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.

We act like man it's going to cost an arm and a leg so we don't. Listen, prayer is free. Nobody should have to pay anything to come to church. But this is what happened. People were profiting off of that. I noticed three things out of this passage. Number one, profit replaced prayer. Prayer was replaced with profiting. And dear friend, may I say this, that church is not about us getting anything out of it. Church is about us getting Christ in us. Church is not about us getting leverage. It's not about us doing anything that's self-serving. By the way, that's why I've said years ago, I don't like to put up with it.

You can argue with me all you want to, but there's a new sheriff in town. Everybody makes fun of me because I said it and I'm going to say it again. I do not believe church to be a place for you to get contacts to sell your stuff to people. This is not your business venture. This is a house of prayer. This is not a house for you to find people to make money off of or profit off of.

And you can say all you want to. Well, I'm just trying to help them. No, listen, you help them on your own time. When they come to church, they don't need to get hit up with products and with things and ask for money. This is a place of prayer. And all God's people said?

Thank you. Profit had replaced prayer. Second, I noticed this, that business had replaced brokenness. You don't find anywhere in this passage that there were people in the temple that were broken. You don't find people crying out to God.

You don't find people on their knees praying. You know what you found in the temple? You found people profiting. You found people making money. You found people taking advantage of people, using rituals and using the temple to profit themselves.

All of a sudden, business had taken place of brokenness. And I want you to know tonight that we've tried, we're putting out, I know I'm a new pastor and I know I'm a young guy. And I know that you're probably watching to see it. We've tried to be accountable. And you have all the financial statements. You got any questions?

We've been as open as open can be. But I don't want you to know this. I am not running a business. This is a ministry. And we're going to be accountable because it's money and it's your money that you've given.

And it becomes God's money when it's given. And so I don't want to be accountable for you. I want to be accountable for God. Because I want God to honor what we're doing.

But the day we start trying to treat this as a business. And yet we're not at the altar crying out to God. We got problems.

You all agree with me on this? Prophet had replaced prayer. Business had replaced brokenness. I find thirdly that ritual had replaced righteousness.

Now they're buying and selling, using doves, doing all these traditions. Dear friends, sometimes church can become just a little thing. We go through all the motions. We do the same things.

We know exactly when such such is going to be. And I have no interest in church like that. I know everybody likes consistency and nobody likes change. But may I say I want to be at a place where God has freedom to do what God wants to do.

We have, I don't know where it's at now, we have a little order of service paper right here. So we know kind of what songs we're singing. But look at me. Anytime Jesus wants to show up and change things, that's what happens. Right there.

All right. The songs I choose or Phil chooses or whoever chooses. We can get Scott to start choosing songs. We can start singing junior church songs everywhere we go.

I don't care who chooses the songs. Whatever God wants, he's going to do. And our little order of service and our little plan, and I believe you ought to plan and I believe you ought to be organized.

So that's why we're doing that. But listen to me, dear friend. Jesus ought to have total freedom in his house. This isn't our house. It's not up to me.

It's not my plan. I want Jesus to do what Jesus wants to do. The pollution of prayer. What Jesus had created, what Jesus had made available to people, men had come in and ruined it. That's what religion always does. Religion always ruins it.

Dear friend, we're not trying to get anybody religious. We're trying to get people saved. I want you to notice the third thing this evening. This is a very interesting story. I want you to see the provider of prayer. We see the place of prayer and we see the pollution of prayer.

But notice this third thing. Jesus teaches a very interesting lesson. Now, you've got to open up at your passage where we were. And I've got to read you a couple of verses earlier so you understand this story.

Because if you don't understand it, you'll think, what in the world went on here? Look at verse 12, if you will, of Mark chapter 11. The Bible says that on the morrow when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry.

Jesus. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, no man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it.

Now, here's an interesting, very random thing. They're on their way to Jerusalem. When they get to Jerusalem, Jesus walks in the temple, sees all the stuff going on, you know, takes care of it, cleans house. But something happened on the way. Jesus was hungry. He walked over and there's a little fig tree.

It didn't look at all like this, but let's just pretend. Here's a fig tree and he gets over to see if maybe there's a fig or something on it. He can get something to eat. There wasn't anything, there was just leaves. And the Bible says Jesus does something very interesting here because it really didn't make a lot of sense. He looks at that tree and he says, no man will eat fruit from thee forever and leaves. Okay, now look at our story that we read earlier and look, if you would, at verse 19. The Bible says, and when even was come, he went out of the city. And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree, the one he had stopped at, dried up from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold the fig tree which thou cursest is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in what? God.

Now wait a minute. What was he doing? He comes up to this tree. The leaves were on there. It just wasn't season yet for the figs, the fruit to actually be on there. He walks up and he says, no man will eat fruit off thee forever.

Walks away. They go into Jerusalem, all this goes on. Next morning they come out and that tree that was alive and well, getting ready to bear fruit, all of a sudden they see that exact same tree and it's dead. And the disciples remembered it. And they said, Jesus, here's this tree over here. Now what did he say? He said one sentence to that tree. He said, no man shall ever eat fruit off of thee forever. And guess what?

It was dead. And when the disciples walked by that tree and they saw, they said, you know, Jesus, what all is this? And he said, have faith in God. What was Jesus saying, folks? He was saying this. Let me tell you something about prayer.

Let me tell you something. You don't have to I guess you would call it the sign here was this. You don't have to depend on that tree to bring fruit for you to have something to eat. God controls the tree.

That means this. You don't need to have faith in a tree. You don't need to have faith in people. You don't need to have faith in circumstances. You don't need to have faith in anything but Christ alone.

You know why? Because he can dry up a tree or he can bring fruit on a tree. He can open up streams in the desert or he can close waters on people. He can he can provide when there seems to be no possible way of provision.

And the lesson here for the disciples was this. In just a breath, God can stop blessing. He can stop the fruit on that tree.

Look at me, dear friend. He can stop your paycheck. He can stop your health. He can stop all the things you've got planned.

He can stop your whole future just like that. You see, what happens is a lot of times you and I depend on our works. And we think on our smarts. And we think, well, I've been serving God in church. And we almost trust that, that we're going to have provision because we've done all this for God.

Let me tell you something, dear friend. We don't get anything because we've done something special for God. We don't get anything because we're so valuable. Anything we have in our life that's good is only because of the grace and goodness of God. And He can stop that fruit if He wants to, or He can bring that fruit if He wants to. And I don't know about you, I want to have faith in Him and nothing else. I want to have a lot of ministries here.

I think that you've been able to figure that out. I'm willing to try any endeavor as long as it's doctrinally correct and doesn't cause us to compromise on anything. I'm willing to reach people. Man, I was willing to change bus routes.

We'll change to Wednesday night. And it's helped us. We've gotten more. I'm willing to try upward, willing to do Awanas when I first came. I am willing to have ministries because I believe we ought to have ministries.

But look at me, dear friend. Those things are not what's going to grow this church. God's going to grow this church. He could look down at our church and dry it up like that. If we are not acting in a way that is pleasing to God, look at me, dear friend.

He could dry us up in one breath. The provider of prayer. The religious people had begun thinking that their rituals would get their prayer answers. But that's not where prayer answers come from. Jesus reminded that the fruit comes from Him.

The fruit doesn't come from the tree. The religious people in front of me, your bills are not paid because you get a paycheck. Your bills are paid because God's been good. God gives you that paycheck. God makes that happen. May you and I always understand where provision comes from. It comes from Him. He controls even the little fig trees.

Notice, fourthly tonight, we're almost done. I want you to notice the power of prayer. Look at verse 23. Now all of a sudden he gives us a little bit of insight about praying. 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.

Now let me tell you what I'm not going to be able to do tonight. I'm not going to be able to fully explain that verse. Now I know the way it's written. You could look at that and you would say, so it's just saying as long as I believe whatever I ask for, God's going to give.

I know that's not true. But I know the verse sounds like that. So in order to understand that verse, you've got to put all of scripture into context. The Bible teaches that God will bring anything to pass if it's according to his will. So if you're praying for something that is not according to God's will, you're not going to get that because God wouldn't give you something that would be bad for you. But if it's in line with God's will and you pray and seek God, he will bring it to pass. But the Bible does teach that he will not do that, he will not bring it to pass if you doubt his ability.

Now, dear friend, look at me. You and I will have no power in prayer if we have any doubt in our mind that God could do it. I sat up at my mom and dad's house a number of times, obviously in recent days. And one day we were talking, this has been going on two and a half, three years almost of mom's cancer. And the fact that we've had that long, there's a lot of people who get cancer who don't get that long, they don't get six months. So we've been blessed. But I sit with mom and dad and I was trying to be honest with them about prayer. I said, man, we've preached for years.

And I said, we've prayed, we've sought God's face. We know of probably a couple thousand people across America, pray for them faithfully. Because of their ministry, they've met a lot of different people that you don't get to see all the time. But if there's an emergency and they get word, they'll pray for you because they love you.

They appreciate your ministry. And I said, I've had more people pray for mom. We had more people praying for Kaden, that somehow God would heal that heart before he was even born.

That he wouldn't need all the stuff. And God chose not to do that. And we had prayed for two and a half years. And man, we believe God can do it. And we've said we believe God can do it.

And mom gets a report and it's worse. Now, I told mom the other day, I said, I've just gotten to the point that I don't really think that I doubt that God can. I just seem to be doubting that God will.

It's like I know that He can, but I just feel like I haven't seen Him do anything I've asked. Now, I'm just being honest with you. Do you all understand where I'm at?

I'm just trying to be transparent. I'd love to be able to get up and say, bless God, we have faith. I have faith in God. I told my mom, I said, I sat four months at the hospital, not one time. As hard as the thing was with Kaden, I never doubted.

I never had a problem with it. I felt God was in control the entire time. But it's getting to the point sometimes you look at all these things, you pray so long, you've done all the things the Bible says to do and you have all these people. And sometimes God just doesn't do what you think He should.

And that's God's choice. But I do know this, that if it is according to God's will, He will not do it if we doubt Him. And Kerwin Baptist Church, I am somehow asking you as a church, I believe with all my heart God can do great and wonderful things here at this place.

But what scares me to death is that some have been here so long and thank God for you and some of the new ones that have come in. My fear is that you would begin to think over the years you prayed and you've tried and you've done these things and you haven't seen some things happen and you haven't seen some areas grow. And my fear is that you would begin to think that God just won't do it. And dear friend, I'm asking you, let's not doubt God. I believe He can do it.

In fact, I believe He will. And if I'm out my deathbed and God hadn't, don't tell me I'm still going to believe He will. I don't know when, I don't know how, I don't know where, but I believe God could do something miraculous and amazing at this church.

Look what He's done for 50 years. Lord, if this church grew at a rate that it grew when Brother Joe came, what did he have, 30 people? And at one time was running over 1,000 with all of the buses and different things that we had at that time. And you look at a strong church now, man, if it grew under my ministry like that, we'd have 10, 15,000 people.

But I still believe God can do it. I believe, man, we could have a huge building on this property. I believe we could have a building that's absolutely busting at the seams. I believe we could get to the point that, man, that balcony's full and chairs are out and, man, we're starting to run around sweating. How in the world are we going to get everybody in? I believe God can do it.

I believe we could have 100 people in a choir. I still believe it. I believe that they can invent fat-free, sugar-free Krispy Kreme donuts.

I have claimed Mark 11-24. What clever things do you desire when you believe? Doubt kills our power. Faith keeps His power.

Did you get that? Doubt kills our power. Faith keeps His power. You and I can get to the point that we doubt God's plan, we doubt His provision, we doubt His power. We get to the point that we doubt His care, we doubt His concern, we doubt His capabilities. And look at me, dear friend, if there's one thing that God demands from us, He demands from us that we have faith in Him and believe that He can do it. Some of you might say, brother, Padre, I don't have a real, my Sunday school class doesn't have a lot of people in it. What I'm asking for you is for you to every day of your life get up and believe that God can fill that classroom. You say, well, I don't know how He's going to do it.

Well, I don't either. But I know He can. Not only do I know He can, but you and I have got to shift into the mode that we believe He will. We've got to have enough faith that God will remove that mountain. Some of you say, well, my marriage is in absolute shambles.

Let me tell you something. You need to have some faith in God that He will fix it. That doesn't mean you lay back and live a worldly life and treat each other like dogs and then think, okay, well, hasn't God fixed it?

You've got to do your part. That's what faith is all about. Faith without works is what? Dead.

So you're not going to get anywhere if you're not doing something too. But I believe as He dried up that fig tree, God can control it. God can bless if He wants. God could bring blessings on this church. God could bring people on this church. God could see people saved. We could see that baptistry baptizing every Sunday.

I believe God can, and I believe He will. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You can also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.