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

Man, Luke chapter 13, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you nay, but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. For those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you nay, but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. Then in verse 6 he changes the subject. So verses 1 through 5 here need to be taken as a whole, and let me tell you something. Verses 3 and 5, which are identical to one another, have been taken out of context so much, and this passage is never explained as a whole, and just the fact that the exact same verse is repeated in verses 3 and 5, wouldn't you think that that would signal people that maybe they should read verse number 4, that there is a verse 4? Just the fact that there's a 3 and a 5 that are the same, it kind of stands out when God puts things that are identical to one another, right? It gives them more emphasis. And the fact that they have something in the middle, you know, let's see what's inside of that sandwich there. And so many people take these verses out of context to teach a works-based salvation. To teach a repent-of-your-sins type salvation. And make no mistake about it, when somebody's preaching, you have to repent of your sins to be saved. That's just another way of teaching works salvation. And if you don't believe me, go to Jonah 3.10 with me right now. Go to Jonah chapter 3, verse 10. Now even before I noticed this in Jonah 3.10, common sense told me, and has told many people, that if you have to stop sinning to be saved, or turn away from your sins, or amend your life, or follow God's commandments to be saved, that that's a works-based salvation. I mean that's just common sense, that following the commandments, getting sin out of your life, turning over a new leaf is hard work. And obviously that's works. And when I started my ministry here at Faithful Word Baptist Church, back in December of 2005, I was already really strongly against this repent-of-your-sins salvation. I became aware of this issue as a young adult. Growing up, it wasn't really a thing. I was always just taught that salvation was by faith. And I hadn't really been exposed to this teaching that you have to turn away from your sins to be saved, or you have to be willing to turn away from your sins. That's not what my parents taught me. That's not what my church taught me. But as a young adult, I started hearing these things. And when I first started hearing them preached, I thought to myself, I must be misunderstanding what they're saying. Surely they can't be saying what I think they're saying. Surely we all believe that salvation is by faith here in a Baptist church. That's what I thought. Then I started becoming aware that there was a group of people amongst independent Baptists. There was a faction. They really did mean that you have to give up sins and turn over a new leaf in order to be saved. You have to be willing to change and willing to get these things out of your life. And I was just blown away by that because I've always known since I was a little boy that salvation is by faith. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. So when I started preaching back in 2005 at our church here, you know, I didn't know about Jonah 3.10. I'd never really noticed that, what Jonah 3.10 says. And I still, from the beginning, preached hard against this repent of your sins business for salvation. All throughout the year of 2006. All throughout the year of 2007. All throughout the year of 2008. A lot of different sermons. But I remember one morning that stands out to me in particular because it was less than 24 hours before my daughter Rebecca was born. So that's why I remember that this was October 19, 2008. And I was going to preach that morning a sermon called, 1, 2, 3, Repent After Me. Because the people who teach this false repent of your sins salvation, they always attack this straw man that if you believe in salvation by faith alone, oh, you must be one of those 1, 2, 3, repeat after me guys. You know, you must be one of those bad soul winners who just shows people a couple verses and three minutes later you're praying a prayer. And you know what? There is some bad soul winning like that out there. It's out there. People who just sloppily get somebody to admit they're a sinner. You believe in Jesus? Right? But they don't make the gospel clear. They don't really teach them clearly that it's all by faith, that it's not by works, that you can't lose your salvation. It's a slipshod, sloppy salvation. It's a 1, 2, 3, repeat after me, wham, bam, thank you, ma'am kind of salvation. And you know what? It's not right. We don't believe in it. We never have. We never will. We've always been against that. But that's what people accuse us. Oh, you don't want to add works to salvation. I guess you must be a 1, 2, 3, repeat after me. So the point that I was making in that sermon that I preached back on October 19th, 2008 was that the repent of your sins people, they're not being more thorough. They're just changing the gospel from believing in Christ to repenting of your sins. So that's why I said, well, they're 1, 2, 3, repent after me, because they'll have little short gospel tracts with three points plus a repent of your sins. They'll do sloppy gospel presentations that end in repenting of your sins. I mean, look at Ray Comfort's stupid gospel presentation. It's not that he's being more thorough. He's using about, well, I was going to give a percentage of how much Bible he uses in comparison to us, but I've seen so many times where Ray Comfort didn't even use a single verse. So how do you put a percentage on that? It just becomes a zero. I was going to say, hey, we use this many times more Bible, but you can't multiply by zero and come up with a meaningful answer. That's not being thorough. See, he's not being thorough. He's just blah, blah, blah-ing all of his junk and his opinion without actually opening a Bible and showing people verses from the Word of God. He just yells at them on the street corner, and he seems to find the weirdest people to talk to. He seems to enjoy casting his pearls before swine. But the point is, I was going to preach this sermon, one, two, three, repent after me. And I was really excited about it, and my wife's having contractions, and I'm like, honey, are you sure you're that close to giving birth? Because I really want to preach this sermon, you know? So I got up that morning, and just in my daily Bible reading, I was reading Jonah that morning. I just happened to be in Jonah. And I saw this verse. It jumped off the page of me. And I've already been using a lot of other verses to rebuke this nonsense, like I was taking people to Acts 19, 4, I was taking them to Matthew 21, 32. I had a lot of other texts to prove that it's not a repent of your sins, salvation, plus all the multitude of verses on faith alone. But I remember I saw this verse, and I'm just like, you need to hold off on this baby until tonight. I'm like, I've got to preach this sermon. And she gave birth like at 1 in the morning. So it worked out great. But anyway, Jonah 3.10 says this. It says, and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way. So when he saw their works, what did he see? He saw the fact that they turned from their evil way. And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it right. So when God looked at their works, he saw that they turned from their evil way. That's proof positive right there that turning from your evil way is works. So even if common sense didn't already tell you that that's work, the Bible tells you right here. And some people will say, oh, that's the only verse you got. Well, that's funny, because we were preaching whole sermons on this before I even found that verse. You know, go back to those first three years of preaching from Faithful Word, you'll find several entire sermons dedicated to this subject without this verse. And this verse was just a late entry to that sermon, one, two, three, repeat after me, from that morning. You know, it just goes to show you that you can read your Bible for years, you can preach for years, and you can still find such gems, such amazing, I mean, this is a great verse just to put that thing to bed. Because make no mistake, if somebody says, you got to turn from your evil way to be and believe in Christ, right, you got to turn from your sinful life and believe in Christ, what they're saying is, do works and believe in Christ. I mean, that's what I hear. When I hear somebody say, repent of your sins and believe on Christ, this is what I hear, do works and believe on Christ, because that's what it is. That's what it is. I mean, what do they think works is? Just helping little old ladies across the street? What do they think works are? I mean, it's not just good deeds that we do, it's also what the Bible calls the works of the law, keeping the commandments is also considered works in the Bible, and I proved that from Galatians. I don't want to spend my whole night on that subject, because there's a lot of great teaching to go over in Luke 13. But make no mistake that if you have to repent of your sins to get to heaven, that's a work, a lot of work that you have to do. Well, you don't have to really turn from your sins, you just have to be willing to turn. Yeah, except that that's not what repentance means. Repentance means turning. It doesn't mean being willing to turn, it means you turned. Sometimes I say to these people, well, what if you're just willing to be willing? How willing do you have to be? It's nonsense. Repenting of your sins is something that we would have to do on a daily basis, because we're constantly sinning and constantly having to turn away from those sins, because we don't one time just repent of our sins, and now all of a sudden we're just on a totally different path. That sounds great, except that it's not biblical and it's not reality, it's a false doctrine. And I'm not going to do a whole sermon about that, because you can go back and listen to my sermon on one, two, three, repent after me, or all the other sermons I've done. But this garbage is just a thinly veiled work salvation. The Bible makes it crystal clear, it says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, Romans 4-5. Even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. And John 3.16 tells you that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And you know and I know, there are plenty of people who believe on Christ, but they don't keep his commandments. And here's a good explanation of why, because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. It's not that they just hate the Lord, it's not that they just don't want to obey him, it's not that they're just rotten people, it's that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And that's why we need to walk in the spirit, we need to put off the deeds of the flesh, we need to mortify the flesh, we need to get in church, we need to listen to preaching, we need to read our Bibles, we need to sing the hymns, we need to pray that we enter not into temptation. Why? Because we're all susceptible of going into sin. Even after we're saved. Yeah, well we're a new creature, right, except guess what, the old creature is still there too. We have both. God does not create a new nature, a new creature and just get rid of the old one. We have both now. Now the flesh warth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And it's only when our flesh dies or is changed at the rapture that we will be free of the flesh and we will never sin again. But until then, we will have that constant battle and we need to feed the spirit and starve the flesh and then we can live for God. But this thing of just well if you're saved you'll do all those things is a false doctrine. Now let's actually read what this passage says in Luke 13 because it's not talking about salvation and notice when we talk about salvation we have these really clear verses that say things like eternal life, everlasting life, you'll be saved, you know, verses that actually would mention eternal life, heaven and hell, being justified by grace and things like that. This verse doesn't mention any of those things. The only thing it mentions is perishing. And so because it mentions perishing they're just wrongfully associating that with John 3 16 shall not perish and say well perish means die and go to hell. That's not what perish means. Because you know what? When milk perishes in my fridge it doesn't go to the lake of fire. Does it? If something's perishable it's like hey this thing is in danger of hell fire. No. Perish does not mean go to hell necessarily. Perish means to die. That's what it means. It means to die. Okay. So if something dies and it or in the case of milk something rots, decays, gets sour, much like you'll do when you die physically, okay. If a person dies and they're not saved, obviously, yeah, they're going to go to hell. So when we talk about death we know that for the unsaved hell is included with that. But we teach the same thing from Romans 6 23 when it says for the wages of sin is death we know that's not just talking about a physical death, is it? No. Because after they die there's the lake of fire, right? There's the punishment of hell. So to just look at this verse where it says perish and to just assume this means hell is to just not understand what the word perish means because perish simply means to die. In fact, when the pigs ran off the cliff, when Jesus healed the demoniac, they perished in the waters, okay. But they didn't go to heaven or hell. They just died. They just stopped. They're just animals, right? They just stopped existing. So let's look at what it actually says here understanding that the word perish simply means to die, okay. It says in verse 1 there were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Let me point out here these people were killed by Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate is the Roman governor. He is killing these Galileans in the story. Everybody see that? And then it says that Jesus answering said to them, so he hears the news about this slaughter, about this massacre. Let's get Christ's reaction. Jesus answering said to them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things. He's saying, look, do you think that these people were just the worst people in Galilee and that's why this happened to them or do you think that they were even any worse than the people around them? He says, no, nay, but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. Then he gives another example in verse 4. Or those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them thinking that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem. These people suffered an accident, right. This is different. Pilate murders people, slaughters them, massacres them. That's example number 1. Example number 2 is of a tower falling on someone and killing them, right. This is an accident, as it were. Do you think that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay, but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. So what Christ is actually teaching here, first of all, is that when disasters impact certain people, it doesn't necessarily mean that those are the worst people or that they had it coming to them and that other people didn't have it coming to them. So we shouldn't just jump to conclusions like Job's three friends where we see bad things happen to people and then just jump to the, oh, those must have been the worst people. And that's why that happened to them, okay. So think about mass tragedies that have happened in the United States. Let's say 9-11, right. Now 3,000 some people died in 9-11. There were people in those towers and there were people on the ground and there were people on the airplanes and there were a multitude of people who died in various ways on that day. Now let me ask you this. Do you think that those 3,000 people were sinners above everyone else that dwell in New York and Washington DC at that time? Do you think that? No. And when Christ says, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, what's he saying? When we see 9-11 happen and we know that our country is a wicked place, we know that we're murdering babies through abortion, we know that we've exalted the vile sodomites, we know that we have shed a lot of innocent blood and that we've done a lot of wicked things and that we've exported Hollywood and fornication and an adulterous culture and drunkenness and drug culture and everything else. If we as a nation, we should look at that and say, hey, if we don't as a nation repent of our sins, we'll all likewise perish. God's gonna wipe out our whole nation eventually. Not just one incident involving 3,000 some people. And look, that's a building falling on somebody, number one. And number two, it's also people being murdered. So that's actually a perfect example of what Christ is talking about here. Or if we were to go more recently to the shooting that happened in Las Vegas, right? How many people died in that shooting? Was it like 50 people or no, it was hundreds of people, right? What was it? 52 deaths, but it was like hundreds wounded, is that what it was? So, you know, 52 dead, hundreds wounded. Well, let me ask you this. Do you think that those were the 50 worst lost people first, excuse me. Do you think that those were the worst 50 people in Las Vegas? I mean, look, I don't approve of that concert that they were at, but I guarantee you there were probably a lot worse places to be that night in Las Vegas, right? Even though I don't approve of the atmosphere that they were in or where they were. But the bottom line, I don't approve of the whole city of Las Vegas. There I said it. Okay. But I'm just saying that there are a lot worse places that you could have been in Las Vegas that night where there's just all kinds of obscenities and filth and prostitution and sodomy and horrific things going on. I don't think that those people were worse sinners than all of them that dwell in Las Vegas. I think that if the people of Las Vegas don't repent, they'll all likewise perish in that sense that they're living in a wicked place, living wicked lives. I'm not saying all of them because obviously there's a righteous remnant, but people living in wicked places, living wicked lives need to realize that when these things happen, it's a warning to everyone of God's coming judgment. Now in this story, Jesus says, I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. That's the key word that everybody ignores. It just doesn't say if you don't repent, you're going to perish. Hey, he said you'll all likewise perish. What does likewise mean? In like manner, the same way, the same type of thing. So what's the context? What's the likewise pointing to? Is it people who went to hell or is it just people who physically died? And let me tell you something. There's no evidence that all those people who that tower fell on their head that they were all unsaved or that all those people that Pilate slaughtered of the Galileans, that they were all unsaved, just like I'll guarantee you that in 9-11, there were both saved people who died and unsaved people who died. Out of 3,000 some people, I'm sure that some of them were saved. Some of them are saved. Many of them are not saved, right? Some of the people in that Las Vegas shooting may have been saved. Does that really change anything about how we would interpret that event? No. Because when we see all these shootings and when we see buildings collapsing and when we see the school shootings and all this other junk that's going on in our country, the violence that's going on, you know what it tells us is that our country is not being blessed by God. It tells us that our country is under some kind of a curse or judgment. It's certainly not a blessing. And if we look back in the past in our nation, things weren't happening to this degree or in these quantities. It's a sign of the times. And instead of sitting there and saying, oh, well, those people got that coming to them because they were so bad, but that's it, that's where it stops, Jesus says, oh, no. And Jesus isn't saying they're all innocent. He didn't say that either. He just said, no, it's not that they were worse than the people around them. It's that if you don't repent, you'll all likewise perish. Now, look, did that come true? Well, let me ask you this. Did the Jews repent in general at the preaching of Christ? No, in general, and obviously there were people who did listen to him and follow his teachings, but obviously by and large, he was rejected of the Jews. The Jews crucified him. They rejected the apostles. They persecuted the apostles. And what happened to them? You know what happened? They all likewise perished. What happened? It wasn't Pontius Pilate, but it was another Roman leader that came in and did what? Slaughtered them in 70 A.D. and again in 135 A.D. It was the Romans came in and slaughtered them and destroyed their nation and scattered them into the heavens, okay? Not only that, but just as that tower fell on those 18 people in Siloam, the walls and the buildings of Jerusalem were knocked down and broken down and razed to the ground and I'm certain that people were crushed in that process. So this is a scripture that's clearly about physical judgments. There's no mention of heaven and hell. It's about people getting physically judged and nations get physical judgments in this life where foreign nations come in and attack and burn the place to the ground, earthquakes, tidal waves. I mean, good night. Remember the prophecy conference? I mean, we're looking at all these scriptures about warfare and famine and pestilence and all these things. When we see disasters happen, when we see shootings happen, when we see murder happen, when we see destruction and natural disasters, what we ought to do is fear the Lord and seek the Lord and say, oh, God, spare us from these things. Let us seek your face and be righteous in your sight so that these things don't happen. Because you see, there's a difference between going to heaven versus hell. God's individual. Nations are judged collectively. Cities are judged collectively. And obviously, God knows how to deliver the righteous. He'll pull out a lot before he destroys. But backslidden Christians are going to drown in the flood. Backslidden Christians might get wiped out in one of these events. You know, this shooting that happened in the Texas church, what a tragedy. It sounded to me, from what I heard, and I don't know everything about it, but is it a Baptist church? You know, I'm 99%, unless it was just a really bad church, I'm sure there were a lot of saved people in that church. Pretty much any Baptist church, you're usually going to find people that are saved, unless it's just way off the deep end. Even if it's a liberal church, even if it was a super liberal church, I guarantee you there were saved people in that group. And maybe even every single one of them is saved. We don't know, right? I don't know. I don't know anything about the church. I haven't looked into it. But I will say this. From what I heard, they were running like 50 in attendance on Sunday mornings. And from what I read, it was like 27 dead and 30 wounded or something along those lines. So that tells me that every single person in that church virtually got shot. And about half of them survived, and about half of them didn't. And you know what that tells me right away is that nobody was armed. And that's why I thank God that in our church, we have scores of people, and I'm not exaggerating, a score is 20, we have scores of people armed in our services, every service. Scores of people. And I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands right now for who's armed, but there'd be hands all over the building. It'd be like a real revival invitation. All right, every head bowed and every eyes closed. Who's armed today? God bless you. Hands all over the building. You'd lose count. We literally have scores. We have a multitude of guys who are carrying openly. We have a multitude of guys that are carrying concealed. We have more women concealed carrying in this church than men in other churches. If you took the church in Arizona that probably has the second most guns in the service, besides us, we probably have more women carrying than they have men carry. I'm not even kidding. I'm not even exaggerating. I mean, this is a packin' church. This church packs heat. Now, over the years, some people have been offended by that. And they've come in and said, oh, I'm so offended that, you know, it makes me uncomfortable or whatever. It's Arizona. This is our culture here. And I thank God for everybody who comes to church armed, as long as they're being safe and being smart and not being a bozo. But if they actually follow proper gun safety and if they've had proper training in how to use their weapon, which is important, I thank God for everybody who's carrying. I love to see the open carry. I love to know about the concealed carry. Why? Because I know that if anybody comes in here to shoot up the joint, they're not gonna shoot 57 people. They're gonna get 57 holes in them. Okay, it's gonna be a suicide mission. There's gonna be no question of survival. And I believe we're living in perilous times. Jesus Christ said, hey, look, if you don't have a sword, sell your garment and buy one. Now we don't want to live by the sword, but it is appropriate to defend yourself with the sword if necessary. So you know, we're gonna continue to allow and encourage firearms in our services. Not because we're violent people, not because we're gun nuts and radicals, no, simply because we don't want to be a sitting duck when one of these drugged out libtards comes in here to shoot up the joint, it ain't happening. And we have people in our church that are trained to watch for weirdos and to keep an eye on them and to shut that down because, you know, I wouldn't want somebody to just come in and we're all just sitting ducks. And you know what? I don't want to be a sitting duck in my own home either. I want to be able to defend my family. And I believe that ultimately God defends us. But the Bible says the horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety's of the Lord, but the horse is prepared against the day of battle. Okay, so, you know, we don't just not have the horse prepared against the day of battle because safety's of the Lord. We don't just leave all the doors and windows unlocked in the ghetto because safety's of the Lord. Because the thought of foolishness is also sin. I'm not blaming those people in that church because how could they have seen this coming? Right? Just a small town church, right? Just going to church, minding their own business, serving the Lord. But we should still look at that and take a lesson from it. But let me ask you this. Do you think that that church, do you think that they were just the worst sinners of the Southern Baptist Convention? They're just the worst church? No. It's, these things should be taken as a warning for everybody to search our souls and everybody to fear before the Lord and everybody to realize that God can either bless us or curse us. He can keep us safe or He can allow these things to happen and it's up to Him. And our faith and our destiny is in His hands and that's a pretty sobering thought. And also we can learn the common sense lesson from it that says, hey, don't be in 2017 America in church where everybody's not armed because there are too many psychos out there, too many demoniac weirdos and drug addicts and, you know, that are going to go in there and shoot up the joint. So, you know, this scripture is pretty clear what it's teaching and it's being taken out of context to make it a salvation verse when those 18 people, some were saved, some weren't. We don't know. That's not even the point. The point is talking about physical judgment, physical destruction. Let's move on. I spent a lot of time on that but it's an important point. Look at verse 6. It says, He spake also a parable, a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came and sought fruit thereon and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down. Why come birth at the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung it and if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. Now in this parable here about the fig tree, there's a couple of things we can learn. First of all, when we as Christians are unfruitful or when a church is unfruitful, God might to just decide to cut that thing down because he said it's cumbering the ground. Now what does that mean? He's saying it's taking nutrients from the ground. When he says it cumbers the ground, it's cumbersome. It's a burden to the ground. It's drawing nutrients from the ground but it's not producing any fruit. Okay. Let's apply that to a church. Let's say a church is a fig tree. The church is not winning anybody to Christ. How is it cumbering the ground? I'll tell you why. Because that church has a bunch of saved Christians in it that are attending and those saved Christians have the potential to do a great work for God and to bring forth fruit but because they're in that church, they're not. Right? So they're in a dead church. So basically like let's consider the church members the nutrients of the soil. The soil is the town that they're in, right? So here's this unfruitful tree. Unfruitful tree Baptist church and it absorbs all these church members from the town which are like the nutrients or the good ground, the saved people and then it doesn't bring any fruit. Well, God would do well to cut down that church because then that nutrition could be used by another tree that is going to bring forth fruit. The whole point of cutting it down is to replace it with something else or that the trees around it might get that nutrition and absorb those church members because they're actually going to do something with it. You know, if we're a church that does something with the members that God sends us and with the people that God sends our way, then that's going to please God that we're using the nutrition to bring forth fruit, not just cumbering the town, cumbering the ground, just being a bird. Look, there are a ton of Baptist churches that are just basically babysitting a bunch of babes in Christ. They're just running a nursery for a bunch of ga-ga-gooing babes in Christ who 20 years from now are still going to be a babe in Christ because they're not teaching them, they're not training them, right? Wouldn't those people be better off in a real church? You'd almost wish that that church would just cease to exist, that those people might be plugged into a church where they can actually do some good. He tells the dresser of the vineyard, cut that thing down. But he wants it, you know, God's merciful and his servants are merciful. And so the answer is, well, Lord, let it alone this year also. So it's an intercessory prayer saying, give these people one more chance, give them another year. And he says, dung it. Now, putting dung on the tree is to provide fertilizer, right? But think about what it represents in the parable. Because God might bring dung into our lives, right? Oh, man, all kinds of dung is going on in my life right now. Think about that. Is dung pleasant? It doesn't smell good. You don't want to be dunged. I don't want to be dunged. But here's the thing, if we as Christians refuse to bring forth fruit, God's going to have to dung us. He dungs us because he loves us. In this case, being dunged is a good thing because the opposite of being dunged, the alternative is just to be cut down. I don't want to be cut down. You don't want to be cut down. And as much as we don't want to be dunged, we'd rather be dunged than cut down. We don't want God to just end our life, take us out of commission, destroy our church because it's just a pain and a burden. No, no, no, we'd rather be dunged. So when God dungs us, we need to understand, hey, God's trying to get my attention. I better bring forth some fruit. And then we should realize, hey, if we don't want all this dung, we better go out and bring forth some fruit. Then he won't be up there saying, dung them. Verse 11, Behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called to him and said unto her, Woman, thou art loose from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. So she's hunched over and now she's able finally to stand up straight. Can you imagine how miserable that would be to just be hunched over, slumped over all the time? You could never stand up straight. Can you imagine how uncomfortable it would be? Just try to do this for one day and just, you know, next time you have a day off, just see what it's like just so you can understand the story better. I didn't do that in preparation for the sermon, but maybe I should have. You know, it's horrible. So I mean, if you saw this woman, wouldn't you feel bad for her? Let's say you'd been around this person, you knew this person, wouldn't you feel sorry for her? Wouldn't you be sad to see someone and have empathy and, oh man, that's terrible. She must be suffering so much. Wouldn't your normal reaction be that if Christ healed her, you'd just be like, man, this is the greatest thing. This poor woman, we've seen her just miserable and suffering. Now she's able to stand up. This is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. Even just a halfway loving, halfway empathetic, halfway normal person would just be so happy to see this. They wouldn't have this sick reaction that the ruler of the synagogue has. The ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day. All he did was said something. Like, they think that's work. To just say, be healed. You're working. You're taking a radical interpretation on the Sabbath there, buddy. Because the same ruler of the synagogue, you know what he does on the Sabbath? He runs his mouth for hours. Funny how that's not considered work. Jesus said one thing, right? What does he do? Woman, thou art loosed from thy infirmity. He lays his hands on her and immediately, so it wasn't like he did some work or anything. He's just like, woman, you're loosed. I mean, it wasn't a big deal. That's not exactly work. There are six days in which man ought to work. In them, therefore, come and be healed. Not on the Sabbath day. I mean, what kind of a jerk, what kind of a weirdo would have that reaction? You know what? He obviously doesn't love this woman at all, doesn't care about this woman at all. He probably doesn't love anybody except himself. The Lord then answered him and said, thou hypocrite. That's not a nice thing to say, but Jesus is angry at this guy, and you know, he got angry about the man with the withered hand, too. It says Jesus looked on them with anger in Mark 3. Why? Because he loved that guy. He knew how hard it is to have a withered hand, and he's just thinking, what kind of a jerk are you that you don't want to see this guy's hand fixed? It's just sick. He said, thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering? They love animals more than they love a person, and not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound lo these 18 years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed. Yeah, they ought to be ashamed. And all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. It's so sick today in America that there's a huge group of people today that love animals more than they love people, and it makes me sick. It's a personal pet peeve of mine. It drives me nuts. And look, I'm not against somebody who loves people, and they also love their pets. Okay, great. You love your pet. I get it. Great. But I'm talking about they're some of the most evil, sick, wicked people who don't care about any other human being but themselves. They just love animals. They just, you know, they're like this guy is what they are. Abortion is just a blob of tissue to them. But oh, oh, oh, their little dog and their little cat and their little, you know, throw it on the barbecue, you sick pervert that doesn't mind seeing human beings slaughtered, unborn children slaughtered, but you're all protective of your dog. I hope your dog falls over dead if you're pro-abortion, if you're pro-choice. I pray that God will abort your dog tonight. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. It's a sick person who loves animals and doesn't even care about their fellow human being. And people will even admit it sometimes. They'll just be like, well, I just don't really like people. I just love my dog. Then you're a wicked person because we're supposed to love people, supposed to love our fellow man, supposed to just get all of our deepest love and affection and pour it out on an animal. What kind of nonsense is that? It's garbage. And you know, this kind of preaching makes people uncomfortable and upset. That just tells me I need to do more of it because we've become a sick animal worshiping society and it's wicked as hell. And you know what? It's been going on all the way back to the beginning of time. All throughout the Bible, they're worshiping animals. All their false gods are an animal. You know, God on the other hand was actually the prototype for man. Man is made in God's image, right? So God has, God is nothing like an animal. God resembles a man much more than he resembles an animal, right? Because one of the three members of the Godhead, the son of God is the man Christ Jesus. He's not the dog Christ Jesus. Okay. But these people literally have a sick affection for animals. And you know what? I, it's like I said, you know, if you love people and you put people first and you also love animals second, that's okay. It's when you love animals before you love people, it's sick. When you're willing to let people die to save an animal's life, you're sick. You need to throw the animal on the barbecue and feed it to the human. Bible says in verse number 18, then said he unto what is the kingdom of God like and where unto shall I resemble it is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and cast into his garden and it grew and waxed a great tree and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. So he's saying the kingdom of God starts out tiny like a grain of mustard seed and then it grows into just a giant tree. And what he's saying is that just one person can start winning people to Christ with the gospel and create a whole movement, create a whole zealous group of soul winners or turn a whole city upside down or turn a whole state upside down or turn a whole nation upside down. One person can start that fire with just one little spark. And that's what the kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of God grows exponentially as the word of God is preached. Now the next parable is the same way. He said in verse 20, and again he said, where unto shall I liken the kingdom of God, it's like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the hole was leavened. Now this is a perfect example about how you have to be careful when you're interpreting parables because we have to look at the context of the parable and what Jesus is trying to teach. What's he trying to get across here? Now what does leaven usually represent in parables? Usually leaven always represents evil or sin. But in this case, leaven doesn't represent sin because he said the kingdom of God is like leaven. Here what he's referring to is the fact that leaven is a bacteria that multiplies exponentially and he's saying the kingdom of God also multiplies exponentially. Just like that mustard seed that grows into a giant tree, you can put a little leaven and a little leaven does what? It leavens the whole lump. So when it comes to sin, yes, sin can corrupt the whole church. But also just one little seed of the gospel can end up winning hundreds of people to Christ or thousands of people to Christ and creating a great work for God. So here the leaven is actually a good thing, believe it or not. Verse 22, when he went through the cities and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem, then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? That's a great question. And he said unto them, strive to enter in at the straight gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Now how could someone try to be saved and not be able to be saved? How can they try to get in and not make it? I mean, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So how could somebody try to get in and not make it? Well number one, they could be trying the wrong way. Instead of seeking it by faith, they're seeking it by works. But if we actually get the context here, God answers us how they can try and not get in because what's the first word of verse 25, when? See the reason why these people are trying to get in and they can't in this case is that it's too late. When once the master of the house is risen up and is shut to the door, this is talking about judgment day. Because Jesus said in Matthew 7, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will I profess to them I never knew you, depart from me that work iniquity. So it says when once the master of the house is risen up and is shut to the door and you begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence you are. Then shall ye begin to say, we've eaten and drunk in thy presence and now is taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you I know you not whence ye are, depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and ye yourselves thrust out and they shall come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God, he's saying but many of the Jews are going to be thrust out even though people from all over the world are getting saved. That's more clear in the Matthew sermon on the same subject. And behold there are last which shall be first and there are first which shall be last. Now I remember through the years when I've read this, this struck me as, part of this always struck me as weird and I don't know, maybe some of you felt the same way when you've read this. It always struck me as weird that they bring up to him because he's saying, I don't know you or I never knew you. He's saying, depart from me. I mean, he's sending them into what? Everlasting fire, everlasting punishment. And it always struck me as weird that their defense is, we've eaten and drunk in thy presence. I mean, does that sound like a great reason to let them into heaven? It's kind of weird, right? And then the next thing they say is pretty weird too, thou has taught in our streets. Like why does the fact that he taught in their streets get them into heaven? And why does the fact that they ate and drunk in his presence get them into heaven? Doesn't that seem a little weird? But you live and you learn and then you start to learn that people really will say that because I've had people say similar things to me, believe it or not, and I'm going to explain that. And it's so funny how you read the Bible and some things in the Bible strike you as weird, but often it's just because you don't have the life experience. Because I remember when I was a kid reading the story of David and Goliath, I couldn't figure out how Saul met David in chapter 16 and he knows his name and he plays the harp for him. And then in chapter 17 of 1 Samuel, Saul doesn't know who David is. He's like, well, who is this guy? And I always thought you met him like a year ago or six months ago in chapter 16. How do you not know this guy? Until I became a pastor and there are visitors coming to church every week. And then I'm flying all over the country to these different soul-winning events and just meeting like 50 people in one day, 80 people in one day, and then I'll run into those same people six months later and I don't know their name and I don't know where they're from. So then it made sense. Like, well, Saul is meeting more people than even a pastor does because he's the king. So he's got hundreds of people that he's dealing with. He's probably meeting 30 new people every day. So it makes sense that six months later he's not going to remember every musician that played by name and know who their dad is and everything like that. So the point is, instead of just thinking, oh, the Bible is wrong, the Bible doesn't make sense, the Bible is contradicting itself, because people have pointed to that and for Samuel it's a contradiction. I'm thinking to myself, that's not a contradiction at all. That's my life. So sometimes we just don't have the life experience. And the longer you live, the more you'll see the Bible coming true before your eyes over and over again. But before I get into the explanation of that, let me just point out the term workers of iniquity. Okay, this is a key term. In Matthew 7, the same thing is used, depart from me that work iniquity. Here he says, you workers of iniquity. I don't have time to talk about it now, but listen to the sermon that I preach that's called the workers of iniquity. In that sermon, I go through every mention in the entire Bible and you'll see that there are a ton of times in the Old Testament that workers of iniquity is used. And it is consistently used, not just about your average unsaved person. It is consistently used about the worst kind of people, very wicked people, super wicked people. And I proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt in that sermon. So you can either look up for yourself every time workers of iniquity is used, you'll see it yourself, or you can listen to my sermon where I explain it. Either way, you're going to see what I'm saying on that, about the workers of iniquity. So these are super wicked people, aren't they? And what's their defense? We've eaten and drunk in your presence. You taught in our streets. So what? That's the dumbest thing. I mean, at least in Matthew 7, they said we did wonderful works. I mean, at least in Matthew 7, they said we prophesied in your name. I mean, these people were just like, we ate food that you served, and we heard your preaching. But you know, I've had people, and look, I'm not even Jesus Christ. I've had people say the same thing to me, where people are found out to be rotten people, wicked people, ungodly people, and they're cast out of the church, and this is their defense. But I've listened to you for years. I've heard every sermon. Oh, well, case closed. Oh, you've heard every sermon. Well, then you must not be a pedophile then. Oh, you must not be a sodomite then, because you heard all that preaching. Oh, you heard sermons? Oh, well, then there's no way that you're a drunk or a fornicator. It doesn't make any sense as a defense, but people say it all the time. And I'll tell you why they say it, because the reason that it doesn't make sense to me and possibly some of you... Just be honest. Has there anybody who's read this chapter and kind of thought that was weird before I brought it up? A few people, yeah. The reason that you guys think it's weird and the reason I thought it was weird is because of the fact that we don't think that way, okay? But let me tell you something. There are people out there who think that by coming to church, they're doing me a favor by coming to church. That's what they think. I'm not kidding. And it sounds dumb. There are probably even people in this room right now who think that they're doing me personally a favor just by being here tonight. That's how some people think. It's weird. It doesn't make any sense, but that's how they think. By coming and listening to... I'll take it a step further. There are people who think they're doing me a favor by downloading my sermon and listening to it. Okay. There are people who think that they're doing me personally a favor by coming to a church activity. There are people who think that they're doing me a personal favor by putting money in the offering plate. There are people who think that they're doing me a personal favor by going out soul-winning. Now this is a warped mind that would think these things. You want to know why? Because we're not here to serve Steven Anderson. We're here to serve Jesus Christ. So when you go soul-winning, if you're a righteous person, you're going soul-winning for Jesus. If you come to church and you're a righteous person, you're coming to church for Jesus. Right? But even coming to church for Jesus is not doing him a favor. You're actually doing yourself a favor. You're not doing a favor to him. Why? Because if you don't come to church, he's still the Son of God. He's still at the right hand of the Father. All power is still given unto him. He's still going to rule and reign. He's still going to have pleasures at the right hand of the Father forevermore. You're going to be the one who messes up your life. You're going to be the one that misses out on the gems of God's Word that he has for you. You're the one that misses out on the teaching. You lose. And you know what? If you quit the church, you're hurting yourself. If you quit going soul winning, you're hurting yourself and you're hurting the souls that you don't witness to. But you're not hurting me. Why? Because I'm what's called a minister, right? Isn't that what pastors are called, ministers? Isn't what we do here ministry? Here's what it means to be a minister. It means to be a servant. So I'm not here to be served by you. I'm here to serve you. Does everybody understand that? I want to make this real clear because some people give me weird attitude about this. And I just want to lay this on the line and make this clear because it's important that we have the right attitude about things. Let me tell you something. You are not my servant. Okay? You don't come to church to serve me. I am the minister here to serve you. So that means that if you come to church for three years, you have not served me for three years. I literally threw somebody out of this church for being a pedophile and turned them over to the police and had that person say, I've served you for the last 10 years. That was the exact words. I've served you for the last 10 years. It doesn't change the fact that you're a worker of iniquity. And you know what? You didn't serve me. And by the way, this guy had gone to our church for one year. But he served me for 10 years. So I don't know how that math works. But this is how the math works. It's because he started listening to me seven or eight years ago. So by downloading my sermons, he was serving me. Now you're starting to understand how people could think that they're serving Christ by eating his food and listening to his preaching. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? I mean, think about it. This guy's downloading sermons in a distant state, and that's serving me. This is the warped mind of a sick person. And you know what? It shows a heart that is not with the Lord at all, because the right heart does everything for God, everything for Jesus. I mean, this is an important point, folks. Why do we do the things we do? Do we do it for man, or do we do it for God? I mean, think about it. When I was in the pew before I was a pastor, did I say, I'm serving Pastor Nichols? I've been serving Pastor Nichols for five years. No, because I understood that Pastor Nichols had served me for five years. He got up and taught me the Bible. He got up and served me. He taught me. He led me. He organized soul-winning for me. He organized activities for me. I didn't serve him. And when I put money in the plate, I didn't think, oh, this is going into Pastor Nichols' pocket. And so this is me serving Pastor Nichols. Because just so you know, the money that goes into the offering doesn't go into my personal bank account. That might come as a shock to you, but did you know that there's a church bank account and that the money that goes in the plate does not belong to me? It's not my money. It's the church's money. It's used for the Lord's work. It's not like, big offering, score. All right, Brother Garrett, Brother Segura, let's go party. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. What do people think? I've served you for 10 years. Well you know what? That shows your wicked heart then. Because anybody in this church who thinks that they're serving me needs to have a major attitude adjustment because they're not. And I'm wondering, I don't remember this guy coming over to my house and wiping down my counters or sweeping my floor or making me a meal. My wife serves me. I don't remember this guy ever serving me. But when he goes out and serves the Lord, he calls that serving me. And then I'll take it a step further. Then he has the gall to say this, oh, I've been persecuted and lost friends standing up for you. No you haven't. And you know what? I don't ever want to hear anybody say that they lost friends because of me and they've made sacrifices for me. No you didn't. You either made sacrifices for Christ or you're in vain. Your whole life's in vain. I mean think about that. So that's why you had a rift in your family? All for Steve Anderson. That's sick. That's weird. That's creepy. I'm like, don't do stuff like that for me. Look one time I showed up here, there's weird people in this world, I showed up here one time, I showed up here one time at five in the morning to meet up with some fellow church members to go hiking. And you know, we meet in the parking lot at five a.m. There's a guy laying in front of the church building, like laying in front of the building, looked real weird, really creepy guy and he's just like, Pastor Anderson, I've traveled this way. And he's traveled all day and all night for the last few days. And he starts reading me these verses about forsaking all and following Christ. And he's like starting to cry while he reads them to me. And he's just like, I've forsaken everything and I'm going to spend the rest of my life with you. Those are his exact words. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with you. I'm here to, I've forsaken all to follow you. And I'm like, I'm not Christ. And not only that, you know, Jesus said, hey, sell what you have and follow me. I've never said that. I'm not Jesus. And you know what? We don't have an opening here at Faith Forward Baptist Church for full time sell everything apostles. That position is not open right now. It's like people swear that this is some kind of a cult or something where they're just like, well, OK, I sold everything. I came down here. Where do I live now? Like we're just going to have some dormitory or barracks on our compound where we initiate all the new cult members. And we're going to just put them in a full time work squad and indoctrination camp. It's like, dude, this is a church. This isn't a compound. And this is not Christ's three and a half year earthly ministry. I'm not Jesus. You're not the disciples. I didn't come to your place of business and tell you, hey, drop that fishing net. You're following me, buddy. I'm going to make you a fisher of men. No, that's not, you know, it's only a warped mind who can't distinguish between the pastor and Jesus that says, oh, yeah, I made all these sacrifices for you. No, you didn't. You either made them for Christ, or you made them in vain. Nobody sacrificed anything for me. Nobody served me. You know, unless you actually did sacrifice for me and serve me. You know, look, if somebody came over and did plumbing for me or electrical for me or helped me out with a project around the house, then you served me. Thank you. I appreciate that. I owe you one, buddy, right? But I don't owe you one for sitting here and listening to me preach because you didn't do anything for me. I don't owe you one because you went out soloing because you did that for the Lord. Unless you're a weirdo, you did it for the Lord. I don't owe you one because you put money in the plate. Look, you chose to give your tithe unto the Lord. You chose to give him a free will offering. You did that for him, not for me. And if you did it for me, you're not even going to get a reward. You're only going to get a reward for what you did for Jesus. It's weird today how people think that they're serving me or doing me a favor. You know, if you're going to this church to do me a favor, I'll skip it. Pick another church. Go find some pastor who wants your favor. And you know, people, they come into our church. They start all kinds of drama. They cause all kinds of problems. They commit a bunch of sins. And then their defense is, oh, I've listened to you for years, though. Well, I mean, look, I remember one time I got here and some other homeless bum, like the 5 a.m. guy, different guy. By the way, that guy didn't spend the rest of his life with me, thank God. A week and a half later, he left the church. I only want to spend the rest of my life with one person and is not a dude. That's called marriage, okay? That's the only rest of my life that I want. But this other, I remember one time this other homeless bum shows up and he walks up and he says, I came a long way to see you and I've got a lot to talk about. And I'm just like, whoa, great, because I'm a busy guy. I got stuff to do. I don't want this guy to talk my ear off, but he came a long way. It turned out, I said, well, where did you come from? And look, I don't care if he came from Timbuktu. That doesn't mean I'm going to spend hours talking to the guy. We have people come from all over the world all the time, and you know what? I try to spend as much time with people as I can, but there's only so much time that I even have. There's only so much I can do. I do the best I can, but there's 300 some people in the church, not to mention all the online listeners who've been serving me for years. But this guy, I said, where'd you come from? He said, University of McClintock. I'm like, you came from Tempe. I'm like, oh, that's funny. Yeah, he's like, yeah, but I walked. I'm like, that's funny, because you know what? Less than two weeks ago, I made that exact walk. I walked to the other side of Tempe and back less than two weeks ago, buddy, and I was glad that I had just made that walk, because that was a perfect comeback. And I'm like, I don't have time for this. He wanted to tell me all this crazy stuff, weird stuff, bizarre things, just a way. I don't even want to say conspiracy theories, because it's beyond that. But the point is that we need to make sure that we understand. And by the way, while I'm on the subject, guess who else doesn't owe you anything besides me, because I don't owe you anything. I don't owe you anything. You know what I owe you? To love one another. That's it. Owe no man anything but to love one another. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. So don't come to me and say, oh, well, I've listened to you for three, so you need to listen to me now. No, I don't. If you listen to me, that benefited you. It didn't benefit me. I don't get smarter about the Bible, because you listen to my preaching. But you get smarter about the Bible by listening to the preaching. And it may seem like I'm being a jerk right now. That's because I am. But no, I'm just kidding. But the point is that sometimes I have to say things like this that maybe might seem a little uncomfortable or rude. But I have to say these things, because some people get weird ideas in their head. And they need to kind of be woken up here, like, hey, listen, you're not making any sense right now. Listening to my sermons for seven years isn't serving me, unless you're a weirdo. But let me tell you another person that doesn't owe you anything, and that's my wife. My wife doesn't owe you jack squat, you understand? Now my wife owes me something, because I pay the bills every week. She owes me all that service. And I owe her to provide for her, to love her, to care for her, and to be faithful to her. So we owe each other. But you know what? She doesn't owe you anything. And today there are women who come to our church expecting for her to be their new BFF, whatever that stands for. And it's just not going to happen, because she's married and has nine kids and a tenth on the way. And she's got a couple friends, and that's all she needs. And she can't be best buddies with every lady in the church. And she doesn't have to be friends with anybody. Just like you don't have to be friends with anybody. Just like I don't have to be friends with anybody, because we can only handle so many social interactions and friends in our lives, because we're busy. And if there's 150 ladies in the church, how's she going to be all their buddies? It just doesn't happen. I want her to be focused on the family first and the household first, not being this female leader in the church or something that everybody has to come to with everything and look to for everything. You know, there are other ladies in the church that can minister to you besides my wife. This isn't the Joel and Gloria Osteen show up here with me and my wife. We're your co-pastors up here. I'm the pastor, and she's my wife. She's just an ordinary lady. Okay? Now, she's an extraordinary wife, but she's, as far as you're concerned, just an ordinary lady in the church. So therefore, there are other ladies in the church that will meet your needs for friendship, for counseling, for teaching, for help. You can look to other people. And by the way, you can look to other people besides me if you're a man and you're looking for friendship, camaraderie, guidance, knowledge. You know, we're all supposed to edify one another here. It's too much for... And I refuse to burn the candle at both ends. I refuse to take too much upon me and run myself into the ground. I want... I'm in it for the long run, and I'm not going to overdo it. I'm willing to put forth a certain amount of work, and then I realize I need to take a rest so that I don't get burned out. You'd rather have a pastor be with you for decades and serve you and be there than a guy who just goes nuts for a couple of years and then just, I can't take this anymore. There are going to be times when I just turn my phone off, you shut it off, put it away, and then you better be calling somebody else. So you better have more than my number programmed into your phone. Or if it's that much of an emergency, you might just need to call 911. I'm just being realistic here. And my wife... I don't care. And you're like, well, I moved here from blah, blah, blah. You know what? I didn't ask you to do that. I didn't tell you to do that. Now other pastors in our movement, they might have got up and preached sermons about how, hey, you should move here and stuff. I'm not against that. I never got up and preached, hey, you need to come move to Phoenix to come to this church. Did I ever preach that? I can't remember ever saying that. And I certainly, when people call me, I don't tell them, hey, buddy, when are you coming down? What can I do to get you down here? My wife doesn't do that. When ladies approach her, she doesn't tell them that. Now I'm not against that. I'm just saying I've never done it. And you know what? If people move here, you know who's going to be blessed? They are. And a lot of people have moved here. And they love the church. And they're glad they moved here. And they're living their lives. They're making friends. They're winning souls. Things are going great. Other people move here and they get homesick and they go home and that's okay. Other people move here and they get bored of it. It was all exciting. And then the newness wears off and they go home. Other people go home because they get here and they thought that Pastor Anderson was going to be my best friend. And I thought Mrs. Anderson was going to be my best friend and he doesn't hang out with me. He doesn't spend time with me. And then they leave and go home. And they're like, I don't understand because I came 3,000 miles. Yeah, except that you came 3,000 miles because you wanted to come 3,000 miles. I never said, come 3,000 miles to hang out with me. And then you got here. I said, no, I'm busy. And by the way, this isn't Faithful Word Baptist hang out with pastor time. It's Faithful Word Baptist Church. We're here to serve God. We're here to serve Christ. It's not about me. It's about him. It's not about being my buddy. It's about winning souls to Christ and being the Lord's buddy. So anyway, I just wanted to make that clear that, you know, and, and, and, and I will not tolerate anyone criticizing or insulting my wife. And you know what? If somebody criticizes and insults my wife to you, you should come tell me about it so I can go rebuke that person. If somebody criticizes my wife to you, come to me and say, Hey, pastor Anderson, I just want you to know there's people talking trash about your wife. And then I'll go rebuke those people and straighten them out. And you know what? If people are talking trash about me as the pastor, you should come tell me about that too. So I can go confront those people and rebuke them. It just isn't right. And it especially hurts me when it's my wife because, you know, I can think of a lot of things that I could have done to make you mad. There are a lot of things I could have said that made you mad because I get up here and preach for three and a half hours a week. But what in the world did my wife do to make you so mad? You know, just because she wasn't your best buddy. And that is not right for you to have that weird attitude. So we need to get the right attitude toward the pastor and the pastor's wife and just realize, Hey, they're just people. They're here. They're serving with us side by side. We're not serving them. We're not doing them a favor. And you know, I brought all that up because I wanted to get it off my chest, but also because it really provides insight into this parable, how people even, even serving Christ, that was about me. Who's not even Christ, but just I'm a mortal man. But even with Christ, what are they saying? Oh, we ate your food and listen to your preaching. That's us serving you. No, it isn't. They thought that was good works on their part. You know what? They thought it was a sacrifice to listen to him preach, but you know what? Speaking to Jesus was not a sacrifice as a blessing to the listener. And if you think that coming to this church and sitting through a sermon is so hard and it's such a sacrifice and it's just such hard work over the last several years, you know, maybe you should go to a church that you enjoy a little more. You know what I mean? Cause it shouldn't be that hard to where it feels like work to just listen to me. These people should have said, man, you know, Jesus served me when I ate that food. Jesus was serving me when I heard him teach in the streets, but they're pulling that out as good works. Cause the parallel passage they said works. They're pulling it out as works that we heard preaching newsflash listening to preaching is it works. Let's borrow. It's not a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for Luke chapter 13, Lord, everything that we can learn from it. Help us to study our Bibles and to learn as much as we can Lord. And thank you for opening up so many truths out of these passages week after week Lord and in our daily reading. And we thank you for our church, Lord, and all the wonderful people that come here, Lord. And I just pray that, that, that the, the, the few people in our church that have strange ideas about these things or, or that have a bad spirit toward one another or toward me or toward my wife, Lord, I prayed that they would just mature in the Lord and, and, and keep their eyes focused on Jesus Lord. And instead of getting too focused on man and in Jesus' name, we pray, Amen.