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Matthew 25 in verse number 14, title of the sermon tonight is God the Investor, God the Investor. Look at Matthew chapter number 25 verse 14, the Bible reads, For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went in trading with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his Lord's money. Now in this story, the parable has God represented as this man who has possessions. He has money, and he wants to invest it in a place where he's going to get a good return on his money. So he gives five talents, talents are weights of silver, this is units of money. He gives one servant five talents, he gives another two talents, and another one talent. The amount that he gave them was based upon their ability, because that makes sense. If he wants to get the biggest return on his investment, he's going to give it to the people that are going to do the most with it. All right, let's keep reading. The Bible reads in verse number 19, after a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came, and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliverance done to me five talents, behold, I've gained beside them five talents more. His Lord saith unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverance done to me two talents, behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His Lord said unto him, well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Now this is exactly how the Christian life is. God has work that he wants to do. Now keep your finger in Matthew and go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 33. But God is not interested in making money. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine. God is not short on money. This is a parable, meaning it's an earthly story that has a heavenly meaning, it has a spiritual application. So the profit that's being made is not a financial profit for the Lord, but God wants his work to be done that people might be saved. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 33, because this word profit is used all over the New Testament in regard to spiritual work for God. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 33, it says, even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many that they might be saved. So the profit that the apostle Paul was trying to work toward was not to make money, not to be like TD Jakes with a net worth of what, 27 million, or is it 127 million? You know, these phony televangelists that are just preaching because they want to lie in their pockets and they preach things which they ought not for filthy labor's sake. That's not God's plan, that's not God's goal. That shouldn't be my goal if I'm a servant of the Lord, that shouldn't be your goal. Our goal should be to seek the profit of other people that they might be saved. See, the work of the Lord is a spiritual work to get people saved, to get people into heaven, and then to take people that are already saved and to baptize them, and then to take people that are baptized and to teach them to observe everything that Christ commanded in the Bible. That's the work that God has for us. And in this story, we have this man who's making an investment and he's giving out five talents, he wants to get a return on that investment. Now, there are many things that God can invest in our lives, but he expects us to give him a good return. You see, God is up in heaven and he's looking down at all of you here today and all of the Christians that are all over the world and all the various churches, and he wants to do something with you. He wants to use you to perform some great work for him, and he wants to give you the tools that you need to do that. He wants to give you the opportunities that you need to do that. He wants to give you the ability to do the work that he has for you. But first he has to figure out whether he can trust you. You see, if I were going to make an investment, if I had any money to invest, which I don't and never will, but if I had money and I were investing it, I wouldn't just put a whole bunch of money with an investment that I didn't really know much about. First I might test that investment with just a small investment. So what God does is he looks at you, he looks at your potential, he looks at your ability, he looks at what you're doing, and then he makes an investment. He gives you some money or he gives you an opportunity or he gives you some talent. He gives you something and then he's waiting to see what you do with it. And if you use it for his glory, if you're a good steward of it, if you get people saved, if you do a work for God, he sees that investment and he says, well done, good and faithful servant because you've been faithful with the little bit that I gave you. Now I'm going to make you ruler over many things. Now I don't know about you, but I want to actually do many things for the Lord. I don't want to just do something small. You know, my church that I pastor in Phoenix, Arizona has about 300 people in it, but you know, I would love for that church to have 600 people in it. Now I'm not going to compromise to get there, but the point is I would want God to be able to trust me with more people to lead so that I could do more work for God and help people get the work done. But God's looking at what I do with 300 people and you know what, 10 years ago, Faithful Word Baptist Church ran an average of 10 on Sunday morning, just 10 people. But God looks at what we do with those 10 and then he looks at what we do with 20. He looks at what we do with 50 and then he gives us more because God wants to do a big work for God even more than I do. I mean, look, I want to get people saved. You want to get people saved, but you know who wants to get people saved more than any of us? God. I mean, he has more love than any of us. He is love and he has more love than I do, more love than you do. And so his work is even more important to him obviously than it is to us. If we're excited about doing something big, if we're excited about getting people to the Lord, how much more is he? And so it's not that God doesn't want to use us in a great way. It's not that God doesn't want to make a big investment. It's just that we have to show him that we can be a good steward of it so that he'll give us what we need to get the job done. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter nine, 2 Corinthians chapter nine. Let me give you some practical examples while you're trying to 2 Corinthians nine. For example, let's say you are a person who knows how to win someone to Christ. You've actually gone out and done some soul winning. You've actually got the ability to take somebody down a plan of salvation and take them down the Romans road. You know how to win somebody in the Lord. God looks at that ability and he says, okay, I can make an investment here. I'm going to give you an opportunity to give the gospel. Well then now, because you have that ability, he'll bring people your way that you can give the gospel to, right? And then he's seeing what you do with that opportunity. You know, if you pass out that opportunity, if you skip that opportunity and God keeps sending people your way that you're supposed to witness to, that you're supposed to give the gospel to and you're not doing it, well then he's going to stop making that investment. He's going to say, okay, well I better send these people to somebody else who's actually going to get the job done, who's actually going to present the gospel, okay? Now if you don't even know how to give the gospel to someone, why would God send people across your path to get saved when you don't even know how to do it? That's why you've got to be prepared and there's always a prepared place for a prepared person if you would actually show up at your church's soul winning time, find a church in your area that has soul winning, show up, be a silent partner for a while, learn the ropes, learn how to do it, underline the verses, be ready. You know, the apostle Paul said, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Before God can use you, you've got to get a little bit of ability to give somebody the gospel, right? Amen. And so you get the ability, then God says, okay, let me give you an opportunity. Then he sees what you do with that opportunity and if you do a good job, he's going to give you more opportunities, he's going to give you bigger opportunities. You know, I can't tell you how exciting it is when God just brings somebody across your path and you have the joy of winning them to the Lord and it's just so obvious that God brought that person across your path. It's just like, wow, this was so amazing and I just happened to be in that place at that time and I was able to win that person to the Lord and it's just so exciting, but you never get to experience that unless you're ready, unless you're prepared. What about opportunities to preach? I know there are a lot of young guys in here that would love an opportunity to preach and in their mind, theoretically, they're thinking, man, I would love to get up and preach a sermon to my church or preach a sermon in any church. It'd be so exciting, it'd be great, but here's the thing. First of all, do you even have a sermon ready? If I were to call one of you up here right now to preach, would you be able to preach to this crowd tonight? Would you have that ability? Everybody's racking their brain real quick, like, I'm going to get a sermon, let's see here. You know, would you even be ready to preach? And then if God gives you opportunities to preach, he's going to see how you treat those opportunities, what you do with those opportunities. Look, God can open all kinds of doors for you. God can give you all kinds of places to preach. God can bring all kinds of people across your path to get saved, but you have to be ready and you have to be a good steward of what God gives you. Look, if God gives you money, be a good steward of it. If he sees you wasting your money, buying cigarettes, buying beer, buying stupid things, just wasting it, flushing it down the toilet, gambling, buying lotto tickets. You know, God's not going to want to give you a lot more money, but if he sees you doing something good with it, then he might give you more. If he sees you doing something good with opportunity, he's going to give you more. If you're using your talent for the Lord, he's going to give you more ability, more talent. God is an investor and he wants to invest in something that's going to pay off. Now point number one is that God's investor. Point number two is that God has unlimited funds to invest. There's no limit to God. The only limitation on God is how we limit God. The Bible talks about how the children of Israel in the wilderness in the Old Testament, they limited the Holy One of Israel, it says in the book of Psalms. They limited him. God is omnipotent. God is all powerful. The sky is the limit for what we can accomplish for God. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. It's just a question of what we allow him to do by being a good steward of the opportunities, the money, the time, the talent that he gives us. Number two is that God has unlimited funds. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Let me turn there myself. We're going to start reading in verse number six. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 6 says this, but this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. Now look at verse eight. This is a really powerful verse if you grasp what this means. Verse number eight. And God is able to make all grace abound towards you that ye always having all sufficiency and all things may abound to every good work. Now this passage is a passage that's dealing with giving, and a lot of people turn to this passage and talk about how God loves a cheerful giver and about giving financially, but what I like about verse number eight is that it explains that really the goal in the end is that the work of the Lord gets done. Look at verse eight. God is able to make all grace abound towards you that you always having all sufficiency and all things may abound to every good work. You see, God wants me to do a great work for him, and he wants to give me the tools I need to do that work, and he has no limitation. He's always able to make me abound in all things and to have all sufficiency and to have everything I need to do the work. Look, if God needs me to preach, he's gonna give me the ability to preach. If God needs me to do something, and I need a building, and I need to preach in that building, God's gonna give me the finances. God's gonna give me what I need if I'm a good steward of it. You see, I've been the pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church now for 11 years, and let me tell you something. In the last 11 years, our church has never run out of money ever, and we've never had any debt. We've never borrowed a dime. Now, there's a vast majority of Baptist churches out there that are in debt and that are constantly also raising money. They're having fundraisers. They're having a big thermometer of the building fund and the missions fund. I'm not criticizing them or attacking them. I'm just saying that over the last 11 years, I've chosen not to do that. I've chosen not to make money an emphasis. I've chosen not to ask people to dig deep, folks, and give more and full paycheck Sunday and building fund and missions fund and all the different fundraisers. We've never raised any money, but yet we've always had enough money. We've never had any debt, and we go full speed ahead financially at Faithful Word Baptist Church, and I believe that that's because of a couple of reasons. Number one, it's because we actually obey God when he said not to make his house a house of merchandise. That commandment's rarely obeyed, and we have had a policy at our church to never sell anything ever. We give everything away, flash drives, preaching CDs. When we have a meal, it's all free. It's all given away without charge. We follow that commandment to not sell merchandise in the house of God. Number two, we've tried to be generous and open-handed and free with things and give things away and not hold back. Number three, we've tried to be a good steward of the money that God has given us so that God would trust us with the finances that we need, not to line our pockets and have an air-conditioned doghouse and to have my own private jet or something, but to do the work of God. You see, the sufficiency that God's going to give us is that we may abound unto every good work. You see, there have been times at our church when I look at the bank account, and the finances were getting a little bit low, a little bit lean, and I don't spend a lot of time thinking about money. I don't preach about money. I don't talk about money. It's pretty rare. This is literally what I do. I don't go into some major prayer session or fasting session about money because I don't emphasize money, but here's what I do, and I'm up here telling you just my own personal thoughts. I literally, every time the account has gotten a little bit low, I literally just get on my knees and I just pray this short prayer. I just say, God, we're a little low on money, which is fine with me, but I'm just going to have to slow down the work just a little bit because we're always just spending money, just doing all kinds of missions and just preaching CDs and shipping stuff everywhere. We're taking trips to the Indian reservations and winning people, Lord. We're having all kinds of events and programs. I mean, we're always just going nuts, and I just say to the Lord, I just say, you know what? I'm just going to have to slow things down a little bit if the finances don't pick up, and that's okay with me, God, if it's okay with you, but if you want me to keep going full speed ahead, God, provide the funds. In Jesus' name, amen. It takes less than 60 seconds, and I just walk away and don't even think about it, and you know what? God provides the funds for us to just keep going and pushing it further and doing more. Why? Because God likes to give money to something that's going to give him an investment in souls and people being saved and the work of God going forward. Why wouldn't he? It just makes sense. Now go, if you would, to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter number 16. This is where we started tonight, and by the way, I was talking to a young man. I mentioned earlier that this sermon is actually just me on a layover from a flight from Guyana. On Sunday, I preached my normal services in Phoenix, Arizona, and then on Monday morning, I got on an airplane, and I flew down to Guyana in South America. Now, Guyana is the only country in South America where they speak English, and I wanted to go down there and just check it out and see if it's receptive to the Gospel because of the fact that it's so much closer than going to Africa, and everybody there speaks English, and it seemed like the demographic was similar to Botswana. I wanted to see if it was like a Botswana of the Western Hemisphere, like a closer mission field that would be just as receptive and just as good. I just wanted to check it out and see if it's receptive as a good soul winning. So I kind of just threw this trip together. I didn't put a lot of thought into it, and it was the brainchild of a guy named Shane Jans. I don't know if you guys know him, but who knows Brother Rob and Shane from Toronto, Canada. I know some of you guys have come to a lot of the soul winning marathons and met those guys. They approached me two months ago, and they said, hey, Shane's got family in Guyana, and I hadn't really heard of Guyana. I didn't even know what it was, but they told me a little bit about Guyana, and they didn't even invite me, but I just invited myself along on the trip because I went and I looked it up in the encyclopedia, and I was reading about Guyana, and I was thinking, this looks good. This looks like it could be a great mission field that's close, less of a jet lag because it's only like one hour later than New Jersey time. I came back to them, and I said, hey, listen, guys, I want to go with you for part of that trip, and they said, great. So we planned it out, and they went down there for over a week, but I just went down there for three days. So I flew down there on Monday. I got there Tuesday morning, and they picked me up at the airport, and they said, okay, we're going to take you where we're staying now. They took me just deep into the jungle, and I was like, whoa, are we going to town? They're like, no, there's no town. There's no other zone. So they took me just like deep into the jungle, and there's just this house all by itself. There's no other house around. The nearest neighbor is miles away, and this guy is just living off the grid. This is Shane's cousin. I mean, just totally off the grid. He's got solar panels, he's got generator. He's growing all his own food. He's raising chickens. He's raising waterfowl. I mean, this guy just had it going on in this house. But it was a little bit of a primitive house, a little bit. There wasn't any running water. He was collecting rainwater to drink, and then we would shower in this stuff called the black water, okay? And the reason why it's called black water is because it's black, but it's not really black-black, but it was like the color of like black tea, that dark, like dark brown. So they're bringing buckets of this black water up from the creek, and this is what we're going to shower with. And it was cool because the guy we were staying with, he kind of had the typical Caribbean accent. So he's like, yo, mon, you know, we're going to take a shower in the black water, mon, it's good for you. Yo, buddy, yo, brethren, come on in. So it was pretty cool. He was a fun guy to stay with, and it was kind of an experience, you know, just staying out in this primitive dwelling was awesome. So you know, I took the showers with the black water, I'm dumping black water on me. In fact, I still haven't had a normal shower, so if I smell kind of weird, I haven't had a normal shower in almost a week, just nothing but black water, buddy, that's all I've been doing. All right. So anyway, you know, we went there, I took the black water shower, I got ready, and we went soloing. So we headed into the city there, Georgetown, Guyana, the main city, we're kind of in the outskirts of the city, but we went out soloing for about three and a half hours, and man, it was so receptive, it was just amazing. It was just like being back in Botswana again. I mean, people were just ready to hear the gospel, everybody wanted to talk, and in three and a half hours, we were able to win a bunch of people. Lord, I personally gave the gospel in that time to 10 people, and five of them got saved. The ones who didn't get saved, they didn't really, some of them didn't really understand it, and some of them just didn't believe in it. But I gave the gospel to 10 people, five of them got saved. Rob and Shane had similar results. So we went soloing for like five, you know, three and a half hours, had a bunch of people saved, then we hooked up with a local pastor, we had dinner with them, went out for another round of soloing, had more people saved, so we ended up getting a total of 20 people saved just in that first day, about five and a half, six hours of soloing, the three of us just going crazy with soloing, and we had a total of 20 people could say it was really exciting, we're giving them Bibles, we're giving them flash drives, they're preaching, we're giving out everything. So over the next few days, God just opened so many doors. I mean, I booked this ticket two months ago, and I didn't even think about it anymore because I'm just so busy with everything else. You know, a few days before the trip, I'm pulling out my itinerary like, okay, what's going, what am I gonna do, what's going on? I didn't really have any plans, I just thought, go there and go soloing, piece of cake. But let me tell you something, God opened so many doors on this trip, it was just amazing. Okay, I didn't even plan on preaching, I was just planning on soloing, God opened the door where I preached in three churches when I was down there. Three churches invited me to preach. And that, you know, by the way, that doesn't happen in the United States. I don't get invited to preach anywhere, that's why we're in a hotel conference room right now. You're like, why are we in a hotel? Yeah, because we're, you know, Jesus was born, you know, in the barn because there was no room in the inn, he was laid in the manger, you know, that, you know, when you follow Jesus, you're also kind of locked out sometimes and you end up having to be without the camp, right, and you got to be in a hotel conference room because, you know, the invitations aren't pouring in for me to preach across America. But these guys, you know, they haven't been corrupted like a lot of the American pastors have been corrupted. So these guys, you know, they feel the same way about the sodomites that we do and, you know, these guys are, they're not as worldly and corrupted as a lot of the pastors and churches up here. So, I mean, God just opened doors that I could preach in three churches while I was down there and then, amazing thing, we're chatting with the pastor and he says, oh, you know, sometimes we preach in the public schools and I said, hey, can I do that while I'm here? Can we do that tomorrow? Because I was only there for three days. He's like, sure, yeah, okay. We went to the school, we talked to them, we set it up. On Thursday morning, I got to preach, what an opportunity, I got to preach to 600 students from, you know, they were pretty much like junior high, high school age. And I got to preach the gospel to 600 students and give every single one of them a Bible and a flash drive full of preaching and send them home with that. And it was so cool because the teachers loved it and the principal of the school loved it and we stood at the doors to give out the materials in the end, you know, as they went out, we had two stations to give a Bible, give a flash drive and the teachers were helping us hand stuff out. The teachers where I was standing were literally taking the Bible. Here, somebody, come on up here. Let me just use you as an illustration. As the kids would come up, just imagine this in the United States, Pastor Anderson coming and preaching at a public school, right? And the kids are coming out, okay? This is what the teachers, you know, they're handing them the Bibles, handing them the Bibles and to the girls, they would just hand the Bible. But most of the boys that would come through, they'd like hit them with the Bible, like, you need to read this, you're a good kid, go get this printed again, you know, you need to put a list in your headphones, read this and be a good kid. They're like, you need to keep reading the Bible. And they're like, you need to listen to this preaching. The teachers were handing the kids out, preaching, listening to the flash drive, you need to listen to Faithful Word. I mean, that's literally what's going on. I'm not kidding. I mean, can you imagine that in America, a public school teacher telling you, you need to read the Bible. And then when I was, I gave out Bibles to the teachers and they got like a nicer Bible, you know, because we had some nicer like leather bound. So we gave them like a nice Bible. Four different teachers separately said to me when I was handing them the Bible, they said, is that a King James? Oh, good. Or they said, make sure I get a King James. So it's kind of cool just that down in Guyana, like they know the King James is the right Bible. I mean, the whole time I was there, everything was King James, even the people who aren't even saved, even people from goofball religions, you know, different, different weird denominations. They're all most of them on the King James. So that was pretty cool. That place is saturated with the King James. But here's the thing about that. That was one of the coolest opportunities that I've ever had. Just to be able to stand up and preach to 600 school kids and to be able to preach the gospel to all of them and make it clear to them. And they were really listening and paying attention and, you know, to give them a Bible and to give them a question. I mean, that is such a cool opportunity. But stop and think about this. There are about 150 schools like that in Guyana. And I could literally, I'm not joking and not just I, someone else could, too. I could literally go down to Guyana and do that every single day if I wanted to. Like, I could literally on Monday do that, on Tuesday do that, on Wednesday do that, on Thursday do that. So, I mean, is that just a wide open field? Now, isn't it kind of sad to think like, okay, we did it once, but there's 150 more schools. What if we could give the gospel to every single student in this whole country and get them a King James and get them on some hard Bible preaching? And by the way, guess what the first sermon is on that flash drive? Why we need hard preaching. That explains to them why you need to listen to the other 27 sermons on this thing. It's like 28 sermons. So, I mean, what an amazing opportunity. And you know what? God gave me that opportunity. I didn't earn that opportunity. I didn't plan that opportunity. It wasn't because I was so smart and so cunning. I mean, it just fell in my lap. I was just down there by the seat of my pants, just, okay, what are we doing now? Where are we staying? Where's the shower? You know, whatever. Next thing I know, I'm preaching one of the coolest opportunities I've ever had. God gave that, but here's the thing. Obviously it costs money. You know what I mean? To like give out that kind of stuff. You know, the flash drives cost, you know, those cost, you know, almost $5 each. You know what I mean? And we're just giving out a crazy amount of them. Obviously the Bibles cost money. Everything costs money. And obviously it costs time, you know, for me to go down there. So obviously I can't be down there all the time. I don't have the money to do that all the time. But the reason that I'm telling this story, partially to explain, you know, why I'm a little bit disheveled in my parents, but partly to just explain to you that the opportunities for the work that can be done for the Lord are endless. It's endless. Great opportunities. But you know what God's looking for? God's looking for people that are ready to step up and stand in front of 600 students and preach that gospel and make it clear. Make sure it's not some repent of your sins, lordship, salvation. I mean to just give a clear, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ type message to break it down, to give the illustrations. Let me tell you something. I promise you, I promise you because God's not a respecter of persons. I promise you that if you live your life and you serve the Lord and you're a good steward of the opportunities that you're given and the funds that you're given and the talents that you've been given and everything that you're given, I promise you that God will answer your prayers and show you things that are greater than you could ever ask or think. You will have amazing opportunities in your life too. God's going to take you all kinds of cool places and you're going to go on so many cool adventures and see so many great works for God. Why? Because God wants to do a great work and He wants to use you to do it. He wants to use me to do it and He has unlimited funds for Bibles, flash drives, and whatever's needed. He said I could make it abound so that you can abound under every good work and you can do everything that God's called you to do. But you want to know the sad thing today? The sad thing today is that there are 6,000 independent fundamental Baptist, King James only type churches in the United States of America and so many of them are being a bad steward of what they're being given and therefore God doesn't want to give them more because it's just a waste of his time and money and effort. And the biggest, most glaring example of this is when it comes to missionaries. Most missionaries are muchinaries. Okay. And I've always had a heart for missions. I actually wanted to be a missionary my entire life. That's actually what I wanted to do since I was a little kid. You know, the missionaries would come through and I had a burden to preach the Gospel. To do the work of an evangelist. You know, I wanted to get people to say, but you know, the reason that I didn't end up being a missionary is because I knew that I couldn't... I'm not the type of person where I could go around to all these churches and get the support because they're not going to like me. And you know, it turns out I was right about that. I mean, can you imagine 50 churches supporting me? Good night. Can't even find 50 churches to say hi to me. No. So, you know, I want to be a missionary my whole life. And I've always loved missions. I've always had a heart for missions. And you know, it was when I went to the mission field when I was 18 years old though, how disillusioned I was when I went and visited like five, six, seven missionaries and saw that the majority of missionaries on the foreign field are literally doing nothing for the Lord. And they're just sucking up thousands and thousands of dollars of people who are literally putting their money in the plate and they're thinking like, oh man, think about all the people that are getting saved in other countries because I'm putting this in. And it's just not happening. I mean, literally a lot of these guys over there, they literally were just like tending gardens, doing their wife's housework for them and just kind of just relaxing, hanging out, talking to people. And I actually felt uncomfortable because I was there to work and I told them, I want to work for you guys. The reason I'm here is to be your worker. I was 18 years old when I went to Germany to do this and I was there for three months. I said, you know, I want to work for you. Whatever work, if you want me to go soul winning, I'll go soul winning. You want me to build something or, you know, do electrical work? I know a little bit of electrical, whatever. And I just felt like just a fifth wheel because they didn't even have enough work for themselves to do, let alone for me to do. And I went home just so discouraged and disillusioned. But listen, that's the reality of missions today. And I get these missionary prayer letters that I don't even sign up for. I got to tell you this before I go on with the sermon. I got a prayer letter from a guy over the last several months. Okay. This guy was going to be a missionary in Morocco. Okay. And it's 99.9% Muslim. Okay. Nobody wants to hear the gospel. It's probably, look, if it's 99.9% Muslim, it's probably illegal to go soul winning. It's not just magically. It just happens to be that 99% of people just happen to want to be a Muslim. They obviously are being forced to be a Muslim because it's illegal to convert to anything else and they're going to hang you if you preach the gospel and everything else. You know, so they go to this dumb place where it's not even legal to do it. Okay. The guy goes over to this unreceptive place. He's been there for several months and every month he gives the prayer letter and nobody's saved. I'm reading the prayer letter just waiting for somebody to be saved. One person. Nobody's getting saved. And this is his prayer letter. Well, brother, we just started language school. It's like, what are you doing going to Morocco on God's money and saying, well, they don't speak any English here, so I got to learn Arabic. You've never learned it. You've never studied it. You're sitting your butt in language school on God's time. Now let me tell you something. The Bible says that they that preach the gospel should live off the gospel. So it's totally scriptural for a pastor to be paid for a preacher to be paid because the labor is worthy of his reward. But show me in this book where somebody should be paid to go to school full time with God's money, where God has people giving unto full time students to sit on their butt in some unreceptive country where nobody wants to hear the gospel and just sending thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars before the guy even gives the gospel to anybody so he can just be on his little Morocco vacation or whatever his warped mind has him over there, sitting in language school on God's dime, a full time student. He's like a welfare recipient except worse because God, you know, he's on God's money, not the government's money. And you know what? It makes me sick because I think about all the other things, all the good things that could be done with that money that people are flushing down the toilet, sending to this jerk that's sitting in language school. Why? And you know what? That's a bad investment. And you know what? These Baptist churches across America need to stop giving money to these worthless missionaries that don't ever report anybody being saved. They don't give anybody the gospel. They're like, oh, pray for these two people we witness to in the last three months as we tend the tulips and do everything else. And you know what? I don't think that you should be rude to your pastor. Rebuke not an elder. We ought to be kind. We ought to be respectful. But you know what? You should mention to your pastor, you know, I'm just being honest. I don't think anybody should support the missions program if it's paying for that kind of garbage. And people should just mention, hey, pastor, I'd love to support missions, but I can't, I don't want to pay for somebody to go to school. I want to pay for somebody to preach the word of God. I want to pray for somebody to actually go to a receptive place that wants the gospel and to obey the bible when it says that if they don't watch you there, you shake the dust off your feet, you go somewhere else and you go where it's receptive. You go to the poor, you go to the people that want to hear the gospel. Now I wanted to admonish this guy. I wanted to help this guy even though it makes me sick what he's doing. So I wrote him an email and I tried to be nice in the email and this is what I said in the email. I said, listen, man, you know, I'm reading your prayer letters and nobody's ever getting saved. I said, I realized there's a language barrier. Of course, I'm thinking like, why are you there if you don't speak the language when there's a billion people on this planet that speak English? And I, you know, I just wrote to him. I said, you know, there, I told him, I said, you know, there are people that speak English in Morocco. Tourists, it's a very popular tourist destination. There's students, there's foreigners. And I was just trying to encourage him and he just wrote back a bunch of excuses. He's still not going to do soul winning. What a loser. I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous. You know, people need to just mention their pastor. You know what? I'm not going to waste my money. I don't want to waste God's money. You know, if God gives me money, I don't want to waste it. And by the way, maybe we should check what these missionaries are even preaching the gospel. Whether they even preach the gospel that we believe in by grace through faith or whether it's Lordship salvation and repent of your sins to be saved instead of believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Maybe we should actually check into that. Instead of just blindly just sending money, sending money. Oh, they're Baptists, they're missionaries. Look, you're wasting God's money and then you wonder why you're in debt. The church isn't dead and you can't do it because God's like, man, I can't give these people money. They're sending it to the enemy. They're preaching a false repentance, you know, whatever. Instead of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a bad investment. I don't want to waste my money. I don't want to waste my time. I don't want to miss God's money and God's time. And so that's why we should boycott these missions programs that are supporting people that preach stuff that we don't even believe in. And just give to your local church where you actually know where it's going. And tell them as soon as you clean up the list of missionaries, all participate. As soon as we stop supporting full-time students and Bible colleges, then all participate, then all get involved. Because you know what? I don't think it's right for us to waste our time and waste our money and waste our resources and especially not God's time and God's resources. Amen. Luke chapter number 16, look down at your Bible there, verse number 10. It says, he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore you've not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you've not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters for either you will hate the one and love the other, or else you will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now let me go back to my my trip that I went on in Guyana to tell you a little more about it while it's fresh in my mind. I preached at that school. I preached in three churches. I met all kinds of great pastors. They were godly men. It was just a great opportunity. Had a good time. So on Friday, I had a long layover in Trinidad. Just like today, I have a long way over in New Jersey. So I went ahead and went to Trinidad and I just randomly, I just happened to just ask a guy, hey, do you know a pastor in Trinidad that's a soul winner? And he said, yeah, you know, here's a guy. And he gave me a phone number. I didn't know the guy from Adam. I called the guy up and he said, I'll be there brother. I'll pick you up. I'm gonna pick you up my brother. I'm like, okay, cool. You know, so I didn't even know what to expect. I don't know what this guy's like. Didn't even plan it. Man, God just worked it out that this guy was awesome. And he was a kindred spirit on a lot of issues. He started preaching to me about the issue about the Jews. He brought it up. Because he said something, because he said, he said something to me and I was like, you know, I don't believe that they're God's chosen people. And then he's like brother, he's like, and he started going off and he's going on and on. And he's like, brother, if I tell other pastors this, they think I'm a heretic. They think I'm crazy. And I'm like, hey, you're going to love this DVD. We drove this house. We put marching design on a big screen. He brought some of his church members over. We're watching marching design and this guy was so cool. But there was a young man in the church that I was able to, you know, talk to a little bit. We were having dinner and I was talking to him and he was a really good guy. And he had been a little bit influenced by some of the TV preachers though. Cause he was asking me like, what do you think about TD James? You know, what do you think about Joel Osteen? What do you think about John Hagee? And he's kind of bringing up the televangelist. And I told him, I said, these men cannot be serving God. I said, I don't even have to talk about the doctrine. I don't even need to hear their preaching. I don't need to know anything about them except I have to just Google net worth. TD Jakes, net worth. Joel Osteen, net worth. Creflo Dollar, net worth. And I was Googling this and showing him and saying, you know what? These men cannot be men of God. They cannot be. Why? Because they're taking what God gives them God is investing them. God is giving them five talents. And you know what? They're not using it to serve God and bring profit unto him. They're not even burying it in the earth. You know what they're doing? They're taking the five talents and skipping town and stealing it. They're like, it's in the parable. The guy took the five talents and went to the next city over and he's getting drunk and he's at the casino and he's at the whorehouse. That's what they're doing. They're taking God's money and they're using it to just please the flesh and their lust and their greed and it's wicked. And you know what? Every rich preacher is wicked. There's no exception. Jesus Christ said you deny self. You take up the cross. You follow me. Peter said silver and gold have I never. Now there's nothing wrong with somebody having money to feed their family and have a house and have a car and have their basic needs met. I'm not saying that we need to live in poverty but there's something wrong when you're a preacher and you're a millionaire. Now look, if you're a businessman that becomes a millionaire, great. As long as you're making an honest living there's nothing wrong with a businessman being a millionaire if he's being honest. If he's right. But let me tell you something. No preacher will be a millionaire by being honest because being a preacher is not a call to be a millionaire. It's a call to take the resources that God gives you and to give everything to the Lord. It's funny, I was kind of joking around a little bit when we were preaching at that school in Guyana we did some soul winning before the service one-on-one. We got a lot of people saved one-on-one. Then of course we preached to the whole crowd and we just barely had enough materials to get everybody a Bible, to get everybody a flash drive. We ran out of flash drives at the very end so we were given DVDs instead but we were able to get everybody some preaching, get everybody some materials. And we just gave everything. I mean we were just emptying out everything that we had. All the seats, all the flash drives, all the DVDs, all the Bibles. And I got out to the parking lot and I reached in my pocket and I realized I had one more flash drive that I had accidentally had in my pocket. And I turned to Shane or Rob and I said, I was holding back. I didn't give everything. You know what I mean? I held back. I'm like, I gave it to somebody. I was just kind of joking. I was being silly. But the point is, it's not our job to just take what the Lord gives us and just hoard it. And if you do, God's not gonna bless you with the tools that you need to do the work because he knows he's gonna give you the tools you need to do the work and you're just gonna use it on yourself. The Bible says you pray and you receive and the Bible says you have not because you ask not. And he said you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. You know, if you're gonna ask God to bless you or bless your church with finances and then you're just gonna use it to just make yourself rich and wear fancy clothes and fly around in a private jet, you know what? God looks at that and you're being a bad steward. You're a wicked and a slothful servant. God commanded us to live our lives for others, not for ourselves. And no pastor who's a multi-millionaire is serving the Lord, none, zero, no exception. And I will stand by that statement. There is no exception to that. It's wicked. Now I remember the church I used to go to in California, my pastor used to do this silent sermon. He called it the silent sermon, okay? And this is the silent sermon that he would preach. It was a sermon with no words. This is what he would do. Okay, so that's the good example of what we're supposed to be doing. You know, we go to the Lord, we get what we need to do the work, we give it out, we give it out, we give it out. It's for other people. We're not seeking our own prophet, we're seeking the prophet of others that they might be saved, right? Too bad. And then he said, this is the bad example of what a lot of people do. You know, that's the average person, right? Yeah. Oh God, please bless us with more. Bless us with more. Bless the church more. So we can build a palace of a cathedral of a church building. You know, a church building looks like this place, right? Lighting that looks like this. Brother, you give me an industrial retail storefront office space with a bunch of banged up ceiling tiles and a bunch of fluorescent light tubes and a bunch of chairs from Sam's Club and chairs from IKEA and you give me the ugliest, gnarliest, wooden pulpit that you've ever seen. And you know what? That's where I want to go to church. That's where I want to preach the gospel. That's where I want to preach the word of God. And I want to take all the money that comes in and I want to use it for the prophet of others that they might be saved. And I believe that if I do that, God's going to give more. God's going to give more. Look, he has this efficiency to make us abound under all good works to give us everything that we need, but we've got to be a good steward of it. We've got to use it wisely for his honor, for his glory, not for our own self-aggrandizement or making ourself rich and whatever. Now, how does this apply to every one of your personal lives? Because not all of you are a preacher or a pastor in a church or anything like that. Or many of you will be in the future. God willing, right? Who here desires to be a pastor someday? Put up your hand if you desire to be a pastor. Look at all those hands. A lot of people around the building that have that desire and maybe there are others that have that burning inside them, but they're just too shy to even, you know, to put up their hand and say that. But you know, there are a lot of men here to whom this stuff does apply to and you need to get it settled now that you want to live a humble life, you want to wear humble clothing, live in a humble house, drive a humble vehicle for the rest of your life and invest your resources into getting people saved, not in lining your own pockets like a wicked false prophet. But what about the rest of us? Listen, all of us in our lives can be used greatly by God. I'm talking about men and women. I'm talking about the old and the young. I'm talking about children. I'm talking about people who are great speakers and people who are not great at speaking. You know what? God gives everybody talents and resources according to their ability and even if your ability is small, God still has something for you. Even if your ability is small and you say, you know, I don't have much to bring to the table, Pastor Anderson. You know, I'm not a great speaker. I don't have great social skills or I'm not great at reading. I'm just not great at whatever. But you know what? If you take the little bit that God gives you and you do something with it instead of just being fearful and just you're afraid and you just bury it and do nothing, you know, if you just take what God gives you and use it, God's going to tell you, well done, good and faithful servant. Now I'm going to give you more. Now I'm going to give you greater opportunities. You're going to go places and do things that you never would have dreamed up because you were a good steward of what I gave you the first time. You see, God doesn't, you know, He gives one guy five. The guy brings back five. He gets the exact same pep talk and reward as the guy who was given to and bring back to. It's not about what they were given, it's just that they doubled it. So if God gives us a little but we use it and do the best we can, God's going to put us over many things. If we do it with a lot, He'll put us over many things. If we do it with a little, He'll put us over many things. It's just, are we a good steward of what God has given us? Listen, all of you can get involved in the work of the Lord, every single one of us. Anybody who goes to Faithful Word Baptist Church knows that we have some guys in our church that are very shy, they're not social, and yet they do great amounts of soul wedding and they're effective. Because it's not about being cool or suave or eloquent or effective. You know what it's about? It's about just showing up and wanting to be used by God and being a good steward of what God gives you. And listen to me, if you will just show up to your church and get out there, be a silent partner out soul wedding, get some basic ability, because it starts with having a little bit of ability, then God looks at your ability and He gives you talents according to your ability, He gives you the resources, He gives you the opportunities. You've got to decide right now that you want to do something big for God, show up, hear my Lord, send me, get out there, get involved with your local church, get involved with the soul wedding program, and get out there and do something for God. If you do that, I promise you, God's going to give you opportunities. And if you use those opportunities well, you're going to get more opportunities and you're going to get more opportunities and it's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. I never thought that I'd be doing the stuff that I'm doing right now. And it's so cool how I don't even hardly plan these things. I don't even hardly try because it's not even me that even comes up with these ideas. It's like God just throws me in these situations where other people are coming. It wasn't my idea to go to Guyana. I had no idea like that. Shane came to me with that idea, but God put him in my life to give me that opportunity where Shane comes to me and says, hey, we've got this trip, we're going down there, and God showed me that. Then I get down there and God's just opening doors, opening doors, opening doors. Look, I have no plan to ever set foot in Trinidad in my entire life. Most people have probably never even heard of Trinidad and Tobago, a tiny little country in the Caribbean. But it was just God just worked through Travelocity.com. This message was brought to you in part by Travelocity. God just worked through Travelocity.com where I just had this crazy, ridiculous, I mean, what kind of a crazy travel website gives you a 13-hour layover in Trinidad and a 13-hour layover in New Jersey so that it takes like 50 hours to get home? I mean, look, this trip, I'm only spending like nine hours of actual flight time. It's like a 50-hour trip. Why would it take 50 hours to go nine hours? I'll tell you why. Because God had souls for me to win in Trinidad. I went soul winning in Trinidad in an all Hindu area. It was very unreceptive, but praise God, I was able to win two people to the Lord. I had about nine people reject the gospel, even after I presented the whole thing to them, but two of them got saved. And God had a young man in Trinidad that he wanted me to warn about these wolves and false teachers that were creeping into his life. And God had a pastor in Trinidad that really encouraged me, that was a blessing to me that I could share fellowship with. We could motivate each other. Iron could sharpen iron. And you know what? God had a plan for you to be here today for me to preach at a hotel conference room in New Jersey. This didn't even enter my mind two weeks ago. I don't even know why I'm here. You know, I booked a conference room for 100 people. I booked a conference room for 100 people. And I was like, I don't even know if that many people are going to show up on short notice. You know, now the hotel manager is telling me, you know, we might be in trouble with the fire marshal because we've exceeded the capacity of the room. And I mean, I was telling him, I'm standing there at the back and he's pointing at the sign and says, you know, 107? Because we're beyond that. You know, we're way past that. So, you know, I'm standing back there and he's asking me about, I was kind of nervous. And I said, well, you know, I said, I don't think more people are coming. I'm pretty sure this is it. Like 10 people walk up. Usually you're excited when more people are coming. But I was getting kind of nervous. You know, we're going to get in trouble here. You know, we're going to have to start kicking people out or something, you know, we're going to have to like, you know, cast locks or whatever to figure out. You know, but here's the thing. God will actually lead us and guide us. The Bible says in all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. The question is, are you going somewhere? Look, God can't direct your paths if you're sitting on your butt doing nothing. I mean, how can God direct your paths? You're not even on a path. I mean, you're like sitting at home doing nothing, sitting on your butt, like, okay, God, lead me. I mean, what do you expect your chair to just be like? Like your chair is just going to take you to some doorstep like, I guess I'm supposed to knock this door. You know, and your chair is just going to miraculously become a wheelchair or sprout wings and fly. Look, God can't direct your paths unless you're going somewhere. See, what we need to do, folks, is we need to figure out, okay, what can I do for the Lord? Not what I don't have the ability to. But what do I have? What can I do? I could be a silent partner. I mean, look, who couldn't be a silent partner? I mean, being a silent partner is pretty easy, folks. Figure out what you can do. You get out there, you do it. And when God gives you opportunities, when God gives you talents, abilities, He puts you in situations, He gives you a chance to teach in a Sunday school class or preach in a nursing home or preach at a church service or to go on a missions trip or to go soul winning or just whatever, He gives you the opportunity. You jump on that opportunity and you show God, God, watch what I do with, I'm going to do something for you with this because I want to do this again. That's what I'm thinking about that Guyana trip. You know what I was thinking? Man, I want to do a good job on this. I want to give it everything I've got because I want to do this again. I want to do this again a hundred times. God can provide. God can provide the materials. Because here's the thing, you give away free stuff, you preach in the school. Pay to play down there. Cool. You know, because we want to give away this stuff anyway. But the point is that we got to be good stewards of what God gives us. We got to use the opportunities we have. We got to step up to the plate. And listen, we got to get busy for the Lord. And if we get busy, God will direct our paths. You know, you get busy out soul winning, God will lead you to some people that will bring tears to your eyes. You know, I can't even count how many times I've shown up at the door and given the gospel to somebody and they said, wow, it's so weird that you came today because I was just literally praying to God and asking Him to show me how to be saved. I was praying to Him about, you know, scared that I was going to go to hell and wanting to make sure I go to heaven, etc. And other times that I've shown up and I've won somebody the Lord and they said, boy, my in-laws are going to be so happy because they're Baptist and they've been trying to get me saved for years and they're going to be so happy when I tell them that I got saved. And I'm thinking like, wow, God led me to answer these people's prayer. I mean, those people are praying and I was able to step in and fulfill that role. If you are wasting what God gives you, you're wasting your time, you're wasting your life, you're wasting your money, you're wasting your talent. You know, God's not going to invest in these junk bonds. Don't be a junk bond, Christian. Don't be a subprime lending. I don't really know much about finance. It sounds like I do right now. No, some subprime mortgage bubble junk. I mean, look, mortgage bubble Baptist Church, subprime Baptist Church, and they're like, I don't know why we can't raise any money. I don't know why we're in debt. Because you're a bad investment. Because you're a scam. You're a joke. You know, we need to be blue chip Baptist where God wants to look down and just, man, how much money can I throw at this thing? God is unlimited. God is an investor. Listen, God's not stupid. A lot of people are stupid. They're so stupid they say, God called me to preach in a country even though I don't know the language. Why would God call you to a country of a language you don't even speak? How are you going to preach there? Well, you can take your tulip garden over there, you lying, lazy jerk. You know, God's not dumb. God is smart. And we need to be smart and we need to use some common sense, folks. If you want to go on a mission trip, go somewhere where you speak the language. Or at least you could get an interpreter and do something. And you know, God's not dumb. God's not just wants to just waste, waste opportunities, waste money. He's looking for a good investment. You know, you ought to decide right now, you know, I'm going to be somebody where God can count on me. God can rely. Man, if he sends somebody by my way, I'm going to give him the gospel. He gives me an opportunity to preach in a Sunday school, in a church service, in a nursing home. I'm going to preach and I'm going to do my best and I'm going to be filled with the Spirit and I'm going to get something done for the Lord. And you know what's going to happen? Another opportunity to preach. But I can't even tell you how many times. And look, who here, you young guys that want to pass some day, who here thinks it'd be pretty cool to preach behind the pulpit at Faith Ward Baptist Church sometime in Phoenix, Arizona? Who'd like to do that sometime? That'd be cool, right? Okay, I can't even tell you how many times I've called upon different guys in our church and said, hey, listen, I need somebody to fill in. I want you to preach. And they said, I'm not prepared. And I had to go to the next person on the list and that person's kicking them. So I'm like, oh my God, why, you know? Because they missed an opportunity because they weren't ready. And do you think I'm going to call that person again? No, because I'm thinking, well, he's not going to be ready. Call the next guy. You know, God's the same way. He's looking for people that are ready, that are faithful, that are busy, that are working. Whatever little you have, just use it. Just do something and God's going to do more with you. And you know what? He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. And you know, my mind is just blown from the last four days. We won about 40 people to the Lord that we dealt with one-on-one. And when I preached to the 600 students, you know, the only way I knew to do it was just to lead them in like a mass prayer, you know, to pray and receive Christ. I had them raise their hand, pray to receive Christ. More than half of them raised their hand. A little more than half of them to receive Christ and pray. Now, we'll have to get to heaven to know how many. We don't count those toward our salvation because we didn't deal with them one-on-one. But hopefully, hopefully, hundreds of them got saved. You know, we'll find out what gets to heaven. We don't know. But look, I know a lot of them got saved. I just don't know how many. Who cares? What an opportunity. What a blessing. My mind is blown, man. I'm going back to Phoenix. I'm encouraged. I'm fired up. I just can't wait to see what God does next. What God does next. And listen, I'm nothing special. People who know me well, they know that I'm not some super spiritual giant or you know, sometimes people put me on a pedestal but actually people who know me well, they don't. You know what I mean? Because they realize I'm just an ordinary guy, okay? I'm just like you. You know, and all I've been doing is just for the last, for the last, you know, 20 years of my life, I've just been yielding myself to the Lord and just trying to be used by God and just trying not to be selfish. Just trying to give everything away for free. Just trying to think about other people's salvation. Just trying to do whatever I could, you know? And just preach whatever I could. And I'm not a great preacher. I don't have any talent or ability. It's just that, you know, I'm doing something. I'm just doing something. It's like, let's buy a plane ticket. Let's go to Guyana and do something. I don't know what we're gonna do but we're gonna do something. And then it's just, God does everything. It's amazing. Get involved. Be a part of it. You can do great things for God. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much for the chance to meet here, Lord, with your people. And Lord, I appreciate all the people who drove a long way to be here. And it's very humbling to me. It makes me feel very honored to be here, Lord, even though I'm just on a layover, even though I'm just gonna hop on a plane and be out of here. I just really appreciate the group that you've assembled here today, Lord. And I just pray that someone here today, that their life would be changed through this message and that someone would be inspired to take some steps toward becoming a good investment for you to invest in their lives, Lord. And I just pray that I could be a blessing to anyone who's here. And I just pray that you would continue the great work that you're doing across this country, Lord. This is, it's amazing what you're doing, that there's this many people who just drop everything on a Saturday and would come to just a last minute meeting like this at a hotel. It just shows, Lord, that people are hungry for righteousness, Lord, and they're hungry for the Word of God. And I just thank you for what you're doing, Lord. I just pray that this fire would continue to blaze, not only in America, not only in the Caribbean, also in Africa, Lord, the Philippines, all the places where you're doing great works and where people are on fire for you, Lord. I just pray that that work would continue, Lord, and that you would, Lord, give us what we need to go full speed ahead all the time for you, Lord. People who need rides to Soul City or rides to church, Lord, provide everything they need so that they can get out there and do the work. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.