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

Amen. All right, it's great to be here. It's always a blessing to visit the Sending Church, and thank you for praying for us. It's always a blessing and fellowship with Pastor Anderson, and thank you so much for being an example to us out in California. And this church, I mean, the best way I could put it is this church is bomb, okay? And I hope I didn't, like, jinx you, you know, for that, but if it happens, it happens, amen? All right, look down at your Bibles. The title of the sermon this evening is Why People Hate Going to Church. Why do people hate going to church? And the answer may surprise you just a little bit. Look at Psalm 84, verse number 10. The Bible reads here, For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Now, here in Psalm 84, we see David expressing his adoration for the house of God. And we obviously know David is a man after God's own heart. He loves the Lord. He loves the Word of God, but he also loves the house of God. He loves being in the assembly of believers. He likes to be in the congregation of God. He loves going to church. Now, go to Psalm 27, if you would. Psalm 27, he says there in Psalm 84 that he loves the house of God so much that he would rather be one day in the house of God than a thousand days anywhere else. And honestly, I could, you know, kind of testify that I'd rather be in the house of God than anywhere else on a Sunday. I'd rather be in the house of God than anywhere else on a Thursday. And he's saying there, I'd rather one day is better than a thousand anywhere else. He even goes as far as to say this, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Now, you think of a doorkeeper, doorkeeper is pretty, pretty lowly position in the house of God. So, you know, whatever position you have is great, but you would think that a doorkeeper is pretty lowly positioned there, but he doesn't care. He says, I'd rather be a doorkeeper. I'd rather open up the doors in the house of God than have any type of superior or superior position anywhere else in the secular realm. I'd rather be in the house of God than anywhere else. This is the same man who prophetically wrote, for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen unto me. He's saying, I am so zealous for God's house. That's actually consuming me a little bit. You know, when I go to the house of God, you know, for us on Sunday morning, Sunday night, for you guys Wednesday, for us over there in California, Thursday nights, I'm consumed with the house of God. It's part of my life. It's part of our life. You know, we don't wake up in the morning thinking, on a Sunday morning, thinking, man, should I go to church? Do I really want to go? You know, you know, does, is pastor, is he gonna preach on me? You know, am I really, I really got to consider, you know, if church is part of your life, you wake up just saying, not even asking the question whether you should go to church or not. You're just like, we're going to church. The zeal of thine house hath eaten us up. Look what it says in Psalm 27, verse number four. He says here in verse number four, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. So he's talking about this one goal that he has. Now obviously I'm sure David had many other goals, but he's specifically emphasizing this right here. He says, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. Folks, if there's one goal you can have in your life that's very honorable and noble is this, to be in the house of God all the days of your life. No matter what happens, no matter what trials you go through, no matter what difficulties you face, no matter what financial crisis you may be experiencing, no matter what health problems you may have, may you have the goal to say, I want to be in the house of God all the days of my life. I want to be in church all the days of my life. One thing have I desired, and that will I seek after, and I would hope that that would be your desire today, to say I want to be in the house of God all the days of my life. I want my children to be in the house of God all the days of their life. I want church to be an essential part of my life. He says in Psalm 26, verse 5, I have hated the congregation of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. Go to Matthew chapter 13, if you would, Matthew chapter 13. Let me read you a familiar portion of scripture in Hebrews chapter number 10, and verse number 24, it says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good work. So, you know, part of the responsibility of being a Christian is encouraging one another, right? You know, inspiring one another, provoking one another unto love and to good works, but where do we do that? Well, he says in verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. So according to the Bible, as we draw closer to the second coming of Christ, we should go to church more. We should assemble with the house of God more, right? And he says, when you do that, you exhort one another, you inspire one another, you provoke one another unto love and to good works. It looks like the Bible is telling us the church is important. It looks like the Bible is emphasizing the fact that assembling ourselves together in the house of God should be something that we delighted. It should be something that we enjoy, but you know what, the same cannot be said for every Christian out there. A lot of Christians actually hate going to church, believe it or not, and I would hope that, and I believe there's no one here that would say, well, I hate going to church, but I'm just here because, you know, it's just got to be here, I guess, you know, just dragging my feet. But you know, there's certain people where the commandments of God are so grievous that they have to drag themselves to church, they don't enjoy coming, and they don't enjoy assembling together with the believers, and I want to give you a couple reasons why. Now before I get into that, let me give you some unfounded reasons and excuses why the world would say people hate going to church, because don't you hear that sometimes? People saying, yeah, you know, people don't, people like you, you're gonna, you know, scare people away from church. You're drawing people away from church. That kind of preaching draws people away from church. It gets people away from God, and here's a couple reasons what they'll say. Okay, number one, how about this, the reason why people hate going to church, because you guys got a bad spirit. How many of you ever heard that before? Just got a bad, you know, Pastor Andrew, I, I like what he says. I just don't really like how he says it. How many times have you heard that? You know, it's like, you know, what he's saying is good. I'm not gonna argue with that, it's good. It's just, you know, the kind of spirit he has, you know, just the way he says it, okay. Well, you know, the Bible says, though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, and here's the thing is that people often say, well, people hate going to church because of pastors like you, because you have a bad spirit. But hold on a second, the last time I checked, we don't have a bad spirit, we have a Holy Spirit, right? The Bible says, and whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also after he believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, and to the redemption of the purchased possession, and to the praise of his glory. So the Bible says that we're actually sealed with the bad spirit? No, with the Holy Spirit. And you know what, sometimes the Holy Spirit is a little rude. Sometimes the Holy Spirit, when he is feeling a man of God, is gonna be rude in the preaching. It's gonna hit hard, it's holy. It's not a bad spirit, it's a Holy Spirit. It's holy preaching. It's preaching that is powerful. It's preaching that hits the issues of today. It's preaching that pierces through the divining of sunder of soul and spirit joins in the marrow. It's a discern of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It's powerful preaching, it's holy preaching. It's not a bad spirit. And look folks, you look at churches like ours and the new IFB, they're filled with people. People are being reached, souls are being saved, people are assembling together, people love the preaching of God's Word, and you know what, no one's saying, yeah this place is just such a bad spirit. They're here because they know God's Spirit is here. Here's another reason they'll give, an unfounded reason or excuse the world will try to throw in our face as to why people hate going to church. Number one is because they say we have a bad spirit. Number two, well you guys aren't just, you guys aren't relevant enough. Where's the smoke machine? Where's the purple lights? Where's the rock man? You guys got to be relevant. But here's the thing, the Bible is always relevant. In fact, the Bible is timeless. The Bible tells us that it has everything that pertains to life and godliness. Anything that you need in 2021, the Bible has the answers for all your spiritual needs. You don't need purple lights, you don't need purple jeans or skinny jeans. Purple jeans, you don't need purple jeans either. You don't need smoke and mirrors and skinny jeans and purple lights. You do well with using the Word of God. You know the Word of God has been preached for thousands of years. It's reached people for thousands of years. It's relevant, it's timeless, it will continue to reach people. This is a stupid reason, okay. Here's the last reason, church is just too strict. Your church is way too strict. This is why people hate going to church. You guys are too conservative. What's with the shirt and tie? What's with the old-fashioned hymns? You know, this is what they'll say. But here's the thing, what people don't realize is that there's people in this world that actually like boundaries. There's people in this world that actually like rules. I'm one of them. We got a church filled with people that like boundaries, they like rules, they like being told what to do from the Word of God. And you know, the last time I checked, the church is not for, you know, these lawless and disobedient people. It's for people who love the law of God. It's for people who want to come to be instructed in the ways of righteousness. It's for people who want to know where is the boundary, where are the rules, what does God's law say about life, okay. So for people to say our church is just too strict, yeah for the lawless and disobedient it's too strict. But for God's people this is what we want. We want restrictions, we want boundaries, we want the law of God in our lives, okay. Now why do people hate going to church? Because those are stupid reasons, those aren't real good reasons. You know, I've heard many of these reasons throughout the years and they're dumb. But there are some legitimate reasons why people hate going to church and if I were to break it into two categories, I would say this. People hate going to church because of category number one, the pastor behind the pulpit. Category number two, the people in the pews. Simple as that. So the problem either lies within the pastor behind the pulpit or it lies within the people in the pew. Now category number one, why would people hate church because of the pastor behind the pulpit? Well how about this? Because of the hypocrisy, right? How about the preaching just being powerless? No dynamic preaching. How about this? Covetousness? Because the pastor is stealing money, using it to buy himself a yacht or a Tesla or you know five houses and you know living lavishly and the church members see that and it gives them a bad taste in their mouth for church, okay. Maybe they're not growing enough, maybe they're in a church where the pastor is just kind of going through the motions. He doesn't really, he's not really excited about the things of God, he just kind of sees it as job security. He's not really inspiring anybody and the people aren't really growing. They're not really learning the Word of God. Or how about this? The church just has no vision whatsoever. And let me say this, this is a big reason right here. Why? Because where there is no vision, the people perish. You know, people like being in a place where there's vision. Where people are being reached. Where the pastor foresees what could be done. Where the pastor can look forward to the future and say you know we can reach people for Christ in this country. We can reach people for Christ in our country and in our state and in our city. We need to mobilize soul winners. We need to preach hard against sin. If there's vision in that church, it's going to be a thriving church. It's going to inspire many people to serve the Lord. But a pastor who has no vision, the people will perish. If they don't have a vision to reach people for Christ, to go soul in, to preach the Word of God, to raise godly children, to have a successful marriage, the place is gonna die. You know, small dreams move no man's soul. But big dreams will move men across the world. Okay. That's some of the reasons why people can hate going to church. But tonight I'm gonna give you the second category. Because more often than not, the reason people hate going to church is not necessarily because of the pastor behind the pulpit. More often than not, in my experience from what I've observed, it's the people behind the pews. Or in the pews. Okay. Now when I say why people hate going to church, I know that's strong language, but I think it's true. You know, there's sometimes that believers, people who are saved, can begin to despise the house of God. In fact, doesn't the Bible say, despise not prophesying? And what is the implication that the Christians, if they're not careful, can begin to hate preaching? Okay. Not because there's some like wicked reprobate or, you know, there's some wicked evil person. Something's wrong with their heart. And because something is wrong with their heart, they can begin to despise the things of God, undermine them, not esteem them as they used to. Okay. This is what I mean when I say, why do people hate going to church? Sometimes the problem is the people themselves. Let me give you four reasons tonight and one bonus reason why people hate going to church. Here in Matthew chapter 13, look at verse 22. Reason number one, why do people hate going to church? Reason number one, because they're distracted. They're distracted. Look what the Bible says in Matthew 13 and verse 22. He also that receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful. Mark chapter 4, you don't have to turn there, verse number 19 says, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things entering in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful, the Bible says. So reason number one why people can begin despising the house of God is because they're simply distracted. Okay. Now I believe that this seed that lands among thorns still gets saved. He still gets saved despite what Ray Comfort says. Ray Comfort just doesn't believe anybody's saved but himself or something. You know, I believe that this person is saved, it's just that he falls among thorns. He receives the word of God, he gets saved, but he's among thorns and these thorns are kind of choking him out and it's basically impeding him from growing and becoming fruitful, winning people to Christ, living a life that's pleasing unto God. Okay. And look folks, wouldn't you agree that the Word of God is just powerful? Can it transform anyone's life? You know, the Bible says that the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of center of soul and spirit, joints in the marrow, and is a discernment of the thoughts of the intents of the heart. You know, the Bible, the Word of God has power. But hold on a second, sometimes even though it has power, it can fall upon a heart that's among thorns and at that point it becomes powerless, not because of the Word of God, but because of the type of ground that it's falling upon. The kind of heart that it's speaking to. The distracted heart. Now what are some of the things that are distracting people today? Well it says there in Matthew 13 verse 22, the cares of this world. Now when I say distracted, I'm not saying like you're sitting here tonight and you're like, man, when is this gonna be over because I'm hungry. You know, what am I gonna eat tonight? You know, I'm kind of distracted. Oh yeah, that was a good point. That's not the distraction that I'm referring to because, you know, I preach and I still think of those things while I'm preaching. And I'm still focused, right? I'm still focused. I'm talking about things that you play within your mind and in your heart that are weighing you down throughout the week. You know, difficulties that you're going through, trials and tribulations that you're experiencing, the cares of this life that the mortgage hasn't been paid, the rent hasn't been paid, my uncle is sick, he's near death. These are the cares of this life can often choke the Word, distract you, choke you to the point where you can't focus on the most important things of this life, which is the Word of God, the Lord working for God, okay. Now the cares of this world, again, can be various things. You know, we had our church bombed a couple months ago and, you know, that gives us a lot of care. You know, we were filled with care, okay. You say, well, what did you do? Was the Word of God choked in your life? No, but I'll say this, I wish I could choke some people for doing it. No, I'm just kidding. I wish the Word of God would choke someone else. Was the Word of God choked? No, but here's the thing, one of the reasons why is because the Bible tells us to cast our care upon Him, for He cares for us. He cares for you. And one of the things that I learned from different pastor friends that I've had is don't worry about the things that you cannot change. And a lot of times people become distracted in the Christian life to the point where they can't focus on the things of God because of the fact that they're trying to change something that they have no authority to change. They have no power to modify. They have nothing. They can't do anything to change that. And they're cumbered about much care, okay. I mean, think about this, like, on Saturday night we got our van stolen, okay. And it was by a sodomite too. Sodomite slower van. Sodomites have been doxing me for quite some time and just giving people my address and the kind of car that I have and everything. And you say, well, how do you know it was a reprobate? Because my neighbor has security cameras. And then I was just wondering, like, is it gonna be a sodomite? So you look and there's just this huge butch dyke getting out, you know, they roll up in the van, they come out, they're laughing, they're getting in the vehicle, and then they steal it, okay. Now here's the thing is, you know, that's a care of this life. But here's the thing, if I set my affections on the things of this earth, I can't focus on what I'm preaching on right now. If I set my thing, if I set my affections on the things of this earth, on that vehicle, you know what's gonna happen? I'm gonna have a hard time pastoring my church. I'm gonna have a hard time caring for the cares of other people. The Word of God is gonna be choked out of my life. He said, so what did you do? This is what I did. When I heard the van was stolen, I said, see ya. Thanks for serving us as long as you did. Thanks for taking us to church. Hey kids, say goodbye to the van we're never gonna see it again, okay. You say, man, did you, was it that easy? Well yeah, because it barely had any gas. I did not check the oil. I never checked the oil, actually. Until it starts smoking, I'm like, this thing needs something. And then you just buy that big thing and just dump it in there. It was not clean, so it was like, joke's on them. You just inherited, they're probably gonna return the van, actually. It's such a bad condition. They're probably like, this is, we should like pay him or something, like leave it with a couple of bucks or something, fill up his gas tank. But you know what I've learned? Sometimes you just gotta kiss things goodbye. And don't let it distract you from the most important things of this, of today, which is the Bible. Your family, your wife, your children, your spouse, your church, the preaching. You know, if you're not careful, you know, the cares of this life can choke you from a very important truth that you're gonna receive one day during the service. Because you're so busy thinking about that care, that problem, you're gonna miss that one truth that God is trying to get to you to help you in a specific area. You can choke the Word, can asphyxiate the Word in your life, and you don't profit from it. Go with me, if you would, to go to Proverbs chapter 27. Proverbs chapter 27, to choke means to suffocate or to obstruct the breathing. And if you think about it, the Bible is often compared to breath, right? You know, the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3 16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished, until all good works. The Bible says that the Word of God has the power to make you complete and perfect. It can inspire that in you, it can create that in you, if you would allow it to. But hold on a second, the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things entering in, can actually choke that. And you don't become complete. You don't become perfect. You don't become the man of God thoroughly furnished into all good works. What are some of the things that can distract in this world, well, the cares of this life? How about this, the deceitfulness of riches. When people become covetous, when they begin to have the love of money, and you wonder why, you know, you think of 1 Corinthians 5 and the reasons why people, God, you know, commands for people to be excommunicated from the church if they're guilty of these specific sins, one of them is covetousness. And we don't think about that very often, but you know, sometimes people can become so covetous in a church where all they think about and all they talk about is money, all they talk about is making riches, all they talk about is their pyramid schemes or whatever it may be, and they begin to influence others. And you know what that does? That chokes the Word out of their heart and out of the hearts of those they're speaking to. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after, have erred from the faith, the Bible says, piercing themselves through with many sorrows. What happened? They choked, the deceitfulness of riches choked the Word out of their person's life, the lust of other things entering in. The Bible says in Proverbs 27, now wouldn't you, like, if we're to compare the Word of God to something, it's like honey. I mean multiple times in the Word of God, it compares itself to honey. Why? Because it's sweet, you know, it becomes bitter in your belly if, you know, if you consume a lot of it and you can't digest it very well, it could be very painful for you to digest. But here's the thing is that, look at what Proverbs 27 verse 7 says, the full soul loathes in honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Think about this, if you come to church on an empty spiritual stomach, the preaching is going to taste delicious. It's going to be delicious. But if your soul is filled with the cares of this life, if your soul is filled with the deceitfulness of riches, if your soul is filled with the lust of other things entering in, you're going to loathe the honeycomb. You're going to loathe the preaching. It's going to be boring to you. Yeah, when is this going to be over? Why does he got to preach for so long? Do we really got to talk about this again? You begin to loathe that which aforetime would have been sweet to you. Why? Because you're full. Full of what? The cares of this life. Full of what? The deceitfulness of riches. Full of what? The lust of other things entering in. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, 4, no man that warth entanglement himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. Psalm 119 verse 70 says, their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in thy law. Why do people hate going to church sometimes? I'll tell you why, because they're distracted. Why can't they delight in the preaching of God's Word? Because they probably filled with the cares of this life. Because they're probably become covetous. Because there's other lusts that are entering into their hearts and it's choking the Word of God out of their hearts, choking the Word of God, and they're becoming unfruitful. Go with me, if you would, to Hebrew chapter number 5. Hebrew chapter number 5. We're talking about why people hate going to church sometimes. They hate it because they are distracted. Number two, because they are discontent. I'm gonna give you an alliterated outline tonight, okay? They're distracted, but also they're discontent with what? The basics. You know why sometimes people hate going to church? Because they're discontent with hearing, listening to, and relearning the basics. What does that mean? They become apathetic towards simple truths. They always want to hear something new. You know, oh man, you know, can you pull out that really deep truth? Well, before you get that deep truth, you know, what's wrong with talking about the most basic doctrines out there, right? What's wrong with just talking about the most basic foundational doctrines and getting excited about that? And here's the thing, you're in Hebrew chapter number 5, I'm gonna read to you from Matthew chapter 13 verse 15. It says, for this people's heart is wax gross and their ears are dull of hearing. It's like, I've already heard this before. Oh, the pre-tribulation rapture, I already know it. Oh, the Trinity, I already know what he's gonna say. Once they've always saved, in the bag. Reprobate doctrine, I already know it. What else you got? King James Bible, duh. And they become kind of discontent with listening to just the basics. Look at Hebrews chapter 5 in verse number 9. Now wouldn't you agree that the book of Hebrews is a very deep book? It's very deep. It goes into some deep stuff. And in chapter 5, Paul, who I believe to be the writer of the book of Hebrews, is starting to expound upon this doctrine of Melchizedek, which we would say it's pretty deep doctrine there in Hebrews chapter number 5. It says in verse 9, of course, we believe that Jesus cried. This is referring to Jesus Christ. Verse 9 says, And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him, called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Verse 11, Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. Now in Matthew 13, those who are dull of hearing, it's actually referring to those who just don't even want salvation. And I believe it's actually referring to the children of Israel who heard the gospel so much. You know, they were the nation from which salvation came. They heard it so much that they're just like dull of hearing about then. Some of them didn't even get saved. Many of them did, but some of them didn't. They rejected Jesus. You know, he came into his own and his own received them not. But here we see that he's talking to a group of people and he says, look, I want to talk to you about Melchizedek. I want to talk to you about the deep things about Jesus Christ and his affiliation and the fact that Melchizedek is a symbol of Jesus Christ, but your ears are too dull of hearing. Look at verse 12, For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskilled from the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belonging to them that are full age, even those who by reason of use have their and have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. What is he saying? Look, I feel like I would want to talk to you about Melchizedek. I want to talk to you about these deep things, but sometimes you just need to get the basics down. And it seems as though you become a little discontent with the basics. Folks, you know what Paul the Apostle said in Philippians chapter 3 verse 1? He says, He's saying, look, I don't mind repeating myself over and over and over again. It's not grievous to me. In fact, it's safe for you. You know what? When a pastor gets up behind the pulpit and he hits on salvation, he hits on eternal security, he hits on the false doctrine of repenting your sins, he hits on the Trinity, he hits on these basic doctrines, don't become dull of hearing, recognize that it's for your safety. Why? Because people forget. People forget. I forget. If things are constantly being reinforced in your life, you end up forgetting them. How many times have you read through the Bible and you begin again the following year and you read a story like, man, I feel like I've never seen this before. Well, you've seen it. You just forgot it. I mean, there's times when I go through maybe older Bibles where I would write notes on them and I look at them like, hey, this note is good. This is pretty good. And it's just like, wow, you know, what is this? I forgot. You just forget. And the Bible is just a well of information. There's so much information within the Word of God, you're bound to forget certain things. So what's the solution? We got to keep emphasizing those things over and over again. It's not supposed to be a grievous thing. It's a safe thing to do. And in fact, you know, there's churches out there that have apostatized. There's pastors who one time were preaching the right gospel and now they kind of muddied up the gospel. Why is that? Because they stopped emphasizing the basics. They stopped emphasizing the foundational teachings of the Bible and now it's like, what? You don't even know what you believe. They're not strong on their doctrine. Why? Because they stopped emphasizing the basics. Don't be discontent with the basics. There's people out there that become, they hate going to church because it's just like, well, you know, I kind of want to just listen to something new. What you got for me today, Pastor Anderson? Bless me today. Let's hear something that I've never heard before. No, let's hear something that we've always heard and let's reinforce that. Let's, you know, tighten up those screws. Let's emphasize that doctrine. Let's teach it again. Let's get it grounded. Embed that truth within your heart because if you don't, you're going to forget it. You're gonna forget it. Let me give you an example of your pastor, okay? I'm gonna embarrass him a little bit right now. Pastor Anderson is, his mind just has a lot of information, right? He just knows a lot, okay? And, you know, you can have a conversation with him and he just like, just throws up all this information on it. He's like, how did you just recall all that, you know? But I remember one time, because, you know, we're studying Greek and he, you know, at the beginning stages when I was learning Greek, he was just kind of teaching me some tricks on how to like learn specific letters and there's a letter in Greek, it's C, right? And it looks like a trident, okay? The letter looks like a trident. And he told me, he goes, the way you memorize that is you think of Poseidon with the trident because he's holding a trident. That's who you remember. I'm like, man, that's a good one. I'm gonna remember that. And it stuck with me. I don't know, it was like a year later, we're eating at Round Table or something and we're around a bunch of Greek guys and we're talking about Greek. And I said, yeah, you know, I started talking about the C. And I gave that same illustration. I said, the trident, Poseidon, and the trident. And they're like, yeah, that's really good. And Pastor Andrew looks at me, he's like, wow, that's actually really good. I didn't know that. And I looked and I was like, you're the one who taught me that. He's like, really? You know, he's like, really? I'm like, yeah. He's like, I don't remember that. That's good, though. Probably. But wouldn't you agree, Pastor Anderson, that sometimes we forget certain things? We forget certain things. So since that day, everything that he teaches me, I just teach it back to him and just take credit for it. And when he says, wow, that's good, I'm like, I know. Came up with that on my own. Hours of meditation and fasting. Sometimes we forget things. And that's why they need to be re-emphasized. Don't become discontent with the basics. Appreciate the church, the church that you're in, when the basics are being emphasized. Why? Because thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. A lot of people, a lot of churches out there are getting involved in a lot of weird doctrine. It's because these things are not being emphasized. And so don't become discontent with that. Go to Second Timothy, chapter number four. What are some of the reasons why people hate going to church? Well, it's because they're distracted. They have these cares in their heart, and it's not allowing them to get the most out of the preaching of God's Word. It's creating excuses in their lives why they don't go soul winning. It's creating a reason in their hearts why they shouldn't come to church because they have to take care of X, Y, and Z. They become covetous. Maybe they get another job that takes them out of church. You know, the lust of other things begin to enter in, and it chokes the Word out of their life. They become distracted. But not only that, they become discontent. Look at Second Timothy four, verse one, on that same point it says here, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the Word, be instant in season out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. You see, if you don't get repetition, you get fables. You don't get repetitious teaching on doctrine, you eventually begin to accept some weird doctrine out there. Repetition is very much important. Go with me if you would to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. Reason number three. Reason number one, they're distracted. Reason number two, they're discontent with the basics. Reason number three, they disparage the pastor. They undermine him. They belittle the pastor, even to the point where they begin to degrade the pastor sometimes. Okay, now what do I mean by that? Well, sometimes if people are not careful, they go to a church service regardless whether it's this one or a different one, and they're just kind of like, all right, let me see if he's gonna make a mistake here. Oh, he misquoted that. Oh, that's not the right one. Oh, that's not correct. And they become critical towards the pastor. They can't enjoy or get anything out of God's Word because they're so critical of the pastor, they're just kind of fact checking the pastor all the time. And that's wrong, folks. You know, obviously, we need to prove all things and hold fast that which is good. Obviously, we need to search the scriptures daily to see if those things are so, but we should never come to a church service where we're so critical of the pastor that you can't learn anything from God's Word. We should be able to give the pastor the benefit of the doubt and think, well, you know, if he made a mistake, he probably just misspoke. If he made a mistake here and he misquoted that verse, it doesn't mean he's just like a wicked person or he's not qualified or something. He's just a human being. But sometimes people begin to hate church because they belittle the pastor. And folks, it happens all the time, okay. And I'll give you an example. You know, back at my old church, it was an old IFP church, but I love that church because that's where I got saved. That's where I learned about the King James Bible. That's where I learned about soul winning. That's where I learned about the family and having a lot of kids and just everything that's essential to my life, I learned at that church, okay. And you know what? Obviously it's an old IFP church, so the pastor is probably not gonna like teach through the book of Revelation or anything like that. Probably not gonna go deep on doctrine. And you know what? Maybe he might even say some wrong things. In fact, he did say some wrong things, okay. But I knew people who were at that church who knew that about him. And you know what? They struggled in their Christian growth because they were always critical of that pastor. They couldn't enjoy the service. They couldn't enjoy the singing. They couldn't enjoy giving. They couldn't enjoy soul winning. They couldn't enjoy the preaching. And look folks, obviously in a church like ours, we preach for like 50 minutes, sometimes an hour. Old IFP churches, sometimes they do like 30 minutes or something. That was a church that preached for 30 minutes, okay. And you know what? This person was super critical of that 30 minute sermon. Oh, it's only 30 minutes? I mean, over here they preach for like an hour. Over there they preach for like an hour and a half. Yeah, but why do you gotta bring that up though? Can't you just enjoy the 30 minutes of what you're listening to? You know, is the King James Bible being used? Is he preaching anything that's correct? If there's correct things in that sermon, you know, maybe 30 minutes is all you can handle. You know, before you become so critical of the length of the sermon that a pastor is preaching, I mean, are you a doer of that word of that first point that he gave in the first 10 minutes? How about that? People can be, you know, become critical of a church because they belittle the pastor far too much. They have these high expectations of a pastor and they think that he just has to walk on water. Folks, flourish wherever you're planted. Grow wherever you're at. You know, be a blessing wherever you are at. Now thankfully, you know, you're in a church where doctrine is constantly being thundered forth from the pulpit, but don't take that for granted. Don't think that just because pastor Anderson just gives you all these deep sermons and deep doctrines, that's all he has to do. Sometimes he has to go through the basics. Sometimes it has to be a very elementary type sermon. Don't belittle him if he does something like that. Appreciate all doctrines of all the spectrum of the Bible that he is giving out. Look what it says in Mark chapter 12 in verse number 11. This was the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes. And they sought to lay hold on him, but fear the people, for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them and they left him and went their way. And they sentenced him, certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. I'm just waiting for him to say something wrong. Isn't that a wicked attitude to have? Yeah, keep talking. I'm just waiting for you to just mess up. I just want you to say something wrong. I just want you to, you know, just slip up in your words so I could just catch you in your words. That's a wicked attitude to have. You know, I just want you to say something wrong about the Trinity, Pastor Anderson. You're so big on the tragedy. I can't wait till you just say that one little thing so I can catch you on that. Make a YouTube video about you. That's a Herodian attitude. It's wicked to try to seek to just, I'm just going to dissect this sermon. I'm not going to enjoy it. I'm going to, I'm going to record it. I'm going to listen to it just so I can catch him and him saying something wrong. That's wicked. That's evil. That should never be our attitude when we come to church. Why do people hate going to church? Because they have this attitude right here. Luke 20 verse 20 says, and they watched him and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men that they might take hold of his words. That so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor. Don't come to church with a critical attitude towards your pastor. Enjoy your church. Appreciate your church. Appreciate your preacher. Appreciate your pastor and everything that they preach. Go to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter number 12. This is a reason why sometimes people hate going to church. You know because they've been saved for like two years and they've read the Bible like twice and now they just know everything there is to know about the Bible. That happens you know. You just get saved. You just know everything. You're just like a Calvinist. It's just batteries come included. Don't sin. You just know everything. It's just like everything falls right into place. You just know everything. You've only read the New Testament but you know everything there is to know about God's Word and all of a sudden you think you're on par with the pastor. All of a sudden you think you can teach the pastor something. That's a wrong attitude to have. People hate church because of the fact that they get distracted with the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things entering in but not only that they can be they can disparage the pastor. I skipped the point here. They're discontent with the basics. They can disparage the pastor and reason number four is this because they're dormant in their service. You know why people often become critical of their church and they hate their church? Because they're just not involved. You will love the place that you invest your time, talents, and treasures to. Your service to. You know if you've been sowing in this church I guarantee your heart is attached to this church. You love this church. You love the Word of God. You know you're not hating your church. In fact you love your church. This is a church where you want to win people to Christ. You want to bring them here. You want them to grow and thrive. Why? Because you're not asleep at the wheel. You're actually out there preaching the gospel. You're soul winning. You're getting involved. Look at Romans chapter 12 verse number 10 says, Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love and honor preferring one another not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Now when you think of someone who is fervent in spirit you know obviously maybe the first thing that comes to mind is that you're passionate. And obviously different people express passion different ways. I'm a little more extroverted when it comes to that. But being fervent in spirit doesn't mean you just have to be loud and excited. It just means you're fervent in your spirit. It's just you're excited about serving God. You're out there winning souls to Christ. You're in church service. You're being a servant in your church. You're not asleep at the wheel. You're actively participating in your church. So something that's dormant is something that's inactive or asleep. Right? The Bible says in 1st Corinthians 15 34, Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. So he's saying wake up! Why are certain people critical of their church? Because they're asleep at the wheel when it comes to their service. Why are certain people hating their church and they don't like their church and they're just like I'm just kind of apathetic towards the things of God. It's probably because you're not getting involved. It's probably because you're not putting away the tables after the service. It's probably because you're not throwing away some trash. It's probably because you're not winning souls to Christ. You're kind of asleep at the wheel and it's time to wake up. Go to Ephesians chapter 5 if you will. Go to Ephesians chapter 5. And after Ephesians 5 we're going to go to James chapter 1. It's good to come to church and get information. It's good to come to church and learn doctrine. But you know what's great to couple that with? Service. It's good to get what you've learned and put it into practice. It's good to get with that doctrine and to learn and say alright now it's time to put some feet to this teaching. Why? Because the Bible tells us that knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth and charity often is expressed through actions. The Bible says in Romans 13 verse 10 love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law and that knowing the time that now is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. You know it's time for Christians sometimes to just wake up because the reality is this is that Christ is coming soon. I was about to go old IFB right now and be like Christ can come at any moment. A little flashback there. Sorry about that. Just cut that out of the sermon pastor Anderson. But he is returning and his return to us means what? The resurrection. His return means what? Our resurrected bodies. His return equals what? Well three and a half years thereafter equals just talk about the the judgment seat of Christ where we receive our rewards for the things that we've done in our body. Wake up. Recognize that that time is coming soon. And when I say soon I'm not saying it's gonna happen within the next five years or ten years it could be a hundred years from now but that's still soon. In the scope of eternity you know in comparison to eternity. Where do I have eternity? Ephesians chapter 5 verse 14 says wherefore he saith awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. See then that he walks circumspectly not as fools but as wise. Look what it says here redeeming the time because the days are evil. So you need to buy back some time. How do you do that? By serving the Lord. By not wasting time. By coming to church and thinking you know what I'm gonna get involved with some soul winning today. I'm gonna get involved with that regional soul winning. I want to redeem the time and get people saved. I want to serve the Lord as much as I can because the days are evil and you know what I don't know when that evil day is gonna come upon me and I can no longer serve the Lord. Hey the night is coming when no man can work. The night is coming when no man can work. And once that night comes for you it's clock out time. So you better wake up today and serve God today. Don't allow your service to be dormant in this church. Why do people hate going to church? Well because sometimes their service is just dormant. Look at James chapter 1 verse 22 be doers of the word not here is only deceiving your own selves for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in the glass for he beholded themself and goeth his way and straightway forget of what manner of man he was. What is he saying? Hey it's great to hear God's Word but it's even better to apply it. It's awesome to hear preaching but it's even better to apply the principles in that preaching. God wants us to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Go to Proverbs chapter 1, 21 excuse me. Proverbs chapter 21 here's the bonus reason I'm not gonna spend too much time on this. What are some of the reasons why people hate going to church? Well one is because they're distracted cares of this life the deceitfulness of riches the lust of other things entering in can choke the word that person can become unfruitful and they begin to despise coming to church. It's a drudgery to them becomes grievous to them. What's another reason will become they become discontent with the basics. I've heard this before my ears are dull of hearing give me something I want to hear give me something new to hear. What's another reason they disparage the pastor they belittle the pastor constantly critical of what he's saying so they can't receive as much as they possibly can from the preaching of God's Word. What's another reason because they're dormant in their service and lastly this is one of the reasons why people hate going to church and remember they're all D's okay they are distracted discontent they disparage the pastor they're dormant in their service and number five sometimes they hate church because they're devils and that person is just not saved okay why does this person hate our church it's probably cuz he's a devil the guy is probably some wicked reprobate you say well that's weird though they would come to church and like come on Sunday morning Sunday night and Wednesday night and have a Bible and get dressed and do all these things and and hate the Lord and hate the pastor and do all those things yes I know it's crazy but people will do that they will join Baptist Church wake up early on a Sunday morning to get ready put on a shirt and tie come to church use all the Christianese lingo in church maybe even participate in soul win in soul winning I'll have all these outward expressions of being a Christian and then just hate the pastor hate the church why because they're devils that's why I'm sure you know all about that that's why I'm not really gonna spend a whole lot of time on this point because I'm preaching to the choir and I'm not calling you Devils okay I'm just saying like you've been a part of that where you know you can cut that part out too sometimes people hate going to church it's not because there are discontent with the basics it's not necessary because they're distracted it's not because you know they're just belittling the pastor because they want to hear something new it's not because they're just dormant in their service I'll tell you why cuz they're just flat-out Devils wicked people infiltrators and you know what churches like this will get them all the time why because they're trying to infiltrate to mess up the work they're trying to hinder the work of God and mark it out when there's people out there who have an agenda to hinder God's word from being preached and thundered forth they're Devils folks we had a sowing marathon and in the city of Santa Ana a couple weeks ago it was great we got a lot of people save a lot of new soldiers came out marathons are just fun right they're just fun it's not fun for the one organizing it they're stressing out but I'm not that's not me anymore you know it's like got someone else to do that and we had that you know people are getting saved it was great and and you know I was with my family sowing with my family I was with my sowning partner and we're getting a bunch of people save it was the first half and we're done it was over it's just like all right I'm just waiting for my sowning partner to finish up here he looks like he's getting this person saved these guys walk up and then you know I look at them and I'm just like hey want to give you this invite unfortunately had the church the new church address on there and I'm like why don't you give it to our Easter service you know I just want to give this to you and they just kind of take it like what's your name I'm like Bruce what's your last name he's like Mahia and I'm not catching on like my wife told me like later on I knew what was going on I didn't know I'm just like we're sowing you know and he's like what are you preaching I'm like the gospel I mean this is weird and I thought to myself maybe these are some like false prophets and I'm like I'm in their territory or something like that you know he's like no but what are you preaching I am like the Word of God I mean what do you want me to say and then he looks down at the invite he looks up at me and he says what do you believe about gay people and at that point obviously I'm like alright it's on and I look up and I said you know exactly what I believe about gay people. I said you know who I am and he's like you can't preach your homophobic blankety blank here and I said I can preach whatever I want wherever I want yeah he says well not here and I said well too late he says you need to leave I said I already got like over 50 soul owners here preaching the same thing that I'm preaching and then his buddies came they're like you can't preach your hate here I said then go call the police if you want I'm not gonna stop preaching I've already did it you're too late too bad I'm done anyways you know and then they started having this body language like they're gonna jump me so you know I just grabbed my kids and I put them behind me and I'm just like alright well I'm leaving so see ya you know just kind of like walk away and I'm and my soul name partner was still over there and you know they didn't see him so I'm trying to like distract them from seeing him you know so they just kind of follow me like yeah you can't come here and you can't preach here and all this stuff and I'm like alright well I'm already done so I'm out of here you know so we we ended up leaving I left my sowing partner he was offered oh just kidding he wasn't offered you know they didn't know he was there and I texted him I said look they were they were giving me a hard time they recognized me and so I had to leave but the second hour we came back but this time I came with the boys you know we came came with the guys because it was a really receptive area and we came in and the guys you know they're just like let's go back let's go priest the gospel there we got you pastor don't worry you know we'll be because because the first time no like everyone forsook me demons forsook me having loved this present world and like I had no one there because they're like probably like five minutes before that happened like all my guys were there and we're like yeah it's going good all right I'll see you guys in a little bit I'm gonna wait for David over here I'll see you guys over there and it's just like literally five minutes later it's like they came and I'm just kind of looking for my guys I'm like oh man this sucks but this time me and the boys came and we got a bunch of people saved now I will say we have to cut it short because you know they came back out and this time they had reinforcements as well at that point I was just like all right we got to cut it short because they they started like surrounding us and these this guy was tatted from like head to toe you know homo thugs or whatever and and I said you know I think we're gonna have to cut this short I said you know these people are like they're making signals at me and stuff like that and so we ended up leaving and I thought to myself man these people are unreasonable and they're wicked men who are trying to hinder the work of God evil people that's their agenda so folks if they're willing to do that on a on a public area where they're just even though you're just preaching the gospel I wasn't preaching you know of the reparate doctrine that wasn't my thing at that time it's my thing but it's not my thing at that time I'm just preaching the gospel I'm just getting people saved we're just inviting people to Easter and they still wanted to stop that how much more wicked are they when they actually come to the church house to try to hinder the work of God these are people that hate Church because they're devils but you're not them okay the first four points were for you or for me or for safe people last point is not look at Proverbs 21 verse 16 it says the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead my prayer tonight is that you would just open up your understanding to these potential pitfalls that you can fall into where you can be you can begin to despise the preaching of God's Word you can begin to despise your pastor and his preaching the church that you're attending because of these things right here keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life don't be distracted don't become discontent don't disparage your pastor and get involved in your church amen inspire heads on every word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word thank you Lord for the Bible that it's so clear and concise in these areas and thank you for warning us of these potential pitfalls that all of us all of us can fall into at one time or another I pray God that you'd help us Lord to have a soft heart towards the things of God and I know in my life personally I know there's been times when my heart has gotten hard Lord and maybe it was the cares of this life and other things that were entering in that was causing me to be a little distracted Lord I pray that Lord you'd help us to continue to soften our hearts as we read the Bible as we come to church and sometimes we just need to come to church even when we don't feel like coming to church and the preaching the fellowship will often soften our hearts and remind us of the eternal and it'll help us to get right with you and Lord bless this evening and all there is thank you for Pastor Anderson thank you for faithful Ward Baptist Church and their prayers Lord I'm so thankful for their example their friendship I pray that you bless them at your hand continue to be with them as they seek to reach more people for Christ and Thunder forth the Word of God praise things in Jesus name amen