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Hey man, welcome to the First Works Baptist Church. We're going to get started with song number 42, My Latest Son is Sinking Fast. Song number 42, There in Your Hymnals, that's our first song. And if you are able to, let's all stand together for our first song this evening. Song number 42. Song number 42. Sing it on that first. My latest son is sinking fast. My fears is merely run. My strongest trials now are fast. My triumph is begun. Home come, angel band. Come and around me stand. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. I know I'm near the holy ranks Of friends and kindred dear. For I hear the waves on Jordan's base The crossing must be near. Home come, angel band. Come and around me stand. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. I've almost reached my heavenly home. My spirit proudly sings. Thy holy ones, behold they come. Home come, angel band. Come and around me stand. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. Oh, bear my longing arm to him Who bled and died for me. Whose blood now cleanses from all sin And gives me victory. Home come, angel band. Come and around me stand. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings To my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings Waging the billows, our tossing hide. The sky is o'er the shadow and darkness Nor shelter or Hell, is thine. Carousel not thou we perish. O gets thou I asleep. When each moment so badly is threatening A grave in the angry deep. The winds and the waves shall obey my will, but peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons or men or whatever it be, the water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace be still, peace be still. Master with anguish of spirit, I bow in my grave today. The deaths of my sad heart are troubled, awaken and save my prey. The torrents of sin and of anguish sweep all my sinking soul. And I perish, I perish, dear master, O hasten and take control. The winds and the waves shall obey my will, peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons or men or whatever it be, the water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace be still, peace be still. Master, the terror is over, the elements sweetly brag. Earth's sun in the calming is mirrored, and heaven's wind in my breast. Linger, O blessed Redeemer, leave me alone no more, and with joy I shall make the place for birth and rest on that peaceful shore. The winds and the waves shall obey my will, peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons or men or whatever it be, the water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace be still, peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace be still. Our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030. Sunday evening is at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. We're going through the book of 2 Samuel. Hope to see you during our midweek service. And then, of course, you know that the back room there for the mother-baby rooms is off limits temporarily. And so make sure if you need to utilize the mother-baby room, you can go to the fellowship hall. It's kind of half fellowship hall, half mother-baby room, so just keep that in mind. But there are changing tables, rocking chairs there available for you. And then you see the so many times in teams, the list of expecting mothers. And there are important reminders there at the bottom. Please make sure that no one's going back to those rooms, especially your children. And just make sure you're supervising them so they're not wandering in there by themselves. And then also upcoming church events, we have the ladies' tea party coming up on Saturday, March 18th. Of course, activity's free. And so you can see my wife, ladies, if you want to participate in the ladies' tea party there on the 18th. Easter Sunday is coming up on Sunday, April 9th. A great time to invite your family, friends, co-workers, and associates, anybody you know. Especially if they're not used to going to church. There's just something about the public that feels they need to be in the house of God on Easter Sunday. So we want to take advantage of that. We want to break record on that day. And so invite your family, and we'll have a breakfast that day as well. And so looking forward to it. Please be in prayer. We get a lot of people saved. Ladies' prayer breakfast is coming up on Sunday, or excuse me, Saturday, April 1st. And you can see Ms. Janelle Gonzalez, if you are interested in that, if you have any questions. And then the regular reminders there at the bottom. Our team is heading back tonight. Amanda, I'm sure they're on the plane right now. They're going to be home about 10 o'clock or so. I don't have the complete numbers, but I know they got over 200 people saved with about 8 soul winners. And so that's a big blessing. And then, aside from that, they accomplished that which we sent them for, which is they collected a lot of information. In fact, the last time I spoke to them, they got at least 200 contacts. And that's not only the converts they got this time around, but even some of the converts from last time. Because as they were going soul winning, knocking on doors, they were running to their converts from November. And so that was a blessing. I know they had lunch with some of them and dinner with some of them. And a lot of them have determined that they're going to be there in November for the preaching service. And so that's a blessing we want to keep in contact with them for the next couple of months leading up to November. And so we are going back to Belize in November. If you're interested in going, we typically go the week before Thanksgiving. And so just to kind of keep that in mind if you're interested in participating in that. It is a trip of a lifetime. It's a lot of fun. You'll see a lot of people saved. And the only thing is, it's really hot. It's very hot and there's a lot of mosquitoes. But that's the only downside. The food is good. Soul winning is good. And everything else is great. And so I want to encourage you to participate in that at the end of the year in November. And so you see there at the bottom, no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Make sure you're not loitering in the four year fellowship hall during the preaching service. And of course make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Let's go ahead and take some soul winning numbers from this past week. Salvations from Monday to Thursday. Any Salvations from Monday to Thursday? How about Friday and Saturday? Yes. One for Riverside and even for this afternoon. Salvations for this afternoon? Yes. One for Brother Cody's team. Two for Brother Hikes team. Ulysse's team. One for Brother Morrie's team. Anybody else? Going once, twice, thrice. Okay. Keep up the great work on Sonya. Let's go to sing our next song. 159, Blessed Be the Name. Song number 159. Song number 159, Blessed Be the Name. Song number 159. Let's see it on that first verse. All praise to Him who reigns above, in majesty supreme. Who gave His Son, more men to die, than He died and redeemed. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. His name above all names shall stand, exalted more and more, at God the Father's all right hand, where angels host adore. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. May be mercy your friend, a man, once ruined by the fall. Thou hast devised salvation's plan, for thou hast died for all. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. His name shall be the Counsellor, the mighty Prince of Peace, of all your kingdoms comfort, whose reign shall never cease. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen, wonderful scene. At this time our ushers will be receiving the offering and please turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians 9 1 Corinthians 9 1 Corinthians 9 1 Corinthians 9 1 Corinthians 9 Good evening, tonight we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 in the Bible reads, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you, but the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. My answer to them that do examine me is this, Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? Or I only, and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working? Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? Who planted the vineyard, and eateth not the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth the flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man, or sayeth not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn, doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt this is written, that ploweth should plow in hope, and that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, it is a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things. If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. But I have used none of these things, neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me. For it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. For necessity is laid upon me, yea woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews, to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without the law, as without the law, be not without the law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without the law. To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. Knowing not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run not as uncertainty, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, we thank you for all the blessings you've bestowed upon our church and all the congregants in our church, Lord. And we just thank you for the King James Bible, for pastors as well, Lord. I pray that you bless him right now as he preaches your word, Lord, and that us in the congregation are edified by the preaching, Lord. And so just bless this time and pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, tonight we continue our Sunday night series on drama at the church at Corinth. And over the last couple of weeks, just kind of highlighting some of the problems that the church at Corinth was having. It was obviously enough problems that the apostle Paul saw fit to write two letters to this church because, you know, you couldn't fit it all into one letter. And so we're kind of going over each of those issues. And at the end of the day, a lot of these problems that they're facing are problems that churches today will face. There's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing unique about the church at Corinth that will not or has not happened to us as a church. And so these things are written for our admonition so that we can learn from it and know how to deal with these things correctly. We talked about problems with division and authority. They had problems with the apostle Paul's authority. They were very divisive and having cliques with different leaders. They had problems with fornication. They weren't casting out the fornicator out of the church. They were not practicing church discipline. They weren't excommunicating individuals for committing the sin of fornication. And then they were unable to resolve matters between brethren. So these two brothers had issues with one another. And then one brother is just like, well, you know, I'm just going to sue you, you know, until you go before the unjust in order to resolve these matters. Obviously, he disciplined them for that. And then he talked about marriage, divorce and remarriage. They obviously didn't have a biblical understanding of what marriage is and the fact that they could not divorce. And if they were divorced, they could not remarry unless, of course, the spouse dies. And then the last thing we talked about is the fact that they were struggling with this matter of eating things sacrificed into idols and not necessarily preferring their brethren and essentially wounding the weak conscience of their brethren. And we talked about that last week, what that specifically means today. Tonight, we're going to talk about full time Christian workers or full time Christian employees, which is what Chapter nine is essentially talking about here. Look at verse number 14. It says, Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. In other words, if a person has been given their time to the full time Christian service, they should be able to make a modest living by fulfilling that job. Now, let me just make something very clear is that when I say full time Christian, pretty much everyone in here is a full time Christian, right? Like none of us are part time Christians. It's not like, well, I'm a Christian when I go to church. But Monday through Wednesday, you know what I mean? I kind of live the way I want, don't really follow the Lord. I don't read my Bible, but all kinds of sin. And then Thursday I'm back at it again. OK, you know, because we have Bible studies, so I got to be a Christian during that. And then Friday and Saturday, I kind of live like the world. Unless I go soul winning on Saturday, I got to be a Christian again. So it's not like this, you know, you clock in, clock out type of a thing. When it comes to serving the Lord, we're always serving the Lord. And sometimes people can get this misconception that the only way you can serve God is by fulfilling the office of a pastor, bishop, a deacon or evangelist. But at the end of the day, the Bible clearly lays out that anything that we do as Christians counts as a reward. You know, if you give a cup of cold water to someone in the name of a prophet, the Bible says you will in no wise lose your reward. OK, we're constantly serving God. And the Bible tells us whatsoever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. And so the Bible seems to indicate that no matter what you do, whether it's serving your husband, you know, serving your family, your children, being a good employee at your job, being a good church member, if you're just constantly serving, you know, your boss or your husband or your family or the church as unto the Lord, you will receive a reward for that. That's the way it works. OK. And so obviously we understand that each of us are going to get rewarded for this. However, the Bible does indicate also that there is a literal full time Christian employee as far as the church is concerned. Now, why is that? Well, because we've got to keep this operation going. And, you know, people don't just come on a Sunday morning and everything is just put together. A lot of people think that, right? They think, oh, you know, just someone just pushes a button and then, you know, this thing just flips around, the chairs are all put together, the bulletins are made, the sermons are already prepped, you know, everything just runs hunky dory. And and that's what happens. Isn't that what takes place? No. You know, I remember someone told me one time, oh, is this everything you guys do for the live stream? I thought you just kind of like hit a switch or something like that. It's like, you know, I mean, months it took to even get the live stream together. I mean, carnal evenings, my friend, we're just trying to figure out how to operate a social media platform where we can stream the services to the public. But there's a lot that goes into the administration of a church. And so it requires someone to work full time for these things. OK, and I'll get into that in just a bit. But this is what this particular chapter is referring to here. It's full time church employees. Now, the reason the apostle Paul is addressing this is because the first lesson that we went over is the fact that the church at Corinth was kind of questioning his, what, his authority, right? They were like, oh, we don't know if he's an apostle or not, even though he's the one that started the church. OK, he's the one that started the church. He's the one that got them saved. The signs of an apostle were done in their presence. Yet they were kind of rejecting his authority. You guys remember that? Well, along with that, what seems to be indicated and we'll go to go with the second Corinthians, chapter 11. Hold your place there in chapter nine. Sorry, tonight's not going to be a bombastic sermon. You're just going to learn some doctrine in regards to chapter nine. All right, so you're going to have to work extra hard to pay attention because I'm not preaching on your favorite doctrine tonight or something. OK, what seems to be the implication here over the fact that they were kind of rejecting his apostleship is that they felt like he was not worthy of being communicated or, as the Bible puts it, communicated, being taken care of with resources and monetary gifts. So, in other words, he, and we see this in chapter nine, that he essentially did not allow himself to get paid by the church because of the fact that they already had in their mind that anybody who takes any type of money from the church, any type of salary, is considered robbery or something like that. Now, how do we know that? Well, look at second Corinthians, chapter 11, in verse number seven. It says, Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye may be exalted? Because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely? I robbed other churches. Now, does everyone understand that when he says that, he's being facetious? It's not like he's sticking up churches, you know what I mean? He's like, Break yourself! Where's the tides? Where's the vault? He's being facetious here because that's kind of what they're implying. Understand? He's like, I robbed other churches. Why? Taking wages of them. So, obviously, a wage is not something you take without doing something for, right? Something that you earn. So, he took wages of them. Why? To do you service. So, the mere reason, the fact that the Apostle Paul was able to do such a great work at Corinth is why. It's because other churches were financing him in order to take the trip to Corinth, in order to pay for his food, maybe pay for some of his lodging, pay for some of the things that he needed at the time in order to fulfill that duty of starting that church. So, how do you know that? Well, look at verse number 9. And when I was present with you, I wanted. Now, it doesn't mean like, we would use the word want, like, I want something, I want to eat, I want this. Want, another way of saying that in the Bible is lack, okay? So, he lacked. There is certain things that he needed, he was lacking, he wanted. He says that when I was present with you, I wanted, I was chargeable to no man. For that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied. Now, let's do a little Bible quiz here. What church was in Macedonia? Someone tell me. What's in that region in the northern part of Greece, okay, Macedonia? What's the chief city there in that area? It sounds like Filipino, but it's not. Okay, I already gave it away, obviously. The theologian is like, oh, Philippi. I knew that. I'm just kidding. Yeah, Philippi is what he's referring to, which he addresses Philippi in the book of Philippians. And he talks about how Philippi provided for him and gave him that which he was lacking, that which he was wanting. And obviously, they were blessed because of it. But here's the thing, folks, you know, common sense tells you that the Apostle Paul obviously needs resources in order to do this great work. Now, we know that the Apostle Paul was a tent maker, okay? So, you know, he's building tents, he's selling them. That's like his personal business. But I'm sure there's only so far he can go with that, with the service that he's doing for the churches. I mean, he accomplished a great work. He started a lot of churches, went a lot of people to Christ. And there were times that he was in need. There was times when he was hungry. There was times when he had a need to be fulfilled. And there's often times when he just went hungry, right? I mean, he talks about that in Philippians, how he was, you know, he was a base. He knew how to hunger. He knew how to be full. And so, but here's the thing. Wouldn't it be a right thing to do to just provide for his needs so he can just serve the Lord without distraction? You understand? So instead of him being on a hungry stomach, the Philippians, they provided for him so he wouldn't have to worry about where the next meal was coming from. He could essentially serve the Lord and not worry about those things. Because aside from the fact that he had his own needs, he says that there's fightings within and without and then the care of all the churches. You understand? And so, this is what he's referring to. Let's read on here. For that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied, and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. Now, if I was a member at Corinth, I'd feel like crap at that point. I'd be like, ouch. Man, that sucks. Because basically what he's saying is like, I feel like you're making me feel as though I'm a burden to you, you know? So I'm not going to take any resources from you. I'm not going to take any payment from you. I will serve you for free because you don't seem to understand this concept that apparently the church at Philippi does understand because they're doing so. Okay? Now, go back to 1 Corinthians 9, if you would. 1 Corinthians 9. Alright, who else is freezing at this point? Raise your hand if you're freezing. Oh, we got one person. No, Abra, sit back down. No, I'm just kidding. Okay. I'm just kidding. We'll turn it. I like the fridge feeling. So this is what he's implying here. So this is why he's even addressing this entire topic. It's because the church at Corinth is obviously rejecting his apostleship. And they're being, and by the way, also, we see later that he also tells them, teaches them how to be cheerful givers. Kind of showing that they're giving grudgingly. They're like, alright, fine, you know, let's give to this church or whatever. So there's obviously a deeper rooted issue within the church at Corinth, right? It's just they're not necessarily being generous. They're not being a blessing to other churches. And they're not being a blessing to the person who basically started the church and won him to Christ and is teaching him the word of God. And so look at verse number 1 of chapter 9. It says, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord? Excuse me. Have I not seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I have not seen the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord. If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you, for the seal of my apostleship are ye in the Lord. So what is he saying? He's like, look, you know I'm an apostle. And even if there's other churches that were not started by the apostle Paul, who may not recognize me as their apostle, for sure I'm like your apostle. Because of the fact that I won you to the Lord. You saw the miracles that I performed. This is basically what he's saying here and he's setting up a premise here. Because of verse number 3, mine answer to them that do examine me is this. Now that's a sad statement right there because it implies that there's people in the church and they're like, well show us that you're an apostle. Well let's see who you really are. They're examining his authority even though he's already proven himself to be the man sent from God. Not only just sent from God, but sent by another church. Because it's not like the apostle Paul just started this church out of thin air. He was ordained by the church at Jerusalem in Antioch to go and start these churches. He's not like some rogue pastor doing his own thing. They laid hands on him, they ordained him, they commended him unto the Lord. So he's going on the authority of the other apostles and of the church. Even though he himself is an apostle, he has God's power on him. And the Bible tells us that the foundation of the church is the apostles. But even then, God understands the importance of authority and to be sent out by another church. Now what does that tell us? It tells us that churches just can't pop up whenever someone feels like starting a church. I feel like being a pastor right now. I'm just going to go ahead and start my own church. Because you have to be sent out by another church to do so. Why is that? Because you have to be trained by a pastor. They have to see your labor. They have to know what you believe. And you have to be tried and tested in that congregation and approved of a pastor to go start that church. Because then what you have is just a bunch of churches that have these unqualified pastors teaching all types of heresy. Doing all kinds of unbiblical things in the church. And that's not pleasing unto the Lord. Obviously that's a disaster waiting to happen. So he's telling us, he's just like, you know, my answer, verse 3, to them that do the exam is this. Have we not power to eat and to drink? That's another sad statement. He's like, don't I have the right to like eat a meal? Don't I have a right to just get a nice coffee every once in a while? Can't I just eat and drink and just, what is he saying? Can't I just live a regular life? Don't I have the right and the privilege just as a human being? To just have a meal. And obviously he's following this up from chapter 8 when he's talking about eating things sacrificed unto idols. But he's saying, look, I have the right to just, if I'm hungry, I have the right to like eat a meal. I have the right to drink and to eat a meal. Verse 5 says, have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas. Let me explain verse number 5. First of all, who's Cephas? Peter. Now Peter, according to the New Testament, is not only an apostle, he's also a pastor. Everyone understand that? So he's not just an apostle, he's a pastor. And he's pastoring a church at Babylon, because that's where he's writing those epistles from. First and Second Peter are written from Babylon. But not only that, we know that according to the Bible, 1 Timothy chapter 3, in order for a person to be a pastor, also known biblically as a bishop, you have to be the husband of one wife. In other words, you have to be married. Not just married, but you also have to have children, because it says you have to have your children in subjection with all gravity. So a pastor's resume, so to speak, is his family. Is he able to lead about his wife? Does he have a wife? Does he have children? Does he have faithful children not accused of riot or unruled according to Titus chapter 1? There's a lot of qualifications for a pastor, okay? And we're not going to go over all of them today. But he's saying here, don't I have the right to get married if I wanted to? Because the apostle Paul's not married. So one thing I want to point out here is that the apostle Paul is not a pastor. He's not a pastor, he's an apostle for sure, but he's not a pastor. You say, isn't he pastoring these churches? No, he's not. He is what the Bible would consider to be an evangelist. And I'll explain what an evangelist is in just a bit. So he's saying here, if I wanted to, couldn't I just get married and lead about a wife? Just like the other apostles, like John and Peter, who were pastors, they did start churches, they were married, and they had children. He's basically saying, I have the right to do so if I wanted to, because I'm not being restricted by God or anybody to not get married. If he had a choice, if he wanted to, he could get married. Just as if he wanted to, he could collect resources from the church at Corinth, because it's right for him to do that since he's the one who's putting in all the work for the church. Does that make sense to everyone? You see where he's going with this? He's basically telling the church at Corinth, I have the power and I have the authority to eat, to drink, to have a wife, and even to collect the salary if I wanted to from this church because I'm the one that started it. I'm the one that's putting in all the work. I'm the one who won you for the Lord. I'm the one who's building the church from a practical perspective. He has that authority to do so. So again, the Apostle Paul was an evangelist. Now, in modern terms, like in modern churches today, an evangelist is not what we see here. An evangelist is by, let's just compare independent Baptist churches, it's typically one guy who goes to 50 churches throughout the year and just preaches the same sermon. This is really big in old IFB churches where you have this one guy, he has this one home run sermon and he'll go to different churches and he'll literally preach the same sermon. But here's the thing, it's not wrong to necessarily preach the same concept. It's not wrong to even use the same title, I guess. But sometimes these evangelists, they will literally just read word for word the entire sermon. You say, what do you mean by that? I mean, they will tell the same jokes. They'll have the same points. They'll even say things the same exact way. It's kind of weird, it's kind of creepy actually. Because you can compare some tapes. You guys know what tapes are? Tapes are like these things like this. Anyways, CDs. You can compare CDs. Does anybody know what a CD is? Can I get a hand raise here? Can I get a witness? Of that same evangelist preaching that same sermon and it's almost like verbatim word for word. They say it the same exact way, the same exact points. I've seen it over and over again because that was just a thing in the old IFB. And it was just like, well, I'm called to be an evangelist. And what that meant was I want to travel to a bunch of churches and just preach the same sermon everywhere I go. So not even studying the Bible to preach new sermons is like I want to preach the same sermon. Well, that's not an evangelist. Well, you tell me what an evangelist is then. Okay, evangelist has that word evangel, like evangelism, right? Which means to go soul winning. Now, we also use the term missionary and that's not a term found in the Bible. But it essentially communicates what a person is who goes to the mission field, which is essentially a person who goes soul winning in a foreign nation. And I personally believe the reason they call them missionaries is because they're fulfilling the mission, which is the Great Commission. They go to a different nation, a different country to execute the mission of preaching the gospel to every creature in different parts of the world. That's why they would call them a missionary. But the biblical term would just be evangelist. So the Apostle Paul is an evangelist. He's going to different areas around his known world to preach the gospel and start churches. Okay, not a pastor. He's an evangelist. He's starting churches. And a couple months ago, I preached a series on just the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. You know, he started in Asia Minor. He started churches in Greece, Philippi, Thessalonica. He went to Corinth. I mean, him and Peter basically started churches in Bithynia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Pontius, all these different areas. He's church planting is what he's doing. Okay, so he's not a pastor. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't have the right to collect the salary from the church of Corinth because he's still doing the work of the ministry. Okay, look at verse number six. Now what does that mean? He said, me and Barnabas, if we wanted to, we could just not work in the secular world anymore and just work full time for these churches. And he's right. He has the right to do so. Forbear means we'll stop working out in the secular world is what he's referring to. They're not going to be making tents anymore if that's what he wanted to. So he gives a really reasonable argument here. He says in verse seven, So what type of person joins up for the military and just pays his own way? Nobody does. It's like, oh, you join the military? You pay for your guns. You pay for your uniform. Like, they're supposed to pay you because you're working for them, especially for the kind of stuff that they're making you do. I mean, they basically own your life. Okay, they provide the food, they give you all the clothes, they determine your schedule, and they're paying you for it. And he's saying, like, who goes to war and has to pay his own way out to go to war? Who planted a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Now, who has a vineyard in this church? Anybody have something that you plant? Legal, by the way. Okay, maybe nobody. Okay, I know we've got chickens right over here. Okay. Sarah, I'm not saying there's chickens over here. I'm saying she raises chickens. Okay. Does anybody grow animals? Does anybody raise animals here other than Sarah? You're the only one. She's rich because she's got all the eggs. But, you know, if you had a vineyard, you know, you're growing tomatoes, vegetables, things of that nature, you're obviously going to partake of your own vineyard. It'd be silly for you not to enjoy the fruit of your labor if you're the one putting in the work to make sure it grows and it's healthy and so forth. Who planted the vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man or sayeth not the law the same also? So the right to earn a modest living, he uses the Old Testament as a base for that. Okay. Because this is not just a New Testament thing. It is, excuse me, this is not just an Old Testament thing. It's a New Testament thing as well. And he uses the law to confirm that they which live, preach the gospel should live of the gospel also because that is a pattern that we see in the Old Testament as well. Look at verse 9. For it is written, now whenever you see that phrase, for it is written, it's always quoting from the Old Testament. In the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. What is he saying? He's quoting Deuteronomy chapter 25, I believe it's verse 4. And he says, look, the ox that's treading the corn, you should let him eat some of it too because he's that beast of burden that's putting in the work for you to get this corn. So let him eat of it as well. Don't starve the animal. It's only reasonable to allow him to eat of whatever he's working at so he can continue to work. Okay. That's what it says in Deuteronomy. And he says there, does God take care for oxen? Now did God make that law because he's just an animal lover? That's what it's saying, right? Does God take care for oxen? Is he working for PETA? Is he the one who is just like an animal? Is God an animal rights activist at heart? Well, if you read the Bible, you know for sure that he does not take care for the oxen. Okay. He's not cruel to animals, but there's instances in the Bible where he just kills a bunch of them. Doesn't even give us a reason why. You know when he throws just all the pigs off the cliff and they all drown, all that pork? That bacon just in the sea, just kills them. There's instances where he just kills animals. I mean in the Old Testament, there's animal sacrifices night and day. And you know, I don't know if you've ever seen an animal get killed. You know if you've been to a foreign country where they kill a pig or a chicken or something like that. A cow or whatever. It's pretty gruesome. How many of you have ever seen one? Been on a farm when that takes place. I was in Guatemala one time and this is my first time seeing my aunt. And she was like preparing a huge pig for us. Okay. He was fat and they kept him in a really close stable so he didn't move a whole lot. He was just really chunky and fat. And they hired someone. And I'll be honest with you, it was one of the most gruesome things I've ever seen in my life. Okay. You know they stuck the knife in the throat and all this blood. It's just like wow. But this is just normal over there though. And here's the thing, it's just like you know we shouldn't kill animals for food. It's so inhumane the way they kill them. There is no humane way to kill an animal. I mean think about it. There's no humane way to kill an animal and killing an animal is not murder. It doesn't matter what the vegans say. And here's the thing vegans. If killing animals is murder then why are you trying to make a meatless burger for? Are you like fantasizing about murdering an animal or something like that? Like eating meat is murder but try this meatless burger. It kind of tastes like murdered meat or murdered animals. It's kind of gruesome there. Okay. And you know what, take the meatless burger off of the menu because it's not working. We're not falling for it. Okay. It tastes just like real meat. No it doesn't. Come on now. Plants don't taste like meat my friends. Anyways. So he's saying look it's not because God is taking care of the animals. It's not because he's an animal lover. Why is he doing it? Well if you've read the Bible cover to cover you see that a lot of the things that we see in the Old Testament are symbolic of things and truths in the New Testament. Right? For example you have lambs and ghosts that are being sacrificed in the Old Testament which is a picture of Jesus Christ who is the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world. Okay. So a lot of these meats, drinks, divers, washings, carnal ordinances of the Old Testament were a representation of that which is in the New and obviously I've mentioned this before Old Testament is New Testament concealed. New Testament is Old Testament revealed. Okay. Look at verse 10 it says, So even in the Old Testament he said look muzzle not the axe that treadeth out the corn. If I'm giving you this law for this beast of burden how much more for the man who's putting it in the work he's worthy of his hire. Okay. In other words pay your employees the right wages. Amen. Don't withhold wages from your employee. Don't steal from them. Don't rob them. Don't mistreat your employees. Treat them well. Okay. Feed them. Give them according to their wages. And in fact sometimes even be generous with your employees because you have you know a boss in heaven who obviously is watching you and seeing if you have just balance it or not. So he's saying look the reason I even gave that commandment is so the person who is plowing can plow with the assurance that he's going to be able to eat of his own labor that God's going to bless that and he can feed his family he can feed his wife he can feed his children and thresh in hope as the Bible says and then be a partaker of it as well. Okay. Now let me talk about a couple things here that may not interest you but it's important for us to talk about because it's doctrine. And that is the fact that in general in Deuteronomy 25 when it says that it's obviously applicable to many avenues and many different jobs. Right. You can apply that to any type of job. Any secular job that's applicable for. But it's definitely applicable for the priesthood. Okay. And the priesthood is a specific job that was given to the tribe of Levi in the Old Testament. Okay. Which is one of the twelve tribes. Now the unique thing about the tribe of Levi is that they were not given an inheritance. You see all the tribes they had an inheritance. They had land they had these blessings that God gave them but he essentially set apart the tribe of Levi and said they will not have an inheritance I am their inheritance. So essentially they had to live off of the land of the other tribes. Like the other tribes had to be generous with them and help them and give them a place to live because the Lord was their inheritance. And here's the reason why. Okay. Because of the fact that the priesthood was only made up of the tribe of Levi in the Old Testament. Now what am I talking about when I say the priesthood? I'm referring to the group of people who God designated for the tasks and the administration of the tabernacle in the Old Testament. Okay. And so the people who were employed by the tabernacle so to speak could only be of the tribe of Levi. All priests were Levites but not all Levites were priests. Because remember Levi is a tribe and within that tribe you had specific people who were qualified to fulfill the office of the high priest and or just the general priest. You understand? But all of the tribe of Levi whether it's you know you have the high priest the priest and all the Levites just in general had some sort of responsibility to take care of in the tabernacle. So again you have the high priest who could go into the holiest of all. You had the priest who would do the animal sacrifices. And then you had just the Levites in general. Okay. Don't let me lose you here. The Levites in general were composed of three specific families because you have the tribe of Levi but it's not a tribe of like 10 people obviously. Tons of people. I mean we're talking about Israel who's like millions of people. Okay. You had the tribe of Levi. Within that tribe you had three specific families. The Gershonites, the Mararites and the Kohathites. Okay. You don't have to remember those names. Gershom, okay. Marari, all right. And then you also have the Kohathites. Okay. And these specific families were given or those specific families there were given the responsibility to essentially administer to the daily administrations of the tabernacle. Now what am I talking about? Well think about this. The Mararites because what is a tabernacle? It's a tent. Right. So you know this is not a tent. We're meeting in a building here. And you know we obviously we are the church as far as the people are concerned but in the Old Testament they had a tabernacle which is a tent. And the reason it was a tent is because sometimes they had to move. They were like basically nomads in the wilderness for 40 years just kind of wandering about and when it was time to move someone had to break down the tent and set it up somewhere else. Now the Mararites were responsible for the essentially they're like the cleanup crew. So you know they would get somewhere and they're like alright this is a good place. Mararites their job was to spend hours upon hours setting up all the poles and setting up the tent and making sure that you know the structure of the tent was what it's supposed to be. And then when it was time to move again it was their job to tear it down. Okay. Now if they're spending all their time doing that they should get paid for that. Right because that's an important job. They're basically the cleanup crew. The Gershonites were responsible essentially for the daily tasks of the tabernacle. So once the Mararites would come and build up the tabernacle the tent everything was good then the Gershonites would come and put up the decorations. Okay. You know they put the little flower here when it's Thanksgiving or whatever and put this fake flower here something and make sure that everything is is looks beautiful. Okay. Was that important to God? Yeah. I mean he wanted his house to look beautiful and there is a specific there are specific stipulations that God said on how the tabernacle should look. So the Gershonites were responsible for that. They're responsible for the coverings, the curtains, all the tapestry, all the little intricacies of the actual decorations. That's what they're responsible for. Okay. So you have the Mararites, the Gershonites and then the Kohathites. They were responsible for the objects associated with the sanctuary. Showbread, the table. Okay. Talk about the ark. Things of that nature. They were responsible for that. So that's their job. Very important job though. Right. And even thereafter you know during the era of the kings. Okay. Because they didn't always have kings. They had judges then they had kings. The Kohathites were responsible. They ended up becoming like doorkeepers and then essentially like you know kind of like doing the janitorial service of the house of God. Because there came a point where the tabernacle was no longer a thing and then they had what? The temple. So now they're not moving it around so then responsibilities start kind of evolving and changing. And so the Kohathites became essentially the doorkeepers and then you know their job essentially evolved into them being the leaders of you know the music. They're the ones who are writing the psalms and they're writing different choral pieces and orchestral you know music for the tabernacle because there's music being played in the tabernacle all the time. Okay. You know church wasn't boring back then. It was lively. Okay. But you can see how much work goes into doing something like that. Right. You know yeah but that was the tabernacle though you know. Yeah of course we don't need people to come in here and clean and print things out and make sure things aren't falling apart and getting music ready and doing all the administration. Yeah well let's just let it do it on its own. Right. No. You can see how that's applicable to the New Testament. Okay. Now hold your place there and go to Deuteronomy chapter 17. Deuteronomy 17. Because even aside from the administration of setting up the tabernacle tearing it down decorating the house of God putting all the poles and all that together and then getting all of the objects associated with the the you know the showbread and the table. Then you have the real spiritual aspect of it which is what preaching the word of God because God also ordained the Levites to be preachers of the Bible. So they were responsible to teach God's people the word of God. And they're also responsible to judge matters between brethren. Okay. Look at Deuteronomy 17. Excuse me verse number eight. It says if there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood between plea and plea and between stroke and stroke being matters of controversy within thy gates then shalt thou arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose and thou shall come unto the priest the Levites and unto the judge that shall be in those days and inquire and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment. You got two brethren they're beefing it they're fighting they're just kind of arguing about stuff. They need someone who's mature enough right to kind of intervene and say okay let's settle this matter right now. You hit them in the mouth and then you know I'm just kidding you know it's like eye for eye or whatever you know or you just say you know you need to work it out here this is what needs to be done. They had the responsibility to essentially pass judgment on who's right and who's wrong. Now what does that tell us? It shows us that we always need someone who's more mature than us to help us resolve issues sometimes. Right. Go to chapter 33. Chapter 33. Now look okay. Do you think churches have you know you think people in churches have problems with another sometimes. Right. Probably did right. They probably do right. I mean not this church though for sure right. Like you guys definitely don't have problems one with another you know. Brethren with brethren husband and wife children and all these things. You know there's conflict sometimes in churches right. I mean we're a church about like over 100 maybe 130 on a good day 150. Okay now picture a million people. And that was called the church in the wilderness. That's a big church. I mean we talk about mega churches. That was the biggest church in all of history was the church in the wilderness. I mean Pastor Moses had his hands full. Right. It's a massive church. Do you think that like they had some problems in the wilderness. So do you think like when they had to pass judgment on people that was just like an isolated incident something that would happen every six months or so. No I'm sure there's problems every single day. So after they're done fulfilling their administrative projects that they had to do. Now it's just like hey you got 10 appointments with these 10 families. And that's being modest. It's probably like 50 families or something. Okay. Because if you remember you know everyone was going to Moses. You guys remember that. They're going to Moses like she won't obey me. He's being mean to me. He stole my cow. He did this or whatever he stole my on my ox or my goat or whatever. And they're having all these issues. And from morning till night he's just like okay you're wrong. He's right. This is what you need to do. And then his father in law came and he's like man you're going to wear away. You need to create like a system here where other people can kind of judge matters. You know the matters that are going to you. And the greatest of matters should go to you. Okay. And so this is basically what that is. The Levites were responsible for judging matters. So you can see how much work this this was. Right. Look at Deuteronomy 33 verse 10. They shall teach Jacob thy judgments and Israel thy law. They shall put incense before thee and whole burn sacrifices upon thine altar. Now this is referring to the priests. Okay. Who were Levites? Their job was to teach the Bible. Okay. They're to teach the word of God. Show God people the judgments and do the animal sacrifices as well. So this is a big job. Now here's one thing that I want to mention. Okay. You say well well I'm going to hold off on that. Let me hold off on that. Because it's a really good point. Okay. I'm going to make a really good point in just a bit. Now if they're doing all this work. If they're preaching the Bible. They're making judgments. They're saving families. They're saving marriages. Helping children. And above all that they also had. I mean they're they're the ones like putting people to death too by the way. So it's like oh this guy's a Sodomite. It's just like all right where's the Levites. You know what I mean. Let's let's inquire of this diligently. I mean they had a lot of work on their hands. Okay. So it would be right for them. It's just like yeah of course they can't have their own inheritance. You know they wouldn't be able to take care of that and this at the same time. They can't work a full time job outside of that. And full time for the tabernacle because there's so much to do in the tabernacle. And if they don't do it. The house of God is going to fall apart. God's people need a leader to judge these matters. We need someone full time to do these jobs these tasks. These administrative aspects the spiritual aspect of the priesthood. Now this is why God said OK. The tithes shall be instituted even those instituted prior to that. It shall be instituted and given to the Levites. OK. Now they didn't have necessarily you know monetary type. You know like the way we would have like dollars today. They would use animals right. And sometimes they could turn it into into into money. But for the most part it was animals you know livestock. It was you know corn or whatever maybe seed of that matter. But they can tithe off of their increase. And that tenth of their increase would go to the house of God. To provide for the tribe of Levi who was doing the work. OK. And then there is instances where they would even have communal feast with the Levites. So you have someone who was you know according to Deuteronomy 14. God commanded them hey bring this tithe and you can eat it with the priests. So it'd be like you know hey we're having pizza tonight. Right. And it's being paid for by the church but we all get to partake of that delicious pizza. Domino's pizza. OK. That would be like a communal feast. Now here's the argument that people could make because you could see how this really does help. As far as like in the Old Testament. Go to First Timothy Chapter 5 if you would First Timothy Chapter 5. You say yeah but you know hey I thought you know there is no priesthood anymore. You know there is no office of a priesthood now. There is no tabernacle. We're the temple of the Holy Ghost and so we're all priests. Right. And you can see how people can can try to make that argument. But here's the thing you know what's interesting is that. That tribe all of that tribe were Levites. And only Levites can be priests. Right. But not every Levi could be a priest. Because not every Levi was qualified to be a priest and fulfill that office. Some of those Levites were qualified to build up and tear down the tabernacle and take care of like the miniscule things the administrative aspect. But when it came to like doing the sacrifices preaching the word of God discerning between brethren that was designated for the priests. Because they had they had to fulfill certain qualifications in order to meet that office. OK. Now in the Old Testament it was just like your stones can't be broken. And there's a lot of like different parallel symbolic meaning behind a lot of those things that they say. But the point is that they had to meet certain qualifications. Well you know yeah we are the royal priesthood. And it's no longer the house of Levi. It's a spiritual house. But you understand that not every Christian can be a pastor though. Right. Not every believer can be a deacon. Not every believer can even be a missionary evangelist. OK. There's certain qualifications there's less qualifications for an evangelist obviously. But there's a lot of qualifications for a deacon and there's even more qualifications to be a pastor. Because not everyone can fulfill that office. So even though people can make that argument and say well that's not a thing anymore. The priesthood has changed. The covenant has changed. And I fully agree with that because we are in the New Covenant. However you're going to have to explain to me why the Apostle Paul wrote First Corinthians chapter 9. And calling back to the priesthood and calling back to Muzza not the ox that treadeth at the corn. A verse that's found in Old Testament Levitical law in regards to the laborers of the house of God in those days. And relating it to the laborers in the house of God today. You would have to explain that for me. Or else you're saying that the Apostle Paul is just contradicting the rest of the word of God. Take it over Paul. I didn't write it. But it's scripture. OK. And so in First Corinthians chapter 9 he says they that preach the gospel should live of the gospel. So that would fit the bill for the Apostle Paul. Because that's what he's doing. He's preaching the gospel. He's church planting. He's getting people saved. He should be able to live of the gospel. You say yeah but you know. OK. I get that. You know we should pay full time evangelists. OK. But not pastors. Because there's there's that argument out there where people don't think that pastors should be full time employees of the church. And most of the time it's these like house churches. OK. And I don't mean churches that mean in a house because they don't have a building to meet in. I mean like the house church movement. And these house church movements typically have like many pastors. And they're all kind of like all chiefs and no Indians type of a thing where it's like they all want to be leaders. They all want to be qualified. And so they're against tithing. They don't think just one person should be the pastor and they want the leadership and all you know and it's just it's just a smorgasbord of heresy. And a lack of leadership is what it is. OK. And there is no house church in the Bible by the way. They amend in someone's house to begin with when they had like one hundred people. But you know after they read after like three thousand were added. They probably had to move somewhere else. I mean does anybody have a house here that can facilitate three thousand people. And then after what. After that five thousand. I mean that's a lot of people right. So obviously they amend in someone's house because that's all they have at their disposal to be able to meet their etc. OK. So the argument could be well only evangelists should get paid full time. But look at First Timothy chapter 5 verse 17. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. Now elder and I mentioned this before is just another way of saying a spiritually mature person and in context referring to a pastor. And when it talks about honor just like it says at the beginning of the chapter in reference to widows is referring to resources salary money things of that nature. And he's saying you should count the elder worthy of being taken care of financially. But he says especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. So if you have a pastor who gets all his information from like Charles Spurgeon. That's a no go my friends. They have to labor in the word and doctrine to have to know what the Bible says. Preach it correctly. He's like yeah but that's you know honor you know. I think that just means respect you know. Just respect them twice. Double honor. Verse 18. For the scripture saith thou shall not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. So the same passage of scripture that's used in First Corinthians chapter 9 to reference the evangelists who should live of the gospel because he's preaching the gospel is applied to the elder also known as the pastor who's laboring in the word and doctrine as well. And this all stems from Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse number 4. You understand. He says the laborer is worthy of his reward. So according to the Bible pastors should be full time. Now let me just say this OK. Before I move on here go to Acts chapter 6. People don't realize how much it really goes into not just starting a church. Maintaining a church. And facilitating the growth of the church. Let me say that again. People don't realize how much actually goes into starting a church. Maintaining the church. And facilitating the growth of the church. Don't take what's going on here for granted. OK. Because you may think to yourself why come on Sunday morning I'm just expecting to see a bunch of people because isn't that what churches do. No that's what churches should do. But that's not necessarily what churches do. OK. You know the average church size is about 70. You're like no I know a mega church that runs like 10,000 or something. That's not your average church. How many churches in America run 10,000 and up? Not very many. I mean you would have to compare yourself to Joe Olstein who runs like a football stadium. But is that really a church? No. Talk about the average church in America is about 70. So if you're above the attendance of 70 you're bigger than most churches in America. OK. So in order to facilitate that type of growth where you have you go from 35 to 40 to 50 to 70 to 90 to 115 to 120 to 140 to 160 to 200. It requires the focus and the specific labor of a team who works for the church. Because a lot of churches who don't have church employees they stay stagnant. I know of churches that don't have full time employees at their church. The pastor is not full time. And you know what the church stagnates. It doesn't really go anywhere because it requires a lot of investment from one man to make it happen. OK. That's why if we're to ever start a church which Lord willing we will. My desire is that we would hire someone to just invest all their time and energy into that church my friends. When we started this church we had 30 people in attendance. OK. It was about 30 people. Maybe about 30 people. And Pastor Anderson ended up hiring me full time as the evangelist of the church so I can invest hours upon hours upon hours in the work of the ministry. Not just preaching the word of God so I won't have to work in the secular realm so I'm not rushing through traffic two hours to make it to a Thursday night service so I can preach. Which is exactly what I was doing. Coming all the way from Laguna Niguel. On a Thursday night the traffic's not necessarily. Traffic's always bad but especially from there. Two hours there, two hours back, sometimes three hours if the traffic is really bad. And so he's like I'm going to hire you so you can just invest all your time into the church. So how did you invest in the church? Well aside from the fact that I had more time to study the Bible. Number two I had more time to be with the church. You say what do you mean? I mean there's instances in Omani where we're there till like midnight. And I'd be with people and fellowship and win in the hearts of the individuals and helping people to get grounded and developing relationships. And many of them are still in our church today. Mature, winning souls to Christ, having successful marriages, just going forward for the Lord. And so, and by the way in our church, because it's continually growing, I need help now. Which is why we hired brother Ulysses Hernandez as the evangelist. He said what does Ulysses do? Does he pray and fast? And like you know does he study the Bible ten hours a day? No he throws away the trash. He vacuums all the trash that you leave here. He picks up after you. He organizes, he does everything that I need to do but I can't do because I'm busy doing other things. Like what do you mean by that? Well look at Acts chapter six and verse number one. Now this is for the deacons but it's applicable to brother Ulysses because this is basically what he's doing as of now. It says, and in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. That sounds like a pretty cold answer right? But they're just being honest. What is it saying? The priority should always be on studying the Bible. He's like it's not meat for us to just like leave studying so we can take care of these administrative things. He's not saying that taking care of the widows is a miniscule job. It's just not a job for him to do. He has more important things to take care of. The disciples right? Verse three, wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So we say, look, he didn't say just go pick up some regular Joshua off the street to come do the administration of the widows. He said, pick good Christians for this. Pick someone who has a good work ethic. He's filled with the spirit and give them that job because we want honest people to be working for the church, obviously. Now this is again referring to deacons, but I would also apply to brother Ulysses because that's what he does. Now we don't have widows in our church. Or should I say we don't have widows in our church that need that type of attention. And so as of now, he takes care of a lot of the administrative work of cleaning, janitorial, printing. He takes care of the website and a hundred other things that I have on his task list. He said, like, what? Well, like going to Belize for seven days and leading a team out there to win over 200 souls to Christ. He collect a bunch of information so we could potentially start something there in November. Because I want to do that, but I can't be there right now. Like, I got to be here. So luckily, we have the liberty and the freedom to say, well, you go, Ulysses. I'll send you, I'll pave your way out. Pay for your food. You go soul win eight hours a day. Go collect as much information as possible. Go look for a building that we can meet in when we go there in November. Because I want to do that, but I can't. I need to be here. And that's what he did. And, you know, he left last Sunday with the team. He's coming back tonight. Success! But you know what? We wouldn't be able to do that for brother Ulysses or for this church if there was not resources coming into this ministry to be able to send him out to do so. I don't know about you, but you understand that great works require resources. It's not like they're just coming out of thin air. They require the resources. We're not a denomination. We don't have like a mother church sending us $10,000 a month or whatever to get the job done. All this is in house. It's from the tithes and the offerings of the members of our church that we administrate. And so if we want to continue to do great works, we've got to reach more people to create more resources so we can do greater works. Well, he should do it out of the goodness of his heart. He is doing it out of the goodness of his heart. But you know what? Can we pay for a meal for him so he can enjoy doing it too? Is it okay if he goes to buy an iced coffee in Belize because it's so freaking hot over there right before he goes sowing? Can we pay $2 so he can go lift weights in the morning so he gets the energy so he can go, yes, it's okay to do those things because whatever he needs to get the job done, that's what we're going to do for him to do to make it happen. Never have this Pharisaical mentality of just like, oh, rice and beans and you do it for free because if not, you don't really love the Lord. Nonsense. Say that to God in the Old Testament and the New. Tell us to the Apostle Paul. The pastoral, the office of a pastor, the office of a deacon, and yet even the office of an evangelist requires, and if they're going to serve the Lord without distraction and be effective at their job, if I'm going to be effective by my job, we need to be here full-time. So you're saying this because you want to work full-time? Well, I'm already full-time. I've been full-time since we started the church. So I'm not saying this from a heart of like, hire me as your full-time pastor. I'm already a full-time pastor. It's too late. I've been doing this for five years already. And in fact, when Pastor Anderson hired me, he said, I'm hiring you full-time, but once you go independent, that's on you, dude. Like if the church doesn't grow, you're going to have to go get a particular job. That's what he told me. I'm like, cool. Well, I'm a producer, so we're going to make it happen. And so it's been happening, but you know what? In the years to come, we need to continue to grow and recognize that money is a tool to be used to further the kingdom of God. And so never have a grudging spirit about money, and no one in here does. I've never had any discussions with anybody about like, oh, you know, why are we spending so much money on soul winning or on missions or something like that? But less this should ever happen, you understand? Or why are we being so generous with the people? Why do we order so many pizzas or why do we do this or whatever? You know, forget that. And so go back to 1 Corinthians 9. We're almost done here. Now look, you can understand why people don't like a message like this, and I get where they're coming from. Because some people are like, I don't like this. He's saying he should be paid by the church or whatever. And I get where they're coming from because there's a lot of people who are just greedy of filthy lucre out there, right? There's a lot of fake pastors out there, pastoring these mega churches, driving around in the Bentley, in the Andrew Tate car. What's that car called? The Bugatti or what? Yeah, the Bugatti, right? They're over here, you know, they got their yacht, they got their helipad, they got their airplane jet or whatever. What's that guy's name? You know who I'm talking about, that demonic-looking pastor? Kenneth Copeland. You can understand why people feel this way because of a guy like Kenneth Copeland, who when they confronted him, because he bought an airplane from some famous person. Tyler Perry. Thanks, Mike. He bought a jet from Tyler Perry, and they're getting on it and he's like, do you really think this is appropriate for a pastor to have? He's like, he gave it to me at a great price. But folks, it's never right for any pastor to own an airplane, no matter how cheap it is. If someone gave me a jet tomorrow and said, this is a jet from First Works Baptist Church, I would immediately sell it and we'd take a huge missions trip as a church somewhere. Because I don't want people to accuse our church like, oh, First Works Baptist Church has a private jet or something, you know? If they gave me a yacht, I wouldn't use it for missions, I'd just sell it and then we'd all go on a missions trip. Because it would be weird for a church to own a yacht. I mean, a church van? Yeah, that's reasonable. A yacht? With a helicopter pad? It's like, what in the world are we doing here? But this guy, you know, he has a private jet, and then he said the reason why he wanted a private jet is because he didn't want to be with all these dirty people on an airplane or something. I'm kind of paraphrasing it there, but I think it was worse than what he said. I can't remember exactly what he said. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, he didn't want to be in the same airplane with a bunch of demons. He didn't want to ride coach with a bunch of demons. But this guy is greedy a filthy lucre. He is your common prosperity gospel preacher. That's not what we're talking about. That's wrong. That's wicked. These are people who make merchandise of individuals, they're living lavishly, and they're living like rock stars, but they're pastors. A pastor should get paid to have a modest living where he can take care of his family, take care of his children, take care of the bare necessities of life, and maybe enjoy a little something extra, but nothing like a helipad. Just live a modest life. Because a pastor, according to the Bible, is just like any other job that merits a full-time salary. And you say, why preach this? Well, we're going through the drama at the church at Corinth, but I want us as a church to have the right perspective on this as well. Because one day we will hire more employees. And it's just like, why are you hiring more employees? Because we want to get more done, that's why. And you know what? This is how it works, okay? The way it works is a church grows and then it caps. It'll cap. In other words, it's like the growth stops. And what that means is that my cap is full. There's only so much I can do by myself. So then I hire someone else and then that lid is raised a little higher. And we see what that potential is and then it stops again. Then we hire another employee to get more things done so that the church can continue to grow. And more can be done. More labors can be recruited, etc. 1 Corinthians 9 and 11 says, Now, I will say this is that, you know, I remember I used to use this one pastor as an example. And it was actually Ulysses' old pastor. Because we used to think, wow, this guy, he's like the exception because he doesn't take a salary. And he's like, he used to say this, I'd rather not take a salary. We're just going to invest all our money in all the missionaries that we support. Because they had like a ton of missionaries on the board. You could see all the mission fields that they were supporting. And it seemed like a very noble thing. It was just like, wow, you know, I don't agree with that. I think you should be the one earning the salary because you're putting in the work here. But, you know, if that's what you want to do, that's up to you. Well, come to find out, these missionaries weren't even getting anything. He was pocketing all the money. Because apparently a missionary came and there's a guy who faithfully gave to missions at that church. And was just like, you know, how's the resources that are coming in? He's like, no, that's why I'm here. I'm here to kind of see if I can raise up some money. Because he's like, our church gives to you, though. He's like, no, I haven't gotten anything from this church. But they were on there. And so they're being given, you know, we give hundreds of dollars to these people and all these missionaries we support. Where's all the money going? Right in his pocket. That stinking thief. So I was just like, oh, it's so honorable. It's dishonorable. Because he's pocketing the money himself. And he's doing it because he wants to be praised of others as being some noble person when in reality the guy's pocketing the money himself. And that's why at our church we have strict accounts and accountability for the money that comes in here. OK. Very strict. I don't see the money. I don't drop off the money at the bank. I don't seal the money. We have specific people designated for that. We keep strict records of what's being spent. The IRS can come in here any time and audit us if we want. And it would be a blessing to us because it would help us to tighten up the screws even more. Put it that way. Because we want to be above reproach, right? Want to be above reproach when it comes to the finances. And we don't want to be accused of any, you know, breaking of the law, anything illegal activity. We want it to be as strict as possible and honoring to God because we want to continue to serve God and have God bless our church with more resources. Why do you want more resources? So we can reach more people. That's why. That's it. And so, you know, the church at Corinth is just stop being so dumb and just, you know, be like Philippi and pay Paul something so we can continue to do the work of God. And that's pretty much it. Let's pray. Thank you so much for your word. And we're so thankful for the chapter, Lord. Help us as your people to be cheerful givers and recognize that anything that we give is an investment in the work of the Lord. And so I pray that you'd help us to be generous with one another, generous with the church, generous with the work of God. And recognize that, Lord, of course, you'll bless us in the long run. And I pray that you'd help us to continue to sow good seeds and continue to bless our ministry so we can see more people saved. Please bring back the team safely, Lord. Give them traveling mercies as they come back. And they did a great work out there. Got a lot of people saved. And I pray you do something great in the hearts of the individuals who are out there. And bless the remainder of our evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And song number one hundred and forty five is our last song. It is well with my soul. Song number one hundred and forty five. Song number one hundred and forty five. We'll sing it on that first verse. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. Though Satan should bow, Though trials should come, I will bless the children's control, That Christ has regarded my helplessness, That has sustained and has shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. My sin o'er the rest of this glorious hour, My sin, God, and heart, but not whole, Is held to the cross, and I'm held with the Lord. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Lord my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. And glorious the day, The light of day shall be sung, The clouds be blown back as the storm, The flood shall be sound, And the Lord shall be sound, even so. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.