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Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Go tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere, Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born, While shepherds get their watching, Or silent flocks by night, Behold throughout the heavens There shone a holy light. Go tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere, Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born, The shepherds fear and tremble When low above the earth Rang out the angel chorus That hailed the Saviour's birth. Go tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere, Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born, Down in a lowly manger The humble Christ was born, And God sent us salvation That blessed Christmas born. Go tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere, Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born. A man shall eat good By the fruit of his mouth, But the soul of the transgressors Shall eat violence. He that keepeth his mouth Keepeth his life, But he that openeth wide his lips Shall have destruction. The soul of the slugger desireth, And hath nothing, But the soul of the diligent Shall be made fat. A righteous man hateth lying, But a wicked man is loathsome, And cometh to shame. Righteousness keepeth him That is upright in the way, But wickedness overthroweth the sinner. There is that maketh himself rich, Yet hath nothing. There is that maketh himself poor, Yet hath great riches. The ransom of a man's life are his riches, But the poor heareth not rebuke. The light of the righteous rejoiceth, But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out. Only by pride cometh contention, But with the well advised is wisdom. Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, But he that gathereth by labour shall increase. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, But when the desire cometh, It is a tree of life. Who so despiseth the word shall be destroyed, But he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded. The law of the wise is a fountain of life, To depart from the snares of death. Good understanding giveth favour, But the way of transgressors is hard. Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge, But a fool layeth open his folly. A wicked messenger falleth into mischief, But a faithful ambassador is health. Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction, But he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured. The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, But it is abomination to fools to depart from evil. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, But a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Evil pursueth sinners, But to the righteous good shall be repaid. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children, And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Much food is in the tillage of the poor, But there is that is destroyed for want of judgment. He that spareth his rod hateth his son, But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul, But the belly of the wicked shall want. Now what is a paradox? Well, a paradox is a statement that seems self-contradictory or even absurd on the surface, but in reality it's true. So it's something that seems backward, but it's actually true. It's actually real. It seems crazy. So there are many things in the Christian life that are paradoxes. Let me just show you one right here in verse number seven of Proverbs 13. It says, There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. Now on the surface, isn't that a paradox? Because it seems to be self-contradictory. It seems even absurd. Like it doesn't make sense. It's not logical. It's backwards. But yet, it's the truth. And there are many things like this in Scripture. There is he that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. Now, you say, how can this be? Well, flip back if you would to Proverbs chapter 11. That was chapter 13 there. Just go back a couple pages to chapter 11 verse 24. The Bible says, There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meat, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul, and liberal means that you're generous, you give a lot. It says, The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Now, how can these things be? What does it mean when it says there is that scattereth and yet increaseth? What the Bible's teaching here is that if you're generous and you give to other people and you scatter abroad that which you have and you're giving and you're liberal, then the Bible teaches that if you give, it shall be given unto you and that God's going to bless you and you're going to have more. And then it says, There is he that withholdeth more than is meat, but it tendeth to poverty. Let me give an example of that. It's called the federal government. They withhold more than is meat, right? That withholding tax is too much. Fifteen point three percent, seven point six five percent if you're an employee, they withhold it. But let me ask you something. Because the government withholds so much money from your paycheck, more than is meat, do they have great riches? No, they're in debt. How many trillions are we up to now? Nineteen trillion? Twenty trillion? Yeah, who knows? They broke that clock, you know? But the point is, they withhold more than is meat, but yet they tend to poverty. You would think that by being stingy and greedy and keeping everything for yourself, that's how you're going to have the most money. But yet the Bible actually teaches us that in the Christian life, if we're generous and we give and we're liberal, and we're not talking about the world's definition of liberal, we're talking about the biblical definition of liberal, then we will actually end up having more. And you know, a perfect example of this is our church, Faithful Word Baptist Church. At our church, it's always been our policy over the last fifteen years that all of our church activities are free. So whenever we have an activity, it's totally free. Not only that, all of the preaching CDs, DVDs, flash drives, any materials that we produce are totally free. All those Bibles in the back, free. And it's not like, well, it's free, but there's the donation box, you know, so there's a suggested donation. No, it's actually free. You know, we discourage, people try to give us money and we say, no, no, no, just take it. Take as much as you want. And we load people up with CDs, DVDs, Bibles, New Testaments. Take all the materials back there. Come to church activities. It's all paid for. The food's paid for. The transportation's paid for. But yet our church has never had any debt in fifteen years. We've never had any debt. We've never borrowed any money. And not only that, we've never had a fundraiser. And we've never had any kind of a push for extra giving. We've never put a thermometer up here and said, hey, we've got to reach the giving goal. Hey, if you give a thousand dollars, we'll put your name on a plaque. You can spin the wheel. We've never done any of those things. We've never raised any money. We've never had a fundraiser. We have never had any debt. And we've always been able to pay the bills. And we've been able to help other churches and have abundance. And yet we give away more stuff for free than any church. Isn't that an interesting coincidence? It's not a coincidence at all, my friend. Because if you give, it shall be given unto you. If you're generous, if you water, you yourself shall be watered. So if you go through life just being a stingy person because you just got to hang on to every penny that you've got and every dollar that you've got, you think that that's going to make you end up with more money, but it's not. You say, well, Pastor Anderson, I've known rich people that were like that, so it must be working for them. But you're not a worldly person. You're not an unsaved person. We're Christians. You know, worldly people, they have their way of doing things. That's why this sermon's not called the paradox of life. It's called the paradox of the Christian life. As a Christian, you give, it's given unto you, you're generous, God's going to take care of you. And so we should be people that don't try to make ourself rich because, you know, the Bible says there is that make themself rich, yet hath nothing. Now that could mean a couple different things. Obviously, by being greedy, God could cause you to lose everything. But I think probably what this is saying when it says there is that he that maketh himself rich and hath nothing is that he doesn't really have the real things that matter in life. You know, because there are rich people that have a lot of money in the bank, but does that mean that they're happy? It doesn't mean that they have the things that really make life good. You know, there are certain things that money can't buy in this life, that God can give us those things. So the Bible says there is he that maketh himself rich and hath nothing. There is he that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. What's that saying? That's saying he makes himself poor by giving, by being generous, by making other things the priority besides money, and yet he has great riches because he has rewards in heaven, because he has family and friends and church and things that matter more, things that are more important. And so these things are a paradox, right? But many, many things in the Christian life are a paradox. It's paradoxical that the church that gives away the most free stuff and never charges money for anything, never has any debt, never has financial problems, always has plenty of money for 15 years straight. And look, have the finances of our country gone up and down over the last 15 years? Have there been some ups and downs? When we started the church in 2005, we were at a time of great economic prosperity in the United States. Things were booming. But around 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, things were going downhill. And I remember one year our church's offerings literally were half what they were the year before. Even though the church had grown, the giving was in half. But you know what? Isn't it amazing how we always paid our bills, we always had everything we needed, we never had to borrow any money, even through the lean times, the downturn, the recession, the good times. Why? Because if you give, it shall be given unto you. If you're generous, God will take care of you. The liberal soul shall be made fat. The liberal church shall be made fat. And so we've watered and we've been watered ourselves. And we don't withhold and therefore we don't tend to poverty. Now flip over if you would to the book of Luke and let's look at some of the paradoxes that Jesus taught. Because Jesus is constantly teaching paradoxes. Let me give you an example. He that findeth his life shall lose it. And he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. Isn't that a perfect example of a paradox? Because on the surface, to the uninitiated, to one who doesn't have spiritual understanding, they would look at that and say that is self-contradictory. Or they would even say it's absurd. But yet in reality it expresses a truth. You know the dictionary definition for a paradox says in reality it expresses a possible truth. I'm just omitting the word possible because we're dealing with Bible verses. So it expresses an actual truth even though it appears to be self-contradictory. But look at Luke chapter 6. Just to close out the subject on giving and being generous, being liberal, the Bible says in Luke 6 38, "'Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet with all it shall be measured to you again.'" So the Bible's saying if you give, you'll have everything that you need and more than you need. You'll have everything if you're generous, if you're liberal. And by the way, the reason that political liberals call themselves liberals is because they want to be seen as generous. But they're very generous with other people's money. They're very generous with my money and your money. You know, real liberality is when you're generous with your own stuff, your own money. You know, it reminds me of some liberal libtard bozo that went to some political town hall meeting one time and he raised his hand and he's like, "'Would you please charge me more taxes?'" Who knows what I'm talking about? Who saw that? "'Would you please tax me more? I don't pay enough taxes.'" But see, this lying fool could write a check to the US Treasury anytime he wants. You can actually send them extra money and they'll take it. It's true. You can give them extra money. There's a place on the tax return where you can just give them extra money. Take shut up and take my money. But that's not what he means when he says, "'Would you please charge me more taxes?'" What he's really saying is, would you charge everyone else? Would you make everyone pay more? Everyone pays in. Look, I don't want to pay more taxes and I don't want you to pay more taxes because I know what the government does with the money and most of it's immoral. I don't believe in it. It's immoral. It's wrong. And so that's not liberality. They take a good word and they ruin it. It's like they ruin the word gay, which is a perfectly good word that means happy and cheerful and lively and they ruin it. They ruin the word liberal. But you know what? I'm still going to use the word liberal in the right way that it should be used. Being liberal, liberality is a Christian virtue. We should be giving generous people open-handed and not be stingy and greedy and keeping everything for ourselves. And you know what? If you give, it shall be given unto you. It's very true that if you're a giving person, you will have what you need, ironically. There's so many paradoxes in life. Like I heard someone say, if you really want to get something done fast, give that job to the busiest person you know. That's a paradox, isn't it? Because you'd think that the guy who's really busy isn't going to have time. But the guy who's busy will get it done faster than the guy who's got nothing going on. Because there's a reason why that guy's got nothing going on, because he's got nothing going on. Because he's lazy. So you know, sometimes you'll notice people who don't have a job are the busiest people. People who've got two jobs, they'll get it done if you give them a task to perform. So that's a paradox. Look at Luke chapter 14, Luke chapter 14. Lots of paradoxes in scripture, Christ taught many paradoxes. Many things are counterintuitive in this world. And you know what I get from this when I see how many things in the Bible are counterintuitive, and just how many things in life are counterintuitive and paradoxical. You know what it tells me is that, you know what, we don't know everything. Besides, we think we're so smart and our common sense is just going to guide us through everything. But common sense will not guide you through everything, because so many things in this world are paradoxical. That's why if you go through life just doing what's right in your own eyes, you're not necessarily on the right track. You've got to let God tell you the way things are, because many things in life are counterintuitive. Look what the Bible says in Luke chapter 14 verse 7. And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. And he that bade thee in him come and say to thee, Give this man place. And thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room. And when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at me with thee. For whosoever, and here's the paradox, whosoever exalted themselves shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. So according to the Bible, the way up is down. You want to go up? Go down. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord that he might lift you up. The way up is to go down. You know, this reminds me of children fighting over shotgun in the car. That's kind of the highest seat that everybody wants, right? Because he's talking about here, you know, people taking the best seat at the feast or whatever. And we may not be able to relate to that because we typically might not get invited to these kind of feasts or understand this kind of pecking order or hierarchy involved. But this is something that we can all relate to. You know, everybody wants to jump in that front seat. But you know what the Bible is saying to do? No, be humble. Go sit in the back seat and have them say to you, hey, brother, why don't you ride shotgun? Why don't you ride shotgun? You say, well, my siblings would never do that. But here's the thing, you know, you just go through life being a humble person. And you know what, people are going to notice. But even if people don't notice, God will notice. And you will be exalted in due time. You may not be exalted immediately, but if you humble yourself, you will be exalted in due time. In the long run, you'll be exalted. So don't be the person that just always has to take the best seat, the best, uh, pieces of whatever. You know, don't just jump to the front of the line all the time. You know, just be humble, hang back, sit in the back, and let other people exalt you. The Bible says, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, strangers and not thine own lips. So Jesus here is teaching to be humble in order to be exalted. And if you exalt yourself, you're going to end up being humiliated because it's pretty humiliating when you get pulled out of that front seat and sent to the back, alright? It's a lot better when you get, um, promoted. That's the word I'm looking for, to that front seat. Go to Luke chapter 18. So we saw a paradox in Luke 6. We saw a paradox in Luke 14. Go to Luke chapter 18. Let's look at another paradox. It says in Luke chapter 18 verse 9, and he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Boy, I wonder if you've ever known any people like that. They trusted that they themselves were righteous and they despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood, and watch this phrase. This is such a great phrase. He prayed thus with himself. What does that mean when it says he prayed with himself? You know what that means? He's not praying to God at all. What the Bible is literally saying here is that this guy is praying and he in his heart, in his mind, he's not even directing anything toward God. He's just praying with himself. And he says, and another way you can interpret this is that God's not listening. Maybe in his heart he was pointing this to God, maybe God's just deflecting this. Because the Bible talks a lot about how he won't hear certain people's prayers. And so this guy's praying with himself. This is kind of like when you leave a YouTube comment that's a prayer to God, but you type it as a YouTube comment. That's praying with yourself. So he says, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalted themselves shall be abased and he that humbled himself shall be exalted. You know when you think of praying with oneself, you also think of politicians and other famous preachers or people when they literally, they get out their prayer and you have notes and they're praying, basically they're reading a prayer. I mean are they really talking to God or are they just making a speech or performing or just you know putting on a show or whatever. It's not, you know sincere prayer comes from the heart, right. You know when we pray we should not use vain repetitions. We shouldn't use chanting and we should pray from the heart. You know what prayer is, is we just talk to God. Like Moses spoke to God as a man speaketh to his friend. That's Moses' prayer life and it wouldn't be a bad prayer life to copy to just speak to God in prayer without having all this scripted stuff that's not sincere or not from the heart or vain repetition of someone else's prayer. But this guy, he says, well look how good I am, I mean I'm tithing and I'm fasting and I'm not an extortioner and I'm not unjust, I'm not an adulterer, but you know what we can all get up and just give a list of sins that we don't do. You know okay I'll start, I don't snort cocaine, how am I doing? You know what we can all just list sins that we don't do, but every single one of us could probably do a pretty long list of sins that we never do. We do not do it all, we're not even tempted, but you know what there'd be this other list of all the sins that we do and we would all have that list as well that we don't want to talk about, that we don't want to emphasize, but every single one of us is a sinner. And so this guy he can list a few things, you know I believe him. I believe that he fasted twice a week. I believe that he gave tithes of all that he possessed. I believe him that he's not an extortioner. You know I believe him that he's not committing adultery, but you know what I'll bet we could list a whole bunch of sins that he was guilty of and a whole bunch of other you know pride that he had or lustful thoughts that he had or money that he stole. Maybe he's not an extortioner, but he might have stolen something or who knows? I mean I'm not going to just sit here and speculate about this guy's sins, but I guarantee you this guy had a big list of sins in his life because every single person is a sinner and there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. And so this guy is so full of himself and prideful because he doesn't do this and he doesn't do that and then he looks at this publican with disgust and he's saying, man, thank you Lord that I'm not like this guy. But here's the irony. The irony is that that guy is burning in hell right now, that Pharisee, but yet the publican that he looked down on and despised as being a wicked person is in heaven right now. So right now the publican who was an extortioner, he was an extortioner, isn't it interesting the extortioner is in heaven right now and the guy who said, well I'm not an extortioner like this guy, he's in hell right now. Why? Because you go to hell to be punished for your sins and it doesn't matter all the good things that you've done or all the sins that you skipped, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God and the only way to be justified is to be justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And so because this guy said God be merciful to me, a sinner, because he humbled himself, admitted he was a sinner, and called upon the Lord for salvation and put his faith and trust in the Lord without trusting in his own righteousness, he actually got saved even though if you would have just taken the sins of the Pharisee and the sins of the publican, you know I believe that the publican probably had more sins. Why not? Do you think that going to heaven is just based on whoever has the least sins? Like it's graded on a curve or something and you know as long as you're in this percentile of sin, you make it or you don't make it. Folks, how much sin you've committed has nothing to do with whether or not you go to heaven. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. And he that believeth not shall be damned. And it doesn't matter how few sins you've committed, if you're not saved, you're doomed. And so here we see a paradox here that the guy who he's praying and saying, man thank God I'm not like this guy, he's going to spend the rest of eternity saying I wish I was like that guy. I wish I was that guy right now. I wish I would be that publican right now. And that's the paradox here. While we're on this subject here of people who believe that they are righteous, because the Bible says they trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. These are people who are believing in works for salvation. Instead of trusting in the finished work of Christ on the cross, instead of trusting in the Lord as their savior and calling upon the Lord for redemption, they're trusting in themselves that they're righteous. So they think it's by doing good things. But here's what I've noticed. Here's a paradox for you. I've noticed that the people who trust in works for salvation usually end up living the loosest lives. And then the people who believe we don't have to do any works end up doing the most work. Now stop and think about the paradox. We're like, it's not works, it's not works, it's not works, and then we're just doing works, works, works. I mean look at Faithful Word. Have you ever heard of a church that preaches a freer salvation than Faithful Word? It's impossible because there's no number that's lower than zero. I mean, we believe it's free. You can't go any lower than that price. We preach just a hardcore, salvation's free, it's by faith alone, believe only. That's what we teach for salvation. But have you noticed that a lot of work goes on around here? A ton of work. So isn't it ironic that the people who don't believe you have to do the work actually end up doing the most work? I remember when I was working at Round Table Pizza, you know, giving the Gospel to this guy who was Catholic. And this guy was just totally a whoremonger, drunk, whatever, and he's doing all this, and I start preaching this guy the Gospel, and he's like, wait a minute, you can't just live however you want. And I'm thinking to myself, that's what you do. I'm thinking to myself, here I am, living this clean-cut, straight-laced life, and I'm telling you, hey, you don't have to live a certain way to be saved, you just have to put your faith and trust in Christ. And then the paradox is, this guy is saying, well, you know, you can't just live however, as he lives however. But you think he's the only Catholic who gets drunk? Is there a Catholic who doesn't get drunk? Does that even exist? Is there even such an animal? Okay, hey, Catholics are constantly getting drunk and fornicating, but then they're like, hey, you know what, we got to work our way to heaven, as they do very little work for the Lord. And then you've got the Baptists over here saying, it's totally free, it's totally paid for, and they're just like, working on Monday, working on Tuesday, working on Wednesday, just work, work, work for the Lord. I mean, I'm looking at your shirt, it says, First Works Baptist Church. And isn't it ironic that the church that has Baptist in the name is the one that says, you don't have to be baptized to be saved, you don't have to be baptized to be saved, and we're baptizing the most people, whether we need it or not. Because of the fact that this is a paradox, right? And it's that the people that do the most work for the Lord are the people who believe they don't have to. Why? Because they're doing the work out of love. They're doing the work voluntarily. They're doing it because they like it, because they want to, because they love Christ. Whereas the people who are being forced end up just trying to do the minimum, phone it in, cross their fingers and hope for the best, and they need to expect the worst. Flip over if you would to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20. So we've seen a bunch of paradoxes so far. The first paradox was that if you give money, you end up better off, and if you keep all your money, you end up poor, right? But if you give, you end up being blessed and being made fat in a good way. So that's the first paradox. The second paradox we saw was that if you humble yourself, you're exalted. You get lifted up, you get more praise by being humble. And you get humiliation for being prideful, right? So that seems backwards to us, doesn't it? The next paradox was in regard to salvation, some of the people who are the most righteous and living the cleanest, most separated lives are going to split hell wide open because they're trusting in that separated life to get them to heaven and they haven't accepted the free gift of Christ. And some of the worst derelicts in the ghetto of Phoenix are on their way to heaven thanks to the work of Faithful Word Baptist Church preaching them the good news. And some of those people, they have so many bad habits that are so ingrained, it can be hard for them to break free from that sinful lifestyle. But you know what? They can still get saved. And you know what? I hope many of them do take advantage of everything that Christ has to offer because not only can Christ save us from the penalty of our sin and give us a home in heaven, he can also give us overcoming power to live a victorious Christian life. Most people don't take advantage of that part of the deal, but it's there, it's available. But many people out in these ghettos, you know, they've lived a very wicked life and they will continue living a very wicked life, but if they have put their faith and trust in Jesus, we will see them in heaven, thank God, because salvation's not of works. And you say, well I just don't think it's fair, hey, I want them there. I want them there. You know, what kind of a wicked person says, well I don't want that person to go to heaven. They're too wicked. Hey, you know what? I'm just glad I'm going and the more people God allows to go, the better as far as I'm concerned. You know, I mean, hell's a horrible place. And so if God wants to allow whosoever will and whosoever believeth, no matter how sinful, no matter how wicked, hey, I'm just going to praise God for his mercy and grace and I'm going to be glad for every person that's in heaven. I'd rather see, you know, if there's a billion people in heaven, I'd rather see a billion in one or a billion in five or whatever. You know, I'd rather see the more the merrier, my friend, when I get to heaven. But have you noticed the wicked heart of the unsaved, where they're just like, well that's just not fair that that person would go to heaven or whatever, you know. But they think it's fair for them to go to heaven. But they're like this Pharisee, they're looking at that publican and saying, well this guy, you know, he doesn't deserve to go, but I deserve to go. Well you know what, none of us deserves to go. And so if God is going to redeem people and give them forgiveness and grace, then I'm just going to be thankful for it. The more gracious the better as far as I'm concerned. Look what the Bible says in Matthew chapter 20 verse 25. The Bible says, But Jesus called them unto him and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you, here's the next paradox, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. What did minister mean servant? So he's saying the greatest is the servant. Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the son of man came not to be minister unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. So isn't it a bit of a paradox that he's saying that if you want to be the greatest, you become the lowest, you become the servant, you become the minister. Whosoever will be great among you, let him serve. That's a paradox because among the Gentiles, among the worldly people out there, they think that the greatest people are the ones who are, you know, making the most demands and not serving anybody but only being served. Look if you would at Luke 22, and we'll see a parallel passage here in Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22, whosoever will be great among you, let him be your servant. Luke chapter 22 verse 24, and there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest? They didn't have manly perry there to clear that up for them, which disciples obviously the greatest. But in verse 25 it says, and he said unto them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them, I love this verse, they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors, benefactor, you know a benefactor is someone who does good unto you. So basically people who rule over them and oppress them and tyrannize them, they call them a benefactor. They're like, thank you so much government for everything that you do for me. As they're just robbed blind by the government, abused by the government, it's like, oh thank you so much, this is so great, you guys are so wonderful. They actually look at the people who exercise authority over them and lordship over them, they call them benefactors, these oppressive kings, taxing them, oppressing them, ruling over them. But ye shall not be so, but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger. And he that is chief, as he that doth serve, for weather is greater, he that sitteth at meat or he that serveth. Is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth, isn't that paradoxical? Because you would think that if you saw a guy sitting at a table eating and you saw five or six people waiting on him, right, and they're bringing him drink, they're refilling his drink, they're giving him a napkin, they're bringing out seconds, they're clearing his plate, you would think, okay, this guy is important because he's got these people serving him. And the people that are serving, you'd say, well these people are doing a menial job, you know, being a waiter or waitress, cleaning the tables, you know, that, you know, this guy is somebody important, he's the one dining at this establishment, you know, he's paying the bills. But Jesus says, well no, because I'm serving you. I mean Jesus washed the disciples feet. Jesus was among them as a servant, as a minister. He said the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto. He didn't come into this world and say, alright everybody, I'm here to be worshiped, I'm here to be praised, I'm here to be served, I need 12 guys just to kind of follow me around and just take care of, I need 12 personal assistants. Is that what he did? He didn't have 12 personal assistants. He's actually ministering to them. He's serving them. He's equipping and helping and teaching them. They're benefitting. It wasn't Jesus benefitting from these 12 guys, it's 12 guys benefitting from Jesus. Because he is ministering, teaching, serving, helping, pitching in. And so if you want to be a person who gets respect, you know, and you want to be a great person, you know, why don't you start learning to serve? You say, well that doesn't sound right. I mean, you know, the famous people and the rich people, they don't do that. Well you know what? That's not our role model. Our role model is Jesus Christ and he did do that. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. He took upon himself the form of a servant. And so if we want to go up, we've got to go down. If we want to be exalted, we've got to be humble. If we want to be great, we've got to serve, we've got to minister. Take a back seat, both literally and figuratively. Be humble, be a helper, be a servant, help other people succeed. Take care of other people's needs. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And so don't go through life just doing what's right in your own eyes, using quote-unquote common sense or just kind of the accepted morality or the accepted social norms. No, instead you need to embrace the paradoxes of the Christian life. Embrace the paradoxes of the Christian life that say, hey, you want to have more money? Leave money away. You want to be looked up to? Get on your knees and serve and minister and help. You know, you want to go to heaven? Then quit just making a list of how righteous you are, figure out how sinful you are and how unworthy you are, that's your ticket into heaven so that you fully trust Christ. And of course, you know, salvation is only a one-time thing and so most of us have already taken care of that. We've already taken care of that because you know what the Bible says about that guy who beat on his breast and said, be merciful to me and said he went home to his house justified. And guess what? That was a done deal. It's never going to change. He doesn't have to keep doing that over and over again. It was a one-time thing and it's settled. Okay, we need to follow Christ's program and not think that we know everything and understand everything about life and just think that we've got it all figured out and you know, I've done the bath, Pastor Anderson, and you know, if I just work on Sundays and yeah, I'm going to miss every church service, but if I just, you know, that's one of the real monies to be made though. But hold on a minute. What about the fact that God can supply all your need if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Then all those physical needs that you have will be added unto you. And so we don't want to lean upon our own understanding. We want to trust in the Lord and understand that he has a way of exalting the lowly and bringing down the proud and he has a way of sort of balancing things up. You know, here's, here's another paradox. You know, uh, the, the people who went out and gathered the manna in the Old Testament, he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack. No matter how much they gathered. You know, one guy went out and just gathered a ton. Another guy gathered a little bit and at the end of the day they measured it and it was like one Omer. That's interesting. He that gathered much had nothing over. He that gathered little had no lack. That's paradoxical, right? It doesn't seem like it would be true. It seems absurd. But yet it's the truth. And God's trying to teach us something there that you can spend your life just spinning your wheels. It's going after money, money, money, money, money and end up with less money. Or you can seek first the kingdom of God and look, obviously we've got to go to work. We've got to make money. Our jobs are important, but we've got to also make sure that we're reading our Bible, going to church, soul winning. Because some people, they get so into making money, now they don't have time for church. Now they don't have time to go soul winning. Don't have time to read my Bible. I'm too busy reading the Wall Street Journal. Well, you know what? You're going to end up with nothing. And even if you physically have wealth on this earth, you know, God can, can give you the fatness of this earth, but send leanness to your soul, the Bible says. Where you have everything physically, but you're lean in the soul. How many rich people do you think are depressed tonight? How many, how many celebrities are depressed tonight? But how many of God's people are poor, finances messed up, and they're just having a great night tonight? Because, you know, money isn't everything, that's why. And if you're smart, you'll learn that and understand that and believe that when the Bible tells you that. Here's another paradox that's not in the Bible. You know, animals are constantly going extinct and they're endangered. Who's the best way to make an animal not be endangered? Kill it and eat it. Yeah, because guess what animal will never be endangered? Chickens. Cows. Right? Sheep, goats, they're never endangered. So isn't that a paradox that the best way to keep an animal from getting endangered is just kill and eat them? And it's true because there's a, if you, like, like, and this came to my mind because we were at Fuddruckers the other day and I think it was Isaac said, well, you know, the bison isn't really that exotic anymore because, you know, it's not endangered anymore. Is that what it was? Or the buffalo? Is that what it was? Because, you know, you get, like, the elk burger, the bison, the buffalo. He said now they're just, he said now they're not endangered anymore because they're just being raised in mass quantities and just farmed in mass quantities, you know, just to supply Fuddruckers and everybody else with the, you know. So I'm doing my part to conserve the buffalo, ta-tonka, you know, I'm doing my part to conserve the buffalo by eating that buffalo burger. Every elk burger that you bite into, you're conserving elk. You're conserving that ostrich when you eat that ostrich burger. You say, I don't get it. You know what, there's a lot of things you don't get, but it doesn't mean that they're not true. There are things that I don't get. But you know what, it doesn't matter whether you get it or don't get it. A lot of things in life are paradoxical. You know, when you start studying science, a lot of paradoxes, you're like, whoa, how can this be? How can this be true? That's why science has had to change their mind on so many things over the years, you know, because Aristotle was just using a lot of common sense. You know, he's just like, well yeah, I mean, obviously heavy things are going to fall to the earth faster than light things, right? But then Galileo comes along and says, well no, actually everything's going to accelerate toward the earth at the same speed. Now that doesn't make sense that you could go to the moon and stand on the moon and drop some big metal wrench and a feather and they both hit the ground at the same time. But yet one of the astronauts was doing it, he stood there and he had some heavy tool and he had the, the feather and he dropped them and they both hit the ground at the same time. Look, that's counterintuitive, isn't it? That's a paradox. You'd think, hey, heavy things are going to fall faster. But that's not how it works, okay? So the point is that in life paradoxes abound and as you gain more learning and education, you learn more paradoxes, more paradoxes, more paradoxes. Okay, that's on the worldly side. Okay, but what about with the things of God? Have I convinced you tonight that there are some spiritual paradoxes? I mean we saw several from Proverbs, we saw several from the mouth of Christ and do you really think that I found every paradox in the Bible? I guarantee you I haven't even scratched the surface in this sermon of all of the paradoxes. So the lesson to be learned here is that if things in life are paradoxical, if Bible teachings can be a paradox, then don't just lean on your own understanding and think, oh, I'm just going to use my common sense, I know what's right, this just doesn't feel right, I haven't, you know, no, you read the Bible and figure out what's right. Read the Bible to figure out what Christ wants you to do. Read the Bible to figure out how to succeed in business. Read the Bible to figure out how to start a church and have a ministry. Look, our whole church is a paradox, this should be called Paradox Baptist Church. Why? Because if someone were writing a book about how to start a church, it would be the opposite of everything that I've done. Here's how to grow a church in 2020. It'd be like, nope, not doing that, nope, nope, nope. Folks, our ministry is like an example of what not to do in the world's eyes. Oh, man, that's, I can't build a church like that, not going to be able to build a church like that, nobody's going to come back and listen to that kind of preaching, you're going to turn people away, you're going to, but yet here we are. We exist as a paradox. Why? Because we did things God's way, we preached the Bible, we preached the Word of God, we followed His principles, and it works. Well I just don't get how it could work, I just don't see how it could work. Me neither. But here we are. Look, folks, all throughout life there are things that we, we don't know how they work. You know, I get in the car, I turn the ignition to the car, there are a lot of things about that that I don't understand how it works, right, I mean I'm sure there are certain people in this room that just understand the entire process, you know, of how, you know, that engine works, that combustion engine. But I bet even the most seasoned mechanic in this building, you know, we could then take it to a chemistry level, start talking about the molecules and the chemistry and the physics and then we might lose them even, right? So here's the thing, we all use things that we don't understand, profit from things that we don't understand. We drive a car, nobody fully understands every part of how that car works, both from the science side and the mechanical side, but you know what, yet we all believe in it. We all trust, if we have somewhere to go, we know that when we turn that key, it's gonna turn on. We know that it's gonna get us from point A to point B, you know, depending on what kind of car we drive. But, you know, in general, I'm speaking in general terms here, we have faith that it's gonna work. We don't get it, we don't understand how it all works, but we just know that it does. And that's just one example, you know, in our house we have all these gadgets, we don't know how they work. We don't understand what's making them do what they do. You know, but yet, they work. Well guess what, the Christian life works, just do it. Turn the key of the Christian life, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding because your understanding is not deep enough to grasp some of the paradoxes of life. And as you get older, you'll start to understand, like, oh, okay, now I see how that works. Oh, now I get why that is. I understand now. But it starts with just doing what the Bible says by faith and if Jesus says, give and it shall be given unto you, be liberal, be generous, you just do it. But how am I gonna end up with more money by giving things away for free and what? Just do it. It takes faith, amen? And so the Christian life is a life of paradoxes. Don't try to reason everything out and try to figure out every single thing. It's good to use your brain and use your logic, but at the end of the day, there are a lot of things we just have to trust God on what he said and just go with it. That's why I always have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the fact that you've given us so much wisdom in the Bible, there's so much depth here, and all of these paradoxical things that we wouldn't be able to figure out on our own. We wouldn't come up with these things on our own. And they seem to defy common sense, but Lord, you've given us these pearls of wisdom and even just in my short life, Lord, I've seen you come through on these things and I've seen it work, Lord, and I just pray that everybody in this building tonight, Lord, would just have the faith to follow your teachings, whether they seem to make sense on the surface or not, but they would just have the faith to go with it until later when they finally do understand, Lord. And thank you so much for blessing our church over the last 15 years and always providing our needs, Lord. And I just pray that every single person in this room would have their needs met as well in this season, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, the Bible's really clear on salvation. It's not based on how good you are. A lot of people think they're pretty good, you know, and yeah, they're going to get to heaven because they're pretty good, but the Bible says from all that sinned up short of the glory of God. The Bible says that is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. I'm not righteous, you're not righteous, and if it were our goodness that would get us into heaven, none of us would be going, because the Bible even says in Revelation 21, 8, it says, but the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and murderers and sorcerers and all liars shall have their part in the lake that's burned in the fire and the stones of the second death. I've lied before, everybody's lied before, so we've all sinned and we've done stuff worse than lying, let's face it. We all deserve hell.