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

Now, the part of the chapter that I would like to focus on is at the very end of the chapter, starting in verse 19, where the Bible reads, What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Now, what I want to preach about this morning is what does God require of us as Christians? What does He demand of us? What does He expect of us as believers, as people here today who are saved? And before I get into that, let me just make it clear. There's only one requirement for being saved. Go to Acts chapter 16, if you would. We'll get right back to 1 Corinthians 6, but go back a few chapters to Acts chapter 16. Because before I talk about what God demands of us as Christians, what God demands of us as believers, let me just start out by saying this. There's only one demand when it comes to salvation. There's only one requirement for being saved. This is clear throughout the Bible. Even the most famous verse in the Bible, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But look at Acts chapter 16. I like the way it's phrased here in verse 30. It says, And brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. There's only one requirement for being saved, and it's just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all. It is what Paul said in Romans 1, 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. It's all about whether or not you believe on Jesus Christ. John 6, 47, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. John 11, 25, and 26, Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. There's only one requirement to being saved, and that is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But just because there's only one thing that we must do to be saved, there are many things that we should do. And in fact, there are many things that God demands us to do and commands us to do after we're saved. You say, wait a minute, I don't understand. Let me give you an illustration. My son, for example, let's pick Solomon. My son, Solomon, is my son. Did he have to earn the right to be my son? Does he have to earn the right to stay my son? No matter what he does, will he still be my son? And that's the same thing with salvation. The Bible says as many as received him, to then gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. But, do I let my son do whatever he wants? But whatever he does, he's still my son. Do I have certain requirements on my son? Do I have certain obedience that I demand of my son? So, being saved, being a Christian, being a child of God, is not something you have to earn or try to keep. Once you're saved, you're saved forever. Once you're saved, you're saved eternally. Once you believe on Christ, you have, not will get or had, but you have present tense, everlasting life. But, now that you're in the family, now that you're born again, now that you're a child of God, you are under God's authority in your life, and God has certain requirements of his children. Now, if we fail to meet those requirements, of course we will still be his children. Of course we'll still be saved. But just as my son will remain my son, he will still be disciplined if he does wrong, and God will discipline us if we do wrong. And God will bless us if we do right. So, just because salvation is free, which it is, doesn't mean that God doesn't require anything of us after we're saved. So, now that we're saved, now that we've believed on Christ and know for sure we're going to heaven, hey, God demands our obedience. God demands us to obey. And many people today are teaching something else. They're teaching, oh, we're free in Christ, anything goes, no rules, God's laws don't apply anymore, we're under grace, so we can live however we want. Yeah, you're right, we can live however we want, we'll still go to heaven, but it will not please God, and it will incur God's chastisement and judgment upon you in this life. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man showeth, that shall he also reap. But in 1 Corinthians 6, we just saw it. In verse 19, it says what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God? And look at that last phrase, and ye are not your own. He's saying, you're not, well I'm my own man, I'm going to do what I want, no, you're not your own. He said in verse 20, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God. It is our duty, go to Romans 12, you're in 1 Corinthians 6, one book back through the beginning, go to Romans 12, you see that God demands of us obedience. He demands us to use our body and our spirit to serve him. You see, God created this whole world for himself, not for us, for himself. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 4, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty. He said, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. The reason that I was created, the reason you were created, the reason this whole world was created, is for God's pleasure, it's for God's glory. And we belong to him, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the sea and them which dwell therein. It is our duty to serve God with our lives and to obey God. Look if you would at verse 1 of Romans chapter 12. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. So are we talking to people that are saved or not saved? Saved. Saved because he's talking to the brethren. He said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body. So this isn't something that God is forcing you to do, but it is something that he's demanding and expecting you to do of your own will, to present your body a living sacrifice unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So the Bible says that it's our reasonable service. It's what God expects, that we would present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God and that we would be holy, that our lives would be acceptable unto him and that we would do God's will with our lives, not our own will. Look at Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17. Because this morning what I want to preach to you are just some basic, minimal requirements that God requires of Christians, that God requires of believers. Again, this has nothing to do with salvation, nothing to do with going to heaven. If you're a believer, you're going to heaven. But I don't want to just go to heaven. That's not my only goal. I want to be a good Christian. I want to be an obedient Christian. And I want to give God what he deserves, which is my respect and love and obedience and service. That is my reasonable service. I want to present that to God. Now I hope you're here in church this morning because you want to serve God with your life, because you want to obey God, because you want to do what's right. You say, well, no, I'm just glad I'm sick. Then why didn't you come to church? Go eat, drink, and be married. Go live the foolish life of this world. But I want to do something with my life that has eternal value. I want God to be pleased with me. I want God to be happy with me as his child. And so I want to do my reasonable service and serve God. But when I preach to you this morning, I'm going to preach to you some basic requirements where God says this is what I require, just some basic things. He says in Luke chapter 17, because you see, these are just the basic requirements. He said in Luke 17, verse 7, But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by when he has come from the field, Go and sit down to meet, and will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may self, and gird thyself and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. You see, sometimes we get it backwards, don't we? We think that God is there to serve us. Everything is about what God can do for us, and I want to come to church to see what I can get out of it, and see how this can help my life, and see how church can bless me, and how serving God can make my life. No, you've got it backwards there. God is the boss. God is the Lord. God is the master. We are here on this earth to serve him, to do his will, to bring glory in. He's not there to serve us. We're there to serve him. But keep reading. He says in verse number 9, Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trod up. He said, I think not. Now, he's using an illustration here of a man who has a servant. He sends the servant out of the field, and the servant does all the work that he's commanded to do, because he's the employee. This man is the owner of the company. He's the boss. He says, when that guy comes in the field, that guy's going to serve the boss, not vice versa. And he says, is he going to thank him? I mean, look, you go to work every day, right? Or five days a week, six days a week. Does your boss every day say, thank you so much for doing your job today? Thank you so much for coming to work. Who has a boss that thanks you every day? Thank you so much for being here. Why? Because it's just what's expected of you. It's just the minimum. Now, he might thank you if you go above and beyond, right? If you do something really special, hey, thanks for working a double shift or staying overtime or doing an extra good job. But he doesn't just thank you for doing the minimum, does he? Why, thank you so much for actually showing up today. Wow. But we as Christians think that God is just going to jump for joy and be so excited, because we showed up to church. You know, oh, wow. Thank you so much for coming. After Jesus died on the cross for you, he lived a perfect life, bled and died, went to hell for three days and three nights, risen again after he created you, gave you everything you have in life, and then you show up to church. You're expecting God to just fall on his face. Oh, thank you. You came to church once. You see, we don't understand that God has a higher expectation than we think. He says, look, if you just do the minimum, he says, you're not going to be thanked for that. Look at verse 10. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, Jesus said, this is what you should say after you've done everything you've been commanded. We are unprofitable servants, for we've done that which was our duty to do. So look, these things that are our duty, it's not that if you do these things, you are just so wonderful and you are the greatest Christian in the world if you do these things. No, he said, you know, if you do these things, okay, you're doing the minimum. You know, now do something big for God. You know what I mean? And so that's what he's explaining here. You say, well, that's depressing. You know what? It's not depressing. It's not depressing at all because you know what? We ought to always be pushing to do more for God. It's depressing if you just don't want to do anything, if you want to be lazy or just do the minimum or scrape by it. And that was always the mentality of the Pharisees. But you know, God wants us to be the best that we can be and to excel and to go beyond the mediocre, to go beyond what's expected, to go beyond the minimum and to do something great with our lives for God. He doesn't want us to just try to scrape by. You see, you say, I just want to do the minimum to get into heaven. Well, you don't have to do anything. Just believe on Christ. That's all. Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But I want to do maximum. And so I want to start out by doing the basic requirements and then take it even further from there. Let's talk about some of the basic things that God requires of us as Christians. What does God expect? Well, let's start out in Micah, just to show you there are some requirements. This is toward the end of the Old Testament. Look at Micah chapter 6. This is a very basic passage. It's a pretty common, famous verse, I guess you could say. Toward the end of the Old Testament, the book of Micah, it's one of the minor prophets, those 12 small books at the end of the Old Testament. It says in Micah 6-8, He hath showed thee, O man, Micah 6-8, what is good and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. So what I want to show you from this verse here is that God's requirements are not a secret. God spells out to us in the Bible here what He requires of us, what He wants us to do, what He demands of us in our lives. He tells us what we should do. Now go to Matthew chapter 5, first book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 5. God tells us what He requires. God tells us what He demands of us. Matthew chapter 5. He demands our obedience to His commandments, first of all. Jesus said this in John 14-14, If you love me, keep my commandments. He didn't say, If you love me, keep my suggestions. He didn't say, If you love me, keep these guidelines. No, He said, If you love me, keep my commandments. God has commandments for us today in 2010. And commandments are not optional. These are things that He demands of us and requires of us as His children. Look up Matthew chapter 5 says, in verse number 17. This is Jesus Christ speaking, Matthew 5-17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So first of all, God expects us to keep His commandments. To keep His commandments. Now look at Romans chapter 3. People will often say, Well no, that was the Old Testament, that God had all those commandments. But in the New Testament, we're just under grace, we're free in Christ, anything goes. That is so not true. That is such a false doctrine. You see, the grace of Christ is what brings salvation to all men. But it does not make void the law of God. Faith in Christ does not nullify God's laws as being something He demands of us after we're saved. Let me prove it to you in Romans 3. Romans 3 is a great chapter on salvation by faith. It goes on and on about it. Like for example, in verse 28 when it says, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. It says no works, just faith. But look at the last verse in the chapter, verse 31. He says, Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. He says we don't make void the law through faith. Now He said if salvation come by the law, go down to chapter 4. Chapter 4, verse number, let me find my place here. Verse 14, Romans 4, 14 says this, For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. He says look, if salvation is by works, if salvation is by keeping the law, then faith is made void. But He said if salvation is by faith, that does not make the law void. He said do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. Jesus Christ did not come to destroy the law or the prophets. He said you need to teach people to keep these commandments. And the Bible is filled with hundreds and hundreds of commandments and God expects you today as His child to keep His commandments. He said if you love me, keep my commandments. Keep the commandments. You say well, I just believe if we love, that's it. This is what He said. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. 2 John says this, and this is love that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. Our love for God is measured by how much we walk in His commandments, by how much we keep His commandments. There's a lot of false teaching out there that wants to throw out the whole Old Testament. Now look, parts of the Old Testament have been changed. Those parts are clearly spelled out in the book of Hebrews. He says that we're not under the Levitical priesthood. Anything involving the priesthood. He said all the carnal or physical ordinances, the meats, the drinks, the things that had to do with food, the things that had to do with washings. Read the book of Hebrews and he spells out a lot of things that have been changed from the Old Testament to the New. But does that mean that we just throw out 80% of the Bible and say oh, that's the Old Testament? No. When God said in Deuteronomy 22, 5, A woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are an abomination of the Lord thy God. That hasn't changed. If God commanded the Old Testament that man should not wear women's clothing and that women should not wear men's clothing, oh, that's Old Testament. Yeah, and it's God's law and God is against our wicked cross-dressing transgender society. I'm sick of it. And don't try to make void God's laws or you'll be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. We need to establish God's laws. There is a right and wrong that has existed all the way from Adam and Eve until now. It's always been wrong to steal. It's always been wrong to lie. It's always been wrong to be cross-dressed. It's always been wrong to fornicate. It's always been wrong to commit adultery. It's always been wrong to murder. It's always been wrong. It's always been wrong to covet, to steal, to lie, to cheat, to do all these things because God has eternal, unchanging laws of right and wrong and they've always been so and we ought to live by those laws. It's commanded of us. He expects us. He requires us to keep His commandments. Now, how are you going to know God's commandments if you don't read the Bible? You know, and this is where you have to read the whole Bible cover to cover to get all the commandments. He said, He showed the old man what is good and what does the Lord require of thee. It's all there in the Bible but you have to read it. You have to find it in order to find what's there in the Bible. God's requirements. God's commandments. But here's another commandment. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. So we're just going through the basic commandments. What does God require of us as believers? Well, number one, He requires us to keep His commandments. And in order to keep those commandments, we've got to know what they are so we've got to read the Bible. But look at Hebrews chapter 10. Let's get another commandment here of God, something else that He requires of us and demands of us as believers. He says in Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 24, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, verse 25, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. He says here that we should not forsake the assembly of ourselves together. That's talking about church. That's talking about assembling together. The word church is not referring to a building ever in the Bible, ever. The word church is used hundreds of times, and the word church very simply means congregation because there are three places in the Old Testament that use the word congregation that are quoted in the New Testament, but God replaces the word congregation with church. The New Testament word church corresponds to the Old Testament word congregation. For example, in Psalm 22, 22, it says in the midst of the congregation I will sing praise unto Thee. In Hebrews 2, 14, it says in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee, quoting the book of Psalms. And so a church is a congregation. It's the people. It's an assembly. It's a group here. God says that in these last days and in these last days especially, we ought not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We ought not forsake church. We ought to assemble and join with God's people here in a church. Now, many people today will forsake church. That's why he said as the manner of some is. Do you see that in the verse there? Keep your sense of the way about it. As the manner of some is. There are people who basically forsake church, you know, and they can justify it, but the Bible says here that we cannot forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. You say, well, this is where in the last days it's getting so wicked it's like you can't find a good church to go to. But he said no. So much the more as we see the day approaching, the later we are, the closer we are to the second coming of Jesus Christ, the more important it is for us to be assembled together, the more wicked this world becomes, the more we need the oasis of coming to a place where we can be with God's people, where we can sing the praises of God, where we can hear God's word preached, it's more important in 2010 than it was in 2009 to be in church. And we need more church, not less church. We don't need less next year, we need more next year, not less. And so you say, well, I used to go to church three times a week when I was growing up, or I used to go every single week, you know, but now I just kind of go hit and miss. No, you need it more. More and more and more we need church. We ought not forsake. And God expects you to be in church. It's not optional. Now, as far as I'm concerned, it's optional. I'm not going to make you come to church. And if you come here every six months, I'll just be glad to see you when you come. Some people will show up in our church every few months and I thought they left the church, but it's like they just come every couple months. And I'm glad to see them every couple months when they show up. I think it's great. But the bottom line is, it's not me that you're responsible to at all. It's not my job to monitor me. But let me tell you something. God expects us to be in church. Hey, he said that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. That's what he said in 1 Timothy 3, verse 50. He said it's the pillar and ground of the truth. The church is mentioned hundreds of times. It's God's institution. It's God's tool for reaching the world with the gospel of Christ, the local church. And so let's not forsake that assembly. Be in church. Assemble together. Get in church. You say, well, I don't think it's that important. Well, why don't we assemble together? Because I grew up always hearing Hebrews 10, 25 preached. It's a pretty common verse to hear preached. Who's ever heard a sermon preached where the pastor mentioned Hebrews 10, 25? You know. Okay. It's pretty common. But a lot of times they don't keep reading how serious this command is because he says in Hebrews 10, 25 not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. But then he tells us why in verse 26. Okay. Because for, the word for means like because. Okay. It's a conjunction. After that we have received the knowledge of the truth. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified. Stop for a second. Are we talking about people who are saved or unsaved? He says the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified. So he's talking about people who are saved. He says, an unholy thing and it's done despite under the spirit of grace. Now do you want that to be the category that you're in? Somebody who just doesn't care, just doesn't care what God wants, just trample underfoot the Son of God, just who cares, doesn't matter, I'm going to do what I want to do. Hey, God has some demands and requirements of us as believers. And by the way, these aren't Pastor Anderson's demands. I'm not enforcing this. I'm not demanding this. Your problem is not with me. I mean, you need to deal with God on this. God commands these things and demands and requires these things of you. Now are you going to lose your salvation? Of course not. But God will chastise and chasten and discipline his children as a Father, the Son, in whom he delighted. The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chastens it and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. The Bible says, Spareth his rod, hateth his son. You've heard the term, spare the rod, spoil the child. No, the Bible says, if you spare the rod, you hate your child. That's what the Bible actually says. People have toned that down over the years. Well, that sounds a little bit, you know, I want to say, spare the rod, spoil the child. No, spare the rod and you hate your child. People say this, well, if you don't spank your kids, you don't love them. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, if you don't spank your kids, if you don't beat them with the rod, talking about spanking, because people say, oh, the rod isn't really talking about spanking. It's the loving rod of the shepherd just guiding them along. No, actually, actually, you say, thou shalt beat him with the rod. So, that's in the book of Proverbs. So, if you picture that rod with a hook on the end, that's fine. Just as long as you picture the shepherd taking that rod and you take the spank because the Bible says, and by the way, isn't that thou shalt, isn't that kind of like a commandment, thou shalt beat him with the rod, it shall deliver his soul from hell, the Bible says. Because if you raise a child that is never spanked, and you say, oh, I don't know if you should talk about this. Well, I don't know if you should be in this church if you think I care because I believe the Bible and I'm going to preach it tonight or this morning or whatever time it is or any day of the week or any month of the year because it's God's word. I believe it. I'm going to obey it and I'm going to spank my children and if more preachers would get up and preach like this, we wouldn't be in the position we're in where people are trying to make it illegal to obey God and raise your children the way you want to raise them. And so the Bible teaches us to spank our children. I'm not talking about abuse or hurting them. I'm not talking about punching them or something. I'm talking about taking the rod of correction and applying it to the seed of learning. I'm talking about the padded area that God created just for that intent of receiving punishment. I'm talking about spanking your children lovingly. But hey, I'm talking about spanking your children because he says, thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. Because let me tell you something, the child who grows up without being spanked, you know what he thinks? That there's no punishment. That there's no consequence for his actions. And guess what? He doesn't believe in a God that would create a place called hell. It's true. He doesn't believe in hell because he thinks he can live life and fornicate and steal and lie and cheat and be wicked and that there will be no consequence because all the time he grew up there was never a consequence for any of his actions. And he thinks that God is the same way. Well, sorry. He's going to face a God that does have consequences and it's called the lake of fire. It's called hell. But thank God, because he loves us, he provided Jesus Christ as our substitute. But you see, the person who's never been spanked in many cases, they probably won't even see a need to believe on Christ because they don't even think hell exists. And today, most people in America do not believe in hell. And yet the Bible talks about hell hundreds of times. But people today don't believe in it because they've been mixed up on this. But I'm getting a little bit off course on a rabbit trail here. The bottom line is God expects us to follow his commandments. Now look, who's a parent in here? Who has children? Put up your hand if you have one or more children. Now look, when your children were in your house did you expect those children to obey you? Did you demand that they obey you or was it optional? Obey me if you want. You know, just, I'd rather, I'd rather that you brush your teeth. You know, I would prefer it if you would go to bed before 11 o'clock. I mean, no, you had some demands, didn't you? And it was your way or the highway. And it was because I said so. You know, but then we look at God and it's different. But God is the heavenly father and it's because he said so. It's his way or the highway. It's his dad. He's the boss. He's the father. He makes the rules and we are to follow his rules. And God demands it. He commands it. He requires it. That's the first thing. But number two, one of the things he requires is for us to be in church. He says, don't forsake that assembly that I died for. Don't forsake that assembly that's the pillar and ground of the truth. You need to be there. What else does God demand or require of us? Look at 1 Corinthians 4. 1 Corinthians 4. This is halfway through the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 4. The Bible tells us in verse number one. It says this, Let a man sow account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the stewards of the mysteries of God. Verse number two. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Now, what does it mean to be faithful? Well, there are two meanings of faithful in the Bible. The Bible uses the word for two meanings and really in English today we use both meanings. One of the meanings of faithful is basically someone who has faith. Someone who's faithful is someone who's full of faith. That's not what's being referred to here. The other meaning of faithful is someone in whom we place our faith. So for example, if I say, Hey, they are the faithful few. Or he is a faithful man as in he believes on Jesus Christ. The Bible says of Abraham that those that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham because Abraham was a man who was full of faith. But the word faithful can also mean, Hey, if I have a faithful messenger, it means I trust him. I put my faith in him because he is faith worthy. That's what faithful means. So a faithful follower, or how about this? Have you ever heard of this? You know, being faithful to your husband or faithful to your wife. And then the opposite of that would be what? Unfaithfulness or infidelity. That would be adultery. That would mean that you've broken the trust there, right? So does everybody understand what the word faithful means? So faithful is where somebody can trust you. And God has entrusted us with the ministry of the Gospel, the Bible says. God has entrusted us with the job of getting people saved. Are you in 1 Corinthians 4? Go to 2 Corinthians 5. Look at 2 Corinthians 5. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18, it says, And all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, for he hath made him to be sin, talking about Jesus, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So one of the things that God expects and demands of us is faithfulness. Being a faithful steward of what he has committed unto us. One of the things that he has committed unto us is the ministry of reconciliation. You see, Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of the whole world. Now, Jesus Christ does not go door to door, or house to house, or person to person, telling people how to be saved, does he? Does he go door to door in Phoenix, and go around and tell everybody how to be saved? No. He has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, and he says that we are his ambassadors, okay? It would be like, for example, the United States wanted to have some kind of a peaceful talk with some distant foreign country. We would send our ambassadors into that country, right? And those people would represent us, and they would go there, and talk to that country, and try to explain to them what we want, and what's going on. What kind of a treaty we want, what kind of covenant we want. So, if we sent ambassadors, let's say we're the United States of America, and we send our ambassadors to, you know, Iran or something, you know, because they're having some kind of a talk with Iran, and we send our ambassadors onto Iran, and our ambassadors go there, and what if they were just dressed just like the total, like, gang banger that you picture? Can you imagine, like, you know, president of Iran, you know, these ambassadors are here to see you from the United States, and, you know, these guys walk in, their pants are falling down, their boxers are showing, you know, they're sagging, they're all worldly, and they're all ghettoed out, and whatever, you know, and they show up, and they're using a lot of slang and stuff, and what's up, you know. Are they really being a good ambassador of what the United States wants, Iran, or whoever to think of us? No. So, we ought to think the same way. The Bible says we're ambassadors of Christ, and he expects us to be a faithful ambassador. I mean, to be somebody where he can trust us to represent him well, where he can trust us, first of all, to be an ambassador, to give the message, to preach the gospel to every creature. He's not going out and preaching it. He said, as the Father sent me, so send I you. He said, go ye therefore into all of the world and preach the gospel, if you feel like it, if you feel that's your gift. No. He said, go and preach the gospel to every creature. He said, you're my ambassador. I'm sending you to represent me to besiege people in Christ's stead. Instead of Jesus Christ coming to them, you're going to come to them in the place of Christ and say, be ye reconciled to God. Believe on Christ. Be saved. That's our message. We're ambassadors. So, what kind of an ambassador do you think we should be? Let me ask you this. If you got a job tomorrow, and you were given a job to be an ambassador for the United States, and they said, we've chosen you, you're going to be the ambassador, and we're sending you to this distant country, we're sending you to Asia, we're sending you to the Middle East, you're going to represent the United States. Now, would you say that's a pretty important job? Is that probably more important than your current job? You'd probably think, oh yeah, that's a really important job. So, would you take it, would you, okay, and they said, be there at a certain time. Would you be late? No, you'd be on time. I mean, this is a big deal. They'd say, you know, you got your plane ticket, be at the airport at this time, you know, we're going to pay you $110,000 a year, and you know, be there at a certain time, you know, dress nice. You'd be dressed nice. You'd look like you'd just been peeled out of an egg or something. I mean, you'd look perfect. You'd show up. You'd be polite. You'd shake hands. You'd look them in the eye. You know, you would try hard because you'd say, Well, let me tell you something. Being an ambassador of Jesus Christ is way more important than any position in the United States government, and you are representing a much more powerful man than, say, the President of the United States or someone else in our government. No, you're representing the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He expects you to be a good representation of that, and you laugh at me when I talk about people being dressed really slovenly representing, you know, the government, but it's like, if you're going to represent Jesus Christ, shouldn't you dress up and at least, I mean, I'm not saying to wear fancy clothes or something. I'm not up here wearing fancy clothes or a gold ring or, you know, some kind of an Italian suit or something, you know. This suit's from the thrift store. It costs $10. Seriously. I'm not talking about being rich and fancy and so forth, but I'm talking about, hey, just trying to put forth the image of what you think that God wants you to put forth and be who God is and take things seriously about Christianity. Take your job as ambassador of Christ seriously. More seriously than you take your job that you work at because you just said being an ambassador for the United States would be more important than your current job. Well, this is more important than your job, you know, and your job's important. I'm not downplaying your job, especially in today's economy, you know, you need to work hard at that job. You need to do your best and make many and make ends meet, but let me tell you something. God's work is even more important. It supersedes your job. It supersedes this world. It's eternal. It's bigger than all of our lives put together. It's the kingdom of God and so God expects us and demands us to be his ambassador and to take that seriously and to preach the gospel to every creature, to bring the gospel to the lost. He requires it of us. He expects it of us. Look at Ezekiel chapter 3. Ezekiel chapter 3. So we saw first of all that God demands and expects us to keep his commandments, doesn't he? He also expects us to be a good ambassador of Christ, to be a good representation of him. He also expects us to assemble together with God's people and to come to church, but let's see a little more on that. Look at Ezekiel chapter 3, verse 17. In Ezekiel chapter 3, verse 17, it says, son of man. Now, you probably fall into that category, right? Son of man, you know? Now you say, well, I'm a woman, so this doesn't apply to me. You know, it actually does because even God expects women to be ambassadors for Christ. Did you know that? Because it says in Acts chapter 2, you remember the story in Acts chapter 2 about the day of Pentecost? And at the day of Pentecost was right after Acts chapter 1 where Jesus had said, Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and that's the uttermost part of the earth. So he said, look, the Spirit of the Lord is going to come upon you and you are going to be witnesses unto me. You will preach the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and that's the uttermost part of the earth. Well, in chapter 2, the 120 disciples there of the early church, there were about 120 people gathered together. It makes it clear there was men and women that were gathered together. Mary the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus' brethren were there. Other women were there. It was a male and female assembly. It was a local church. Just like today, we have a mixture of men and women in the auditorium today. And it says in Acts chapter 2 that they were all in one accord, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they were all preaching the gospel to these people in all these various languages of these people from different countries. And Peter got up in the midst of them and said, this is that which was prophesied in the book of Joel. He said, today you are seeing the fulfillment of the book of Joel where Joel said, it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. He said, your young men shall dream dreams, your old men shall see visions. And he said, upon the servants and upon the handmaidens, is that male or female? Handmaidens. I will pour out of my spirit and they shall prophesy. So he said, both the men and the women, he'll fill them with his spirit and they will preach God's word. We're not talking about preaching behind the pulpit because the Bible says that women should keep silence in the church. 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Timothy 2, that was the sermon I preached last week or the week before. I talked about that. But when it comes to preaching the Gospel, when it comes to giving the Gospel, that's not just the job of the men. That's the job of the men and the women. That's not just the job of the young, it's the job of the young and the old. Read Acts chapter 2. He said in Philippians chapter 4, I beseech you, those are women's names. He said, that they be of the same mind in the Lord and I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the Gospel. With Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the Book of Life. He said, there were women that had labored with him in the Gospel. Women who were out giving the Gospel. I thank God the faithful word of Baptist Church has always been a church where the ladies also win souls. It's true. I mean, we have ladies going out knocking doors, preaching to God. We have ladies that will win their co-workers and friends and loved ones and family and the Lord. That's the way our church has been since day one. The first year our church existed, the ladies, my wife, won souls to Christ and every year since my wife, Amanda, other lady, have won souls in this church because this is a church where the men and the women ought to be filled with the Spirit and be a witness of Jesus Christ both here and abroad. Verse 17, Son of Man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me. He says, Look, it's your job to warn man. He says in verse 18, When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die and thou givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. He says, Look, if I warn the wicked and say, Hey, he's going to die. He's going to go to hell. And he says, If you don't give that warning, you don't pass on that warning when that's your job, when you are the ambassador of Christ, when that is your ministry to preach the gospel to every creature. He said, If you don't warn him, he's going to die, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Basically, what he's saying, it'll be your fault. That's basically what he's saying. If Phoenix, Arizona goes to hell without hearing the gospel, it's our fault. And not just us, but all Christians in Phoenix are responsible. I mean, how many people do you think are in Phoenix, Arizona that are saved? Probably a lot, right? I mean, thousands and thousands and thousands of people. We don't know the number, do we? Only God knows who is saved and who is not. But I mean, there are tons of Baptist churches in Phoenix, right? And then there are tons of other churches that are not Baptist, but we'll run into people out soul-winding that just go to like so-and-so Bible church or so-and-so. You know, and we'll run into them and they're saved in other churches. So I mean, we run into a ton of people out soul-winding that are saved, don't we? If we go out and knock doors. We don't know the exact number, but we know that it's the minority. We know that most people are not saved, of course, the Bible tells us. But we know that there are tons of people, what Trent and I, we ran into people out of churches. You know, the bottom line is there are a lot of people out there that are saved, right? But now ask yourself this question, how many people in this city are aggressively going out and getting other people saved? How many of those Baptist churches, those hundreds of Baptist churches in Phoenix, are out knocking doors and even trying to get people saved, even trying to preach the gospel to them? It's a pretty small number. It's a pretty small minority. And even of those churches that do have soul-winding, maybe just a really small part of the congregation goes out. Now, thank God in our church, literally more than half the church goes out and knocks doors on a weekly basis. It's true. It's a fact. Because our church is a soul-winding church. Because we take this seriously. We take it seriously that there's a heaven and hell. We take it seriously that God requires us and expects us to be His ambassadors to bring the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. I don't look at it as it's optional. I might do it if I feel like it. He said, Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. I need to preach the gospel to every creature. God commands me to do it. And if I don't do it, and if we don't do it, then it's our fault. But He said in verse number 19, Yet if thou warn the wicked, so if we go out and give somebody the gospel, we warn them, we show them the Bible that hell is real. And we show them how to be saved from hell by placing their faith in Jesus Christ It says, And he turned not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way. He shall die in his iniquity, but thou has delivered thy soul. So he says, Look, if you warn him, and he does not heed the warning, he's basically saying, You know what? It's not your fault. You warned him. What else can you do? And they keep reading. It says again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die, because thou hast not given him warning. He shall die in his sin, and his righteousness, which he hath done, shall not be remembered. But his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the righteous man that the righteous sin not, and even not sin, he shall surely live, because he's warned. Also, thou hast delivered thy soul. So basically, God's explaining here that when you warn people, he's saying their blood is not on your hands. I love what Paul said in Acts chapter 20. He said, I'm free from the blood of all men. He'd been in Ephesus preaching the gospel for years, and he said, Hey, at this point, I can stand up here and truly say, I am free from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. He said, I taught you publicly and from house to house. He said, I've preached the gospel to every creature. He said, There's nobody in this town that has not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ in the last few years that I've been here. He said, I'm free from the blood of all men. He said, It's not on my hands. And you know, that ought to be something that faithful word Baptist church one day can say and stand before God and say, You know what, God, we are free from the blood of all men in Phoenix. We're free from the blood of all men in Maricopa County or the city of Tempe. We are free because we gave the gospel. We knocked every door. Sure, some people did not heed the warning. They didn't like you or they didn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me tell you something, they all got the message. That's all we can do. We can't force anyone to be saved. We can't save anybody. All we can do is preach them the gospel and it's up to them. But if we don't warn them, how can they be saved? The Bible says, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? And that's what's wrong with churches that won't send people out preaching the gospel. How are they going to hear? How are they going to hear without a preacher? How are they going to preach except they be sent? And then the Bible tells us that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It's our job to bring the word of God to the lost. He demands it of us. He requires it of us. And if we don't do it, there's a consequence. Now, this is a symbolic meaning in Ezekiel 3. I was going to turn to Ezekiel 33. He preaches the same thing. But here he's talking about people committing physical crimes and getting physical death penalty if you read the whole context because he describes the fact that they're saying it's not fair and all this stuff. It's not part of their legal system. But the spiritual application applies here that, look, if we don't warn the unsaved, then it's our fault. You know? Because didn't somebody give you the gospel? Thank God. Thank God that somebody preached the gospel to you. Amen. But let's look at some of other God's requirements. We've got to hurry here. I'm running out of time. But look, if you would, at Deuteronomy chapter 23. Deuteronomy chapter 23. Deuteronomy chapter 23. Quick review. He requires us to keep His commandments. He requires us to be in church. He requires us to be an ambassador of Christ, to be a good ambassador, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice that's holy and acceptable unto God. And if our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us and we're not our own, we're bought with Christ and we're supposed to glorify God and our body and our spirit which are God's, should we abuse our body? Should we abuse the temple of God? Shall I then take the temple of Christ? He said, shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. He said, am I going to take God's temple and commit fornication? Am I going to take the temple of God, the body that God's given me, and abuse it? The Bible says, for example, thou shalt not print any marks upon thy body. He says that, thou shalt not print any marks upon thee. And yet people today will tattoo their bodies and say, well, I have tattoos. Look, hey, that's in the past, you know, the bad thing about tattoos is they don't come up, you know? And so I'm not condemning anybody who's already got tattoos but I'm saying to you, if you don't have tattoos, you know, that it's a commandment of God not to tattoo your body, you know? And if you already have tattoos, don't give more. Don't say, well, you know, I've already got some so let's just give more. The Bible says, thou shalt not print any marks upon thy body. And yet today people will print out their bodies and say, wait a minute, that body doesn't belong to you. People will put all kinds of poisons in their body like alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, that body doesn't belong to you. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. He said, you're not your own, you're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit with your God. He said, it's on the inside that counts. No, he said, in your body and in your spirit with your God. He said, cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter that the outside of them may be clean also. The outside does matter to God. The inside matters more, but the outside does matter. And so he says, present them both unto God, holy and acceptable. Do not abuse the temple of God. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 21. When thou shalt bow a-bow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it. For the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it would be sin in thee. So he says, if you bow a-bow, if you swear an oath, you must keep that vow. God requires you to keep any vow that you make, any promise that you make. He says in verse 22, but if thou shalt forbear to bow, it shall be no sin in thee. He said, look, if you don't want to make any vows or promises, he said, that's fine, but if you do, you better keep that vow. Read, that which is gone out of thy lips, thou shalt keep and perform even a free will offering, according as thou has vowed unto the Lord thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth. So basically, if I make an oath, if I make a vow, I need to keep what I've vowed. Here's the most common example of marriage. Isn't that a vow? When you vow and say, I, Stephen Anderson, take thee, Zuza, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sicknesses and health and poverty and wealth and forsaking all others, keep me only unto thee so long as we both shall live. Isn't that a vow that I made over ten years ago to my wife? I better pay that vow or God's gonna require it on my hide if I don't pay that vow because that is a promise, that is an oath that I swore in the presence of God and man, I've got to keep that vow. Say, well, but there's other extenuating circumstances. No. There are no extenuating circumstances that I will keep, hey, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, sickness as in health and poverty as in wealth. Hey, through thick and thin, I've sworn my life over to one person as long as we both shall live. Now, if one of us dies, then it's over. But as long as we are both alive, I am bound unto my wife by that oath. As long as she is breathing and I am breathing, we are both bound by that law according to the Bible. Keep that vow. But oftentimes, we make other vows in our life, other promises. God says, the thing that has gone out of thy lips, thou shalt surely perform. He said, let your yea be yea and your nay be nay. Do what you say you will do. If you say, I will do this, do it. The Bible says, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness to speaketh the truth in his heart. He that doeth not evil, he that needeth back by him not with his tongue, nor taking up a reproach against his neighbor, and whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth in the fear of the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. He that puteth not out his money to use dream, nor taketh a reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved. Psalm 15. He said, even if you swear to your own hurt, change not. Stay with it. Pay what you bow. Keep your oath that's gone out of your lips. If you make a vow. Now, some people make a vow to pay a certain offering. Now, we don't really, we don't do this in our church. You know, and I'm not saying that I'm against those who do it, okay? But the reason that it always bothered me, who's ever been to a church where they had like a faith promise, missions, where you like promise to pay a certain amount? It always bothered me. And it really bothered me a lot because this is what would happen. They would hand out cards and people would promise that they were going to give a certain offering throughout the course of the year. Like, I'm going to give, you know, 20 bucks a week to the missionaries. Or I'm going to give 40 bucks a week to missions. And they would fill out this promise card and put it in. And then throughout the year in the bulletin, there would be two numbers. The promise and what was actually coming in. Well, the promise was always bigger than what actually came in. And they would get up and say, wow, this is great. We had 75% of what was promised come in. And I like, I took it really seriously. This is me like as a teenager and I'm just like, these people have broken a vow to God, like God's wrath. And I was thinking of Ananias and Sapphira. Remember, Ananias and Sapphira promised that they were going to give a certain amount of money in Acts 5. They promised they were going to give this money and then they lied and said, oh yeah, we gave it all, but they only gave part of what they promised and they fell over dead. And I read that story and I was like, wow, you know, God. And it wasn't that, and he even told them. Peter even said to them, he said, look, you didn't even have to give any of it to God. He said, when you sold it, it was in your own power. The money belonged to you. You didn't have to give it to church. But why did you lie to God? And that's when they died. And I mean, they carried them out and they were dead and it was a big, you know, they were scared and everybody else in the church was scared. So I was scared. Even a couple thousand years later, you know, when people aren't paying what they vowed, they promised this. And it really, and I just thought to myself, you know what, I would rather just not even, if that's how people are going to be, I don't even want to get God's wrath upon the people in my church so I'm not even going to do the faith promise because I'm afraid people will promise and they won't pay it. And I don't want to bring God's wrath upon people. You know what I mean? I mean, it just made me nervous, the whole thing. I remember I went to a church and I had made my faith promise and I was poor whenever I first got married and even for many years after I got married, I started out really poor. I mean, we were really poor. We never went out to eat. I mean, my wife's grocery allowance was 40 bucks for years, 40 bucks a week, you know, to feed us and I mean, to feed the whole family, you know. And so it was tough, you know, to get by. We lived, I mean, when we had two kids, we were living in a one bedroom apartment. You know what I mean? We started out at the bottom and we scraped by. You know, we were happy and you know, we were happy with what God had given us but, you know, we were poor. And I remember, you know, I moved away. I moved across the country and I was living in Sacramento, California and when I moved away, you know, I had made the faith promise because, you know, everybody in the church made this promise, you know. And I took it real seriously, you know. Like even if I was sick, I like dragged myself out of bed and just like brought the money down and just like dropped it off and went home. Even if I was sick as a dog. But basically, when I moved out of Sacramento, I still owed like six months, you know, because I had made this faith promise like six months ago to give this much per week or whatever. And so it was like there's six months left on this thing and I'm moving out of Sacramento and so I just paid it off. I mean, I added up how many more weeks there were left and it was not easy. I had to sell a bunch of stuff to do it. So we had a big garage sale, sold stuff and I basically paid off that part that I still owed. Now I didn't have to make that promise, right? Did God force me to make that promise? No. But, and turn to Malachi chapter three if you would. God didn't force me to make that promise but you know what? Since I did make that promise, I wanted to make sure that I kept that promise and so I paid it off. I sold some stuff and I paid off. It was a big, it was a substantial amount of money. It hurt. But you know what? I paid it off because I was just afraid to even leave town because it was like, well, you know, you can mail it back or whatever. And I'm just like, I'm just going to pay it now and just be done with it. You know? Because I don't know what my job situation is going to be over there. So I mean, I just sold stuff and paid it off. Look, nobody's forcing you to make any vows. You know, but when you make a vow, take it seriously. Pay it off. Especially when it's a vowing to God. You know? You should keep your vows that you make unto other people too, by the way. You know, if you make promises to other people. But if you make a promise to God, but he says in Malachi chapter 3, verse number, let me find my place here. Verse number 8. Malachi 3.8, it says, Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye say, We rob thee in tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. See, God requires of us the tithes, you know, 10% of what we make. God requires us to give it unto the Lord. Bring it into his house. Bring it to God's house. And that's why we tithe to our local church. I've literally tithed since I was like four years old. Even before I was saved, I was tithing. You know? Because I was a little kid, and my mom used to give me 30 cents allowance. That was my first allowance. 30 cents. And I had to give three cents in the offering. And I did it religiously. And I remember I got up to 50 cents. My tithe became a nickel. I got up to a dollar. My tithe was 10 cents. And one day, I went to my mom, and I said, Mom, I said... Because I was a pretty smart little kid, you know? I came up to my mom, and I said, Mom, I said, I want a raise in my allowance. You know, you always ask for a raise when you're a kid. Like, how do you raise in my allowance? And I said, I want a raise. And she said, How much are we talking here? I said, I want a dollar and 11 cents. She said, What? I said, I want a complete dollar. And, you know, you got to make change, and you got to turn a dollar into coins, and everything. I said, Give me a dollar and 11 cents. Because I knew that if I had a dollar and 10 cents, you know, my tithe would become 11. And I'm like, With 99. So I'm like, I want a dollar and 11 cents. That way, I can pay my tithe and still have a dollar. And my mom said, No. Because she said, The whole point is that you learn, you know, how much it needs to hurt, you know, and bring it down to 90, and God will bless you for it. You know, that's what she explained this to me. You know, so I didn't get a raise for a long time. You know, way down the road, I got up to two bucks. You know, then it was 20 cents. I was left with a dollar, 80. But, you know, I think I grew up, I grew up that way. You know, giving the tithe of the Lord. And this is a concept all throughout the Bible. It's found in Proverbs chapter 3, where the Bible says, Honor the Lord but here's the thing, God requires the 10%. He doesn't require anything above that. Everything else above that is just considered a free will offering. Now, Ananias and Sapphira didn't have to give, and they gave more than their tithe. Ananias and Sapphira gave this huge amount, but they lied and they broke their promise. That's why they were judged by God. Now look, on Wednesday night, like we take the offering on Sunday morning, Sunday night, right? Well, we take the offering and the money goes to our missionaries on Wednesday night. You know, that's just like an optional, just, you know, extra, just throw some money in the plate so that you can have a part in people being saved in a distant country. And it's funny because, you know, when we first started the church, our missions offering was pretty high because remember, the economy was doing really well. So back in 06, 07, 08, you know, everybody's doing great financially. So people had abundance. You know, the financial bubble. So everybody's throwing in money in the missions, throwing money in the missions. You know, well nowadays, times are real tough. You know, things are real tight. So now people are not throwing as much, now look, is that bad? No, I mean, I understand, it makes sense to me. It makes sense that when times are tough, you're probably just giving your 10% and calling it good because that's all you got because times are tough. You know, and that's all God requires. That's all God expects. He doesn't expect you to put in your whole paycheck. You know, this isn't like the TV preacher, just give it all to God, you know. Double time, triple time, you know. No. God's requirements are when anything above 10% is just of your own free will, of the goodness of your heart because God has blessed you. You know, you give extra, you know, and there are a lot of churches that will try to encourage you to give money that you don't even have. You know, you're giving all this extra money to church, by the way. You know, you shouldn't be behind on your bills, but you're giving all this extra money to church. You know what I mean? God would rather you paid your bills, but you know what my first bill is? My first bill is my time. That's my first bill because in all things, he must have the imminence, and I don't want to rob God. So the first thing I do is give my time. Then I see where I'm at, and then at the end of that, then I see where I'm at for a free will offering, you know, if I want to give extra. Does that make sense? I don't think it does because of time. I have other points here about God's requirements, but let me just sum it up by saying this. There's a lot more that God requires. He requires us to read the Bible every day. I was going to take you to that scripture. He requires us to pray. I was going to take you to that scripture. All kinds of other things that he requires, but the bottom line is this. Just get this concept in your mind. God requires something of you. It's not optional. God has a lot of requirements that he expects you to do, and in order for you to be right with God and God to be pleased with you, you better get on board with his requirements. Nothing to do with salvation, but it has everything to do with having a good relationship with God and with pleasing God with your life. You better realize that you were not put on this earth so that the world could revolve around you and God is here to serve you and help you and no, no, you're here to serve him. Get that right. I mean, Jesus said to his disciples, hey, the disciple's not above his master. The servant's not above his Lord. Hey, you are the servant. You are the disciple. He is the master. He is the Lord. We need to get that straight in our lives and realize, hey, our lives ought to be about him and not about us. It shouldn't be about how much money can I get, how much things and wealth and how much fun can I have and how much comfort can I have. No, it ought to be about what can I do for God in my life because I'm his servant. He gave everything for us and we're bought with a price. We owe him everything and we ought to give our lives to serve and to follow him. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the free gift of salvation. I thank you that we don't have to earn salvation. It's free. Just as my children don't have to earn the right to be my children, but God, help us to realize that now that we are your children, you are our father and you have some rules. You have some demands. Help us to get on board with your requirements. We love you and thank you for everything you do for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.