnessing. These are conversations that they just don't have and that's a shame because those of us that have the truth and know the gospel, man, we need to be talking about it. We need to be bringing this stuff up in our personal lives and talking to our friends about it, talking to loved ones about it and going out there into the highways and hedges and preaching the gospel to every creature. We need to be doing it. And so sometimes people give these answers of like, oh well, you know, a personal relationship with Jesus. You know, sometimes an unsaved person will give you that answer. Sometimes a saved person will give you that answer. They're just repeating something that they've heard. So then, you know, you have to dig a little deeper sometimes. Okay. But just because someone doesn't rattle off the perfect answer immediately, sometimes it's just because they're just not ready. They're just not prepared and you've caught them off guard, which is, you know, obviously says something about the fact that they're a babe in Christ. That's why, you know, if I knock on somebody's door and they're, they're kind of shaky on things at first and, and maybe a stammering and, and struggling to get me the right answers, but then they ultimately give me the right answer and I, and I get talking to that person. It's clear that they are saved and that they do believe the gospel and that they've already been saved. You know, I'm always still glad that I came to that door and spent time with that person and talk to that person because here's what I always say, well, that guy was already saved, but we shored him up on some things, right? That guy was already saved, but at least we were able to, you know, get him a little bit tightened up on, on what he believes and why he believes that and being able to articulate it to someone else, because how are you going to witness to other people if you are not solid yourself and able to articulate what you believe and put it into words and explain it to other people, you'll become skillful in the word of God when you start using the word of God, right? Using it by a following its commandments and precepts. So if it tells you not to do something, you're not doing it. If it tells you to do something, you're doing it. So you're putting the rules into practice in your life that Christ gives us. But then also number two, you use the word of God by articulating it to other people, by explaining it to other people. And obviously the gospel is the big one, right? Giving the gospel to unsaved people. But you know, you can also just be a blessing to save people. You can also just talk to your saved friends and family and teach them what you learn from the Bible. So what's wrong with bringing up at the dinner table or bringing up at a family gathering? Hey, you know, I was reading something cool in the Bible the other day. It doesn't even have to be about, it's not like, oh man, I'm going to go to the family gathering. I'm going to set everybody straight. I'm not even saying that, although maybe you do need to set some of these people straight, but I'm just saying, look, it's not about like, Hey, I got to go show up and set everybody straight. You know, sometimes you could just show up and literally just tell somebody a Bible story just for no reason and just say, Hey, I read a cool story in the Bible the other day. This happened, that happened. And you know, there's nothing wrong with talking about the things of God, talking about the Bible, talking about doctrine doesn't always have to be an argument. It doesn't always have to be straightening someone out. Although obviously there is a time and a place when we do need to straighten people out. That's not always what it's about because I don't know about you. I get a lot more enjoyment out of having just friendly conversations where we're just talking about the Bible and we're all in agreement. And we're just, we're just teaching each other things that we learn from the word of God. And Hey, what about this verse? Oh man, that's a great point. Hey, that kind of ties in with this chapter. Oh man, that's so cool. I've never thought about that. I remember we had a guy at our church that was a bozo many years ago. Once upon a time at faith for Baptist church, there was a bozo. And this guy literally said that, you know, that it's conversations about the Bible are boring when we, when we're in agreement, conversations about the Bible are boring when we're in agreement, you know, it's, it's, it's when we disagree and kind of argue and debate that it gets interesting. I could not disagree more because, you know, I talk on the phone with my pastor friends all the time and we talk about the Bible and we're bouncing ideas off each other. And obviously there are a lot of disagreements when pastors get on the phone and they're getting into the nitty gritty of doctrine. We disagree on stuff all the time, but, but most of it's agreement. And honestly, I've had great conversations with my pastor friends that could last for an hour, hour and a half, two hours, just talking about the Bible. And we're not arguing. We're not disagreeing. We're agreeing on everything. We're just iron sharpening iron. Just building up one another, just, Hey, what about this? Oh man, here's another idea. Oh, here's this. And it's not like we're just these, yes, men, just just say, Oh yeah, it's everything you're saying is wonderful. No, no, no. It really is. Wonderful. We're not just saying it's cool. It is cool. And what we're doing is we're just mutually talking about the Bible. And so it, you know, the Bible, yes, the Bible is a weapon, but it's also a construction tool. You know, it's not always a weapon. And so, you know, you can get in conversations with family, with friends and with coworkers about the Bible that aren't necessarily about fixing them or straightening them out or being hostile. Sometimes it's actually just about just talking about the Bible just for the sake of talking about the Bible. You know, I enjoy if someone tells me a little nugget that they learned from the Bible, you know, people are constantly coming up to me and saying, Hey, one more thing. I listened to your sermon. Let me give you one other thought. And they'll give me another thought. And I'll say to myself, wow. Or I won't say to myself, I'll say to them, wow, I never thought about that. Wow. That's cool. Maybe like at least once a month, someone walks up to me and tells me something from the Bible. And I say to them, I've never thought of that. That's cool. I like that. Thank you for sharing that with me. Right. And so I enjoy having people lay some interesting truth on me from the Bible. It doesn't have to be some weird exotic new thing or debunking or, you know, sometimes it's just something cool from the Bible. We just talk about the Bible. We just discuss the Bible. We just bring up the Bible. You know, talking about the Bible is a virtue. Okay. And it's good to talk about the word of God. We all love the Bible. It's a nice subject to talk about. I remember at work, even unsaved people enjoying me telling Bible stories at work as we made pizzas at round table pizza. And I would just be telling a Bible story. And these guys were unsaved. And I'm thinking of one guy in particular, this guy had no interest in getting saved or going to church. And he would literally say, Hey, tell me another one of the Bible stories. And I would tell, because, Hey, people just enjoy a good story and the Bible's got some great stories. This guy wasn't interested in the spiritual side. He just liked stories cause we're bored. Hey, tell us another story. You know, uh, the Gulag archipelago is a great book by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, big giant nonfiction work of the 20th century about the Soviet Union. And in that book, he's talking about being in prison in the Russian gulag system and everything. And he talked about how people who are good at telling stories are really popular in prison because people are bored. And so if you're good at telling stories, you're going to be a popular person. That's like an important valued skill in prison, being a storyteller. All right. So, you know, at least I can tell myself I ever ended up in prison, you know, I'll be able to get some extra stamps or whatever. Uh, you know, I would say cigarettes, but I don't smoke and I have no intention to start, but I'll be able to get, you know, some kind of special treatment, hopefully, if I can actually be a good storyteller. So, you know, at least I got a lot of Bible stories to tell brother. And so talking about the Bible is a way to help you solidify your biblical knowledge in your own mind and to be a blessing to someone else and get off, get off this stupid debate culture where you just think that everything's an argument, everything's a debate, everything's about straightening someone out. No, my friend, you can also just get together and it could be sweet and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity. There's a place to fight, but there's also a place to just enjoy fellowship, camaraderie, and some good storytelling or good doctrine from the Bible that we can all agree upon and enjoy. Go if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter three. And again, this has to do with laying aside some of that malice and envy and hypocrisy where everything's about, I got to straighten everybody out all the time. And look, obviously, yes, there are people who need to be straightened out, I get it. But the mature Christian who's not a babe in Christ, he is not just out there with an ego that's just out there to argue and I've done 355 debates and all this stuff, you know, he's out there to just communicate truth. And even if he does engage in an argument with someone or debate with someone or straighten someone out, he's not doing it because of ego. He's doing it because he's trying to communicate truth and he's trying to help people. He's trying to be a blessing. He's doing it for the cause of Christ. If you put aside the envy, the strife, the malice, the hypocrisy, and you just love the word of God and you take in the word of God, you use the word of God, you know, you can find yourself having a lot of great conversations about the Bible with people that don't necessarily involve you preaching to people all the time. Sometimes it's just about just sharing the joy of the Bible at, you know, and again, this is in the home, this is at the breakfast table, lunch, dinner, family gatherings, extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, coworkers, you name it, my friend. And by the way, there are a lot more people out there that are saved than sometimes people think, you know, because when we go out soul winning, we're constantly running into people that are already saved all the time. But not only that, forget just people that are actually saved. What about people that are claiming to be a Christian? That's a pretty high number, isn't it? Folks, more than half of the people out there are claiming to be a Christian. And I don't care if you're in the public school system. I don't care if you're at a secular university. I don't care if you're at a job site. The statistics are that the majority of people out there are claiming to be a Christian in some way, shape or form. And so a lot of people are ready to talk about the Bible, are ready to talk about the Word of God. And so there's no excuse to just act like, oh, it's a taboo subject. I can't bring this up. I'm not saying it's appropriate in every situation, but I'm saying that we should be bringing it up more than we're bringing it up. And we can talk about the Word of God and, you know, you think everybody's gonna be so offended. You know what? Chances are, if you start talking about the Word of God at a family gathering, if you start talking about the Word of God, you know, around a group that's just on a break or whatever and you bring up something biblical, my experience is that other Christians will start chiming in and they'll jump on that and they'll, they'll, they're refreshed. Hey, I love talking about the Bible. I love talking about Christianity. Did I have you turn to first Corinthians chapter three, it says in verse number one, I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ, I fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you were not able to bear it. Neither yet. Now are you able, he's saying, look, you guys are babes. You're not, you're not mature as you should be. And by the way, here's what I've noticed. Sometimes some of the most immature baby Christians, they really want to tackle those really hard subjects and they really want to go deep in Bible study, super deep. You know, let that come with time. You know, the, the guy in the preaching class who wants to just get up and he's, he's, he's, he's only been saved for a short time. He has no experience preaching and he wants to just get up and just cover some controversial topic that even pastors in the new IFB disagree on. He's going to get up and just put it to bed in the preaching class. He's been saved for six months. You know, it's his second time preaching or whatever he's, he's, he's, he's read, you know, three quarters of the Bible cover to cover, but even something that pastors are disagreeing on, he's going to get up and just lay it to rest. You know, it, it, it, folks, when you're a babe, deal in the milk of the word. You know, master the basics. It's like if you walked into the boxing gym and you said, hey man, you know, I want to learn the spinning back fist and I want to learn all of these radical techniques. You know, you want to learn all these jump kicks and all of these flying techniques instead of just what you really need to be working on is just like a jab cross. You know, you just need to learn how to block and throw a basic jab. Give him the old one too. That's what you need to be learning. But instead, you know, you want to get in there and it's like, oh, you want to do all this wild exotic stuff. And that's how sometimes baby Christians can be. They want to get into all these exotic wild doctrines. You know, you know, what's even worse is when they want to read the book of Enoch. They haven't even read the Bible. They want to check out the Apocrypha. They haven't even read the actual canon of scripture here and they're looking for some exotic book from the Dead Sea Scrolls and they haven't even read Genesis to Revelation. It's ridiculous. If you're a babe in Christ, that's okay. Desire the milk. Desire the milk. Desire to get good at the basics. Look, you go to basketball practice in high school and you know what? All right, we're going to learn how to dribble. Come on. We're going to learn how to dribble. But yet, who went to basketball practice in high school? You're on the varsity team, junior varsity team and you practice dribbling. Put up your hand if you ever had an experience like that where they had you do something so basic. Okay, here's how you pass the ball back and forth. Oh, come on. Why? Because they want you to master those basics, right? And even professionals, they're still practicing layups and free throw shots and they're doing those things over and over again. Over and over and over. They're mastering the basics. Even the calculus student is still doing arithmetic every day, right? As you work through calculus, you're still adding, multiplying, subtracting, dividing, right? So you better be good at those things. All right? I remember one time I took this really difficult chemistry exam when I was in high school and I aced the whole thing. I only missed one question and it was like all these really hard calculations and formulas and everything and I did all this hard stuff and the one question that I missed on the exam was because of arithmetic error where I came up, I went back and did some forensics on where I went wrong and it was 9 times 3 equals 21. That's where I went wrong. I just put 9 times 3, 21. It's just like, and then everything after that's wrong. And I'm like, man, this test was so hard and yet I missed something so stupid. Why? Because we need to master the basics. I don't care how far you go in math, you're still doing addition. You're still doing multiplication. You're still doing division. No matter if you're in the NBA or playing basketball on the playground, you're still dribbling the ball. You're still passing the ball. You're still doing a layup. You're still going to shoot a free throw. So you've got to hammer those basics. Folks, we need to desire the milk. Don't show up to a service and say, oh, this sermon's too basic for me. You need those basic sermons. Hammer the basics. Master the basics. Drive them in. Drill them in. Get good at that jab, right? I guarantee you that these pro boxers preparing for the next fight, they're still jabbing the punching bag. After all these years, they're just practicing that left jab again and again and again even though they're a pro boxer. Why? Because you've got to master the basics. Desire the milk of the word that you may grow there by. Strong meat is for later. Don't be afraid to just really take in that milk of the word and dwell on it and get good at it and don't be in a rush to just get to these exotic, difficult subjects before you've mastered the basics, right? You got to do the prerequisite, my friend. He says, I fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you were not able to bear it. Neither yet now are you able. Verse three, for your carnal, your yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men? So here's the symptom of being carnal, right? Ego, envy, right, thinking that you have to show everybody and you're arguing all the time, constant bickering, constant strife and debate, constantly trying to just show that you know more or that you are more spiritual or more godly, hypocrisy, envy, strife. It's really interesting how similar this is to what we saw over in first Peter chapter two about the same subject, babes in Christ, because this is what babes in Christ do. For your yet carnal, verse three, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men? For one sayeth, I'm of Paul and another I'm of Apollos, are you not carnal? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I've planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. And again, this is a throwback to what he was already talking about in chapter one. In chapter one of first Corinthians, he said, look, there are divisions among you. People are saying I'm of Cephas, Cephas is another name for Peter. I'm of Cephas, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Christ. There are divisions among you. These divisions based upon personality are indications that people are immature, juvenile, babes in Christ. Now, look, kids are obsessed with heroes, aren't they? They've got the poster on the wall of their hero. You know, it's rare that an adult has a poster of their hero on the wall or, you know, on the ceiling above their bed or something, you know, at night. But isn't this what young people do, especially children? They put up the poster of their hero, you know, their idol, and they're really into following personalities. And, man, they just really want to go backstage, you know, and meet that celebrity or whatever. And you know, it's just so cool to meet these heroes and to get their autographs. And look, I'm not saying that that's not a normal part of childhood and growing up. That is how children are. But you know what? As an adult, you know, you kind of grow out of that. And you know what you start to realize as an adult? That people are people and those dudes put their pants on one leg at a time just like you do and they're just normal people. And honestly, right now, you know, if I think about, you know, heroes that I had growing up or people that I looked up to or emulated, you know, like if I had to drive 20 minutes across town to meet them, I'd be like, I don't know, man, because I like to go to bed early. And it's just like it wouldn't be that big of a deal to you anymore. You know what I mean? Like, like even just, I don't know, just as you get older, stuff like that isn't really as important to you anymore. Okay? Now, obviously, I'm talking about from a worldly perspective, right? I'm just talking about, you know, they're looking up to athletes or whoever they're looking up to and things like that. But you know what? Spiritually, we don't want to develop cults of personality around pastors, preachers, right? We don't want... And look, obviously, it's normal for people to be excited that, oh, this preacher's coming to town. Let's go hear this preacher. We want to meet him. You know, let's have him sign up. I get that. But you know what? It can definitely go overboard. It can be taken overboard where we start lifting up the personality on a pedestal, and then it starts to become divisive. And it's like, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas. You know, if someone doesn't like Pastor Anderson, it doesn't make them a bad person. It doesn't make that a bad church. It doesn't make that a bad pastor. I mean, there's a pastor that preached against me one time, and this was a guy that I liked. And I wrote to the guy, and actually, I just left a comment on his YouTube channel. And I said, you know, it's clear from this sermon that you don't like me very much, but I just want to say I still like you, and I really appreciate your ministry. And I wasn't just trying to be some kind of a flatterer. Like I really meant it, because I really did like the guy. And I actually thought it was a great sermon, except for the part where he was criticizing me. You know, and the guy literally called me on the phone and apologized and said, I'm never going to preach against you again. I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that. I just got carried away in the moment, and I shouldn't have said those things about you. You know? But I was for real. I was serious. Even if the guy would have said, well, you know what, nuts to you, Pastor Anderson. I don't care if you like me, because I don't like you. I'd just be like, okay, well, I still like you, and you can't stop me. You know, at the end of the day, it's not about whether people like me or whether people like Pastor Berzins or, you know, it's about whether they're preaching the gospel. It's about whether they're soul winning. You know, look, if there's some group of Baptists out there that's just tearing it up soul winning, knocking doors, winning a bunch of people to Christ, preaching hard on sin, doing great things for God, and they're just like, man, the stinking new IFB and Pastor Anderson's trash. You know, I don't think they should say that about me. I don't like that they would say that about me. But you know what? I would just say, hey, man, this is a good group of guys. They're misguided about me. They're wrong about me. They don't understand me. But you know what? They're good guys. They're doing a good work for God. You know, and if people wanted to join up with them, I'd say, go for it, man. That's a good group. We don't want to get this attitude where it's about me or about any preacher or about personalities in general or about you, right? Just because someone doesn't like you or doesn't get along with you doesn't make them evil or wrong. We need to understand the bigger picture is the cause of Christ, right? That's the big picture. Now, look, you say, well, Pastor Anderson, you rip on people and call people. I call people out who are the enemies of the cross of Christ. I call out liars, false teachers, heretics. Look, if somebody teaches damnable heresy, well, I think he's saved. Okay. But guess what? If a saved person is promoting damnable heresy, they should be treated like a damnable heretic. And you know what? Everybody got mad at me, not everybody, because I don't think anybody in our church got mad at me. But a lot of people out there in the world, you know, they got mad at me for just kind of massacring Kent Hovind in that conversation that we had. But you know what? Kent Hovind promoted a doctrine that said Christians who don't live right will go to the lake of fire for a thousand years. He literally said if you're a saved Christian, he had that cult leader, Joey Faust, on his program who says that a saved Christian who doesn't live right will go spend a thousand years in the lake of fire burning in hell for a thousand years. That's heresy. Last time I checked, being saved means that you don't go to hell. And so if some Baptist pastor is teaching, oh, well, you're saved by faith, but if you don't do works, you still go to hell, but you're still saved. It's the stupidest garbage I've ever heard. You know, Kent Hovind brought this up. I rebuked Kent Hovind about it. I told Kent Hovind, look, Joey Faust is a heretic. He's a cult leader. This is garbage. These are lies. This is wrong. Don't get mixed up with this guy. This is false doctrine. Hey, look at this verse, Kent Hovind. Here's another verse, Kent Hovind. Here's another verse, Kent Hovind. Here's another verse. Here's, I showed him many verses about why, like, he shouldn't have to be shown any verses because it should just be obvious to anyone who's even saved that when some preacher is teaching that saved Christians are going to go to the lake of fire temporarily and burn in hell for a while, that that's garbage. But I personally opened my Bible and showed him verse after verse after verse and totally debunked that Joey Faust doctrine, personally to him. And then fast forward a few years, he has the guy on his YouTube channel and posts the video as a must see video that all Christians must watch, how Christians can go to hell. And it was posted on Kent Hovind's official channel. And he sits there and welcomes the guy, promotes the guy, gives the guy a platform. And he says, well, I'm not 100 percent sure he's right, but I read the book four times and I can't debunk it. Here you go. You have the floor, cult leader, Joey Faust. Well, you know what? I don't care if Kent Hovind's saved. If I get to heaven and Kent Hovind's there, then you know what? I'll be pleasantly surprised. But he should be treated like a heretic. Folks! Yeah, but he's with us on the young earth. Who cares? You know what? I'd rather be hanging around with somebody that believes in some kind of weird view on the creation, some kind of a dumb like gap theory or whatever, but that actually is right on the gospel. I mean, what's most important? Our interpretation of end times prophecy? What's most important? Our interpretation of the creation week? No, what's most important is salvation by faith alone in the death burial of Jesus Christ. The death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the most important thing. So it's like, well, you know, let's, you know, these people are against abortion. These people are, you know, they're, they're, they're against evolution. These, you know, it's like, folks, if they're not, if they're preaching another gospel, well, I never heard Kent Hovind preach another gospel. Okay, well then why don't you just go on YouTube right now and go watch it right now. It's my permission to, if you are struggling with this, to go step out that door right now and go in the parking lot and go pull up YouTube and watch it right now. Somebody tell me what the video is called. In fact, if you're watching this at home, you, you pause this video, open another browser window and go stink and watch it right now. You know what I'm saying? Well guess what? I don't care if he's saved. When you're teaching damnable heresy, you should be treated like a damnable heretic should be marked and avoided. And if we find out later that you're saved, well then that's just bonus. You know, man, I hope, I hope I get to heaven and there's just tons of people that I said were going to hell are there. I would love that. I would just love to get there. And there's all these people that I said were going to hell and they're there. I'm not going to be like, dang it. What are you doing here? Wait, he's here. Well, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be in heaven with him. Hey, I, you know what? The more people God allows into heaven, great, as far as I'm concerned, but guess what? I don't make those decisions. You don't make those decisions. And at the end of the day, you know, the Bible talks about who's going to heaven and who's going to hell. And you know, if somebody is preaching damnable heresy, I'm going to assume they're a false prophet. Okay, and if I'm wrong about that, so what? And by the way, you know, the Bible talks about people being church disciplined in Matthew 16, let them be unto you as a heathen man or a publican, even if they're not a heathen man, even if they're not a publican, let them be unto you as a heathen man or a publican. Why? Because they're so far out there, either doctrinally or in their behavior or whatever, where at a certain point, you, you know what? You just treat people as unsaved at a certain point. And if, and you know what's so funny is if I treat someone as unsaved and they turn out to be saved, they're still saved. I cannot reprobate anyone if that's not even a verb, but if it were a verb, I wouldn't be able to do that action. And so we don't want to get into a cult of personality around anyone. And by the way, that's why people will be so mad when you call out their little pet preacher, because they have a personality cold around him, right? Because if anyone else taught that you go to the lake of fire for a thousand years, they would declare them a heretic. But when he does it, it's okay because he's Kent Hovind. And again, if I'm lying, I'm dying because the video is on YouTube right now. And every once in a while I pinch myself, look at my hands, make sure I'm not dreaming and watch the video again just to make sure that I'm not lying. And I assure you, I was always awake every time I watched it. I did not dream any of this, okay? And so being a mature Christian is not about emulating or idolizing or hyping up personalities. Now look, when you first get saved, of course you're going to be more personality-oriented and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But the problem is when you've been saved for 10, 15, 20 years, and you're still just following that personality more than you're following Christ, that's a shame, right? Now look, for the first six months, for the first year, for the first two years of your Christian life, yeah, you're probably going to be really leadership-oriented, and you need to be because you need those leaders and people to get you to first base. And obviously, we never outgrow having people to just look up to or people to mentor us or people that we can learn from. I'm not saying that. I'm talking about this sort of childish idolization of personalities where it's just Team Anderson, it's Team Berzins, it's Team Apollos, Team Cephas. Folks, that is not what it is. It's just Christianity. And there are other people outside of our group that are serving God and God loves them and God's using them. There are churches all over Phoenix tonight where people are praying to the same God that we're praying to, and they're loving God. The Word of God is being preached. And you know what? If we all died, then Christianity will go on. It was here before we got here, and it'll be here after we're gone. And so you've got to be mature about that and not be too into personalities. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? And so I'm running out of time, but just to sort of wrap this up or tie this idea together, we started out talking about how the babes in Christ, they are motivated by things like envy and hypocrisy like a little child. They're juvenile about seeking attention for themselves, right? Hey, look at me. They want to show off their Christianity and their soul-winning and everything, and they're not humble about it. And they're in a competition with other people. Instead of just rejoicing at someone else's success, they might want to take them down a notch and be in competition with other people. But what we're seeing here in 1 Corinthians 3 is kind of another side of that same coin because on the one hand, the carnal Christian wants to exalt self and tear down others because he's in a competition, he's envious, sort of like the toddler that will criticize their sibling to their parents, hey, look at me. I'm eating my vegetables. Look at me. I go to bed when I'm told, unlike, you know, this guy, he's in a diaper, I'm potty-trained, you know, and that doesn't sound that impressive. Well, you know what? Some of the stuff you brag about isn't that impressive either, okay? But then on the other side of that coin is not just lifting up yourself and bragging, but then it's lifting up someone else and it's just, it's exalting these personalities, the personality cult. Whether it's the pastor of a church, whether it's some evangelist or some famous preacher or whatever, look, look, some of the most carnal Christians that you're going to run into, some of the biggest babes in Christ that you're going to run into are the people who are watching preachers on TV and listening to preachers on the radio and they're not even going to church. You know, there's a sign of immaturity right there. They've just got their little celebrity preacher that they're so into, right? Folks, we need to be loyal to the Word of God, studying the Bible. How do we grow up? How do we get out of this thing of, hey, you should have been an adult and you're still a baby? You put aside the envy, the malice, the strife, the contentions, the debate. You put aside this sort of grandstanding and lifting yourself up, putting other people down, thinking it's us against them when we're both like-minded churches or thinking that we have to somehow guard what's ours instead of just thinking about the greater cause of Christ. You put aside those things. You desire the sincere milk of the Word, obviously the Bible, but specifically as you desire the Word of God, as you read the Word of God, you're also not afraid to really hammer the basics. You're not afraid to just revisit the easy Scriptures and listen to basic sermons. You don't just tune out all the sermons too basic, tune me out, you know, I'll come back next week for the big revelation exposition, but, you know, this is too easy for me. No, no, no, you listen to the basic sermon, you take it in, and then you apply those things to your life. How do you apply them to your life? You apply them to your life by actually doing the commandments and also by talking about them to other people and teaching them to other people, right? You explain it and then it helps you get it clear in your own mind. Why are people that are saved slow to answer the Gospel at the door? It's because they never talk about it. If they were constantly talking about salvation and the Gospel, if they were witnessing to all their friends and family and you ask them, what must I do to be saved, they wouldn't be like, oh, well, oh, you're kind of putting me on the spot here. Try to put me on the spot about the Gospel. You know, hold a gun to my head, make me nervous, put me on the spot, I'll be able to give the Gospel. You know, if you put me on the spot about something that I'm not good at or something I never talk about, you know, if you just hit me with a bunch of like recent political events that I haven't followed and I'm just like, oh, well, oh, man, I don't know, you're catching me off guard here, you know, let's schedule a debate because I'm not prepared to talk about this stuff. You know, but if it's something that you're talking about all the time, you're going to be ready, right? So how do you grow as a Christian? You take in the Word of God, but you also put out the Word of God, both by doing the commandments and also by expounding things to other people, talking to other people, preaching the Gospel to other people, preaching other truths to other people and forget preaching. How about just talking about the Bible even when it's not necessarily preachy or contentious? Sometimes it's just a friendly, nice talk where it's just kind of like a, hey, let's stop and smell the roses kind of a Bible talk, right? Hey, here's something cool I found in the Bible. Well who are we aiming that at? Who's that going to straighten out? Nobody. It's just something cool that I read. Well, what are you trying to say? Nothing. Just telling you something cool from the Bible, right? I like to talk about the Bible. You know, that's my favorite subject. You know, I think that probably in my life, some of the times that I'm the happiest, you know, what makes you feel happy and fulfilled in life? It's maybe different for everyone. Different things make us feel happy or fulfilled or we feel, you know, for me, I'm happy when I'm talking about something that I just learned from the Bible. But that doesn't even have to be behind the pulpit, even just in my personal life. If I find something cool in the Bible and talk to someone else about it, that makes me really happy. I like that. And then lastly, if we want to grow out of this baby stage, we've got to be less focused on not just ourselves, but also just let's focus on anyone. Let's focus on personalities in general, right? I'm glad, I hope that as your pastor, I hope that you love me. I hope that you enjoy my preaching. I hope that you have positive feelings toward me, but at the same time, you know, I hope that ultimately you're not coming here for me. It's not like, hey, let's go see Pastor Anderson. That's creepy, man. Be normal. I hope that you're like, hey, let's go to church on Sunday night because God's going to bless us if we go to church on Sunday night. God's going to honor us if we go to church on Sunday night. If we go to church on Sunday night, we can show our love for God. We're there because we love God. We want to show God that we love him. And hey, I'm hoping that Pastor Anderson will teach me something cool from the Bible, not because Pastor Anderson's cool, but because the Bible's cool. And look, maybe at first, and like I said, there's nothing wrong with being a babe if you're a babe. Maybe at first people will say to me, hey, man, I just, I don't even agree with a lot of the stuff you're saying. I just really like the way you say it. And so I just, I just like hearing you preach and I don't want to listen to anyone else. I just want to listen to you. Hey, that's great if you are unsaved or if you just got saved or if you're new to the cause of Christ. If it's just, it's all about me to you and you're here for me, then great. But it's like, come for Pastor Anderson, but stay for Jesus. Does everybody see what I'm saying? If it's still all about Pastor Anderson for you after you've been saved for years, well then what happens if Pastor Anderson lets you down? Right? What if Pastor Anderson, now obviously Pastor Anderson's never going to apostatize, but you got to be able to apply this to other people in your life who might apostatize. But you know what? I'm never going to apostatize, but you know what? It's possible that I could someday just get discouraged and quit. Now I'm never going to quit serving God, but I could just get discouraged and quit pastoring and quit preaching. Are you going to quit the church then? If I get discouraged and quit, are you going to quit? No, look, I'm not going to, I'm not planning on quitting folks, but if I do quit, if you quit too, then that shows that you're following the wrong person because ultimately you should be following Jesus. And no matter what I do, you're still following Jesus. That's maturity. Now look, the babe in Christ, yeah, look, when I first was learning how to go soul winning, man, I just did exactly what my soul winning partner did. I just watched what he did and I did exactly what he did. That's a great way to get started. But ultimately, in the end, Christianity's not about people, it's about a person, Jesus. And so it's not just this one preacher you're fixated on and I mean, I mean, look, people literally wrote to me and said, you know, I was donating to your church, but now that I heard what you said about Ken Hovind, I'm not going to donate to you anymore. I'm just like, so what? Like big deal, newsflash, our church has plenty of money. Why? Because our church doesn't care about money. Our church has never cared about money. Those who've been coming here for the last 18 years know that I'm not into money. I don't preach on money barely at all. I know Pastor Burzins, your first sermon, I was preaching about how to manage your money, but you know, Pastor Burzins goes all the way back to 2006. We've never had a fundraiser in the history of our church and I'm not against people who have a fundraiser. I'm just saying we've never had a fundraiser. We don't care about money. We don't talk about money. Here's my philosophy about money. It's like a cat. Ignore it. It will come to you. Folks, the love of money is the root of all evil, so I don't want to be all fixated on money. Our ministry has never been about money and guess what? Our church always has extra money and guess what we do with the extra money that we have? With the extra money that we have, we use it to fund all kinds of missions trips and fund all kinds of ... So the more money comes in, the more soul winning we do, the more people we can ship places to go soul winning overseas. We can make more DVDs and ship them out. We can also be a blessing to our fellow churches, sometimes our church friends will need help and we'll send them money just to help them out with something, help them get into a building or help them, whatever they're doing. You know what I mean? Just to help them out, but guess what? What a scary threat. You're not going to donate to Faith Wording ... Bye. Who cares? By the way, and you know what else I've taught for the last 18 years of preaching? I've taught that people should give in their local church. People should tithe in their ... I get up and I say ... I don't say, hey, mail that check to Faithful Word. I get up and I've consistently for the last 18 years said, tithe in your local church and I go out to that mailbox every week and there's checks in it every single week of people donating to our church, online donations. Why? Because I'm out there begging for money, asking for money? No, because of the fact that God is blessing our church because God knows that the money that comes into Faithful Word Baptist Church goes to soul winning, right? It goes toward missions. It goes toward the work of God and we get stuff done with that money for the cause of Christ. But some guy saying, well, I was donating to your ministry but you were mean to Ken Hovind. You were angry at Ken Hovind and you frowned at him and you weren't nice to him and so I'm never donating to your church again. Well then, you know what? You were donating for the wrong reason because it's like you think you were donating to Steven Anderson or something? You were donating to our soul winning machine here. That's what you were donating to. If you don't see the value in what our church is doing, then go put your money somewhere else if you don't even see the value of what we're doing because if you were donating to Steven Anderson, you had it all wrong anyway. It's funny when people literally think that the money that they put in the offering plate somehow goes to me or something. Are you serious right now? Obviously, I get paid a paycheck as an employee of the church. The money that comes into the church, it goes to the church's bank account. It doesn't go to my bank account. That's it. I'm not giving you this money. You never gave me money. I was paid a salary by the church but the money that you give in the offering plate does not go to me. It goes to the church and it's put into the work of the Lord. Obviously, yeah, it pays my salary, it pays the staff salaries but it all goes to the church's account and it goes toward the work of the Lord. You're not giving to me personally. If you are, you're weird. If you're saying, I'm tithing to Pastor Anderson, now look, if you want to give me a personal gift, by all means, give me a gift. I'm fine with that. I'm not saying that's weird. Here's what I'm saying. I'm saying it's weird for people to come to church and say, I'm doing it for you, Pastor Anderson. It's like, well, if you got saved in the last six months, I forgive you but you're supposedly a mature Christian that's been saved for a decade and you're like, I gave up everything for you, Pastor Anderson. Remember that guy? You know who I'm talking about. Name starts with an A, ends in Andrew. But anyway, this guy online, I gave up everything for you, Pastor Anderson. No, you didn't. You didn't give up everything for me and if you did, you're a weirdo. You didn't give up everything for Christ. And then here's what's funny. They give up everything for me and then they think I owe them something. I don't owe you, Jack, because you didn't do anything for me. You did it for Christ and if you were doing it for me, I didn't ask you to. Leave me alone. And look, I'm not trying to be mean or rude but I'm just saying part of being mature in your Christian faith is that you're seeing the big picture of the cause of Christ. You're not obsessing over personalities. You don't have a little Pastor Anderson action figure. You know, that's for babies. Bobblehead Pastor Anderson on your dash? What the? Or anyone else? You know, I'm just using myself as an example but any other preacher that you idolize and then you'll have preachers just preaching downright heresy and people are defending them. Why? Well, it's more into the personality than into the truth. Let's grow up and not be babes anymore. Look, if you're newly saved, be a babe but work on growing and eventually you grow out of some of these more childish tendencies. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. We thank you for the milk of the word that we may grow there by and Lord, thank you for also the strong meat of the word so that even as we mature and have been saved for decades, Lord, we never get bored because the Bible always has another level, another layer, another rung on the ladder that we can climb as we grow in grace and in knowledge, Lord. Please bless us now as we go our separate ways. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.