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Man, the title of my sermon tonight is Preaching Christ for the Wrong Reasons. Preaching Christ for the Wrong Reasons, we're gonna go through this whole chapter of Philippians chapter 1. This is a chapter about thinking about other people, caring about other people, and being a team player, doing things for the right reason and not glorifying yourself and seeking for vain glory. That's kind of the theme that's carried through this entire chapter. The part that I'm really gonna focus on is toward the middle of the chapter, but let's start at the beginning here. It says, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing I want to point out is that in this chapter about working with other people, caring about other people, being a team player, striving together for the faith of the gospel, he starts out by acknowledging the leadership because he says, all the saints in Christ Jesus with the bishops and deacons. Now this is pretty similar to what we see in Hebrews 13, 24. You don't have to turn there, but he says, salute all them that have the rule over you and all the saints. So he salutes the leadership and he salutes everybody else. It's important that we have leadership. Every team needs leadership. If we're going to be an effective team, you know, there has to be a spirit of following the leader or leaders giving directives and people following that. I mean, imagine the Compton Soul Winning Marathon, you know, if people aren't going to listen to Brother Segura or Brother Mejia when they tell them, hey, these are the neighborhoods we're going to go to. This is where we're going to knock doors. This is the plan. This is what time we go to lunch. If everyone were doing their whole thing, their own thing, then the whole event would descend into chaos, right? So it's important on any church, in any organization, and any team that there be effective leadership. So Paul starts out by acknowledging the leadership that's there. In verse 3, he says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, and as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. Now, you can tell very clearly that Paul sincerely cares about and loves the people that he's writing to. First of all, since this is scripture, since it's the word of God, and we know that he's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that it must be true what he's saying. So it must be true that he thanks God upon every remembrance of them. It must be true that always in every prayer of his, making requests for them in joy. You know, that's really happening. Paul isn't just one of those guys who says, hey, I'm praying for you, buddy, but he's not actually doing it, right? Paul really did love them. He really did care about them. He really had them in his heart, as it says in verse 7. And by the way, while we're on that, let me say this. Many of the things in the Bible are not literal. They are figurative. Some of the worst doctrine comes from reading the Bible with an overly literal, right? Don't even get me started on the sun going up and down, where people think that's literal and don't understand that that's from the perception. But of course, there are many things in the Bible that are hyperbole, or that are metaphorical, not literal. You're not going to believe this, but in Revelation chapter 12, you know, that woman's not really standing in the sun, or I'm sorry, it's Revelation 10. You know, not really an angel standing in the sun. Not really the woman in Revelation 12 having the sun on her head and a crown of 12 stars. Not literal stars, my friend. So taking an overly literal reading of a lot of things in the Bible leads to false doctrine. Like when Jesus said, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. The Catholics took that literally. Okay, but the problem is, a couple of verse later, he says, you'll never hunger or thirst again. So why didn't they take that literally? They should go to mass one time and never eat another meal in their lives. You know, if you're going to take one part super literal, take the next part literal. You know, eat my flesh, drink my blood, you'll never hunger, you'll never thirst. Obviously, this is figurative, right? It's metaphorical. Well, listen, when Paul says I have you in my heart, it's pretty obvious that they're not living inside of his blood-pumping organ, right? But then the oneness crowd, when it says you have Jesus in your heart, they'll say, oh, that proves that Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Wrong. We literally have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Jesus is figuratively in our heart. We have God the Father in our heart figuratively. We have Jesus in our heart. We have the Word of God in our heart. That means we memorized it. That doesn't mean it's inside of our blood-pumping organ. It doesn't mean that it's physically inside our bodies in any way. You know, these oneness people, I want to have them literally, you know, read that verse, thy words were found and I did eat them, because I'd like to shove some Trinitarian Bible verses down their throat. Amen? But anyway, let's go back to the sermon tonight, because it has nothing to do with the Trinity. But he said I have you in my heart, right? He has the Philippians in his heart. That just means that he loves them. He cares about them. He remembers them often in his prayers. They matter to him. And you know what? This isn't just lip service. The apostle Paul really meant this, of course. It says in verse 8, for God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. I mean, look, God chose to record it in scripture. So there is definitely the record of God that he really loved these people. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ under the glory and praise of God. Now here's the part that I really want to get into. Verse 12. But I would, you should, understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. What's Paul saying? When bad things happen to him, because keep in mind, he's writing this letter from prison. He's in prison. They've given him paper and a pen and he's writing this letter to the Philippians. This is one of his prison epistles, as they're known. And he's saying to them, you know, I want you guys to know that the things that happened to me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so don't feel bad about the fact that I'm in prison. Don't get depressed or sad or think that God's not blessing me or something like that. He said, no, no, no. The fact that I'm in prison has actually caused the gospel to spread further. And he said, many of the brethren in the Lord are waxing confident by my bonds. They see the fact that I got arrested. They see me in jail. That just makes them want to do more soul winning. That just makes them want to preach the word of God even more. And all throughout the Bible, we see this. The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. Exodus chapter 1. Same principle in the New Testament in the book of Acts. When great persecution came, there was great growth in the church, right? And in the final tribulation time of our world, the Bible says that people will do great exploits during that time. The Bible says that the gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached in all the world at that time. Now, just this week, Pastor Logan Robertson over in Australia got arrested. But let me tell you something. I believe that God is going to use that for the furtherance of the gospel. You know, obviously, we want to be in prayer for him. We want to support him, want to help him out and stand with him. But you know, when I saw that, it didn't make me sad or depressed. I certainly didn't have this wicked thought of, oh well, you know, he shouldn't have been doing that. No way. You know, I watched the footage of how he handled those people. I watched the footage. And you know what? I'd like to see some of you when you're crowded with a bunch of TV cameras, how well you do. Let me tell you something. I saw how Pastor Logan Robertson handled it. I give him an A+. If I were his, you know, teacher, I will grade that A+, 100%. You know what? I'll give him a little extra credit. Let's give him a 105. He nailed it. Who knows what I'm talking about? Who saw that? Yeah, he did a great job. You know, he stood up. He was bold. He took it to them. Of course, they can't handle it. They can't handle the truth of what he's saying. They persecuted him. I think he's in jail right now, but, you know, worse, I think they're shipping him back to New Zealand. But you know what? I think God's even going to use that. That just means that God has work for him to do back in New Zealand. Time for him to shake off the dust of Australia and go back to New Zealand and do a great work there. Why? Because the what of God's will is more important than the where of God's will. Whether in Australia or when New Zealand, hey, you just keep on preaching, Brother Robertson. Keep on soul-winning. Keep on taking it to him. And you know, you think that when he put out that awesome movie against the Mormons, the devil's just going to take that line down. Look, if you do great works for God, you're going to face tribulation. You're going to face persecution. And you know what? Preachers who are taking it to the enemy, doing great works, reaching thousands of people with the gospel, they're going to go through these things. And everybody in the Book of Acts went through it. Everybody in the Old Testament went through it. And I don't think that it's going to be any different today. So you know, this is a great scripture for that situation. I believe that this event where he got arrested, spends a couple nights in jail or whatever, you know, I think it's just going to embolden some people over there in Australia and New Zealand and show them a role model over there of a bold man of God that they can rally behind over there in that region and do greater works for the Lord. And I think that that's what God's doing. And I think that God's behind it. And if God wanted to keep that from happening, he could have easily kept that from happening. It's a part of the plan, I believe, that God has for Pastor Robertson and for that region. And so, you know, part of us, you know, obviously thinks like, oh, man, that's a bummer. But part of us is kind of rejoicing, though. You know, I mean, and I'm sure that there's a part of Brother Robertson that's rejoicing, you know, and his people that are rejoicing. Although it's hard at the time to go through stuff like that, you know, I think deep down he knows, though, that it has a great purpose. And I think a lot of people realize that, especially those of us who have been in church a long time. And we've seen how these things happen. And God uses it to spread the Word of God. It actually causes the furtherance of the Gospel. Why? Because he's all over the news. And you know what? Not everybody over there is a complete idiot. Some people are going to sign on to his website, sign on to his YouTube channel and say, hey, you know, what's this guy about? Because even in the version that was edited for TV, I still thought he did a great job. Even when they chopped out a lot of what he said, I, you know, if I saw that, I would have been his biggest fan over there. And I'm sure that there are other little Steven Andersons over there, you know, a teenage Steven Anderson over there watching TV down under saying, hey, you know, I don't know how to impersonate, you know. They're going to say it's fair dinkum or whatever, you know. This mate's all right, you know, whatever, you know. Crikey. So, you know, they're going to like it. Somebody's going to, you say, well, 99 percent of people aren't going to agree with him. Well, you know what? Then those 99 percent of people, nuts to them, I'm more interested in the 1 percent who's going to get on fire for God, who's going to read his Bible, who's going to listen to preaching, who's going to go soul-willing, and who's going to go out and do great works for God. Great works for God are never going to be done by the majority. They're always going to be done by that righteous remnant that exists in every nation under heaven and it can start that fire over there with just that little spark, right, of just a few people. So praise God for that. So we see in this passage that persecution, going to jail, whatever, it actually furthers the gospel. It actually emboldens people and it inspires people to want to work more and win more souls to Christ and do more. But there's a byproduct of that, too. Look at verse 15. It says, some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will. The one preached Christ of contention, watch this, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. So here's what ends up happening. When the persecution comes, it caused the church to multiply. It causes the number of the disciples to multiply greatly. It causes more people to preach the gospel with more boldness, more soul-winning, more great teaching goes on, but at the same time, the devil, he has a two-pronged attack. Not only does he persecute, but he infiltrates. He infiltrates. If you can't beat him, join him. So not only will he attack from the outside, he'll also get his people on the inside to attack from the inside. And of course, we see this all the way back to Judas Iscariot, but even further, we even see it in the Old Testament. In fact, I want to show you a great story from the Old Testament that illustrates this point. Go to 1 Samuel chapter 30. First Samuel chapter 30. But notice what he says here. There's a right reason to preach Christ and a wrong reason to preach Christ. What was the right reason? The right reason was out of love. And then the other reason that was right was goodwill, out of goodwill, right? Because he said, some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife. That's the wrong reason. So on this side, we have the wrong reason. Envy and strife, some also of goodwill. So over here, we have the right reason, goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention. That's on the wrong side. Not sincerely, but the other of love, okay? So on this side, we have goodwill and love. So what is the proper motivation for preaching the gospel? What is the proper motivation for going soul winning? The right motivation is having love for the lost and goodwill toward them, meaning I want them to be saved for their benefit, right? We don't want them to go to hell. We want to rescue the perishing. We want to save them. We want to pull them out of that fire. Okay, that's the right reason. Goodwill and love. That's the right reason for preaching the Bible. I mean getting up behind the pulpit Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night and preaching. It should be what? To amplify the people that are listening. To build them up. To help them. You love them. Why did I preach this sermon this morning against fornication, drunkenness, drugs, tattoos, and other things that young people get mixed up in? Because obviously I love young people and don't want them to mess up their lives. I love my own children and don't want them to mess up their lives. I love your children and don't want them to mess up their lives. And I love you and I know it would break your heart to see your teenager mess up their lives. So I want to preach to your teenager and help them so that you can be proud of your teenage young person when they grow up and be a godly, honest person. Because you want your kids to be happy. You want them to love the Lord. You want them to serve the Lord. And you know and I know that getting pregnant out of wedlock isn't going to make them happy. Getting addicted to drugs and alcohol and gambling isn't going to make them happy. Committing fornication isn't going to bring happiness. We know that there's joy in serving the Lord. And that's what we want for our young people, right? So we get up and we preach, why? Because we love you, okay? Your parents preach to you the word of God because they love you, right? When we go out soul-winding and knock a door, it ought to be because we love that person and don't want them to go to hell. I mean if we don't care about that person, let's just not knock that door. I mean if we don't care about Compton, why even go there? I mean why go to Compton if we don't love the people of Compton and want them to be saved? And on an individual basis, when we get to that door and we look at that person, we need to be like Jesus where he beholding him loved him, right? So that's the right reason. Good will. Peace on earth and good will toward men, right? That's having feelings of blessing and good will, wanting what's best for people, right? Good will toward them and love. Now on the wrong side is envy, strife, and contention. Now why would someone preach the gospel out of envy, strife, and contention? Well let's focus first on strife and contention because those two things go together, don't they? What does strife mean? It pretty much means the same thing as contention. Strife and contention are when people are not getting along with each other. They're fighting each other, right? And the Bible tells us only by pride cometh contention. And the Bible says where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. So we notice that the Bible relates all these things, envy, strife, contention, pride, these things all go together. Why is that? Because envy is when we want to lift up ourselves, right? And that's what pride is too, right? Because envy, what is envy specifically? Is if I look at what belongs to you and I say, I wish I had that. I wish that were mine. But not only that, I might look at a position or a status that you have and say, I wish I had that position. I wish I had that status. You know, what is envy? Envy could be one girl looking at another girl saying, I wish I were as pretty as she is. Isn't that envy? You know, not being happy with the way God made you, not being happy with the way you look, but saying, well no, you know, I wish I looked like her. And that spirit, it might seem harmless at first, but you know what, it causes resentment. You know, it's that old saying, you know, don't hate me because I'm beautiful. You know, it's that same adage of they hate you because they ain't you. You know what I'm saying? They hate you because they ain't you. So that's what envy is, right? Because they hate you because they ain't you or they want what you have. They want your stuff. They want your possessions. They want your looks. They want your prestige. They want your money. Whatever. That's envy. Okay, that's not love. Love and goodwill wants what's best for other people, not looking out for self, but wanting to lift up other people and not trying to aggrandize self. Does everybody understand? So envy leads to strife and contention because people get bitter toward people that they envy and they get in strife with them. They get in contention with them. Now the Bible says some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love knowing that I'm set for the defense of the gospel. Basically there are people that don't even support Paul. Paul's in prison. They don't even support Paul. They'd love to see him go to prison even longer. They would love to see bad things happen to him. They hate him because they ain't him. They basically want to go out and preach the gospel for their own vain glory. They just want to get involved in the fight because there are some people that just want to get involved in any fight. Think about in the Bible how many times troops would go to war and they have a reason to go to war, but then other people would just join in just because there's nothing else going on. You know what I'm talking about? What about when Jephthah, for example, delivers the people, right? God wrought a victory through Jephthah. He had a legitimate reason to go to war, but then another tribe is just like, well, how come you didn't invite us to the fight? It's like, well, we won without you, so why does it matter? Yeah, but we wanted to fight too, and then they just go to war with Jephthah. Like well, if we can't fight on your side, we'll just fight against you because we're just looking for a fight. Isn't it interesting that they wanted to support Jephthah in battle so much that they're going to go to war with Jephthah for not inviting them? That happened multiple times. If you've read your Bible, you know that happened multiple times in Judges, that attitude. Now, earlier in the book of Judges, he was able to talk him down and say, hey, Gideon was able to talk him down. Jephthah wasn't able to talk him down, but it's the same spirit of saying we're just looking for a fight. What am I talking about? We're talking about people who go out soul winning not because they love souls, not because they want to get people saved, but they just go out to put on a show. All their works they do bore to be seen of men, and they go out and it's a big contest to them. It's a contest of who can get the most people saved. It's a contest of who can spend the most hours out soul winning. It's a contest of just, hey, everybody, look at me. I'm going to outdo brother so and so, and I'm going to outdo sister so and so. Why? Because they have envy and strife in their heart. They're doing it for the wrong reasons. They're doing it out of contention. Many times, they're infiltrators that are just trying to make soul winning look bad and just trying to discourage people and hinder people and take people down a notch. Look, beware of that attitude. When we go out soul winning, we ought to be going out there for the right reason to win people to Christ because we love them. What does that mean? That means if I'm at a door, I want to do a good job at that door because that's a real person I'm talking to. I'm not just trying to hurry up and crank through as many doors. Hey, look how many people I won to the Lord. I'd rather just have one conversation that I did well than just rack up a bunch of conversations. I like to put it this way, talk to everybody as if it's your loved one. Talk to that elderly woman on whose door you knock as if it's your own mother. What if that were your mother? What if that were your grandmother? How would you like her to be witnessed unto? That's how you should treat that door. That man whose door you knock, what if that were your uncle? What if that's your dad? What if that's your cousin? How would you do? How good of a job would you do? How would you treat him? Would you be friendly? Would you show him love? Would you do a good job and do a thorough presentation of the Gospel? That's what you need to do. And if you're doing it for the right reason, that's what you will do. You go out and you love people and you'll give it your best. But this spirit creeps in sometimes of, first of all, bad people coming in and infiltrating. But then that spirit can rub off on good people where even good people can start to have a weird attitude about soul winning and so forth. And they start talking bad about other people and trying to lift up themselves by dragging down the people around them instead of operating as a team. And you know, when it comes to our soul winning program, it's very important to me that we have a team mentality, okay? That we don't, we're not in it for personal glory or main glory. This is why, you know, I strive to whenever we go out in a group soul winning, I try to get a group total so that we can report, hey, this is how many souls the group had saved as opposed to it being about personal glory or personal achievement. You know, also when I go out soul winning with my soul winning partner, let's say I did all the talking and my soul winning partner is just a silent partner, you know, I come back and say we had this many people saved. Or if, you know, if he did all the talking and I was silent, I say we had this many people saved. If I had three saved and he had two saved, I say we had this many people saved. Why? Because I want to instill that team mentality. And I've had some silent partners say, like, oh, I didn't do anything. No, you did do something. You showed up soul winning. You went out soul winning. You were a silent partner. You provided valuable companionship, fellowship, prayer, support. I mean, look, I don't want to go soul winning by myself. I want to go with a soul winning partner, amen? Who wants to go by themselves? I just want to go by myself. We want to go with a partner. And you know what? When the partners show up and say, hey, I'm just a silent partner, hey, great. Because you just provided friendship, companionship, fellowship, support, encouragement, motivation, right? And you are part of the team. And it's, you know, we don't want to get this attitude. You know, or how about this? You know, if I go out soul winning in a group, right, and let's say we go on one of these Indian reservation trips and we put in a five hour, you know, session of soul winning or whatever. We spent five hours soul winning that day. And let's say I got no one saved. I got zero salvation. You know, I've been there. I've gone up on a trip to the Navajo reservation. I spent five hours that day knocking doors. I didn't even get to give the gospel to a single person because we were in a town that was unreceptive. It was called Lachi and it was right by Page and it just wasn't receptive. Plus I was just getting all the bad doors, you know. But here's the thing. Other people in the group had people saved. So at the end of the day, I see it as, you know, I was a part of that team and as a team we had X number of people saved. I mean somebody had to knock all those doors that I knocked where nobody wanted to hear anything. So sometimes I just look at myself as like a bad door absorber. And sometimes I'm even thanking God. I'm like, thank God that I got all these bad doors because I want that new guy who's only been soul winning three times. I want him to get all the low hanging fruit because, you know, I'm not going to quit soul winning, but he might because he's brand new. So I hope he has a really good day today that you know what? That should be the attitude, right? And if we're the one that's getting all the good doors, because some days they're going look, I've had some days where I was that guy who had zero salvations, five hours, nothing. Okay. But then some days I've been the guy who's getting all the salvation, you know, where you're just every, Oh man, every door I knocked, people are getting saved, right? And then the rest of the group is just like, what are you talking about? This area is horrible. You know, so here's the, if you go so long, if you're going to be on both sides of this, so when you're on the side where you're not getting anybody saved, so what? It's about the team. Okay. But if you're on the side where you're getting all the salvations, you know what? You don't go, you don't go to the dinner and say like, Oh, you didn't get anybody saved? What's wrong with you? You know, you know, I mean, it's just like, look, everybody has times like, and you know, it doesn't matter what matters is what did the team accomplish? You know, what did we do as a group? What did we do as a church? That's really what matters at the end of the day. So we're going to keep that right attitude, not get a competitive spirit. The Bible says if we compare ourselves amongst ourselves and measure ourselves by ourselves, we're not wise. So we don't want to get a competitive spirit where it becomes just this, this contest, right? But I've seen it many times, especially, you know, back when I was at Bible college, there was that element that was going out there and just talking a lot of smack and just look at us, look what we're achieving, look what we're doing, and trying to talk down to people who aren't doing as much. Now, I touched on this on Wednesday night, and I want to ring this bell again, because repetition is the key to learning. On Wednesday night, I touched on this thing of giving people a bad time for not going soul winning enough. You know, like when we go on these missions trips, and, you know, we didn't have this problem at all on the Mexico trip. In fact, I've never seen this on any missions trip that I was a part of, because frankly, it just doesn't happen when I'm around, because even when it starts to begin to sort of happen, I just come down on it, okay? But sometimes when I've not been around, there have been some missions trips where there will be people who try to get people to just keep soul winning, even when they're tired, even when they're done for the day. You know, like let's say we have a certain time, like we're going to go soul winning until this time, but then they just want to keep going. Now here's the thing, if they want to keep going, they can keep on going until the cows come home. The problem I have though is where they start putting other people on a guilt trip for not going soul winning insane amounts. Or even sometimes people could put someone on a guilt trip for not going on a missions trip. Maybe somebody's just week in, week out, faithful to their soul winning. You know, maybe they don't want to travel and go on a missions trip. That's not everybody's thing. You don't want to put them on a guilt trip, like what's the matter, you can't go on, you know. It's stupid. And I've even seen things as stupid as guilting like a young mother. What's the matter, you can't go on a, it's like hello, she's got all these little babies and toddlers and kids, it's going to be a little harder for her to go soul winning or to go on a trip than for the singles, amen? So everybody's got their own abilities, everybody's got their own situation. What about people that are elderly? You know, what about people that have physical problems? We don't want to push them to go soul winning too much. And especially this time of year when it's 115 out, you know, if somebody goes out for 45 minutes and they're about to pass out, that's normal, okay? So just give them a break, take them to the shade, take them to the air conditioning, get them the water, get them the electrolytes. Don't just be on some just slave driving soul winning program. Now look, and come on folks, this is Faithful Word Baptist Church. We don't have a problem with doing too little soul winning around here. And when we go on missions trips, we're not painting the house and handing out candy to the school children. We actually do real work, okay? Look, and putting in five solid hours of soul winning is a lot of hard work in a receptive area. You know, look, if people want to go seven, eight hours, the last thing I want to do is slow them down. The last thing I want to do is put cold water on somebody who wants to do more. So you know, but here's the thing, they need to do more quietly and with a humble spirit and not try to pressure the people around them. And I'm not playing games with this. I mean, it's something that we can't tolerate around here. A prideful, arrogant spirit that turns the work of the Lord, you know, and pardon this expression. I'm cracking my brain trying to think of a better expression I can't, turning it into a peeing match, right? Who knows what I'm talking about? That's what the, you know, soul winning and missions is not a pissing match. You understand? And I was trying to think of a more, a less crude way of saying that, but that's really the only way to express what I'm trying to say right now. That's what people are doing sometimes and it's, and it's wicked. You know, people need to serve the Lord for the right reason with a humble heart. Now let me show you this, how these people who are making people feel bad for their inability to go soul winning for some huge amount of time, they're often the sons of Belial. Let me show you the story. Look at the story in First Samuel chapter 30. First Samuel 30 verse 9 says, So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Bessor, where there were, excuse me, where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued he and four hundred men, for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint they could not go over the brook Bessor. So get the picture folks, David's got a band of six hundred of his best troops. These are his best fighters. He's got six hundred of them. Four hundred go with him to the battle and two hundred stay behind. Why did the two hundred stay behind? The Bible says at the end of verse 10, they were so faint that they could not go over. Is it that they were lazy bad people? No, they just couldn't do it. They're too faint. They're doing their best, but you know, sometimes you just only have so much you can do. Look at verse 21. This is after the victory. And David came to the two hundred men, and again the Bible emphasizes, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Bessor, and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with them, and when David came near to the people, he saluted them. So look, David respects the two hundred just as much as he respects the four hundred, right? He leads the four hundred in battle, and when he gets back to the two hundred, he salutes them, right? He is treating them with dignity and respect. Why? Because they did their best. They did what they could. They're on the right team. They're on the right army, but they just couldn't go to this particular battle, you know? They just didn't have the energy or whatever. And then it says in verse 22, then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial. You know who Belial is? Belial is the devil. Okay, these are really bad people if they're of Belial. They're reprobates. And watch this, of those that went with David, and said, because they went not with us, we will not give them out of the spoil that we've recovered, save to every man, his wife, and his children that they may lead them away and depart. So what are they saying? They're saying number one, we don't want to give people any of the spoil who didn't go to the battle. You know, we just want to give them their wife and kids, and we want them to leave. We want them gone. We want them to depart. We don't even want them in this army. They're trying to send these 200 away. Not just not give them their pay, but also just to send them away. Get rid of these people. We don't want them. What does David say? You shall not do so, my brethren, without which the Lord hath given us. See, David's doing what? He's giving God the glory for the victory, and he's not in it for vain glory for himself. Like these 400, they're like, oh yeah, we're so much better than these 200 who got tired. He says, you shall not do so, my brethren, without which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? But as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarryeth by the stuff. They shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day. So we see that according to David and according to the Lord's judgment, God understands that if at first there be a willing heart, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. So God understands that we all have our ability, we all have our limits, we all have what we're willing to do in the battle, and you know, God's okay with that. And it's the children of Belial that want to rebuke somebody for being too tired. What's the matter? You can't go out in the heat and go sowing a little longer? That is not the right spirit in a church, right? It isn't right. And you know what? Just mark my words, a lot of the biggest offenders in this area end up being the people that get thrown out of the church. They end up being the people who cause problems, vainglorious, thrown out. You know, I'm thinking of one of the wives of one of these oneness people that we threw out of the church that was a big offender of this. You know what I mean? And it's like, oh, really? Well, now it turns out you're not even stinking saved. And you are going around and acting like everybody should be doing as much missions as you and gallivanting all over the world, and oh, just drop your baby off, drop your toddler off, let me go travel all over the world for missions. Well, it turns out you're not even saved, honey. And you're going to talk down to people who faithfully serve the Lord and love the Lord? Why? Because there are those of Belial that have crept in. And you know what? Even David had children of Belial following him. Think about that. I mean, let that sink in. All, all means we're talking at least three or more, because if it were only two, it would be both. Hey, both of the sons of Belial said this. No, no, no. It says all the wicked men and men of Belial of those that went David. So when David had 400 guys go with him, there was a percentage of those guys that were reprobates, right? Just like Jesus had Judas, well, David has some reprobates following him. Now does David know that they're reprobates? No, because he says, oh, my brethren, who will hear you on this matter, my brethren? He thinks these are his brother. He thinks they're good guys. But they're showing their true colors here, aren't they? With this unreasonable garbage. And this is a great illustration for us in the New Testament. Let's go back to Philippians 1. You know, I want to make that point repeatedly, because I think it's so important that we understand that this is a volunteer army. When people show up for soul winning, they're volunteering. When people go on a missions trip, they're volunteers, right? They shouldn't be made to feel bad or pressured into doing more than they're comfortable with doing. Right? We should just be happy with whatever they're willing to give us of their time and energy. And if they're willing to go out and knock doors for a couple, three hours, hey, praise God for that. You know? It's not like, well, you need to go for seven, eight, nine hours. It's like, come on. Then you go out and do that. You can always do more without trying to pressure and force other people to do more. And especially we need to understand that for a young mother, her most important job is her children. And her husband, she's not going to be the soul winning superstar. Now I do believe that everybody should go soul winning. I do believe that every man, woman, boy, and girl should preach the gospel and win people to Christ and witness and get out there and do it. But you can't expect a young mother of a baby who's nursing to do the same amount of soul winning as some young single guy or some married man or whatever who gets off work and goes soul winning. I mean, look, it's easier for us men. And I do believe that ladies should evangelize. But you know what? They're the weaker vessel. Give them a break in the shade. Give them a glass of water. Don't just be a slave driver. It's ridiculous. And if it happens in our church, just realize that it's not coming from me. And that I'm against it. And you have my permission to cloud up and rain on it. Philippians chapter 1, he said, the one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely. The one who's trying to just be out there for his own glory, just getting involved in whatever fight for his own glory. The other is doing it of love, right? Because they want to get people saved. Knowing that Paul is set for the defense of the gospel. But look at verse 18. It says, what then? Not withstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. So Paul's attitude is, you know what? I don't even care because at least God's word is being preached and people are being saved. Even if people are doing it for the wrong reason, you know, the more the gospel is being preached, great. Now obviously we should do it for the right reason though. But whether it's for right or wrong, who cares? You know, there are some, this verse always makes me think of the fact that there are people out there who exist only to attack us, right? And when I say out there, I mean out in cyberspace. Out on YouTube. There are literally entire YouTube channels that exist to do one thing, to attack Faithful Word Baptist Church. What a pathetic existence. What a loser you are when your whole life revolves around attacking somebody. Like you don't have your own works, your own achievements, your own church. It's just everything's just about, you've just got this one preacher that you're going to attack with your life. I mean that's just stupid. I mean there are a lot of preachers I don't like, but do you see me just focusing my entire life like a laser beam attacking that one preacher? Stupid. No. You know, on Monday I'm doing my own thing. On Tuesday I'm doing my, now do I call out false teachers and false prophets? Of course. But is that just what life's about? Is that all I am? Just a watchdog for this one person? But you know what? I've got some people who are just dedicated. They are my watchdog. They are, they exist literally only to attack us and our friends. That's their only existence. I'm thankful for these people. I am thankful for them. I am glad that they exist and let me tell you some reasons why I'm glad that they exist. Because these losers, how they start their YouTube channel is by supporting us. Because if they just started preaching their own teachings and their own, they don't have any accomplishments, they don't have any achievements, they don't have an actual brick and mortar church building where they go each week and assemble with God's people. So the way that they start their channel is often, and I could list for you channels that started this way, they start by just mirroring my videos. So they just put Steven Anderson sermons on their channel. Just Steven Anderson sermons, all of our movies, all our videos and they'll just upload. And you can go look at their channels and literally you'll just see just hundreds of videos from yours truly. And then from one day to the next every video becomes an attack on me. Every single video. Don't you think that's a little weird? To go to a YouTube channel and there's like 200 videos supporting me, 200 videos repeating, just re-uploading my sermons, just re-uploads, which is great. And then the next day it's like, why Steven Anderson's a heretic, why Steven Anderson's a false teacher, Steven Anderson exposed. So what they do is they build up a bunch of subscribers of fans of our church so then they can start attacking our church and they have somebody to listen, they have an audience. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? This is the modus operandi. So these channels exist. Now why do I rejoice for these type of channels and these type of people? For two reasons. Reason number one is that they mirrored 200 of my videos. And that's just 200 videos for people to find my preaching and hear the word of God and learn the truth. I mean some of these guys literally have sermons of mine that they re-uploaded that have over 100,000 viewers on that upload. Or they'll upload After the Tribulation or New World Order Bible versions or Marching Design and get like tens of thousands of viewers, hundreds of thousands of viewers. How could I not be thankful to that person for uploading preaching from our church and reaching 100,000 people with it? Amen. Who cares what stupid stuff they said about me later. I'm just glad that that video got uploaded. Even though they were uploading it for the wrong reason, they were uploading it knowing that they're going to turn around and attack me, hate me, lie about me and spend their entire life trolling me. I'm just grateful that they uploaded it and that all those people heard the word of God and that they all heard the Gospel. And then the second reason why is because this person acts and it could be anyone. There are many of these channels. I'm not going to name them because I don't want to give publicity to them but if you've been around, you know some of the people I'm talking about, some of these channels that are out there. It's just all pro-faithful word and then all against faithful word. They act as a lightning rod. Now I've usually used the trash can illustration. This is a new illustration, a lightning rod. What is the purpose of a lightning rod? Now a lightning rod wasn't invented by Benjamin Franklin or was it, is he the one? Somebody help me out. Give me confidence, so they say. Is this a conspiracy? He was a Freemason, you know. So the lightning rod, the purpose is that when lightning strikes, it's going to go to the highest point. So you don't want the lightning to strike the building because then the building's going to burn down, right? So you put up a lightning rod and the lightning will hit that rod instead and it'll channel all that electricity down safely into the earth. Whereas if the lightning hits the building, it's going to burn the house down. So a lightning rod is there to absorb all the lightning and safely get rid of it down into the earth, right? Just put all those electrons where they belong down in the earth, okay? So that's kind of what these channels are because they become like a magnet for everyone who hates faithful word Baptist church so that we can know who hates us and we can figure out who all the bad guys are because they all just go to that place and they go to that place. And also, when our church gets filled with disgruntled idiots, those channels become a lightning rod that will draw them out so that we can purge them out of our church because, you know, I don't want to go to church with a bunch of people who hate me. Do you want to go to church with people who hate you? Well, you know, as a pastor of faithful word Baptist church, I don't want to pastor a church of people that hate me. So if people hate me, I'm thankful for these channels that are a place for them to go flock to, trash cans for them to throw themself into so that we don't have to throw them in the trash. They can throw themself in the trash and they can be channeled, no pun intended, to these lightning rod trash can type channels, okay? So we got to look on the bright side, amen? That everybody in this world serves their purpose. Even the devil himself has a purpose. Otherwise God would have thrown him in the trash a long time ago. But why does God allow the devil to go about seeking whom he made of ours? Because ultimately he fulfills the will of God. That's why even after the devil has been trapped in hell and locked in hell, what does God do a thousand years later? He lets him out of hell. Why does God release the devil from hell? So that he can go out to deceive the nations. Why? To gather them together. Why? Because the devil is a lightning rod to bring them all to the battle of Gog and Magog so that they can get wiped out, right? So the devil is a great trash collector. The devil is a great lightning rod. And the devil's followers on YouTube are the same way. They help collect all the trash. They gather all the trash together and these people all band together, oh, brother, it's so great. Oh, I love you so much. You're so awesome. You know, and you hate Pastor Anderson. I hate Pastor Anderson. Let's be blood brothers, right? We have nothing else in common. But we both hate Pastor Anderson. It doesn't matter. You're flat earth. I'm oneness. Whatever, buddy. I love you. You know, it's like, oh, you got thrown out for being a pervert and a pedophile? You got thrown out for heresy? We're best friends because we both hate Pastor Anderson, right? So it's a great, what's the Bible say? You know what Paul's saying? Paul's looking on the bright side. He's saying, you know what? I'm glad I went to prison because it emboldened people to preach the gospel more. Paul's saying, you know what? I'm glad people came and infiltrated us and are just out to just go soul winning for the wrong reasons. Who cares? At least it's growing. At least the Word of God's going everywhere. At least everybody's hearing about Jesus. At least everybody's hearing about the New Testament. You know what? All things work together for good. And that's what Paul's thinking. He didn't let it get him down. He didn't let him get discouraged about it. Let's finish up here. I got to hurry. I just want to point out a couple more things in this chapter. But he says, of course, the famous words, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. He says in verse 23, I'm in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. He's saying, hey, I'd just as soon die and go to heaven. It's far better. But he says in verse 24, nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. So who does Paul care more about? Himself or others? He's saying, hey, I'm going to stay on this earth for others. And then he says in verse 25, and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith. He says in verse 27, only let your conversation be as if it cometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. In the next chapter, I'm out of time, but in chapter two, he says, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, verse three, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. So what's this whole chapter about? What's he saying? He's saying, look, I'm greeting you, Philippians. I'm greeting your leadership. I'm acknowledging your pastors. I'm acknowledging the deacons. Why? Because he knew that that's an important part of any team, leadership, acknowledges the pastors, he acknowledges the deacons, and he says, look, I love you, I care about you, I'm thinking about you, I'm praying for you, God's doing a great work in you. Hey, don't worry about me, because the fact that I'm in prison, oh, that's just spreading the gospel more. That's just getting people more excited. That's just emboldening people more. Now I know there are some infiltrators that are creeping in, you know, and they're just turning it into a pissing match and just doing it for all the wrong reasons, and they're just in it for their own glory, but he's saying, you know what? Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You need to do it out of love. You need to do it of good will. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Hey, I just want to see you guys so that I can help you, so I can be a blessing to you, and you know what? We're with one mind in one accord, striving together for the faith of the gospel. We're a team. That's what this chapter's about, in a nutshell, to wrap it all up, and so we need to apply this in our church. We need to always make sure that we're not just a soul winning church, but that we're a soul winning church that loves people, that loves the lost. We don't want to lose the first love, amen? We want to go out there with a tear in the eye, actually caring about the people that we're preaching to, and don't ever get in this competitive spirit, this spirit of trying to peer pressure people into doing more. What's the matter? Is that all you got? You only had one person saved. What's wrong with you? Look, getting one person saved is a great achievement. You know, one salvation is huge. It shouldn't be, oh, only one? Really? Oh, okay. I guess, yeah. I mean, we were up there all day. Oh, that's right. You did cut out a little early, didn't you? Because you got too hot. Had to go to the air conditioner and just drink a little water out of your bottle. Oh, is that, yeah, that's probably why, yeah, because we, yeah, that's, oh, that's right. We did a longer day than you guys. That's why we had seven salvations, and you only had one. I mean, isn't that just carnal and stupid and foolish and wicked? It shouldn't, it should not be, it should not exist. And of course, the vast majority of people do not have a problem with this. There's very few people that are offenders in this area. And you know, the people that, it's funny, the people that come up to me after the service and they're like, you know, is it I? You know, were you, you know, I had somebody call me after I preached on Wednesday night and say, were you talking about me? I'm like, you are the last person I would ever talk about like that because you're, you did it all right. But you know what it is, is that the, that the people who are doing it right, they're so humble that even when they hear the preaching, they're thinking like, oh man, I wonder if that's me. They're, they're examining themselves and then the people who are actually guilty are just like thinking, oh, he must be talking about somebody else cause I'm awesome. I don't need any correction. You know, I don't need any correction. It's funny, I preach hard on Bible reading and then people come up to me who've already read the Bible a ton and they're just like, yeah, I need to ramp up my Bible reading. I'm like, well, I wasn't talking about you. You're reading enough. They're like, yeah, I only read it five times last year. I need to make it six. I'm like, whoa buddy, like you're doing great. And then, you know, and then the, the person who's not reading is still not reading, you know, so, so anyway, the point is, be a team player, love people, go soul winning for the right reason and treat your brothers and sisters in Christ with love and respect and look at them as your team members and be a team player and think in terms of the group, not the individual when it comes to soul winning. Think in terms of what faithful word Baptist accomplished. Think in terms of what the entire group accomplished, whether it be Compton or whether it be an Indian reservation, whether it be Jamaica missions trip, whatever. Just think of it as, hey, we all worked together. We all prayed. We all did our best. Everybody according to their ability and we had a victory. There's no room for ego in soul winning. There is no room for ego in the local church, period. Check your ego at the door when you're serving the Lord. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord, Philippians chapter one, help us to apply it to our lives. Help us not to be like unto those sons of Belial who, who talk bad about people who get tired and need to take a break. Lord, help us to just do our work and, and love the team and, and, and love lost souls and do things for the right reason. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.