Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Facing your giants. These certainly have not been the only giants we face, but these have been some of the main ones. And I hope that even if certain giants weren't mentioned, I believe that the principle was taught each week of what it takes to get victory over these. And you and I have to remember that the victory is through Christ, not in ourselves.

And I hope that that obviously has been ascertained. Mark chapter 11, if you will. And tonight we'd like to bring this series to a close with the giant of doubt.

The giant of doubt. Mark chapter 11. Look at verse 15, if you will. Mark chapter 11 and verse 15. And they come to Jerusalem and Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrow the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold does.

What had happened? Jesus and the disciples had kind of left from Bethany. And as they came back into Jerusalem, Jesus walks into the temple. And the temple, by the way, was his house. This passage tells us a little bit later. And he finds that there were numerous things going on inside the temple. And the one thing that wasn't going on in the temple was the one thing that was supposed to go on in the temple. And Jesus obviously became very angry.

And this particular story has gotten a lot of attention. Because we see here, Jesus, you would think almost being a little different than he had been anywhere else in the Bible, that all of a sudden we see that Jesus becoming angry. And we find him starting to throw out the individuals that were taking advantage of people, making money off of people, trying to profit off of people through the temple. Look at verse 16. And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. He turned over the tables.

He knocked over everything. He wouldn't let anybody carry any of their goods that they were selling into the temple. Look at verse 17. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer?

But ye have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. And when even was come, he went out of the city. And in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold the fig tree which thou cursed is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. That verse right there, by the way, has been my dad's life verse since he got saved. Verse 25. And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have ought against any, that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Father, we thank you for your word. Sometimes it's comforting. Sometimes it's convicting.

But it's always challenging. And it's always true. And it's always right. And it's always pure. And it's always honest.

Lord, the Bible shows no respect to persons. Lord, we thank you for tonight. Thank you for the good music we've had. Thank you for all of our folks that are here this evening. And Lord, as we look to the days ahead, help our people to see what doubt could do to what you have planned. And Lord, may we, as your word teaches in this passage that we read, may we have faith in God. In your name we pray.

Amen. In order to kind of grasp the whole passage, we've got to kind of break it down. I want you to notice first this evening the place of prayer. Look at verse 17, if you will.

The Bible says that Jesus taught saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer. There's some things I notice about that little phrase that He gives. And there's three things I see about this. Number one, I notice that it is His house. He said, My house shall be known of all nations as the house of prayer.

Can I say this? It's not our house. It's His house.

Now that was very, very weak. This is not our house. This is God's house. This isn't your house. This isn't my house. Can I say that it doesn't necessarily, it doesn't matter what your preference is or my preference, what matters is what God's word says. It doesn't matter if every person in Greensboro wants us to do things a certain way at this church.

If the whole city of Kernersville or Walktown or Winston or Greensboro, if they want us to do things one way and God wants us to do things another way, we better do what God says. This is not our house. It's His house. We have watched over the years that man has tried to turn God's house into what men want. And may I say it's not their house. We're not to change the church to make it what people want.

We are to have God change people to make them into what God wants. This is His house. He said, my house. I noticed second, not only is it His house, but it's His reputation. He said this, my house shall be called of all nations.

That means this. God says that my house is going to have a reputation. And because it's His house, it's His reputation.

And unfortunately, can I say this, that you and I have given many times God's house a bad name. Because what the world ought to see going on at church rarely goes on at church. And what the world really doesn't need is a bunch of people fighting each other, complaining about each other, finding division somehow in everything that goes on. A lot of other things go on.

We have this and we have that and we have this big thing and that big thing. And what ought to go on at church is prayer. It's the house of prayer. We ought to be worshiping God, communing with God, praying to God.

But that usually is the one thing that doesn't go on. It's His reputation. Can I convince you this evening that you and I give people a reputation about Christ? You and I are a representation of Him. And as we go through our life and we go around this community, depending on how we act and treat people, it gives them an opinion about our Savior. I see that it was His house, it was His reputation. I see thirdly that it was His control.

This is what He says. He said, my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer, but ye have made it. That means this, that God said, I designed my house to be a certain thing, but you came in and changed it. Now, dear friends, God designed church to be a certain thing. And over the years, you and I have let traditions come in instead of truth.

And we divide over traditions instead of unifying over truth. God's word cannot get any clearer what God had intended for His house. His house was to be a place of prayer. It doesn't mean we don't have singing at God's house. The Bible talks often about singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melodies to Christ. Listen, singing will go on. And by the way, preaching will go on at church. When preaching doesn't go on at church, you really didn't have church. And singing is not going to take the preeminence over preaching at this church as long as I'm here.

Because I'm responsible to God for that. Singing is wonderful. And thank God for good singing.

And thank God for singing that honors Christ. But God did not say that His house would be a house of music. And it didn't say that His house would be just a house of preaching. And it didn't say that His house was going to be a spiritual country club where we can all get together and always have things and entertain people. He said His house was to be a house of prayer. The place of prayer.

I want you to notice secondly the pollution of prayer. Look at verse 15. The Bible says when Jesus went into the temple that He began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple.

He overthrew the tables of the money changers. Those that sold doves. Let me enlighten you.

I'm sure you understand this. But what was going on is that at the temple they had started to bring a lot of rituals into play. And they would sell doves and they would sell things so that they could go in and perform these rituals and take place in these rituals and have these little things. And people were using those rituals and those traditions so that they could make money selling things in God's house. And God's house by the way is supposed to be a house of prayer. And guess what? Prayer is what? Free. It don't cost nothing to pray. Somebody ought to tell us Baptists that.