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Amen, I'm glad to get to this chapter. Now, when we're going through the book of 1 Corinthians, most of the chapters when we're really dealing with it has been dealing with subjects of division, conflict, just a lot of problems that the church is having. But here in chapter number 16, it really kind of ends on a positive note, but what he's going through is he's kind of giving them some things that they're supposed to be doing that are going to unify them. So I think there's another way to still look at this from a division standpoint, the fact that whenever you're focused on other people, whenever you're focused on ministering, that's going to help knit people together and unify them about that which is important. Whenever you have a church full of servants, it's a great place to be. I've even had people we've had people visit, went to our soul-wanting marathons, and they say, man, everybody here is great, they're very helpful, they're really friendly, and that's just a great testimony as a church that when someone would come and visit that they feel welcome, they feel at home, they feel like people like them, and that's how we want to be. Obviously, as we continue to do the work of the Lord, there's going to be bad people that creep in, right? There's going to be imposters and infiltrators and bad things and church discipline, and I think that can sometimes wear on us, they can get to the point where we all just feel like everybody's bad and everybody's a phony and everybody's an infiltrator, and we don't really have a kind spirit, and we don't want to be that type of a church no matter how many bad things happen to us. We always want to be gracious and friendly and kind and realize that the purpose of us being on this earth is to help others and to be friendly and to be loving. Jesus Christ, he was constantly having people hate him and wanting to kill him and lie about him and all these things, but he was still kind, he still spoke with love, he still spoke the truth, and we ought to be careful how we behave ourselves in the house of God, and we ought to have the right spirit, and I think this chapter helps us have the right spirit because it's really focusing on other people and not even of your own church. This chapter really focuses just on Christians in general, and I think that's an attitude that we could all benefit from, even though we're an independent fundamental Baptist church and we believe in that independence and we're separate and we don't have a denominational tie, we still have a link to every brother in Christ, to every single person that's saved, and we ought to try to keep that unity as well. It says in verse 1, Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him and store as God hath prospered them, that there be no gatherings when I come. And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. Now this is an interesting first few verses, but the apostle Paul is saying, just like I told the church at Galatia, I'm giving you the same instruction that you guys, when you come together on the first day of the week, which would be Sunday, that you lay aside some extra money, and that money would be given to the saints in Jerusalem. Now Jerusalem, they're not like over this church. It's not like the saints at Jerusalem have any kind of authority over them. It's not like they have to give money to this church. It's not a denominational tie. This is literally a gift. This is the apostle Paul saying, hey, these guys are some poor saints, they're being persecuted, they're afflicted, they have some kind of necessity, and you guys could be able to actually supply their lack. You can actually help them out, and with your liberality, meaning your generosity, obviously we think of the word liberal as negative, at least I do every time I hear the word liberal, but liberal in the Bible often is a positive term, just meaning that you're a generous person, that you would give over and above, that you're liberal with your goods, you bestow them unto other people, you're liberal with your food, liberal with your money, things like that. He's saying their liberality would go unto Jerusalem. In order to understand these few verses, I think it's beneficial to walk through 2 Corinthians a little bit. Go to 2 Corinthians 8. At this time, the apostle Paul is not with the Corinthians, but he's giving them instruction, and he's giving them instruction for the future, saying, why don't you now just lay up money aside, and then we'll send somebody with your gift to the saints at Jerusalem. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 8, because I believe that this is the direct tie from chapter to chapter, but it's just forward in the future. It's just more down the road that the apostle Paul is writing unto them, and it's on the same topic. It says in verse 1, more of a brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality. For to their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. So what's happening in chapter number 8 is the apostle Paul is making mention to the Corinthian church, saying, hey, that Macedonian church, they want to give a gift. They want to give money, even though they're a poor church. Even though they actually don't even have that much money, they're not doing that great. They still wanted to give a gift, and notice what it says in verse number 4. It says, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. What does that mean? Well ministering is what? It's serving, and we're going to look at that word a little bit further, but this chapter is all about ministry, about ministering unto others, and notice the ministry is not to the lost, but rather it's to the saved. It's to the saints. It's helping those that are saved, and this Macedonian church, they want to join in in the fellowship of ministering to the saints. So they say, I see how you guys are going to minister to the saints. You are going to help out those that are poor in Jerusalem. They wanted to help as well. They wanted to be in the same fellowship as helping other type of people. As we keep reading, it says in verse 5, and this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God, insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as he abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion, for the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. And herein I give my advice, for this is expedient for you, who have begun before not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago. Now therefore perform the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have. So this chapter, it's a little bit difficult in my opinion. I think it's a little bit harder of a chapter to digest every single thing, because some of the phrasing, some of the sentence structure is a little bit foreign to how we speak and some of the things that he's saying. But essentially, in verse number seven, he's telling the Corinthian church they have all kinds of gifts. They have all kinds of graces given to them. They have knowledge, they have utterance, they have preaching, they got a lot of things going on, but the apostle Paul is saying, hey, I also want you to experience this grace too. What grace? The ministering to the saints. That specific gift, okay? And he's saying here in verse number eight that it's not a commandment. Ministering unto the saints of your abundance is not a commandment. It's just something that you're allowed to do, and he's saying it's going to prove the sincerity of your love. You talk about how you love the saints so much, well, why don't you actually put your money where your mouth is, is what he's kind of saying. You want to prove the sincerity of your love, and he gives an example of someone that did put their money where their mouth is, the Lord Jesus Christ. How he became poor so that we could be rich, because guess what? I get to inherit with Jesus Christ in heaven. That's some great riches. I mean, what Jesus Christ did, becoming a poor lowly servant for us to get the greatest riches ever and to inherit what God the Father has for us, that's great riches. But he did that for us, and we see the ultimate picture of someone ministering to the saints is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he's bringing him up. He says in verse number 12, he says, For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. For I mean not that other men be eased and ye burdened, but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality. So what is he saying? He's saying, look, it's not that you just give out of your necessity. It's not like you just have to give to give. He's saying whenever you have an abundance, you could lay aside that abundance, and out of that abundance, you could give to someone's need. Out of your abundance, you could supply the need of someone else. What would this look like? Well, you have a church that has an abundance of money, abundance of funds, and another church that is lacking in funds. And they're doing the work of the Lord, but they're just not there financially. That over an abundance that this church has could supply the need of another church. Now for us specifically, when I think about this scenario, I mostly think of our church plants that we have. You know, our church plants, and even us included, sometimes one church is doing better than another. This church is doing better. We're, you know, whatever. Basically it's just the church plants, you know, don't really always are able to supply what they need, but we have an abundance. So we could take our abundance, and we could bestow it onto another church to meet their need. Whatever that need is. Their rent need, or whatever it is, you know, their electric bill, or their fellowship, or whatever it is that they need. Hey, they need a preacher to come in, and we want to fly a preacher in, and have him preach unto them, and minister unto them spiritual things. And we have this abundance of carnal things, money, why can't we use that to supply their lack of need spiritually by bringing them in, a good preacher, or someone to come and minister unto them. And so, there's a lot of practical application that we could take here, but the spirit is ministering to the saints. Wanting to take what you have as an abundance, and use that to minister to others. That's kind of the gist of what we're getting here. Look at verse number 15. As it is written, he that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered little had no lack. So he's referencing a story in the Old Testament, when they would go out and gather the manna, and some would go out and they'd gather a lot. And whenever they'd come back in, they had no extra. And there'd be others that gathered just a little, but they had no need. It just somehow magically, you know, not magically, but divinely by God, okay, worked out that it always was exactly enough. It was just exactly what people needed. And he's saying just in that manner, that the children of Israel had a perfect unity. They got exactly what they needed. He's saying sometimes saints as a group, when we look at just Christians in general, one group of Christians that have an abundance could help meet the need of a group of Christians that are lacking. So we see kind of that unity, that bond, that necessity to minister unto the saints. And when he's talking to the Corinthian church here, he's not saying just their church, is he? He's saying, hey, here's another church, Macedonia, that was willing to supply to Jerusalem. You guys, I already told you in 1 Corinthians that you should start laying up this gift, laying up this bounty that could be given unto Jerusalem. And basically in 2 Corinthians, I think he's just calling the bill. He's saying, hey, you know, when we were talking about that and you were laying up this money, it's now time to actually put your money where your mouth is. Let's see if you can actually do what you said. It says in verse number 16, So he's saying, look, Titus has the same attitude, the same idea. And while the main context here is financial giving, that's not the only way that you could minister to the saints. That's not the only way that you could help other saints out. We could help other saints out with what? Just supplying them with a preacher or just supplying them with, you know, comfort or support. I remember when Pastor Jimenez, you know, he came out real strong against the sodomites whenever there's an Orlando shooting. And there was a lot of people that hated him. I mean, talk about a lot. A lot of people hated him. Okay. And we're attacking him and coming against him. Well, I remember Pastor Anderson just to show support. He wanted to take as many people from our church up to his up there. And I think we took like 50 or 60 people from our church, from a soul-wanting marathon that's happening in California, in San Bernardino. They went up to Verity Baptist Church and were able to support them in their services. And look, that's a great gift. Were they doing that because of their own selfish ambition? No, they were doing it to minister to the saints. They wanted the people in that church to realize they're not in a cult. They're not just left alone, that there's still 7,000 men that haven't bowed the knee to bail, that there's other people standing with them and encouraging them and looking at their example and saying, hey, we're with you against these devils and freaks and creepy, you know, creepy weirdos. I mean, it's not just you. I know your family and your friends want to think you're in a cult, but look, there's thousands, yay, millions of people that are saved, okay? But there's thousands of people that have not bowed the knee to bail. You're not alone. There's other people that love the Lord. And even if they all cower, even if they're all hiding in the cave of Obadiah, you know what? I'm going to still stand here and preach what the Bible says. But the reality is we ought not get so focused and so narrow-minded to say, well, unless I can see the whites of their eyes, they're, you know, not important to me. Can you see the whites of the eyes of the saints in Jerusalem? Did Macedonia see them? Can Corinth see them? No, they actually just care about other believers because, you know what, that's the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is having love in your heart for all the saved, period. It doesn't matter even if they're going to a bad church, even if they're backslidden, even if they're going to a liberal fund center, if they're saved, we ought to have love in our hearts towards that person. Now, look, I'm not saying just start handing them $100 bills, okay? You know, you could love them by showing them what the Bible says and maybe even rebuking their sin because the Bible talks about loving your neighbor by rebuking their sin, okay? So don't hear me wrong in saying that we just start handing out money. What I'm saying is that we should just care about other Christians, not get so focused on just your church and your family and what you're doing. Actually, we see the Spirit of Christ and we see the Spirit of 1 Corinthians 16 is ministering to the saints, to the believers, to those that are saved, finding other believers and loving them, esteeming them better than yourself, being like Christ was. How about Titus? He had the heart. Titus had a heart to help others, to go and minister unto others. You know, this is the heart of a minister. What is a minister? I think, you know, minister is encompassed by all offices of the Lord. A pastor should be a minister, a deacon should be a minister, an evangelist should be a minister. Look, if you're going to be ordained, it ought to be for other people, not for you. Why do you want to get in the ministry? It should be to serve. What is a minister? One who serves, who cares about others, who's doing things for other people. Not for yourself, not lifting up yourself. And look, to me, you know, probably the hardest thing to do in your flesh is to give money to other people. So the person that's willing to give money, that's a big sign of wanting to minister to other people, esteeming them more important than yourselves. And obviously the unsafe still do this, but they would never give money in private, okay? They have to make a big show about it and get the big fancy check and write it on the board and tell everybody about it. I gave this much money and let's, you know, give them a round of applause and clap them on the back. But, you know, if you do it in faith, knowing that the Lord sees it, the Lord will take care of you. The Lord will bless you. And, you know, I had somebody visit our church and they asked me, they're like, yeah, it doesn't seem like you'll have any programs to just give money to people and give food to people and do all these things. And I said, great, because I don't, I don't want anybody to think that we do that. You know, I don't want it to be seen of men. I said, I teach our people to do it where nobody realizes. I said, I hope it looks like we never do any of that kind of stuff. Not because we don't do it, but because we don't want to be seen of men, because I don't want you to lose your award. If someone has a reputation in our church of, they just give money to everybody, that's probably a bad person. Now, obviously they're doing it privately, that's, I'm not saying they're a bad person because they do it. I'm saying if everybody just knows, it's like out in public, they're going around just making a big show of it and letting everybody know that you've got to be aware of that kind of a person. Or there's sometimes when people just say that they don't actually help anyone. They just actually just say that they're going to help people all the time and they never help anyone. But they go around just bragging about all the things they're going to do for people. Let's look at verse 22 though. He says, Now, in this portion we're learning about Titus. And it's interesting, because look at verse number 19, I think, we may have skipped over, but look at verse 19. It says, So in verse number 19, when they're talking about Titus, they say that the churches chose him to have this opportunity to go out and bestow this gift unto other people, right? Well, keep your finger here, because we're going to keep coming back. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 16. 1 Corinthians chapter number 16. And look at what it says in verse 3 again. And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, then will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. So notice the church was picking someone to go out and to bestow this gift, and we see here in 2 Corinthians chapter number 8 that they're picking Titus. It says that the churches were picking Titus. They approved him of their letters. They wanted him to go out and to do this gift. Now look at chapter number 9. Let's look at verse number 1. Chapter 9 verse 1, it says, So what is he saying? Well, superfluous means that it's not necessary. So he's saying it's not even necessary for me to bring up the fact that you guys want to minister to the saints, because you have that reputation already. Everybody already realizes you want to minister to the saints, and because of your reputation, you've actually provoked other churches to want to help in the same way, to be the same type of person. That's why Macedonia wanted to have the fellowship of ministering to the saints, because they had heard how the Corinthians had done it. But it's one thing to have the reputation. It's another thing to do it. So he says in verse 3, Whereof ye had noticed before that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty and not as of covetousness. So what is he saying? He's saying, hey, when we show up, we want to just show up, and you're like, here's the gift that we already wanted to give. Not like they walk in and say, all right, now we need to do a special offering. Everybody start digging money out of their pocket, and we're just going to get some money. No, you show up, and they just offer you a gift already. And Apostle Paul's warning him, he's like, you guys are already saying this and acting like this, and you have this boasting. So it would be really unfortunate for us to show up, and there's no gift. We just show up, and we're like, hey, Macedonia has a gift. We're going to take it to Jerusalem. Do you have anything to take? Uh, no. That's kind of the point that he's trying to make, and he's saying, you've been talking a big talk and a big game. I've even been bragging about it. I've been going around to Macedonia saying, hey, those guys in Corinth, they already have a bounty set up. They already got a program going to help those saints at Jerusalem. You know, then he's like, oh, I better check and make sure they actually have a bounty, you know, before I go down there. He's like, I better write this letter unto you guys. Now he says, uh, in verse number six, look at verse number six, but this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loveth the cheerful giver. What is he saying? Well, basically, there's some people, they will tell you and promise you everything under the sun. They'll say, I'll help you with anything, brother. You just let me know, we'll take care of you, we'll take care of the situation, we want to pay for it. They just like to say that. But then when the rubber meets the road, you say, okay, let's do it. Then they're like, well, you know. But here's the thing. If that's how you're able to make good on your word, you already have it set aside. If you already have the bounty set aside and you say, hey, I want to help you, I'm ready and prepared to help you, then whenever they call that bill, you're like, here you go, let's do it. So as a church, you don't want to sit here and, you know, brag about all these things you're going to do to help people when you have no ability to actually help them. And he's trying to make it clear in verses six and seven, the purpose here is not to just give money to give money, it's to give money because you want it to. Somebody in their own heart, they just think, you know what, I have an abundance and I don't know what to do with it. You know what I'd like to do with this abundance? I would like to just give it to somebody that needs it. I would like to just help somebody out. And you know what? It'd actually excite me if I could help out a Christian in need, if I could help administer the saints, you know, I have this abundance, so I'd like to do it. And then out of the abundance of their heart, the cheerfulness of their giving, they just help somebody else. But there's some bad people they just want to be seen of men, they don't actually want to give anybody, they don't even have any money to give anybody, but they just want to go around and brag about all the things they would do to help people, all the money they'd like to give or all the things they'd like to do. And then when you actually call their bluff, they're like, well, you know, I don't know. So he's saying here with the Corinthian church, they've been running their mouth about how much they'd like to help, so you better pay that bill. So what's the lesson that we should learn? Mean what you say. Because otherwise, you sound like a flatterer. If you want to help somebody, if you're going to do something, make good on your word. There's a lot of people, they'll say all manner of thing to you, they'll tell you how great they are, they'll tell you how much they're going to help you out, they'll tell you how much money they want to give you, and then when it comes to payday, it's like, where'd you go? What happened? I thought you were all excited. Look, the person that's excited to give money, he's going to show up, because that was the purpose. He wanted to do it. So here's another thing you should do. If you want to give something, set it aside. Be ready to give it away. Don't promise things that you're not willing to give. And look, let's take the primary application, money. If you want to give money, what the Bible's teaching is you set it aside. It's not like you're looking at your bills and you're saying, well, I'm not going to make my mortgage payment if I give that. Some people do this fake promise-mission giving, it's a fake promise-mission giving, okay, where they sign a card and it just says, like, I'm going to give $600 a month. They don't even realize how much they're violating this principle right now. Because let me explain it to you again. If you want to give money, what do you do? You set it aside out of the abundance that you already have. What are they doing? I'm promising money that I don't even have. I'm going to give you $600 out of my paycheck. I haven't even collected it yet. I haven't even worked it yet. I haven't even got my job yet. And then a lot of people, you know, because it's reality, they lose their job. Something happens, medical expenses. And then even though they really did want to give that money, they can't. You know what? If it's already set aside, guess what? You can give that money. So we see there's a major difference here in what the Corinthian church and what Paul's trying to instruct them in and what most people are doing today. Most people are signing up on a debt plan. The faith promised missions is like signing a car loan or something. Like I can afford $400 a month or whatever or $500 a month and they promise all these things in the sun. That's not the type of giving God wants. God wants you to be cheerful in giving of your abundance. That what you had to give. Obviously when the poor widow woman, she threw her two mites in, she wanted to do that. She wasn't doing it of necessity. She wasn't doing it like I have to. She just wanted to cast it in. And it was of her living, the Bible teaches. But she probably just thought, well, these two mites aren't going to be far anyways. I'd rather just give it to the Lord. But she wasn't doing it just because like, ah, they said I had to and I have to sign the card and whatever. Now the Bible does say that the Pharisees, they didn't give much money because they only gave out of their abundance, okay? But what we're learning here is this is not about tithe first of all, okay? We'll learn about tithing in a future sermon. But we're talking about giving and at the end of the day, the most important thing about giving is it's coming from your heart that you want to, that you're cheerful about it. And if you're going to make a promise, you ought to keep it. That's why it's damnable to like get up there as a preacher and make all these people promise all this money they don't even have because now they're going to be breaking vows to God and breaking vows to the church and doing all these things. Look, if you already have the money set aside and you'd like to give it, then go for it. But we ought to learn from this principle that things that we want to give, we ought to already have it. Here's another way people do this. Their time. Hey, I'd like to start a soul winning time and maybe they'd want to. I think that's great. But they didn't have an abundance of time that was already set aside that they're willing to just donate to the ministry. They don't even have any extra time. And they're just like, well, I just want to start a soul winning time. And then they realize, well, I don't have any time and then they just fail. And it's like, well, that didn't work out. You ought to be giving out of the abundance that you already have. Hey, I'd like to clean the church, but I don't have any extra time. You should already have some extra time. Hey, I want to help out with the church, I want to go to this service. Anything that you're giving, you should already have it set aside and then give cheerfully. Give because you want to do it. Not give of necessity, not giving of constraint, but giving with a cheerful heart saying, you know what, I'm going to carve this out and I want to give this to the Lord. It's out of my, you know, it's not out of my necessity. It's out of, you know, over an abundance because when it comes to the Bible, when it comes to money, the tithe is necessity. The tithe is commandment. That's why he clarified in chapter number eight, this is not a commandment. You do not have to give over and above the tithe. The Bible makes that abundantly clear. But if you want to give something over and above the tithe, it ought to be coming from a cheerful heart, not like Ananias and Sapphira, to be seen of men. And the only reason the Pharisees were giving of their abundance was, first of all, it didn't hurt them to give of their abundance, but most importantly, they were doing it to be seen of men. That's why it was ultimately wrong. Not because it was coming from the abundance necessarily, but because it was to be seen of men, that's why they were doing it. So we ought to learn from this example here that the Apostle Paul's telling us, hey, when you give, actually give because you want to. Otherwise there's no point. And in fact, don't give me money that you don't want to. I'm starting like the church. Don't give money to the church that you don't want to give that's not coming from a cheerful heart. Don't give money to other people without a cheerful heart. Look at that person, love that person, say I want to help that person, and of my abundance I'm going to do it. And I'm not going to make vain utterances and vain promises. The worst thing is someone to come and tell you that they're going to help supply your lack of need and then just not bail on you. Hey, I can help you out with that. Just joking. I just wanted to give you another little, you know, salt in the wound. You know, I just want to twist the knife a little bit more and make it feel worse, and then people count on those type of things. Now look at verse number eight. The Bible says, And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad, He hath given to the poor. His righteousness remaineth forever. Now He that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. The Bible is saying that He gives us everything that we need. He's going to be the one that ministers our bread. He's the one that's going to multiply all the things that we do. Look at verse number 12. For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God, whilst by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed objection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto all men. And by their prayer for you, which long after you threw the exceeding grace of God in you, thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. So he kind of wraps it up in chapter number nine. He's saying, look, in the same way that God gives unto us and blesses us, He wants us to have the same spirit. And whenever we bless people and help other people, God is going to bless us. And ultimately, God gave us the unspeakable gift. The Lord Jesus Christ. It's so great. It's so wonderful. It's unspeakable. How much less for you to just give money to somebody, or your time, or whatever it is, you giving something to somebody else. Now I want to keep going with this thought for a moment. Keep your finger and go to Revelation chapter three, Revelation chapter number three. And he said that this is a good work. Now there's a lot of works that we have to do on this earth. One of the good works we can have is giving money. That is, giving money to the poor is something that the unsaved really want to emphasize. But the Bible says that it's even better to give it to the saints, even better to give it to those of the household of faith, ministering to those that love the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Revelation chapter number three, verse number 14. And of the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would, thou art cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. As many as I love I rebuke and chase and be zealous therefore and repent. So the church of Laodicea, they think they're great. And notice that the church of Laodicea, it makes it real clear they're rich. They have great, they have a lot of goods. Well, it sounds like you have some abundance, buddy. It sounds like you could have been doing something with those goods, with those riches, but they're actually spiritually poor because they're not doing anything. They're not going out and reaching loss and winning people to Christ. They're not actually ministering to the saints. They're not doing any of the good works. They're just talking about how great they are. Oh, look how much money we've stockpiled, all the great things we got going on here. And he's like, you don't even realize you're poor, blind, miserable, naked. You don't even realize the state that you're in because of the situation you're in. And honestly, if we were to compare most Baptist churches to our church, I guarantee they have a stockpile of money. I remember I went to a Baptist church in my hometown, and this is a small town. I mean, we're talking like 10,000 people, pretty small town. It was the first Baptist church. And every time I went there, they had like, they have every time I went to a business meeting specifically, they would always, some guy would get up and I only went to a few. But the few that I went to, there'd be this guy get up and be like, we got a million dollars in the bank and we have no debt. So we should just, he would kind of use that as a trump card to just say like, buy whatever or do whatever. But it just would make me think of this verse. I mean, he's getting up saying they have no debt. So they owned all their property. They had a big building. They had multiple buildings, like the biggest buildings in the town. They have a million dollars in the bank. They have a million dollar budget. And it's like, you know how many soul owners going on at that church? None. First of all, they didn't have a King James Bible, right? Second of all, their pastor was a Calvinist, right? So they had lots of problems. But you know, there's saved people in that church. There's saved people in that church and they're not doing anything for the Lord. They're saying, oh, look how rich we are. We're increased with goods. We have need of nothing. I mean, what do you need when you got a million dollars in the bank and you got no debt? You know what you need? Some gold tried by the fire. You need to go out and do some works. It sounds like you could supply the lack of need to somebody that is lacking. Someone that does have some kind of want. And that's the whole point of the Christian life. Go to 1 John. Go to 1 John chapter number 3. 1 John chapter number 3. We never want to get to be a church where we just look at ourselves and we're like, well, we're completely sufficient. We got everything. We got the money. We got the preaching. We got the building. We're just increased with goods. We don't have need of anything. Well, it sounds like you could supply the lack of need of others then. Sounds like you could help out other people. Look at 1 John chapter 3 verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Put your money where your mouth is. You sit there and say, oh, I love you so much, brother. You actually see him out of need. You have the ability to help him and you say no. Now, obviously, the primary context again here, money. We're talking about financial goods, okay? We're talking about financial means. You have the means to help a brother and you just look at him and you're like, that sucks to be you, you know? Actually, the person in this, he says, oh, be filled and warmed, you know? You see someone coming in with no clothing on and you're like, be filled and warmed, you know, and just send them back out the other way. Not actually supplying their need. You have faith that works. It's dead. Why would God give you all this money and all these riches for you to see all these problems that you could solve and then not solve them? You know, God is the one that gives us the ability to make wealth, to actually have goods. God bestowed all those goods unto you and you think God wants to multiply our goods? Of course he did. That's what he said in Chapter 9 of 2 Corinthians. He wants to multiply our goods. He wants to multiply all the things you have, but when he constantly sees you just hoarding money and loving money and getting your heart in the things of the flesh and seeing people have need and distancing yourself and saying, no, I'm good, I'm good. You think God's just going to continually bless that person? You know what he's looking for? He's looking for the vase. He's looking for the cruise of oil that he can just let keep pouring out. Oh, this guy's pouring out in this pot? Let's just keep finding more pots and more pots. And when do the cruise of oil stop? When they stop finding pots to fill. You know what? When God looks at a liberal Christian, and I'm not talking about politically, okay? When God looks at a Christian that wants to bestow goods unto the poor and to help the poor, he's going to keep letting that oil pour. That's what the Bible... I actually have faith in that scripture too, not just John 3.16. God is going to supply all your lack and want. And you know what? God, sometimes the way he's going to supply the lack of other Christians is you. You're God's plan. God is going to have you do it. And you know what? As a collective, as a church, we can be the ones to supply the lack of other saints. We can look at other saints in other areas, you know, in Oklahoma City and Jacksonville and Houston saying, hey, they have a lack here. Maybe we can fulfill it. Maybe we can bless them because it's not all just about us. And maybe if we were a little bit more poor, we'd just be more godly anyways. You know, if our church is just so fancy and we got all this money and everything's great, we might be, you know, at a spiritual deficit. We might be like the church at Laodicea. Maybe we should just stay poor and be more humble. Maybe we should just kind of keep it at the bare minimum so that way, you know, God won't look at us and be like, man, these guys just like to hoard all the things of the flesh. But obviously I'm not saying just take away from your daily food, take away from your daily clothing. We're talking about, hey, I've got an abundance here. I could set this aside and out of a cheerful heart say I want to help that person. I want to bless that person. Maybe that's why God blessed you with goods. It says in chapter four, look at verse 19. Chapter four, look at verse 19. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hated his brother, he's a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen. How can you love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. You know, we love God by loving the brethren, by loving our fellow Christians. So if you went to 1 Timothy chapter number six, 1 Timothy chapter number six, this is a topic that I don't think gets covered that often. And frankly, I probably would have never preached a sermon on it if I hadn't been doing a Bible study through 1 Corinthians. So it's great to actually go and read through the Bible and look at all the context and take the primary applications and then apply them and learn them so we can be a well-balanced Christian. 1 Timothy chapter number six, it's a little bit more famous. Look at verse 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, wherein to thou art so called and has professed a good profession before any witnesses. The Bible is saying, you know, the thing that you should cleave to in your physical life is your eternal life. What does that mean? Basically it's not saying because you can lose it. It's not going to get yanked out from you, okay? What it's saying is what you should put your affection on is the fact that you have eternal life in heaven, that you're going to be resurrected, your spiritual life. Lay hold on that. Don't lay hold on your money because it's going to evaporate. You know, you can only love God or mammon. You can't serve both. So which one are you going to hold on to? Well, I'm going to hold on to eternal life in my new man, in my flesh, I'm going to hold on to my pocketbook. I'm going to hold on to my wallet. You know, I don't want you to even look at it. I don't want you to even look at my wallet. We've got to lay down the old man, pick up the new man, lay hold on eternal life, Timothy. Don't follow money. Don't go for the love of money, Timothy. Don't go in the ministry for money. Don't go for filthy lucre's sake. No, rather flee those things. Follow faith, righteousness, you know, lay hold on eternal life. That's what's important, Timothy. And he says in chapter 17, verse 17, Notice that he's saying the example that you set, Timothy, is also for the rich people in the church to help them realize they too need to lay hold on eternal life, not on the things of the flesh today. Not on their money, not on their precious goods. Get a looser grip on the things of this world and get a tighter grip on eternal life. And notice he didn't say, charge them that are rich in this world that they're worse sinners. Some people have this idea just because you have money you're like wicked or something or you're evil. Just because you have money doesn't make you an evil person. Job was the most upright man on the planet and he was the richest person on the planet. So having money in and of itself is not bad. What's bad is what you're holding on to. Job lost all of his money on still serving God. That sounds like to me his grip was on eternal life. His grip was not on the things of the flesh. And the reality is he's saying, charge them, tell the rich people, stop holding on to all your money and hold on to eternal life. Esteemed church more important than the things of the flesh. And you know what? When you have lots of money, you have lots of opportunity to run your life. You have all kinds of things you can do. You can go wherever you want, do whatever you want, see whoever you want and get in all kinds of trouble, get in all kinds of problems. God told the kings of Israel not to multiply gold or silver. Why? Because he was afraid their heart would be turned away from serving him. Money will stop you from serving God. You can't serve both. And look, you can be the poorest person on the planet and this still applies. You know, most bums, you know what they do constantly? Buy lottery tickets. They're not laying hold on eternal life. They're trying to chase that dream that they're never going to catch. And they're wasting the 50 bucks that they got on lottery tickets today. The love of money can affect any single person. Don't think, well, I'm poor, that'll never affect me. Oh, yes, it can. When you start saying the only point in my life is to make money, I'm tired of being poor, I'm going to quit church, I'm going to quit going soul-winding on Saturday, I'm going to pick up some extra shifts and I'm going to get this new job and I'm just going to start working 90 hours a week so that I can have a mansion and I can have that three-car garage and I can do all this. Look, what is that going to benefit you at the end of your life? That soul-winding time every Saturday since you're laying hold on eternal life, when you die at that point in your life, you're going to say, wow, I've got great riches. He's saying, look, don't think you're high-minded. Verse 17, just because you're rich, don't think you're better than anybody else. In fact, most of the people greatly rewarded in eternity are going to be poor people. The people that had no money, the people that were not that well-off, that lived in a poor house, I'm not saying everyone, I'm just saying most. Those that are poor in this world, rich in faith, they are going to be the heirs. They're going to be ones to inherit great substance. Don't try to lay up yourselves treasure on this earth, lay it up in heaven, is what he's saying. And he's saying here, don't trust in uncertain riches, okay. He says in verse 18 that you need to be rich in good works. What if we could look at all your spiritual bank accounts today? How much do you got laid aside in your spiritual bank account? He's got cobwebs, I mean, you got late fees coming on, I mean, you got overdraft fees coming on. I mean, what? Or are you just laying it up? I mean, you're just stockpiling. You're just constantly laying aside the good works. And notice that he says in verse number, he's just saying in verse 18 that it's good works. So notice giving money is a good work, okay. Keep that in mind. Go back to 2 Corinthians quickly. I want to look at that verse again. He said giving money is a good work. And he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, look at verse number 8 again. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. So notice that the ministering to the saints financially is another good work. It's just another part of the ministry, it's just another thing that you can do, another way that you can be greatly rewarded in heaven. Look, soul winning is the principal thing, soul winning is the first thing. It's the first works, it's the first love, it's what we ought to do, but you know what, other people, there's other ways to get rewarded. Giving a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple. He shall know why he loses his reward. That guy's going to be rewarded. You know, raising godly children, you know, doing all these, praying, all these things, God's going to still reward you according to your works. And according to the Bible, one good work is ministering to the saints. That can be financially, that can be with your time, that can be exhorting them, loving the brethren. When we love our brother, we love God. That's how we show our love towards God. Go back to 1 Corinthians 16, I know we've covered a lot. That was the short part of the sermon, no I'm just kidding. But it's the main thought that we have in this chapter, so I think it's going to help us carry through. Look at verse 4, it says, and if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me. Now I will come unto you when I shall pass through Macedonia, for I do pass through Macedonia, and it may be that I will bide yea and winter with you, that ye may bring me on my journey whithersoever I go. For I will not see you now by the way, but I trust to tarry awhile with you, if the Lord permit. But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door to fetch was opened unto me and there are many adversaries. Now another sermon that I'd like to preach on this chapter, which is kind of interesting, is kind of the timeline of this epistle. And I think God, He gives us a lot of nuggets in this chapter and other chapters in this book that kind of help give us an idea of when this is written. And I've done a lot of study on this, but I don't feel confident enough to preach all of it just yet, so I'm still going to do a little bit more study, but I'm looking forward to maybe doing another sermon where we kind of look at some of these nuggets and actually place these epistles in Acts. We can actually look through the book of Acts and kind of trace where Paul's going and then kind of figure out what's going on. And we see here, hey, he's sending Timotheus, okay, to the church at Corinth, but he's at Ephesus and he's kind of like battling with Ephesus, you know, doing these things. So in my opinion, it's probably written around Acts 19, Acts 20, but, you know, I'm not going to preach that until I'm ready to, you know, kind of go through and expound all that. But it's cool when you read through here, you can actually play certain events, you can actually play certain things, and I think God did that on purpose so that we can get even more wisdom from here. Let's keep going. It says in verse 10, Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me. For I look for him with the brethren. As touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren, but his will was not at all to come at this time. But he will come when he shall have convenient time. So Apollos, he wasn't really wanting to go to Corinth at this time, and Timotheus is going to be sent by the Apostle Paul, and we notice here that the Apostle Paul making emphasis that they should treat Timothy well. They should have respect unto Timothy, they should do good unto Timothy, and one thing for our church that should be no different is we ought to have respect unto other people that would come and want to minister unto us. If we have a guest preacher coming in, whether that's a pastor or not a pastor, we ought to have respect unto that person, and listen to that person, and not despise that person, and conduct ourselves in peace. What is conduct? It means, hey, we show them around, we help them out, obviously if a guest preacher come in, he might not know all the order of the service, and everything that's done. We ought to give them grace. We ought to give them peace, and we ought to help them, and still listen to them, and not despise them. Hey, if they do things a little bit different, okay. Hey, if they preach a little bit different, great. We ought to give them grace, and peace, and help them out. I can think of people that have visited here and preached, they're not a pastor, but they're just coming here to minister unto us. We ought to have a good spirit about it. We ought to love that person, and do good unto that person, and not despise that person, and say, I want pastor, or I want the deacon, or I want this person. No, you ought to just let that person come minister unto you. We see the apostle Paul, he couldn't go at this time, so he sends Timotheus, and look, I would love to hear a sermon from Timotheus. I mean, who in here would think like, oh man, it's just Timotheus coming. It's just Titus, it's Apollos, I mean, that would be amazing, but there was literal people in those times, they'd be like, oh, it's Titus, oh, it's Timotheus, oh, it's Apollos. I want Paul, you know, I want Cephas, I want Christ, you know. Some people weren't even good with Paul. I'd take Paul. Now, some people might get nervous, they're like, well, I've got to get to work tomorrow, you know. The apostle Paul preaches a long time, he makes Pastor Shelley's sermon seem short, you know. But we ought to make sure that we are careful, and he says, let no man despise thee. It makes me think of 1 Timothy 4, when Paul gives instruction to Timothy, he says, let no man despise thy youth. So obviously, Timothy being younger, you know, in the ministry, he had a lot of people to kind of bring an accusation against him, and you as young men, you know, some guys I have preached for me, they're pretty young, maybe they're still in their 20s or early 30s. You ought not let people despise you just because you're young. You know, if you're preaching what the Bible says, you ought to preach with authority. You ought to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. You ought to say, well, thus saith the Lord anyways. That's what the Bible says. And you know what, it's not about the messenger, it's about the message, and you know what, you ought to have a lot of confidence in the message today. You don't have to have a lot of confidence in the messenger, who cares about the messenger? Who cares if Timothy delivers it or Paul delivers it? It's the message that's important. It's the Word of God that's important. Look, anybody in this room that's saved can get someone saved. It's not the messenger. It's the message. And you know what, the same applies with preaching. You ought not think, well, I can only learn things from a pastor. No, you could learn things from the brethren. I learn things from the brethren. I hear people, you know, men just get up here and they preach the Word of God, and I learn things, and I grow, and I can be ministered unto. Just the same. So you ought not have a bad attitude and despise Timothy, and despise Titus, and despise these other guys. Now, look at verse number 13. He says, watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, let all your things be done with charity. He's giving them exhortation, he's trying to encourage them, he's trying to tell them to be strong. Why? Because life is not one that's just super easy. It's not one that just, it's just all rest and all fun. Look, rest is heaven. All fun is heaven. All the great things, no pain, no sorrow, no discomfort, that's heaven that you're thinking of. Earth, not the same. Okay? So you've got to be strong. Quit you like a man. You know, men don't want to just quit at the drop of a hat. Men don't say, it's hot outside, I need to go lay down. You know, does anybody have a fan? You know, have you ever been on the construction site and the guy's like, it's so hot, I need a fan. Will you please help me? No, they just get through the job. They just act like a man and just do it and get it done. They don't know how to be pampered. They don't need to be coddled and held and tell them how special they are. No, you did a good job with that. I know it's crooked, but you tried hard, you know, maybe you can try next time with your pink hammer. You know? Quit you like a man. Just get it done. Be manly about it. And you know what? The Christian life is one where we need people that are going to be strong. They're going to be confident. They're going to get things done. They don't need to have their hand held about every little issue, every little problem. Why don't you quit yourself like a man? Why don't you be like a man? And even spiritually, you know, the men in this church ought to be able to conduct themselves. They don't need babysat. I don't want a church of babies all sitting here, and I have to put in the bottle and put in the binky and rock you to sleep and tell you it's okay. Look, you're a priest of God. You can read the Bible just like I can. You can find all the same answers. And look, I'm not afraid of people coming to ask me questions, but I'm just saying at the end of the day, you've got to figure out how to feed yourself. Figure out, hey, I'm hungry. You know, when I'm hungry, I don't have to always just ask my wife to feed me. I can just walk up to the fridge, open it, and pick something out and eat it. You know what my kids have to do? Mommy! Mommy, I want food! More food! Will you please give me food? Food! Why? Because they're not a man. As a man, I can just get the steak and put it on the grill and cook it and eat it. I don't need to just be babysat all the time. And you know what? You as a spiritual Christian, let me ask you, where you at? Are you feeding yourself today? Because you know what? That's where you should get to. You should get yourself like a man. You need to be strong. You need to stand fast, because no matter what happens to your pastor, I hope this church is going on. It already did it one time. How many more times? I mean, I hope we don't have to do it again, but I'm just saying, I want to raise a church that no matter what happens to me, it's standing fast. It's being steadfast all the way. And you ought to be that type of a Christian, period. Because a lot of men are going to fail you. Just get over that. Look at verse 15. I beseech you, brethren, that you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. That's a great phrase. I think some people have ran with this phrase, and they kind of toddle this cool doctrine that sounded good. They were like, oh, we've got to go out soul wedding. We've got to addict ourselves in the ministry. But in context, what is the context? The context is the ministry to the saints. It's not to the unsaved. There's some people, they addict themselves to serving others, to helping others. There's some people in a church, and they just help all the time. They do everything. They want to clean the building. They want to make sure it's all running smooth. They take people out. They're friendly. They do the soul wedding. They're just constantly addicting themselves to just helping other people, because they have the heart of a minister, because they just want to minister to the saints. And you know what? When they meet a saint that's not even in their church, they don't even look at it like, well, I'm not going to get extra credit for you. They're like, oh, okay, how can I help you? How can I do good unto you? It doesn't matter if you go to my church. If you're a saint, I want to minister unto you. I want to help you. Did Jesus Christ walk up to people and say, oh, you're not one of my chosen 12? No, he still ministered unto them. No, he still loved them. No, he still did good unto them. No, he went to every city. No, he went to every village. No, he went to every town. No, he went to all the lost sheep of Israel. Why? Because he knew all men. And we as Christians ought not look as a saint as being more special when they're a steadfast saint. They're a saint. We ought not be a respecter of Christians. We ought to just say, hey, they're a saint. We ought to love them. And you know what? Some people will addict themselves to just the ministering of other people, to loving other people. And Stephanus specifically, he had left, okay, the Corinth church. He was with the apostle Paul and other places. And so they were giving salutations. It says in verse 16 that you submit yourselves unto such and everyone that helpeth with us in laborer. I am glad of the coming of Stephanus and Fortunatus and Achchaicus for that which was lacking on your part, they have supplied. So notice he's pointing out there's been some people, they just make up the hedge. These few guys, they were making up your lack of service to me. They were making up your lack of service, period, to the saints. But these few guys, they stepped up, they're addicted to ministering to the saints. And you know, the person that's addicted to the ministry of the saints, he's not always asking this question, well, when are other people going to help out? He's just doing it. Hey, if I have to fill every single gap, I'm going to fill it. That's what his attitude is. Not like, oh, I have to fill another gap. You know, I have to do this. You know, well, just quit. I don't want you to help. I want people to help to have a cheerful spirit, that are a cheerful giver. You know, we ought to just have three guys that are going to make up the hedge. You know, obviously he's using this to rebuke them to say, look, these guys, they're doing everything to supply your lack. Why don't you guys step it up? Why don't you guys start helping and serving and carving out some abundance in your life to actually minister to the saints, to actually minister to other people? It says in verse 18, for they have refreshed my spirit and yours, therefore acknowledging them that are such. The church of Asia salutes you, Akilah and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you, greet you one another with a holy kiss. The salutation of me, Paul, with mine own hand. Now, it gives a lot of salutations from other people, namely Akilah and Priscilla, and sometimes you might wonder, like, why these random people, or what are they named? Well, in Acts chapter number 18, we see the first time the apostle Paul comes to the church at Corinth, and the first people that he makes friends with are Akilah and Priscilla. So Akilah and Priscilla are actually from Corinth, but they traveled with Paul to Ephesus. Apostle Paul's already let us know he's in Ephesus, with who? Akilah and Priscilla, and they're just saying, hey, we still remember you guys. Hey, they're saluting you guys. They're being friendly to these people. Notice they still have a good relationship with them. You ought not burn every single church that you leave. Some people, they just literally have a string of just burned churches. They don't have any good fellowship with anybody else. Look, I don't have a burned church. Even the horrible, unsaved, non-denominational church that I went to, I didn't burn bridges when I left. I just said, hey, I don't really agree with what you all are teaching, and I need to find somewhere else to go. I just wanted to let you know and give you that kind of a courtesy, and they were like, okay, if you ever want to come back, sure. Obviously, I'm never going back to that church unless they're going to let me rip their face off of the Bible, but I'm just saying. Even the other independent, fundamental Baptist church I went to, which I disagree with a lot of things they did and said, and they have doctrines that I don't agree with, I didn't leave on a bad note, and I visited since, and they still welcomed me there. Why would you burn yourself from another church? Look, the core of the church has a lot of problems. Some people, they don't even believe in the resurrection. That's a pretty big problem, okay? They're doing the communion wrong. They got a lot of problems in this church. They have lots of divisions. They're carnal. He says that they're carnal multiple times. I mean, this church has got issues, but notice, Aquila and Priscilla, they're still saluting them because they still love them. They still love the saints. They love that church at Corinth. Even though they got their own church, they didn't just burn the other church. Hey, they're independent, but you know what? They still love them. You know what, just because we want to be an independent, fundamental Baptist church doesn't mean we should just burn all bridges and just say, well, we're good. No, we ought to still love the other churches. We ought to have a good relationship with the other churches. We ought to be willing to minister to the other churches. Even if Aquila and Priscilla's church is better, we don't know. Maybe their church is more doctrinally right, but you know what, they're still saluting the Corinthian church. They still love the Corinthian church. Notice in verse 21, I'm sorry, verse 22, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus, amen. Now, I love how he ends this because he ends it with hate and love. Notice that the apostle Paul can have both emotions. It's possible to have both emotions. He hates those that are the haters. He hates the haters and he loves the lovers. He loves those that love the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves all the brethren. And notice even the way he words it here, he says that his love, okay, his grace is of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? So his grace is from the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice my love be with you all in Christ Jesus. So he has the love of Christ, he has the grace of Christ, and at the same time, he has no love for those that hate Christ. I mean, is that not what the, my Bible says this, okay? Some people think that you're like crazy if you don't love everyone. The apostle Paul didn't love everyone. And notice he had the love of Christ. You know what that tells me? Christ doesn't love everyone, for God so loved the world. Now God obviously loved every single person at some point, at some point, and Jesus Christ died for every man. The Bible says he tasted death for every man. He's not the propitiation for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world, okay? So it's not like Christ didn't give everybody a chance. It's not like Christ didn't love every single person. Even the young witch ruler which comes unto him and doesn't get saved is not someone that goes to heaven. The Bible says when Jesus Christ looked on him, he loved him. But notice again it said loved. Is that past, present, or future? Past. You know why it's past? Because the guy didn't get saved. Because the guy's not saved. Christ loved him. But you know what? He didn't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what he's at right now? In hell. Burning for all of eternity, wondering what good thing he had to do. It was believing in Jesus Christ. It was realizing he was a sinner. It was to humble himself and get saved. And you know what? Some people attack our church till the end saying, oh, y'all are a hate group. You know what? I'm always going to hate those that hate the Lord. I have no love. I have no love for those that hate Jesus Christ and despise Jesus Christ. You say, how much love do you have for Bruce Turk, our wicked atheist protester out here? No love. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be an anathema. Maranatha is what the Bible says. You know, if this guy claims to be a Baptist pastor for 19 years and rejects the Bible and becomes an atheist, they went out from us, but they were not all of us. Or if they'd been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us. He is not of us. He is not redeemable. You can't sit there and reject the gospel and be this fake Baptist pastor for years. This guy's a freak. I have no love for him. He obviously hates our church. He hates Jesus Christ. He hates the Bible. He's willing to lie and rail. You know what? Even though I despise him with a perfect hatred. You know what? You know what he wants us to do? He wants us to go over there and sock him in the face so he can sue us. And look, don't worry, I feel that way. I'd love to take his sign and make him eat it, okay? But at the end of the day, we've got to just let him alone. You know, there was a guy, Shimei. He was throwing stones at David and cursing him and calling him a reprobate. Imagine the irony, okay? This guy's cursing at us, wanting to throw stuff, you know. Let him alone, because the last thing we need is another atheist trying to, you know, sue us or whatever for, you know, a little girl taking his sign. You know, he cries about it and has to hire a woman police cop to come rescue him from the little girls in our church. The little girls in our church are stronger than he is, you know. But at the end of the day, we've got to just leave this guy alone. Now look, if he actually comes into our building or starts, like, harassing our service, we're going to throw him out. I mean, we're going to pick this guy up and toss him and, you know, hope that he lands awkward. But at the end of the day, you know, as long as he's doing his thing, we have to just let him alone. And I don't like it, okay? My flesh is screaming something different, okay? But the spirit man says what the Bible says. And we can have the love of Christ, okay, and still hate those that hate the Lord. We got to let the Lord avenge. Let the Lord revenge him. You know what? If you really care tonight, pray for Bruce Turk. But pray a biblical prayer. Pray what the Bible says, let him be accursed. That's what the Bible literally just told you. So why don't you say, you know what? I'm going to actually take what I learned tonight, the practical application that Pastor Shelley taught me, and I'm going to apply it in my life, and I'm going to pray a curse on this guy who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't give you a better example. I can't give you a better analogy, all right? Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you for your unspeakable gift. Thank you for demonstrating to us how to minister to the saints and how to love others and the true grace and the true love of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's always still balanced with the fact that we don't love those that hate the Lord. We have no love for those that despise you and blaspheme your name and speak all manner of evil against you. I pray that you would just let these atheists that want to come and they despise you, just let them be accursed. Just let them be an anathema maranatha and let the Lord just, you know, avenge us of our adversaries. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.