Get rich or preach trying
Join us as we discuss the dangers of prosperity preaching
Transcript
You can say what you want, but you won't around me.
Sheep among misfits.
A misfit in the trailer park at night.
A misprint with the six cents.
Been sick ever since my brother died of an O .D.
My two cents never made sense.
Either to me or anyone else inside of the sheep fence.
My 9th Smith on my right side.
Why you staring at your cop dot sign and my John Hancock on the dotted line?
Tell me what's the bottom line.
The bottom line is I'm not right.
I'm not left, but this elephant won't fight.
There's nothing left but the spotlight.
Hold my beer, you can find me in the moonlight.
Moonlight.
You can say what you want.
You can say what you want, but you won't around me.
You can say what you want.
You can say what you...
I'm whips in the deep end and I can't find my assigned seat to sit in.
My theology don't fit in.
Black sheep of the Reformation sheep pen.
To the Reformed, I'm just another Baptist baptized again.
The bastard child of Anabaptist.
Host to child of Reformation society.
We don't need your education.
Give me a Bible and a bookshelf of dead men.
Cigars, bourbons, and beer cans.
Bow ties, tattoos, and bearded men.
Making Reformation great again.
You can say what you want.
You can say what you want, but you won't around me.
You can say what you want.
You can say what you want, but you won't around me.
No, you won't around me.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are live.
Welcome to Open Air Theology.
My name is Jeff.
I'm one of the pastors at Covenant Reformed Baptist Church.
And in case you're wondering, that track that was just playing, my fellow elder, Cal Sunilia,
did the music for that track.
I know it's really, really good.
He let me hear it, and the words have started coming.
So I just want to give him a shout out.
So again, this is Open Air Theology.
My name is Jeff, and I'm one of the pastors at Covenant Reformed Baptist Church.
And if you haven't heard, I'm going to tell you now, February the 17th through the
19th, we're having a conference, an Open Air Theology conference, at my church that I pastor.
And, I mean, if you're not planning on being there, like, are you really Baptist?
I don't know.
I don't know.
You know what I'm saying?
But I'm going to pass it over to my brother, Brayden.
Brayden, introduce yourself, brother.
Yeah, that's a fact.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that's somewhere in the Bible.
If you don't show up to this, you're not a Baptist.
So you better be there.
You'll at least get your Baptist card pulled.
It will definitely be pulled.
That's a fact.
And re -invoking it will take a little bit.
But no, I'm Pastor Brayden of Valley Baptist Church.
It's a blessing to be here tonight with some really, really solid brothers in fellowship, and in unity, and in Christ.
And I also run a YouTube channel called Reformed Ex -Mormon.
If you aren't subscribed, are you even Reformed?
And that's what I'm going to say.
So anyway, it's a blessing to be here with these brothers that I dearly
love and sincerely appreciate their fellowship.
So on that note, I'll pass it over to Haps.
Well, what is up, y 'all?
This is Pastor Happy with Olive Branch Ministries.
And I'm one of the hosts here and also have another show
called R &B Studios.
And I am so glad I could be here and meet Greg.
And I'm just going to pass it off to Greg.
Hi, Greg.
Hey.
Again, I'm Greg.
And I am the former pastor of Valley Baptist Church.
And so Brayden and I are good friends.
And I would say, you know, brothers in a foxhole.
They're in southern Idaho, as we've done plenty of evangelism out on the streets
together.
I'm currently – I live in Florida.
I am a member of First Baptist Church of Coleman of Florida.
We are a 1689 fellowship, which is a unicorn, to
say the least, not only in the United States, but especially in the free state of Florida.
So I am glad to be on here once again with these brothers who and
get a chance to meet Haps other than being on Facebook.
Yeah, well, it's good to have you on.
Again, I know we've extended the invitation to you.
We enjoy your fellowship online.
We enjoy your fellowship with us on this podcast.
Is it really a podcast, though?
Like I told someone that we had a podcast, and once I said we're on YouTube, I was like, well, that's, you know, it's not really
a podcast, right?
It's a show.
Yeah, I mean, it's a show.
Yeah, so we just start calling it a show, the Open Earth Theology Show, right?
Yeah.
Like I know some people call it vlogging, but I don't think they really took off.
Like vlog cast?
I'm a vlog cast?
I'm a vlogger.
I'm a vlogger.
So if you haven't noticed, so our show, this show tonight,
it's called Get Rich or Preach Trying, and we want to talk about the
dangers of the prosperity movement.
Now, this is something that Braden reached out, you know, he wanted to talk about, and so
that's what we're going to attempt tonight.
And I also want to say that in doing so tonight, we're
not, like what do you call them guys,
like this is just what they do.
You know, they go and they find heretics.
Heresy hunting?
Heresy hunting.
Okay, so this is not what this show is.
We're not heresy hunting, but we do want to talk about, you know,
this issue because it's an issue that I was, you know,
that impacted me whenever I first became a Christian.
And so I don't know the order, Braden, that you want to go in.
Yeah, so what I was thinking is that I'm sure that we all have our unique perspectives of the prosperity gospel movement,
right?
I think we all get general ideas and definitions of it, and I'm sure that our definitions would be
essentially the same, and I'm assuming we'd pull from scripture the same and all that kind of stuff.
And so, which is fine, if that happens, that's totally okay.
But my thinking on it was that every one of us probably have a unique perspective, whether we've dealt with it
inside our local bodies, whether we see it across the corner on another street from us,
or we've seen it in a large scale in different ways.
I'm sure we've seen the prosperity gospel affect us in different ways.
And so what I was really hoping for tonight was giving each one of us seven to nine minutes, somewhere in that general area, since there's four of
us, just to kind of talk through those experiences.
And so I was thinking I would go last, just since I was the one that brought the topic up.
But I would say maybe we just start Jeff going first.
I got to figure out how to point at this because it's backwards for me.
Greg, you go second, Apps, you go third, and then I can go fourth.
Yeah, right?
It's almost like the Brady Bunch.
It's almost like the Brady Bunch.
Yeah, there you go.
But yeah, no, that was kind of what I was thinking.
And none of us hold to the prosperity gospel, praise God.
We're within orthodoxy.
And so, yeah.
So I can't get rich or preach trying?
You probably shouldn't be.
Let's just put it like that.
But yeah, I figured we could all give a little bit of a definition of what it is, some scriptural, and then our experiences with it.
So on that note, Jeff, if you want to just kick things off, and if it goes over nine minutes, I
don't think any of us are too concerned about that.
Yeah, I definitely want to keep it under ten minutes.
Yeah, so with me, when it comes to this issue of the prosperity movement,
so some of y 'all probably know, I've said this before, so
I originally was ordained in the Pentecostal movements, the
Churches of God, Assemblies of God, Trinitarian Pentecostal movements.
And this prosperity preaching was definitely alive,
kicking, screaming in those circles, right?
Now, it's definitely something that has impacted me.
But before I get into my personal experience, I definitely want to go to the text.
And so, just so you understand where I'm coming from, I want to
look at Galatians 1, verses 6 and 7.
Yeah.
And it says, I am not ashamed.
No, no, no.
That's a good text, too.
We could read that one.
Yeah.
I actually had it on here, but I don't know why I was quoting it.
I'm looking at this and quoting it.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel, which I'm not.
We can go to Romans 1.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So Galatians, Galatians, not Romans, Galatians, beginning in verse 6, it says, I am
astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and
are turning to a different gospel.
Now, verse 7 tells you, not that there is another one, but there are some who would trouble
you and want you, and want to desort the gospel of Christ.
Now, notice there wasn't another gospel.
Like he says that you're turning to a different gospel, but not that there is one.
The prosperity movement is not a gospel.
If you have to give to receive a blessing, that's not good news.
The good news is that we—the good news comes off of the heels of bad news.
We broke God's law, bad news.
We deserve punishment.
Good news, God paid our fine by sending his son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the propitiation.
God paid our fine by sending his son to live the life that we could not
live and to take the punishment that we deserve.
That's the good news.
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
He was buried, and he rose on the third day, and he ascended into the heaven, and he sits at the Father's
side ruling in rain and putting all of his enemies under his feet.
That is the gospel.
That's the good news.
Giving money in order to be blessed, that's not good news.
That's not good news.
That is not a gospel.
There's no such thing as a prosperity gospel.
There's only false teachers, just as we see in the book of Galatians.
There wasn't another gospel.
Getting circumcised was not another gospel, but there were
false teachers.
And so it's the same thing that we see going on in our churches today when it comes to the prosperity movement.
There's not another gospel.
There's no such thing as a prosperity gospel.
That's not good news, but there's false teachers who are peddling like pimps.
This false message, if you give me money, the Lord will bless you.
Now, just to give you some of my experience.
So when I became a Christian, again, this was before YouTube or at least before
I knew YouTube, right?
And so TBN was on my TV constantly.
I'm wanting to learn about Christianity.
I discipled myself through Perry Stone.
Yeah, true story.
I listened to all of his manifest programs.
I had all of his books.
Loved them, loved them.
And I was a part of a church, the church that I went to.
I mean, like they would have you to walk up and take your money, throw it on the floor, and the pastor would come
over and buck dance on it, putting the seed into the ground.
There was one time where the plate was passed.
The preacher got up there and was speaking.
And all of a sudden, the deacon walks up, whispers in his ear, and the pastor stops preaching.
And he says, lock those doors.
Pass those plates again.
You are going to give.
And there was a time where I forgot to give.
I asked the pastor, I said, hey, where's the plate at?
I forgot to put my money.
He said, oh, it's over there.
Go get your blessing.
There was a man by the name of Peter Popoff.
I think that's how you say his name.
Yes, it is.
Yeah, well, when I first became a Christian, I was listening to him, and I bought into it.
I asked for whatever he had to be sent to me.
And now I'm saying this because I want you to know that this power and evil,
okay, evil is a power, right?
I mean, there's power in witchcraft.
It's not good power, but there's power in witchcraft.
Well, Peter Popoff was writing me, and I was writing him back.
And in one of his letters, he said if I would give him $100, that I would receive $1
,700.
So I thought that was a good deal, right?
I gave him $100.
Well, a couple weeks, you know, I had scored a roof job from someone
that I used to go to church with.
And the final cost of that roof was going to be $1 ,400.
They owe me $1 ,400 after putting this roof on.
When I received the check, the check was for $1 ,700.
There's power in this movement, okay?
Well, little did I know that I knew someone else that was writing and receiving letters from
Peter Popoff.
And I had just received the letter, again, asking for more money.
And I walked into his house, and I saw that he had received a letter.
And so I said, hey, can I read your letter?
He said, yeah.
It was the same letter, same words, same everything that he wrote to me.
I mean, same everything.
And then I wrote him and said, look.
And I sent both letters to him.
I said, don't write me again.
Well, he wrote me again.
Again, this was me.
I'm a young Christian.
You know what I'm saying?
I still got some flesh in me.
And I wrote him back.
I said, look, punk, you write me another letter, I'm going to come to one of your meetings, and I'm going to punch you in the face.
Don't write me again.
He never wrote me again.
He didn't write me again.
I say that because there's power in that movement.
It's not the right power.
It's not good power.
It's like Ouija board power, right?
It's like the occult, witchcraft.
There's power in that stuff, but it's not good power.
It's not good power, right?
We want our lives to be filled with God's presence.
We don't want our lives to be filled around evil entities.
And this prosperity movement, it's an evil entity.
Yes.
All it is is it's after your money.
It's only after your money.
Now, with that said, I do want to say that we are to
give money to the church.
Right.
But not to receive a blessing.
A church building has rent.
There's lights.
There's things that in the building, if you want to be able to meet in a building,
there's things that have to be paid.
Rent has to be paid.
Lights have to be paid.
Water has to be paid.
All right.
But then there's also mission work, right?
You want to be a church that's doing stuff in your own neighborhood, but also you want to be a church that's
giving money overseas to support missionaries.
Well, you can't do that if you're not giving money.
But you need to understand that you don't give money to be a blessing.
You give money to bless.
And also I want to say when it comes to giving your money that not
only in your light bill, I mean, in paying the light bills and paying rent and in paying, you know,
so that the people in your area will hear the gospel or that people across the seas will hear the gospel.
But also the Bible tells us in First Timothy, chapter five,
beginning in verse 17, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy
of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching
right here.
It says for the scripture says you shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain
and the labor deserves his wages.
Now, pastoring the last two years and having to work full time has
really been been tough.
Right.
And I understand this because pastoring, it's a job.
It's a hard job.
Right.
Laboring with the messages, you know, like like I put in, I don't know
how many hours a week I put in to study in the Bible.
When I stand up before the congregation to to to to give the word.
Right.
I truly understand that this is a job.
And then you have to deal with the congregation and not that that's a bad thing.
Right.
But you have to be there for your congregation.
Pastoring is I hate to use the word a job, but the labor is worthy of his
wage.
So I believe that your pastor, like if whatever your church is, your pastor.
You not only give to to pay the rent, you not only give to to pay the bills,
you don't give to receive a blessing, but you give to bless.
And in that your pastor needs that blessing because he is working.
If your pastor is preaching, 45 minute sermons are better if he's in the that that Bible study.
And if he's having to deal with your butt, trust me, he's a he's a labor worthy of
his wage.
And not only that, when you look into the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, chapter 13, it says to remember your leaders.
Is this to share what you have with them and to obey them?
If your leader is preaching and teaching the word of God, you are to share what you have with them.
But and that is not for you to get a blessing, but that is for you to be a blessing.
So why do we give.
To bless people, not listen, not to receive a blessing.
If that's what you're doing it for, you're worshiping an idol.
You're worshiping an idol.
I'm done.
Amen.
Drop Mike right there.
Mike drop.
That's how you say that.
Greg, it's your turn, brother.
Go ahead and drop.
All right.
Ten minutes.
All right.
So here we go.
All right.
I want to I want to actually start from the Old Testament, from the prophet Jeremiah.
You know, an actual prophet, not these self aggrandized ones.
So here in Jeremiah 23, I'm going to I'm not going to read the whole chapter, but I'm going to
read verses 1 through 2, 1 and 2, 25 through 27 and 30 through 32.
So here here what it says.
This is the Lord speaking, says, Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture,
declares Yahweh.
Therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who are shepherding my people.
You have scattered my flock and banished them and have not attended to them,
but to attend to you for the evil of your deeds.
Skipping at 25 through 27.
I have heard what the prophets have said, who
prophesy a lie in my name, saying I had a dream.
I had a dream.
How long is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy a lie?
Even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make my people forget my
name by their dreams, which they recount to one another just as their fathers forgot my name
because of Baal.
And then 30 through 32 says, therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares Yahweh, who
steal my words from each other.
Behold, I am against the prophets, declares Yahweh, who take their tongues and declare.
Yahweh declares, behold, I am against those who have prophesied lying dreams,
declares Yahweh, and who recounted them
by their lying and reckless boasting.
Yet I did not send them and I did not command them, and they did not furnish this people the slightest benefit,
declares Yahweh.
I could end it there.
But I mean, because this goes for any false prophets,
any of those who take upon themselves the name of the Lord, who take upon themselves the mantle of
prophet.
God's got a beef, period.
And if God's got a beef, I've got a beef.
If you've got, because here's the thing.
It's like I really genuinely have problems with the prosperity gospel.
I'm from the South.
Okay.
The prosperity gospel is rampant throughout the South.
It's especially rampant here in Florida.
If you're familiar with like the stuff that came after the like the Toronto blessing and
all this other stuff, the Lakeland revival is one of the things, one of the big
shenanigans.
Lakeland is like the county South of us or one of the counties just like South of us.
We're like connected to the county that Lakeland is in.
So this hits home pretty close for me.
Like I mean, this is very close to home for me.
And my troubles with it is like one of the things that really bothers me about it is it's
bastardization of the scriptures.
Okay.
I am one who I do believe that the idea of the tithe is something
that carries on into the new covenant.
We can have that discussion, whatever, but that's where I go.
And Malachi does tell me to bring all the tithe into the storehouse.
And the Lord himself says, test me in this and see if I won't pour out a blessing.
Okay.
God says to do that.
And what do these people do?
They take the scriptures and they bastardize it.
They attack it.
They assault it.
And they twist it like their daddy, the devil.
Where God says the only time he tells us to test him in something, to see if he won't be
faithful.
They take it and they go as one of these shepherds that God
decries and they twist it.
I have a grave problem with that.
I will take Nicholas and punch him in the face.
Or Jeff and Peter Popoff.
I would have.
I wouldn't let him blink and watch.
The prosperity gospel, the biggest thing is, again, it
twists the scriptures.
We look at what Malachi says about bringing the tithe into the storehouse.
It twists that.
If we look to James 5, 14 and 15, where it tells us that if a man is sick,
that he's to go to the elders of the church and they are to anoint him.
And they are to pray.
God says to do it.
Right?
God told us to do that sort of thing.
And yet, how many of us in the reformed circles,
let alone evangelical circles, and particularly the reformed Baptist circles, are going to look at James 5, 14 to
15 and go, that seems too charismatic.
Not me.
I keep all in my pocket.
We're not talking just for your beard, dude.
But the thing is, how many people even stop because
of these prosperity preachers, because of what they've done?
Or we look at Isaiah 53, 5 or 1 Peter 2, 24.
1 Peter 2, 24 in particular.
How often have you heard, by his stripes we are healed?
Praise God.
It's what the word says.
Right?
It says, by his stripes we are healed.
But then if we look at the context, the full context of 1
Peter 2, 24, it says, who himself, because we're being
told to follow in his steps, following Christ's steps.
Who himself, verse 24, who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that you,
having died to sin, we might live to righteousness.
By his wounds you are healed.
The obvious thing is that what you've been healed from is sin.
And yet, and you know what?
And there is something to be said, that yes, there will be healing from our illness.
There will be healing from our sickness and from all the things.
But the good chance is, it ain't in this life.
We, but we do have a resurrection.
And so there's, there is a belittling of the scriptures.
There's a belittling of God's promises.
There's a belittling and bastardization of God's, you know, what his word has
said.
And, you know, those, you know, us good cessationists have said, ooh,
we don't want to stay away from that because we don't want to be seen too crazy.
When in fact, it's really stupid because God has spoken and we should obey and we should hear him.
But then, then the issue, other issues that I've got with this, that with the prosperity gospel,
and this is men, not just Peter Popoff.
He's, I mean, he, you know, Peter Popoff, Mike Murdoch, the guys like that, the TBNers are, you know,
that's the easy game because they're so ridiculous.
But what about men like Stephen Furtick?
What about TD Jakes?
I mean, he's, he's big name.
Oh, you know, what about, you know, I know it was this Greg Locke guy that we see,
you know, people like this that, you know, get real popular.
I mean, I've had issues where somebody like Stephen Furtick, I had this in a,
in a place that I serve.
You speak out against Steve, you know, against the Furtie and people freak the heck out.
Nevermind the fact that he's in favor of a man like TD Jakes, a, you know, a blasted modalist,
you know, a heretic, damn to hell.
And says, this is my guy.
But here's the issues.
Like here, here's some issues.
Not only do they, not only does God warn us against this.
I mean, Jeremiah, we see that.
I mean, God is very explicit about this.
And not only do they twist the scriptures, which alone is
bad enough, but think of, you know, God's problem with them that we saw there in Jeremiah 23.
Is what they do to God's sheep.
Jesus doesn't take kindly to this.
I do believe that there are believers that are caught up in this trash.
That they are ignorant and that they are being wrung dry because
of this.
And we have seen what the Lord God omnipotent has had to say about that.
Because these people, they give false promises of wealth.
Nevermind that Jesus said in Matthew 8, 20, you know, the foxes have holes, the birds of the sky have nests, but
the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
They have false promises of health.
Nevermind the fact that, you know, Jesus was crucified.
And then we've also see 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10, 1 Timothy 5, 23,
Galatians 6, 11.
You have examples where the apostle Paul was getting murked all
over the place.
That, you know, he had his issues with his sight.
And so, you know, and if it was just,
you know, name it and claim it.
If that was all that the problems were.
But that's not it.
It is usually anti -Trinitarian.
You know, it's, and there's so many, there's just so much that's involved in it.
So, you know, the troubles are that it teaches falsely.
It points away from the Word of God because you're wanting to seek a new fresh revelation from God.
And the thing is, is the prosperity gospel is so rampant.
We don't, it's embedded everywhere.
When Lifeway existed as a standalone store, it was very easy to walk in
there.
And you would see Sarah Young's Jesus Calling.
That's prosperity stuff.
Okay.
Because you're trying to get a fresh word from God when He's given you a book that you're not even reading.
And then not only, like here's another problem.
Like one thing that just bugs the heck out of me.
I understand you're about 3 minutes over.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I appreciate you calling me out there.
So, is that it condemns the saint for not having
enough faith.
When things don't go right, the saint is at problem.
You know, is because they just simply didn't have enough faith.
And it's disgusting.
Yeah, when I hear blab it and grab it, I hear regurgitate it and eat it.
Barf it and smurf it.
Apps, what you got on this topic, brother?
Oh, I got a whole bunch.
I bet you do.
I got a whole bunch.
And you know what?
You know, let's just really be honest.
This is satanic in nature.
The reason why this is so dangerous is this goes all the way back to the garden.
The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life.
All right.
And that's what it goes.
And this is why it appeals to the ungenerated man.
It's about health and wealth.
You know, this is this is what draws them in.
Of course, their simple desires are going to draw them in.
And so if they're real true believers in Jesus Christ, then the Lord's not going to keep them in error
for that long.
Because the Holy Spirit that resides in them is going to lead them out of this and reveal truth to him.
I mean, to them, because that's what Scripture says.
So just to give you guys the people out there a little little history on
this.
This when it was this is an American gospel right here.
All right.
This is an American gospel.
And it started in the garden.
But it really started again.
And in the 1880s, there was something that started called New Thought.
And it's an accumulated wisdom and philosophy and from like
ancient Greek, ancient Roman.
And then, you know, these these it's really a form of Gnosticism.
All right.
And and then like in the in the 50s and stuff
like that, you had all the healing revivals that were going on here in the United States.
Then they from the 60s to the 80s, that's when they adopted the name, the Word of
Faith movement.
And this is when televangelism was really ramping up.
And so it really appealed to the ignorant.
And and that's and it's it's destructive heresies like the Bible has told us.
And it really appeals to man's sinful nature.
Also, it's like a combination of the American gospels were like pragmatism, individualism,
you know, more of a man centered instead of God centered, unless it makes you a God.
And so what it what it does is it takes the faith that that has been get that that is a gift of
God.
All right.
That is a gift that is given to us by God to to glorify God.
And it turns them into like a genie in a bottle.
All right.
Where Jesus and all of a sudden becomes a slot machine that we just keep putting
coins in and it's going to hit.
I'm telling you, it's going to get it's going to hit thinking that that somehow.
And what it is, it's legalism.
All right.
It's actually works based.
It's very, very works.
It's very damning.
It's a damnable heresy.
And it's not Christianity.
All right.
And let me let me just let me just share a couple scriptures that they appeal to because I
deal with this every day.
All right.
So one of them, I think that, you know, Greg, you hit one of them.
Let's see.
Let me go to Jeremiah.
Twenty nine.
Eleven.
They always use this one.
Always.
Always and forever.
You know, but this is what they say.
Jeremiah.
Twenty nine.
Eleven.
And then this is what this is what happens when when people take Scripture out of context and
then they they just believe everything they hear.
Well, the reason why they believe it is because they're not a sheep because
they're the sheep knows the shepherd's voice and it
goes to them.
Another they will not follow.
All right.
And so anyway, so let me just read it.
Jeremiah.
Twenty nine.
Eleven.
For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans of welfare and not for evil
to give you a fortune and a hope.
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found be found by you declares the Lord and I will restore your fortunes
and gather you from the nations in all the places where I have driven you.
Now, a really, really important one that that remember they they they cherry
pick the Scriptures.
So another really, really important one that they will always get.
And if you don't read it in context and understand, listen,
this right here, this wasn't written to you.
It was written for you.
All right.
And that that when it's talking about, like when a lot of these promises were made to national
Israel, ethnic Israel, and it was for like land promises or whatnot, you know,
because a lot of these people, they want the blessings.
All right.
They just don't want the curses, you know.
And for us now that are in Christ, there is no more condemnation, you know.
And so another one I and I'm just going off the top of my head,
Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 818.
No, I'm just going to I'm just going to.
Yeah.
Hold
on a second.
I'm going to start in 17, 817.
Beware, lest you say your heart, my power and my might of my hand have gotten me
this.
Well, you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get well.
When he may confirm his covenant that you swore to your fathers as as
in this day and they'll take that and they will run with it.
All right.
They'll take that now run with it.
And and this is a twist in God's scripture.
And were we warned about this?
Yeah, we have out of 27 books in the New Testament,
26 of them speak of this.
I mean, directly.
Second Peter two one.
I mean, like just straight up.
I'll just just read it to one through four.
Second Peter two one.
But false prophets also run a rose among the people, just as there
will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive
heresies.
And we know that if it's destructive, that means it destroys people.
All right.
Destroys.
Even denying the master who bought them.
A lot of these people preach kenosis, by the way, or they're preaching the little God's doctrine.
All right.
So you're seeing the pattern already, but it gets better or worse, I should say.
Denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction and many
will follow their sensuality.
And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed.
And in their greed.
Hello.
In their greed, they will exploit you with false words.
Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.
And so God warns us in his words that this is what we're to look out for.
And but they they actually put a heavy emphasis on that.
You're actually spinning.
All right.
You're actually sitting.
If you if you're not wealthy and if you're sick.
So that's an actual sin.
I have literally been in rooms where I where I used to take my
guys here.
I'm not timing myself.
So I used to take my guys here.
And you're right at them at the mark.
I'm right at the mark of.
Yeah, I mean, go ahead and finish your thought.
Finish.
Okay, so.
So I have been right there at these places where I've taken my guys.
And I'm like, all right, guys, I'm going to I'm going to take you to a cult tonight.
An actual real authentic cult.
And I want you guys to pay attention.
These are my students.
You know, I want you to pay attention to what's going on.
You tell me afterwards.
All right.
So me, my wife, we take them all in.
And here the guys up and he's he's an apostle, of course.
It's called the shepherding movement, by the way, by Derek Prince.
He started it in the 80s and later renounced it.
But anyways, he's declaring and decreeing and he goes like this.
Now, God, now, God, I want a Corvette and you
have to give it to me.
I want to go to Disneyland or you have to give it to me or you're a liar.
And this is it with tons of people in it right here.
All right.
And so we we got up and we left.
They were doing that, you know, everybody's getting knocked over filled with the non Holy Spirit.
We asked her all of our guys afterwards.
What did you notice?
What did you notice?
They noticed all the right things.
But the main thing was is nobody had a Bible.
And that's where it comes down to.
You will fall into this if you don't know Scripture.
If you're not planted in the house of the Lord and you don't know the real thing,
you're going to fall for the counterfeit and you're going to believe a lie.
Just like back at the garden.
Yeah, I love it.
No, I just really appreciate what everyone has said already.
I really appreciate Jeff defining what the gospel is and talking about there is not really another gospel.
So when we say this prosperity gospel, we're not saying that this is another.
We're saying that it's actually just a false good news.
That's not really another.
It's actually terrible bad news and brings about damnation into the person that's holding to it.
I appreciated Greg with all the scriptural references that he went into.
And truly the detestable thing it
is to claim the prosperity gospel.
And then with Haps, you, I think, honestly have the most experience with this, with where you're at and what
you deal with on a daily basis, I would say anyway.
So I just very much value you guys.
I think that in my mind, when we talk about the prosperity gospel movement, I
think when we talk about Christians giving and receiving or a pastor in that
position and making an income in that sense to support his family, I think a lot of it has to
deal with intent and what the purpose is that's behind it.
Right.
And so, yeah, I was just going to read from First Timothy, chapter six, real fast, verses five
to eleven, I believe it is.
But we'll read First Timothy, chapter six, verse five and on.
It says, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and of depraved truth
who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.
So so pay attention to the intent of these kind of men that think godliness is a
means of gain.
But godliness is actually a means of great gain when accompanied by
contentment.
For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.
And if we have food and covering with these, we shall be content.
But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare.
And many foolish and harmful desires play men into ruin and destruction for the
love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.
And some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and have pierced
themselves with many a pain.
But flee from these things, you men of God, and pursue righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.
Fight the good fight of faith.
Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called in which you and you
made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
And so I really there there was a text that I got to listen to.
It was actually somebody that filled the pulpit for me recently.
His name's Rick, a really great brother of mine.
We were going through the book of Ruth and he pointed something out that I hadn't even taken really much notice of.
And in that book, you see a really huge exhortation that it's never spoken of
Ruth's beauty.
It never says that she was a beautiful woman, but she's called a woman of excellence.
And the reason that she was called a woman of excellence is because of her behavior.
And likewise, you also see Boaz of this man of honor and and the
descriptions of what he is, is one of giving one of blessing, one of wealth.
Honestly, he had a field that that Ruth was able to work in.
He had maidens.
He had servants there.
He had wealth in that sense.
But we also when we talk about this kind of this this pastor's getting paid and and
Christians accumulating wealth, it's not a bad thing to to gain wealth.
It's not.
It really isn't.
It's, again, the intent and the purpose behind what you are doing with it and what the purpose and means of
receiving it is.
And I really loved how he went into this as as he looked at Boaz.
And I'll just read a little portion here of this text as we see Boaz, this wealthy man.
What does he do with his wealth?
Ruth, chapter three, after he promises to Boaz promises to
Ruth that he's going to redeem her.
He says here in in verse 15 of chapter three, says again, he said, give me
the cloak that is on you and hold it out.
So she held it out and measured six measures of barley and laid it on her.
Then she went into the city and when she came to her mother in law, she said, how did it go, my daughter?
And she told her all the man had done for her.
And she's she's holding this cloak, this this this large sum of barley that was given to her.
She's already been blessed very heavily by Boaz and giving to her an F of barley is what's
talked about earlier in the text.
We see that Boaz is a man of wealth that is accumulated and has worked hard and is building
essentially this this household name, essentially with with
having workers underneath them.
But yet he he's giving, he's blessing, he's loving.
And notice in there he's not giving and saying, I give you six measures of barley so
that I can get back 17 measures of barley like Jeff talked about.
That that's not the intent of what Boaz is doing in here.
He's giving because he loves and he cares for and he's wanting to bless.
And so I think when we talk about intent, one of the very first applications that need to be made as Christians is that Christians should be some of the
most caring, loving and giving type of people.
And it's not wrong as a Christian to accumulate wealth.
It is wrong if you see the form of godliness as a means of gain.
If you are if you are preaching the gospel, if you're preaching on a stage
and you think that you can name it and claim it and that's the gospel to you and you are
doing that as a way that you can have a jet, a Corvette, a hundred dollars being sent to you by some
stranger that you're writing a letter to.
Shame on you because you are taking a form of godliness.
You are placing yourself above people saying that you're a pastor, a teacher, an elder, an overseer, whatever title you have,
and you are seeking a means of gain.
And as the Bible, as we already read there in first Timothy pride,
this greed is the very root of evil.
It's ingrained into our flesh to want to receive.
It's look at me, give to me.
And people know this, that's the, I think the evil part
about this is these prosperity preachers know this.
They know that people feel guilty when you lock the doors and you say, you're not allowed to leave until you give
me.
They know you feel guilty when they say you want to be able to stand again from
your terrible car accident you had five years ago.
Just give me $500 and I'll bless you and you'll stand.
They play on these strings of emotion and it's wrong and it's evil and not correct.
And I think one thing that I know that I have even grown up, this doesn't even just affect the
realm of physicality, right?
That all you give me, you will receive money or you give me and you'll receive health, right?
There's many, many, many ways that cults, false
religions, false teachers will take advantage of their people in different ways, not just physically.
But one example that I grew up in was the LDS teaching, right?
What is their common saying that is their kind of gospel is the plan of happiness.
The idea is that this world is a plan of happiness for you.
That all you have to do is join this church and you have happiness that you pay to this church.
You come to our church, you're a member here and you get even your own planet in the
next life.
You get this form of exaltation, this form of this families can be together forever.
That is a prosperity gospel.
That is.
It's a false gospel.
It's not really another, right?
There's not another.
We know this.
We already talked about it, but that's a form of prosperity preaching.
When you're saying that you get this and if by doing X, Y, and Z,
you've added, first of all, like I think haps, you said, it's a form of legalism.
It's a form of workspace salvation, which is often almost always associated with any prosperity preacher.
They also always have a false view of who God is, especially right out of the gates.
If you're preaching prosperity, you have a false view of God.
And not only that, but usually they deny the Trinity.
And so with these kind of cults that are guaranteeing you eternal life based off of what you do and what you
give, that is sincere abuse.
I think, first of all, because we understand the value of salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ, right?
We understand that it is everything.
What Christ has done for us is far beyond me getting that Corvette that I really want.
It's so far beyond that.
I can't even fathom the preacher that would say, I'm going to want this.
And then I have every right to this and you need to give it to me.
Salvation that we've been given is unmerited favor.
This grace that we have received, that goes far beyond any sort of dollar value that
we can put any of this.
And that's the part that really irks me is that when these other
preachers are wanting to accumulate money and is promising a
false reality to the people that are giving it, you are attacking the very thing that Christ has done on the cross.
You are making salvation not worth
anything to these people because you are trying to undervalue what Christ has done for you.
And that's where I would end it is that I think that this is truly blasphemous against Christ.
It's blasphemous against God.
It's abusive to the sheep.
It's abusive to the Christian.
It's abusive to even the unbeliever that's unknowing in this.
It's abusive to these kind of people.
And anybody that is caught in the prosperity movement, you need to repent, believe in the true gospel, the one and only.
And if you are a preacher, and I hope that would be so cool if Stephen Furtick listened to this or Stephen
Heretic, excuse me, or any of those bigger name guys that are preaching this kind of stuff.
You need to repent and you need to be placed under biblical discipline and you need to know and look to Jesus
Christ for your only means of salvation.
Because that is far, far better than any sort of wealth or money that you could get from anybody.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well said.
Victoria Osteen, we read a quote from her today.
And I don't remember it verbatim, but it was in the line that God wants us to
be happy.
And the things that we do, we don't do it for God.
We do it for our happiness.
And that is even coming to church, coming to church.
We don't come to church for God.
We come to church so that we might be happy.
Like, how false is that?
Let me tell you something.
There's days, you know, you know, whenever you go to church can be hard,
right?
Especially, you know, family, little kids getting there.
You know, you've done like, you know, John Bunyan said that, you know, his greatest prayer had enough sin in
it to send the whole world to hell and God be just for doing so.
Just think about the car ride to church with a bunch of little kids.
Like, how much sin in your life there do you have for God to send the whole world to hell and
him be just for it, right?
It's just an idea.
Like, we don't go to church to be happy.
No.
Like, that's not our reason.
If that was the reason, I wouldn't go to church.
Right?
Do you think?
A lot of bad things happen on the way to church.
We go to church to worship God and to be with God's people.
And perhaps you read a verse and it really stuck out to me and reminded me of a conversation I had with
my daughter.
That verse from Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse 18 says, you shall remember the Lord your
God, right here, for it is he who gives you the power
to get wealth.
So before we eat a meal at my house, we pray.
And my daughter Trinity asked me, she said, why do you thank God for the
food?
You know, so I work at home.
So she sees me in here working and she knows that by my labor, I
receive wages.
And so like, she's just putting two and two together.
She sees daddy working.
Because of the work that I do, I receive wages and that money that I receive from
working buys food.
Right?
I mean, that's, you know, pretty smart.
She's putting two and two together.
She sees, oh, that's how we eat.
That's how we have a house.
That's how the bills are paid.
But I had to remind her that it's, you know, everything that we do is in God's providence.
Breath of air, I just took, you know, some people might think it'd be stupid for me to every time I breathe.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord.
But, but, but it's true.
God is totally true.
You know, God, God is causing my heart to beat.
If he stops thinking about me, I die.
Well, God has given me this job.
And if God hasn't given me a way to provide for my family, the health it takes to do these things, I wouldn't be able to provide for
her.
So I thank God for everything.
Everything that I have is by his hand.
And so I'm just explaining that to her.
And when he read that verse, it just reminded me of that because it is him who
gives us the power to get wealth.
Well, how does someone get wealth?
Well, they work.
They have a job.
That is a way that we recognize that in America, at least that I, you know,
and I tell this to my kids.
Every, you know, all my kids, everyone I know, when I was a kid, all my friends, everyone wants to grow
up.
But no one wants to pay bills.
Right?
Everyone wants to grow up, but no one wants to pay bills.
In order to pay bills.
Best part of my childhood right there.
The fondest memories of my childhood.
In order to pay bills, you got to have a job.
Well, it's the Lord, I believe in his providence.
It's the Lord that's caused me to have a job most of my life to where I can work and
buy things that I want and provide for my family.
Right.
And, you know, and I had just this, you know, you know, the conversation we had earlier, Jeff and Brayden's well aware
that, you know, this past Sunday, I, I didn't know if that, you know, if that stuff was going to be taken away from me.
You know, I end up laying up in the hospital on Sunday, Monday, praise the Lord.
It was only for vertigo that I'd never had before.
But, I mean, there was those concerns that whether or not is God, not
only is he taking away my ability to work, is he, but is he taking away my
life?
And he's, and he's free to do.
He's free to do that.
I'm his slave.
He's my master.
He paid my debt.
And if, you know, if he was giving me an incurable brain cancer, who am I
to argue?
And, but the, and the thing is what the prosperity gospel, what this does is
something like that happens and you go, what have I done?
How have I sinned?
Oh, if I don't get this, if I'm not healed of this because I named and claimed, well, but I didn't have enough faith.
Oh, I don't have enough faith.
Well, then there's God love for me.
And it's going to, and it's going to go over and over and over and over again.
When the reality is, guys, God, it doesn't
work that way.
And when you're, when you're looking for a word outside of his word,
you know, you're going to get confused.
It's going to get confuddled and it's, and it's going to harm the sheep.
And, you know, I, I, I, I, I have a hard time with that.
I really, really do.
I mean, somebody talks trash about my wife.
I carry a gun with me at all times.
So, um, if I feel that way about my bride,
how does Jesus feel about when he's being abused and his word is being twisted?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that, that, that goes, honestly, that like, without like breaking down in front of you guys right now,
like that, we need to be as Christians focused on what we're going to church for.
We're yeah.
You don't, we don't do this just out of, out of habit.
If you do it out of habit, don't come to church.
I'm sorry.
You need to be coming to church to worship God, to fellowship, to sing, to learn,
to, to, to feed, to be fed, to, to grow in Christ.
And if you're not going there for those reasons, don't come.
You are, are, are, and I, I know that that's harsh to hear that, but Christ
is worthy to be, to be heard.
He's worthy to be known.
He's worthy to be praised.
And if you're not doing that on a church Sunday, then you don't have a right to be there.
I mean, like, you know, the church is not for lost people.
The church is for the gathering of the saints.
Yes.
All right.
I mean, let's get, make that crystal clear, right?
Yeah.
You don't go to church to evangelize.
You go to church to worship God.
Yeah.
Now, I believe all of us, if I'm not mistaken, Greg, you as well, we do street ministry,
right?
We, as, as, as Christians, as ministers, we leave the church doors
and we preach the gospel to the lost.
When we gather on the Lord's day to worship, it's for the saints.
The saints gather to worship God and to fellowship with one another.
Now, of course, we hope that lost people come, but we can't, we can't, you know, build our
service around what they want.
We build our service around what God has asked for.
Yep.
And you know, you know what?
It's quite just thrown a couple of things real fast.
We're not coming to the Lord so that we can get something.
No.
We're not serving the Lord so that we can get something.
We're not going to church so that we can get something.
We go to worship God.
And that's what it is.
We go to worship God.
We go to worship together.
We go to partake of the Lord's supper.
But we go to worship God.
It's not man centered.
It's God centered.
And we're pursuing holiness, not happiness.
The happiness does come from our happiness or joy.
Everything comes from God, of course, you know, but it's not through materialism or through
our health.
But I know that in my bad health, I have drawn closer to the Lord.
And he he's he's, you know, same thing with my wife.
And, you know, I'll just end it right here.
You know, I heard the story.
I mean, Jeff, you hit it.
So right on the head right there about the church being for believers, because I
was reading this article the other day and it blew me away.
And it was this evangelist.
And he was talking about how I think it was over in Iran or Afghanistan or something like that.
But there was a he he was preaching at a I don't know.
It wasn't Iran, but it was a Muslim country.
And he was preaching at the pulpit.
And at the very end, he gave an altar call.
And then afterwards, he knows nobody got up.
Nobody did nothing afterwards.
The whole congregation came up to him and said, what?
Why did you do that?
And he goes, well, in case somebody wanted to hear the gospel.
And I go, well, that's why we're here.
We died with him in baptism.
You know, why would somebody come in and that twisted my cat back right there?
Yeah, that I was like, man, we got it all backwards over here in America.
Yeah.
You know, one of my congregants, Robert Bracewell, he goes out and knocks on
doors with me.
And he said something this past week.
We're not called to invite lost people to church.
They don't want to come to church.
Why would they want to come to church?
That's not what we're called to do.
We're called to preach the gospel.
Amen.
And we preach the gospel and God regenerates them.
Guess where they're going to go to church.
Church.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The shepherd has laid his life down for the sheep and the sheep will know his voice.
And he has other sheep that he too has to gather and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
Right.
He is that great shepherd and his sheep will hear his voice.
And what a great privilege it is to be a heralder of that good news, to
be the one to take that to the world.
What a privilege it is.
But church is for the sheep.
It is.
It's centered around worshiping God from the mouth of the buying sheep.
That's what it needs to be.
That's what it has to be.
Right.
Well, hey, guys, I got to get going.
I got to go have dinner.
Get your grub on.
I'm going to get my grub on.
We'll probably carry on for a few more minutes.
Haps, it was good to fellowship with you, man.
I love you, brother.
I love you guys, man.
And we'll definitely see you on the text chat group.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I know I'm going to show you my next tattoo.
I'm getting you guys.
You're going to like it.
What?
What?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I want to get to my tip taco and a tri tip taco,
you know, and I'm going to have a tri tip taco one hand and that that bullhorn and the other.
Ah.
Yeah.
All right, guys.
God bless you.
Remember, guys, to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Amen.
Late.
Amen.
And what I was saying to your point, Braden, about the heralding,
like, you know, maybe I just take it so personally, you know, being a
herald and then to have false prophets get out there and run their mouths.
Yeah.
You know, and.
You know, that's why I look at Nicholas and, you know, what he did to areas and you go.
I understand, you know, and, you know.
You know, sometimes you would, you know, I wish that the Lord would pop the
this false prophets in the mouth.
Yeah.
And shut them close because they because
they it is truly destructive heresies that then abuse the
church.
And then when the gathered body comes together, that then as a, you know, as a pastor, you're having to
sit there and correct, you know, just something that's just so off.
Like, I wish it was something like we were just dealing with discussing discussions about
eschatological issues.
You know, if that was it, it would be nice because, you know, we could have fun with that.
And, you know, there would be, you know, some stuff like that.
But when you're talking this, this sort of trash, I mean, it is
it is the vomit of swine.
Yeah.
And to quote, to quote a dear, dear, dear brother of mine
who I look forward to seeing at the feet of Jesus one day.
He said when we were discussing in the book of John about people that disagreed with
something to quote him on this slap him in the face with the Bible that
that there's sometimes that as a Christian,
I feel like St.
Nick, in that sense, was justified, you know, not to get off a topic.
Yeah, I see Greg stroking his beard and I see me stroking my beard.
And I think you have our plan with your.
What is this?
It's a soul match.
It's because I got a lot of soul.
Stroking his soul.
We got the curls going on.
All right.
All right.
There you go.
That's good.
I got my actually that pretty damn.
Yeah, I need it.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm going to need you to make me some mustache wax.
Okay.
It ain't happening.
I'll send you some, bro.
Send me some, man.
I got you.
Send me some.
I've been growing a good stash and I got to do something with it.
I will send you some.
It'll be a trial product and then we need to go into business together selling it.
So let's do it.
I already got the we'll call it heresy because it's only here that you see.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, let's do it.
I'll send.
I'll send you some though, for sure, bro.
Yeah, I really, I really could use it.
I mean, say that I might try something.
No, don't do that.
Don't do that.
Don't don't do something else.
I got you some.
Don't worry.
I'll make you some here in the next couple of days.
In fact, I'm going to put a reminder on the phone right now.
Yeah.
So I think we'll shut down with that.
And let's just end with talking about the conference that's coming up.
Which is going to be, you know, which.
Greg, are you going to try to make it?
I'm hoping to.
I'm I'm I'm I'm a look at it.
Yeah.
And I'm going to try to find something for you to.
Today, going over the schedule has been really tough.
And now I have to get a I have to actually, which I was telling Braden and Habs
earlier, I have to officially make open air theology, a ministry
on paper.
Right.
In order to have this conference, I have to get a 5 0 1 3 C.
I have to get a bank account for open air theology.
So, you know, dealing with that, dealing, you know, trying to get, you know, the speakers that I've
already asked, waiting for them to respond.
And and a lot of it's going through email.
And I hate email.
Like, like, just like let's text.
Right.
Or let's have a conversation.
Right.
Samantha asks, is the conference going to be on end times?
No, but I love to have a conference on end times.
The conference is going to be based on Ephesians chapter four, dealing with the
truth.
So in Ephesians chapter four, we have I mean, so I can quote it in order.
We have one body, one spirit, one hope.
One Lord, one faith.
One baptism, one God.
I think I got it all.
Did I forget any?
Sounds right.
The seven truths.
And then we're also going to be basically looking at the
book of Ephesians as a whole.
So every one of them that I just named, except for one, are implicit.
You can find, you know, find it in the book of Ephesians, except for one that I'm going to be speaking on, one
baptism.
It's in there, but it's explicit.
And I hope to reveal that that day.
But we also want to look at chapter one, dealing with the covenant of redemption.
And we may do something with chapter five,
talking about the flesh and blood.
Not sure yet, trying to figure everything out.
But we do want to have a lot of time to where we can hang out.
And we plan on having an after party, which that'll take place Friday night.
And we're trying to set up a debate with James White and find something else.
We'll set up a debate.
We're trying to find someone that's willing to debate James White, particularly on...
King James only -ism.
Yeah, King James only -ism.
He's open for other things, but I think it would need to be on the topics that he deals with.
We'll see.
You know what?
We need to do one with like Mormonism, and we'll get like two.
We'll just scour Tennessee until we find two missionaries.
We'll bring them on over, and then James and I can sit down.
And everybody else will just awkwardly look at them as we all debate.
Like if we couldn't...
Like if James wasn't coming, I was going to try to...
If James wasn't coming, I was going to try to see if I could find a Presbyterian to debate me on baptism.
But James is coming, so we're trying to find someone to debate him.
But at this conference, we will announce the next...
Because we plan on having one a year, and we'll probably have something else throughout the year
concerning like with local evangelists and stuff like that, because I want to be able to invite
evangelists to the church and do evangelism training, and teach people the
principles of preaching the gospel in the open air and witnessing one -on -one.
So it'd be nice to have...
I'll reach out to some evangelists that I know to come and help me with that.
But anything y 'all like to say on the subject of the conference?
I'll tell you, man, I'm so excited.
Every night I'm dreaming about it.
I done been to the conference five times.
I done been to the conference five times.
No, brother, I'm so excited for it.
The fellowship is going to be outstanding.
I think the preaching is going to be God glorifying, and
I just, I cannot wait for it.
If anybody's watching this right now, I know that it's at the end of the pod or the show, not the podcast,
whatever we want to call it.
The show, baby.
It's at the end of the show, so usually people start dropping off, but you need to be there.
It's going to be so much fun.
It's going to be wonderful.
I seriously cannot wait for it.
Yeah, I mean, just the hanging out, like I have a lot of scheduled hangouts.
I mean, we're going to be hanging out, like there's a part where, you know,
for those that smoke, you can go, we have a really nice cigar shop here in town.
Yeah, go ahead, sorry.
No, I was going to say, we're going to go to the, we're going to go do evangelism like every single day.
Like this is going to be so much fun.
Yeah, and we're going to, you know, like rent out a restaurant and we're going to, you know, have a,
you know, a psalm singing at a restaurant and psalm reading, like it's going to be so good.
And Samantha is going to be three days, the 17th through the 19th.
So Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
And, you know, I would say, how is it looking for, you know, families,
you know, and bringing the kids along?
Okay, so kids will be free, but if you're an adult or old enough to
understand, then you have to pay for the kids, but small kids will be free.
What happens if my three -year -old really wants to come and I don't want to go, but I'm just going to
have to accompany him?
I'll say that again.
Do I still have to pay?
Because I'm messing with you.
I'm messing with you.
You lost me.
I'm messing with you.
I'm messing with you.
And let me answer Samantha again.
Samantha, yeah, just reach out to me and we'll take care of it.
Yeah.
Yeah, but it's going to be fun.
I mean, again, the guys that I have speaking now are people
that I listen to.
You know, someone had mentioned that a lot of the guys that I have are people that they don't know.
Well, that's the point.
Yeah.
I think if you keep only listening to the guys, you know, that you
know, you know, that are very popular, that everyone knows, like you're just getting
the same thing over and over.
My favorite preachers are the ones that I, you know, are really that no one
knows.
Right.
Like I listen to Pastor Brayden constantly.
Whenever he posts something, I listen to him preach.
And I feast on that.
Now, of course, you know, James White, I love James White.
I listen to all of his stuff.
Him and I have become, you know, I wouldn't say he probably wouldn't say that we're friends.
I might say we're friends.
But, you know, but I'm also trying to get some other guys that, you know, that are well -known.
But the guys that I listen to the most would be Brayden, would be
Claude.
Claude is a fantastic preacher.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, just listening to him, man, it makes me think, man, do I even have a heart?
That's right.
I'm right there with you.
I think the exact same thing.
And then Happy, like, you know, I listen to him preach all the time.
And I got my friend John.
Also, he's a fantastic preacher.
He's young.
He's so knowledgeable.
He's so passionate for God.
And then also Brandon, Brandon Scalp.
You know, Brandon Scalp is an amazing, amazing preacher.
You know, these are guys that I listen to.
And so I haven't been able to hear Greg preach.
I don't know if he has anything out there that he could send me.
You can go onto the Valley Baptist website and go just before Brayden.
You know, he actually finished my series for me.
Oh, the Book of John?
Yeah.
I just started the Gospel of John.
I'm still in Chapter 1.
I'm a testimony of a prophet.
I can let you know that the back half is really good because I got to preach through it.
I know the front half is good too, but I didn't get to preach on it.
So right now I'm waiting for Jeffrey Johnson to message me back.
He might be coming to speak.
He has a seminary.
He's an author.
Like, you know, there's going to be guys that you know and then guys that you don't know.
And I'm telling you, do not sleep on the guys that you don't know.
I mean these are guys that are laboring in the Lord just like everyone else.
And to be honest with you, they're some of my favorite preachers.
I mean I do listen to the big name people, but for the most part I listen to people that no one knows.
The thing is, I'll say this.
I've had a very interesting, and I've said this like when I go and do pulpit supply.
I've had a very interesting experience with doing pulpit supply all over the
place.
I've gone as, you know, super far north in Idaho to northern
Nevada.
I preached around here.
That one of the experiences that I've had, and I'm going to apply this to what you're saying here,
Jeff, is that by going to these different
churches, I'm reminded
that Jesus said He would build His church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
And you know what?
He hasn't stuttered, and it's still happening.
And when you've got, you know, these guys that nobody's heard of, you know what?
You know who has heard of them?
King Jesus.
That's right.
And these are the men that He has raised up for His people in those locations, and that these men
are going to be held just as accountable
to Jesus as James White, as John MacArthur, as R .C. Sproul.
You know, and they're going to be likewise rewarded as well.
And, I mean, it's just, you know, having those no -name preachers,
you know what?
That's how Jesus functions.
Yeah.
And one more that I forgot to mention.
It's all about Him.
Yep.
Yeah.
And one more I forgot to mention.
I don't know why I did, but Anthony Mathena, Paul Washer's pastor.
Yeah.
I mean, just think about, you know, he has to preach to Paul Washer on a weekly basis.
What an intimidating—oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
And so he's going to be preaching the one God, you know?
Listen, don't miss that message.
I mean, you're talking about a man of God, man.
Like, you know, he's one of those guys, you know, I mean, he's been a pastor for
a long time.
And, you know, when I have questions or something, you know, I reach out to my brothers that I, you know, braid
in, I bring hats.
We have a text message group.
When I travel outside of that group, I'm reaching out to my old pastor.
I'm reaching out to Anthony.
You know, guys that I know, like the people that are going to be at this conference
speaking.
These are guys that I reach out to.
Yeah.
You know, like Brandon.
Listen, Brandon is—listen, everyone, the guys that are going to be
coming, we all disagree with each other on certain things.
Like, I want to point that out to you.
Viminently so.
Viminently so.
Yeah, we disagree.
But I want to show that, you know, despite disagreements, we can have unity.
We can love our brothers.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, like there's things that I just—like, you see me and Brayden debate all the time.
And when we're doing it, you would think, man, do they really love each other?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
You show me somebody that's a boxer, but he's never been in a ring with someone outside of pads,
I'm going to tell you he's not a boxer.
Yeah.
Listen, growing comes with pushing and pulling.
Yep.
Right?
You need—a wrestler can only be a wrestler if he's got someone in
front of him, an opponent, where he's pushing and pulling.
If all he's doing is picking up a bag and throwing it, he's not a wrestler.
No.
A boxer without an opponent, he's a shadow boxer.
He's an air guitarist.
Right?
He's playing the air drums.
Like, what are you doing?
And so it's good to have people that you disagree with, but especially in times like this at this
conference, because every one of us are going to be—there's going to be some things that we, you know, see different.
And I think that's good.
And I know that every one of us, if God was to say, hey, you know, you got this wrong, we would fix
it.
Oh, absolutely.
We would change our belief.
Immediately.
Immediately.
Yep.
But the whole idea is that even though we disagree with each other, we love each other in this conference.
Like, if you come to this conference, you're going to be in a room filled with people that agree and
disagree with you, but still love you.
I think that's important.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
I think that's a perfect way to end today.
Yeah.
I love you guys.
Greg, I love you.
Haps, I know you're not here any longer.
I love you.
Love you, Haps. Love you, Greg. Love you, Greg.
I love you guys.
Thanks, man.
Any last words?
Love you guys.
Yeah.
All right.
Everybody, y 'all stay home.
As always, I hope y 'all get to come to the conference.
If you're in Tallahoma, come check out the Reformed Baptist Church.
I mean, excuse me, Covenant Reformed Baptist Church.
Love to have you.
Love to minister to you in any way that I can.
Outside of that, hallelujah, hollaback.
Amen.