We are in Proverbs chapter number 10, which it kind of starts a new section in this proverb
because so far everything we've seen has been very structured and it's been able to be very
nicely outlined, but that is definitely not the case with this chapter because it seems
to be a lot more sporadic and actually the headline, you know, some Bibles, it'll have
like a chapter headline at the top.
Mine says this moral virtues in their contrary vices, like this chapter is saying like, here's
something good versus here's something bad.
Here's something good versus here's something bad.
And really like the main theme of this chapter is that when you serve God, when you fear
the Lord, when you put him first, things in general in the long run of things will end
up being good for you.
Whereas if you do not fear the Lord, if you do not serve God, things are going to be
terrible for you.
And so let's go ahead and start in Proverbs chapter 10 verse 1.
The Bible says this, the Proverbs of Solomon, "A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish
son is the heaviness of his mother."
So having a wise child is going to bring joy to any parent.
And you know, I could speak as a father that I desire greatly for my children to grow up
someday and be wise.
You know, I am someone that puts a high value on reading, on education, on getting knowledge
and wisdom.
You know, it would bring me great joy to see my children of their own will, of their own
heart follow in that and desire to get wisdom and to become more wise and to become more
knowledgeable about things than even I am now or will be someday.
You know, I have no greater truth than to see, I have no greater joy, excuse me, than
to see my children walk in truth.
That brings us great joy as parents.
You know, kids, if you want to make a glad father, you need to be wise.
If you want to make a glad mother, you need to be wise.
You know, no one wants to put all this effort and time and money and energy and blood and
sweat and tears and vomit cleaning and all this stuff for your child to grow up and be
a flat earther.
I mean, wouldn't that just be a shame?
For your child to grow up and be a Catholic, to be a Calvinist, or how about this?
To like the LGBT community.
I mean, that would just bring sorrow and pain to my heart to see that.
But a wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.
So you know, the Bible says to honor thy father and mother, and one way you can do that is
by turning out right, by actually being wise, by seeking after knowledge and wisdom, and
not being a fool and bringing heaviness to your mother.
You know, if you go the way of this world, and you don't follow what the Bible says,
and you get into wicked sins that the Bible warns against, like drinking alcohol, or how
about in Oklahoma, smoking pot, you know what's going to bring?
Heaviness to your mother.
Your mom's going to be sad and ashamed and disappointed, rightly so.
You know, I know we live in this society of no judgment, and everyone gets a trophy, and
no matter what you do, you're always special.
No, no, no.
If your child ends up being a fool, you're going to feel heaviness.
You're going to feel sorrow.
But if they grow up wise, it's going to be a joy to you.
Verse two says, "Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivereth from
death."
You know, there's nothing wrong inherently with treasures or money or riches, but the
Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil.
And some people in their desire to get money and wealth and riches, they may even sin in
order to get wealth.
Sin in order to get money.
That's what I think it's talking about there when it says treasures of wickedness.
See, there's nothing wrong with just making an honest paycheck, building a business and
being successful.
There's nothing wrong even with being rich.
There's many men in the Bible who were rich, who were very godly.
But what is wrong is treasures of wickedness, you know, making money through sinful means,
lying at the job, you know, stealing from your customers, ripping off your customers.
Or how about this?
Usury.
What's a completely worthless business today is the mortgage companies just basically moving
around numbers on a screen, charging people usury, stealing from people.
You know, the Bible says treasures of wickedness profit nothing.
You know, in the long run, people who just give their lives over to seeking money, so
much so that they're even willing to do wickedly, they think that they're getting some sort
of safety by doing that, right?
The Bible says money is a defense, and so in a way, money can make someone feel safe.
But if you're doing it wickedly, especially if you're a Christian, let me tell you, treasures
of wickedness shall profit nothing.
And so you don't want to be deceived into thinking that money's going to keep you safe
in life.
No, rather, the Bible says, "But righteousness delivereth from death."
So it's kind of an oxymoron.
It doesn't really make sense to our flesh.
We think, "Hey, if we want to be safe and secure, what we should chase is just money
at all costs."
But the Bible's highlighting here what we should really be seeking after is righteousness.
Why?
Because righteousness delivereth from death.
You know, you look at men of God in the Bible who went through hard financial times that
didn't have all the money and all the riches, you see God bring them through those times,
right?
You see, for example, God raised up Joseph to save the whole nation of Egypt.
You see, God spare Elijah, you know, feeding him with a raven.
The Bible says that God's going to take care of us.
That's what the next verse brings up in verse three.
The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish, but he casteth away the substance
of the wicked.
You know, this is a great promise that God has for us that he's not going to allow us
to starve to death.
He's not going to allow us to famish because I think this is just a natural fear and anxiety
that pretty much all people have is to struggle with thinking about how are we going to take
care of ourselves financially?
What are things going to look like in six months from now or five years from now?
It's just human beings nature to worry about these things, but that's why we have this
promise here.
The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish notice, but he cast it away the
substance of the wicked.
So if you were just seeking after money, even if you were successful and even if you did
end up finding all that money that you were seeking, you know, if you're a wicked person,
if you haven't been pursuing after righteousness, the Bible says that God's just going to cast
away the substance of the wicked.
So can you, are you starting to see that money really isn't that safe?
And especially in the United States of America, with our federal reserve notes, with our joke
of a financial system that we have, let me just promise you that our economy is not safe.
You know, there's all these talk shows, there's all these TV shows, all these YouTube shows
that want to talk to you about the economy and its volatility and what it's going to
look like.
It's just always going to be volatile.
But here's something that's sure, is that the Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous
to famine.
Right?
So you want to focus on being a righteous Christian more than seeking after money.
And, you know, this definitely hits home for me right now when I have a lot of wicked people
coming after me, a bunch of sodomites trying to get me to lose my job.
And what are they trying to do?
They're trying to invoke fear into me of me not being able to feed my family, take care
of the things that I need to take care of.
But my Bible says that the Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famine.
And so, you know, I'm not worried of starving to death because I'm a servant of the Lord.
And you know, I'm way more scared of not preaching what the Bible says, not talking about God's
commandments, not seeking after righteousness in my life than what a bunch of sodomites
could do to me at work or losing some temporary job.
You know, every job you have is going to be gone someday.
But you know what?
The things of God are eternal and they're more important.
Notice what the Bible says in verse four, "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack
hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich."
You know, the Bible talks about how we should consider the cause of the poor.
And you know, in general, and obviously, especially this chapter, it's speaking in generalities,
you could find exceptions to the rule.
But in general, the reason why people are poor, according to the Bible, it says, "He
becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand."
What is that?
A slack hand means you're not really putting any strength to your work.
You're not putting any effort or energy.
You know, you're a lazy person, basically, if you're dealing with a slack hand.
The Bible says that, "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand."
And you know, this is especially true in the United States of America, where there is so
much opportunity, there's so many jobs, there's so many different ways to learn.
There's so many employers that are out there that are just hungering and thirsting after
people that are going to work hard and not complain and obey their boss and have a good
attitude.
Like, if that's all you are, you already are so far above the rest of the workforce.
You know, if someone is just literally begging on the street, if someone is homeless today
in America and they're not disabled, they're an able-bodied man, and they're homeless in
America, let me help you, it's because they're lazy.
Why are they so lazy?
Probably because they're smoking so much pot, right?
Because they're so doped out of their mind.
You know, I've told you guys many times, I walk into work and all the time I'm walking
past this guy at like 6 20 a.m., 6 30 a.m., and he's asleep.
And I go on service calls throughout the day and he's sleeping.
And I leave work at 3 30 and sometimes he's still sleeping.
It's like, Oh, help this poor homeless man who's just on hard times.
The dude's a bum.
The dude's a drug addict.
The dude is an alcoholic.
The dude is lazy.
That's why he's poor.
Yes, there are people who fall on hard times.
I'm not being down on those people.
Yes, there are literally individuals who are disabled.
I'm not criticizing those people.
But you know what?
If you're poor because you're lazy, that's your fault.
And it's not a Christian virtue to give money
and to give food to people who refuse to work.
The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 3,
"If a man will not work, neither should he eat."
You know what the Bible's saying?
Hey, you should let this person starve
if they refuse to work.
Now, I know we live in a society today
where people love to just lean on their own understanding
and don't give a rip of what the Bible says
and then want to criticize and lecture Christians
who actually believe what the Bible says,
but you could actually open your Bible at any time
and read the verse that I just quoted for you.
2 Thessalonians chapter number three.
It's not a virtue giving them money.
And I'm dead sure not gonna give money
from the house of God to homeless derelict drug addicts.
You know, I get so many calls and emails
of just random people, random people off the street
just asking me to pay their bills, pay their rent.
Look, this is not a handout place.
This is not some sort of government program here.
This is the house of God.
And we are gonna use our money for the fulfillment
of the great commission is what we're gonna do.
We're gonna use it for God's people here
to work out there in the field.
The Bible says also,
"But the hand of the diligent maketh rich."
In general, those who work hard,
those who are diligent,
are going to be successful financially
and have the things that they need.
Verse five says this,
"He that gathereth in summer is a wise son,
"but he that sleepeth and harvest
"is a son that causeth shame."
So notice, God's going to provide for our needs.
God's not going to allow the soul of the righteous to famish,
but we still have to work.
We still have to go out and gather in summer.
It's not like you just sit down on your couch
and pray, "God, take care of my needs.
God, fill my bank account," and God's just going
to rain money from heaven.
That's not how it works.
No, God's going to make sure that you have what you need
when you go out and work hard.
And if you're struggling, God can help things stretch.
God can make your shoes last longer,
like it did for the children of Israel in the wilderness.
God can make your car last longer.
Things like that, God can intervene and help you,
but you still need to go do the work.
And I also like how it says he that gathereth in summer
is a wise son.
You know, I wanna apply this to soul winning as well,
'cause we're approaching summer here in Oklahoma City,
though seemingly it's just a never ending rain fest lately.
But you know, supposedly summer is coming.
Supposedly it's gonna start getting hot pretty soon.
I don't know if it's a conspiracy or what,
but hey, when that comes, you know,
you should still go soul winning.
You should not just forsake soul winning
because it gets hot.
Look, it's just part of life.
He that gathereth in summer is a wise son.
We need to keep working hard, even in the sun,
even in the heat, 'cause people are still dying
and going to hell.
And you know, if you live in different parts
of the country, there's always some excuse
of why people can't go soul winning.
I remember when I went to an old IFB church
in Meridian, Idaho, and they had no door-to-door
soul winning program, they had only street preaching,
which I was not interested in.
I'm not really interested in screaming at cars driving by.
I'd like to actually look people in the eye
and preach them the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But I asked the assistant pastor there,
hey, can we get a soul winning program going?
Can we do this?
And I'm not kidding you.
This guy looked me in the eyes and he said,
here's the thing, it is too cold in the winter
and it is too hot in the summer.
This was a pastor, a guy who's supposed to endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,
he's telling this young teenage kid,
well, it's too hot in the summer
and it's too cold in the winter.
Now here's the thing, Boise, Idaho does get extremely hot
in the summer.
Like I've seen temps that are like 108 in the summer
and it does get very cold in the winter,
like negative 12, negative 15, but who cares?
People are still going to hell.
You know, we still need to do our duty.
And when I lived in Texas, you know,
it's always 8,000 degrees,
but you still got to go soul winning.
Still preach the gospel.
The Bible says in verse six,
blessings are upon the head of the just,
but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
So again, kind of fitting with this theme of the chapter
that if you do good, if you're righteous,
if you fear God in general,
things are going to go well for you
versus if you're wicked in general,
things are not going to go well for you.
Blessings are upon the head of the just.
You know, at times if you're righteous,
you could be going through things
that don't really feel like blessings,
but like we talked about on Sunday,
even persecution according to Jesus Christ is a blessing
and it's a reward and it's something
that we're supposed to rejoice over,
but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
You know, in Psalm 11, the Bible says,
"But the wicked and him that loveth violence,
his soul hateth."
And you know, if you know something about wicked people,
they sure do love violence.
And all you have to do is look at my emails,
look at my direct messages, look at my voicemails
to see the wicked LGBT community
who the Bible says are full of murder.
The Bible says that they're haters of God.
The Bible says they're implacable.
The Bible says in Romans 1
that they're without natural affection.
And boy, can you see that in the messages
of where's your kids?
How's your family doing?
I'm gonna come kill all of you.
I'm gonna cut you open.
You know, all these threats,
as I'm being falsely accused of being a violent person,
as I'm being falsely accused of preaching murder,
no, no, no, I've never preached violence or murder.
What I said is that we should have a lawful capital
punishment system where one of the crimes
that's a capital punishment by death is sodomy.
The capital punishment, that's not preaching violence.
And it's so hilarious, I get all these messages.
Hey, I sent your sermon to police.
Cool, send all of them to the police.
You know, maybe we get more cops saved.
Maybe we get more, you know, city hall workers saved.
Praise God for that.
You know, there was some whore on Instagram
who looks like some young 20s woman and she's a lobbyist.
I wonder how she got that job in D.C. at the young age of 20, whatever.
But she had like 25,000 followers on Instagram and she posted and she tagged me in the post.
She's like, "This is the hateful preacher preaching, you know, for homosexuals to be
put to death according to Leviticus 2013."
And I just direct messaged her.
I said, "Hey, thank you for the free advertisement.
Can you please also post this sermon?"
And then she took it down.
I was like, "Dang it!
I should have just left it alone."
She was literally giving me free advertisement.
But, you know, all these people are like, "We're going to blow this all over the media!
We're going to post this everywhere!
We're sending it to the police!
Please do!
Send it everywhere!"
It's literally on our doctrinal statement.
We literally live stream all of our services.
We literally go out in the community and invite people to church.
We literally hand out a documentary called The Sodomite Deception.
We're trying to get the message out!
You're not going to scare me by helping me with that?
Thank you very much!
Like, I've been so happy the last few days, I just want you to know that I've been genuinely
so happy.
And just bring it on!
Keep doing it, please!
What does this have to do with Proverbs 10?
I don't know, I'm just happy, alright?
Oh yeah, violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
You know, these wicked people that want violence to me and my family, they better be careful
lest violence come back on them.
You know, you want to act all tough and talk about killing a man of God, well, that might
not go over too well with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible says in verse 7, "The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked
shall rot."
You know, this is an awesome verse because in this life, our name is not always adored,
lifted up, blessed by the world.
Right?
We're, you know, we're the off scouring of all things.
People hate us.
There's a lot of people in this community that hate me and hate Anchor Baptist Church,
but the Bible says the memory of the just is blessed.
Here's the thing.
All of us who are saved, we're going to heaven when we die and we are going to live eternally
with God.
And so our memory is going to be blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.
You know, in 800 billion years, people are still going to remember me and you because
we're going to be alive with all of the saints in heaven and our memory is blessed.
But you know, all the wicked people of this earth, the most powerful evil people that
are running things behind closed doors.
The wicked people in government today who think that their name means something.
They think they're so powerful.
They think they have so much influence.
When they die, the name of the wicked shall rot because they're going to hell.
And when they go to hell, no one's going to care about them anymore.
You know, you read Isaiah chapter 14, when Nebuchadnezzar, I believe, goes to hell, all
the people who are in hell are just like, Oh, were you that big strong guy who troubled
the nations?
And now you're become as one of us.
You know, now Nebuchadnezzar, even though he was such a powerful king that ruled over
the nations, now he's a nobody.
And you know, Satan who goes around this world and is obviously very powerful, you know,
when Satan is cast into the lake of fire, you know, what he's going to be a big nobody.
And all the people that hate us, that are so prideful, that are so arrogant, that speak
so presumptuously, you know, when they die and go to hell, their name will rot, but the
memory of us will be blessed.
Verse eight, the Bible says the wise in heart will receive commandments, but a praying
fool shall fall.
You know, a wise person actually wants to receive the commandments of God.
And you could tell that someone's an idiot.
You could tell that someone's a fool when they don't like what the Bible says.
When they reject the commandments of God.
When they reject the law of God, you could say, oh, this person's a fool.
Because the wise in heart, it says in verse number eight, the wise in heart will receive
the commandments.
You know, that word receive, it implies that you're not just hearing it, but you're actually
internalizing it and applying the word of God to your life.
You're not just a forgetful hearer, but you're actually receiving the commandments.
You know, that's what a wise person does.
You know what a foolish person does?
They either reject the word of God, don't listen to it, mock it, or maybe they hear
it, but just don't apply it.
But then it contrasts against this person, it says, but a preying fool shall fall.
Now, that's an interesting word, preying.
What does it mean to preying?
To pray basically means like to speak stupidly of, or to speak at lengths about nothing.
You know, someone that just goes on and on about things that aren't important, people
who can just say a bunch of words without saying anything at all, this is a preying
fool.
And notice this person will fall.
They're not built on anything.
They're not sturdy.
They're not upright and rooted and grounded.
The person who's just pouring out foolishness out of their mouth.
This person will fall.
And you know what it makes me think of today?
It makes me think of this weird phenomenon today in our society where everyone wants
to be like an armchair psychologist and an armchair psychiatrist and it seems like especially
women are really drawn to these online videos.
It's like ten ways how to tell if your pastor's a narcissist.
Twenty ways on how to tell if your husband's a narcissist.
And everyone loves these terms like you know, narcissist, flying monkeys, gaslighting.
Some people don't know what a flying monkey is.
It's someone who enables a narcissist basically.
And people just are drawn to this stuff, but let me tell you what these people are.
They're "praying fools."
They're "praying fools," meaning they're speaking stupidly on and on and on forever
about nothing.
And the Bible says that those people will fall.
So it's very foolish to be following after these type of people, building your life off
of what they say because they're not building it off the commandments.
The wise in heart receives the commandments.
This is where you get real wisdom.
This is where you get real knowledge, not from people like Jordan Peterson.
This guy is a trading fool.
And I actually have some quotes from him that I want to read just to explain to you what
a fool this guy is.
You know, he wanted to describe what God is and this is his definition of God.
I wish I had a Canadian accent.
I can't do it.
He just said, God is the mode of being we value the most.
The spirit that is trying to elevate being that makes everything come together.
The truthful speech that rectifies pathological hierarchies.
How we imagine and collectively represent the existence and action of consciousness
across time the selection mechanism which judges which men are worthy.
That's his definition of God.
Now can anyone, can any man summarize what I just said?
No you can't because he literally just said nothing.
He's just you know spitting out words.
No let me tell you who God is.
Jesus Christ.
There you go.
The Lord God Almighty, the Lord of Hosts, the God of the Bible.
That's who God is.
He wants to describe what it means to have truthful speech.
He says this, "Truthful speech is a selection mechanism that rectifies pathological hierarchies
which is how we imagine the existence of consciousness trying to elevate being."
What?
Folks, this guy is not smart.
This guy is not intelligent.
This guy just uses some high level words and just combines them together and just throws
it at you so that you kind of feel dumb because you don't understand what he's saying so you
just assume he must be smart.
No, no, no.
You feel dumb and can't understand what he's saying because he's not saying anything.
What is truth?
The Bible says, "Thy word is truth."
There you go.
How about that?
He said this.
He must have gotten this from Pastor Who.
He said, "Facts are not necessarily true."
Kind of like how Pastor Who said that slander can sometimes be true.
Oh, just opposite-ville.
There you go.
Jordan Peterson was asked this, "Do you believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead?"
Now, I ask people this question literally every week of my life when I'm out preaching
the gospel.
And I preach the death, burial, and resurrection, and I say, "Hey, believe this."
Okay, and I usually get a very simple answer.
Usually the answer is yes.
Every once in a while the answer is I don't know, okay, or no.
But Jordan Peterson said this, "I cannot answer that question, and the reason is, well,
let me think about it for a minute and see if I can come up with a reasonable answer
for that."
Well, the first answer would be that depends on what you mean by Jesus.
Did Jesus rise from the dead?
Well, that depends what you mean by Jesus.
That depends what you mean by Rose.
That depends what you mean by again.
That depends what you mean by from.
That depends what you mean by the, like this guy is just a moron.
And you know, it's really shameful that Christians of all people would elevate this guy who can't
even answer the question, "Did Jesus rise again from the dead?"
I mean, even President Trump, who is far from being a spiritual guy to follow as a role
model.
I mean, at least on Easter, he's like, "Praise Jesus for his gift in rising again from the
dead."
Like at least Trump, you know, believes that Jesus rose again from the dead and he can
answer that.
But he, this guy's just like, "Well, that depends on what you mean by Jesus."
What a fool this guy is.
Dwight says that the praying fool shall fall.
Don't follow this guy.
The Bible says in verse 9, "He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely.
But he that perverteth his ways shall be known."
So walking uprightly, what does that have to do with?
It has to do with being righteous, following the commandments of God, living a clean and
holy and separated life.
The Bible says that when you walk uprightly, you walk surely, meaning you have confidence.
You know what you're doing in life.
It gives you peace, really.
And when the world comes after us, when we start going through persecution, you know,
it's nice to have the peace, it's nice to have the surety of knowing that you're doing
what's right.
How do you know if you're doing what's right?
Well, if it matches up with what the Bible says, then you could have that surety, then
you could have that confidence.
Everything good back there, John?
All right.
But the Bible says, "But he that perverteth his ways shall be known."
You know, people who are wicked, they may want to put on a show.
They may even convince people sometimes that they're nice people, that they're good.
But the Bible says, "But he that perverteth his ways shall be known."
It's going to be revealed someday.
It's going to be made manifest someday.
So the wicked are not going to get away with it.
The Bible says in verse 10, "He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow, but a praying
fool shall fall."
Now this verse is a lot different than the rest of this chapter because so far in this
chapter the first part is usually talking about something good and the second part is
talking about something bad.
This verse is just both bad and so it kind of throws you off a little bit.
It's like why are these two things being contrasted?
The best idea I can come up with is that it seems like the first part of this verse is
talking about harming others, "He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow."
Praying in the eye in the Bible often talks about someone being like conniving or conspiring
to hurt other people and so kind of that wink with the eye is like, "Hey, we've got some
inside knowledge.
We're going to do something bad to someone."
But then it says, "But a praying fool shall fall."
So the idiot, the fool who just likes to hear himself talk, you know, that person will end
up destroying himself.
You know, a good thing to turn to, let's go really quick to 3 John because that word
"prate" is not used very much in the Bible.
But it is used in 3 John, 3 John, look at, that's right before Jude, 3 John, look at
verse number 9.
The Bible says this, "I wrote unto the church, but diatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence
among them receiveth us not."
So notice the apostles, John, they're going to this church that presumably they had started,
they had had influence in before, but there's this guy, diatrophies, who wants to have the
preeminence.
So he's prideful, he wants to be the number one guy, he wants to be a big shot, he wants
to have a big name, and he does not receive the apostles.
He won't let them come.
Then it says in verse 10, "Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth."
You know people who do extreme wickedness in the ministry, especially in the ministry
I should say, of course when someone repents and asks for forgiveness, forgiveness should
be granted to that person, but that does not mean that trust is granted back, especially
in a position of authority that requires a lot of trust.
You know the apostles were saying here, "Hey, I will remember his deeds.
I am not going to forget about this.
I am not going to let this go."
He says, "Notice, raiding against us with malicious words and not content therewith,
neither doth he himself receive the brethren."
So one of the attributes of this loser diatrophies was that he would be praying against the apostles
with malicious words, right?
So they're speaking harm, he's speaking harm against the apostles even though the apostles
were great, even though they're preaching the word of God, even though they're doing
the work of Jesus Christ, this loser is constantly speaking against them, talking crap about
them, presumably railing against them, preaching false doctrine, and when you see a person
like that in the ministry, you've got to realize this is a praying fool, and what does the
Bible say is going to happen to a praying fool?
Does it say he's going to succeed in the ministry, that things are going to go well for him?
No, it says a praying fool shall fall, and you know what a great example of that is?
Salvador Alvarez, Salvador Alvarez was a praying fool and the result of his ministry
in six few months being destroyed just goes to show that God's hand was not on that person.
That he was a complete failure, why?
Because he was speaking against men of God with malicious words.
He was a praying fool and the Bible says that a praying fool shall fall.
What do you mean?
How about like calling Pastor Shelley a criminal pastor, preaching a whole sermon called Criminal
Pastors, where he's preaching that Pastor Shelley is some criminal and he acts like
Pastor Shelley is some lover of money and lover of riches.
You know, that's a wicked accusation.
That's parading against Pastor Shelley with malicious words.
Or how about saying that Pastor Anderson is a wife beating child abuser.
Talk about malicious words.
Talk about parading against a man of God wrongfully.
And you know, you do that kind of stuff.
What does the Bible say is going to happen?
It says that you're going to fall.
You're going to hurt yourself.
And I don't know why we live in this society where people who are insecure and people who
have just such a desire to be a big shot think that in order to be great, they have to go
tear down other good people.
But let me just help you.
It's never going to work.
You are never going to be esteemed highly.
You are never going to be respected by people by talking crap about good people, by denigrating
good men of God.
All it does is it makes everybody lose respect for you.
And you know, though he finally lost his church and though he's finally not a pastor,
you know, any normal person lost respect for him a long time before that happened.
You know, so beware of the praying fool and don't be one yourself.
Go back to Proverbs 10, the Bible says in verse number 11, the mouth of a righteous
man is a well of life, but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
So, you know, a righteous person's mouth, the words that they say, it is a well of life.
It makes me think, of course, of soul winning, that the righteous, we go out there, we preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ and we bring life to people.
We give them through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice the gift of everlasting life.
I also want you to go to John chapter 6, John chapter 6, because it said there, let me read
it again, "He that walketh," let's see what verse was I on, "the mouth of a righteous
man is a well of life."
Look what Jesus said in John 6 verse 63.
It says, "It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing."
Notice, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
Anytime you're speaking the word of God, you are speaking life.
You are speaking life.
Because, you know, people will criticize us because we preach hard sermons, because we
preach not just the positive verses of the Bible, but also the negative stuff, also the
stuff that pastors avoid with the 10-foot pole.
You know, we preach all of it, and people will act like, you know, we're so hateful,
we're so mean.
No, no, no.
The words that Jesus Christ spoke, those words are life.
And the Bible teaches that Jesus is the Word of God.
This is all the words of Jesus Christ here.
And so when you're preaching that, you're preaching life.
Go to verse number 12 of Proverbs 10.
The Bible says, "Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins."
So, you know, there's a good striving for the faith, and then there's a wicked type
of strife.
For example, you know, Jude, the Epistle of Jude, he goes to write in a pistol, and he
was like, "Hey, I was going to write unto you of the common salvation, but it was needful
for me to exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto
the saints, for there are certain ungodly men crept in unawares."
Right?
So, he goes to write about salvation, he goes to talk about salvation, but he has to fight
against these false prophets, he has to fight against these wicked people and earnestly
contend for the faith.
So some people would use this verse, "Hatred stirth up strifes," and they would say, "Oh,
you guys are striving, you guys are fighting a battle, therefore you're super hateful."
No, no, no, there's a fight, there's a striving that God commanded us to do.
Right?
The Bible says, "Earnestly contend for the faith."
So when you're preaching the Word of God, it's going to naturally cause division.
The devil's not going to take that lying down.
So there's always going to be a fight and a strife if you're serving God.
But that's a positive type of strife.
The negative type of strife, the Bible says, "Hatred stirs up strife."
So the real hateful people, what they do is they take a situation where there was no problem,
there was no drama, there was no strife, and they create strife out of thin air.
That's the real hateful person.
Let me tell you who the hateful people are.
It's the Jews that run the Oklahoman.
Those are the true hateful people, because the Bible says, "Hatred stirreth up strife."
Look, it's loving to preach the word of God.
It's loving to preach the law of God.
Why?
Because Romans 13, "Love is the fulfilling of the law."
Okay, there's your definition of love.
Love is the filling of the law.
So you know what?
We're a loving church because we preach the full counsel of God.
And I think it's so hilarious, all these Christians, all these holier-than-thou Christians
that want to judge us, and condemn us, and say we're so hateful, when it's like, let's
see your bulletin in Oklahoma City.
How many souls have you won in Oklahoma City this year?
How many times have you gone out and preached the gospel this year?
How many times have you earnestly contended for the faith in a sermon this year?
Oh yeah, not that many, have you?
So I'm not going to accept any of this criticism.
I'm not taking any of it to heart.
No, our church is a loving church.
You know what the hateful person is?
The hateful person stirs up stripes.
It also reminds me of these ex-New IFB bitter people that constantly want to go online and
stir up stripes.
A few weeks ago, I saw this big effort of people trying to make it look like the New
IFB didn't like Pastor Jimenez.
It's like, bro, when I started working for Pastor Shelley, I told him, I was like, look,
I know there's a bunch of drama, I know there's a bunch of politics in church, but I was just
like, Pastor Jimenez would literally have to kill my family for me not to love him.
Like the guy got me saved, baptized me, he married my wife and I, like I love Pastor
Jimenez.
But I saw these bitter people trying to stir up strife and trying to make it look like,
oh, we all hate Pastor Jimenez and we're all against Pastor Jimenez.
You know what the Bible says, hatred stirs up strife.
The hateful person is the one who's stirring up strife.
But what the Bible says, but love covereth all sins.
Again, the Bible's speaking in generalities here, you know, if I love you and you make
a mistake, you mess up, you know, I'm not going to just necessarily always have to point
that out.
Now of course we do need correction, especially from proper authorities in our life.
But you know, if your friend, if your buddy messes up, you're not going to always point
it out.
You know, if your boss messes up at work, let me tell you this, it's not a good idea
to point it out.
Love him and cover that sin, right?
He says something wrong in a presentation, don't stand up and embarrass him in front
of all your colleagues.
You know, that's a hateful thing to do.
That's not a loving thing to do.
You know, wives, don't stir up strife with your husband.
Don't go talking crap about him to other ladies.
Don't try to belittle him or demasculate him or make him feel small in front of other
people.
You know, that's a hateful thing to do.
Love covers all sins.
Your husband's going to be a sinner.
Your husband is going to make mistakes.
You know, a loving wife is not going to go bash her spouse.
A loving husband is not going to go bash his wife to other men.
You know, a loving person covers sin.
Bible says in verse 13, "In the lips of him that hath understanding, wisdom is found."
So someone who's actually wise, they actually have something to say.
And when people are just going on and on and not saying anything, it's because they're
not wise.
Then the Bible says, "But a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding."
The Bible's saying just like, you know, stupid people sometimes just need the rod.
Stupid people sometimes just need to get some sense beat into them because they're stupid.
They're foolish.
So a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.
It's just kind of like the natural consequence of being stupid.
You know, have you ever watched some police body cam videos?
Man.
Look, I'm 100% against police brutality when it occurs.
Like when police go over and above their authority and use too much force, I'm 100% against that.
But when police use lawful and appropriate force, I'm for it, 100%.
And just in my experience, you know, I like watching the police body cam videos.
I feel like the vast majority of the time that police officers use force, it's justified.
The vast majority.
Because the people that they're dealing with often are just so stupid.
Like think about how stupid you have to be to try to punch a police officer.
The rod is for the fool's back, or you know, the police asp nowadays.
It's not really a rod anymore.
The asp that comes out, you know, they flick that asp and the rod comes out.
It's like that's for the fool's back.
Don't, don't, you know, reach into your pockets really quickly around a cop.
Don't punch a police officer.
Don't try to harm a police officer.
And then cry when you get beat up.
And cry when force happens.
I mean, the Bible says a rod is for a fool's back.
You know how you don't get beat up by the police?
You just, first of all, live a clean life above reproach.
That's one good way to avoid most police interactions.
But here's another thing.
Just be friendly, be polite, obey their commands, you know, have your hands visible.
Don't be like, "Hey officer, how's it going?"
It's like, that's a good way to die.
"Oh, you need my ID real quick!"
You know?
That's a really foolish thing to do.
And you might die.
The Bible says in verse number 14, "Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish
is near destruction."
You know, so a wise person is constantly wanting to seek more knowledge.
A wise person is not content with all the knowledge and wisdom that they already have.
They're just constantly seeking more wisdom.
And it's like, I always think of Pastor Anderson as a person like this.
Like he's just addicted to learning, and I love that about him.
I think that's such an awesome quality.
He's like, you know what, 15 languages isn't enough.
He's just going to keep learning languages.
Bible says, wise men lay up knowledge.
Praise God.
But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.
Foolish people, stupid people, always do things with their mouth
that gets them in trouble, blowing off their mouth to the wrong guy.
The proverbial bar fight.
When a guy started drinking, he's got that liquid courage,
and all of a sudden he's mouthing off to the wrong guy.
And the fool's mouth is near destruction.
Idiots are always on the verge of their life
being taken from them, literally, or being destroyed.
You know, this makes me think about road rage.
You wanna talk about a foolish thing to do?
Road raging with people is a very foolish thing to do.
You know, someone cuts you off in traffic,
and you gotta flip 'em the bird, and scream at them,
and yell at them, and chase them down,
and try to get as close as you can.
Look, folks, there are psychos in this world.
You wanna know how I know that?
Because one literally tried to murder me in Houston.
And what was funny is I wasn't even road raging on him.
He was just mad.
I even waved like, hey, I'm sorry.
No big deal.
Bro literally kept cutting me off,
getting out of his car, running up to my window,
trying to get at me, throwing stuff at my car,
chasing me through Houston.
There are some psychos in this world.
And Texas has like the highest road rage death in America.
It's just so damn hot there
that everyone's so pissed off maybe.
So especially in Texas, drive nice.
You know, when you enter Texas,
there's a sign that says drive friendly the Texas way.
Let me tell you, that has to be said for a reason.
It's like when you tell your kids,
hey, get along with your siblings.
Do you say that when they're already getting along
or when they're fighting?
You say that when they're fighting.
So you enter Texas and they're like drive friendly
'cause no one in Texas drives friendly.
I moved to Oklahoma, I was like,
wow, people drive so friendly.
So nice, I'm not seeing road rage every day of my life.
I love Oklahoma.
Bible says in verse 15, the rich man's wealth
is his strong city.
The destruction of the poor is their poverty.
The labor of the righteous tendeth to life,
the fruit of the wicked to sin.
So righteous people are gonna produce good results.
Righteous labor is going to tend to life.
And one of the ways you could evaluate a church
as being a righteous church,
is there a righteous group of people
that are doing good work,
is look at the fruit of their work.
And you know, you open up the bulletin today
and you look at our salvations,
and hey, by God's grace,
we've had 485 salvations as a church,
which is the most that this church has ever had
by this point in the year by far.
Praise God for that.
You know, that is a good sign,
but the fruit of the wicked to sin.
What is the product of bad churches?
Bad preaching, bad doctrine, lies.
You know, gossip in the pews.
1 Corinthians 5 sins in the pews.
How about this?
Loud mouth women, feminism.
You know, it's a reflection of,
hey, there's something bad going on in the church.
There's a cancer that's growing.
The Bible says in verse 17,
he is in the way of life that keepeth instruction,
but he that refuseth reproof ereth.
You know, it's so important for us to
want to be people to receive instruction,
want to learn, want to be corrected,
want to be told when you've done something wrong.
The Bible says when you do that,
you're in the way of life.
Meaning, hey, you're on the right track.
You're on the path to blessings.
But he that refuseth reproof ereth.
You know, don't be a person that cannot be corrected,
especially when it comes from authorities in your life.
Do not be the worker on the job
that the boss cannot just tell you
that you did something wrong.
Don't be the guy at the job where your boss
goes to correct you and you're just like,
but don't be that person.
Honestly, even if you think you're in the right,
it might honestly just be better to be misunderstood
and your boss know that you could take correction.
You know, that is super, super important.
And of course that would go for any role
when you're under someone's authority,
you need to receive that reproof.
That's how we get better.
That's how we become better people.
Verse 18, "He that hideth hatred with lying lips,
and he that uttereth a slander is a fool."
You know, slander, you know, lying about someone,
falsely accusing someone.
The Bible says if you do this, you are a fool.
And why do people do this?
Again, I think it comes from this diatrophies mentality
of you want other people to look at you as being so great,
and you as being so awesome.
So what you're gonna do is you're gonna go slander
other individuals.
But the Bible says that the person that does that
is a fool.
Why?
Because God knows the truth.
And you know, if you're actually spiritual,
if you're a Christian,
you should know that your destiny is in God's hand.
And if you're going around lying and slandering people,
you should realize that that's gonna make God angry.
That's gonna cause his blessing to be removed from you.
Verse 19, "In the multitude of words,
there wanteth not sin,
but he that refraineth his lips is wise."
So you know, whenever there's just a ton of words
being spoken, a ton of people,
given their input, there's probably some sin there.
You know, the big Facebook groups,
or how about this, just democracy in general.
You know, I don't know about you,
but I don't want all 320, 330, however million Americans
to all have the same voice.
You know, I really don't think that guys like, you know,
men of God like Pastor Shelley and Pastor Thompson
and Pastor Anderson should have their opinion,
you know, on the same level as some 18-year-old girl
who's got, you know, four abortions already.
You know, that's not, that's ridiculous.
In the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin,
but he that refraineth his lips is wise.
Verse 20, the tongue of the just is as choice silver.
The heart of the wicked is little worth.
You know, silver is something that's precious.
It's not just in abundance everywhere we look,
and it's something that's of high value.
The Bible says the tongue of the just is as choice silver.
And when I think about this, I think about going to church.
And when I'm looking for a church to go to,
you know, before I was a pastor,
obviously I was in the pews for well over a decade.
You know, I want to go to a church that has a good pastor,
that has a pastor that preaches good sermons.
Why?
Because you can't find just an excellent pastor
on every street corner.
The Bible says, notice what it says,
the tongue of the just is as choice silver.
This is why I think it's so silly
that some people kind of have this attitude
where they act like all churches are just created equal.
And let me tell you something,
all churches are not created equal.
And some people just kind of jump from church to church
and they think like,
and let's just use a theoretical example.
Let's say that we start a church someday in Florida,
which I don't think will ever happen.
I hope I'm not manifesting, I don't believe in that.
But let's say someday our church starts a church in Florida
and let's say someone's going to Faithful Word Baptist Church
and someone's just like, oh, there's a new IFB church
and I've always wanted to live in Florida.
I'm just gonna leave Faithful Word.
I'm just gonna leave Pastor Anderson and go to this church.
Now, here's the thing.
Lord willing, if we started a church somewhere,
we would have a rock star and a super awesome guy
that's gonna be an excellent, wonderful pastor.
But you know, you don't really know that until it happens.
You don't really know that until the guy's kind of proven
that he is.
And some people, I see people all the time,
they'll like talk about leaving a church
that's already epic, that's already awesome,
that already has such a great pastor with great doctrine.
And they kind of just want to take a gamble
on this new thing.
And you know what, and this preaching might even
be detrimental to me right now,
but I don't think you should take that gamble.
I think that you should serve in the church
that God has placed you in.
And there was even some people at other churches
that are excellent, wonderful churches
that at one point expressed that they might move here.
And I'll be honest, I never encouraged them to do that.
I'm just like, okay, yeah, all right, whatever,
whatever you do.
And if they move, great, praise the Lord.
But I'm not gonna be like,
yeah, you should leave Pastor Shelley.
You should leave Pastor Anderson.
Why?
They're great men of God.
They're great pastors.
They're pastors that you're not gonna find
on every street quarter.
And if you already know that you have a good church,
why would you take a chance?
You know, and it's so funny.
People act like, oh, you know, I'm just, no big deal.
I could just leave a new IFB church.
No big deal.
I'm gonna be thriving just as much in the old IFB.
No, you're not.
I'm sorry.
No, you're not.
I'm sorry.
You're not gonna be fed the same at an old IFB church
as you are at Anchor Baptist Church in this city.
It's just not gonna happen.
You're gonna get the Sunday morning salvation.
You're gonna get the Sunday evening Jews,
and you're gonna get the Wednesday night rapture,
and that's gonna be on repeat for the whole year.
It's just a fact, folks.
And you know what?
You could just stop denying reality
and acting like every church has created equal
because it's not.
And so apply this to yourself.
If you like Anchor Baptist Church, which I hope you do,
if you love this church, I wouldn't recommend
that you just, on a whim, leave and make that gamble.
If this is a good church, if I'm a good pastor in your eyes,
you should get anchored here, you should get rooted here,
you should get grounded here and not be this person
that just bounces from church to church to church.
You know, some people have told me, they're like,
yeah, what I want to do is I want to travel a lot
and spend Wednesday at this church,
Sunday morning at this church,
and Sunday evening at another church,
and kind of just do that on repeat.
Or, you know, I go to this old IFB church one week,
and then I go to a new IFB church another week.
That's stupid, that's a bad idea.
You should just get in a good church,
in the best church in your area, and you should stay.
'Cause the tongue of the just is as choice silver.
The heart of the wicked is little worth.
The lips of the righteous feed many.
See, a good pastor's gonna feed many.
But fools die for want of wisdom.
I kinda like the play of words on this,
because fools, let me tell you,
they're dying for some wisdom.
They really are, they need some wisdom.
And also, fools sometimes literally die
for lack of wisdom.
People who are foolish and go out and drink and drive,
you could literally die from being a fool.
Verse 22, "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich,
and he addeth no sorrow with it."
So, you know, wicked people, they could chase money,
they could chase fame,
and they could even temporarily achieve those things.
But sometimes a lot of sorrow is mixed in with it.
Sometimes, you know, these celebrities,
they have the money, they have the mansions,
they have the women,
they have all the things that people think they want.
But inside, they're miserable.
Inside, they're sorrowful.
The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich.
And you know, not all riches in this world
are monetary value.
You know what, is a person who is rich
is a husband and wife that love each other.
That family is rich.
'Cause you know, over 50% of marriages today end in divorce.
And if you've got a loving spouse, you are a rich person.
Hey, you know, the Bible teaches that, you know,
children are the reward from God.
You've got children today, you're a rich person.
Let me tell you what,
you live in the United States of America,
you live in Oklahoma, you are a rich person.
You know, you live in 2025 with the perfect
and errant inspired King James Bible,
word of God before you.
You are a rich man, you are a rich woman.
And so the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich.
Verse 23, it is as sport to a fool to do mischief,
but a man of understanding hath wisdom.
So a foolish person, you know, they view sin as a joke.
They view mischief as a game.
Verse 24, the fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him,
but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.
You know, the Bible talks about how the wicked flee
when no man pursueth.
Wicked people are fearful,
and they're not afraid of God.
We should be afraid of God.
We should all be terrified of God.
Wicked people are just fearful in general.
And the Bible says that the fear of wicked people,
it shall come upon him.
It reminds me of this one time,
back when my sermon first went viral in 2022,
and it went way more viral than anything right now.
Like, it was on the news in Denmark, Australia, Spain,
all throughout South America, the United States,
tens of billions of views on TikTok.
It was insane in 2022.
And my wife and I, after church,
one time we went to a sandwich shop,
and I'm giving my order,
and this woman's just looking at me weird.
She goes, "You guys coming back from a business trip?"
And I'm like, "No, coming back from church."
And she's like, "Oh, okay, what church?"
Steadfast Baptist Church.
And she's like, you tell like she was shook
that I said Steadfast Baptist Church.
She's like, "Can I get a name for your order?"
"Dylan."
"Okay."
And she goes and makes my sandwich.
And I'm just looking at my wife.
I'm like, "Okay, this is weird."
Like she definitely, she definitely knows who we are.
I'm like watching her, like make sure she's not gonna spit
in my sandwich or whatever.
But you know, at that time, the protesters,
they had this Facebook group where they, you know,
posted all their little things that they had going on.
And that night I went in there.
I was like, "Who is this woman?"
And I found her, I found her face.
I was like, "That was the one from the shop."
And she got on Facebook and she said,
"Today, my worst fear came true.
"I had to make a sandwich for Dylan Oz."
And it's like, the Bible literally says,
"The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him."
And you know, I love the headline back there.
It says, "It's terrifying."
Well, you know, the Bible says that the fear
of the wicked shall come upon him.
And so if your worst fear is a white,
straight, American, blonde, blue-eyed,
independent fundamental Baptist preacher,
you might have to make him a sandwich.
maybe you shouldn't have hated God.
What a liberating feminist you are.
So liberated, yeah, make me a sandwich.
Bible says in verse 25, as the whirlwind passeth,
so is the wicked no more.
But the righteous is as an everlasting foundation.
What's a whirlwind?
It's like a tornado.
And the tornado, it says it passeth,
so is the wicked no more.
So you know, a tornado, it's just loud, it's intense,
it's destroying everything, it's making a big show,
but then it just, it goes away, it's gone.
And that's exactly like the wicked in this life.
Yeah, they're loud and proud, and they're mighty,
and they may have some power,
and they may cause some damage for time,
but you know what, our life is a vapor, boom,
and they're gone, they're gone, and they're in hell.
But notice, the righteous is an everlasting foundation.
I love the imagery here, because we're in Oklahoma,
we have tornadoes, and what do people do
when there's a tornado coming down?
They get down into the foundation of their home.
They get into that storm shelter,
and in fact, just, was that yesterday
that the tornadoes were going off?
Was that yesterday?
Man, I'm in a time warp.
I was literally in the shower,
and all of a sudden these sirens start going off
or getting the kids.
What do we do?
We went down into the foundation.
'Cause you know, you guys all have a normalcy bias.
You've lived here your whole life,
and you just think, oh, it could never happen to me.
But let me tell you, that's not true.
It could happen to you.
And you can't predict these things,
and so you shouldn't be a fool.
You should get into that foundation.
But you know, it's just like with Jesus Christ,
the Bible says that we have a sure foundation.
The Bible says we have an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast.
And so the wicked, they can make their noise,
they could be loud, they could be angry,
they could destroy stuff.
But you know what?
We've got that everlasting foundation to keep us safe.
And I'm not worried about the tornado,
'cause I've got a tornado shelter.
And I'm not worried about the protests.
I'm not worried about the persecution.
I'm not worried about the news articles.
I'm not worried about the haters,
because I have Jesus Christ.
Because I'm on the Lord's side.
Verse 26, as vinegar to the teeth
and as smoke to the eyes,
so is the slugger to them that send him.
The fear of the Lord prolongeth days,
but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.
So notice, fearing God, keeping his commandments,
esteeming the things of God highly,
it's literally gonna add years to your life.
And people are gonna wanna scare you out of serving God.
Let me tell you, quitting serving God
is the worst thing you could do.
Quitting serving God could shave years off your life,
whereas serving him prolongs it.
Verse 28, the hope of the righteous shall be gladness.
Now, I know we're going long on time,
so I'll try to speed up here.
But the hope of the righteous shall be gladness.
Hope in the Bible often does not mean just like,
well, I hope so, like we kind of use it.
Hope means an expectation,
something that you are looking forward to,
that you know you're gonna receive.
The Bible says that the hope of the righteous
shall be gladness.
This is a super powerful verse, don't miss this.
In life, we are going through times
where you're gonna experience sorrow,
where you're gonna experience pain,
where you're gonna go through trials and problems.
And there's gonna be times where you're just like,
I don't feel gladness, I don't feel happy.
But in the long run though,
the hope of the righteous shall be gladness.
If you serve the Lord, if you are on the Lord's side,
if you keep his commandments, at the long run,
you will be glad that you did.
Every single time, you will be glad that you served the Lord.
But the expectation of the wicked shall perish.
You know, the wicked, they have their expectations
of what they're gonna get out of life.
And you know what?
The wicked who don't believe in Christ,
their expectation shall perish
when they die and open their eyes in hell.
The way of the Lord is strength to the upright,
but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
So notice, by going the way of the Lord,
it's actually what strengthens us.
You know, in Isaiah chapter 40,
I believe it talks about they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength.
And you know, at times,
serving God can be a weariness to the flesh.
It could be a weariness financially.
It could be a weariness to family and to time
and to all the things that we put into the ministry of God.
But I'm telling you,
serving God is actually giving you strength in the long run.
Why? Because the Holy Spirit of God can renew our strength.
Even at times you feel weary, you feel tired,
you feel like giving up.
No, no, serving God is what's actually giving you your strength.
If you quit serving God,
you might realize you're a lot weaker at that position.
Then the Bible says, verse number 30,
"The righteous shall never be removed,
but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.
The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom,
and the foward tongue shall be cut out."
So again, it's all temporary for the wicked.
Their triumph, their hard speeches,
their wicked words that they say against God and against us.
'Cause in the long run, the foward tongue shall be cut out.
"The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable,
but the mouth of the wicked speaketh fowardness."
I love this.
The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable.
We as Christians who actually read the Bible,
who actually go to church,
who actually go preach the gospel,
we know what is acceptable.
And you know what I've noticed?
Christians who don't read the Bible,
who don't go to church,
they don't preach the gospel,
they don't serve God,
they don't know what's acceptable.
They don't know what sound doctrine is.
They don't realize that our church
is preaching the pure, sound words of Jesus Christ.
But you know what?
We know the words that are acceptable.
But the mouth of the wicked speaketh forwardness.
You know, in conclusion, this whole chapter,
like I said, it's basically just saying like,
hey, in general, when you serve God,
when you fear God,
when you esteem the things of God highly,
when you put him first,
things in general are going to go well for you.
And let me tell you this,
even though we go through hardships,
even though we go through persecutions and trials,
if we serve God and if we fear God,
we are still gonna receive the best possible outcome
for our life than if we became foolish and stopped,
than if we became backslidden and quit on God.
Look at verse 30 again, it says this,
the righteous shall never be removed.
And you know what?
We need to be that righteous group of Christians today
that is never going to be removed,
that is going to be anchored by Jesus Christ,
that is going to be steadfast.
Why?
Because we're the ones that have the acceptable words.
We know what the truth is today.
So you know, the wicked, they can come after us,
they can put us in the news, they could protest,
they could lie, they could rail, but guess what?
We will never be removed.
It doesn't matter how many death threats you send me,
it doesn't matter how many weak, watered-down Christians
who don't actually know the Jesus of the Bible,
want to criticize us, want to criticize our church,
it doesn't matter how many limp-wristed, fake pastors
and fake Christians in America want to hate a real pastor
and a real church, we will never be moved.
Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for this great chapter.
We thank you for the truths in your word
and these wonderful proverbs of wisdom.
I pray that you would help all of us to constantly read
the word of God and apply it to our lives.
I pray that you'd bless our church
through this time of persecution,
that you'd help us to never be removed,
help us to be steadfast.
We love you in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.