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Good evening everyone. Welcome to our services tonight here at Faithford Baptist Church. It's good to see everyone here on this Sunday night. If you would all please take your seats and find a songbook close by and we'll turn them to hymn number 419. We'll begin tonight with hymn number 419, Sound the Battle Cry, number 419. Once you've found your place, we'll start on that first verse, hymn number 419. Onward, forward, shout aloud Hosanna, Christ is Captain of the mighty cross. Strong to meet the foe, marching on we go, while our cross we know must prevail. Shield and banner right, living in the light, battling for the right, we ne'er can fail. Brows and soldiers rallying round the banners, ready, steady, pass the word along. Onward, forward, shout aloud Hosanna, Christ is Captain of the mighty cross. O loud God of all, hear us when we call, thou must want it all by thy grace. When the battle's done and the victory's won, may we wear the crown before thy face. Brows and soldiers rallying round the banner, ready, steady, pass the word along. Onward, forward, shout aloud Hosanna, Christ is Captain of the mighty cross. Dear God, thank you so much for this time that we've had to be at church. God, I just pray that you would help us open our hearts and our minds to hearing your word, Lord, and I just pray that you would speak to us individually and you'd bless the sermon and the fellowship after. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, number 185 is next. My Savior's love, number 185. Singing out on this first verse, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, number 185. Singing out on this first verse. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful that my song shall ever be. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me, for it was in the garden. Singing out on this first verse, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful that my song shall ever be. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. He took my sins and my sorrows and made them His very own. And suffered and died alone. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful that my song shall ever be. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. When with a ransom to glory His face I at last shall see, twill be my joy through the ages to sing of His love for me. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful that my song shall ever be. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. Amen. Good singing. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside, we have our service times. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week will be in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 5. We've got the so many times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. Across the page, exciting news about three births. We've got the Kiesel family on the birth of Tekoa. Kiesel born Monday, May 24th, weighing nine pounds and measuring 21 and a half inches. We've got baby Mercedes from the Perez family, baby Ariel. And so be sure to congratulate them when you see them again. Very exciting. On the back, we've got the monthly music emphasis night. And this is on Thursday of this week at 7 o'clock. It will be once a month. Brother Daniel Hernandez is handling this. He's been doing the singing class on Sundays at 5 o'clock. And then he's doing this once a month. There will be some music lessons, singing, games, and food. So sign up if you're planning to attend. Sign up sheets over here by the kitchen. And then next Sunday is our once a month coffee and donuts before the service. So show up early for that at 10 a.m. And then keep praying for the Coleto family. You know, thank God that everybody survived. You know, these car accidents can be deadly. And this was a very serious accident. Brother Thomas apparently broke a femur in one leg, ankle in the other leg, and he had to have surgery. But apparently the surgeries were a success. You know, I see him on Facebook. It seems like he has a real good attitude. So praise the Lord for that. He seems real happy on there. So I'm sure he's going through a lot, though, so pray for him. And also his mother got injured. She's stable and doing better, but she's in the ICU still, you know, because she had broken ribs, internal bleeding. But again, you know, it seems like everybody's going to survive and everybody's going to recover. But just be praying for them because obviously this is difficult and painful and they need our prayers right now. And then Thomas' dad was fine. So apparently he walked away completely unharmed. So thank God nobody was killed in such a serious accident and that, you know, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. And so even something like this ultimately is going to work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. And so it's always great to have that assurance that even when we go through some dark things in our lives, as long as we love the Lord, we know that in the end, you know, we're going to look back over it and say that Jesus led me all the way and be able to understand things later. You know, I think about all the bad things I've gone through in my life. Looking back, they all make sense now. And that's how it is when you're living for the Lord. If you're not living for the Lord, if you don't love the Lord, a lot of the suffering in your life will end up being meaningless and that's pretty depressing. But thank God for Romans 828 at times like these. Below that, we've got just some other upcoming events listed, different soul winning trips to other parts of the state, Red Hot Preaching Conference, Ladies Retreat, etc. That's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days. Going back to Thursday. Anything to report from Thursday? All right. Anything else from Thursday? What about Friday? Anything from Friday? Okay. And then how about Saturday? Four for the trip of the crew that went out to Safford. They had four saved. Anything from today? Let's go to Brother Scott. Anything? Tilson? Two for that team? One for the West Valley team? All right. Got it. Anything else from today? All right. Very good. Keep up the great work out there, soul winning. And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right. We're going to sing Psalm 67. You should find that insert in your hymnal there. If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand. And you'll get one. Psalm 67, saying on this first verse, God be merciful unto us and bless us. God be merciful unto us and bless us. And cause this place to shine upon us. That thy way may be known upon earth. Thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee. O, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For thou shalt judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon earth. The nations upon earth see love. Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee. O, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Then shall the earth yield her in praise. And God, even our own God shall bless us. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee. O, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Amen. And your hymnals, please turn to hymn number 95. The Lord is my shepherd, hymn number 95. Sing it on this first verse, hymn number 95. Sing the parts if you know them. The Lord is my shepherd, no one shall I know. I've faded great pastures, stapled in thy rest. Elated my soul where the still waters flow. Restores me when wondering, redeems when oppressed. Restores me when wondering, redeems when oppressed. Through the valley and shadow of death, O I stray. Since thou art my guardian, knowing all I fear. Thy rod shall defend me, thy staff be my safe. No harm can be fall with my comforter near. No harm can be fall with my comforter near. In the midst of affliction, my table is spread. With blessings I measured, my cup runneth o'er. With perfume and all thou anointest my head. O, what shall I ask of my prominence more? O, what shall I ask of my prominence more? Let goodness and mercy my bountiful God. Still follow my steps, still I need thee above. I seek by the path which my forefathers trod. Through the land of their soldier, thy kingdom of love. Through the land of their soldier, thy kingdom of love. Thank you. All right, this time we'll pass the offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Proverbs 14. Proverbs chapter number 14, as we always do. We'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with Brother Dan as he reads. Proverbs chapter 14, starting in verse number 1. In Proverbs chapter 14, the Bible reads, Every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the Lord, but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise shall preserve them. Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox. A faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness will utter lies. A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not, but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth. Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit. Fools make a mock at sin, but among the righteous there is favor. The heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy. The house of the wicked shall be overthrown, but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. The simple believeth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going. A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil, but the fool rageth, and is confident. He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly, and a man of wicked devices is hated. The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. The poor is hated even of his own neighbor, but the rich hath many friends. He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth, but he that hath mercy on the poor happy as he. Do they not err that devise evil? But mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. In all labor there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly. A true witness delivereth souls, but a deceitful witness speaketh lies. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. In the multitude of people is the king's honor, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones. He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his maker, but he that on earth him hath mercy on the poor. The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death. Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding, but that which is in the midst of fools is unknown. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. The king's favor is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him that causeth shame. Dear Lord, thank you for the opportunity for us to come to church this evening. I pray, Father, that you would teach us wisdom, help us to be that wise servant, and to understand these things. I pray, Father, fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit to teach us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. If you would, turn your Bibles to the book of Mark, chapter 10. And the title of my sermon this evening is Low Risk, Low Reward. Low risk, low reward. Another way of saying this is nothing ventured, nothing gained. Now, I want to just start out by saying I'm not an economics guy. I'm not a finance guy. I'm by no stretch of the imagination knowledgeable about those kind of subjects. It's not my thing. I did speak to someone this afternoon who is an expert on economics and finance, who works in that industry. But what I'm preaching about tonight is so basic anyway that you wouldn't really have to know much about economics to understand the idea that when it comes to investments, there are investments that are very low risk, but they also give a low return. And then there are more high risk investments that are a little more volatile, and those are going to yield greater returns. So the greater the risk, the greater reward in general. And low risk is typically going to be low yield. And the guy that I was talking to this afternoon, he said that right now everybody's really hungry for high yield investments right now, because interest rates are so low and people are just looking to get some return on their money. So they're looking for that high yield. So they're getting into much riskier investments than they would normally get into because they want something that's going to actually pay some dividends, that's actually going to give them some bang for their buck. So look if you would at Mark chapter 10. Let me show you an investment in the Word of God that pays incredible returns. Look at Mark chapter 10 verse 28. It says, Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There's no man that had left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundredfold, that's quite a return on your investment, he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands, notice he doesn't say wives, Joseph Smith, with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life, but many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first. Now notice here that God talks about receiving a hundredfold on your investment in the Kingdom of God. You're getting back a hundred times what you gave up for Christ. And what we need to focus on though are just those two little words that are often overlooked in verse 30, with persecutions. So it's not all just sweetness and light. You know, hey, you're going to get a hundred times what you put into it. Great. Sign me up. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention the persecutions. So obviously you're going to have to go through some hard things in the Christian life, but the rewards are incredible. And so what we see here is that there's a high risk and a high return. I mean, if you're forsaking everything to follow Christ, isn't that a risk? If you think about Peter giving up his business, just walking away from his business where he's fishing, and James and John and everything, they forsook both the ship and their father and they followed Jesus. You know, they're basically giving up a sure thing, family business. They had a gig where they're fishing, they've got the equipment, they've got the job, and going to follow Jesus. And what about other people who were going to follow Jesus? And he told them, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. You sure you want to follow me? And then they're like, nah, on second thought, I'll skip it. But yet, the people who did follow him, they obviously made sacrifices, they're obviously taking a risk, and the rewards were great. Now the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3-12, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And so everybody who does something great for God is going to suffer persecution. And there's an inherent risk in serving the Lord. If you think about it, there's also a way to live a low risk Christian life. The low risk Christian life makes no waves. The low risk Christian life doesn't ever offend anyone. The low risk Christian life never steps out in faith or takes any kind of a leap of faith. It just always does the safe, secure route, never risking anything or venturing anything for Christ. You know, you think about Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water. He's taking a risk there, isn't he? Stepping out into the stormy waves, but he got to walk on water. He's the only person other than Jesus who walked on water. So that's a pretty cool accomplishment. We're not going to mention the part about him sinking and everything. But anyway, oops, I just did. But anyway, you know, the low risk Christian life is going to bring low yield. Always playing it safe, never wanting to, you know, take any chances or do something big for God. There's also going to be a low risk for that, but it's going to be a low yield as well. If you do nothing, you're going to have the ultimate safety in your life by doing absolutely nothing. Listen to this verse, Proverbs 22, 13, the slothful man saith, there's a lion without. I shall be slain in the streets. So he's slothful, he's lazy, and that's his excuse for not going out and working and doing stuff. It's like, well, there's a lion out there. I could be killed. Proverbs 26, 13, the slothful man saith, there is a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets. Let me give you a guaranteed way to never get in a car accident ever again. Never drive. You'll never get a speeding ticket either. You'll never get in a car accident. You'll, you know, we, of course, our brothers and sisters that are in the hospital right now from a car accident. Look, that's a risk. Any time you get behind the wheel, any time you drive, there's a chance that even if you do everything perfectly, you could get in a car accident as a result of someone else's mistake. And so the way to be safe is to do nothing. Never drive and you'll never get in a car accident. Never play sports or exercise and you won't get one of these athletic injuries. You know, people who don't want to exercise, they'll often bring up, oh, man, you know, that sport's so dangerous, people are always getting injured. And I'm thinking about all the different sports that I've engaged in, that other people have engaged in, different forms of exercise, and they all have risk. I mean, you go out running and I think 85% of runners get some kind of an injury throughout the year. You know, I mean, think about it. You hear about people playing sports and they're constantly tearing this muscle and tearing this tendon. I blew out my knee, you know, playing football or doing whatever. Oh, I was playing basketball and I have this injury. Who here has an athletic-related injury in your body of sports? It's like the whole building. This is conclusive proof, never play sports and never exercise. But you want to know what's even more dangerous than sports and exercise? Not exercising because of the damage that you're doing to your heart and your cardiovascular system. But do you see my point? Going out and playing sports, there's going to be a risk every single time. You can always get hurt playing sports. You can always get hurt lifting weights. You can always get hurt doing cardio. You can always get hurt behind the wheel, riding your bicycle, riding your roller skates or roller blades or skateboarding or whatever. But are you just going to do nothing because of that, because of the risk? You see, anything in life that brings any kind of a reward, there's a risk there. Low risk equals low reward. Go if you would to Luke chapter 19 because I want to show you that being afraid to take any kind of a risk or actually step out in faith and do stuff can have a paralyzing effect where people just end up doing nothing for God because they're afraid to do anything for God. Look at Luke chapter 19 verse 12. This is a familiar story, the familiar parable about the talents. In the book of Luke, they're not called talents. They're called pounds. But either way, it's talking about a weight measurement. It's talking about money. Ancient money was actually real money, so it was made out of precious metals and coins. It wasn't just paper money. But Luke 19, 12 says, He said therefore, certain noblemen went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said unto them, occupy till I come. And this is where we get our word occupation, right? Occupy. He doesn't mean just like occupy space. He means do stuff until I come. Stay busy, work, accomplish something. Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. Verse 15. And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him to whom he had given the money that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, well, thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, be thou also over five cities. And another came saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up, and this is the best part, in a napkin. In a napkin. Now, why bring that up? I mean, he might as well just say, hey, I didn't do anything with this money. I was too scared. I didn't want to take any risks. So I ended up just keeping it safe. I mean, this guy is so paranoid about this money that he wraps it in a napkin. Now, coins are not really that fragile. Think about like a gold coin or a silver coin or even pennies or nickels. They're not, you don't really have to wrap them in a napkin, you know, to keep them safe. But this guy just really wants to make sure that it's really kept safe. And so he really wants to impress the master by saying, hey, not only did I keep what you gave me for safekeeping, but I kept it really nice wrapped in a napkin. And look at the response. He said unto him, or I'm sorry, it says in verse 21, for I feared thee because thou art an austere man. Thou takest up that thou layeth not down and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. So is God impressed with this attitude of, well, I better just not do anything for fear of messing up. I better just not do anything. Does that impress God? God said that's wickedness. To be a do-nothing, play it safe, hiding your talent, that's not acceptable with God. God says that's wicked. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required my own with usury. Now here's the thing. The guy with the ten talents, he didn't put it in the bank. The guy who turned one pound into five pound, he didn't put it in the bank. Because you're not going to get that kind of return from the bank, are you? Those guys went out and they actually worked and put that money to work and invested and, you know, they were involved in business. They were involved in actual work and business. What he's basically saying is, look, at least if you would have put it in the bank, at least I could have got a little bit of interest on it. At least I could have got something on it. These other guys, they didn't just take it to the bank. They did more with it, okay? And so they ended up, you know, pleasing him. And here's the thing. The guy who brought back the ten talents, I'm sure he did some risk. You know, there's some risk involved in getting involved in those businesses or whatever he did, whatever those ventures were. The guy with the five pounds was involved in a risky operation. This guy is scared and hides it and that's not good. He said, I could have at least, you know, basically had my own with interest. At my coming, I might have required my own with usury. And he said unto them that stood by, take from him the pound and give it to him that hath ten pounds. And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds. Like, why would he need another one? He's already got ten, right? For I say unto you, that unto everyone which hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. But those mine enemies which would not, that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me. So fear paralyzes you and you end up doing nothing. You aren't willing to risk anything so you don't get any returns. The same story is found in Matthew 25. I'll just quickly read for you the relevant portion. He says, I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth. So Jesus tells one version of the story where the guy goes and hides it in a napkin. And then another guy buries it underground and then digs it up and brings it back. You know, I hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, there thou hast, that is thine. You know, we might have this attitude and think, well, you know, I don't really owe God anything. If I do nothing as a Christian, I'm just kind of a neutral. Folks, if you do nothing as a Christian, you're a wicked and slothful servant. That's what the Bible says. Because in Matthew 25, his Lord answered and said unto him, thou wicked and slothful servant. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers. And then at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath ten talents. And so we see here that Jesus does not look at us doing nothing and think we're like neutral. So if you're a Christian who does no soul winning and you're not serving God and you're not evangelizing at all and you're not doing any work for the Lord, he doesn't just look down and say, well, you know, you're not really hurting anybody. You're not really helping anybody. You're at the zero level. Wrong. You are in the negative. Jesus said he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. If you're not gathering with Jesus, you're scattering. And if you take Jesus' money and bury it and do nothing with it and then just give it back to him, okay, we're square now, we're even, right? No, we're not even. Because here's the thing, the guy could have made money off that. He could have used that money and it wasn't doing anything for him being buried in the earth. And, you know, this is where we get our word being talented. You know, when we say someone's talented, we're not talking about a literal talent. Because a talent in the Bible is a unit of money, like a pound. It's actually a unit of weight, you know, a talent of silver, a talent of gold. So basically, God gives us talents, quote, unquote. He gives us not money, but he gives us abilities and opportunities. And it's our job to take the abilities that God gives us, the opportunities that God gives us, and to use those to accomplish something for the kingdom of God, to achieve something. And if God gives us abilities, and God gives us opportunities, and God gives us talents in the modern sense of the word, you know, people are talented in music, or talented in speaking, or just talented at dealing with people. If people are given these abilities, and they don't use them for the glory of God, and they do nothing, then God looks at that as wickedness and sloth. You know, we need to do, and now a lot of people, why don't they serve God? Because they're too nervous, they're afraid, and some people are afraid of failure. So they'd rather just not try. But you know what, not trying is not an option with God. We need to get out and try. You know, why do people not witness to their friends and family, or go out and knock doors and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ? Because they fear failure, or they fear embarrassment, or they just think to themselves, you know, if I go out there, you know, I might make a fool of myself, I might say something wrong, or I might get stumped at the door, or if I bring it up to my family or friends, maybe they'll laugh at me, and make fun of me, and everything like that. And it's that kind of fear that paralyzes us from serving God. And here's the thing, you know, anytime you go out soul winning, or open your mouth to preach the gospel to friends and family, there's a risk of those things happening. But let me tell you something, if there's no risk, there's no reward. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, low risk, low reward. And so we need to get out and do that stuff anyway. Get out and win souls. And, you know, sometimes people have some really irrational fears about soul winning. Like, I've talked to a bunch of people that their greatest fear was, like, going out soul winning and, like, knocking on the door of someone that they know, or, you know, knocking on the door of someone from work, or from school, or knocking on the door of someone that they... And here's the thing, I've done that. You know, if you do a lot of soul winning, eventually it's going to happen. But come on, there's 4.7 million people in this county. What are the chances that you're going to knock on the door of someone that you know? And here's the thing, if you do knock on the door of someone that you know, I would say because that's so statistically improbable, then it's obviously meant to be. And I would look at that as, wow, God really worked out this amazing scenario where, you know, I guess now I'm finally forced to witness to that guy that I haven't been witnessing to. God's like, well, I'll bring you to his doorstep, you know, with a faithful word track in your hand. And you're going to have to say something, you know, while you're stalking this guy at his home or whatever, you know, might be what he thinks. What are you doing here? But you know what, if you do soul winning a lot, eventually it can happen. But it's pretty rare. You know, sometimes I'll knock somebody's door and think, like, I know this guy from somewhere. But it's like the guy who checks your receipt at Costco or something, you know. One time I knocked the door of a guy who worked at the fire alarm wholesale house where I would go to get my parts at the wholesale house. But you know what, I just treated it like any other door. It's just, oh, hey, man, how you doing, you know. And you know them and you're from faithful. But the chances of that happening are so tiny, they're so slim. But those are the kind of excuses that people come up with for why they can't go soul winning, you know. Well, what if I run into somebody I know? Or what if I embarrass myself? Or what if I mess up? But you know what, so what? You know, I'd rather go out there and try to go soul winning and mess up and drop my Bible and say something stupid than to just not go and do nothing. And obviously around here, you know, if you want to get into soul winning, it's easy because you show up at a soul winning time and you just go out as a silent partner. And you don't even have to say anything anyway. You could just come along as a silent partner and just be there for support and pray and learn. And we try to make it as easy as possible around here for people to get into it, get out there and do it, and overcome some of these fears and overcome some of the shyness. But you know, I wonder how many men could have been great preachers, but they were just kind of afraid to get up and preach. They're just afraid to get behind the pulpit and speak in front of people. And so fear can often stop us from serving God, but we need to understand that there's always going to be a risk in serving God and, you know, if you step out in faith and try and God sees you trying and you're praying to God to help you, obviously God is going to use you. God's not only looking for the talented and looking for the highly skilled and looking for the smartest, best looking people. That's not what he's looking for. In fact, the Bible says, you see your calling, brethren, it's not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty according to the flesh. God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. And so more often, God's going to use the one who's not good looking, who's not rich, who's not super skilled or talented, who's not an eloquent speaker, because on the one hand you've got a guy who's a really eloquent speaker, but if he's not doing much for God, over here this guy who stammers and stutters and is a poor speaker, if he gets out and tries, he's going to win some people to the Lord. I've watched someone stammer and stutter their way through the Gospel and win people to Christ. And I have stammered and stuttered my way through the Gospel and won people to Christ myself because, and you say, well, you know, you know how to talk. Yeah, but what about when I'm in a foreign language? You know, when I was first learning Spanish and learning how to give the Gospel in Spanish, man, I did a pretty lousy job at some of those doors just stammering and stuttering my way through Spanish. Or when I went to Cyprus and was soul winning in Greek. You know, I had a guy that was receptive and he wanted to hear the Gospel and he was interested, but he only spoke Greek knowing, and man, it was ugly, but I got the guy saved. Okay? Because I had to do it 100% in Greek. So I know what that feels like because when you do it in foreign languages, you end up sounding dumb, in a sense, because you're stammering, you're stuttering, you're saying a lot of the wrong things and words, but you know what, though? At the end of the day, the rejoicing is great. The reward is great. When you win somebody to the Lord, it's worth whatever shyness or embarrassment or anxiety you felt and all the mess ups. And here's the thing, if I mess up at ten doors and then the eleventh door's a home run, was it worth it or what? Amen. Amen. I'd rather make a complete idiot out of myself ten times in a row and then win someone to Christ on the eleventh time than to be the guy who just stayed home and he never made an idiot of himself, but he also never won anybody to the Lord. See what I'm saying? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, low risk, low reward. So I don't want to live a low risk Christian life. I'm not just trying to live the most safe, secure, low risk Christian life where I never get out and put myself out there and take any chances. No, that's not what I'm interested in because I'm interested in a greater return. So I'm not always just going to play it super safe as a pastor, as a preacher, as a Christian, because there's no reward if there's nothing ventured, if you don't get out and do stuff. And getting out and do stuff, doing stuff, is inherently going to have some risk associated with it. Okay. You know, another thing I've heard people sometimes say about our church is they said, there's too much drama at Faithful Word Baptist Church or there's too much drama in the new IFB. Well, let me say this. I'll show you some Christians who have no drama, Christians who are doing nothing. I mean, you want to see a church that has no problems, no drama, no battles. You know, we could find some church that just has like 20 elderly people in it meeting week after week and they're not reaching anybody and there's no new blood coming in. And you know what? They probably have very little drama. Or what about this? A lot of these liberal churches where it's not really a church as much as just a show that you enjoy once a week, you know, if you just show up and enjoy the show and then everybody just gets in their cars and drives away, there's probably not going to be a lot of drama there. It's probably pretty low risk. It's pretty safe to get involved in a church like that. You just show up, sit down, shut up, throw your money in the offering, get in the car, drive home and check it off that you went to church. You know, Faithful Word Baptist Church is a real church that's actually doing a lot for God. So obviously there's going to be a little bit of drama. And when you read the Bible, guess what the Bible records? Drama. Read the whole book of 2 Corinthians is drama. That's the most drama book in the whole Bible in my opinion. 2 Corinthians, I mean the Apostle Paul is just going off and it's pretty drama filled stuff. Why? Because the Apostle Paul was doing a lot for God. The church at Corinth is a place where a lot of people are getting saved. A lot of things are happening for God. So there's going to be a little bit of volatility there. You know, to get back to our economics illustration. You say, well this investment is pretty volatile. Yeah, but look at the rewards. Look at the returns. And just as I talked about how right now with the low interest rates and such low yields on so many investments, a lot of people, they're just, they're hungry for some yield. I mean it's like, man, I want an investment that gives me some yield. Because some people, they have a whole bunch of money. And again, I'm not an expert on this. I'm not into this. I'm just using it as an illustration. I'm sure somebody will connect with it. You lovers of money out there. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, you know, I'm sure somebody will connect with this. But think about, there are some people, they have a bunch of money and they kind of just want to live off the interest. You know what I'm talking about? Like they have their money, they have their retirement and they want to kind of live off the interest, live off the dividends from that investment. Well, here's the thing. If you're in this super low yield market, that's not going to work, is it? You know, so it's like, okay, they want to diversify that portfolio and, you know, they want to keep some stuff in the low risk safe column and they want to diversify their portfolio. But they definitely want to get into some stuff that's a little bit riskier because they want to get some yield. You know, they want to get some action on that portfolio. They want to get some money coming in. They want to make some money so they might get into something with a little more volatility. And, you know, it's funny. People have accused me, especially like people in the old IFB, have accused me of being unstable. I've been called unstable and saying that I'm volatile or our church is volatile. But here's the thing. You want to know why people come to this church? Because look at the yields. You know, this church is getting people saved every single week. We're constantly baptizing new converts. We're constantly reaching people. Lives are constantly being changed. There's salvation. There's baptisms. There's growth. There's discipleship. We're reaching a lot of people with the gospel. You should expect a little bit of volatility in that kind of an investment, my friend. So get over it. But it's kind of funny to call me unstable anyway. That's funny. I'm unstable. That's funny because I've been married to the same woman for about 21 years. I've been pastoring in the same church for almost 16 years. You know, I lived in the same house for like 15 years. I just moved a year ago. So unstable. Whoa, I moved. I moved 10 minutes away. Folks, I've been here preaching Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, only missing because I'm sick. And, you know, just week after week preaching, my doctrine has remained 99% the same over the last 16 years. Obviously, I've learned things and adjusted things and tweaked things. Nobody's perfect. You know, you've got to be learning and growing. But, you know, my doctrine has pretty much been about 99% the same over the last 16 years. Folks, that's not unstable. I'm not an unstable person. But has there been some volatility in our church and ministry? Well, ask yourself this question. Have there been high returns? High yield? High amounts of salvations and baptism? Well, you know what? You should expect there to be some bumps in the road. It's really easy to be stable and have no volatility when you're not doing anything. Go, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 14. Proverbs chapter 14, verse 4. This is where we started tonight. And this is one of my favorite verses. I love this verse. And this verse always makes me think about child rearing when I hear this verse. It says, where no oxen are, this is Proverbs 14.4, where no oxen are, the crib is clean. But much increase is by the strength of the ox. He's saying, here's the way to have a clean barn, no animals. Here's the way to have a clean crib, you know, using the 2021 definition of crib. Don't have any kids and you're going to have a pretty clean crib. You know how easy it would be for my wife and I to have a perfectly clean house if we didn't have any children? It's like, come on, do you really think my wife and I are just trashing the place on a daily basis? No way. Keeping your house clean with a couple of adults living there is going to be a lot easier. Kids make messes, okay? So here's how to have a clean house, no kids. But having kids is a blessing. Okay, where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox. And think about this for a moment, my friend. The more children you have, the more risk there is of something going wrong with one or more of your children, the more risk of tragedy. I mean, think about it. If you have a whole bunch of kids, there's a much higher chance of one of them getting in a horrible car crash or getting some horrible disease or one of your children committing some awful sin or something. Obviously, the more children you have, all of these odds are going up. Now, obviously, we have assurances of the Bible telling us that God's going to keep us safe and train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old, he'll not depart from it. But, you know, along the way, you could just ask every mother in the room, there are a lot of anxieties and stresses and worries because of people getting hurt and things going wrong and it's just more problems. I mean, think about it. If you have four times as many people living in your house, you're going to have four times as many problems. I mean, think about it. Here's a way to cut the problems in our church in half, cut the church in half. Big church, more problems. Small church, less problems. But here's the thing, does that mean we just want to have a small church? Does that mean we just don't want to have kids? No, because everything has inherent risks and the more children you have, yeah, you're going to have more chances for problems and headaches and things to go wrong, more chance of things being broken and destroyed around the house and things being spilled and messes being made. But, you know what? I still want to have children. You know, I heard this very ridiculous criticism recently that basically compared old IFB kids to new IFB kids, you know, saying like, the old IFB raised better families than the new IFB. And I'm thinking to myself, that's so stupid for so many reasons. Let me just talk about why this is so ridiculous to say, well, the old IFB raised better families than the new IFB. Really, that's interesting. Because last time I checked, the old IFB flushed a lot of their kids literally down their toilet in their literal house. You say, what are you talking about? Well, because they're all pumped so full of hormonal birth control, abortifacient birth control. I mean, when I was at Hiles Anderson College, they literally had a mandatory meeting for all of the girls that were getting married where they brought in this doctor that taught them about using chemical birth control methods, abortifacient pills, progesterone-only pills, and pills that basically they don't stop fertilization from happening. They just stop implantation from happening. And you have this doctor coming in, and they're literally prescribing birth control pills on the campus of Hiles Anderson College, on the campus of an independent fundamental Baptist. The biggest independent fundamental Baptist college in America is prescribing birth control pills on campus in the medical clinic. And I remember preachers getting up at Hiles Anderson. I heard a preacher. I can picture him right now. I'm not going to name his name. But he got up and preached and said, hey, if you have too many kids, you're not going to be able to serve God. And, you know, just a couple kids is enough. And, you know, it's going to be a drain on you. You're not going to be able to do as much for God, have less kids. And, look, the old IFB with their 2.5 children doesn't really have much to talk to say like, oh, yeah, we're better on the family. You didn't even have the family that God intended for you. You refused to have kids. You taught people not to have kids, which is why many of these churches are dying because there's no youth, because they had so few kids. It's like a missing generation. They had so few kids. They didn't even often make the replacement rate with having children. And that's how Europe is going now. European countries now often have like a fertility rate of 1.6, 1.4, 1.8. You have to go above 2 to even replace. Okay. So, you know, to sit there and say, oh, the old IFB, they were better at raising the family. Oh, yeah, right. Okay. The old IFB was so good on the family with their birth control, putting the babies in the nursery, putting the kids in junior church. They're constantly dividing up the family. I grew up in an independent fundamental Baptist church. And guess what? A ton of the people I grew up with, as soon as they turn 18, they're gone. As soon as they turn 18, they're out the door. And then the ones that are the success stories get sent off to Bible college and get watered down and come back in a pink shirt with a lavender tie. And that's the big success stories in the old IFB. And I'm not down on the old IFB. I'm just responding to this criticism of saying like, oh, they raise way better families. And it was even said that, oh, I'll match up their kids against 99% of these young people in the new IFB any day of the week. You know, I look at our young people. I like our young people. I like our young people. I like our young people. We've got some sharp young people. We've got some great teenagers. We've got great kids here. You know, I'm not looking over at the old IFB envying that over there because guess what? The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I've been on that side of the fence. And let me tell you something. It's no picnic over there, okay? I saw all the kids that I grew up with and went astray. The majority of those youth groups are away from God now. They've turned from the faith or they've just completely become backslidden or gone to liberal churches or whatever. So I'm not impressed by that, okay? But here's the thing about that is that one of the problems with the old IFB is that thinking for yourself is not something that they really strongly encourage. There was a lot of just shut up and believe it because I said so. There's a whole lot of that. And here's the thing. You know, if you don't encourage people to think for themselves, that's a low risk style of leading. That's a low risk style of pastoring, right? Just getting everybody kind of dumbed down. And look, keeping people dumb is a way to control people. Am I right? Just basically just don't think too much about this stuff. Don't think too much about doctrine. Just shut up and believe the pre-trib rapture because I said so. But they can't explain it. They can't prove it. You know, and it's just kind of like teaching you to just kind of just fall in line, do what you're told and not really critically examine these things and think about these. You know, in our churches, we encourage people to think for themselves and study and learn and ask questions and talk about these things because here's the thing about that is that, oh, that's risky though, huh? But, guess what though? We'd rather turn out young people who choose to serve God because they understand what they believe and why, not just trying to just make drones that will do what they're told and just follow the rules. And then, because then if you have an environment like that where everybody just has to kind of mindlessly just shut up and believe it because I said so and it's not really being taught or explained or justified. You know, a lot of young people who are independent minded, they're going to flee from that. You know, and then you're going to lose a lot of good people because they just don't want to follow maybe a bunch of arbitrary rules that haven't actually been taught and explained from the Bible. You know, look, I believe in rules. You should have rules in your home. I have rules in my home. You know, and so those are important. God has rules. Thou shalt, thou shalt not. There are a lot of commandments in the Bible. But, God's commandments are not arbitrary commandments. They're not just these capricious arbitrary commandments of just, just do it because, you know, we understand why God wants us to do certain things. Now, rarely there are commands in the Bible that we might not fully understand and we should just do it anyway. But, the point that I'm making is that God's commandments make sense, don't they? And, here's the thing, the truth fears no investigation. You know, I'm not worried about my kids investigating the way that this world works and understanding the way the world works that, oh, they're not going to believe in Christ unless I just shelter them from everything that this world. Folks, if they examine the Word of God and compare the Word of God to what's out there in this world, the Word of God can stand up to that scrutiny. You know, I'm not afraid of my kids getting smart and, and learning and growing in knowledge. I mean, here's the thing, I'm not trying to just keep my kids just dependent on me, make sure that they're dumb and uneducated so that I just spoon feed them everything that they're supposed to think. You know, I want them to read the Word of God for themselves, understand it for themselves, believe it for themselves, have their own walk with God and not just ride on my coattails spiritually. I want them to learn it on their own and understand it on their own. And I'm not afraid of them critically thinking about things and questioning things because of the fact that I know that the Word of God can stand up to any scrutiny. I'm not afraid to learn, me personally, I'm not afraid to learn about history or science or math or anything because, you know, nothing is going to destroy my faith in the Word of God because here's the thing, all truth ultimately points to the Lord. True things point to the Word of God. Things that are true point to Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is the truth. So I want to teach my kids to be lovers of truth and yeah, I understand kids have to obey their parents. Amen. I understand that when kids are little, there's an element of shut up and do it because I said so. Amen. But you know what, we can't just raise our kids to just only do what they're told and shut up and believe what we tell them their whole lives when they're 16, 17, 18, 19. You know, there better be an explanation for the things that we believe. There better be an explanation for why we live our lives the way that we do. You know, I don't want my kids to grow up and abstain from alcohol just because I told them don't do it. I want them to grow up and understand that the Word of God is condemning alcoholic beverages and drunkenness and to understand the dangers of it, the harm that it does and actually want to follow that rule because they get it. Isn't that better? Now again, obviously yeah, the younger they are, it's like just go brush your teeth. Just do what you're told. Eat your vegetables. But later, I hope they grow up and actually realize that vegetables are an important part of our diet because otherwise if they don't realize that, they might just turn 18 and say, yes, I never have to eat anything I don't want ever again. Yes, I can eat all the junk I want and nobody's going to stop me. No, because the idea is by the time they turn 18, they actually have some brains to make those decisions for themselves. So yeah, you could have this low risk pastoring where you keep the congregation dumb and in the dark and just train them to blindly believe everything you say or you can get up and tell people and say, you know what, read the Bible. Check me out. You know what, when I preach something, don't blindly believe what I say. Check it in the Word of God on your own and if what I'm saying isn't lining up with scripture, believe scripture, right? Scripture trumps Pastor Anderson. Say, oh man, that seems risky teaching people that. You know what, but it's a high yield. It's a high yield because you know what, I get to pastor a church of people that know the Bible. I get to pastor a church of people that don't just blindly believe what I say, but they've studied it and learned it on their own and they could all explain it to you themselves why they believe it and they could back it up with the Word of God without saying, well, I don't know about, you know, go talk to my pastor, he'll tell you. You know, they can pretty much say, well no, let me explain it to you and they might even use verses and proofs that I haven't even thought of because you know, we're a church here where we encourage people to study the Word of God, to learn, to grow and not to just blindly follow anything. So yeah, you can keep people dumb to control them, but I'm not interested in that. You can just basically have this church, Christian school, Bible college machine that churns out a certain product. I'm not interested in that. I'm not interested in just mass producing a bunch of drones and just having a bunch of people bail and everything. No, you know, I'm going to get up and preach the Word of God, but I'm going to teach people why I'm going to allow people to think for themselves, you know, and I'm going to try to raise my children to be as intelligent as I possibly can. I want my kids to be smart, all of them. It's like, well, they might get, you know, too smart for their own good and get a little bit puffed up, you know, or they might, you know, they get too smart. Well, it's like, no. Basically with intelligence, you have to balance that with charity and you have to balance that with other things and I want my children to love the Lord more than I want them to be smart, but you know what, I want to do both. The Bible teaches that knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are good things. I don't have this attitude of like, well, I'm not going to homeschool my daughters because I just want to guarantee that they are a homemaker because they'll be too dumb to get any job so this way they'll be forced to stay at home. Isn't that a wicked attitude? It's not like, well, keep them dumb, control them. No, you know what, I want my daughters to be educated and smart because I want them to marry a smart dude and a smart dude wants to marry a smart girl. Amen? I mean, look, when I was dating, the biggest reason why I overlooked certain girls was just not smart enough, you know what I mean, because it's like I want to talk about intelligent stuff so the airhead types never appealed to me no matter how pretty they were, no matter how fun they were, no matter how cool they were, you know, I wanted someone to talk to. You know, I'm going to spend the rest of my life with this person. I want to be able to talk. And so I want to raise intelligent daughters that can marry intelligent guys and that can actually, you know, have an intelligent conversation because you know what, I don't believe that being intelligent is incompatible with Christianity. I think that Christianity makes wise the simple, okay? And so here's the thing. If I raise my children to be very smart and successful and independent, well, it's a two-edged sword because now I'm basically giving them the power to go out and live their own life and succeed in the world. They don't need me anymore, right? When my children are adults, they're not going to need me because they're going to be able to go out there and just kill it in the workforce and succeed in the workforce because I'm giving them the tools to go out and do a great job Monday through Friday out there at whatever they do and so I'm giving them that power so that's a risk but you know what, the reward is that I'm raising kids that actually can go out and do stuff and serve God from the heart and actually be successful Christian adults. So you know, does everybody see what I'm saying? Not interested in just having, you know, everybody in a uniform and everybody marching North Korea style in my Christian school and then, you know, when they turn 18, they either stick with it or they don't. You know, that's not my style. I'm not interested in that and I'm not looking at the old IFP thinking about how wonderful their families are and oh, I just wish that we could be more like the old IFP. You know what, here's my question. If the old IFP is so wonderful, why'd you leave it? Why aren't you there? Amen? I mean, there's tons of old IFP churches all over Phoenix and all over America. I mean, you know, you can go to the other kind of IFP church anytime you want. It's like, who's stopping? If it's so great, then go there. But you know what happens when you go there, you're going to see the problems. When you're here, you're going to see the problems here. When you're there, you're going to see the problems there. It's called human beings are sinners. It's called there's none righteous, no, not one. It's called for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. And just while I'm, while I'm going off on this, let me just make one other side point. This same guy who said this about, you know, oh yeah, the old IFP raised better families and they're 99, 99 percent, better than 99 percent of our young people. Okay, let me just go up. He also said this, you know, hey, you know, you're so worried about doctrine, you need to be more worried about your family than doctrine. Your family is more important than doctrine and wrong doctrine is more important than family. Amen. Sorry. It's true. Hey, I love my family. I love my wife. I love my children. I mean, these are my favorite people in the world. Not you. My family. But you're second, all right? But seriously, I mean, who do you think are my favorite people, the most important people to me? Guess what? It's my wife and kids. Those are the most important people to me. That's who I love the most. But you know who I love more than my wife and kids? The Lord. And you know what? Sorry, but doctrine doesn't take a backseat to family. It's not okay to say, well, look how great we are with the family, even though our doctrine's all screwed up, even though we're not following the Bible, but look at the families. That's a dumb mentality. Okay. First of all, I guarantee you there are some wonderful families out there that are going to split hell wide open because of the wrong doctrine. Am I right? I guarantee you we could find some beautiful Hindu family today. I mean, there's 1.4 billion of them. Surely, we're going to find some wonderful, beautiful, kind, warm, loving Hindu families. There's probably millions of them, okay? And we could find all kinds of wonderful Muslim families and we could find wonderful Jewish families and we could find wonderful Latter-day Saint families. I mean, look at the Latter-day Saints, right? From the outside, and let me emphasize that, from the outside, oh man, have they got it together. Well, nuts to the doctrine. Sign me up with the Latter-day Saints so I can get that family. And you say, well, that's a salvation issue. But you know what? I'm sorry, but preaching the wrong doctrine on any subject is unacceptable. You know, it isn't right to get up and preach the wrong doctrine about anything. And I'm not going to have this attitude that says, well, I'm not so worried about having the right doctrine. Just let me make sure my family turns out right. You know, I want my family to turn out right. I believe that my family will turn out right. I love my family. I'm totally happy with my family right now the way it is. I think about my children. I think about my wife. And you know what? I love each and every one. They're great. But you know what, at the end of the day, I was not put on this earth to be some kind of a breeding stud or something. Like I just exist as like this breeding sire. Just like, like, like, is that why I exist or are we evolutionists now or something? Like it's just all about propagating my genes. Folks, no. I do not. And by the way, I wasn't put on this planet to be a husband. You know why I was put on this planet? I was put on this planet to serve the Lord. Okay. And when I, when I meet people, I don't say like, hi, my name is Steven Anderson and I'm Juja's husband and I'm Solomon's dad. I'm Isaac's dad and John's dad and Miriam's dad. Oh, and by the way, way at the bottom of the list, I'm also a pastor. How do you think I introduce myself to people? I would say, hi, I'm Steven Anderson. I'm a pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church. And you know what? If you ask men, even if they're not a pastor, they're going to tell you like, I'm an electrician. I'm a plumber. They're not going to be like, I'm a dad. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? You know, and look, I'm not downplaying family. As I said, family is very important. I spend time with my family every single day. I love my family. My family is important, but am I just like a full time dad, full time house husband? Is that what you want me to be? Is that what you want to be my dudes? No, you don't want to be a full time stay at home husband, right? You want to go out and do some work out there, don't you? Yeah. That's who we are because we're men. So here's the thing about me, you know, having the right doctrine is super important to me. In fact, it's the most important thing that there is to me, because people are relying on me to teach them the Word of God. And it's a big responsibility. If thousands of people are listening to every sermon I preach, it's a big responsibility to get it right. And so on Monday, I'm going to be reading this book and reading and reading to make sure I get it right. And then on Tuesday, I'm going to be reading and reading and reading to get it right, get it right, get it right, I got to get it right, I get, oh, why are you so worried about that? You ought to be focusing on the family. Listen James Dobson, I need to learn the Word of God here and get my doctrine right. Why would I downplay doctrine? Oh, you're so worried about doctrine, I'd rather you have the wrong doctrine and have a good family. Why not both? Why not both? And if I have to choose between being screwed up doctrinally and leading thousands of people astray every week and screwing up on my family, you know what? I mean, that's a pretty hard decision to make because, you know, I love my family more than anyone so I don't want to screw that up, but I certainly don't want to get up and lead people astray, thousands of people. And here's the thing, if it came the choice of sacrifice your family for Christ, which one am I going to choose? I'll tell you right now, I'm going to choose to give up everything for Christ. And you know, this preaching might make you uncomfortable, but what did the Bible say? The Bible said in Mark chapter 10 verse 29, and Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, there is no man that had left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the gospels, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, and on and on. So look, and again, this is coming from somebody who's been married to the same person for 21 years, I have 11 children, right? I'm not having to give up my wife, I don't have to give up my children, I don't have to give up my house or any of those things. But here's the thing, if it came to a point where it's like, well if I keep, let me give an example, because you say, why would anyone have to leave their family? Obviously, it's not right to leave your family, amen? Should never leave your wife or just forsake your kids for any reason. God's not telling you to forsake your wife and kids. Here's what's going on though, what if it came to a point where if I preach the word of God the way that the Bible says it, what if that meant me getting arrested? And wouldn't that separate me from my family? You know, that could separate me from my wife and kids, you know, if I got up and preached the word of God. Well guess what? I'm not gonna just say, well, you know, gotta focus in on the family. Because the doctrine is paramount to me as a pastor, and even to you as a layman, doctrine should matter to you and be very important, and to sit there and say, oh, quit worrying so much about doctrine and worry about families, let's be more like the old IFB, look, they're raising better families. Well, by that logic, you should be old IFB then. Because if their doctrine is messed up, but they're turning out better families, and since that's your priority, better families, then go to the old IFB then. But what you're gonna find when you get there is that they're not better on the family, and the doctrine stinks. So have fun with that, enjoy that. You know, getting married is a risk, amen? I mean there's always a chance that something could go wrong. There's always a chance that you could marry a psychopath or something, right? I mean the chances of it are low, but never zero. Think about it. I mean getting married is a risk, having kids is a risk. Women getting pregnant is a risk. You could go through some gnarly complications. That's why we pray for our pregnant ladies, we want them to be safe and healthy through that process. We thank God for the three births this week. But you know, that's a risk. Starting a church is a risk. Starting a business is a risk. You know, getting up and preaching hard sermons in 2021 is a risk. Preaching and preaching live on the internet is a risk, right? Because I could make a mistake, and because it's going out live, it would be impossible to bring that back. What if I slipped and said something stupid? That's going to go out on the internet and somebody will immediately download it. I could never get rid of it, am I right? So by preaching live on the internet, it's a risk. That's why a lot of pastors don't preach live on the internet. They'd rather upload it later to make sure that they don't mess something up. Well here's the thing about that though, it's a risk putting it all out there live on the internet, but you know what though, it's a great reward as well because now I'm preaching to more people. So more risk, more reward. You know I had a pastor tell me one time, he said well I believe the same thing you preached in that sermon, but he said I would never preach that and put it on the internet because he said I wouldn't want, you know, all the attacks. Well yeah, if you put it on the internet, you're inviting attacks, but you're also reaching way more people. So it's a higher risk, higher reward. See how that works? Taking a stand for God is always a risk. Did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego take a risk when they stood up to Nebuchadnezzar? Yeah, the risk of what? Being burned alive. And look, they got out of it, but was that guaranteed? Even they said well even if God doesn't deliver us, we still won't bow down. Even they knew we are engaging in a risk right now by refusing to bow down. So taking a stand for God is always going to be a risk, but it always pays and it pays a hundred fold dividends. In fact the Bible says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. I mean this investment is incredible. You serve God, the rewards are unbelievable, we can't even imagine the rewards in heaven. Even on this earth we get a lot of great rewards and then the rewards in heaven are unimaginable and then one last thought the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9, 6, but this I say, he would soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly and he would soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. So not only is low risk low return, but if you invest a little, you get a little return. And if you invest a lot, you get a big return. Look you can get some high risk stock and again I don't invest in stocks, I don't like the stock market, I will never participate in it, okay? That's not the point, it's an illustration, okay? Here's the thing, if I put money on some stock that just went up to a hundred times its value, I bought it for five bucks and it's worth five hundred, but what if I only bought five dollars worth? Now it's worth five hundred. We're in the money. You know it's like five hundred dollars, I'm not exactly set for life. That's not exactly a ton of money is it like, oh well you know, grandpa tell us again about that investment, oh yeah I got five hundred bucks thirty years ago, it was so cool. It's kind of like, okay we've already heard that story, but it's not really that cool is it? See but what if you really plunk down a big amount of money, you know like remember the GameStop thing from a couple months ago, who heard about that whole GameStop thing? There were people who made like millions of dollars off that thing, or just huge amounts of money, or I don't know if it was millions, but was it millions? Okay, yeah. That's what I thought, I thought people had made millions, but you know there was also like a little kid who had invested and he made like fifteen hundred bucks, and to him that was a lot for him, you know? And here's the thing, how much we invest is going to be different from person to person, right? So for an adult, if an adult invested and made fifteen hundred bucks, I mean it's great, it's a lot of money, but it's not like life-changing or something, to make fifteen hundred bucks. But when you're like ten, and you make fifteen hundred bucks, it's like wow! You know, so God, you know, he looks at us on an individual basis. We've all been given, you know, one guy's given five talents, one guy's given two talents, one guy's given one talents. So it's not for us to compare ourselves amongst ourselves, and think, you know, about it that way, but it's more like, you know, whatever God's given us, whatever we have, let's invest all of it for Christ. You know what I mean? One guy's got a hundred bucks, and another guy's got ten thousand. Let's put it all on GameStop, amen? And I'm not saying to invest in GameStop. Don't get me wrong here. Some people aren't paying attention to the sermon, they're just like, wah wah, invest in GameStop. All your money, do it now, and whoa, what's this sermon about? But look, my friend, you know, GameStop is the Lord here, okay? GameStop is Christ here. Don't take this sermon out of context. This is going to be a real weird, this will be a real weird clip on the internet. But here's the thing, you know, just as GameStop was skyrocketing in value, you know, you're going to receive a hundredfold for the sacrifices you make for Christ, so therefore I want to lay everything on the altar, amen? Give it everything I got. Live my life for Christ. You know, do everything for His glory, and the more I invest, the more risk there is of me being persecuted, am I right? The more I invest, the more I'm going to be persecuted, the more risk there is of running into problems and strife and issues, but also the rewards go way up. So you've got to, you've got to put yourself out there, my friend. You've got to step out in faith, get out of the boat, walk on the water with Jesus, make an investment for the Lord, you know, give it everything you've got, and you know what? Get married. Don't be too scared to get married, like these MGTOWs, the men going their own way, oh, you know, so and so percent of women are bad or whatever. It's like, well, you know what? Why don't you just marry one that's not bad? And quit whining, and you say, well, it's a risk, how do I know? Guess what? Every single one of us who got married, we took that risk, and here we are, we survived, some of us. Some didn't make it. You know, this weekend we're remembering those who didn't make it, okay? Maybe I'm a little confused about what this holiday's about, but the point is, you know what? Get married. And you know what? If you're married, have kids. People are going, oh, I don't know, I've got to get my financial ducks in a row. They'll never be in a row. When I had my first kid, I couldn't afford it. When I had the second kid, couldn't afford it. Third kid, couldn't afford it, but I always afforded it. I always paid my bills. I figured it out. Necessity's the mother of invention. You'll figure it out, and God has promised to provide all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And so get married, have kids, and you know what? Have 10 of them, or 11. You know, have a bunch of kids, and you know what? Train your kids to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, but you know what? Also train them to think for themselves and to learn the Bible, but also to learn math. Also to learn about the world that we live in so that they can go out and succeed in society. I want, I don't want my kids to go out and fail in society, but at least I kept them under my control. They're always going to rely on me. I don't want my kids relying on me. I want them to be able to stand on their own two feet. And you know what? I want, listen, I don't want my daughters to grow up and join the workforce, okay? There, I said it. I don't want my daughters having careers. I want my daughters to get their MRS degree, and I want them to be a stay-at-home wife and a stay-at-home mother. That's what I want for my daughters. And you know what? I think my daughters realized that and know that. But I'm not going to guarantee that by withholding education from them. I want my daughters to get education, so theoretically, by giving them education, I'm basically giving them the tool whereby they could go out and be an independent woman and go out and do all that I am woman, hear me roar stuff, but you know what? I want my daughters to grow up and do what God wants them to do because God said it and because God told them to get married and bear children and guide the house and keep the home and so forth, not because it's like, well, I guess I have to because my parents, you know, didn't teach me any math or reading and writing, and so I got no other option but to stay home. Does everybody see what I'm saying? I'm not interested. Look, if I wanted to be the old IFB, then I would be the old IFB. Amen? I'd have the Christian school and the nursery and the birth control dispenser in the lobby, right? A coin-operated birth control pill dispenser, and I would have the pre-trip rapture and pro-Israel and pro-America, and I would do all that, okay? That church is down the street, enjoy, enjoy, but you know what? I'm not impressed by the product that's coming out of that church. I'm more impressed by the product right here, okay? You say, oh, it's too volatile. Well, you know what? Then why don't you go get your little low-risk investment down the street? Why don't you go put it in your CD account, your 20-year CD account? What's a 20-year CD paying right now in interest, zero or is it 0.0001% interest? Who knows? It's not keeping up with inflation. It's negative. They probably charge you money to put your money in a CD right now. There are literally some investments that were negative interest rates. For the first time in American history over the last year or so, treasury bonds went negative. We heard about that with Japan, I think in the 80s or 90s or at some point they had that happen in the 90s or something, and it was like, oh, that'll never happen in America. It just happened. Folks, let me tell you something. You can go down to Treasury Bond Baptist. Go down to Treasury Bond Baptist where you're getting a negative interest rate on your investment, okay, but you know what? We're here at GameStop Baptist, okay? We're making some money, but we don't care about actual money, but you know what I'm saying. It's a parable, my friend. Hey, we're down here at GameStop actually winning people to Christ. We're down here at GameStop baptizing converts. Yeah, it's a little bit volatile. Yeah, I'm a little unstable, you know, but we're getting something done. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your Word, and we thank you so much for our church, and Lord, I love our church. I love our people, and Lord, thank you for godly teenagers and godly young people, and Lord, I know that our teenagers aren't perfect and that obviously teenagers are sinners and that all of our church members, whether they're adults, children, teenagers, you know, they're gonna be times when they sin and do bad things and whatever, but Lord God, thank you so much for a church filled with people who know the Bible, who love you, who care about doctrine, who care about right and wrong, and Lord, in spite of our church's imperfections, I love our church, and I thank, well Lord, you know I thank you every single day that I'm the pastor of this church. I thank you for that every single morning, and I'm thanking you for it now, Lord, and Lord, and God, I just pray that every single person here would understand that all of life is inherently a risk, and that, Lord, we'd be willing to get out there and do stuff and take some risks for your kingdom. Not stupid risks that the world would take, but actual godly risks by stepping out and achieving something for you, Lord, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, number 145 in your songbooks, 145, possibly one of the most beautiful names we have, it is well with my soul, number 145, we'll sing it out on that first verse, when peace like a river attendeth my way, number 145, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea bellows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast got me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul, though Satan should love faith, no trial should come, let this blessed assurance come, let this blessed assurance come, let this blessed assurance come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come, let this blessed trust come. Amen.