The Importance of Giving

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1 Corinthians chapter 16.
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I went hunting yesterday in church. God gave me a new vision.
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I am serious about this. I'm lying about that part. But I am serious about this part. There is something about watching the woods wake up.
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There is just something about it. It's beautiful. But while I was getting to the hunting grounds in my 2015
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Dodge Ram two -wheel drive, because of the precipitation that predated my hunting trip,
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I had to use 2 by Josiah. We turned onto the dirt road, the previous dirt road, which was now liquidated, and we got about 10 feet in my two -wheel drive, and I noticed that the back end of my truck was going down and the front end was coming up, because as I was spinning,
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I was creating a trench similar to what they dug in World War I. I was quite embarrassed and humiliated as your pastor, because Artie Baker had a
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Ford four -wheel drive. And Artie was talking, staring with his hand, fishtailing everywhere, but having no problem driving.
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And so, the Lord came to me in a vision and said, ask your church for...
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Wait a minute, y 'all are laughing. I'm trying to share something really personal with you. Ask your church for a four -wheel drive.
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Because if you had a four -wheel drive truck, you could share the gospel with so many people.
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There are so many white trash rednecks back in the woods that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. With a four -wheel drive,
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I could get back there to them. No, I ain't getting no Ford, man. You know, it's amazing the audacity of some men who dare call themselves pastors, who fleece their people like Bay and Barnum and Circus or something.
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It's disgusting. Pastor Josiah and I were sitting around a campfire in the rain and enjoying ourselves immensely.
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And this young fella starts drinking beer probably about 10 o 'clock in the morning, smoking weed like a chimney.
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Starts telling us as a mechanic, he works on a pastor's cars. Now this young man specializes in European cars.
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And he said this pastor has a Land Rover. What was the other one? A Jaguar.
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And as he was saying this, I heard the indictment of his unbelieving voice.
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So Pastor Josiah and I immediately started telling him about Witten and how we do things here. And he said,
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I've never heard that before. Guys, our testimony as believers needs to be above reproach.
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And it's not just about not cussing, smoking, and drinking. It's about how we live our lives and the values that we put on the money this world so loves.
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We act like crack cocaine addicts with money. We sit there as God's people who our
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Father told us, do not worry about tomorrow. For if I clothe the lilies of the valley and not one sparrow falls from the sky, how much more will
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I take care of you? Yet we put our families on the altar of sacrificed men and give our lives to a company.
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We work to have cash in our pockets. And we work to hold ourselves in esteem by owning bigger and better things.
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And our children grow up, yes, with a man in the house, but he ain't no man.
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He's a spineless coward who has given in to the world and forsaken what it is to be a man of God to raise your children in the admonition of the
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Lord. There's no reason why in today's society, pastors' kids are the most godless heathens in the church.
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You know what it is? It's that we're chasing fame. We're chasing money.
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You know what I mean? Pastors send me these little, what are they called? The pictures that you put on the internet?
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Memes. They send me these meme things. And when they ask me to come and preach, they'll sit there and they'll have my picture on that meme.
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And they'll say, Prayer Conference Prophecy Crossover Healing Crusade Service 2023
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The Right Honorable Reverend Pastor Jeff Shipley. See, but here's the catch.
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They want me to do this huge crusade, but as I do this crusade, because I'm an American, I'm somehow specially anointed.
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Because our country is so prosperous, God has anointed us.
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And the men and women of Pakistan and India and Uganda and these other places I preach, well, they're less than.
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And so if a white American preacher shows up, oh, the Holy Spirit shows up.
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Now you say, well, how does that benefit? Well, because, man, the offerings they collect during those crusades are facts.
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You see, I'm dripping. If y 'all couldn't tell. Fire, fresh, savage, dripping.
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And so they get stressed out when I write, dude, just call me Jeff, man.
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Hey, man, let's forget banners and light shows and all this other garbage. How about just put me on a
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TV screen, put a microphone near the speaker, and let's preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Oh, no, sir. No, sir. We have to have the chairs covered because pastors will come.
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Man, a pastor can't sit in the dirt like everybody else. There ain't no pastor. There ain't no pastor.
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They're a scum -sucking pig. Remember this, men and women. The harshest words
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Jesus ever issued in His gospel were for those who called themselves
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Christian leaders. Now, that's a pretty big preamble. That's a pretty big introduction.
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But I think it is desperately needed as we head into this new year.
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I want to go to this next slide. I want to just share with y 'all a couple of things. Where are my papers?
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Oh, well, I don't need them. I want to share with y 'all a couple of things. First of all,
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I want you to look at this. We've got 125 families or units in this church.
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In other words, who's someone single who doesn't have family here? Okay, God. Cynthia.
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She's perfect. By the way, if you're a prayer warrior and you're not involved in a ministry, either go to Bellevue or get involved.
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Okay, and if you feel like you can't do X, Y, and Z, you can pray.
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That is our prayer leader right there. So get with Cynthia. Hold your hand up, baby. Get with her and pray.
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All right, watch this. We have 125 units. We have eight homebound people.
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That's it. Homebound means you ain't staying home and watching the game. You literally can't physically get out your house.
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And we take care of those women. We have 61. Out of about 200 and something members in this church, we have 61.
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Let me say that again. 61 people who constantly or consistently, rather, give to this church.
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We have 26 who never give. If you're a member of this church and you're not giving in ministry and financial help, you ain't a member.
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You flogging. Okay? So here's what you need to do.
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Get with the program or go away. That's two things you need to do.
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Because either we're all in this together or if you ain't part of the team, you're just dragging everybody behind.
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Watch this. 16 occasionally give. So in other words, if you saw some fancy sermon or some fancy song and you had a couple extra bucks, you threw it in the offering plate.
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12 give less than five times this year. Two are non -consistent givers.
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In other words, yeah. What's the difference between two non -consistent givers and 16 occasional givers? I don't know why you have to make it so difficult.
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Go to the next one. Go to the next one. Alright. No, I don't like this one.
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Go to the next one. Alright. Here's our giving breakdown.
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Now this blows my mind. Check this out. 70 out of our total budget.
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Guys, our entire operation. We have 12 people on staff. Only two of them are full -time.
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The rest of them get paid part -time and work full -time. Okay? That's it. Our entire property.
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We own all these buildings. We own seven acres. We have 30 -something ministries. We're kicking butt and taking names.
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Our entire budget is 400 ,000 bucks. That's it. That's it. We do all these mission trips and do all this on 400 ,000 bucks.
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It's incredible. There's a church up the street that spends $100 ,000 on perennial flowers every year.
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Planting it in their little stupid church site. Bunch of Marys. Watch this.
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Our members give... Now watch this. Our members give out of that 400...
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What is it? 435, Pastor? 429. Our members give $317 ,000 of that.
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Our non -members, people who see us on the internet or see Pastor Josiah's study on Greek theology or Brother Christian, he's our most famous...
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Where's Brother Christian? Brother Christian's our most famous YouTube star.
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Yeah. People love... I don't know whether it's Puerto Rican or what he's cute or what it is, but they love him.
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But non -members of this church give $70 ,000 a year to this place.
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That's incredible. I've never seen another pastor or financial that has that.
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It's incredible. We have donations to buildings and cash donations. I don't understand.
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Go to the next one. But here's what really blows my mind. Our largest demographic in this church, 30 % are in their 20s.
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That's our largest demographic. That is an anomaly. Y 'all look right here.
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That is an anomaly of any church that I know that's Baptist that's been around for...
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You have these churches that pop up like New Hope, Faith Ministries, Love, Joy &
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Peace Power, Crusade 31. We got smoke machines and the pastor smokes weed in his sandals and his
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Bentley. They get all the little millennials showing up. And a church like this that's been here since 1948 in the inner loop that doesn't have all the smoke machines and the pastors in skinny jeans, that does not exist.
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I'm thinking about starting to wear skinny jeans. Yes, sir. I know, a lot of you dudes would divorce your wives though.
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So anyways, but... That's our biggest demographic.
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The next biggest demographic we have is in our 30s. And then we go to the 70s.
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This is a very young church. And so the reason I'm talking about this to you today is a lot of it,
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I think, has to do with ignorance on how you treat God's place or the people of God when it comes to giving.
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Alright, go to the next one. That should be it, yeah. Alright, so... No, we're done.
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Go away. I'm going to tell you right now, this is the only message, well, there's going to be one more, that I'm going to preach this year on giving.
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And I want to do it the first thing out of the gate because... I won't say it, Brandon. But anyways,
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I like talking about Jesus a lot. Okay? A lot. But we need to look at this.
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1 Corinthians chapter 16, four verses, that's it, and we're out of here. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 1 through 4.
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Now read with me. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.
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On the first day of the week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when
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I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
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If it seems advisable that you should go also, they will accompany me.
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Let me just... By the way, my computer crashed this morning. That's why you people don't have notes.
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I'm sorry. I'm doing old school exposition here, so we're just going to do this together.
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First of all, it says this, now concerning the collection for the saints, in chapter 7 verse 1, chapter 8 verse 1, chapter 12 verse 1, you see this phrase, now concerning X.
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What this means is this, 1 Corinthians is an answer to the questions that these church members ask
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Paul. And so he's writing them, explaining to them what they should do. And it says for the collection for the saints.
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Now I want you to understand this. Now I'm going to say this and some old school Baptists are going to freak out when
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I say this. There is no such thing in the New Testament as tithing.
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Okay? Now for those of you that have never been in church before, let me explain what the tithe is. Back in the
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Old Testament, every person of the house of Israel was to bring 10 % of what he earned that year to the priest for the storehouse, for the operating of the sanctuary.
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Okay? Nowhere in the New Testament does it tell you to give 10%. Nowhere does it say that.
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But also in good harmoneutical honesty, this is not about your offering.
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Okay? I know some preachers want to make it out like this is for your weekly offering, but this is not what this is talking about.
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This is talking specifically about benevolence. Does everybody understand what benevolence is?
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Benevolence is this, if you are a member of this church, you will never go hungry. If you are a member of this church, we got you.
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Witten Baptist Church is an insurance policy for you as a church member.
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Now, the details on that are pretty strict. Okay? If you at home playing
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Call of Duty in your mama's basement smoking weed, and you need help making your car payment,
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I'm going to tell you this right now, repossessions are a fun thing. Your car was not stolen.
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That's what I thought. Somebody jacked your car up and took it away because you didn't pay your bills.
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That is not what benevolence is for. Benevolence is to help those families and individuals who have gotten in hard times.
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And I know everybody in here who's received benevolence. You'll never know it because it ain't our business.
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It's the deacons and me for accountability and them. But we help our people out.
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None of our members of this church will ever be left behind. Ever. That's what benevolence is.
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This passage right here is talking about benevolence. Now, let me give you a Greek word real quick.
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The word collection here is the Greek word logia. Okay? And what that means is it means this.
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Another offering. So here's what was happening. Every Sunday, just like we do now.
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2 ,000 years we've been doing this. For 2 ,000 years, they would get together and they would sing songs and they would collect an offering and somebody would preach.
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Same thing we do here today. Now this one was on top of what they normally give.
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By implication, logically, if you're taking an extra offering, that means that you're already giving.
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Shake your heads, yes. Speak, do something. Okay? Does that make sense?
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Are y 'all with me? So it is a personal responsibility when I am a part of something to sacrificially give.
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My kids, when they were 12 years old, they were doing their own laundry. They didn't have bedtimes.
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They went to bed when they wanted. But come 7 a .m., everybody up. You know what I mean? And when they got a little bit older, at 16,
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I'm like, you ain't got a job yet? You know, go get a job. And when they got a job, guess what they had to do being part of our family?
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They paid bills. We gave each one of them. What bill did you get?
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Oh, he got Dish Network. What did you do? Same thing. Where's Ashley?
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What did you do? Groceries. We gave them bills. God, you got groceries?
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With them four boys? You need to give her a refund, woman. Oh, just all these?
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Oh, okay. Alright. You know why that's important? It's because of this.
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Listen, listen. It's because of this. We love you, but you're part of a family, which means you're a part of, and if you're not holding up your part, somebody else has got to come behind you.
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There are some people in this church that give...
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We don't have no millionaires in here. We don't have no millionaires. We all just dumb hicks, okay?
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I mean, we got some Frazier folk, you know. But we're all just hardworking people.
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The only rich people we got in here are civil servants. You know, cops, firemen, stuff like that.
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Yeah. You're funny. Guys, if you're not being part of the solution, you're actually being part of the problem.
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Now, read this right here. It says, On the first day of the week, for those of you who are in the movement of home churches and keeping the
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Sabbath on Saturday, put the junt and the computer keyboard down and go back to Scripture.
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There is no such thing as Torah observant. I always love... And for some of you who don't know what
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I'm talking about, it's okay. Hang tight. But for those people that you know, that young millennial couple that are
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Torah observant, so they're not part of a church anymore because they're really following Scripture, they're lying to you.
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Okay? On the first day of the week... Now, I didn't graduate high school, but everybody helped me out.
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What's the first day of the week? Today! Sunday! You don't meet on Saturdays.
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That's the old covenant. They church got together on a Sunday, and that is when they worship
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God together as a corporate body. It says this, On the first day of every week, not just one week, every week, each of you is to put something aside, listen, and store it up as he may prosper.
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Ashley, how much money do you give to this church percentage wise? 10 %?
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So, but you, what's that thing called where you get a commission? You get commission.
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Okay? Now, I don't know this. I'm really just asking her this for the first time. And for those visitors in here going, oh my God, that's my daughter, so back off.
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Alright, so if you get a bigger commission, do you give more?
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Okay, okay. As you prosper. As you prosper.
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Now, some of you people in here, you know, you're chopping lettuce at Taco Bell because you didn't listen to your school counselor and your parents and you thought you could do your homework next month.
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Right? And so you at Taco Bell chopping lettuce. Okay? You get, you make, what's minimum wage now?
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$32 an hour, huh? $7 .25. $7 .25. $7 .25?
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Is it really? What happened to all the burger flippers at 1 and 15? Does that not hit tennis? Oh, and robots.
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Oh, cool. Alright, anyways, whatever keeps my quarter pounder down. Alright. Alright, listen up.
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For you people that don't earn a whole lot, you don't give according to how, uh,
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Justin, he's a police officer, so he gets his salary plus he gets commission. I'm sorry.
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I'm sorry. I forgot, Germantown, Oakland, Bartlett, all you cops in here. Right, those speeding tickets really are to help keep the speed down to keep people safe or to fill the coffers of your,
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I don't know, but anyways, anyways, seriously, cops don't make that much.
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God bless their little hearts. Um, and they do, that, I, I couldn't do it.
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I, I couldn't do it. Um, it takes a special kind of person to be a cop. Um, but anyways, listen, they don't make a lot, right?
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They don't make a lot. So, but they make more than that food person. And then there are other peoples in here that, that make a little bit more than that.
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You give according to how God has prospered you. And you know whose business that is?
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Yours and God's. Yours and God's. Ain't nobody else's. It's yours and God's.
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As God has prospered you, so should you give. Now watch this. It says, set it aside and store it.
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First check. Now, I don't do the finances in my house because I smoked a lot of crack cocaine.
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So my wife does the finances in our house so that we will have a house.
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Alright? Now, she gets a check from her job. I get a check from my job.
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And that's the first thing she hits. She sets that aside. Before we pay bills, before we go see, you know,
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Top Gun Maverick, before we go get Strong Bolt, before we do anything else, we put some aside for the
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Lord. We put some aside for the ministries that the Lord has here. That's the first thing she does.
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Now watch. So that there will be no collecting when I come. You know why
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Paul said that? Paul at this time was the super Christian.
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Okay? He was the guy well known throughout all of the new Christian world. But Paul never had pastors, those of you around the world, especially in Pakistan, money grubbing losers.
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The reason why Paul said that is because he did not want his personality or his time being wasted talking about money.
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He wanted to sit there and go, okay guys, we got a church in Jerusalem that is being starved to death.
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You other churches, those are your brothers and sisters in Christ. You need to help them out. But we ain't going to have a fundraising campaign.
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Guys, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the paramount thing that should come out of the halls of any church building.
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And if you are spending so much time building for a new day, building for a new gymnasium, buying the pastor a new jet so he doesn't have to ride coach, you are not obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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So it's the individual responsibility of each of us to give as God has prospered so that you don't have to be in that position.
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Churches should have no debt. You know how much we owe? Not jack.
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We don't owe anybody nothing. Everything you see belongs to the people of Witten Baptist Church.
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These are your chairs. You don't have to ask me to buy them. They're yours. These are your tables.
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People ask me, Pastor, can I borrow a table for a garage? That ain't mine. I ain't the table police.
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Check with Char. Check with someone who actually cares about that. I don't care. We have an entire full -size weight room over here in gym.
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A fighting gym, not a girl gym. We have a fighting gym over here.
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That's yours. Doesn't belong to me. If you're a member of this church, that belongs to you. We have a backyard out here that's
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Timmy approved. It's got a smoker and a black stone thing and a barbecue joint and all that.
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That belongs to you. Right? Each of you, as God has prospered, you give to that.
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Now look at this last verse. Watch this. Listen. It says this, And when
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I arrive, now this is the most important part as far as I'm concerned. And when I arrive, when
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I come, I'm sorry, verse 3. And when
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I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
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And if it seems advisable that I should go also and they will accompany me.
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For those of you who are visiting here today, let me introduce myself. My name is
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Pastor Jeff Shipley. And I am the senior pastor of this church.
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I am ordained. Don't laugh yet. I am ordained and licensed.
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I am accredited. I'm accredited.
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According to the bylaws of this church, I am the chief executive officer of this place.
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Dripping. Do you know how much I have to do with the money in this place?
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Zilch. I have no idea who gives. I have no idea. I have no idea who gives what.
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Because that's a rule I made up 18 years ago. Because I'm going to be honest with you.
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I know Jeff Shipley. I know Jeff Shipley. If I knew that Rod was given 5 grand a week, which no one does, but just an easy number for a high school dropout.
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If he was given 5 grand a week, and Christian was given 200 a week, and they both called me and needed me at the same time, who am
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I calling back? I'm just being honest. What's up, Rod? I know my brain.
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I know how it works. And so I do not do anything. The pastors of this church do not collect, count, record.
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We don't do any of that. At all. For anything to be spent in this church above 500 bucks, it has to be approved, not by a committee, because we got rid of all our committees.
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It has to be approved by you guys. The body. That's how we work around here.
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Why is that? Read that verse again. It said, to those who have been credited by you.
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You know who selects the money counters in this church? You guys. You know who are the money counters in this church?
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You guys. You know who are the ones that we have to report to every month? You guys.
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You know why? Because the highest authority God gave the earth was the church.
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Not pastors. The church. If you go to Matthew 18, if a brother's messed up, go to him privately.
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If he will not listen, take two or three others. If he still not repent, take it to the church.
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Not the pastor. The church. You see, as a body of Christ, we are the highest authority
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God put on the face of the earth. Guys, it is important for financial perfection of accountability.
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Sex and money will ruin churches. Sex and money will ruin churches.
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You know what I mean? Inappropriate sexual stuff. I'm not talking about Netflix and chill with your wife.
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You know what I'm saying. Okay? That inappropriate stuff will destroy a church.
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And here's what's more, it will destroy the reputation of believers so that when
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Pastor Josiah and I are trying to witness to a young 28 year old guy who doesn't know
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Jesus Christ and the only thing he thinks of when he hears the word pastor is that idiot Kenneth Copeland sitting there asking for another jet.
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That's what he thinks of. But it's so awesome that we can sit in the mud, in our jeans and our boots, sitting there talking to this young fella and going, that's not how we do it son.
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We do it according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Guys, let me sum this whole sermon up like this.
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If you're in here today and you're not a member of this church, I ain't talking to you.
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Okay? In this point. If you are a member of this church, unlike other churches, that doesn't mean you just warm a seat with your butt.
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That means that you have a personal responsibility for the direction of this church, to hold me accountable, to hold all the leadership accountable, and to finance the budget that we gave you guys and you said yes,
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I'll do it. You voted on it. It's your responsibility. I didn't vote on it.
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It don't matter. You're family. You voted on it. Okay? You voted on it.
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It also means this, that you are to be personally involved. Guys, it's not even an hour yet.
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Focus. Take an Adderall and listen. Oh, I already said that.
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It also means this, if you are a member of this church, it means you need to be involved in ministry.
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Cynthia, how many mission trips have you gone on baby while you're here? Zero. How many times have you preached?
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None. How many times have you taught? None. Well, oh, you do that prayer thing.
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Right. One of the most important things we do. Most important thing we do.
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You have no excuse for not being part of the team. We win and we have built what we have by being a family and a team.
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If you're an individualist, this is not the place for you. But if you want to be held accountable, be part of something bigger than yourself, which is why some of you don't have peace in your life because the highest level of accountability you got is you.
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And that ain't worked out so well, has it? Okay? That ain't worked out well.
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And if you keep doing the same thing over and over, not only will you screw your life up, but the 32 kids you have by four different baby mamas.
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Okay? Maybe you need to stop listening to your feelings, your thoughts, your ideas, your philosophies, and start submitting to the obedience of God Almighty.
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And the way you do that, listen, is not by praying some prayer and asking Jesus Christ in your heart.
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It's by living by faith and accountability of a church family that will get all up in your business.
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If you ain't got that, I don't care how strong of a Christian you are, without accountability, you will be in left field.
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So church members, if you're here, and I'm going to say this, give as God has prospered you.
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Well, pastor, you don't understand. God's Word is not regulatory on your situation.
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It says, as I have commanded. Live like that.
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Okay? And I'm not telling you that God's... I hate these preachers that treat God like a stock market.
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If you give this, God will give you that. I ain't telling you that. I'm telling you what God's Word says.
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Give. Because God loves a cheerful giver. That's what Scripture says. Second thing. If you're in this room, and you're not a member of this church,
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I've got two questions for you. Number one, why not? And I've had people come up to me and say, man, dude, you're like over the top, man.
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This place, people are hugging on me, man. I'm like, okay, I get it.
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Okay? Remember, I didn't grow up in Bible school and didn't go to seminary, and I'm not polished.
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I get that. Okay? And that's cool. If that's not for you, fine. Go find another
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Bible -believing church and get your family in that church.
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Okay? You don't have an excuse for being a free agent. There's no such thing as a free agent
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Christian. You need to get plugged in somewhere to be discipled and to go to work.
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Okay? Go to work. I remember Brother Jeremiah had the youth out back, and he had a bunch of the teenage boys out there, and they were digging out for the new playground.
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And one of the boys looked at Jeremiah and said, I've never used a shovel before. I almost threw up in my mouth.
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Sixteen -year -old boy, you ain't never used a shovel before, yet you need to get in a church. And it ain't probably mocha drinking, you know,
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Birkenstock sandal wearing church. You need to get into a dude church. Okay? Because dang, man, that's embarrassing.
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Dude, if you're 16 and can't use a shovel, do me a favor. Don't tell anybody. Okay? Just please, man.
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People can see you. I mean, dang. God. All right. Second thing. If you're not a member, but you kind of feel like this is the place you need, now is the time to join.
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Okay? Please stop being indecisive.
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We need help. We need help. We have a homeless ministry.
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I can't even tell you how right now. Guys, we have an MMA ministry that's freaking awesome.
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We got all these ministries. We need help. We have 59 people under the age of 12 in this church.
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Half of those, 30 of them are sitting in the nursery right now with like five different women who are all thinking about starting drinking a lot of cough syrup.
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Okay? They need some help. They would like to, believe it or not, as horrible of a preacher
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I am, they would like to be in here one Sunday. All right? And yes, you're going to have background checks.
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Yes, we're going to climb inside of you with a microscope because those are our babies.
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Right? But if you're clean and you're good to go, go help out in the nursery. It's not rocket surgery.
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Okay? So help out in the nursery. All right? But come and be a part of it.
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Last thing. And this is the most important. Seriously, y 'all.
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This is the most important. I'm not joking with you on this one. Guys, if you're trying to figure it out, and you know what
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I'm talking about, the whole God -Jesus thing, you're in the right place.
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Okay? You're in the right place. We are the most patient with the ones that no one else will take.
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Okay? That's our church. And there's a lot of people gone today because,
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God, I hope they ain't in recovery or drying out from last night. But for those of you that are here, if you are not a believer, if you're not a believer, and in your mind you're going,
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I really don't even understand how that happens, that's why God invented fat, bald pastors.
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Okay? That's why God invented them. Here's another thing. One of the most beautiful things about churches is this.
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I had this guy that I used to run with. And every time he would get in trouble, he wanted us to be around him to either get in trouble with him or to be there to help
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Bailey Mount. Because he was a punk. Right? Here's the thing.
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What's really cool is that's the church. That's what we're here for. If you're in trouble, you got the herd coming.
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I remember, and I won't say who it is, but we had a single mom whose husband was smacking her around in the head.
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And she thought we got her to leave. But then all her stuff's back at the house. And she was like, they have to wait on the police.
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And we were like, no you don't. No, you don't. And we went and got her stuff.
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And there was no problem. I promise you. You're in the right place. If you are still trying to figure out where you are with Jesus, do me a favor.
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Be honest with yourself to either say, I don't really care right now. Or B, I'm kind of insecure and nervous to ask somebody.
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If it's B, come on. Just walk up here and talk to me. Pastor Josiah is smarter than I am.
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Brother Christian, Brother Jeremiah, they're ten times smarter than I am. Pastor John, oh my gosh, he's got like 32 letters after his name.
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Right? He's got so many degrees, he's a freaking thermometer. Right? Yeah, no you didn't, man.
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You are not funny. I am funny. You're not funny. I know that some of you are like going, this feels weird because there should be some lady playing music in the background and some lady should be singing and playing on your emotions.
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I don't want you making an emotional decision. As a man or woman, I want you making a commitment. That's why some of you are jacked up because you've made decisions without ever making commitments.
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And I'll tell you what, the difference between a decision and a commitment is the difference between heaven and hell. Mark me on that one.
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Mark me on that one. So, here we go. If you're not a believer, come be one. That's the most important thing
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I care about. If you are a believer and you need help, it's called discipleship and learning how to be a man and a woman of God.
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Okay? You got to learn it, man. Okay? Number three, if you are a member of this church and you're not given, if you were walking
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Jackson Avenue smoking crack, turning tricks yesterday, watch this, that's on the same level as not helping your family.
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This is a command of God just like this. Alright? Okay? You need to repent.
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And repentance isn't feeling sorry. It's making different choices. So start making different choices.
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Man up and become part of the solution. But whatever that is, I'm going to ask the pastors and the music peoples to go do their little thing.
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But listen, this is the time for you to... I know this has been a weird sermon and it's totally different than what
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I usually do. It don't matter. It's the Word of God. So however it's presented, you need to respond in obedience.
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I'm going to ask you to stand with me. And if God has spoken to you today, if you need prayer, if you need to know about being a