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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good evening everybody. Welcome to our services tonight here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. It's good to see everyone here this evening. If you would please take your seats and take your hymnals. Let's turn to hymn number 134. Number 134 will begin with my anchor hold. Number 134. 🎵Music🎵 Let's sing it out nice and loud all together on that first verse. So the angry surges roll. 🎵Music🎵 Hymn number 134. Let's sing it out all together on that first verse together. Though the angry surges roll on my tempest driven soul. I am peaceful for I know, wildly though the winds may blow. I'm an anchor safe and sure that can evermore endure. And it holds, my anchor holds, for your wildest band, oh gale. On my barge so small and frail, by its grace I shall not fail. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. Mighty tides about me sweep, perils lurk within the beam. Angry clouds are shade the sky, and the tempest rises high. Still I stand the tempest shot, for my anchor grips the rod. For it holds, my anchor holds, for your wildest band, oh gale. On my barge so small and frail, by its grace I shall not fail. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. I can feel the anchor fast, as I need exotic glass. And the fiddle the woods sing, bears the heavy stream between. Through the storm I safely bow, till the turning of the tide. And it holds, my anchor holds, for your wildest band, oh gale. On my barge so small and frail, by its grace I shall not fail. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. Troubles almost felt the storm, grace climbed levels for me wrong. Tempted seeds to lure us straight, storms obscure the light of day. But in Christ life's dead people, I'm an anchor that shall hold. And it holds, my anchor holds, for your wildest band, oh gale. On my barge so small and frail, by its grace I shall not fail. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. Amen. Great start. I'll ask for the rain. Dear Lord, thank you for allowing us to be here tonight. And we thank you for your mercy, your grace, and your truth. And we ask that you bless all aspects of the service. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Number 136. Master of the Tempest is Raging, number 136. Hymn number 136. Master of the Tempest is Raging, the billows are tossing high. Number 136. Sing it out together on this verse. Master of the Tempest is Raging, the billows are tossing high. The sky is o'ershadowed with blackness, no shelter or help is nigh. Carest thou not that we perish, how canst thou buy us sleep? When he's going so badly it's threatening, unbreak with the angry thief. Though it is there, though it shall obey thy will, peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons, or men, or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth desires. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still, peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace, peace be still. Master, with anguish of spirit, I bow in my grief today. The depths of my sand heart are troubled, awaken and sing, I pray. Tourists of sin and of anguish, speak for my sinking soul. And I perish, I perish, dear master, oh, hasten and take control. Though it is there, though it shall obey thy will, peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons, or men, or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth desires. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still, peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace, peace be still. Master, the terror is over, the elephants sweetly rest. For Sunday the calm lake is nearer, and heaven within my breast. Vigour of blessed redeemer, make me alone no more. And the joy I shall make the blessed harbor, and rest on the place foreshore. The winds and the waves shall obey thy will. Peace be still, peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons, or men, or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth desires. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still, peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace, peace be still. Thank you for singing. Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, stick up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6 o'clock. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week will be in Judges chapter 11. Below that we've got the soul winning times as well as salvation and baptisms. And then across the page, thank you to everybody who participated in the small town soul winning trip to Safford. It was a two day trip. There were 15 soul winners, 9 people saved. And the next trip to Safford is scheduled for March 5th through 6th. But we have these going on every weekend. Every other weekend, it's a one day trip on a Saturday to Globe. And then the other one is the two day trip, leaving Friday morning, coming back Saturday, going down to the Safford area. And these are available to anyone who wants to come along. Even if you're not an experienced soul winner, that's okay because you can just be a silent partner. We've got plenty of people who know how to do the talking. And so you just sign up over here. Also you can speak to brother Raymond if you want to get more details. You can speak to any of us really. We could probably answer your question. And you can sign up for that. It's all free as far as transportation, food, lodging. It's all taken care of if you want to come along. And then we've got the Bible memory passage. Psalm 68, 1 through 3, just wrapping up this short little passage. Who's already memorized this thing? Put up your hand if you've already done it. Alright, excellent. And the rest of you, if you're still working on it, you've got until March the 7th. It's like I'm getting into preaching mode, right? What chapter are we in? And then on the back, the note about the coffee and tea station. And below that, the list of ladies that are expecting. Pray for them that they'll be healthy and safe as they give birth. And then the dates for the trips that we talked about earlier, as well as the Spanish night on March 11th. That's about it for announcements. So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past couple days. So going back to Thursday, anything from Thursday? Got it? Anything else from Thursday? How about Friday? Anything from Friday? What about Saturday? Alright. Okay, anything else from Saturday? Gotcha. Okay, and then today, let's start with our main groups. Brother Scott? Five for the main group with Brother Scott. Any other teams? We've got five for Brother Tilson's team. Eleven for – is that a surprise? West Valley, okay. Alright. Anything else from today? Okay, any other soul winning from today? Oh, there we go. Okay, anything else from today? I'm sorry? Raymond's group. I'm wondering if that was one of these other fives though. Who was in Raymond's group? Is that a separate group from what? Because I think we had five from Brother Tilson, five from Brother Scott. The Raymond group was totally separate from that? Yeah. Okay, alright. He's hidden himself among the stuff. So, alright. Keep up the great work on soul winning and with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. Alright, in your hymnals, please turn to hymn number 132. Never Alone, number 132. Let's sing it out in that first verse, number 132. I've seen the lightning flashing and heard the thunder roll. Let's sing it on that first verse, hymn number 132. I've seen the lightning flashing and heard the thunder roll. I've felt six breakers dashing trying to conquer my soul. I've heard the voice of Jesus telling me still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, world's first winds are blowing and days are sharp and keen. I feel a peace in knowing my Savior stands between. He stands here shooting from danger when early friends are gone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. When in afflictions loudly I'm treading the road of care, My Savior helps me to carry my cost, I'm heavy to bear. I'm being entangled in fires, ready to cast me down. My Savior whispers his promise never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. He died for me on the mountain, for he that cares his side. For he opened that mountain, the prince of cleansing time. He waited in glory, seated upon his throne. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. Amen, so we're gonna hear number 138. 138, the Haven of Rest, number 138. 138, sing out this verse, 138. My soul is heaven, I was out of my seat. So burn this sin and distress, till I heard a sweet voice. He made me your choice, and I entered the haven of rest. I've anchored my soul in thy haven of rest. I'll sail the wide seas no more. The tempest may sleep for a while, for we think in Jesus I'm safe evermore. I yielded myself to his tender embrace, and prayed to thee with hold of the world. My banner's fell off, and now I anchor my soul. The haven of rest is my Lord. I've anchored my soul in thy haven of rest. I'll sail the wide seas no more. The tempest may sleep for a while, for we think in Jesus I'm safe evermore. The song of my soul says the Lord may be whole, as many old stories so blessed. Of Jesus who saves whoever will have a home in the haven of rest. I've anchored my soul in thy haven of rest. I'll sail the wide seas no more. The tempest may sleep for a while, for we think in Jesus I'm safe evermore. Oh, come to the Savior he patiently waits to save his power divine. Now anchor your soul in thy haven of rest, and sail thy delight is mine. I've anchored my soul in thy haven of rest. I'll sail the wide seas no more. The tempest may sleep for a while, for we think in Jesus I'm safe evermore. All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Colossians 3, starting in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads. Colossians 3, beginning in verse number 1. In Colossians 3, the Bible reads, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry, for which thing's sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with thy service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons. Lord, thank you for this opportunity to be here tonight, and I pray that you would fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit, and please bless the sermon. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. Man, the title of my sermon tonight is Rich Preachers. Rich Preachers. And let me just start out by making something very clear, and I'm going to prove this in the sermon, I'm going to go through a lot of scripture, is that every single rich preacher is a false prophet, 100%, with no exception. I mean, the only possible exception could be if they got wealthy some other way before they became a preacher, but any preacher who becomes rich while being a preacher, while being a pastor, while supposedly being a minister of Jesus Christ, anybody who becomes rich in the process of that is a false prophet, period. And you know, if people would just understand this basic truth, it would avoid all of the televangelist radio TV preachers from influencing them if they would just give this quick acid test. Is this guy a multimillionaire, filthy rich? Well then, I should just automatically assume that this guy is a false prophet. Now when I say things like that, some people they get offended or they think that I'm wrong about this, but you know, I'm going to show this to you from scripture, but let's just use a little logic before we approach the Word of God here and stop and think about this. This is just like a politician. You know, when you see somebody go into politics and they're not rich, they're just middle class or whatever, but then they come out of politics a multimillionaire, billionaire, well then that tells you that there's corruption going on there. Well, it's the exact same thing with going into the ministry. You know, you go into the ministry and you come out filthy rich, there's corruption there, okay. Now here's the thing. Like I said, you know, the only way I could see in theory, a pastor or a preacher being very rich without being a false prophet would only be because he made money in business or something. Like let's say somebody started a plumbing business or something and just made a fortune in the plumbing industry or in the landscaping industry or whatever the industry, the drywall industry, real estate, whatever, and then later started preaching or something, then okay, maybe he's not a false prophet. But how can you legitimately be serving God, preaching the Word of God, living for Christ, and come out filthy rich? There's no legitimate way to do that. Just like there's no legitimate way to do that in politics either. And people fall for these guys, and we need to just stop and examine whether it's reasonable for a pastor or a preacher to be just super rich. It's unbelievable that people would fall for this. So let's look at the Scripture here beginning in Colossians chapter 3 and what the Bible says here. Give me a second to get there myself. But it says in verse number 1, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. So the Bible tells us here to set our affection on things above, not on things of the earth. Think about where the Bible says, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Lay up treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So let me ask you this. If I see some preacher with the super expensive cars, super expensive homes, super expensive clothing, where is his treasure? It s right here on this earth because I m looking at it. So then, answer me this, where is his heart? Oh, no, no, no, his heart s on the things of God. I mean, his heart s in heaven, his affections are in heaven. Really, that s funny because it looks like his affections are in his garage. It looks like his affection is in his three luxury homes. It looks like his affection is in his wardrobe because that s where his treasure is, that s where his heart is because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Jesus didn t say, Hey, where your treasure is, you might have your heart there. He said, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So if you have some huge amount of wealth on this earth, your heart is going to be on this earth, your affections are going to be on the things of this earth, and you re not going to preach the same way as a guy whose affections are on heavenly things and whose affections are not of this world. So we re to set our affections on things above, not on things of the earth, and I believe Christ, when he said, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. But also, I want you to understand the word covetous when it says that covetousness is idolatry. The word covetous, if you study scripture, when we see this being labeled in the New Testament as a covetous man or being covetous, we re talking about the love of money. Okay, if you study the word of God and compare scripture with scripture, that is the love of money that we re talking about. You know, for example, the Bible lists a list of sins that would get someone thrown out of the local church. Obviously, we re all sinners. No one here is above sin. I m not above sin. You re not above sin. We re all sinners saved by grace, and none of us is living the perfect Christian life. None of us is walking in the Spirit all the time. But there are certain very grievous sins that if a Christian is engaging in these sins, they re to be actually disciplined from the church. And we know, of course, that 1 Corinthians chapter 5 lists off those things and says, Look, if any man that s called a brother be a fornicator or a drunkard or an extortioner or a railer or an idolater, and he says, With such a one, know not to eat. Now, when we look at that list, most of those right away, we look at them and say, Okay, I can understand fornication. You know, if you just have people in the church and they re just our Christian brothers and sisters and they re members in good standing and they re just living in fornication, then obviously that could poison the atmosphere of the church, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Young people are going to see that and think, Oh, that s a way that I could live my life. That s another way to do it. You know, there s something else besides marriage. You could just shack up and it s fine and look at these wonderful Christian people. They re doing it. You know, God says, Uh-uh, fornicators are not allowed in the local church. You know, obviously, unsaved people, we want to bring them in and reach them. We don t care if they re a fornicator, drunk, whatever. But the Bible talks about someone who s called a brother, you know, someone who s actually been saved and they re our brother in Christ and then they get into these sins of drunkenness, fornication. And we could see how drunkenness is serious, fornication is serious, extortion is serious, right, idolatry. But then one of the things on the list is covetous. One of the six items there in 1 Corinthians 5 is covetous. Now, stop and think about this. Everyone is covetous to an extent as far as in their heart because of the fact that every single sin that anyone commits, it starts out as covetousness because the Bible says, you know, When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. And the Bible, of course, says, you know, I had not known lust but that the scripture had said, Thou shalt not covet. So the word covet is to desire something that s off limits to you, right. When you desire something that s not yours, when you desire something that s off limits to you, that s coveting. So when the Bible says, you know, Don t covet your neighbor s house. Don t covet your neighbor s wife. Don t covet anything that is thy neighbor s. Don t desire things that are not yours. They don t belong to you. The opposite of covetousness is contentment, right. Being content with such things as you have is the exact opposite of covetousness. But when it comes to, you know, being this serious sin to get someone disciplined out of the church, it s not just talking about someone having a thought in their heart because how could we actually confront someone about their thoughts? Like how could we confront, like I could see how we could confront someone who s out in downtown Tempe drunk on a Friday night and we could confront that person and say, Hey, look, you know, this isn t gonna fly. Or let s say, you know, you got people that are living together and they re not married and they re in the church and we could confront them and say, Hey, look, you know, you need to get married or you need to get out of this relationship. You re living in fornication. How do you confront someone about a thought that they re having in their heart? You know, I remember one time I actually had a guy come to me and say to me, you know, he was like gonna throw himself out of the church. He s basically saying, I don t think I should be coming to church. I don t know if I should be coming to church just because I m struggling with lust in my heart and so that makes me covetous and so therefore, you know, I don t even know if I should even be going to church until I can conquer this sin. And I told him, I said, Look, that s not what we re talking about here because whatever the covetous is in 1 Corinthians 5, it must be something that is apparent outwardly to be able to be judged outwardly. Every single person is gonna have a wrong thought in their heart or from time to time be covetous in one way or another because like I said, sin is pretty much a result of covetousness almost all the time. If not all the time, it all starts there. But when we talk about the covetous man in the Bible, who the Bible calls an idolater, the covetous man, the covetous person, the one that we re not even supposed to eat with, you know what we re talking about is a person whose life is characterized by the love of money. That s what we re talking about. We re talking about somebody who is constantly talking about money and indulging financially, bragging about money. And look, I ve seen people where I ve looked at that person and thought to myself, This is who the Bible is telling us to get rid of in 1 Corinthians 5 where you have these people who they re just bragging about their stocks and bonds and their portfolio and they re always just in some kind of a contest with other people of who s got the nicest house, who s got the fanciest toys, you know, who s got the expensive vehicles, the vacation and bragging. The problem with that is that when you get around people like that, it starts making you not content and it starts making you want to have all those things. You know, if I get around somebody who s constantly bragging about homes and vehicles and stocks and bonds, you know, it could start to make me look at my house and think, Well, maybe it s time that I need to upgrade. You know, maybe I need to drive a fancier vehicle. And it could start becoming a competition. You know, we don t want the house of God to ever degenerate into that kind of a place where it s all about keeping up with the Joneses financially and it becomes a very carnal thing. You know, I think a big example of this where I could see somebody being disciplined from the church and we ve never disciplined anyone from our church over this issue, by the way, just so you know. We ve thrown out people for fornication, drunkenness, and many other things. But we ve not thrown anyone out over this issue. But here s where I could picture this happening. I remember back in the 80s, there was a big Amway thing coming into churches. And there were three different things that you would look for. Number one, they would park their car backwards when they joined Amway. Number two, they would shave off all facial hair. And number three, they would constantly be spraying this little Amway brand Binaca into their mouth, a little breath spray. And so as soon as you saw someone pull into the church parking lot and park backwards, you d be kind of like, you d be worried. They get out of the car, mustache is gone. You re like, no, please don t be, no, no, not another one, not you. And they re reaching into their pocket and it s like, what are they going to pull out? No! And my dad used to call it invasion of the body snatchers. He would all my dad would be ranting about this. It s like invasion of the body snatchers. Because he had friends that used to be cool, they used to be normal, they used to be a good church member. Now all they talk about is Amway. And all they talk about is money. And my dad even went to an Amway meeting with one of these people just because he wanted to kind of go behind enemy lines and see what it was like. And he said it was like a church service to money. I remember him coming home and explaining it to me as a little kid. He said we sang hymns, we sang about money, and a preacher got up and he preached a sermon. Except it wasn t about God, it was about money. And I m telling you, these people that we knew that got involved in Amway back in the late 80s, early 90s, some of them got fired from their jobs. Because they were pushing Amway on the job and constantly talking about Amway and so they got fired from their jobs. And many of them caused huge problems in the church. I don t know if any of them got like formally excommunicated from their church. But they definitely got in trouble with their church. Their pastor was having to take them aside and tell them, hey, you can t be using church to be pushing Amway. And by the way, at our church, we don t want anybody using church to push their business or promote business adventures. Now look, I understand that sometimes people at church are going to do business with one another. But you don t want to use church as your multi-level marketing, you know, recruiting ground, okay? So we got to be careful that you don t cross that line if you re into that sort of thing. And I would recommend that you not be into that sort of thing in the first place. It s very dangerous, okay? So I know that was a long explanation, but I want you to grasp the fact that when the Bible is talking about people that we should separate from and not even eat with, have no fellowship with, put them out of the congregation, and he s listing these grievous sins of fornication and drunkenness and so forth. And obviously these people are welcome back once they repent. But while they re in fornication, while they re in a state of drunkenness, you know, they have to be put from the congregation. Why is covetousness on that list? Because we re talking about these type of people that are into money, the love of money, to the point where it s apparent and it becomes an issue. So let me ask you this. If the Bible is teaching that people who are characterized by the love of money should be thrown out of the church because it s so harmful to have that person around, just like it s harmful to have the couples shacking up and the drunks and whatever, then why would it be acceptable for someone who loves money to be the pastor of the church of all places? I mean, just stop and think about how illogical that is. If we re not even supposed to have church members who are into money, how could we have a pastor who s into money? And stop and think about this. If he s not into money, why does he have several luxury million-dollar homes and wearing fancy clothes and driving fancy cars? You know, this is the guy who s going to lead us as we follow Christ? That doesn t make any sense, okay? And so therefore I m going to stand by what I said at the beginning of the sermon, and I m going to continue to prove it throughout the sermon, that I don t believe that any righteous preacher is wealthy. You don t become wealthy preaching the word of God the way it s supposed to be preached. You don t be a biblical pastor and walk away from that filthy rich. You just don t unless you re a deceiver, unless you love money, unless you re covetous and abusive and so forth. Now, if you would turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3, the first thing we talked about was we re supposed to have our affections on things above, not on things on the earth, and that wherever our treasure is, that s where our heart will be also. And so when we look at the uber-wealthy preacher, we can see right away where his heart is. Well, you can t see his heart. Oh, yes I can, because the Bible said where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. If I can see the treasure, I can see the heart. If I see the treasure, then I ve seen the heart because if you ve seen the one, you ve seen the other. That s where the heart is. 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2, these are qualifications for the pastor. It says in verse 2, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. And I believe that not covetous is a little bit redundant with not greedy of filthy lucre because I think these are two aspects of the same thing. You say, why would God repeat that? Okay, well, why did he repeat no striker and not a brawler? You see that? Not a, not a brawler, not covetous, not a striker, not greedy of filthy lucre. These are repetitions really driving in the point here. Hey, you don t want a guy who s into money leading the church. You don t want a guy who s following after and seeking after filthy lucre. Now, don t let the word filthy lucre bother you as far as, you know, I don t know what that word lucre means. I think we all know what the word lucrative means. Even if we don t really use the word lucre, I think pretty much everybody knows what lucrative means. Something that s lucrative is profitable. So the word lucre simply means money or profits. Okay, that s what it means. And so not greedy of filthy lucre is basically talking about filthy money or filthy gain or filthy revenue. So what does that mean? It s talking about a dishonest gain or greedy or the because here s the thing. Money by itself is not bad. There s nothing in the Bible condemning money and it s always weird when people are like, Oh, I hate money. It s like, Come on. We re not supposed to love money. The love of money is the root of all evil. But let s put a guy behind the pulpit who s filthy rich, right? Even though the love of money is the root of all evil. But anyway, some people go to this opposite extreme which makes no sense. They re trying to just like overcompensate or something like, Oh, I just hate money. I don t think we re supposed to hate money. Obviously, money has its place. It s something that we use. We need it to live. I saw some bozo podcaster the other day. I was watching something on YouTube and this podcaster guy, he s just like, Oh, I hate money and blah, blah, blah. And it s like the first several minutes of his podcast was all like a word from the sponsor. There s all these ads coming up. It s all monetizing. Oh, I hate money. It s like, Come on. Nobody s asking you to hate money. But we just shouldn t love money. We shouldn t have our affection on money and be obsessed with money. You know, money is a tool that we use in our lives. But it s not something that should be the focus of our lives. We shouldn t wake up in the morning and check the portfolio, check the Wall Street Journal. We should wake up in the morning and check the Word of God. And, you know, this is where our hearts should be and our minds should be on things of God. Especially as a minister. You know, how much more should your heart be on the things of God rather than worldly things. So, not greedy of filthy lucre, not covetous, and even not given to wine. You know, we would normally look at not given to wine and think of that as saying, Hey, you know, sober, not being drunk. But you know what? Also, wine is a symbol of wealth in scripture. Nowadays, you could probably go to CVS and buy some el cheapo wine for a couple bucks or whatever. But back in the Bible days, you know, wine is something that s very expensive because they don t have machines and technology. So, obviously, it was a lot harder to produce wine. And so it s not something that you need to live. You could live and die without ever drinking a drop of fruit juice, right, because you could just eat fruit and eat food. And so the point is that wine, even today, are rich people into wine today? Is that like a wealth thing or a symbol of wealth? But how much more in the ancient world do you think that wine was a status thing? Okay, it s expensive. And it s used in the Bible, corn and wine and oil are often used as just symbols of wealth. Okay, so I believe that part of what he s saying here when he says not given to wine, obviously, yeah, he doesn t want him to be drunk either. But I think he s also just saying he s not given to all these rich delicacies because that s also what wine represents. And think about every rich person is really into their wine cellar and drinking expensive wines and ordering expensive wines. Wine is a wealth status thing, okay. Go if you would to verse 8 in the same chapter. It says, Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, again, not given to much wine, and again, not greedy of filthy lucre. So the deacon should also not be one who is into money. Go if you would to Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1, just a couple pages to the right in your Bible. And look folks, this stuff s in the Bible for a reason. You know, I m not just up here giving my opinion. I m showing you these verses. There s a reason why God brings this up many times in regard to pastors and many times just in regard to Christians in general. This is a temptation that s out there. This is a major sin that s out there in this world. And the love of money is the root of all evil according to 1 Timothy 6. Look at Titus chapter 1 verse 7. This is again qualification for the pastor. For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. What does it mean to be given to something? You know, given to means that you have that propensity. You have that proclivity. It means that you re the type of guy who leans that way, you know. Like the Bible says, Hey, if you re a man that s given to appetite, you know, put a knife to thy throat. What s he saying? He s talking about you re the kind of guy who, you know, that s something that you struggle with or that s something that you would kind of be drawn to like a magnet. Some sins are more of a temptation to us than others. You know, there might be a sin that I really struggle with and for you it s nothing and you don t struggle with that and you would never do those things. And then vice versa, you know, you might have a sin that you struggle with and I m just looking at it like, I would never do that. That s not even a temptation for me. But here s the thing. We all have sins that we struggle with. It s just different people s sins are different. Well, there are certain things though that are not compatible with being a pastor, you know, and somebody whose propensity is toward being prideful and the love of money and being given to wine, given to filthy lucre, given to wine, you know, this is not compatible with being a pastor. Okay, not everyone s cut out to be a pastor. And you could be a great Christian without being a pastor. And we just want to be really careful that the pastor s not the kind of guy that is given the money. Why not? Well, let s see why. Jump down to verse 10 and we ll find out why we don t want the pastor to be greedy of filthy lucre. Why don t we want him to be covetous? Why don t we want him to be given to wine? Because the Bible says in verse 10, For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, Titus chapter 1 verse 11, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre s sake. And here is what we find the result of having a guy behind the pulpit who loves money, having a guy behind the pulpit who is covetous of gain, is that he will teach things that he ought not for filthy lucre s sake because he s interested in getting paid more than preaching the truth. And let me tell you something, when you preach the truth, a lot of people aren t going to like it. Not everybody is just lined up to hear the truth. That s why the preachers that are on TV and on the radio for the most part and the ones that are going to be featured in Barnes and Noble and the ones that are going to be featured in the Christian bookstores, you know, these guys are not preaching the truth. They re preaching to be popular. And the Bible says, Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads them to life and few there be that find it. So if the broad way leads to destruction, the broad way is what s glorified by this world. The Bible says, Friendship with the world is enmity with God. So you can t serve two masters. You re either going to love the one and hate the other or else you re going to hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And what is mammon? Money. You can t serve God and mammon. But I m supposed to believe that some multimillionaire preacher who s on Barnes and Noble s bookshelf and on the Christian bookstores bookshelf and he s on TV and the radio and everybody loves him and prays him, I m supposed to think that that s a righteous man of God? It doesn t make any sense. How could he be serving both God and mammon? I know he s serving mammon because I can see that. I don t even have to have x-ray spiritual vision to see that. I just look at that. Okay, well then that means he s not serving whom? You know, the Apostle Paul said, Do I now persuade God or men? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. You can t please God and man. You can t serve God and mammon. And so if you see somebody who s a man-pleasing mammon server, take it to the bank, they re not serving or pleasing God. This is not complicated, folks, but I m telling you, a lot of people don t get this. But this is important that we understand that they will teach things which they ought not for filthy, ludicrous sake. So we can t trust their teaching. We shouldn t listen to them because we know that there s this evil motivation in the background that could be tainting and corrupting their preaching. Go to 1 Peter 5. Not only do they teach things which they ought not for filthy, ludicrous sake, but you know what s even worse is the things that they don t teach. You know, the problem with most pastors is not what they say. It s what they don t say because they re afraid to say it because it s all about popularity. It s all about money. And look, let s just get into some specific examples tonight. You know, I ll throw out some specific examples tonight. I m going to get more into this later in the sermon, but let me just throw one out. You know, um, I ve gone to the Christian bookstore a ton of times. Um, now Christian bookstores for the most part have gone out of business because God s not blessing them. But you know, they ve gone out of business for the most part because of the internet, you know, Amazon and everything. A lot of brick and mortar businesses, you know, can t really keep up with Amazon and things like that. But you know what? You know, I ve gone to a lot of Christian bookstores over the years. You know, I ve been a Christian throughout my life. I got saved as a six-year-old boy. I grew up in a Christian home. And even as a teenager, I would go to Christian bookstores and all throughout my adult life and as a pastor. And you know, typically when I would go to the Christian bookstore, I was looking for like, you know, read through the Bible in a year charts or New Testaments or full Bibles or you know, Bibles in a foreign language or whatever, you know, whatever the reason I went there. But you see what else is there. You see what s kind of on display, front and center. You know, I ve been to all the Christian bookstores in the Phoenix area. Many times, you know, Christian Family Stores, Amazing Grace Bookstore, you know, you name it. I ve been to these things. And you see what they re pushing and promoting right at the front counter and on the displays and on the shelves. And I remember there s this guy that was just constantly being pushed. I don t know anything about this guy except that he s just pushed in every Christian bookstore that I ve ever been to in my life, Max Lucado. And it was just like, Oh, who s ever heard that name before or seen that name? It s just like Max Lucado, Max Lucado, Max Lucado, Max Lucado. And then, you know, even at Barnes & Noble. You know, sometimes when I m at Barnes & Noble, I would go to the religion section, just kind of check it out, check out the Bibles, just see what they re selling, glance through the stuff, and it s just Max Lucado, Max Lucado, Max Lucado. Oh, new book from Max Lucado. You know, and then what do you see this week is, Oh, he just apologized to the LGBT community. Oh, I m so sorry that I preached against homos ten years ago. And you think that he was preaching against homos the way we preach against homos. He probably gave the most mild, soft-soap, watered-down message imaginable where he just barely said it. But he s just like, Oh, I m so sorry that I hurt these beloved children of God, and oh, we as Christians need to apologize to the LGBT community. Now look, do you think I just like fell out of my chair when I heard that? Like, Max Lucado, I expected so much more from you. Et tu, Brute? You know, do you really think that I was shocked when a guy who s being pumped up and promoted in every Christian bookstore and in Barnes & Noble and Borders, remember Borders? You know, oh, he turns out to be pro-homo and promoting the Sodomites and apologizing for preaching the Bible when he didn t even preach it hard enough. He ought to apologize for that homo sermon because it was too weak. It was too watered-down. But do you think that just surprised me? No, because I just automatically already knew this guy s bad because if he weren t bad, he wouldn t be being promoted front and center of all of these institutions that are there to make money. They re there to just sell the most books or CDs. And then also another thing I saw this week, the number one Christian artist on iTunes is an open Sodomite, an open lesbian on iTunes. Number one folks, it s the number one Christian album. Number one Christian. Who saw that as well? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Yeah. Number one Christian artist on iTunes. It was in the news this week. There were a bunch of articles about it. An open Sodomite. Did that surprise me? Not at all. It doesn t surprise me at all because I understand this biblical principle that the preachers that are popular, the preachers that are into money, the preachers that are being pumped up by the world, the Bible says, whosoever therefore be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Okay, look at Luke chapter or did I have your turn in 1 Peter 5? I don t think we read it. Let s look at that before we move on. It says in verse 1, The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Now what does that mean, of a ready mind? You know, what it means is that someone who s enthusiastic about the work, not enthusiastic about the money. Does everybody understand what that means? The ready mind, the readiness, picture readiness as enthusiasm, right? You know, basically being excited, passionate about the mission, not passionate about, oh man, this is going to be great. I m going to just really fleece the flock here, okay? Neither is being lords over God s heritage, but being an ensemble to the flock, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, he shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Go to Luke chapter 6. I got to hurry here. Time is getting away from me. Luke chapter 6. You know, the Bible also talks about back in 1 Samuel chapter 8, how Samuel was a godly man, and he was not covetous at all. He did not love money, he was not a wealthy guy, he did not abuse his position as a prophet of God. And he even brings that up at the very end of his life and says, look, this does not characterize me at all. But the sad thing is that the Bible says that his sons, this is 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 3, his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after filthy Lucre I'm sorry, I added the word filthy because I'm in New Testament mode, but it was, let me start over. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment. So here we have a godly man, Samuel, he's not into the love of money, he's not chasing after all of these worldly whining and dining things, but yet his sons, instead of following him, instead of following in dad's footsteps, they're into money. And so as a result of going after Lucre, they end up taking bribes and it ends up ruining the nation to the point where they get rid of the system of the judges and they get King Saul and whatever. Go to Luke chapter 6, it says in verse 20, he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, and who's the he here? He says, Jesus, blessed be ye poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven. For in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. But woe unto you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. There's your reward, you rewarded yourself. Woe unto you that are full for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets and there's nothing new under the sun. And so the Bible says here, woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. Woe unto you if you're front and center at borders. Woe unto you you're front and center at Barnes and Noble. Woe unto you you're front and center in the Christian bookstore. Woe unto you when you're number one on Apple iTunes. Woe unto you when all men speak well of you, because that's what they did to the false prophets, so you better look in the mirror and take a long look at what you are and who you are and who you're serving. Is it God or is it mammon? Go if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 5. And let me say this. This sermon may be about rich preachers, but all of God's people can learn a few different things from this sermon. Obviously the number one thing to learn is do not follow these rich preachers. Do not listen to them. Do not follow them. Do not read their materials, because it's going to be garbage. It's not going to be the right kind of teaching. Do not be fooled by these people. That's obviously one lesson from the sermon. But another lesson from the sermon is that you don't want to be a person who is characterized by the love of money either. You don't want to be a covetous person either. So we can all examine ourselves and make sure that this is not who we are. You know, the Bible says back in Proverbs chapter 30, and this is an important scripture to me that I think about a lot, it says, Two things have I required of thee. Deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. So listen to this prayer from the word of God. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me. See, look, he just wants to have what he needs to live and be comfortable, but he says, Don't give me poverty or riches. Now look, who here wants to be dirt poor? I don't want to be dirt poor. You don't want to be poor. So we're not going to get on our knees tonight and say, Oh God, make me poor. Oh God, keep us poor. But here's the thing, I'm certainly not going to get on my knees tonight and say, Oh God, give me riches, because I don't want them. And even if I did want them, it'd be wrong to want them, and so I shouldn't be asking for that, but I don't even want them anyway. But the prayer here is, Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me. And then he says, Lest I be full and deny thee and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. So it's the middle way, my friend, when it comes to finances and scripture. Neither poverty nor riches is what we should be seeking after. You know, we should seek to provide for our family and put the roof over their head and climate control the thing for them in this harsh land where we live. And although it's pretty nice to live here these days, but, you know, in the summer, we need the air conditioning. But we should seek to provide nutritious food for our family and a roof over the head, and there's nothing wrong with living a normal middle class life, but we should not seek after riches. The Bible flat out says, Labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. That's not even just talking to pastors. That's just talking to Christians in general. Labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. But how much more for a pastor should their goal not to be becoming rich? I mean, it's one thing if a businessman wants to become rich. Hey, it's so much worse when someone wants to use the ministry to get rich. It's like an oxymoron. Ministry literally means service. And supposedly the politicians are public servants. To use these things to become filthy rich is an abomination, okay? Labor not to be rich. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Okay, 1 Timothy, chapter number 5. Let me get there myself. Again, we're talking about pastors. This is one of the pastoral epistles. 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon are known as the pastoral epistles. So 1 Timothy 5, 17 says, Let the elders, and let me just clear up for you. The words elder, bishop, and pastor, those all mean the same thing. That's synonymous. So when we see bishop, we're talking about the pastor of the church. Elder, same thing. Okay, so he says, Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine, for the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. So the Bible's telling us here, look, the pastor should receive compensation. Don't muzzle the ox that's treading out the corn. The laborer is worthy of his reward. Those pastors who labor in the word and doctrine, let them be counted worthy of double honor. Don't muzzle the ox. So I'm reading this scripture just to balance out, I'm not saying that pastors should live in poverty. I'm not saying that men of God should take a vow of poverty and live and squalor and be dirt poor. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that they should be neither poor nor rich is what I'm saying. You know, if the pastor is dirt poor, then the church isn't taking care of him. And they're violating the scripture that says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine, for the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. So withholding from someone their due, that's not right. But at the same time, becoming rich as a pastor certainly isn't right either. And so obviously we're talking about a middle road here when it comes to money. The pastor should never be rich, not saying that he has to be poor or get paid a low wage. Hey, he should be able to take care of himself and his family and not have to, you know, just pinch every penny and worry about money all the time. Because frankly, you know, I wouldn't want to have a pastor who's worrying about money or thinking about money all the time because I want his mind on the things of God. I want his mind on the word of God, not obsessing over a budget every day, trying to scrape by on whatever. Because some people have a philosophy that says, well, just to make sure he's not covetous, we need to pay the pastor a low wage and make him really struggle and struggle. I remember when I was in Bible college, they told us that, you know, when you hire your employees, you know, because they're training us as pastors, you know, pay them a low wage so that you know they're not in it for them. It's like, you know what? That isn't right. You know, anybody who works for Faithful Word Baptist Church should be getting paid a livable wage, a decent wage, and not, we're not just trying to pay our employees as little as we possibly can. Okay? And just how little can we pay them and get the most work out of them? You know, that's not the right way to do things. But let's talk about some specific examples here. You know, and the thing that prompted, I'll tell you exactly what prompted this sermon for me was the Ravi Zacharias thing. Okay. Now look, I already preached against Ravi Zacharias years ago. And again, how did I know he was bad? Super popular, promoted everywhere, right? Everybody loves him. And just recently, it's all come out how he's actually this abuser, this rapist, this pervert. He's just doing all this. His own ministry is revealing these things about him and saying, look, and all these accusations were already out there before, but now it's all coming to light. You know, the Bible talks about, and in fact, let's just turn there. This isn't my notes, but what, 2 Timothy 3? Let's turn to 2 Timothy 3 and see this in Scripture. It says in verse 6, For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lust, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janus and Jamborees withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. And so, you know, I'm reading about Ravi Zacharias, who, folks, how could you have not already known that Ravi Zacharias is a phony? Talk about a mega-compromiser. He went to Brigham Young University, the Mormon University, and gets up and speaks to them some watered-down message, and they're all praising and applauding him. There's something wrong when the Mormon Church is praising and applauding you and loves to have you come speak, and you're legitimizing them by going there and preaching to them without rebuking the cult that they're in. It's a cult! It is a horrible cult. But he goes there and just fits right in. How can you not realize there's something wrong with someone who's ecumenical, like Ravi Zacharias, okay, who's just super popular, loved of the world, these televangelist types are always bad. So how could people have not seen this coming? And then it's saying, like, well, you know, he owned this chain of massage parlors, and he's basically abusing the workers at the massage parlor. He's raping them and forcing them to do things for him and all this stuff. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, let's say he didn't abuse the workers. Why do you own a chain of massage parlors if you're a preacher? Like, you're already a preacher. You're already getting paid as a preacher. Like, hmm, I think I'm just gonna run some massage parlors on the side. What? That's so bizarre. It's like we're living in the Twilight Zone. I'm just like, the chain of massage parlors, these spas that he's running, it's like, why are you running all these spas and stuff? Just part of his money empire. Right? Because that's what it's all about, right? It's garbage. But now he's all over the news. I mean, look, Ravi Zacharias being covered on news outlets like CNN and, you know, mainstream news, big news. It was all over the mainstream media, and you know what they're saying is just, oh, this super popular evangelical Christian leader is actually a pervert and a rapist and everything else. And you know what that does? That drags the name of Christ in the gutter, doesn't it? It drags the name of Christ in the gutter. When you have this super popular guy, because then the media is able to say, not just, oh, this is just some preacher that happened to be an idiot, happened to be a phony, and that happens, right? There are preachers who turn out to be phonies and they're wicked or whatever. But here's the thing, the difference with this guy is that he's super popular, so it's like a big news, like, hey, this is, and some of them were even saying, hey, this is the number one creationist apologist. The number one creationist apologist is a pervert. So then you have people basically that would use that to say like, oh, see, these creationists are phonies. See, Christians are phonies. It's like when David committed adultery with Bathsheba and God said, you've given great occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. And so when you see this happen, but the difference is that David was actually a saved Christian. Ravi Zacharias, a false prophet, who we already knew was a false prophet, we already knew was a false teacher, and even before these things came out, but how about the fact that his net worth is $7.5 million? That's not normal. How could this preacher, this man of God, if he's supposedly serving God, why is his net worth $7.5 million? How about Kenneth Copeland? Kenneth Copeland's net worth is literally about 100 times that. His net worth is like $700-some million or something, some incredible amount. Pat Robertson, hundreds of millions of dollars net worth. Joel Osteen, $40 million net worth. Now look, right away you should just see that and just be like, cross him off the list, not gonna listen to him. You say, well, I enjoy Joel. Hey, that's enough to cross him off the list right there. But you know, another guy, a guy who gets a pass a lot of times, and people think like, oh, he's such a rebel, he's so edgy, and oh man, he's such a, you know, it's John MacArthur. Let me tell you something. John MacArthur's the worst pastor in America, okay? And oh, you know who said that? Jack Hyles. Brother Hyles said, John MacArthur's the worst pastor in America, okay? That was how long ago? You know, he said that I think about, you know, 30-some years ago, okay? John MacArthur has always been a big-time false prophet. The pastor that won my parents to the Lord, Roland Rasmussen, was exposing John MacArthur back in the 80s for denying the blood of Christ and teaching all kinds of lordship, salvation, garbage, and heresy. Look, John MacArthur is a mega false teacher, and you say, well, no, he's not, he's a great man of God. Okay, you know what his net worth is? Is $14 million. Double Robbie Zacharias, okay? We're talking about a guy who owns $3 million luxury homes. Why would you need to do, I mean, look, I'm all for people being able to live and support their family and have what they need, but why would a pastor, why would a minister of the gospel need $3 million-some luxury home? I don't know how many millions they're worth, but three luxurious homes. You know, he basically gets paid from all these different sources. It's hard to know exactly how much money he makes. The salary that he gets from the church is not a public thing, but his church has said that it's well into the medium and upper range for a pastor in California. Okay, but then he also gets hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from his part-time work at his Grace to You ministry, and then he also gets another hundred-some thousand for the master's college. So he's like double-dipping all these different ways. So he's getting a generous salary from the church. Why isn't that just enough, right? Generous salary from the church. He's getting paid. It's in the mid to upper range for a California pastor. Okay, his church wants to give him a big salary, whatever. Okay, but let's take another hundred thousand from the college. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So it's like he's already getting a generous salary. That's what he needs. Okay, it's probably way more than he needs. We don't know how much is. But he's getting a generous salary, so why does he need on top of that another hundred grand from the college, and then on top of that another six figures from his ministry, Grace to You, for supposedly putting in 20 hours a week. Man, imagine a job where you put in 20 hours a week, and you make between 100 to 400 grand a year, because one year, you know, he got like 402 grand from Grace to You back in 2011. Other years, he gets like 100 grand. So, man, that's quite a part-time job, you know. So it's like, okay, 100-some grand from the college, couple hundred grand from Grace to You, couple hundred grand from the church. So, you know, the estimates are that he's making each year somewhere between $600,000 to $900,000 a year or something like that, when he already has a net worth of $14 million. Would anybody be willing to make the case that this is not a rich preacher, that that is not very rich? I mean, when you're bringing in 600 grand a year and you've got 14 million bucks and three houses, it's like, come on. But yet somehow, and I seem to recall John MacArthur being on TV all the time, being on Larry King. Well, he did a better job on Larry King than Joel Osteen did. Okay, why is he even on Larry King on there being promoted, because he's, and by the way, when I go to Barnes and Noble, they had all of John MacArthur's books front and center in the religion section. When I go to Borders, it was all John MacArthur. Christian Bookstore was pushing John MacArthur's stuff all along, but yet he somehow gets a pass. And then some people even were promoting him last year, because he stood up against the coronavirus rules and he kept his church open and defied California. You know what? Hey, I don't wanna side with a false prophet for any reason. I don't care if we agree with him on corona, which I don't anyway, but if you're gonna sit there and agree with him on corona, you know what? Then your priorities are all out of whack. If you're willing to side with somebody who denies the blood of Christ, this multimillionaire false prophet who teaches a hardcore lordship salvation, which lordship salvation, in a nutshell, is that basically to be saved, instead of just crying out to the Lord Jesus and trusting him as your Savior, which is the real way to be saved, just believing on Jesus, believing on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, lordship salvation says, well, you gotta make him the Lord of your life, meaning do works. You gotta obey Christ. You gotta follow the commandments. So it's a works-based salvation. It's a very thinly veiled works salvation, and he's the biggest lordship teacher that there is, not to mention that he's also a Calvinist and also a dispensationalist, and it's like, look, it's like, ah! Because here's the thing. You know, the one thing that, that you can agree with Calvinists on sometimes is like, hey, at least they're not dispensational. You know, at least sometimes, you know, they have the right views on Israel and they're against dispensationalism, and then the problem with a lot of our independent, fundamental Baptist brethren and our friends is that a lot of them are dispensational, and we're like, ah, we don't like the dispensationalism. This guy's like mixing the worst of all worlds. He's like a pre-trib dispensational Calvinist, lordship, ESV, like, it's just like, it's like anything that we liked about certain Calvinists, he's the opposite of it. He's the worst of the Calvinists and the worst of Baptists and independent Baptists all rolled into one package. It's like, wow. But he stood up about coronavirus. You know what? Your priorities are all goofed up if you want to hang around with a bunch of damnable heretics and phonies because you agree with them on the mask mandates or on the lockdown or on coronavirus. Look, that issue is not a biblical issue. It's not a moral issue. And look, I know some people don't agree with my exact views on the whole coronavirus thing or they don't maybe agree with how our church has handled it or we don't see eye to eye. You know what? I get it because it's a complicated subject. It's hard to know exactly what's going on and who do you believe, who do you trust. You know, people have all different views on that. You know what I mean? And pastors are in a position where they have to make hard decisions and they have to try to find a balance between these things. And so from the outset of this whole corona thing, I've said, hey, let's not condemn other pastors who see this differently or handle this differently or react to this differently. But then what do you have? You have people flocking to someone like John MacArthur who's a hardcore false prophet because they like what he did about corona. And then you have Paul Chappell, you know, putting his arm around him, taking a picture with him, and oh, I got to pray with this man of God, John MacArthur. It's because Paul Chappell's a phony too. You know, I wonder how many luxury homes he owns. Is it three or four? Okay, the bottom line is when you see, because birds of a feather flock together, my friend. And you got all these bunch of wealthy, phony, popular preachers, if the world loves them, run the other way. Multi-millionaire, run the other way. And look, obviously if someone listens to this sermon like 20 years from now, who knows what inflation's going to do? They're going to be like, that doesn't sound like a lot of money. They're going to be like, well, I'm an electrician and I make $600,000 a year. Okay, but I'm talking in 2021, okay? I'm talking 2021 here. These guys, you know, they're going to be like, net worth of 14 million, that's like, isn't that normal? Because the inflation's going to get so incredible. But folks, do not love money, do not obsess over money, don't seek to be rich. If you have this in your heart, get rid of it, because it will lead you into sin. It will lead you into sin. The Bible says, they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition because the love of money is the root of all evil. If you have this lust for money in your heart, this covetousness, this desire to be rich, if you dream and fantasize about fancy houses, fancy cars, fancy clothing, my friend, please get that right with the Lord before it leads you down a very dark path. And whatever you do, do not listen to these preachers. And you know what? Then when they turn out to be a pervert and a predator, you know, wouldn't it be wonderful if Ravi Zacharias would have just had a lot less followers when he turned out to be a predator because then it wouldn't have been as big of a deal to drag Christ's name in the mud and just now he's the face of creationism or he's the face of apologetics. Number one Christian apologist, you know, number one album on iTunes is a lesbian. Number one author down at the Christian bookstore apologizes to the LGBT community. Well, you know what? Hey, I was never a fan of any of those people. Why not? Because I just, I never even thought, huh, I wonder if this Max Lucado book's any good. I always just saw Max Lucado. Well, this guy's being pushed by the world. This guy's being pushed by Barnes and Noble. This guy's being pushed everywhere. It must be bad. Folks, and people just say, you know, oh, I can't believe that, you know, you just make these absolute blanket statements condemning all rich preachers. That is the statement I'm making. I don't want anybody to misunderstand me. I'm going to say it again. I started at the beginning of the sermon. 100% of these wealthy preachers are bad. All of them. 100%. Like I said, the only way I could even imagine theoretically would be if they made their money some other way. But I'm saying, becoming a millionaire through the ministry. And you say, well, you know, it's just they wrote a really successful book, and it's all the book royalties and whatever. Well, here's the thing. If that's true, why is their book so popular in an evil and adulterous world that we live in? Is that popular that they can make millions off of it? If you wrote a book that's actually legit, you're probably not going to make millions. And if you did, let's say you did make millions off some book deal, then you're like, okay, church, now give me 400 grand a year. It's like, well, if I already am making millions off my book deal, wouldn't I just work for the church for free at that point? Because I already have what I need. You know, there was a time in my life when I was transitioning from working in the fire alarm business to being a full-time pastor where I basically had a bunch of invoices and money coming in from my business because I closed down my business and became full-time as a pastor to where I had like six months of income just coming in from that business, and I basically just lived off of that. And then when that ran out, it's like, okay, now it's time to start taking a full-time salary from the church because that money, it's like, why would you need to do both, like this double dip, like full salary from church, full salary from the book deals, full salary from the college, full salary from, you see what I mean? Folks, don't be shy to make this absolute statement in your mind because, you know, the Bible has a lot of absolute statements. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. You know, the Bible says these things in absolutes, and so just use this as a rule of thumb to help you identify false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing. If they're loved of the world, so did their fathers to the false prophets. If they're surrounded by treasure, then you know that that's where their heart is. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your word, and we thank you so much for the treasure that we have called the gospel and the treasure that we have called the Bible and the treasure that we have called the local church, Lord. Lord, I pray that every single person in our church would have enough money to provide for their family, Lord. I pray that everybody in our church would have enough money to eat nutritious food and to have the health care that they need and the transportation they need, the roof over their head that they need, Lord. I pray that you would just provide for your people, Lord, and help us to have our needs met. But, Lord God, I pray that no one in this world would become deceived by riches and get bit by this covetousness bug and get consumed by the love of money. Help no one to go down that dark path, Lord. Lord, give us, as members of Faithful Word Baptist Church, give us neither poverty nor riches, but feed us with food convenient for us, Lord. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, let's sing our last song this evening, hymn number 149. Hymn number 149, Trusting Jesus, number 149. Simply trusting every day, number 149. Let's sing it out nice and loud on that first verse and we'll be dismissed. Number 149. Simply trusting every day, trusting through a stormy way, even when my faith is strong. Trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting as the moment's cry, trusting as the days go by. Trusting Him, whatever befall. Trusting Jesus, that is all. Brightly does this spirit shine into this poor heart of mine. While He lives I cannot fall. Trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting as the moment's cry, trusting as the days go by. Trusting Him, whatever befall. Trusting Jesus, that is all. Singing in my way is clear. Praying in the path betrayed, if in danger for Him fall. Trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting as the moment's cry, trusting as the days go by. Trusting Him, whatever befall. Trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting Him while life shall last. Trusting Him till earth be past, till within the just for long. Trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting as the moment's cry, trusting as the days go by. Trusting Him, whatever befall. Trusting Jesus, that is all. Anybody great singing tonight? You are dismissed. Copyright © 2018 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.