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

Now in Psalm 73 we have this passage where Asaph, who is a great man of God, he's mentioned elsewhere in the Bible and he wrote some of the Psalms. He's talking about a time in his life where he begins to get frustrated or disillusioned or he starts to get depressed and he starts to envy the wicked. He starts looking at the ungodly people around him and seeing their prosperity. It seems like everything is going so well for them. Here he is serving God, doing all the right things and he's going through a lot of hard times in his life and he's starting to say, wait a minute, what's the deal here? You know, it seems like I'd be better off living like the heathen around me. And he just started having all these unreasonable thoughts, this sinful attitude toward the world and toward his own life. And then the Bible says in verse number 17, if you jump down there, it says, Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I therein. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou casted some down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one wan to make it, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reigns. Look what he says in verse 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee. So now in verse 22, he feels like a fool that even had those type of thoughts and it was so ridiculous for him to envy the wicked. And what I want to preach about this morning is the subject of the importance of going to church, okay? Because here we see Asaph, who is a great man of God, but he got backslidden. He started thinking stupid, foolish thoughts. He started to envy the wicked. He started to covet things that didn't belong to him. He started feeling sorry for himself and not being thankful to God and the thing that fixed his problem in verse 17 was when he went into the sanctuary, was when he went into God's house, then he understood, then he felt like a fool for having ever even questioned God. Now go to Hebrews chapter 10 if you would, Hebrews chapter number 10, and I want to preach about the importance of coming to church. In Hebrews chapter 10, the Bible commands us to go to church and really, even if Hebrews 10, 25 were not in the Bible, there's so many other places in the New Testament, literally scores of scriptures, we don't have time to go to them all, that emphasize the importance of the church, the assembly, the gathering together of God's people. It's critical. In fact, God's main program in the New Testament is based on the church. If you read the Bible, I mean, look how the New Testament, most of it is directed at the church. I mean, the book of 1 Corinthians is written to the church at Corinth, you got a whole book written to the church at Ephesus, Galatians is written to the churches of Galatia, you know, over and over again, he's addressing things to the churches. And the book of Revelation says that it's written under the seven churches which are in Asia. And so the local church is the unit that God is using in the New Testament to get His work done and for us to just ignore it, think it's not important or downplay it, is to ignore the whole New Testament that emphasizes it again and again and again and again and again. But not only that, in Hebrews 10, 25 we have the clear command not to forsake it. Look at verse 24, first of all, it says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. There's so many great things packed into this verse. First of all, we see that there are a lot of people out there who do forsake the assembly. And he says don't forsake the assembly as the manner of some is, there are people out there, that's their manner, that's the way they are, they forsake the assembly. And he says we need to exhort one another, what does that mean? That means I need to try to motivate you to go to church, you need to motivate me and the people around you to go to church, we need to be exhorting one another, we need to be trying to encourage one another to go to church and rebuking those who will not go to church. That's what he means there. And he says so much the more as you see the day approaching. So do we need church less now than we did when Hebrews was written, or do we need it more now in 2013 than we did in 2012? I mean the closer we get to the end, the closer we are to the second coming of Jesus Christ, the more we need church, he said, so much the more as you see the day approaching. And yet today, more than ever, you see a movement of people who are Christians who don't go to church. More now than ever. It's the exact opposite of what God said. God said as you see the day approaching, go to church more. Here today, more than ever, we have people saying, oh I'm a Christian, I believe in Christ. And not only that, it's not that they just say that they're a Christian, that they believe in Christ, and most of them probably do, many of them do. But here's the thing, they actually think that they're right with God, even though they don't go to church. I mean it used to be that if somebody was saved, and somebody's a Christian and they didn't go to church, at least they knew that they were doing wrong. They'd say like, well I'm saved, I don't go to church, I know I should, I need to get back in church, type an attitude. But now today we have people who just think it's perfectly fine not to go to church. And then even we have devout Christians who are a part of a local church that barely come. You know they come a couple times a month, they just, it's like they just stop by almost when there's nothing else going on. Or they just kind of stop in, you know, just when everything just falls into place perfectly. And you know, this morning just wouldn't qualify, because it was just raining really hard. So that's, you know, that's just making it way too hard to come to church. And so we see people today not putting church in its proper place, not understanding the importance of it, not making it a priority, not coming more as we see the day approaching, becoming less, or even forsaking it altogether today in 2013. And I want to preach about some of the reasons why church is so important. Turn if you would to Revelation chapter 3, Revelation chapter number 3. And the first point I want to make about why church is so important is that number one, church presses a spiritual reset button in your life. And that's what it did for Asaph. You know, Asaph was starting to drift, he was starting to fade away spiritually, he was starting to get a little backslidden, coming to church pushed a reset button and got him back on track. And I can't even tell you how many times I've started feeling a little bit backslidden or started to drift a little bit or fade, or even just started to get a little bit down in the dumps and depressed. I wasn't rejoicing in the Lord, I wasn't being thankful like I should. And I can tell you how many times I've come to church down, you know, just distraught, and then I just got to church and just instantly I just felt better. Instantly I was rejoicing in the Lord. Just the first song, just start singing the songs and it's just boom. It was like I was back in the saddle again, and you know what, it pushes a spiritual reset button to get amongst God's people, sing praises to God, hear the Word of God preached. It's encouraging, it builds you up, it edifies you, and it's just so refreshing to get around God's people and to sing praises and just to be in his house. So number one, church presses a spiritual reset button. And you know, the more you can get there and get that encouragement and get that fellowship and push that button, the better off you're going to be. That's why I love the midweek service, Wednesday night church, because you know, I don't want to wait all the way until next Sunday to get in God's house again, man, I want to get here on Wednesday night and do the midweek reset button, get fired up once again, get my mind back on track. There's so many things in this world that pull us away from the things of God. It's great to just push that reset button three times a week and as much as we possibly can. But number two, church is a place where the Spirit of God speaks to you. Look at verse number six there. The Bible says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. So God's Spirit is speaking unto the churches, the Bible says, if we have an ear to hear it. Now you don't have to turn there, but in 1 Corinthians 5, 4, the Bible says, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, Jesus Christ said that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. God's Spirit is present in the church. God's power and God is speaking by the Spirit to the churches. How many times have I been at church and when the scripture is being read before the sermon, I mean the sermon hasn't even started yet, you know, Brother Garrett or someone else is up here just reading the scripture, as we always do, reading the chapter. And how many times have I been sitting there listening to a chapter being read that I've read hundreds of times and yet just new things are popping out at you when you just sit there hearing the Word of God read. And I believe that God's Spirit speaks to you in a special way when you're in church. You know, when we're assembled together and Jesus Christ is in the midst with us and the Spirit of God is present with us and the Word of God is being read out loud, it just seems like you get more out of it. I don't know about you, I hope you don't zone out during that time because, you know what, I get a lot out of it. A lot of times things will pop out, wow, I've never even thought of that and I've read that just this morning or I've read that, you know, so many times. And so God's Spirit speaks through the reading of God's Word and also through the preaching of His Word. The Bible says, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all. And so God's Spirit speaks to us when we're in the church. It's a spiritual reset button. Not only that, church is a place that we sing praises to God. The Bible says in Hebrews 2.12, saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren, and if you would turn to Ephesians 5, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. Now one thing that I like about our church is that our church has a lot of congregational singing, because I like what the Bible says, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And I think church should be a place not where we just go to listen to people sing, but where we actually go to do the singing ourselves. Whether you're a great singer or not is not the issue. You know, we should all be lifting up our voices in one accord and all singing together. You know, I think of Jesus Christ and the Apostle at the Last Supper, the Bible says and when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. They all sang together. They sang together at that table before they went into the Garden of Gethsemane. And we as Christians are supposed to sing together at church. There's a famous verse here in Ephesians chapter 5 verse number 18, it says, Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So the Bible talks about us being filled with the Spirit, and this is directed to the church at Ephesus, being filled with the Spirit and speaking to ourselves. That means we're all singing to one another. That's why the Bible says in Colossians 3, parallel passage to this, it says, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Here we are singing together, all of us, and we're teaching one another, we're admonishing one another, and we're filled with the Spirit together by singing hymns and praises to God in the church. That's why we sing the hymns before the preaching and after the preaching. It's an important part of the service, we're not just killing time, it's not just to make up so that, well, you know, we know you're going to be late, we don't want you to miss the sermon. So we provide, you know, 15 minutes of singing, that way when you show up 15 minutes late, you know, you didn't miss any of the preaching, you can jump right into the sermon. No, we do the singing for a specific reason, because it helps us to be filled with the Spirit, and we're teaching and admonishing one another with the songs and hymns and spiritual songs. That's why it's important to sing songs that are doctrinally correct. Because if we're singing songs that are doctrinally incorrect, we're teaching people false doctrines. And so we need to be careful that we sing songs that teach biblical doctrine, because we're always learning something when we sing. And often we learn things better when we sing them. Some things we'll totally forget. For example, I mean, I grew up in church and I could probably tell you more songs than I sang in church than sermons that I heard. Because music has a great power to teach us and to stick with us and to stick in our mind. And so the first reason we need to be in church is to push that spiritual reset button. Get our attitude right. Get a right spirit with God. Number two, it's a place where God's Spirit speaks to us through the preaching. God gave us teachers, pastors, evangelists, He said, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. You know, the pastors there preaching, you want to hear that preaching, learn the Word of God, be edified, come to the knowledge of the Son of God, the Bible says, gain more knowledge and let God speak to you and tell you what you need to hear. Often I've invited someone to church, and I'm sure you've often invited people to church and they didn't show up. You wanted them to show up, you're excited and you want to bring them, and then at the last minute they flake out on you. And oftentimes I've invited someone, had them all lined up to come, and then they fell through, and then we got to church, and the sermon was exactly what they needed to hear. Almost to the point it was uncanny, I mean, sometimes it was something that you just talked to that person about. Then you come to church, there's a whole sermon about, and you're thinking like, this sermon would have been perfect for them. It's exactly what they needed to hear. But they weren't there. But I wonder how many times was the sermon exactly what you needed to hear? Because you know what, God's Spirit is leading. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've gotten up to preach, and I just picked a sermon topic just seemingly at random. You know, I just, okay, this is what I'm going to preach on. I don't have some magical way that I choose sermon topics, I mean, I pretty much just look at what I've already preached and what I still need to preach, and I just try to preach the whole Bible. So I just seemingly at random pick a sermon, and I'll preach a sermon and it'll just, people come up to me and say, we were just talking about this on the way to church, or this is exactly what we're dealing with. This is exactly the sermon we need to hear. And even, I preached the sermon a few months ago, and while I was preaching the sermon, the thought came into my mind, why am I preaching this? You know, why am I, nobody needs, this is not what people need, you know, I just, I literally had that thought on a Sunday morning, I don't know why I'm preaching, this is an odd topic for me to be preaching. And you know, I was like, this seemed like a good idea when I prepared the sermon, but I don't know why I'm preaching this. And then somebody walked up to me after the service and it was just, it just hit the nail exactly on the head, it made me feel better, I go, okay, well, maybe there was a reason why I preached that. So what I'm saying is that God leads the preacher sometimes to preach things that are exactly what you need to hear, but I've noticed that sometimes He leads the preacher to preach things that are exactly what people need to hear, even when they're not, and then they don't show up. And then they miss it. I've seen that happen so many times, and that tells me that, you know, we need to go and get what God has for us at every service and get ourselves here and learn as much as we can. And you know, not only that, but you say, well Pastor Anderson, sometimes your sermons just, you know, they're not that interesting or I don't really learn anything or they don't really hit the nail on the head, but here's the thing, sometimes they are good though. And here's the thing, how do you know which one's going to be the good one and which one's going to be the dud? Because, you know, I don't even know. So here's the thing, you know, you might show up on a service and it's not the best sermon ever, and then you miss a service and it's like, oh man, it was the best sermon ever. Now look, I don't know when I'm going to preach the best sermon ever. I don't know when I'm going to preach the worst sermon ever. You just got to be, I mean, if you want to get the best sermon ever, you just have to be here all the time. And you know what, sometimes one person's best sermon ever is different than someone else's, but you know what, there are certain changes that sometimes can be made in your life that are little changes that can make a massive difference in your life. Sometimes just changing one little thing in your life can make a huge difference. And sometimes one service can teach you that and you'll get something new and you'll implement it and put it into practice and then boom, fixed. And you know what, so many people are missing out on so much information and so much great teaching and so much great preaching. And I'm not saying my sermons are great all the time, but I'm saying you never know when the great one's coming so you just have to be here. And you say, well I'll just get it online. Yeah, but how many times does the recording equipment fail? You know, sometimes it fails. And you know what, sometimes there's just something different about actually being here than just listening to it. I mean listening to it's great if you do miss, you know, I would definitely go back and listen to it. But you know what, sometimes it isn't there. Or sometimes it's just not the same. I'm just saying, you don't want to miss out on what God has for you in the preaching. Sometimes it's even directed specifically at you. Not because I'm planning my sermons around you, I'm going to give him what he needs. Or rather because God's Spirit is up in heaven saying, yeah, give him what he needs. Not me. I'm not like that. I would never think that way. But anyway, another reason why we need to go to church is simply because it's the command of God. Not only is it a great reset button spiritually for us, not only is it a place where God's Spirit speaks to us through the preaching, through the reading of His Word, not only is it a place where we can sing praises to God, and you know what, the Bible commands us hundreds of times in the book of Psalms to praise the Lord. He doesn't say, you know, praise Him if you want to. I mean, it's just over and over again, He commands, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Sing praises to the Lord. Lift up your voices in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. That's God's house, Psalm 134. So over and over again, God commands us. He wants to hear us sing praises unto Him. Plus, singing praises unto Him allows us to be filled with the Spirit. Plus, singing praises unto Him in the church allows us to teach and admonish one another and to learn doctrine. But number four, going to church is simply the command of God. You say, well, you know, I don't get that out of church. It doesn't push a reset button in my life. I don't like to sing. God never speaks to me. You know what? Go to church because God said so. Whether you think you need it, whether you think it's right, whether you think it's important, God commanded you not to forsake the assembling of, I mean, who wants to be that guy that's the manor of some is. You know what I mean? Where God's like, yeah, like some people who don't go to church. I mean, do you want to be in that crowd of just, yeah, like some people who forsake the assembly? God's not pleased with you if you're not in church. You're disobedient to the commands of God. The Bible says that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Jesus Christ said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And you know what? When he said I'm going to build my church, he didn't say I'm going to build a website. He didn't say I'm going to build a school. He didn't say I'm going to build a college. He didn't say I'm going to build a seminary. He didn't say I'm going to build a coffee club. He said I'm going to build the church. Look, are you part of that building or not? What was he going to build the church out of? Wood, stone? No, he said he's going to build it out of people. And you are one of those people. You need to be a part of God's building. The Bible talks about us being a house that's fitly framed together and every joint and every piece of that building is important structurally to the building. God wants to build the church. He wants you to be a part of it. And he commands us to be in church. And if we're not in church, we're disobeying God's command. We're ignoring the institution that he said he would build. We're ignoring the institution for which he shed his blood. The Bible says that he purchased the church with his own blood. The Bible says over and over again that God thinks the church is important and so we ought to find it important. We ought to think it's important. And you know, I think that not going to church is a major sin. And not only do I think not going to church is a major sin, I think it leads you into other major sin because you're not getting the preaching and you're not getting all the other benefits. Are you still in Hebrews 10? Go back to Hebrews 10 if you would. Let me just show you that it's a major sin not to be in church because a lot of people think that not going to church is just a minor issue. It's a major issue. It's a huge issue. And look, the Bible says in Acts chapter 2 when it talks about all the people that got saved and baptized at the day of Pentecost, it says praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. So the Bible is saying when people got saved, God added them to the church. That's God's desire is that when people get saved, they get added to the church, that they get in church. That's one of the first things they need to do as a believer. But the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10, 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully, now what's the word for at the beginning of verse 26? What part of speech is that? For. What part of speech? It's a conjunction, right? And modern day, what's the conjunction that we would probably use more often? We would say because. For if we sin willfully, basically in our modern vernacular would be because if we sin willfully. So is verse 26 is starting a brand new thought out of nowhere? No. It's a conjunction connecting verse 25 to verse 26. It says, for if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. What is the specific willful sinning that he's referring to in verse 26? It's the forsaking the assembly of verse 25. He says don't forsake the assembly because if we sin willfully, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation would shall devour the adversary. You say, what does he mean by that? Well in the Old Testament, this is not talking about salvation as far as heaven and hell, but in the Old Testament when they would sin against God when they would do something wrong, they would bring a sacrifice to the temple, right, and kind of make things right with God. They'd make a peace offering or a sin offering and a trespass offering and it was basically something that they could do to basically say that they're sorry and make things right with God, make a peace offering with God and basically turn away his wrath from them for the sin that they had committed. And what the Bible is saying in the New Testament is that we don't bring a sacrifice like that. We don't do that. And God is telling us that in the New Testament, he takes a harder line on willful sinning than he even did in the Old Testament. You know, because unto whom much is given, of them shall much be required. We have so much more of God's word than they had in the Old Testament. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us in the New Testament. They didn't have that in the Old Testament. That came after the resurrection of Christ that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was given. So if you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, unlike Old Testament saints, if you have the entire word of God, unlike Old Testament saints, if you have the local church to come to available to you, unlike Old Testament saints, then let me ask you something. Don't you think that God is going to hold you more accountable when you just brazenly, willfully sin against him? And don't you think he's going to punish you and chasten you as the Bible says later on, the Lord shall judge his people? Look, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now let me tell you something, when my children accidentally sin against me, they're going to get less punishment than when they willfully sin against me. And you know what? When you forsake the assembling, you are willfully sinning against God and you can lie to yourself and make all these excuses about why you're not going to church, but you know you're supposed to be in church. And the Bible said church, what, a hundred and some times in the New Testament? Church, church, church, church, church, church, church, church, church. The book of Corinthians written to the church, Galatians written to church, Ephesians written to church, church, church, church, church, church, church, church, church, church, church. I don't think we're supposed to go to church. Church is just wherever I am, I'm the church. No you're not the church. You're not an assembly unless you're a Siamese twin, you're not an assembly, you're one person. And the Bible says the church is the assembly today, it's not one guy saying, well I'm the church. And then there's this universal church doctrine. Oh, we all just make up the church no matter where we are. No, that's why there was a church at Ephesus, there was a church at Galatia, there was a church in Philippi. It's not just we all make up the church singular, no there are churches in specific localities. And there's a church in Tempe that you're sitting in and there are churches all over America and all over the world and you need to show up at that church and you need to sing praises to God and hear the preaching of God's word and live a life of obedience to God and not just willfully sin against God and don't go to church. You say, why are you preaching this? We're in church. Because you know what, some of the people that are here today will eventually quit going to church if history can show us anything. Because there have been plenty of people who've sat where you sit who no longer go to church anymore and they try to justify it and give all kinds of excuses why they don't go to church. And I don't want you to be those people and if you do you'll be sinning willfully because you're hearing the sermon that's teaching it to you today. Plus there are people in this room that could probably stand to go to church a little more often than they do. So much the more as we see the day approaching. In fact, Wednesday night's my birthday, you can show up on Wednesday night for my birthday. That's what this sermon's really about. But anyway, going to church is the command of God. Over the years I've heard a lot of excuses why people aren't in church. Here's the thing, there are a lot of people who listen to my sermons online that download my sermons online and there are a lot of people that download the sermon and then they don't go to church. And they listen to every sermon I preach. They download all the sermons but they don't go to church anywhere. And so people are constantly writing to me and contacting me with all the reasons why they don't go to church. So basically what I'm trying to say, the reason I bring that up is just to say that I've heard a lot of excuses for why people don't go to church because people are constantly telling me, Pastor Anderson, I know you preach about going to church, but you know. And then all the excuses why. Let me just go over some of those excuses real quickly of why people just can't go to church, why they don't go to church. You know one that they often say is that there's no good church in my area. There's just no good church. I just, I mean, I've tried them all and there's no good church in my area. Often these same people all get out my resources, all get online and all start looking and then all find them churches and they're, okay, here's one here, here's one here, try it out. And then it's just like, hello. Never hear from them again. When you start providing them with churches, there was a guy who said, man, there's no good church in my area. I mean, an awesome church started up right in his town and I told him about it and he never showed up. Because people are just looking for an excuse not to go to church, but they say there's no good church in my area. Well let me tell you something right now, okay? We are here in the Phoenix area, right? How many people approximately live in Maricopa County in this area? There's about 3.9 million people, right? So this is a pretty big city, but it's not the biggest city, but it's a pretty good sized city. We're talking about within like an hour radius of here, you know, or 45 minute radius. There's about 4 million people here, okay? Is Faithful Word Baptist Church just the only decent church that's even worth setting foot in in this area? No. Because, who said that? I'm just telling you, I'm just telling you, like, let's say, just hold on, just hear me out for a second. Let's pretend right now that Faithful Word Baptist Church has disappeared tomorrow. I mean, you showed up and it was just gone. And all the people were gone. And no, it wouldn't mean the preacher of rapture. But anyway, let's say you just show up and everybody's just gone, the building's gone, and just, oh yeah, Pastor Anderson's been imprisoned, you know, everybody's gone. But let's say for some reason, just magically, Faithful Word Baptist Church ceased to exist tomorrow. There are other churches that you could go to. I'm not saying it's going to be as good as Faithful Word Baptist, but I'm saying there are other places to go. Because look, here's my, let me just give you my minimum criteria for a church, okay? My minimum criteria is that they have to be preaching the King James Bible. I mean, that's a minimum. I will not set foot in a church that does not preach the King James Bible. Let me be clear on that. I will not go there, okay? And then they have to be preaching salvation by faith alone. That's it. That's the minimum criteria. And then, you know, my other minimum criteria is that they're soul winning, okay? But you know what? Here's the thing. If I were in an area where all I could find was just King James Bible and salvation by faith, I'd go there, I'd start the soul winning. I'd do the soul winning. You know, I'd try to get things going with the soul winning. But I wouldn't stay home and just not go to church. Now look, if the criteria is King James Bible and salvation by faith alone, how many churches in the Phoenix area fit that bill of being King James and salvation by faith? You know what? I guarantee you that you could at least find 15 churches in this area. And that's just, I mean, I'm just throwing that out very conservative. Probably minimum. I could list for you, personally, off the top of my head, 15 churches in the Phoenix area that I know of that are King James and that preach salvation by faith. You're like, well good, because I need to get out of here. Well, come see me after the service. I'll set you up with them. You've got options. Don't feel like you have to come here. There's plenty of options. But look, you know, when we, the movie that we produced after the tribulation, I mailed it out. I mailed one out to every independent fundamental Baptist in Arizona, okay? That was like 90 DVDs of independent fundamental Baptists in Arizona that I mailed that to. And you know what? I'm in Phoenix. There were 40-some independent Baptist churches in the Phoenix area. Now not all of them are King James. You know, not all of them are preaching salvation by faith alone. Some of them have heresy and everything. But out of 40, out of 40, let me tell you something, I'm sure there's at least 15 of them. There's probably 30 of them are King James and salvation by faith. I don't know. Maybe 20, whatever. I'm just telling you that there are, don't expect me to believe if in Phoenix, Arizona, which is not the Bible Belt, which is not a Baptist area, which is an area that's predominantly Catholic and Mormon, I mean the biggest religions in this area, Tempe is Catholicism, Mesa is Mormonism, and in Phoenix it's probably Catholicism again. And so this is not a heavily Baptist area in the United States by any stretch of the imagination. Why is it that there are 40 independent Baptist churches? Why is it that there are churches that are King James and salvation by faith? Yeah, okay, they preach a lot of other stuff that isn't quite right. But you know what, I'm not saying it's ideal, but it's better than staying home, is what I'm saying. Anybody listening? Go to church. And you know what, you're sitting at home because there's no good church in your area. Well here's what I say, and I will stand on this, I will not back down on this, and I never, I never give anyone a dispensation, you know, like I have the power to do that anyway, like they have to justify themselves to me anyway, but I never absolve anyone who comes to me saying I can't find a church in my area. I'm not going to say, oh well that's okay for you. Oh you don't go to church because there's no good, well then you're okay. No, I always tell people, look, you need to find the best one in your area and go there, and if there's nothing that's even decent, then you need to drive farther, and if there's nothing decent from a farther drive, then you have to move. It's that simple because you must go to church. And I have way more respect for somebody who goes to a lame, independent Baptist church than somebody who just doesn't go to church at all, and is just right on doctrinally. Yeah, but you're not serving God, because service for God in the New Testament takes place predominantly in the church. I mean the church is the one that sends you out soul-witting, the church is the one where most of the work gets done, but they say there's no good church in my area. You know, then move. And you go, well I can't move, well okay, Abraham moved, it wasn't easy for him. He picked up everything and left Ur of the Chaldees, and I'm not saying that's ideal, obviously there should be a good church in every area, but you know what, I find that in major cities in America, there are churches that you can go to that are fine. Not saying it's the best church that you've just been dying to go to your whole life, but it's fine. And even in most towns and villages in the United States, within a drive, you're going to find something tolerable to go to, and if you can't, then move. I'm not going to condone of it. I do not condone of not going to church. Well, but my job, you know what, I'd rather be poor and go to church. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to divide the spoil with the mighty. I'd rather be poor and dirt poor and go into a bible believing church than to be wealthy and successful and have a nice house and property where there's no good church. And maybe that's something we should think about too before we move places. Look at, okay, what's the church situation like in that area? That should be a critical thing. But people will find excuses not to go, they'll say, well there's no good church in my area, and then they'll pick apart every church in their area. They'll say, well this church is right about everything but they're pre-trib so I just can't go there. Good night. You're going to let a view of bible prophecy just make it so that you just don't go to church at all because they have a different view of bible prophecy. And they say, well the bible says let no man deceive you. Well I'm not telling you to go there and start believing in it, but go to church. And then another one that I've heard a lot is they say, well, you know, we don't go to church because they force us to put our kid in the nursery and we don't let our kids out of our sight so therefore we're just not going to go to church at all. Well look, let me tell you something. Before I started this church, I refused to put my kids in the nursery either at all these fundamental Baptist churches I went to. Who's been there? Who's been to a church and they have a nursery and you refuse to put your kids in? And look, we did it for years, we got the dirty looks, we had the old ladies coming up to us, you know, we have a nursery, I can take it to the nursery for you, I can take it there right now, you know. I'm like, no, leave me alone! Because let me tell you something, I don't let my kids out of my sight, I don't let my little kids just with strangers and everything, there's too many weirdos today, to just let your kids go and so I don't let my kids be taken to the nursery. Not only that, I want them to be in the service hearing the preaching of God's word. It's too important to take them out and stick them in front of stinking veggie tails and a bunch of flannel grafts. Man, get them in front of a real leather-lung preacher, they can hear Bible preaching. You say, how old? When they're born, get them here. Get them here in the womb to hear it. And then they'll grow up with it and when they're old they won't depart from it. But you put them in a little fun nursery somewhere in outer space and you know what, then they grow up and they go to the fun church, the cool church. But you bring them up with this, this is what they're going to grow up and do. They're going to stick with real Bible-believing preaching, hymns, look, the hymns are good enough for a two-year-old, they're good enough for me. You know what I mean? They're good songs, they're fine. We don't need to dumb it down for them. And so they say, well, compulsory nursery. You know what, I guarantee you that 99% of these churches that have a compulsory nursery, if you bring your kid and don't put it in the nursery, they're not going to throw you out of the church. They're going to give you a dirty look, they're going to persecute you, they're going to criticize you and make fun of you, but they're not going to throw you out of the church. And I know because I did it for years. And we were made fun of, we were attacked, we were criticized for it, they put pressure on us, but you know what, so what? So what? Are you that weak? That you can't just go there and do it? And look, if they throw you out, then they throw you out, then go to the next one. But you need to go to church, bring your kid in the service, and just tell them no thanks on the nursery, no thanks. And we do it, we do it in this area. When there are services on weeknights, and we'll take the family to like a preaching conference, we'll have five people come up to us and tell us to put our kid in the nursery. And we just say, no, I'm not going to. Your move. What are you going to do about it? So what I'm saying is, that's not a good excuse for not going to church. Oh, they all have a nursery. So what? Don't use it, if you don't want to use it. I'm not going to use it. Or people will say, all the churches in my area are too, they're too big. And then other people will say it's too small. I mean literally, people have said that our church is too small, other people have said our church is too big. Right, your church is way too big. I'm thinking to myself, well it's not that big. I mean, listen Goldilocks, it's just right for me, you know. But okay, I had a guy tell me this. He said every church in my area, he said I'm willing to drive as far as two hours, he said. And he's living in the Bible Belt, he's living in the South, he's trying scores of Baptist churches. He said every church I've gone to forces you to pledge allegiance to the American flag, every service. And he said, I don't want to pledge allegiance to the American flag. And I've been thrown out of every church. You're a liar is what you are, you're a bold faced liar. You have not been kicked out of 20 churches for not pledging allegiance to the American flag. Now look, maybe you could find one church somewhere that'll throw you out if you won't pledge allegiance to the American flag. I've been going to church my whole life, I've visited 50 churches, I've been to like one church that pledged allegiance to the American flag on a Sunday morning. And I was like, what in the world? Is this kindergarten? Okay, I've never seen that. But look, to sit there and tell me every church in a two hour radius is pledging allegiance to the American flag and throwing you out if you just stand there, they're going to throw you out if you just stand there. It's a lie, the guy's a liar, he's making stuff up. And that's what it comes down to is people just not wanting to go to church, making things up. Now look, maybe he was showing up, I mean, you know, there's usually a kernel of truth in every lie, he's probably showing up with a pamphlet, you know, why you're worshipping Satan if you pledge allegiance to the American flag, you know, yeah that probably gets you kicked out, but if you just sit down and shut up, you're not going to get kicked out. Most churches don't kick you out for things like that. Another one that I heard is, you know, oh well I don't go to church because all the churches are 501c3. And look, I'm so sick of this garbage, it's so stupid. You know what, you didn't get that from reading the Bible. I mean, tell me something, did you read the Bible one day and all of a sudden you're like, I can't go to a church that's 501c3 certified. No because there's no mention of anything like that in the Bible. You got that off the internet. You got that off some website that taught you all that, the Bible did not teach you that. You didn't read the Bible, you know, one day I was doing my daily devotions and I had the Bible in front of me, and then I had the IRS tax code in front of me, and I had both of them in front of me, and it was just all of a sudden, God just showed me, don't go to a church that is under the tax code of status 501c3. And most people that are saying that, they don't even understand what that means. They don't even know what they're talking about, and look, 501c3, just to explain it to you quickly, it's basically something that a church can do, and not every church is 501. Churches are constantly being accused of being 501c3 that aren't, just because they're a corporation, which most churches are corporations, which is oh so sinful, but you know what the word corporation means? Body. It comes from the Latin word corpus. So all it means, this is what it means to be incorporated. To be incorporated means that, see the church van out in the parking lot? It's not owned by me personally, that's not my personal vehicle. Although with the size of my family, I might have a vehicle that size soon. But that vehicle does not belong to me, nor does it belong to you individually, nor does it belong to anyone in this church. You know who the vehicle belongs to? The church. So in order for there to even exist the church, it has to be legally its own entity. The building is rented not by me, not by you, but by the church. It's just a legality. You say, well but we shouldn't have all these corporations, look I don't think we should even have any of this stuff, I don't even think we should have a driver's license. Who thinks we should get rid of driver's license? Who thinks we should get rid of birth certificates? I do. Who thinks we should just not carry ID with us anywhere we go? Some people are like, oh it's anarchy, I'm getting scared. But look, for thousands of years you didn't walk around with ID and having all this extreme documentation that we have today where it's so complicated. I mean look, maybe your taxes aren't that complicated, but try owning a business and your taxes get really complicated. And look, running a church legally is really complicated. I mean I spend days and weeks just trying to figure it out. All the paperwork and all the legalities of it, same thing with my business. Running a business is even worse than running a church as far as the legality. It's even more complicated, okay? You know, yeah, when you go work your 9 to 5 job and clock in, clock out, your taxes are pretty simple. You're using the 1040 easy form. I haven't seen that form in a decade, okay? I do my taxes, it takes me days and weeks to figure it out. Do I like it? Do I think it's great that I have to prove everything to the government all the time and I'm guilty until proven innocent all the time? No. But here's the thing. That's how you have to do it in America to be legal. Like you have to drive with a driver's license. You know, I know a pastor in town and I'm not going to name his name, but he's a great guy. He's a friend of mine and I like him. And he's like a totally off the grid guy. I mean he has no driver's license, he has no vehicle registration, he never files taxes. His church is totally off the grid, okay? I mean he doesn't report anything. I mean he's just completely just not a part of the system whatsoever, okay? Now this guy, I talk to him about it because he's my friend and he even says to me, like, don't do this. Don't be like me. Because he says it's a pain in the neck, it's difficult, I run into problems all the time. For him it's more like an experiment, like he's trying it, but he's constantly telling me I don't recommend this. Now look, his church is much smaller than ours. Now with all these bunch of people jumping up and down screaming, I don't want to go to any church that's incorporated, okay? They're jumping up and down screaming, I mean you'd think that he'd have 5,000 people in his service this morning, wouldn't you? I mean all these people are saying, well I'm only going to go to a church that's not incorporated, that's just totally off the grid. Well then you know what, he should have 5,000 this morning. And yet his church is much smaller than ours, okay? That shows me that these people are all just talk, they just have an excuse for not going to church. Oh, they're all 501c3, sitting at home on their keyboard instead of getting their rear end in church where they belong. And so there's all this disinformation and lies out there claiming that any church that's incorporated is of the devil and it's worshipping Satan and the IRS, you know, I mean the head of the IRS actually runs the church. It's so bizarre. None of it's biblical, none of it came from studying of the word of God, none of it came from the Holy Spirit, none of it came, look, there are different levels of going off the grid or rebellion against government, okay? Look, everybody's rebelling against the government the best they know how, okay? You know what I mean? But just give us a break if we don't want to just be completely off the grid. Who here has a driver's license this morning? Yeah, okay, well see, does everybody just love going to DMV? I just love paying $400 a year to the government for my car that I already own. I mean my car that I already own, I just love registering it to the government every year for $400. I just think it's wonderful. No, but I render unto Caesar the things that be Caesar's and Caesar can go to hell at the end of the day, but I'm going to give him his money in the meantime. You know, and I'm not going to sit here and go to prison, right? I'm not going to go to prison. You want to sit in the pew, right? I'm the one who's got my head on the chopping block as the pastor. If anybody goes to prison because of the way the offerings are taken and the way the bank account is, I'm the one that's going to go to prison. I don't think you should be paying, Pastor Anderson, the money that you make pastoring, I don't think you should pay taxes on that because you shouldn't have to. We need to be off the grid and our church needs to be totally off the grid. Our church needs to do everything in cast. Yeah, and I'm the one that's going to go to prison and you're just going to disappear off into the sunset. You know what I mean? And then you're going to sit there and attack me for pastoring the church and running it legally. Okay, now look, and I'm not saying that it's good to be 501c3, but I'm saying to you that most churches are 501c3 and to say that they're wicked, you're wicked. Because you're blaspheming and falsely accusing a lot of great pastors and a lot of great churches who are just, you know, maybe they just can't figure out the stupid IRS code, so they're just trying to figure it out the best they can. They're just trying to pastor their church and stay out of prison and you're sitting there from your couch, not even going to church, criticizing a bunch of pastors who are trying to do something good for God. And look, I'm not saying 501c3 is good. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm saying I don't care. I'm saying I'm too busy preaching the Bible to worry about stupid things like that. And people want to sit there and they want to get so hung up on this stuff that's not in the Bible, why don't you get hung up on something that is in the Bible? There's plenty for you to get mad and foam at the mouth about in this book. Why are you foaming at the mouth about stuff that's not even mentioned in the book? You're wasting your time dealing with a bunch of political garbage that has nothing to do with the Bible. And look, I'm all for fighting for freedom. I think I've done some fighting for freedom myself. I thought I stood up for what's right and freedom, but you know what? I'm not going to let that take me away from the spiritual battle, which is far more important. And if I get thrown into prison, it's going to be for preaching the Bible. It's going to be for preaching the Word of God. I'm not going to prison because I didn't fill out a form right or something. You know what I mean? To make somebody happy who's not even going to come anywhere else they'd all be beating down the door of my friend who's a pastor in Phoenix, and he'd be running 5,000 this morning. He'd be breaking up loaves and fishes trying to feed everybody because there'd be so many people he wouldn't even know what to do with them all. But I'm telling you something, that's not the case, because these people are all talk. And I'm going to tell you something. I'm fired up about the Bible, and look, if your pastor is holding back on the Word of God, because that's what they claim, oh these pastors that are corporations or 501c3 or non-profits or whatever, they hold back their preaching. They're holding back because the government is telling them what to preach. Okay, well look, if somebody's holding back on their preaching, that's a problem. But let me tell you something, some paper down at the city hall is not the problem. That's not where the problem is at all, okay? Anyway, I don't want to go off on that too much, but honestly, who's heard people bring this up? I'm not going to go there. Shut up. Go to church. You get your lazy rear-end in church. You're too lazy to get up in the morning and go to church. You want to sit around in your jammies and eat chips off your chest while you read some website about 501c3 because you don't want to go out and go soul winning. That's why. Because you don't want to go out there and go up and down those stairs at those apartment complexes and preach the Gospel to every creature and go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that God's house may be filled. You don't want to do that. You want to just sit around whining about the IRS tax code. Look, we all hate the IRS. Get over it. Next subject. Okay, here's another one. I'd go to church but my spouse won't let me. Now look, first of all, if you're a man saying that, you need to just stop referring to yourself as a man and do us all a favor, okay? And I've known men whose wife would not let them go to church or she'll let them go to church but she won't let them go to faithful word, you know, because faithful word is too radical or whatever. Let me tell you something. You as a man need to wear the pants in your family. You need to decide where you go to church and you need to bring your wife and kids kicking and screaming, if necessary, to church because you're the man and you need to be like Joshua that said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, okay? That's what you need to do as a man. But you say, well I'm the wife though. You say I'm a wife or a child so I don't have the option of just, you know, saying we're going to church. I don't care what you say because I'm the wife, I'm the child and the Bible does tell wives to obey their husbands and children to obey their parents and, you know, I can see where there'd be a conflict there but let me say this. I bet you that 99% of situations like that, don't you love how I just generalize everything? I'll bet you 99% of situations like that, if the wife would actually be nice and actually make supplication unto her husband and actually be nice to him and do things that he likes, he'd probably let her go to church. I mean, don't you think that that's true? I mean, if basically, see, but we have so many wives today who the way that they want to get something from their husband is through nagging or through fighting and fussing. When the Bible teaches that wives are supposed to be obedient to their husbands, to submit themselves and to reverence their husband. Now look, if a husband and a wife are married and the husband is saying, honey, I don't want you to go to church because I don't believe in the Bible, I'm not a Christian, I don't want you in church, I don't want you going to church, right, I guarantee you that if that wife would be nice and do things that he likes and basically say, well look honey, you know what, how about if I, you know, treat you really well and do all this, can I earn the right to go to church? You know, can I please just, and you say, oh that's so demeaning, so degrading, but you know what, I'm just saying that 99% of women who really wanted to go to church could probably get their husband to agree to let him go to church. Oh, but he wants to go boating on Sundays. Well you know what, you could probably get him to agree to let you go on a Wednesday night. You know what I mean? Or when nothing else is going on. You know what I mean? And look, you catch more flies with honey, instead of being angry and bitter and fussing and fighting or just using it as an excuse, I think that 99% of that conflict could be eliminated by just asking nicely, trying to give a little and just trying to get your husband to agree to let you go to church or your parents or whatever, probably. But look, honestly, if it did come down to, you say, but what about the 1% Pastor Anderson? If it did come down to just your husband will not let you go to church, you know, I can't speak as a wife, obviously, I'm a man, but I would go to church anyway because the Bible says we ought to obey God rather than man. Now I don't think it's ideal to disobey your husband. I don't think it's ideal to disobey your parents, but the Bible says that we should be subject under the higher powers, yes, your husband is an authority figure, but God is a higher authority. Yes, yes, your parents are an authority, God is a higher authority. So if it did come to that, if it did come to that where it's just, he will not let, I would go anyway, okay? But I don't think you should even let it come to that because I think 99% of the time that could be avoided. But if it did come to that, you want to know where I stand, go to church. I'm not going to let the government stop me from going to church. I'm not going to let my parents stop me from going to church. I'm not going to let my spouse stop me from going to church. I'm not going to let my boss stop me from going to church. I'm going to church because God is the highest authority on this planet and he said go to church. Actually, he's the highest authority on all planets because we're not Mormon. We're not Mormon so we don't think he only runs this planet only, okay? Let me just make sure I say that. And you know, I've got more in my sermon that I don't really have time to get to, but I'll just quickly touch on my last two points is that, you know, church, actually, you know what? I'm going to preach on this a whole other sermon because it's too important. There's too much here. But all that to say this, you know, church is really important and it's important unto you as a church member to come as much as you can because it is helpful to you to show up. Not only that, it's a place where you can serve God, where you don't just come to get because you say, well, I just want, we'll knock doors all the time and say, do you go to church? And people will say, well, I watch it on TV or I listen to it on the radio or I listen to it online. But wait a minute, that's a really one-wayed relationship there. I mean, think about it. If you're downloading it, you're not uploading. You're downloading church. You know what? You're not really contributing. Say, well, I'll mail a check, but you know what? That's not what you really contribute the most. Your money perish with you if you think that the things of God can be purchased with money. Okay? You know what the real contribution is? And don't get me wrong. When people mail us money, we appreciate it and we use it for the work of God. But what I'm saying is the biggest contribution that you can make is when you are here, when you show up. You know what I mean? And look, even if you put no money in the plate, come here, be a friend, encourage people, greet visitors, be friendly, pray for people, be a friend, sing out loud, be a part of the body, be an encouragement to the pastor who's preaching. What do you think is more encouraging, preaching to a hundred people or preaching to five people? Right? It encourages the pastor. It encourages other believers. Everybody wants you here. There's so many reasons to go to church. Don't ever downplay it in your mind. We need to be a church. And people use these words like, oh, churchianity. You believe in churchianity. Yes, I do believe in churchianity. Yes, I do. Churchianity. I'm a churchian. You know, unlike you, the manner of some who's a forsakian, forsakianity, yeah, I believe in churchianity, you believe in forsakianity. And we need to stay faithful to the church and love our church. We have a great church. Don't take it for granted. Don't sit here and just take it for granted. And you know what? There are people who literally have flown from across the world or driven from across the country to attend our services. Can you come from five minutes away and show up? Seriously. I mean, we have people that are, oh man, you know, this is so cool to be a faithful one. They flew out here. They drive out here. I mean, can you just show up locally? I mean, this is a cool church. This is a great church. We should be happy about it. I love it. I'm thankful for it all the time. I'm thankful for every one of you. We have such a great group of people here. Don't ever take it for granted. And you know what? When you're showing up rarely, you're taking it for granted. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the church that you've given us. It's such an important tool in our lives to motivate us, to organize us, to encourage us, to admonish us, to rebuke us when needed, to straighten us out, to keep us going, to encourage us, to give us fellowship. I mean, there's so many things that the church does for us, Lord. Thank you for all of it. Thank you for giving us the church. And please, Lord, help us to honor you by being faithful to your institution that you said that you would build. And in Jesus' name we pray.