in verse 12 where the Bible reads, "And behold I come quickly and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." The title of my sermon tonight is, being paid according to your work. If you would go to John 4. John 4 is where Jesus is preaching and he talks about the subject of wages. The sermon tonight is not just about spiritual things, but rather about being paid according to your work in all areas of life, whether or not this is your physical job, where you get a paycheck and you get actual literal money for your work. The Bible teaches that you should be paid according to your work. Also spiritually, God is going to pay us according to the work that we perform. Look what the Bible says in John 4:35, "Say not ye, there are yet 4 months, then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you. Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest, and he that reapeth receiveth wages." Notice that term there. God's talking about us doing spiritual work in the vineyards, reaping a spiritual harvest for God.
It says he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together. The Bible's very clear that salvation is not wages. Salvation's a free gift. The Bible says in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Wages and a gift are two very different things. Wages are something that you work for and that you earn and deserve, whereas a gift is something that's just given to you freely and someone gives it because of their love for you. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We are saved by grace, meaning that it's not something we deserve. It's not something that we've earned. It's given to us out of the goodness of his heart. That's what it means when it says that salvation is by grace.
It's received through faith, simply just believing in him. It's not something that we work for or earn. The Bible says in Romans 4, "To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." According to the Bible, our salvation is not a wage. It's nothing that God owes us. It's nothing that we work for or earn. It's given to us totally for free, as a gift, but after we are saved, God wants us to work for him, doesn't he. That's why in the famous verse, Ephesians 2:8-9 where it says, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." He follows that up by saying, "For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
We're not saved by works, but we're saved unto works meaning that God does want us to do works after we get saved. He says that we should do works. What must we do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. What should we do after that? There's a lot of things that we should do, and we should work for God. Here's the beautiful thing about this. When we work for God, the Bible says that God will pay us wages for working for him. The Bible teaches that when Christ returns, he will reward every man according as his work shall be. That's why the Bible says here in John 4:36. This reaping is talking about winning people to Christ, where it talks about one sows, another waters, God gives the increase. Reaping the harvest, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him, talking about reaping the harvest of souls for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "He that reapeth receiveth wages." You get paid for working for Jesus. Why would God pay us or reward us? Why would he return someday with his reward with him, to give every man according as his work shall be?
Here are a couple of reasons. Reason 1, is he doesn't want you to think that you're somehow paying back your salvation, that the works you do are somehow repaying what Christ did for you. There's no repayment for that. That was a free gift when you got saved. That's the gift of God. He says if you do any work after that, I'll reward you. I'll pay you. You'll get wages that you'll gather unto your eternal life. That's the first reason. 2, he gives a reward according as our work is in order to motivate us to do more works, because we know that God's going to reward us according to our works. You say, "What kind of a motivation is that?" Let's go to Hebrews 11 and find out. Look at Hebrews 11, the faith chapter and find out what kind of a motivation rewards are unto a believer. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:25, this is referring to Moses. This is what Moses did. He was, "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward."
Let me ask you this. According to this verse, was Moses mindful of being rewarded some day for doing right on this earth? Yeah, he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. He respected that. He wasn't like Esau where future blessings and future rewards and future inheiritance were just something that he despised and didn't care about. No, Moses, he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt because he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. He knew that someday Christ would reward him more richly than anything Pharaoh could give him. This is a biblical motivation for us to serve God. Look down if you would at verse 35, same chapter. "Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, watch this, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others had trial of cruel mocking and scourging, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."
"These all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." If you continue that passage on into chapter 12, he talks about Christ, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and he's a role model unto those of us that would serve Christ, that we would have respect unto the recompense of the reward. This scripture said that there are people who were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Let me ask you this, do you think that you and I, if we live a life of relative peace and prosperity here in the United States, serving Christ, and we get to heaven and there are people there that were tortured for Christ, people that didn't accept deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection, people who wandered in deserts, and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. I don't know about you, but I would rather see them get rewarded more than I get rewarded. I would look at that and say, "I didn't get tortured and refused to accept deliverance."
"Reward this guy according to the work that he did, according to the suffering that he did with Christ. Let him reign with Christ. He's worthy." That's what I would say. Do you think that when we get to heaven, the thief on the cross and the apostle Paul are going to get the same reward? If you do, you're wrong. That's not what the Bible teaches. Let me give you some more Scriptures. You're in Hebrews 11, might as well flip over to Revelation 11, just a few pages to the right. While you do, I'll read you a couple of other verses. Matthew 16:27, "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Salvation's not by works, but the rewards and the wages are according to our works. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1:17 that if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Revelation 11:18, "And the nations were angry, and thy wrath has come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear they name small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroyed the earth."
Notice what it says here, "The time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give a reward unto thy servants the prophets." You see. God doesn't just give out rewards as a participation trophy, but rather we get rewarded according to our deeds, according to our works. The Bible is very clear about that repeatedly. "Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be." Not only that, but if you would go to Ecclesiastes 5, and see that in this life, we should be rewarded according to our works. When we go to our job and work hard, and excel, and accomplish a lot for the company, we should be paid more than the guy who goes in and slacks of and does the minimum and does not excel. We live in a time where this idea is being challenged. There are people out there who have these doctrines of Marxism, Socialism, Communism. These are dirty words. These are dirty, unscriptural, wicked philosophy that rewards laziness, apathy, and people who are slothful and their sluggards. That's what the Bible calls them. That's who it rewards, and it punishes people who work hard and excel.
I thank God that when we serve Christ, he doesn't punish us for excelling. He rewards it. He gives us more rewards. Man, you worked hard, you get more. The one who's lazy doesn't get it. He misses out on the reward. That's really more important than any paycheck anyway, the spiritual rewards. Here's the thing, even in this life though, we need to get on God's program and understand that people should be paid according to the work that they do. Everyone shouldn't just be paid the same because that's fair. In your warped Jewish, Marxist, Communist mind, that is not what the Bible teaches. Look down if you would at Ecclesiastes 5:18. The Bible says, "Behold, that which I have seen. It is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life which God giveth him for it is his portion." The Bible says it is good and comely for someone to work hard, then enjoy the fruits of their own labor. That pleases God. Look if you would at Ecclesiastes 9:7.
The Bible says, "Go thy way. Eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity which he hath given thee under the sun all the days of thy vanity, for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest. I returned and saw under the sun. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all." The Bible is teaching here that we have the right to enjoy the fruits of our own labors, to eat the bread, to drink the wine. Obviously we're not talking about an alcoholic beverage, but we're talking about the finer things in life.
It's okay to wear white clothes and anoint your head with ointment, to live joyfully with your wife and to work hard. That's your portion. That's what's coming to you. You earned it, the Bible is saying, if you go out and work hard. Whatever your hand findeth to do, the Bible says, do it with thy might. Why? There's going to come a day when the time to work is over. It reminds me of they hymn that says, work for the night is coming, when man's work is o'er. It talks about in the gospel of John where he said, "I must work the works of my father while it is yet day, for the night cometh when no man can work." He wasn't talking about a physical night. What he's talking about is the end of his life. At the end of Jesus' life, he said to the Father, "I've finished the work which thou gavest me to do." We only have this life to work for Christ, then there's no more opportunity. What the Bible's showing us here in Ecclesiastes is, first of all, that a person who works hard has the right to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
In verse 11, we see another aspect of the same concept where it says, I returned, after he just finished teaching that, and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift. The fastest person does not always win the race. There are people who have set the speed record in a certain running race, but then they go to the Olympics and they don't get the gold. Why? Because they didn't win that particular race. They were having a bad day. Somebody else was having a great day, and time and chance happeneth to them all. You know what? If I showed up to the Olympics and I lined up for the 1 mile, or 1500 meters, or whatever it is, and I just had a real good day, I'm still not going to win. Even if I had the best day I'd ever had, and everybody had the worst day they ever had. Why? Because I'm not an athlete of that caliber. I know that comes as a shock to you, but the thing is the Bible is saying, among those. Listen to me now. Among those who work hard, among those who try hard, among those who train, there is an element of chance.
There is an element of it's your day, it's not your day meaning that when we go out into the working world, this is about work and the fruit of your labor and your earning. Not everybody's going to go out and make the same amount of money. Look what it says. It says, "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise." Just because you're the smartest doesn't mean that you're going to make the most bread. "Nor yet riches to men of understanding." Just because you have the best understanding, you might not make the most money. Why? Because life isn't fair. There's chance. Sometimes people just are in the right place at the right time, and they make a lot of money, or they're in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they don't make so much money. Things go wrong. This is the life that we live. This attitude of, "Oh, God's not fair because we don't all have the same amount of money. We don't all have the same car. This isn't fair." It's misguided. 1, you have to work hard to enjoy nice things and to have money.
2, there is an element of chance where some people are going to end up doing better than others, not because they're smarter, not because they're better, but just because that's the way the world works. Plus, God in his wisdom sometimes just knows that we can't handle too much money. He keeps us a little leaner than we want to be for our own spiritual well being. Let's face it. The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. If we had too much money, we would probably all become stupid to an extent. We'd all get prideful or arrogant or foolish, so God keeps us where we have to trust him a little bit and not get too arrogant and puffed up. The reason that this is important though is because this Socialist, Communist, Marxist philosophy, it's creeping into our nation today. It's such a dangerous philosophy because it causes people to be lazy. It causes people to be apathetic, and to get this entitlement mentality where they just think the world owes them a living, then they look at people who have more than them and they envy those people. They covet what those people have, and these are sins according to the Bible, covetousness.
Thank God, we live in the United States of America which is not a perfect place. There are plenty of problems in our country, but thank God, in 2016, the United States is still a land of opportunity. If you want to go out and work hard and make enough money to support yourself, you can. Period. People have all kinds of excuses why they can't succeed. Look, I'm not saying that you can go out and become rich. I don't think it's a good goal, because the Bible says, "Labor not to be rich." The Bible says, "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare." Being rich is not the goal. The goal is to be able to provide for yourself, to be able to provide for your wife, and to be able to provide for your children. Aren't those good goals? If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. God wants us to provide for our own. God has ordained that in this world, in order to provide, you have to work by the sweat of your face all the days of your life.
He told the children of Israel in the Old Testament, "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." He had them rest on the seventh day. Here's the thing, "They worked six days, then they rested one day." Today, people work for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, then here's what they sit around saying,"Did you know that in France, they have a 35 hour work week?" "Oh, that's so cool" Shut up, you lazy fool. I don't want to live in France. France is a wicked place. You can go live in France. "Oh, it's so great, in Germany and Sweden and France." You know what they have over there? 1 kid, in France, 1. You want to know why they only have 1 kid, because they can only afford 1 kid. They work their 35 hour work week, then the government takes half their money away, then they live in a high rise apartment. A bunch of fools in the United States, "Oh, we need that European style Socialism." You're a fool. Oh, you mean the European Socialism that plagues half of the continent into a hell of just decades of [goulads 00:20:13], and torture and oppression of the Eastern Block and the Soviet Union?
You want to live in that hell? You want to live in that horrific nightmare on earth, of the Soviet Union? Is that what you want? "Oh, but we love Socialism. What's so bad about being a democratic Socialist?" You need to get a history book and crack it open and read about all the massacred millions in the Soviet Union, millions in Red China. Why? Because it's a wicked, godless, atheistic, Marxist philosophy that destroyed huge parts of this world, North Korea, China, all these places. You're going to sit here and say, "Oh, it's just not fair here in America, because so many people have all this money, and then other people work so hard and they don't have anything." Look. This is what the Bible says, "You get paid according to the work that you do." You say, "I know people who work hard, and they don't make any money." No, you don't. That's a lie. If you do, they don't live in the United States of America. You may know people like that in another country, but in the United States of America, people who work hard get paid, or if you know somebody who has a really physically demanding job in the United States of America, and doesn't make a lot of money, then they don't have any responsibility.
Sometimes working hard with your mind, and having a lot of responsibility is actually harder than digging a ditch. Seriously. I used to run a fire alarm business. Everybody thinks I say firearm business, and I know that sounds a lot cooler. I run a firearm business, so I usually just don't correct people when they think that's what I said. No, I'm just kidding. I ran a fire alarm business, not near as cool. Smoke detectors, flashing lights, and buzzers. It's not as cool as guns or anything. I'm just saying. I was basically an electrician. Because I ran my own business for years, I spent a lot of time out on the field actually doing the work, turning the screwdriver, bending the conduit, pulling the wire, then I spent a lot of other time doing paperwork, working on a computer, doing sales and stuff like that. I can tell you right now, that I personally preferred working out in the field any day of the week, and it was way more strenuous and tiring and harder to run the business side of it, than to go out and do the physical work. Yet, all these workers, all over the place, they're like, "Oh, they just sit in the office all day and bla, bla, bla."
Who wants to sit in the stupid office all day? It's great to get out in the field and work with your hands. I'll tell you this. Your day goes by way faster out there, than in the office. When you're out there doing alarms-. I remember, my first job where I got a regular paycheck was Round Table Pizza. You're a little cooped up. You're in a kitchen for hours, and hours and hours, and you're looking at the clock all the time. The day kind of dragged. I liked the job, I loved the pizza, but it dragged. Then I got a job doing alarms where I was going out in the field, pulling wire, you had the drill, you had the tools. We're doing physical work. It meant the days would flow by. 10 hour days would just blow by. I loved that job because it was just, "Whoa, the day's over." Go home. Enjoy life. It was great. Here's the thing about that. People who make money-. There are people of course, who make money dishonestly. I get that, but that's not our problem, is it? Let God judge those people. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about you.
If you want to make it in life, you need to stop blaming other people and you need to go to work and make some money and pay your bills and make something happen. Listen, there are people who want to go to a job, where they have virtually no responsibility, where they never have to work overtime. They never have to stay all night. They just clock in, work 8 hours, clock out, go home, nobody's going to call them and say, "Hey, you've got to come back down here." Call them in the middle of the night and make them do all kinds of crazy things. It's as low responsibility. The stakes are low. At Round Table Pizza, the stakes are pretty low. You drop a pizza or something, it's not really gonna kill anyone or cause anyone's life to be ruined. It's just, "Oh man, they've got to wait 7 more minutes to make another one." That's a low stress environment. They do a job like that, and then they expect to get paid the same as somebody who has a really high stress, high pressure, risky job or something that takes a lot more skill and knowledge, and they expect to get paid the same, and it isn't right.
It isn't biblical. You get paid according to the work that you do. You should not get this attitude that says, "Everybody should be making the same amount of money." No, they shouldn't. If everybody makes the same amount of money, you're rewarding the lazy and punishing the hardworking. There are certain men who the Bible calls men of activity, men who work hard, men who get things done. Today we call them workaholics. They used to just be called a hard worker. There are other people, somebody who just wants to play around the whole time, fool around and not have any responsibility. These two people should not get paid the same amount of money period. It isn't biblical and it doesn't make any sense. Here's the other thing you hear a lot about. Don't say that I'm some political guy. I don't talk much about political stuff. Frankly, I don't really care about it. I'm more into the spiritual battle than whether Devil A, or Devil B gets elected. I'm not really that worried about it. The bottom line is though, that you hear people talk about the minimum wage. We need to raise the minimum wage, or that you should be able to live off of the minimum wage for the rest of your life. We need to make it that high.
Here's the thing about that. What about teenagers who are 15,16 years old and want to get a job. Do they really need to be making like $20 an hour, or $15 an hour or whatever? When they're living at home with their parents and it's a starter job, it's a beginner job, it's an entry level position, why would you need to just pay this person some huge amount of money? It doesn't make any sense. You say, "Well, but some people are adults and they're working there and that's their only income." If you raise that thing through the roof, now these people have no motivation to gain any new skills, to gain any education, to work harder, to get more responsibility and to climb the ladder through the sweat of their face. They just have it made in the shade. They can just be a bottom level guy who does the dishes and pushes a mop around, no stress, no pressure, no skill, no education needed, and then they can just make $20 an hour, or whatever. They just smoke pot every night, and just sit around and do that, and have no ambition to move forward. It doesn't make any sense.
When you're a teenager, you don't need that kind of money that someone who's-. You get jobs like that when you're a teenager, then you go past that. If you want to make more money than that, which pretty much everyone needs to make more money than that to survive. You're supposed to move on from that. It's not designed that you keep that bottom level, minimum wage job for the rest of your life. That's a starter job for you. Does everybody understand what I'm saying. These are important life lessons. You go in there, you work. You gain the experience and then you move on to something else. Or else, if you stay there, don't complain about it. You chose to stay there for the rest of your life. Let me just give you some illustrations from my own life. When I was 16, in California you pretty much had to be 16 to get a job. I think here a lot of places will hire you at 15. I got hired at 16 at Round Table Pizza. This was not a really super duper, high intensity, high responsibility. I wasn't exactly a brain surgeon where somebody's life is depending on me.
Think about how stressful that would be, you're operating on someone's brain while their still alive. Okay. It wasn't exactly like that when I was weighing out the pepperoni to put on the pizza. The stakes weren't that high. Here's the thing. If I said to them, "Hey, I want to take a few weeks off and go to Germany." I took a few trips like that. I went to Germany for 3 months, then another time I went to Germany for 3 weeks, then I took a couple of weeks off to just have fun in California and go places. You know what? I worked at Round Table from the time I was 16-19. I worked there for 3 years. Here's the thing. When I turned 18, I could have gotten a more serious job in California, because when you're 18, a whole bunch of jobs open up to you that you can't get when you're 16. When I was 18, I could have gone out and gotten a better, more responsible, higher paying job that would have been a little more demanding, but I chose not to, because I didn't want the responsibility when I was 18. I was more interested in just dating girls, and just learning things, learning foreign languages, traveling, volunteering at my church, doing a lot of soul winning. I was just still young and I just wasn't ready to do that yet.
Should I just be complaining? "Oh man, I'm only making $6 an hour." No, because any time I wanted to, I could have gotten serious about a different kind of job and gotten something a little bit more advanced. I chose to stay there because I didn't want the responsibility. I wanted to be able to take 3 months off, or 2 weeks off and travel around and have fun. I was young. That's where I was at. Then, when I turned 19, I got married. Then it's time to get a serious job. Obviously, I pay the bills. 50 hours a week, make that the priority, very important. That's what I'm saying about these entry level type jobs versus more serious type jobs where you have to work a little harder, or have more stress, or a little bit more responsibilities. Then you look at people who own businesses. They're putting a bunch of money on the line and there's a lot of risk involved and then they end up sometimes making a lot of money, but they've put a lot of money into it and risked everything in order to make that money. It's easy for the drone worker to look at them and envy them and say, "Well, that's not fair."
When I was in the business world, I am a full time pastor now. For the last couple of years, I've just pastored the church and that's all I do. That's more than a full time job. Before that, for years, I did both. I worked a job, just until 2 1/2 years ago is when I went full time. Actually 2 years ago January is when I went full time. For the first 8 years of pastoring, I either worked a full time, overtime type job, or toward the end I did a part time and phased it out. Let me say this. When I was working in the fire alarm business, I was successful in the sense that I made a lot of money. Here's how I made a lot of money in the fire alarm business. I made a lot of money by 1., sleeping in my car 2 nights out of every week. I was traveling all over, driving all over, working like 60-70 hours a week and for years, I slept in my car 2 nights a week on average. Does that sound fun? Here's the thing. I could have just gotten a hotel, except I was trying to make money to support my wife and a whole bunch of kids back home on one income.
I slept in the car. I can't even count how many times I stayed up all night working, hundreds of times, traveling. Look, there were literally times where I felt like I can't even do this anymore. I just felt like I cannot keep doing this. It was just too much. I'm going to preach one more sermon, then I need to re-evaluate my life. I was feeling so overloaded with pastoring the church and running my business. It was just a lot to do. Imagine how I feel when the IRS comes and says, "Oh, you're not paying us enough." When I'm already paying them so much money, it's like, "Whoa, I just sent you guys like 10 grand." That's not enough because we need to take more, and then they want to give it to people who are sitting on their fat, lazy rear ends in front of the TV, while I'm out busting my hump, breaking my back, sleeping in the car, working my tail off to try to make something happen. It isn't right. You try to build a business and then Obama gets up and says, "You didn't build that." Remember that speech? You didn't build that, somebody else made that happen.
You think you have money because you're smart and work hard, let me tell you something. There's a lot of smart people. There's a lot of hard working people. Everybody's smart, and everybody works hard. No, I've known a lot of people that are stupid, and I've known a lot of people that are lazy and don't work hard. Let me tell you something. They all think that they should be making a whole bunch of money. That's why they lust after riches and go buy lottery tickets all the time. Lusting after riches that they will never have because they're too lazy. Look at what the Bible says tonight. Let's go to Proverbs 12, show you some verses on slothfulness. Talking about slothfulness tonight, sluggards who think that the world owes them a living. They think that they should be making the same amount of money as somebody who's highly skilled. How did they get highly skilled? By practicing, by training, by reading books, by working hard, by excelling at their job. They want to make the same amount to push a broom or pick up trash. Look, I do not have anything against people who push brooms and pick up trash.
As long as you're making an honest living, I respect you. I lose respect for you when you start saying, "I should be making as much as the owner of the company." That's when I lose respect for you, or when you start coveting and forget that the Bible says, Thou shalt not covet. You start looking at what other people have and saying, "That's not fair. That isn't right." Life is about priorities and trade offs. While one group of kids are rotting their brain in front of a TV, rotting their brain in front of video games, another group of kids are reading books, working with their dad, learning something, working with their grandpa, gaining some kind of skill, doing something productive, serving the Lord, whatever. These two types of kids, when they grow up, one of them's going to be more successful than the other. Is everybody listening? If you're going to be somebody who just drank and partied away your 20s with a lot of drinking and drugs, and this, and then you wonder why someone else is further along when they're 30. "That's not fair. I've got a BS degree from the state university. Bachelor of Science, I got a BS in poetry. I got a BS in sports."
Sorry, you spent your 20s being drunk and lazy and stupid, and working jobs that weren't serious. You're not going to make as much as a guy who took life a little more seriously and did some reading and studying and went to the Lord of wisdom and got it. You see what I'm saying? Look, I'm not talking about being rich. I'm not talking about driving fancy cars. When was the last time you saw me drive a fancy car. If you did, it was a rental. Every once in a while, you get lucky at the rental counter. When was the last time you saw me wearing fancy suits and doing all this conspicuous spending? No, that's not me. I don't live in a fancy house. I live in a small, old house. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about being able to pay your own bills and provide for your family good things, good food and good clothes, and have a nice lifestyle that a hardworking person deserves, according to God in the book of Ecclesiastes. If someone's going to be lazy, they're not going to get all that. Let's see what the Bible says.
Proverbs 12:24, I hope this sermon is coming through tonight and people are understanding what I'm saying. Proverbs 12:24, "The hand of the diligent-" What does diligent mean? Someone who patiently works hard, and continues until they succeed. That's diligent. "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute." There's so much in that verse. Just that verse alone is so profound. It's telling you first of all, the guy who works hard is going to be in charge. He's going to be the manager, he's going to be the boss. Also, on a macro scale, if we as a nation are filled with lazy people, we're going to pay heavy taxes. Tribute means taxes. The slothful shall be under tribute. The more lazy we get as a nation, where we want everything just given to us, guess what? The more taxes we're going to pay, and we're going to be under tribute and enslaved. Verse 27, the slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of the diligent man is precious, meaning that when you work hard for things, you appreciate them. When they're given to you, you don't even appreciate.
You're given free food, and you just leave it out to rot. Whereas, the man who works hard for his money, he says, "Wrap that up and put that in the fridge." Look at chapter 15:19. Let's get some Bible teaching tonight on why some people are failing to be able to succeed at their job, or provide for their family, or why they feel like they need to vote in somebody who's going to give them everything for free, or that we need to be more like Sweden. We need to be more like France. Have you ever been to France? Have you ever been to Sweden? Have you ever been to Germany? I've never been to Sweden, I admit it. I've been to France and Germany. You know what? Anybody who travels and goes to other countries, this is the biggest thing you learn, how good we have it in America. That's what I learned. I go over there, and you don't see anybody with 8 kids, because nobody can afford to have 8 kids over there. They don't live the same lifestyle that we live. They don't have the same freedom that we have over there. Germany is so wonderful.
European style of Socialism, yeah, it's so wonderful they come at gunpoint to put your kids in school when you try to home school. They come at gunpoint to vaccinate your kids. You're not allowed to have a gun. You're just a sitting duck to be raped and pillaged by whatever weirdos when you can't even defend yourself. You think you're allowed to carry in Sweden? Do you think you're allowed to carry in Germany? You're not even allowed to booby trap your yard against vandals or thieves. You just have to let them steal. If they come at you with a knife, you have to come at them with a knife that's smaller, or the same size. You can only match force with what they have. It's like, "okay, let me see what kind of weapon you've got. Okay, I got to get something smaller or equivalent." Right? They're coming at you with a baseball bat, you got a big lead pipe, it's like, "Just a minute. Let's get something a little smaller." It's true. When you talk to people who live there, they're really frustrated. They talk about people coming in and just stealing their stuff, beating them up, and they can't defend themselves.
How would you like that? How would you like to see you and your family members getting beaten up, and you don't have a weapon, you can't even defend yourself? You go to work and they tax half your income, and then you decide, I'm going to get a second job. In Germany when you get the second job, they take 90%. Guess what ends up happening? Nobody works a second job. What's the point? My wife's nodding her head because she lived there. You work the first job, you pay a certain tax rate. The second job's like, what's the point? You say, "I know people over there that are doing real well." Yeah, how many kids do they have? They're doing well when they're single, or there's 2 people, 2 incomes for 2 people. It's not that hard to make it on that kind of an income. Where are we in the Bible? 15:19, watch this. I love this verse. "The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain." Here's what this verse is saying. Lazy people, there's all these obstacles. You tell them, "Hey, get this job done."
"Oh, here's all the reasons why I couldn't get it done." It's like just a hedge of thorns, everything they do. It's like, "Ah man, it was so hard. I couldn't do it because of this." Then there's the guy who just finds a way to get it done. There's that guy who's just constantly calling the boss with problems. Can't do it. Can't do it. Can't do it. Then there's the other guy who just goes to the store and spends 50 cents on the washer he needs. Hey, I found a way to get it done, or whatever. You know what I mean? Instead of the guy, "I don't know what to do." The way of the slothful is like a hedge of thorns. Everywhere he turns, there's obstacles. The righteous man is just leaping over, he just gets it done. It's just nothing gets in his way. He just gets it done. The Bible says in chapter 18:9, this is just good tips at how to succeed for your job. Just find a way to get it done. Chapter 18:9, "He also that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that's a great waster." Again, lazy people not appreciating what they get for free, or what's given to them, so they waste it.
Chapter 19:24, "A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom." I would hide my hand in my bosom, but then I'll be accused of being a Freemason." This picture will be all over the internet, or something. "The slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again." So lazy that they can't even bring the fork to their own mouth. This is where slothfulness takes you. Chapter 21, we're just going to crank through some of these slothful verses. "The desire of the slothful", chapter 21:25, "The desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands refuse to labor." Chapter 22:13, "The slothful man sayeth, there's a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets." There's always an excuse why he can't get to work. I don't care if there's a lion outside. You get to work anyway. Find a way around that lion. Don't call your boss and tell him that there's a lion, and that's why you cannot. He's going to say, you lyin'. It says in verse 14, "As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed." "The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom, it greiveth him to bring it again to his mouth." This is in chapter 26, I forgot to tell you to go there. Chapter 26, sorry about that.
Chapter 26:13-15 is what I was reading. It says there in verse 14, "As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed." There's people that don't want to get out of bed in the morning. They're lazy. They sit around and the Bible talks about the fact that their hands refuse to labor. You don't have to turn there. You go back to chapter 6 of Proverbs, and I'll read for you some New Testament verses on being slothful. Matthew 25:26 says, "The Lord answered and said unto him, thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed." He's saying, "Look, you're wicked and slothful." What does the Bible saying there, that if you're lazy, you're wicked. Laziness is wickedness. You're slothful, you're wicked. Romans 12:11 tells us that we should not be slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. The Bible says in Hebrews 6:12, "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. You say, "What does it mean to be slothful?" There's an animal called a sloth. It's an extremely slow moving animal that sits around all day.
It's sort of the word sluggard, reminds you of what animal? A slug which is a snail with no shell, and it moves very slowly. The lazy person is one who moves slowly. It's somebody who's uninspired about their work, just kind of-. They're not fervent in spirit. The opposite of being slothful in the New Testament was to be fervent. Fervent comes from the root word where we get fire. Fervent, fire. What that's saying is that there's kind of a fire burning in the furnace and you're excited and you're working hard and you're zealous as opposed to the guy who it's kind of fizzled out and he moves real slow, sort of like a bee that you find when a bee runs out of pollen. Have you ever found a bee where it ran out of energy. They can't fly anymore because they only take enough honey just to get to the destination and back. They don't take any extra fuel. They plan where they're going. They load up on calories because they don't want to tax the hive too much. They don't want to take more than they need, because they want the hive to have that honey for the queens and the eggs, and the operation.
They only take what they need. Every once in a while, things come up, Murphy's law, and the bees are out flying around. Things go wrong, and they don't make it back and they run out of fuel, because they get lost or something waylays them, you're swinging at them and making them waste a bunch of fuel or whatever. Then, they'll just land. Who knows what I'm talking about when they're just walking on the sidewalk and can't fly? If you go to them with a spoonful of sugar water, you could actually feed it to them and then they'll fly away and be happy. Isn't that sweet? Anyway, it's true. I've never done it. Look at Proverbs 6:6, Here's an animal that's very similar to the bee. All that was to say this, some people that work are like that guy who ran out of sugar. Here, drink this and get back to work, you idiot. Look at Proverbs 6:6, "Go to the ant thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer or ruler provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth and thy want as an armed man."
Look at chapter 10:26. The Bible there is saying that the sluggard always has to have an overseer, somebody's always got to be cracking the whip, or else he quits working. "Hey, get back to work. Hey, keep going." Look at chapter 10:26, "As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him." This is how irritating you are to your boss. This is how your boss feels when he sends you to do something, and you're being lazy. It's like he's got smoke in his eyes. That's pretty irritating, right? Look at chapter 13, just a few pages to the right. Chapter 13:4, "The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat." Turn over to 2 Thessalonians 3 in the New Testament. While you're turning there, I'll read for you from Proverbs 20:4, "The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold. Therefore shall you beg in harvest and have nothing." Again, always an excuse why you can't work. It's too cold outside. Put on a warmer jacket. Put something on. Verse 16 of chapter 26 says, "The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than 7 men that can render a reason"
Look at 2 Thessalonians 3:10. You say, "Well, you're stuck in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus was a commie, socialist." That's what a lot of people think. I've heard a lot of people saying that lately. I got a letter in the mail yesterday from somebody. I opened the letter in the mail and they said, "Jesus was a Socialist." You right winger, you, or whatever they're accusing me of being. 2 Thessalonians 3:10, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he eat." This is Bible. This is New Testament. Notice, it doesn't say if people are unable to work. If people are unable to work, then the charity of the church, and the charity of their loved ones kicks in at that point to feed them, and to give alms unto them. If any will not work. If anyone doesn't want to work, neither should he eat, the Bible says. God is perfectly okay with the sluggard starving to death. That's what the Bible says. It's his own fault. He's committing suicide because he's not willing to work, then he's not going to eat.
An empty stomach will get somebody to go to work eventually. That'll motivate you. You'll notice that a lot of people that are lined up for all the freebies, they don't look like they're exactly starving to death. Isn't that the truth? Why? There's no motivation to work, because they're not going to work and they're getting free food. They'd be a lot more motivated if they went a couple of days without eating. You say, "That sounds harsh." Take it up with God. Take it up with the Apostle Paul. I didn't write 2 Thessalonians. Why? Why should those who won't work, why should they not eat? Why? Because he says, "We hear that there are some that walk among you disorderly, working not at all, that are busybodies. Them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread." Go to Luke 19. This is the last place we'll turn tonight. Luke 19. This is an important subject because the world's philosophies will creep in, the entitlement mentality. Look, even if you say, "Pastor Anderson, come on. I go to work. I'm not lazy. I work hard."
Yes, but when you covet what other people have all the time, and just every time you see someone who has nicer things than you and you say, "Well, must be nice." There's something wrong with your heart." It's not a Biblical mentality. You have to understand a few things. 1, is that there's a good chance that person worked harder than you, or while you were goofing off, they were gaining some skill, or gaining some knowledge, or gaining some edge or advantage while you were out goofing off. I've spent a lot of time goofing off in my life. Guilty. I goofed off most of my childhood. I didn't goof off all of my childhood. Some people goofed off all of it. I at least came out ahead of those kind of people who just completely goofed off. The bottom line is, when you look at someone who has things that you don't have, a lot of times they worked harder or risked more. They're entitled to that and it's not for you to covet what they have and get mad because you're not getting the same thing. It's not right for someone who's 20, to look at someone who's 40 and say, "I should have what they have."
They didn't have that when they were 20. they have that because they're 40. When they're 60, they're probably going to have even more. When you're 20, you can't sit there, "Well, I want to have everything." People get married now, and it's like they just want to have everything right now that their parents have when they're in their 40s. No, it doesn't work that way. When I got married, we had 2 plates, 2 cups, 2 forks, 2 spoons. We had a twin mattress on the floor that we shared, my wife and I. We were close. What can I say? We slept in a twin bed, not even a bed, just a mattress on the floor. We didn't have a sofa for years. Zsuzsanna, did we have a sofa around the time we had our third child or what? I remember being in Indiana and having no sofa, then somebody gave us a sofa. Oh wow, we have a sofa. We moved here and started the church and we didn't have a sofa for a year and a half of living in Arizona. We lived in Arizona for a year and a half, then we bought a couch.
Okay, when we first got married, we had a table and 2 chairs. When we invited friends over for dinner, we would say, "Bring chairs." No joke. We'd say, "We only have 2 chairs, so bring 2 chairs, if we had another couple over for dinner. We would go out to eat with my parents every Friday night. You say, "Well, is that just the hottest date on a Friday night?" They were paying. We were there every Friday night. Let's do it. That was the only time we went out to eat, it was when someone was taking us out to eat literally. We weren't just going out to eat all the time, just blowing through a bunch of money. No, we went out to eat when someone took us out to eat. That's how our life was for years. You build up to things. You work hard and eventually you get the white raiment and the anointed head, and a little bit nicer stuff. Somebody recently attacked me because I said something about the fact that I eat organic food. In our family, we eat organic. Somebody commented. I don't know if it was a you Tube video, or something, but they commented and they said, "Wow, you must be really making a lot of money. You're really fleecing the flock over there in order for you to be able to afford that organic feed for you and your family.
The sentence was grammatically screwed up, spelled wrong, punctuate wrong, capitalized wrong and he's like, "Must be nice to be able to afford all that organic feed." It's like, "Wait a minute. Maybe if you knew how to spell the word food, you'd be able to afford some of this organic feed yourself." It's funny. Somebody who can't even write a complete sentence, who can't capitalize. They can't put the period. They can't spell it right, then they're begrudging me for eating organic feed. By the way, it's organic food, because food is what people eat, and feed is what animals eat. Organic feed sounds like I'm opening a big bag of chicken feed for my family. "All right honey, here's today's feed. I'll slice it open and it all comes pouring out on the counter and we all 8 of my kids start pecking it like chickens." All the organic feed, we all just put it in a trough and line up all to eat kids for the organic feed. Hey, feed. At least there are none of them GMOs in it. Look, it's like, you can't even write a coherent sentence, that's why you can't afford organic food. It's like, "No, you should be feeding your family junk food, because you should be living the same lifestyle that I'm living."
Why don't you get some skills to pay the bills my friend, instead of just sitting there and envying someone who can afford the organic feed? I just wanted to keep calling it the organic feed now. Get my feed on. You see what I'm saying? Here's what the Bible says, "The workman is worthy of his meat." The workman is worthy of his meat. Don't muzzle this ox as he treads out the corn. Is this a GMO sermon? Is this a Monsanto sermon? Is this a sermon filled with poison and junk and pesticides and I'm feeding you spiritually? Is this like a spiritual Big Mac tonight? Be honest with me. Am I feeding you a spiritual Spamburger tonight? Why should I go in and eat spam. Look, I'm not trying to eat shrimp and filet mignon, my friend, but I'm not eating GMOs either. I just want to eat some good, clean, organic feed, all right. That's all I want, not trying to have an air conditioned dog house, or live in a fancy house, but I want to be able to eat some organic food for my family. Is that okay? Here's the thing. I'm a skilled laborer up here.
If you don't think I'm a skilled laborer, come replace me right now. Who wants to come replace me? In fact, I'm trying to send out a bunch of pastors to go start churches all over America, and I can count on one hand the guys that are even close to being able to do that. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. "It must be nice, Pastor Anderson." You go sleep in your car 500 times, you go work your fingers to the bone and work 80-90 hours a week for several years, 10 years, then come back and talk to me about my organic feed. Luke 19, it's this covetous envy attitude that just says, "Everybody should be poor, because I'm poor. I should get paid $20 an hour to sweep the floor, or whatever." No, you're not a skilled laborer. Get some skills. If you don't want to get skills, you have 2 other options. Let me just give you some life lessons. Here's how you make money in this world. 1, you could be a criminal. You'll make money. I'm not recommending that. I'm just telling you that there are people who sell drugs, and do banking scams and things.
There are people who make money being an organized criminal. That's one option. You can work for the devil, and be a criminal and steal, and cheat and lie and you'll make good money doing that. Eventually, your sins will find you out. It's going to catch up to you. Here's another way to make good money. Get some skills and become a skilled laborer. Get some education, skills, learn something. Become a valuable worker in some way, shape, or form. That's one option. You say, "Well, you know. I just can't get any skills. I'm just completely unskilled." Here's another option. You can work super hard. Work 2 jobs, 3 jobs. You say, "Okay, well I don't like that' lifestyle because that's too many hours and I can't do that." Okay, there's a 4th option, you can do. You can do a job that's unskilled and it doesn't cause a million hours, but it's an unsavory job, like for example. Let's say you're doing a garbage truck where you're around a lot of dirty smells and it's a crummy job. A lot of times, those guys can get paid a pretty decent wage just because of the fact that they're doing jobs that other people don't really want to do.
Look, if you work in that kind of a job, I have nothing but respect for you. I respect all jobs equally as long as you're not being dishonest or a criminal. If you're going out and working by the sweat of your face, I respect you. If you're a white collar guy, or a blue collar guy, or a garbage collector, I respect you the same. I can say that from the bottom of my heart. I mean that. I think that any job, and if my children grow up and shovel dung, and that's how they support their family, I respect. I love them and am proud of them as long as they're Godly Christians that shovel dung. No shame in that at all. There are ways to get ahead, my friend. There are ways to make money, but you've got to work hard, and you've got to suffer. There are people that don't know what it's like to ever work all night. They've never done it. There are people who've never worked 30 hours straight. There are people who've never stayed late, gotten there early. They're always, "I'm not going to do that. I've got to go drinking."
I'm not going to do that. Hey, I know you just worked 8 hours, but can you drive 4 hours and drop this thing off? No way man. Then you wonder why you don't get ahead. Sometimes you've got to bite the bullet and suffer, and bleed, and sweat and push yourself and get it done. There are two kinds of people. There are the people who just get it done, and then the hedge of thorns mentality. Go to Luke 19. You say, "Man, you seemed fired up." The thing that gets me fired up about it is when I think about people working hard, then other people who are really lazy saying, "I should have the same that the hard worker has." That's not the way it works. Let's look at the Bible. Luke 19:12, "He said therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return." By the way, that's Jesus who's represented here in the parable. Jesus is the one who's going to return. Goes into a far country. He's going to return and set up his kingdom. He called his 10 servants and delivered them 10 pounds and said, occupy 'til I come.
His citizens, meaning the citizens of the earth hated him and sent a messsage after him saying, "we'll not have this man to reign over us." It came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, that he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first saying, "Lord, thy pound hath gained 10 pounds." He said unto him, "Well, thou good servant. Because thou hast been faithful in very little, have thou authority over 10 cities." When Christ returns, he's going to give out rewards based on people's works. He might say to somebody in the millennial reign, "Be over 10 cities." Let's keep reading. The second came saying, "Lord, thy pound hath gained 5 pounds." He said likewise to him, "Be thou also over 5 cities." Another came saying, "Lord, behold here is thy pound which I have kept laid up in a napkin." What? Why'd you wrap your money in a napkin? "For I feared thee because thou art an austere man. Thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow."
He sayeth unto him, "Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then gavest not my money unto the bank that at my coming, I might have required my own with usury?" And he said unto them that stood by, "Take from him the pound and give it to him that hath 10 pounds." " Then all the commies saith unto them. This is the Steven Anderson version. No, I'm just kidding. "and they say unto him, "Lord, he hath 10 pounds." Look, they're whining. Look at this. God's like, "Put that verse in parentheses, that whining, just to make sure we know that it's not me saying it." Just to make sure we know it's not Jesus saying. They said. They said unto him, "Lord, he hath 10 pounds." See, Jesus finds one servant who did the best, worked the hardest and turned 1 pound into 10 pounds. He excelled. There was risk involved. He worked hard. He struggled. He strived and he's proud to say to the boss, "Lord, here is what I've accomplished, 10 pounds."
"Well done good and faithful servant, be over 10 cities." The next guy has produced 5. "Good job. Well done. Excellent. Be over 5 cities." The guy who screwed it up and did nothing, the guy who's just, "Oh, I was scared, I was nervous. I didn't want to take any risks." He put it in a napkin and just set it aside and did nothing. He says, "Take it away from that guy. Take away his one pound. Give it to the guy who has 10." They basically whine and say, "Why would you give it to the guy who has 10, because he's already got 10?" "Because the guy who's got 10 deserves it the most." Does everybody understand? He's the best worker. He's the hardest worker, so he gets the bonus. "Lord, he has 10 pounds." "For I say unto you, that unto everyone that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away from him." Carl Marx, whose real name was Levi Mordecai, not Carl Marx, the German philosopher Carl Marx, not German, the Jewish philosopher Levi Mordecai who went under the false name of Carl Marx, whose father was a Jewish rabbi wrote the Communist Manifesto and he famously talked about the haves and the have nots, didn't he? Didn't he? You're like, "I haven't read it."
Good, because it's garbage. Burn it. The haves and the have nots, and the class struggle. This garbage, socialists, all it is is covetousness is what it's about. It's almost exactly the wording that the Bible uses here where he talks about the haves and the have nots here when he says, "Unto every one that hath, shall be given and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him." Did the Bible say, "Take away from the haves, and give it to the have nots and have peace on earth?" No, he said the have nots has not because he's not doing anything. He's not working, so the little that he has, let's take it away from him because he's not doing anything with it. Give it to the producer. This is the word of God. Following that, he says, "Those my enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me." This is talking about those that hated the Lord Jesus Christ will eventually be slain and doomed in the end of the world when Christ returns. The citizens who said, "We don't want this man to reign over us. We will not have this man to reign over us."
We need to get a Biblical mentality here, my friend. Look, I understand the exception proves the rule. I get that that there are exceptions and extenuating circumstances. I'm not trying to make this personal to anyone. I don't know of anyone in this church who this applies to. If the shoe fits, wear it. The Bible teaches that we ought to work hard, labor. Paul said that there are times that he had to labor night and day. He said, "In order not to be chargeable unto you, in order to pay my bills and feed myself and my crew; Paul, Silas Timotheus, whoever. He said, there were times that we wrought with labor and travail night and day. Okay. This is what the path is for you to feed yourself and feed your family, not to elect some commie or commies, or just have this Marxist, Socialist, stupid college campus philosophy where these fools go rack up all this student debt. Did you know that there's more student debt in America now than credit card debt. I'm like, "What?" What in the world? They rack up all this student debt getting their degree in some worthless field. I got my degree in rock and roll.
I got a BA in poetry. I got a LGBT studies degree. You get all these stupid, worthless degrees or even if you get a worthwhile degree and you rack up some huge debt, here's the thing. That's your problem. You've racked up that stupid debt, because you know why you racked up that debt. I might be stepping on some toes right now, but I'm telling you the truth tonight. You racked up that debt, because you didn't want to work. That's why. Other people worked and went to college at the same time. They paid their way through school. You chose to sit back and relax now, and pay later. You're mad when you eventually have to pay the Piper on that thing. Guess what? Other people worked their way through school. They paid as they went. If you rack up $100,000 debt or $75,000 student debt, then you have to pay for it. It's your problem. Nobody put a gun to your head and said, "Borrow this money." Borrow money so you can be a drunk and a fornicator. Borrow this money so you can party instead of going to work. Some people went to school in the morning and worked at night.
I did that for years. Years, I went to school and worked. It's hard, but God forbid that you'd have to do something hard. People who just want to sit back and party, and drink, and fornicate, and screw around, and get a stupid, worthless degree and then they can't make any money to pay the bill, then they want to whine about it and they want to tax me, they want to tax you the plumber, you the carpenter, you the electrician who's just out working by the sweat of your face. It isn't right and I don't believe in it, and it's a wicked philosophy. Don't you get this attitude that the world owes you a living. Don't you come into this church and think that we owe you everything either. There are people who walk in here and think that we owe them stuff. Look, I've been preaching for years that we don't sell anything at church. We never have, and we never will sell anything at church, but that doesn't mean that we have to give you free stuff all the time. We give you free stuff because we want to give you free stuff. If we give you free shirts, or free CDs, or free DvDs, praise the Lord for it.
Every good gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. You know what? Don't be that person who then whines when something isn't given away for free. Nothing's sold here. People literally, we give away tens of thousands of audio CDs, video DvDs, Bibles, New Testaments. I don't think, I'm serious. I don't think there's a church on the planet who gives away more free stuff than we do. I don't think it's out there. I'd be shocked. We just give stuff away, give stuff away, give stuff away and then literally, someone will have to buy something and it's like, "whoa what's going on? Why aren't you giving it to us for free?" Here's the thing. We're not selling it. A private business will be selling it, framingtheworld.com, a private business is selling stuff and it's like, "What's going on?" It's called business, it's called people working for a living and making money. The church is not a house of merchandise. Guess what? Houses of merchandise are good.
Are you listening? Houses of merchandise, good. Turning God's house into a house of merchandise, bad. Selling Bibles, selling Cds, selling DVDs, selling books, selling shirts, good. Selling them in God's house, bad. The church selling them, bad. Private business selling them, good. Okay. Here's the thing. When Barnes and Noble sells a Bible, good. Faithful Word Baptist Church sells a Bible, bad. Does everybody understand? Any questions? Look, by the way, I personally-. I am not framingtheworld.com. Paul Wittenberger is framingtheworld.com, not me. Okay. I represent Faithful Word Baptist Church. I'm the pastor of the church, you know how I make money? By being the pastor of the church. I get paid a salary as the pastor of the church, which is biblical and the workman is worthy of his hire. Okay, Paul Wittenberger makes money producing films and producing books, and Cds, and materials, some of which are religious, and some of which are not. Let me tell you something. He works his tail off and is extremely generous, and is extremely helpful and beneficial to our ministry here.
Huge blessing, huge help, does stuff all the time to help us. Does stuff all the time. Super generous, great Christian. I love him as a brother in Christ and then people, I'm not saying people here, but there are people out there who criticize him for selling the fruit of his own labor. Guess what? Without him, there would be no movies, there would be no After the Tribulation. There would be no New World Order Bible verses. There would be no Marching to Zion. There would be no Revelation Series. None of it would exist without him producing it, and guess what? It's a full time job for him. Did you ever notice how our documentaries look really pro? They're pro. That's why. That's why they look professional, because they're made by a professional. Therefore, he has every right to make money working, just like I have every right to make money working as the pastor. He has right to make money running his business of merchandise and look, it's no different than Barnes and Noble or anywhere else. It's a merchandise business. Great. You have every right to make money as a plumber. You have every right to be an electrician.
Here's the thing. We all have the right to eat and to drink and to enjoy the fruit of our work, and our labor. You know what? Paul Wittenberger is extremely hard working guy. He works his butt off. That's why he produces all these great materials and everything. He's gracious enough to allow us. He's not some Jew about it and copyrighting everything to the point where we can't give them out at church, where we can't put them online. He is generous enough, and grace enough to say, "Hey, give them away to the church." We give them away in insane quantities. Okay. We're going and doing a soul winning marathon. We're giving away thousands of DVDs. We do stuff like that all the time. He has every right to make money at business. You know what? I guarantee you, he works harder than anyone who's criticizing him. You know? He works harder than 99% of the people that I know. That's why he's a successful person. If you want to be a successful person, you need to work hard and don't whine about other people's success. Don't whine because other people-. He's not cutting a fat hog or anything, but I'm just saying that when you see people make money because they work hard, they deserve it.
Don't say, "Well, let's take it away from him and give it to the napkin guy." Mr. Napkin, Mr. Wrap up my pound in a napkin." Give him nothing. "I'll take it a step further Jesus. Don't just take the talent from him, take away the napkin." I'll take it a step further. Give the napkin to the guy who had 5 talents. He'll use the napkin to wipe his face like it's good for, not to wrap up money and bury it. Let's bow our heads tonight in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for all of the life lessons that we find in the Bible, Lord. We don't have to be a loser. We don't have to be lazy. We don't have to be a covetous, envious, whining, sluggard. Lord, you've given us the wisdom to go out and work hard, and improve ourselves, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but also just to increase knowledge in other areas of life, increase knowledge at our job. Work hard, get up early, stay up late, make things happen Lord, then rejoice with the wife of our youth and enjoy the fruit of our labor, Lord.
Help us not to become this whining bunch of Communist devils who destroyed great nations in Europe with their devilish Carl Marx, wicked Communist philosophy, Lord. Help us never to be influenced by these people in the good old US of A, Lord. This country was once a place that championed opportunity and hard work, Lord, and that understood that time and chance happeneth to them all, and that we all work hard, and God's going to bless, and so on, and so forth, Lord. Lord, I pray that if there's anyone tonight who is working really hard and trying, and they're struggling Lord, financially and they really are having a tough time, I pray that you would be gracious to them Lord, and I pray that people would help them, and I pray that they would be blessed Lord, and that you would provide their needs. Lord, if there's some lazy person under the sound of my voice tonight in this room, Lord, some covetous, lazy, sniveling sluggard, I pray that you would cause them to go a few days without food, that they might learn to be a good worker. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
