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Alright, great to be here once again, Job chapter 2, starting in verse number 9, the Bible reads, Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity, curse God, and die? But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? And all this did not Job sin with his lips. And I want to preach tonight on the subject of receiving the good and the evil. Receiving the good and the evil. Now when the Bible says evil here, it doesn't mean sin or wickedness. Obviously, God is never going to do anything sinful or give us anything sinful. God is fully without sin, okay? But when the Bible says evil, it is often just referring to that which is harmful, something that hurts, something that harms, something that's negative. For example, a great verse to illustrate this is Amos 3.6. The Bible says, Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? So if there's an evil in the city, the Lord has done it. And of course, we know the Lord doesn't sin, but the Lord does bring negative things. He brings harmful things. He brings painful things. He brings destructive things. And so that's what the Bible is saying here. Now Job here says to his wife, Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? Are we just going to only take the good things that God gives us? And then when he gives us something evil or when he gives us something harmful, all of a sudden we're going to reject it and say, Well, how dare you, God? And what Job says is that the Lord gave and the Lord had taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord. You know, whether God gives something to us or whether God takes something away from us, whether God does something good for us or whether God hurts us, blessed be the name of the Lord. We should be willing to take both the good and the evil from the hand of the Lord and receive whatever the Lord has for us, okay? Now go to Job chapter 23. Job chapter 23. I'm going to start out by preaching sort of the traditional interpretation of this verse or the obvious primary application of this verse about receiving the good and the evil. But then I'm going to take it a totally different direction that I've never heard preached. But this is such an important truth tonight. I really want you to grasp the truth that I'm giving you tonight because it's so important and it will help you so much if you can realize this when I'm trying to teach you tonight about receiving the good at the hand of the Lord and also being willing to receive negative things from the Lord, the evil things from the Lord, okay? Now look what the Bible says in Job 23 verse 8. Behold I go forward, but he's not there, talking about the Lord, and backward, but I cannot perceive him on the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him, but he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. So even these bad things that are coming into Job's life in the end are helping him. They're good for him in the end. So even the evil quote unquote that he's receiving from the hand of the Lord where he has these boils all over his body, where he lost his money, his children died, all these horrible things happen. He says when I'm tried, I shall come forth as gold, okay? Now in the New Testament, we have a scripture for us that tells us the same thing. You don't have to turn there. You would go ahead and turn to Ephesians 5, but in the New Testament, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 6 says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So Job was tried by fire, and he came out as gold. And the Bible says in the New Testament that our faith is going to be tried, and it's going to be tried by fire, and we're going to come forth as gold if we endure the trials and tribulations that God brings. So what's Job saying to his wife? Because before we get into a secondary application, we want to make sure we just get the primary application. What is Job saying to his wife? Hey, when God was blessing us, you liked that. You liked it when God blessed us with 10 children. You liked it when God blessed the herds of sheep, and we had all this wealth and all this money and all this abundance, and we were flourishing, and we had the oxen, and we had the cattle, we had the sheep, and we had money, and we had kids, and everybody was happy. Are we just going to take all the good things from the Lord, and then as soon as God brings something we don't like, all of a sudden it's just, oh man, curse God and die. That's a bad attitude. He said, look, if we're going to receive good from the hand of the Lord, we need to be willing to receive evil. Hey, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Okay, so that's the primary application, but I want to also point this in a little bit different direction. You know, these are things that the Lord has given us as well. Primary application is talking about the events of life. We take the blessings, and we take the trials and tribulations, blessed be the name of the Lord. Whatever God gives us, we take it, and we're glad for it. Okay, but what about the word of God? You know, God has given us His word, and in God's word there are going to be things we like and things that we don't like. We need to receive both. Now, I'm going to start out with some simple illustrations of this, and I'm going to start out talking about marriage because of the fact that Job's wife is the one who originally said, curse God and die, and Job told his wife, you know what? Are we going to receive good things from the hand of God and not evil? So let's think about this from a marriage perspective. Let's start out with that in Ephesians 5. The Christian way of life is not a smorgasbord, okay? You don't just take the parts of the Christian life that you like and then reject the parts you don't like. It's a package deal. You've got to take the whole thing. The good and the, quote, unquote, evil, the good and the bad and the ugly, you've got to take it all, friend, because God's word and the Christian way of life is not a smorgasbord where you pick what you like and you leave behind what you don't like. Ephesians 5, 22 says this, wives, submit yourselves under your own husbands as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and He is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourished and cherished it, even as the Lord the church. Jump down to verse 33, nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverents her husband. Now think about this, from the world's perspective, right, women who are exposed to a Christian way of life or they see what it's like to be a Christian wife or have a Christian marriage, I think there are some good things about the Christian way of life that even an unsaved person would look at and say, I like that. That's good. I like that. You know, for example, how about having a husband that's faithful to you? I'll bet you even worldly women out there, they want a husband that's faithful to them. They don't want their husband whoring around. They don't want their husband committing adultery. They don't want their husband here today and gone tomorrow. They want their husband faithful to them. True or false? They don't want their husband committing adultery. You know what they want? A husband that loves them. Husbands love your wives. Boy, they like that. How about a husband that provides for you? Even an unsaved person out in the world, even a person who has no interest in Christianity, boy, if they saw that, hey, a husband who pays the bills? I mean, there's even hip-hop songs about that, amen? So basically, you know, a husband that pays the bills, great. A husband that loves you, great. A husband that doesn't commit adultery, wonderful. How about a good father to the children? An involved father, a good father. How about a husband who wants to have children at all? Some women are out there, they want to have children, their husband's like, no more. We'll just have one. We'll just have two. How about a husband that wants to have more? So those are the good things, quote, unquote, because I'm speaking from a worldly perspective here. Those are the good things about being a Christian wife. Okay, now, from the world's perspective I'm speaking now, the evil things, right? The bad things about being a Christian wife. You have to obey your husband. You have to dress modestly. You have to have a lot of children. You have to homeschool. You know, you don't get to have the career that you wanted or whatever. You know, this is what the world would look at the Christian way of life. They'll look at the Christian godly wife and they'll say, oh, man, isn't that terrible that she has to obey her husband, dress modestly, she can't have a career, she's home with the kids, she's cooking and cleaning and taking care of the house. But let me tell you something, it's a package deal. So here's what we have today. We have a bunch of Christian women that are like Job's wife where they want to receive the good things from the hand of the Lord but not the evil things. So basically they say, oh, yeah, I want my husband to be faithful. Oh, yeah, I don't want my husband to commit adultery. Oh, I want a husband who pays the bills. I want a husband who loves me even as he loves his own body. I want a husband who nourishes and cherishes me and provides for me, but I don't want to obey him. I don't want to dress modestly. I want to do what I want. I'm going to do whatever I want. I don't want to submit to him. So you see what they're trying to do? They're trying to have their cake and eat it too. They want to take all the good things from the Lord and then all the quote-unquote good things from this world and try to have the best of both worlds here. Instead of saying, okay, whatever the Lord says, I'll take all of it, the stuff I like and the stuff I don't like, the positive and the negative, the easy and the difficult. Whatever the Lord has, I'll take it. That's what we have today. Women who often want to take part of it and not the whole thing. Now let me explain something to you. And if you would, go to 1 Peter chapter 5. There are pros and cons to everything in life, right? You take this route or that route, there are pros and cons. So from a carnal perspective, when you look at living the Christian life as a godly wife, as a godly mother, you're going to see the pros and cons. This is great. My husband provides. He pays the bills. He loves me. He's involved with the children. But then on the negative side, I have to obey and submit and dress right and whatever. But guess what? Going the worldly route, there are pros and cons to that too. People outside of church right now, people outside of Christianity right now, people who are atheists and agnostics right now or just worldly or Roman Catholics or whatever they are out there just living a non-Christian life, Buddhist or agnostic or spiritual or whatever they are, oh, it's so great because they can have their career and they don't have to obey their husband. But then guess what? Their husband's not faithful to them. Their husband doesn't love them. Their husband's not caring for them or providing for them. So there are trade-offs and drawbacks. You can't have it all, quote, unquote. There are pros and cons to everything. Let me tell you something. People out there in the world have plenty of negative in their life and plenty of cons. Okay? There are trade-offs. Listen to 1 Peter 5 verse 8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith. And here's the key phrase, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world, but the God of all grace who hath called you unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you've suffered a while, make you perfect, established, strengthen, settle you. Let me tell you something. People that are out in the world, did you know that they're going through the same afflictions of people that are in church and living a godly life? You say, oh, it's so hard to live the Christian life. Guess what? It's hard not to be a Christian too. Guess what? Life is hard. Christian life is hard. Non-Christian life is hard. Life is hard. You say, oh, man, living the Christian life is all these problems and trials and tribulations and afflictions. Guess what? Unsafe people have trials, tribulations, afflictions. The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. So whether you're in church, whether you're out in the world, whether you're living worldly or godly, you're going to go through problems. You're going to go through trials. You're going to have pros and cons. You're going to have positive and negative in your life. There are going to be benefits and drawbacks to both. But here's the message tonight. Let me just sum up the whole sermon tonight right now, what I'm trying to get across to you, that the pros and cons of serving God are both good. So here's the thing about serving God. Even the cons, even the negatives, even the so-called evil things, actually end up being good. Just like in Job's life, where even the bad things that happened to him ended up being good. Why? Because the Bible says that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. So when you're going through the life of a worldly person, you've got good and bad in your life. Right? You think anybody just lives a perfect life where everything's great and everything's perfect? No. So worldly people, worldly Christians, or even unsafe people, they go through a life that's a mix of pros and cons, good and evil, benefits, drawbacks. They go through hard times, good times. They go through all that. Right? And then the Christian does the same thing. They have pros, cons, benefits, drawbacks, good things, bad things. But here's the difference. The Christian's bad things work together for good. This guy's bad is just bad. The bad things about being unsaved are just bad upon bad upon bad, and there's nothing good about them. The bad parts of being a worldly wife, the bad parts of being a worldly husband, the bad parts of being a worldly child or a worldly worker, all the bad is just bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Whereas the bad stuff, quote unquote, about being a Christian actually turns out to be good for you. Think about that. Let me illustrate it to you this way. Let's say I sit down to eat some really healthy fruits and vegetables, and let's say some of them taste kind of bad to me. Let's say I don't like, and I like most fruits and vegetables, but let's say I sit down, and I don't like vegetables, and I eat my Brussels sprouts, and I say, this tastes bad, but mom says, but it's good for you. Everybody understand? So I'm eating some that taste bad, but I'm like, yeah, but it's good for me, though. All these fruits and vegetables are all good for me. Some of them taste good, some of them taste bad, but they're all good for me. Does everybody understand? That's the Christian life. Okay, then let's say I go and go to the junkiest, most junk food place. Just some total junk food, Chuck E. Cheese or something, right? That pizza at Chuck E. Cheese is nasty, and now I haven't been there in over a decade. Maybe they fixed it, but did they fix it? No. All right. Here's the thing about Chuck E. Cheese pizza, it's bad, but guess what? It's not like, well, it tastes bad, but it's good for you. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's bad upon bad. I mean, look, if you go to McDonald's, and some of it tastes good, and some of it tastes bad, the stuff that tastes bad, it's bad for you also, so it's like bad upon bad, whereas at least the bad tasting vegetables are doing something good for you. The bad tasting junk food, it's like, wow, this was bad for me, and it tasted bad. So here's the thing. You go through the Christian life, some parts of the Christian life taste good, oh, man, my husband loves me, this tastes great. My husband's providing and paying the bills, that tastes great. Oh, my husband is faithful, he's not committing adultery, that's great. Right. Oh, I have to submit to my husband, you know, bleh, oh, man, you know, dress modestly, but it's good for you. But over here, when you're out here worldly, getting drunk, taking drugs, getting tattoos, your husband's cheating on you, all that, that's just bad. There's no silver lining. Do you understand what I'm saying? There's no benefit, there's nothing good, it's just bad is bad is bad, whereas over here, even the bad is good. It's like that bad tasting vegetable, but you got your vitamin A, and you got a nutrient that you need. So the point of the sermon today is that all of life is pros and cons, benefits and drawbacks, good and evil, but here's the thing, in Christ, even the so-called bad things or negative things end up being good, whereas over here, it's just bad is bad is bad. All things work together for good to them that love God. Go to Genesis chapter 3. I mean, you think that Christians are the only ones that have problems? Guess what? Other people have problems. You say, oh, I'm so sick of being a Christian because I keep getting stabbed in the back by hypocrites from church. Phonies at church have been stabbing me in the back. Hey, I got news for you, out in the world, people stab you in the back out there, too. You say, well, I don't want to go to church because church is filled with hypocrites. Well, you know what else is filled with hypocrites? The post office. The grocery store. You know what else is filled with hypocrites? Your sports team, your college class, your high school, your junior high, your job. The world is full of hypocrites because human beings are sinners and they're often hypocrites. You say, oh, Christians are hypocrites. Yeah, but so is everybody else. This whole world's filled with hypocrites. So you say, well, I'm not going to go to church. There's too many hypocrites. Well, then, you know, you can't go anywhere then. You can't have any friends because guess what? Your Christian friends have stabbed you in the back. Guess what? Your friends will stab you in the back. And you know, you sit there and say, oh, man, you know, in church, there's so many people who let me down. I mean, you know, Pastor Romero and all that stuff he was into, you think that he's the only one who did that stuff? Because all I know is that every time I drive by the casino, the parking lot's full. Okay, I live in Arizona. I don't care if I'm driving by at Tuesday 10 a.m. or Friday night at 7 p.m., Sunday, Tuesday, it doesn't matter if it's 4 a.m. or 4 p.m., it can be any time, any day, and those casinos are packed. Okay, are they all packed with pastors and Christians? No, they're packed with a bunch of wicked, sinful people. And every single person who's in that parking lot taking their hard-earned money and flushing it down the toilet at a casino, guess what? They're hurting the people in their lives. That casino parking lot is filled with husbands who are hurting their wives, wives who are hurting their husbands, parents who are hurting their children, children who are hurting their parents. Why? Because sin hurts the people around us, and you say, oh, it's just Christians or hypocrites. Hey, the world's filled with sinful, wicked people. In fact, it's worse than you think. Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? Don't get this attitude that is so great out there in the world. Let me tell you something. It's way better living the Christian life and being in church is way better than anything that the world has out there to offer. And you know what? If you're a godly Christian and you get stabbed in the back, guess what? There's a silver lining to that because God's going to bless your faithfulness when you remain faithful in spite of being stabbed in the back. And you know what? When you get stabbed in the back, you're a partaker of the sufferings of Christ because he got stabbed in the back by Judas Iscariot. He had his close friend, Judas Iscariot, betray him unto death. And so when that happens to you, guess what? You're joining the club, and guess who's in that club, Jesus. And so today, when bad things happen to you, realize that getting out of church isn't the answer, quitting on God isn't the answer, curse God and die isn't the answer, getting out of church isn't the answer, you'll have just as many problems out there. In fact, you'll have more problems out there. And the problems that you have out there have no silver lining. No vitamins. It's just a life of just Chuck E. Cheese pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner and everything that goes with it. Tastes like cardboard and it makes you sick. Let's stay on the subject of the wives a little bit and then we'll get on the husbands a little bit. Genesis chapter 3 verse 16, unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow. Let's just stop right there. Does this sound like he's being positive or negative right now? I'm going to multiply your sorrow. Now let me ask you this. Is he sending good things or evil things right now? And what did Job say? Well, are we just going to receive good things from the hand of God and not the evil things? So here's something negative. In fact, this is God bringing judgment upon sin, so he's placing a curse upon the woman and then he's going to place a curse upon the man and he's going to curse the earth. He's going to curse the ground. What does he say? I'll greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. What does thy conception mean? It means I'm going to multiply your conception, meaning you're going to have a lot of babies. You're not going to have a few. It's going to multiply. You're going to have a lot. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. So he's saying because you've done wrong, your husband's going to rule over you. You're going to have more sorrow. You're going to multiply children and you're going to bring forth children in sorrow. Because having children is painful. It's a painful experience to have children. That experience is going to be multiplied, meaning it's going to happen many times. It's going to be very painful and you're going to be ruled over by your husband, right? Then he turns around to the man and unto Adam he said, verse 17, because thou is hearken unto the voice of thy wife and is Eden of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life, thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. Is this a blessing or a cursing? It's a cursing. He's not blessing Adam right now. When he blessed him he said, hey, be fruitful, multiply, have dominion over the earth. Here he's saying, hey, you're cursed and in the sweat of your face you're going to eat your bread. The earth's going to bring forth thorns and thistles and so forth. But here's the thing, folks, even in these cursings from God, even in these judgments from God, even with God being negative toward you here and giving you something that you don't like, sorrow, weeds, thorns, thistles, hard work by the sweat of your face, giving birth to children in pain and suffering, even in God giving you these negative things, you know there's a silver lining to all of this? All of these things are actually going to benefit you in the end. Because even though the woman has pain in childbirth, when she gives birth, she's joyous and happy because a man is brought into the world. And not only that, but pain and suffering make us a better person. The Bible says it's good for me that I've been afflicted that I might keep thy word. And even the thorns and the thistles and having to work hard, nothing makes a man happier than working hard? I mean think about it, when you go out, men, and you work by the sweat of your face and you work hard and you come home exhausted, it feels good. To do a good day's work feels good. You know it feels good to go out and pull weeds. It feels good to go out and work by the sweat of your face and do some back-breaking work. It's actually good for you. You know who the most miserable people are? Lazy people. Men who don't have a job, they're depressed, they're sad, they feel bad about themselves. When they have a job and they're producing something and they're being effective, that feels good. The harder they work, the better they feel. Even scientifically, it releases endorphins to work hard. Going through pain releases endorphins, okay? And they're feel-good endorphins. People take drugs, they're going straight to the endorphins, okay? But actually, a natural way to feel that high is to go out and work hard. And you'll feel a healthy kind of good kind of high, okay? From hard work through going through the pain of doing something physical and hard and laborious. So even the so-called bad things from God or the so-called evil things from the hand of the Lord, they have a benefit. They have a silver lining. They're actually good for you in the end, whereas the sorrow that the world brings is just a sorrow of just death and destruction and gloom, and there's nothing good about it. There just isn't anything good about it. So let's talk about the children. Go to Ephesians chapter 6. So we talked a little bit about men and women, how women, they just want to have the parts of the Christian life that they like, and then they reject other parts. Well, you know what? Actually, did you know that women obeying their husband actually makes them happy? It feels good for a wife to obey her husband. It feels good for a wife to submit herself unto her husband. That feels good. Just like it feels good for a man to go out and work hard and bring home a paycheck. It's good for everybody. Even these so-called negative things about Christian women, oh, they have to dress modestly. That's good. Oh, they have to have a lot of children. That's good. Oh, they had a homeschool. Great. These things are all good things. They're good for you. They make you smarter, healthier, happier, and a better person. They're great. They're the vegetables of the Christian life, that you need to eat your vegetables, okay? And not just want to just eat the french fries and eat the mashed potatoes and the meat and then just push aside the vegetables. Eat your whole plate. Whatever God gives you, you eat it, all of it. You eat what's on your plate, amen? So we talked a little bit about the wise. What about a husband who says, oh, man, this Christian marriage sounds great. My wife obeys me? My wife's going to submit to me? Great. Sounds great. But then he doesn't want to provide. He doesn't want to be faithful. He doesn't want to work hard. You know, I had a guy come to me one time and say, hey, you know, how do you get your wife to submit to you and obey you and everything? You know, I want some of that. He was living with his girlfriend. I said, well, step one, get married. You can't sit there and have this concubine and you're not even married to her and then you expect to just implement Christian principles of marriage when you're not even married? You see what I mean? They're trying to have their cake and eat it too. You got to take the whole package, folks. And it's all good for you. It's all a blessing. In the end, Job was happy. He is the man whom God correcteth, despised not the chastening of the Almighty, right? Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. So what about, we talked about husbands and wives, what about children? What's it like to be a child in a Christian home? I'll bet you there are children growing up in a Christian home who think that, oh, man, I wish I could be in public school. I wish that my parents were worldly. I wish they allowed me to do all the worldly things. You don't think that thought ever enters a foolish child's mind? So what are the benefits of a Christian childhood? Well, you have a stable home life. Your parents stay married and you learn the gospel so you don't go to hell. That's a pretty good benefit, right? Your parents teach you the gospel so you don't split hell wide open. You're actually going to heaven. That's a huge benefit. And you know what? Your parents are staying married. Your parents are taking you to church. These are all the good things. But you say, oh, but what about the rules? It's too strict, right? So that would be like on the negative column from a carnal perspective, right? Yeah, I've got a loving mom and dad. They spend time with me. They provide for me. They provide a stable home life. They're going to stay married. They take me to church. I know the gospel. I know the truth. I've got wisdom, knowledge, and understanding from that. But all these rules are too strict or whatever, right? Look what the Bible says in Ephesians 6, 1. Don't obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee. That sounds like a pretty good benefit. And thou mayest live long on the earth. That sounds like a pretty good benefit. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Hey, having parents that bring you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is a blessing. And you get to have things go well for you. You get to live long on the earth. Sounds great. You go to heaven when you die because you got the gospel from your parents that are Christian. Amen. Oh, but my parents don't let me go to the rock concert. They didn't let me go and watch that movie I wanted to watch, and they don't let me listen to music I want to listen to. Look folks, there's pros and cons to everything. You know what? You want to go grow up in a home where you can watch all the crap that Hollywood puts out. You can listen to all the music and all the sodomite music, and you can listen to all the junk out there, and you can go to the rock concerts, and you can party and do drugs and drink. Guess what? There's a whole lot of negatives on that side of the column. A lot of pain, a lot of heartache, a lot of suffering, a lot of bad times. Hey, there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, the end thereof of the ways of death. Okay. So if we line up all the pros and cons of living a Christian childhood and the pros and cons of living the worldly childhood, you better be thankful every single day that you live in a Christian home. You better be thankful every single day that your parents are taking you to church and serving the Lord. Boy, that is so good for you because other people are out messing up their lives, ruining their lives, ruining their bodies, ruining their soul. I mean, they're just destroying themselves in every way. Thank God you're in a Christian home, right? And you know, whatever drawbacks, you just shut up and receive the good and the evil. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Your parents give, your parents take away, blessed be your parents. And let me explain something to you. You have a wrong view of your parents, you have a wrong view of God. Because your parents represent God. Because God is our Father which is in heaven. He's our Father which is in heaven. Have you noticed how the Ten Commandments kind of break down to five and five, right? Because you've got the first five dealing with God and the next five deal with your relationship with man, okay? So the command, the latter commandments are, you know, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet thy neighbors, whatever. So all those five commandments, they all have to do with us and our neighbor. Don't steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't lie about him, don't desire his stuff or covet his stuff. That's over here. Now let's look at the first five that deal with God, right? We got thou shalt have no other gods before me, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, honor thy father and mother. Now I don't think it's four and six, I think it's five and five, because I think honor thy father is about your father in heaven, and you know what, when you honor your father on this earth, that is preparing you to honor your father in heaven. And if you can't honor your father on earth whom you have seen, how can you honor your father in heaven whom you've not seen? It's easy to just talk about this abstract concept of, oh, God in heaven, our father in heaven, but you know what, what about your father on this earth, he's right there, take a look at him, and if you can't honor, well, but he's not God, well, you know what, if you can't honor him, you can't honor the father in heaven because you know he's appointed by God. Who is the one who said, children obey your parents, who said that again? Who came up with that? Who came up with this thing of honor your father and mother, who made that rule? The Lord made that rule. So if you disobey your parents, who are you actually disobeying? You're actually disobeying God. You dishonor your parents, who are you actually being disrespectful to? You're actually being disrespectful to the God who ordained your parents in that position. And we live in a day that dishonors their mom and dad, that disobeys their parents, that has no respect for their parents, it's wicked, friend, and we need to honor our father and mother. Now, I think about this in my life, not only are my children growing up in a Christian home, and some of them are here tonight, they're growing up in a pastor's home. Now there are some pros and cons to growing up in a pastor's home, right? Here's some of the benefits that they have growing up in a pastor's home, they get to travel with me. So this is a cool trip for them right now. They get to come to LA, and they get to enjoy all the stops at Chipotle and Panera and different places along the way. They get to see a fun place and get to enjoy the trip. They get to fly with me when I go preach different places, so that's kind of a cool benefit to being a pastor's kid. They get to travel with me and enjoy those trips, go on missions trips and stuff like that, it's pretty cool, right? And also, sometimes people will treat them better because they're Pastor Anderson's kids, so they'll treat them a little bit better because, oh, you're the pastor's kids, we're going to treat you well, we're not just going to dish you and whatever because it's the pastor's kids. But then there are also some negative things to being a pastor's kids, like the devil's got a big target on you. So I mean, the devil's got you in his crosshairs because you're one of the pastor's kids, and the devil wants to bring the pastor down, so he's going to try to bring the kids down in order to try to bring the pastor down, right? Think about that. Not only that, but some people are going to, well, everybody's going to hold them to a higher standard. So they have to live up to a higher standard, they have to excel in their Christian life because people are looking at them, whether they like it or not, as an example. And if they go out and do worldly things and stupid things and sinful things, you know what that's going to do? That's going to lead everyone else around them to say, oh, well, if Pastor Anderson's kids are doing it, well, then I guess we can do it too. And in fact, we'll take it even a step further than they took it because they're Pastor Anderson's kids, we're just Joe Church members' kids, we can be even more worldly, we can be even more simple. So what you get as a pastor's kid are you get privileges, but you also get some responsibilities. What you get in any Christian home, you get some privileges growing up in that Christian home, and you have some responsibilities because unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required. So even though, yeah, people are asking more of my kids because they're pastor's kids, any Christian child who grows up in a Christian home, God's going to ask more of you. I guarantee you, God expects more out of me growing up in a Christian home than somebody who grew up in a worldly, simple home. Because I grew up having all these people investing in me, I had Sunday school teachers teaching me the Bible, my parents teaching me the Bible, pastors preaching to me, so all of this investment was made in my life. God's looking at me saying, hey, you know what's right. You better do it. Don't you dare go out and live a sinful life, Steven Anderson, because you grew up in a Christian home, you know better. You better go out and keep my commandments and live for me. But you say, well, yeah, I want to take the benefits, but don't talk to me about those responsibilities. You know what you're like? You're like Job's wife, and you're speaking like a foolish woman speaketh. And Job said, he put it mildly when he said, hey, thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. Are we going to receive good from the hand of God, but we're not going to receive evil? So isn't it great for you that God saved you? Let's talk to everybody now. We talked to the mothers, we talked to the fathers, the husbands, the wives, the children. Now let's just talk to everybody. Everybody who is here tonight, are you saved tonight? Say amen if you're saved tonight. Amen. Let me ask you this. You've been saved. Boy, you want to receive that free gift, don't you? You like that free gift, don't you? Okay, well, guess what? God wants to require something of you now. Oh, well, count me out. Hey, everybody, free gift, eternal life. Let's do it. Let's do it. I'll confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus right now. Believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead. Great. Free gift. Hey, we go out and we knock doors, and you know what we find every single week? We find people that are willing to take the free gift, don't we? How many people today went out so early and you found somebody out there that was willing to accept the free gift? Okay, so that person's here right now, right? I mean, they're here. They're going to be in church every service, right? They're going to be a soul winner. They're going to live for God. No, because a lot of people are willing to take the free gift. But then when you start to tell them, okay, now you're bought with the price now. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. It's like, oh, I'm busy on Sunday. Does everybody hear what I'm saying? And look, I'm glad those people accepted the free gift. Hey, if I can get somebody out of hell, even if they never show up to church, even if they never live for God, I'm still glad I got that person out of hell, amen? Let's pull them out of the fire. Let's get as many people saved as we can. I'm not being negative about soul winning. Here's what I'm telling you, though. I'm telling you that after you get saved, God wants you to do more, not just take the free gift and just sit on it. Is that what you're going to do? You're going to take that free gift of eternal life and just sit on it? No. He said, what? No, ye not. That's the thing Job said. What? What did Job say to his wife? What? What? What? Are we going to receive good from the Lord, but we're not going to receive the evil things? What does Paul say? What? No, ye not, that you're bought with a price. You're not your own. What? You don't know that? You're not your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And today, we have a generation of Christians that want to hear all about the free gift. They want to hear all about God's grace, and they want to hear about the love of God. But then when you start telling them about the do's and the don'ts, all of a sudden they say, well, I hate religion. I love Jesus. I hate religion, but I love Jesus. Well, here's what they're saying. Give me the free gift and then ask me to do nothing. Give me the free gift. I don't want to do any work. I don't want to obey the rules. I don't want to keep Christ's commandments. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. But today, we have Christians. They want to take the free gift of salvation, but then they don't want to do the work that God has before ordained that we should do. What did he say? For by grace are you saved through faith, and then not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works that God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Hey, I'm glad you're saved. All right, now grab a shovel and get to work. You're saved? Okay, good. Let's put you to work. Let's get you out in the vineyard and get you to work. Here's the great commission. Win them, wet them, work them. Win them, get them saved, wet them, dunk them under water, work them. Get them out doing the works. Teach them to observe all things that Christ commanded. Win them, wet them, work them. That's the program for the New Testament church. Hey, you've been one, great. You got wet, great. Now let's put you to work. We need to understand that God has some things in the Bible that we're going to like and things that we're not going to like. Let's take it all. God puts a plate in front of us today. And on that plate is something that we like, filet mignon right here. Oh man, I like that. Mashed potatoes. Oh, I like that. Man, that sounds good. What's a vegetable you don't like? Somebody call it a vegetable you don't like. Asparagus is wonderful. Okay, but I'll go with your illustration. So you got your filet mignon, you got your mashed potatoes, and you got your asparagus. And you know what you want to do? You want to eat your steak, you want to eat your potatoes, and just leave that asparagus. And then you say, give me dessert, God. Give me my ice cream. Give me a brownie. You need to watch Sugar the Bitter Truth, right? Dr. Rito will teach you about that. Hey, you need to eat that asparagus and you're not getting up from the table until you finish your asparagus, buddy. I don't care whether you like it or not, you finish your food. Because when God gives you food on your plate, you eat it. I'm not coming to this restaurant again. They make you finish your food. Does everybody see what I'm saying? You got to eat everything that God gives you. Guess what? It's good for you. He put it on your plate for a reason and it's not optional. He didn't say eat this if you like it. He said clean your plate. Clean your plate. Eat that food. Eat that asparagus. And you know what? You're going to learn eventually to like it. After you've eaten it 11 times on the 12th time, you'll say, you know what? I like asparagus. You know what? God has brought these trials and tribulations in my life. I'm starting to like them, starting to enjoy the fight, starting to thrive on the adversity. It's like running. The first time you go running, it's painful and you feel like you're going to throw up or you do throw up. Who's ever gone out running and thrown up? Okay. The rest of you haven't even been running yet. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, look, I remember the beginning of basketball practice doing wind sprints, the beginning of the season when I was 12 years old and you know what? Everybody's in the bathroom throwing up and it's like all right, get out here and do it more after you puke. Now, I don't know whose idea it was to put PE right after lunch, but it was a bad idea. Okay. But anyway, hey, I remember many times doing a workout or even doing a lot of pull ups and stuff and then just throwing up because your body is just like, whoa there, buddy, relax. But guess what? Eventually, you get to a point where running feels good, where it feels great to exercise, where you get used to it. You start to like it. You start to like foods you didn't like. You start to like exercises that you didn't like. You start to enjoy. At first, maybe it's a drag unto you to submit to your husband, obey your husband, do as you're told. But eventually, you'll say, you know what? I like this. I like being a submitted wife. I like being an obedient wife. I like living the Christian life. But first, you got to just force it down and shove the asparagus in your mouth, wash it down with a bunch of water or whatever, mix it with enough mashed potatoes in the bite. Part of the problem is you ate all the steak and mashed potatoes and you're left with just asparagus. What you need to do is spread out that asparagus a little in every bite. Get a bite with a little steak on it, little potatoes, and a little asparagus, and then that all kind of helps it. You can get it all done. Or better yet, eat all the asparagus first. Just get it out of the way. Just get it out of the way, and then you can just, for the joy that is set before you, you just endure the cross, despising the shame, but you're doing it for the joy. Folks, this is called maturity, right? It's called having character. This have my cake and eat it too is a wicked philosophy. It's a curse God and die philosophy. Instead of a philosophy that says, hey, the Lord gave, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Yeah, my parents got on my case. My parents gave me a spanking. My parents took away my video game. But guess what? They also paid my bills, fed me nutritious food, preached me the word of God. I love my parents. I honor my parents. Hey, my parents, they spanked me with a sailboat rod, which is, you don't know what that is? I'll just tell you what it is. It's the worst thing to be spanked with on the planet. It snaps like a whip. It's super hard and painful, and you know what? But I thank God for every time my parents spanked me. I thank my parents. I said to my mom and dad, thank you for spanking me. Thank you for disciplining me. Thank you for being hard on me, because you know what? You made me who I am today, and anything that's good about me, it came from my Christian upbringing and the discipline I got as a kid. Thank you, mom and dad. Thank you for driving 45 minutes each way to take me to a good church. When there was a liberal church right down the street, my parents drove me 30, 40 minutes each way to church often. Why? Because they cared about getting me to the best church. And you know what? What if they would have just went to whatever's close? I wouldn't be here right now, okay? You think I just came out of a vacuum? You think I just came out of a bubble, like all of a sudden I was just born Pastor Anderson? No. I was a punk teenager, not Pastor Anderson, Steven Anderson. How did I get to become Pastor Anderson? Because people invested in me, preached to me, taught me. My parents disciplined me. I was led to a point where I could pastor a local church, okay? So what went into getting me where I am right now? A lot of good things and a lot of evil things. A lot of tasty things and a lot of vegetables that I had to force down and plug my nose and eat them and wash them down with water, but you know what? I got them down my gullet. And that's the Christian life, folks. Turn if you would to Joshua chapter 8, Joshua chapter number 8, Joshua chapter number 8. You know teenagers, they want to move out when they turn 18, right? When I turn 18 I'm going to move out, I'm going to live on my own, I'm going to do things my way. Hey, you know what? I felt the exact same way when I was 12, when I was 13, when I was 14, when I was 15, and when I was 16, that's how I felt. I felt, you know what? When I turn 18, I'm moving out. I'm going to move out on my 18th birthday. That's what I would have said when I was 13, 14, 15, and 16. But you know what? When I became 17 and I got into an independent fundamental Baptist church and I heard the word of God preached and I got right with God, I didn't feel that way anymore. And let me tell you why. Because I remember making a statement about my dad. Because my dad was strict and he was, from my perspective as a rebellious teenager or a typical teenager or whatever, I felt like my dad was unreasonable, impossible to please. And I remember one time I said to my brother, I can remember saying this like yesterday, I can picture us in my room and me looking at my brother and saying to my brother, if Jesus lived in this house, he would get yelled at every day. I said if baby Jesus would have been born, this is what I told my brother, I said if baby Jesus would have been born in this house, totally without sin, totally perfect, if he were in this house, he would get yelled at. That's what I said to my brother. And guess what? I was wrong. I was 100% wrong. And let me tell you how I know I was wrong. Because when I turned 17, I started going to Regency Baptist Church and getting some real preaching. You know, because I was in some liberal watered down churches for four or five years. But I got in a fundamental Baptist Church, I got the hard preaching, and you know what I did? I changed my behavior. And you know what I started doing? I started thinking about things from my parents' perspective. I started helping out around the house. I mean, I would just go and do dishes without even being asked. I would just look for things and do them and just try to help out and try to be nice and obey. And you know what? I saw my parents' attitude toward me change like that. Like that. I mean, it went from just my dad always being on my case and me always getting into trouble and my dad's yelling at me and I'm getting in trouble. It just went to just my dad just being like, what can we do for you, son? I'm not even kidding. I mean, my parents, it's like they just want to do anything for me to help me out. It's like, hey, can we help you get a car? Let's help you do this. What do you want? I mean, it was just like they treated me so well because guess what? I started treating them well. And you know what? You reap what you sow. Guess what? If you start treating your parents well and obeying your parents and being respectful to your parents, you know what? They're going to start being more respectful toward you. They're going to start treating you well. And you know what? To this day, I have a great relationship with my mom and dad. I love my mom and dad. I enjoy spending time with my mom and dad. I talk to my mom and dad on a regular basis. My mom and dad support my ministry. They are proud of me and we have a great relationship. But you know what? It's because of the fact that I realized that I was wrong. That I was wrong instead of just, oh, it's their fault. If Jesus were here, they'd treat him bad. You know, if Jesus were here, he'd be getting in trouble. He'd be getting yelled at. Jesus would not have gotten yelled at in my home, friend. Jesus would not have gotten beaten with that sailboat rod. I got beat with a sailboat rod because I was being an idiot. My parents yelled at me because I was wrong. My parents yelled at me because they cared about me and they were rebuking me, trying to get me to understand their wisdom. And look, were my parents perfect? No. My parents were not perfect. But you know what? My parents were Christians and they loved the Lord. They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. They were sincere in their faith. And let me tell you something, when I drew nigh to them, they drew nigh to me. And you know what? You have to understand that there are going to be pros and cons to living the Christian life and being a Christian teenager or a Christian child. But the good outweighs the bad and even the bad is for your own good. Okay. Now moving out sounds great until you get the bill. Because guess what? Moving out is a lot of money that you have to pay every month. You know, when you're responsible for the rent and you're responsible for your own food and all of a sudden laundry, what? Because let me tell you something, you know, my mom did the laundry and made food and everything like that. You know, I never had to do that on my own. I went straight from my mom to my wife. So I don't even know what it is to like cook all my own meals, do all my own laundry. That's a foreign concept to me. You say, oh, but my parents make me do all kinds of chores. Well guess what? You're going to have a lot of chores when you're out living by yourself. You're going to go to work for eight hours, then you're going to come home and it's time to head to the laundromat. And sit at the laundromat for two hours, watching your laundry go around and around and around. And you know, all those rolls of quarters that you think, oh man, now I can finally play all the video games I want to play. Let me tell you the video game you're going to play. You're going to play Laundroman. It's not Pac-Man, it's Laundroman. You think it's Mortal Kombat, it's going to be, you know, laundry combat. You're going to be like, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo and it's like, finish him, throw it in the dryer. Push start, excellent. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. Hey guess what? Your real world is going to teach you when it slaps you upside the head that your parents actually did a lot for you. And you know what, yeah, are there some benefits to going out and being on your own, doing your own thing? Of course there are benefits, but there are drawbacks. And guess what, at least when you're obeying your parents and doing what's right, when you leave father and mother to cleave to your wife instead of leaving father and mother because you turned 18 and you want to go out and party, hey, if you do it God's way, even the bad things, quote unquote, end up being good. When you get outside the will of God, it's bad on bad. It's Chuck E. Cheese pizza in your mouth and it's Chuck E. Cheese pizza in your intestines. It's just junk on the way in and it's junk through and through, folks. At least the asparagus is doing good things for your gut. Did I have you turn to Joshua? So I think I'm running low on time here, so let me just focus on church now. We've talked a lot about your personal life, families, kids, teenagers, husbands, wives, parents, children, right? But what about churches? Aren't there a lot of churches where they just want the positive? So it's like, what? Are we only going to receive good from the hand of the Lord and not the evil? So here's what they want. They want the positive preaching but not the negative preaching. And let me tell you something, I've been a pastor for 13 years and I've been in a fundamental Baptist soul-winning church for longer than that. That would be like, since I was, that'd be 20 years, I've spent 20 years plus going to a red-hot, soul-winning, independent, fundamental Baptist church, and I also went to churches like that as a small child, and you know what I've found is that there are a lot of people out there, a lot of people out there, you know what their dream church is? Their dream church is all the good doctrine of faithful word and all the soul-winning of faithful word without the hard preaching against sin and the strict rules. That's their dream church. Folks, there are a lot of people who want us to be a doctrinally sound, soul-winning Joel Osteen. They want Joel Osteen but with doctrinal soundness. They want Joel Osteen with a King James in his hand. They want Joel Osteen out soul-winning. They want everything about faithful word except the face-ripping. Give us the doctrine of faithful word. Give us the soul-winning of faithful word. Give us the love of faithful word, but we don't want to hear that sermon on the sodomites. We don't want to hear the sermon on clothing. We don't want to hear the sermon about obeying your parents. We don't want to hear that sermon about obeying your husband. We don't want to hear that sermon against birth control or whatever. They want it without the, look folks, I could list for you. I'm not going to name names, but I can think of a ton of people that I know that's their dream church, and I'll bet you know some people like that too. Maybe you are that person. And every once in a while we get these guys who come through faithful word, and they want to be a pastor someday, and you know what they want to do? They want to be that guy that I just described. They think, I'm going to take all the good stuff about Pastor Anderson. I'm going to take all the good stuff about faithful word, because obviously he's doing something that's succeeding. I mean the church is growing, it's thriving, people are being saved, but man, think about how much more Pastor Anderson could do if we just get rid of all the junk about Pastor Anderson. If we could just get rid of Pastor Anderson's bad attitude, if we could just get rid of his old-fashioned attitude toward the home, or just get rid of his kick about why he's so against the queers. If we could just tone that down, we could get the best of both worlds. And they think they could be like a nice, sweetness and light version of faithful word, and they would just have so much more success. Pastor Anderson's got some good things going for him, but he's got a lot of things holding him back, you know, the negative stuff. I mean look, we get guys who come through, and I'm constantly explaining in the preaching class, and when I've taught on this, I've constantly explained, look folks, if you want to duplicate the success of faithful word, if you want to duplicate the works that we've accomplished, you know what, you're going to have to take the whole package. Now I'm not saying you're going to have to be exactly like us. Because faithful word Baptist church is not perfect. Neither the Tempe version of faithful word Baptist church, nor the LA branch of faithful word Baptist church is perfect. I'm not perfect, and brother Mejia's not perfect. Our church isn't perfect, we're not perfect, and would to God that the next generation of preachers that we send out is better than us. And tightens things up and sharpens things up and does even better than us. But you know what? The guy who says, well I'm going to take all the positives of Pastor Anderson and get rid of all the negatives, that's not the guy who's improving things, folks. That's the guy who has ruined the formula. You understand what I'm saying? Look folks, orange chicken at Panda Express tastes good. It tastes good, okay? Now look, maybe you could do a little tweak to it and make it taste even better. Well this is just a theory now, okay? This is a theory. But let me tell you something, if you sit there and say, well I'm going to make orange chicken not spicy at all, no. You're going to ruin it. Or well I'm going to keep all the spice and just get rid of all the, it's too sweet, let's just get rid of all the sugar out of it. You ruined it. Look I can understand, yeah we need a little tweak here, a little tweak that, excuse me. We need all that singing before the service. I had so much fun singing with you guys. But singing always just destroys my throat. But it was worth it. I had fun, all right? It was worth it. I would do it again. Especially because the sermon's almost over, I'm going to make it to the end. But look, a little tweak here, tighten this up, right? Dial this in a little bit better, but you can't just dramatically change the formula and expect the orange chicken to still taste good, okay? Guess what? Faithful Word Baptist Church is a true Bible preaching church that reaches a lot of people and does a lot of great work for God. Now look, there are things that I'm constantly learning and I want to improve things and I want to fix problems and get better. And when I visit other churches, I'm taking notes of things, hey maybe I can improve this back home or learn from this, learn from that. But don't sit there and say, well let's just throw out the whole soul winning program or let's just throw out the whole hard preaching. You know, at that point it's not even orange chicken anymore folks. Don't reinvent the wheel. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say I'm hungry and I haven't had dinner. That's true too though. But what am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that a church that's all positive, no negative, is going to fail. Oh, think about how many more people we could reach if we weren't ripping faith. You'll reach less people. You'll reach less people folks. Because as soon as you say, hey we're going to do all the positive stuff about Faithful Word and we're going to get rid of all the negatives, guess what you're going to have? A church filled with sin. Your church, if you don't rip on the fornication, rip on drinking, rip on drugs, rip on the tattoos and the worldliness and the carnal lifestyle, guess what's going to happen? Your church is going to become a den of iniquity. And then let's see how many souls you win then. Let's see how pure the doctrine stays when you're bringing in a bunch of Judases and Sodomites. Look, we clean house of those people. That's how we keep the doctrine pure. That's how we keep the church a soul winning powerhouse because we're constantly keeping it clean and filtering out the garbage. We're constantly taking out the trash folks. That's part of the program. And you know what? Receive the good things that God gives you through Faithful Word and receive the things that are negative because they're all part of God's plan. And if not, then pray tell me why there's so much hard preaching in the Bible if I'm not supposed to be doing it. Why are there so many hard sermons? Because we're supposed to be doing the hard preaching, that's why. And so Joshua chapter 8 verse 34 says this, afterward he read all the words of the law, all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers that were conversant among them. Last place, Mark chapter 10, Mark chapter 10, what's the sermon about? It's called receiving the good and the evil. What? Are we only going to receive the good from God and we're not going to receive the evil? You speak like a foolish woman speaketh. You speak like a foolish woman speaketh if you're only willing to take the good from God and not the evil. Hey, whatever God puts on my plate, I'm ready to eat it. I'm going to receive it all. I'm going to give thanks in all things. What does the Bible say in Mark chapter 10 verse 29? And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, there's no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels. That's negative, right? To lose all that stuff? But he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands. Boy, that sounds great. Receiving a hundredfold. Oh, but what's that last little prepositional phrase there? With persecutions. Say, well, no, I don't want that. Give me the hundredfold. Give me the houses. Give me the sisters. Give me the brothers. Give me the friends. Give me the lands. Guess what? You've got to have the persecutions. You've got to receive the good and the evil, friend. And it says, and in the world to come, eternal life, eternal life. But notice, you received the hundredfold in this life. Did you see that? Look down at that verse. You get eternal life in the next life in the world to come. But now in this time, you say, Pastor Anderson, you expect me to believe that if I give up my house, I'm going to get a hundred houses. You expect me to believe that if I give up my brother, I'm going to get a hundred brothers. Let me tell you something, I do expect you to believe that because that's what the Bible says. You say, well, how does this work practically? Let me tell you how it works. Let's say your brother forsakes you because you're living for Christ now, and your brother says, I want nothing to do with you. I want nothing to do with you. You're not my brother anymore. You don't think that happens? Because guess what? That happens. Well, then you know what? You show up at church, and you know what I got here at church? And don't get me wrong, my brother has not forsaken me. My brother is still my brother. Thankfully, I have a good relationship with my brother and my two sisters, as well as my parents. Praise God. But you know what? This is my brother. This is my brother, right? This is my brother. I got my brother, my brother, my brother. I got my brother, my brother, my brother, my brother. Look at all these brothers tonight. I got all kinds of brothers. I guarantee you I have way more than a hundred brothers, and I didn't even have to give up my first brother, and I still have hundreds of brothers. And then look at all these sisters I have, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister. Filled with sisters. How about my mother? Okay, I'm not going to point out the ladies in here that are my mother, all right? You know, Jesus pointed out and said, hey, behold my brother, my sister, my mother. Isn't that what he said? You say, well, how do you have a hundred houses? Well, you know what? I guarantee you that there are way more than a hundred people. If I snap my fingers, they would say, you can stay at my house. I could call over a hundred people easily and say, hey, I'm in a jam. Can I crash on your sofa? Do you have a spare bedroom for me? Can I sleep in a guest bedroom? They'd say, come on over, Pastor Anderson. Come on over. You know what? That means God's given me a hundred houses. Yeah, but you don't own a hundred. Hey, I don't want to own a hundred houses. Well, I don't want to own a hundred, what are you going to do with a hundred houses? But you know what? It's nice to know that if I'm ever out on the street, if I'm ever down on my luck, there's a hundred houses. I could go knock on the door and they'll say, come on in, Brother Anderson. Come on in, my brother. Here's your lodging. Stay here. I'll be like, all right, wife, kids, come on in. Whoa, buddy. You say I gave up my land. I gave up my homeland, right? I gave up the Philippines or I gave up Mexico or I gave up, you know, whatever. Hey, I've been banned from five countries. I had to give up Canada. Oh, that was hard. I had to give up South Africa. I had to give up those places. But you know what? What about the hundred, what about the hundred countries, the hundred countries where people are listening to my preaching right now, right? So I, you know, hey, I'm an honorary Hungarian. I'm an honorary German. I'm an honorary Mexican, right? Hey, look, folks, other countries will receive me. So you say, well, but, you know, you had to give up that one country or let's say you had to give up the United States or you had to give up the Philippines or Mexico and that's your homeland. Guess what your homeland is? It's heaven. And it's a hundred times better than your nationality down here. I don't care how cool you think Hungary or Romania or Germany or Spain is. Guess what? Having a citizen of heaven is better. So you can see how you give up houses, brethren, sisters, mothers, children, lands. Look at all my children, right? Everybody I want to Christ is my child. If I want a hundred people to Christ, I have a hundred children, right? Hundred brethren, hundred sisters, a hundred houses, a hundred lands. Folks, the Christian life is filled with benefits and there are drawbacks. Something's going to be asked of you. You're going to have to go through some pain. You're going to have to go through some sorrow. You're going to have to give some things up. You're going to have to make some sacrifices. You're going to have to follow some rules. You're going to have to do some things that you don't like doing. You're going to have to taste some things that you don't like the taste of, but you know what? All things work together for good to them to love God. And I will take the Christian life any day of the week than the world's way. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. All right, let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the life that you've given us, Lord, the work that you've given us to do. And Lord God, I thank you for every wonderful blessing you've given me, every wonderful meal I've tasted, all the good food I've eaten, all the beautiful sights I've seen, the scenery I've seen, the recreation I've enjoyed, the friends and family that have loved me. But dear God, I also thank you for every time I've been stabbed in the back, slapped in the face, spat upon. I thank you for the times that I failed and was injured and hurt and persecuted, Lord, because I, Lord, am ready to receive both good and evil from your hand. And Lord, I pray that we would have the wisdom to understand that it's worth it to take the good with the evil and to receive whatever you give us. Blessed be your name. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.