Anyways, just give me one second. I tried to find the longest chapter for Oliver
to read. Fifty verses. I want to make this a really interesting night.
So, all right. Anyways, we're in Numbers chapter 16, and I want you to look at the first three
verses here. And the Bible reads in Numbers chapter 16.
Now Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi and Dathan and Abiram,
the sons of Eliab and An, the son of Peleth, the sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose
up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of
the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. And they gathered themselves
together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon
you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them.
Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord.
This is obviously a very famous chapter in the word of God with Korah and Dathan and
Abiram. And this sort of situation is always going to pop up in churches that are godly
churches. The devil always wants to try to cause an uprising within a church. And we've
seen that in our church in the past. Other godly, like-minded churches, it's going to
happen. And basically Korah, Dathan and Abiram, they accuse Moses of being arrogant and lifted
up. Now when you read the Bible, is there any
part of that that makes it look like Moses is arrogant? I mean, he's such a humble person.
And even in the story it blows your mind because he saves the situation and then the people
still blame him afterwards when God clearly killed them for their wickedness. And so in
this story we see that this uprising comes. Moses and Aaron never lifted themselves up.
But I want you to notice what he says, what they say. He says all the congregation are
holy, every one of them. That's what you're always going to notice with false prophets,
they're flatterers. They say well everybody's holy. I mean that tickles our ears, doesn't
it, when everyone says man you're a really holy person. You're very godly. And that was
the strategy they used. Every single person is holy, every single one. So why are you
lifting yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?
Now we know from the Bible that Moses, most specifically, and Aaron were put in charge
of everybody. They didn't lift themselves up to that position of leadership. God put
them in that position of leadership. God determined that Moses was the guy to get the job done.
God determined that Moses would be the guy that could lead them into the promised land.
It wasn't Moses that lifted himself up. It wasn't Aaron that lifted himself up. God lifted
Moses and Aaron up to that position. And basically Korah says you know what, you're not capable
of getting the job done on your own. Basically when they're criticizing Moses and Aaron it's
not really a criticism of Moses or Aaron, it's a criticism of God. Because God put them
in a position of leadership. And so basically they're saying well God was wrong because
they're not capable of getting the job done. Even though God gave them the authority to
make the decisions and to be the leader, they basically said no, that they couldn't get
the job done. Now here's the thing, Moses was just a man.
Moses was not perfect. Moses made mistakes. Moses sinned sometimes. But it doesn't change
the fact no matter what the situation, even if he made a mistake, he was still the one
in authority of making that decision. That's what we need to understand. If God put somebody
in a position of authority, it doesn't mean they're going to be perfect, but what it does
mean is they get to make the decisions. They have the authority. And Moses was the one
in charge. Now in 1996 there was a famous book written
by Hillary Clinton. The book was called It Takes a Village. And it was this sort of philosophy
that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had. And if anybody knows anything about that book, it
was an attack on families. Basically she says that a mom and dad are not capable of raising
their kids, and it takes a village to raise those kids. We need everybody in society.
We need all these governmental programs. Parents are not capable of getting the job done on
their own. Now in the book she says this is not an attack
on the family, but anybody who can read with a clear mind knows that she's attacking the
family and saying we need the government to step in, we need to get both men and women
out there working, and we need the government to help because we're holding women back.
So it was a complete attack on the family and a complete attack on God because obviously
Hillary Clinton is a very godless, wicked person. Honestly, I think if you don't think
she's a reprobate, you're going out on a limb, my friend, because she's a very, very wicked
person, even for politician standards. But I'm going to read some quotes to you from
her, one quote to start out before we get into the sermon. But she says, anti-government
rhetoric argues against the basic protections government extends to the well-being of individuals,
families and communities without offering an alternative way of safeguarding them. So
basically she's saying people that criticize the government, they don't have any alternative.
It's like, well, you criticize the public school, you don't have an alternative. Actually,
you know, there's homeschooling. You criticize, you know, maybe vaccinations and all these,
you know, mandatory shots you're trying to give people and you don't have an alternative.
How about not getting the shots at all? You know, there is an alternative.
But all these things she says that the government gives us, you know, the government gives us
nothing. You know, the government basically just takes and takes. They don't help us at
all. And she goes on and said, in fact, its extreme case against government, often including
intense personal attacks on government officials and political leaders, is designed not just
to restrain government but to advance narrow religious, political and economic agendas.
When she says narrow religious agendas, she's talking about pretty much every single person
in here because I guarantee you Hillary Clinton would not be sitting through the preaching
here. I guarantee you that if she knew about her church, she wouldn't be happy about it.
You know, basically she says us that are religious, us that say the Bible is the word of God,
we're narrow minded is what she's saying. And so basically I want to look at this philosophy.
That is the name of the sermon, It Takes a Village. But I want to look at this philosophy
in four different ways. And what I mean by this is basically God gave the authority to
a person or a group of persons. And when God gives somebody the authority, he's saying
that they can get the job done, they're capable of doing it. And the worldly philosophy says,
no they're not capable of doing it. Even though God said they're capable of doing it, they're
not capable and it's going to take a village to get the job done. Now the first area I
want to focus on is with raising children. Turn to Ephesians chapter six.
And this book by Hillary Clinton was specifically referring to the idea of raising children
and saying that as parents we're not capable of getting the job done. Even though for thousands
of years throughout the book of Genesis, you know, parents were fine and got the job done.
But they said it's going to take a village. We need a government in today's day and age.
But I want you to notice Ephesians chapter six. And I know we read these verses this
morning. I think Pastor Min has stole a lot of my sermon because there's a lot of verses,
a lot of crossover with my sermon tonight. But in Ephesians chapter six, look at verse
number one, the Bible reads, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Honor thy father and mother, which is a first commandment with promise, that it may be well
with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There's a lot
of guys in this room, including myself, that are new fathers. And I'll be honest with you,
this is a very, very encouraging verse to me, when you really understand what's being
said. You know, he says, provoke not your children to wrath. And he basically gives
you a template on how not to provoke them to wrath. He says, but bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord. Basically what he's saying is, if you don't bring them
up in the nurture of the Lord, guess what? You're going to provoke your children to wrath.
So God tells you, you need to bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. What does this
word nurture mean? It basically means that you show that you're caring. You spend time.
It means you get home from a hard day's work, and you don't just sit around and listen to
three hours of preaching on YouTube and ignore your family. It means you come home and actually
spend time with your family, and care about your family. Spend time with your wife. Spend
time with your kids. You know, if you're going to nurture them, you have to spend time and
show them that you care, and your actions are going to show what you really care about.
And that's what God says. As fathers, and the same would apply to mothers, but we need
to bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. The first thing I want to look at in terms
of raising children is nurture versus daycare. Because here's the thing, you really can't
have it both ways. If both husband and wife are working, they're not going to be able
to spend the amount of time with kids as they need to. And let me just say this, because
I don't want to offend anyone. I understand people are in various situations for various
reasons. Maybe decisions were made in the past, or maybe for whatever reason that's
your lot in life. But God's will, especially when there's a lot of young people here, we
need to know this, God's will is for the husband to provide, and the wife to stay home and
raise the children. And honestly, since my son was born, I really don't know how people
go the other way, and spend any time with their kids. I mean, if both the husband and
wife are working, I really don't know how you get to spend much time at all with your
kids. But the Bible says, bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. This is what Hillary
Clinton said in her book, we need to understand that there is no formula for how women should
lead their lives. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself
and her family. Every woman deserves a chance to realize her God-given potential. Basically
what she's saying is every woman deserves a right to try to work her way as far up the
ladder as she possibly can, and to make it as big as she can in business, and make as
much money as she can, and that's her God-given potential. Now, I kind of agree with Hillary,
because I agree women have the right to realize their God-given potential. But see, there
is a formula, because the Bible says women are to marry, bear children, and guide the
house. And I think women should try to become the best moms they possibly can. It's a big
responsibility. It's not like a secondary thing, like, oh man, I don't get to work,
I've got to raise kids. It's like, are you kidding me? That's great. That is God's plan
for your life. And it's not a secondary thing. It's really important. Now, I can't
think of anything that's more important to me than how my son's going to end up in
life. And a lot of that's going to depend on my wife. And if she's out there working
and those kids are being shoved in daycare, do you really think that the workers at daycare
are going to provide inertia to those children? Do you really think they care about those
children that much? They don't. And that's what we have throughout America and throughout
most of the world now. We're basically husband and wife, they both work, and families don't
spend any time at all with each other. That's the way it is. But most specifically in Ephesians
6, 4, it says, in ye fathers. And so us as men, we need to realize that when we come
home we must find time for our spouses. We must find time for our kids. We must find
time to spend with them throughout the week. And life is busy, but we must make time for
them. Look at Ephesians chapter 6, not just nurture
versus daycare, but look at verse 4 as well, where it says, bring them up in the admonition
of the Lord. So there's two things mentioned, and I love that about this verse because it's
really not that complicated. God says nurture and admonition. That's great because it's
not easy, but it's not complicated. We know what we need to do as men. We need to spend
time with our families and care about them. We also need to provide admonition. If we
do these two things, we've done a good job. And obviously when we raise kids, we want
our kids to be intelligent. We want them to learn trades and things like that. But honestly
the most important thing, more important than being able to pass a calculus exam, is the
fact that we actually spend time with them. Because you could ship off your kid to a private
school where they'll get a great education and they're going to grow up and they're going
to hate you. And I have a story about that from someone I know growing up that I'm going
to provide you with in a couple minutes. But it says bring them up in the admonition of
the Lord. Turn to Proverbs chapter 29. And so basically we have admonition according
to the Bible versus the worldly philosophy would be kind of like governmental training.
And I'll show you what I mean by that here in a second. But in Proverbs chapter 29, look
at verse number 15, the Bible reads, the wrong reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself
bringeth his mother to shame. You see, a child that grows up that has no discipline, that
mom's going to be embarrassed about how their child turned out when they end up being some
wicked kid because they had no admonition in life. They didn't know anything from the
Bible. They were never instructed when they screwed up. And it says in verse 16, when
the wicked are multiplied transgression increases, but the righteous shall see their fall. Correct
thy son and he shall give thee rest. Yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul. And so
in verse 16, it talks about the wicked are multiplied. Why? Because discipline is not
being provided. And kids that don't get any discipline are going to end up being wicked.
You know, it's obvious. It's embarrassing sometimes you're in public and you see parents
just telling their kids, no, no, no. And it's like, do you want us to spank your child for
you? I mean, do you need help? I mean, because obviously that's not going to get the job
done. And those kids are going to grow up and become wicked kids and hate their parents.
The Bible says, correct thy son. But it's interesting, it says, and he shall give thee
rest. And this is interesting to me because, I'll be honest, since my son was born, I don't
think I've had a ton of rest. But the Bible says your son's going to provide you rest.
So I was trying to think, and this is not the only place in the Bible. There's also
in Psalms 127, and I was just like, I don't get it. I'm missing something from the Bible.
But this is what I think God's trying to tell us. See, there's people that are in their
50s and 60s and didn't do a very good job raising their kids. And you know what? I think
they have a lot of sleepless nights right now trying to figure out what could I have
done differently when my child was young so he didn't end up in prison and become a drug
addict. And they don't have any rest. But if we raise our kids right, we do have the
promise from God. He's not going to depart from the things of God. So you can have a
lot of good night's sleep knowing, you know what? My child, he loves the Lord. Maybe he's
not rich. Maybe he's not famous, which is good. But he loves the Lord. He goes soul
winning. Man, that's great. If you can have that. But when you have parents whose kids
are wicked, they're probably going to have a lot of sleepless nights just wondering what
could I have done differently? And they have no rest. Because I'll tell you this, you certainly
don't get the rest now raising kids. But you got your choice. Do you want the rest now
or later? So you can have the rest now and just shove them in daycare and have somebody
else raise your kids for you. But you're not going to have much rest when you're older
and they become wicked people. And here's what's interesting about this. The government,
it's interesting because Hillary Clinton says only the government can provide these things.
The government doesn't provide any training to kids until they turn 18 and they get shoved
in prison. And you can look this up. You can look this up on Wikipedia. But Charles
Manson before he became a serial killer, he was arrested for sodomy many times. That's
a fact. You can look it up on Wikipedia. He was a wicked person and we know what the Bible
says about that. But he wasn't thrown in prison because he was too young. There was nothing
that they could do because he wasn't 18 years old. So he got off over and, look it up, over
and over and over again. Then all of a sudden becomes this crazed killer. And it's like,
well you know what, if you had followed what the Bible said you wouldn't have had that
situation. The government does not provide any training or any admonition. Only God's
word and parents that love their kids can provide the proper admonition. Turn to Proverbs
chapter 22. And I know we know this verse, but this is what it says in Proverbs 22 verse
6. It says, Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart
from it. This is a great promise from the word of God because this is something we have
to take by faith as we're raising kids. This is something I have to take by faith with
my son Zephaniah. That if I raise him in the ways of God, when he's old he's not going
to depart from it. He's going to be a godly Christian when he gets older. And considering
how much work this goes into it, we need to have faith in what the word of God says. But
this is God's promise. Now let me give you a quote from Hillary Clinton in this book.
Now I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but can anyone believe that someone bought
a book from Hillary Clinton about how to raise kids? I mean that blows my mind that that
was number one on the best sellers list. I mean Hillary Clinton? I mean even when I was
a kid everybody knew she was just like a wicked person. People knew that in 1996. I mean it
was just a fact. You know whether you're a Republican or a Democrat it's like yeah she's
pretty evil. But it says in her quote is this, let us admit that some government programs
and personnel are efficient and effective and others are not. Let us acknowledge that
when it comes to the treatment of children some individuals are evil, neglectful or incompetent,
but others are trying to do the best they can against daunting odds and deserve not
our contempt but the help only we through our government can provide. Let us stop stereotyping
government and individuals as absolute villains or absolute savers and recognize that each
must be part of the solution. Let us use government as we have in the past to further the common
good. You can see from these quotes this is an attack on the family. You can tell she's
trying to take authority away from the parents and give it to the government. I don't trust
the government making the right decisions with my children or with my son. You know
I want to tell you a story from someone I knew growing up and this kid was probably
the smartest person at my school growing up in Bridgeport, West Virginia and everybody
knew that. And when he was in elementary school he got into a good amount of trouble you know
he would always kind of do stupid practical jokes and as a kid I thought it was funny.
You know if I had been smarter I would have known this kid's probably going to turn out
to be wicked. Now his dad was a surgeon and his mom was a lawyer. They were probably raking
in four hundred five hundred thousand dollars a year and in West Virginia twenty years ago
that was a lot of money. They were probably the richest family in town and he was the
smartest kid and he knew that. And he was a rebellious kid so they shipped him off to
private school a couple years and he got in trouble there, got kicked out and everything
but he got all the best training and everything like that and you know he got accepted. I
can't remember what school it was because he was a genius kid. He got accepted into
Stanford or one of those schools like that and everything. He ended up you know failing
out of college and become he's a loser. He lives off the government and or his parents
pay him tons of money I'm not really sure. But you know I didn't know much about this
kid for the last several years I didn't think about it but I was home visiting my family
one time and I was being lazy so I was just kind of curious on Bridgeport news. You know
they have like a forum on there and I'm not friends with anybody I knew from from high
school because I wasn't even saving high school. I was a completely different person I have
no interest but I was just kind of curious and I was going on this forum and this guy's
name popped up like every single post. You know apparently he's kind of famous as the
town loser in that area and he's been in and out of jail, domestic abuse and drug addiction
and things like that. He actually put a post where basically he said he was thinking about
committing suicide he had a really long post. Now I hadn't talked to this kid in like 10-12
years I felt like you know kind of like guilty about that man I should try to just send him
and I sent him a long message about the Bible and because I'm kind of known as the weirdo
that converted to religion you know what I mean and so I sent him this long message and
he was curious so he messaged me back and we messaged for a while you know I was trying
to get him to think about the things in the Bible he listened to the plan of salvation
by Pastor Menes and things like that but honestly he's probably a reprobate and eventually he
became blasphemous so I kind of just you know quit wasting my time but my point in this
story is this this kid had the best schooling you could possibly have. I mean he was a genius
he had his parents bought him like a hundred thousand dollar car when he was in high school
just brand new they bought it for him he had everything that the world could offer but
you know what he didn't have he didn't have nurture from his parents he didn't have admonition
from his parents and everybody knew that about these about this kid you know his parents
had no time for them it was work work work and just send him off to to these private
school and he was going to all these lessons for you know advanced classes and things like
that his parents never spent any time with him and I'll tell you what you know I know
I'm going to make a lot of mistakes as a parent but God gave me the authority to make the
decisions and if I can provide nurture and admonition I'm not doing that bad of a job
I might not be the perfect parent but if I provide nurture and admonition then I'm doing
a good job and yes I'm a new father but honestly I think I know a lot more about parenting
than Hillary Clinton does because when you have the Bible to guide you you already know
this is what I need to do I already knew that you know years ago what the Bible said
about it what I'm going to need to do when I become a parent and if we allow the Bible
to guide us not the government providing something but the Bible is going to show us you know
what we need to do.
Let's turn to 1 Timothy 3. Now this sermon was inspired from a hospital pediatrician
that I had a bit of an argument with about three or four weeks ago. You know my wife
and I we had our baby at a birthing center you know all midwives all ladies but we went
to a hospital and for the most part we didn't have any problems but you know we were very
specific you know way ahead of time we told every nurse every midwife that you know what
we wanted we said we don't want any vaccinations we don't want the vitamin K shot we don't
want this or that and I understand there's a lot of people here you might have a different
opinion on that and that's fine because I'm not I'm not going to be a hypocrite God gave
you the authority to make decisions with your kids I'm just saying you know what we decided
to do with our son Zephaniah and so you know we had filled all this out didn't have any
problems but this one pediatrician said oh we need to talk about this she's like I'm
here to help you to you know help you understand this vitamin K shot about why it's important
and help you get through your concerns about the vitamin K shot you know really condescending
basically saying that I'm making the wrong choice I don't know what I'm doing and I tried
to be respectful and you know she asked me you know why we don't want to get the vitamin
K shot and she I told her she could explain real briefly and she did and then I told her
you know well I said the Bible says they that are whole need not a physician but they that
are sick you know that's what I told her I said every single one of you has said my
son for being premature looks great and he's really healthy and I said he's whole he doesn't
need a physician I said we don't need the shot because you all said he's doing great
and of course she looked at me like I'm crazy and and wanted to argue about vaccinations
and stuff like that but you know when you have the Bible to guide you you can make the
right decisions in life and here's the thing though whether or not you agree or not with
our decision it's still the authority of the parents to make that decision but this woman
had this philosophy of Hillary Clinton that it takes a village basically as a trained
pediatrician she gets to help make the right choices for us and for our family but that's
not what the Bible teaches the Bible teaches the parents get to decide what to do with
their kids not a pediatrician not the hospital but the parents get to make those decisions
God gave them the authority and you know this is not a new philosophy you know one
of the the wisest men who ever lived Socrates he took this it takes a village philosophy
to a whole nother level here are some of the brilliant things that Socrates came up with
he believed that when a child was born the first thing you do is take it away from the
mom and dad and they never get to recognize who their child is because if they recognize
who their child is they'll be emotionally attached to that child and instead of serving
the government or society they're going to care more about that child so you take away
the child immediately after the child's born and there's certain people in society who
their job is to raise kids parents don't get to raise their kids that's what Socrates said
and not only that this next thing is just just the weirdest thing ever and so with a
baby you know what does a baby do to eat he believed in an assembly line style of
nursing system for babies and basically each baby would be passed along every five minutes
just moms just in a huge line I mean that's the weirdest thing and you say how in the
world you say brother Stuckey that wouldn't have even come into my mind something as innocent
as a as a baby like why in the world would he come up with that you know you're right
that doesn't come into the mind of a normal person but see the Bible says that there are
people that are rejected by God in their mind and conscious is defiled and I think it's
proof right here based on the weirdest thing you've ever heard that his mind was completely
defiled he was a child of the devil a child of Belial he had no hope of being saved he
was an evil person and I don't for the life me understand why independent Baptists can
pick up this book and see verse after verse after verse in the book of John where it says they cannot
believe I mean what don't you understand about that you either become a Calvinist or you believe
that there are people that are rejected there's no alternative the Bible says there are people
that are children of the devil and when you look at the Jeffrey Dahmer's you look at these pedophiles
and perverts and serial killers I do not understand how anyone anybody could think they're a normal
person and it's really interesting to me that Socrates by the world standards was one of the
wisest men who ever lived but in our eyes and from the Bible standards he's like the biggest
fool who's ever lived I can't for the life and you understand how anyone would want to learn
anything from someone who had such a warped mind like that but the world's wisdom is always gonna
be in contrary with God's wisdom we're in First Timothy chapter 3 and the first thing we saw in
this idea of it takes a village is in the idea of raising children we're basically God gave the
authority to parents but the government Hillary Clinton and worldly wisdom says no they can't get
the job done we need society to step in and help them out but in the second area I want to look
at is in the idea of running a church running a church see the Bible teaches that the pastor or
the bishop or the elder is in charge of that church you know it's the same thing but it's
different characteristics of the same position and the Bible says that they are in charge says
in verse 1 this is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop he desires a good work a
bishop then must be blameless the husband of one life vigilant sober of good behavior given to
hospitality apt to teach not given to wine no striker not greedy a filthy lucre but patient
not a brawler not covetous one that ruleth well his own house having his children in subjection
with all gravity for a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the church
of God so the Bible says that a bishop or pastor he must rule his house well and he must rule his
house well because otherwise how shall he take care of the church of God and so basically his
his spouse his wife and his children they need to be in subjection they need to be godly and he says
that if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the church of God so
what the Bible is saying in verse 5 is the same way he rules his own house is the same way he
takes care of the church of God and so here's the thing about this at a home the husband is the head
of the home we know that so in the same way the example he's giving the pastor is going to take
care of the church of God he's the authority of that church now when you think about being a
husband God commands us to lay down our lives for our wives and our children and to love them and
care more about them than ourselves so we're not talking about being a jerk here but we are saying
the final authority comes down to the husband's decision the man of the house and the Bible says
in the same way a man rules his own house is the same way takes care of the church of God so we're
not talking about being a jerk but we are saying the final decision maker is the pastor so at this
church the final decision decision maker is Pastor Jimenez you say brother sucky what if there were
like 20 deacons and they all said this way and Pastor Menes says this way it's not 20 to 1 vote
it's one to nothing vote do you understand what I'm saying and you say well brother second I don't
always agree with how Pastor Menes make some decisions like the first point parents will not
always make the right decisions but they have the authority to make the decisions and it's the same
way with the church nobody's perfect every pastor is going to make mistakes but they still have the
authority to make those decisions whether you agree or whether or not you disagree look down
to verse number 12 and quite honestly most churches are not really run like this in the
IFB realm you have a lot of deacon run churches and basically in the Bible when you look up the
word deacon a deacon is a man of God who is is basically full-time in ministry you know he's
working he's soul winning he's taking a lot of stuff in modern-day IFB churches a deacon is a
guy who has a six-figure salary that makes decisions at church is that not right for
people that have been to IFB churches they're not necessarily godly people they just put in a big
tithe so they get to make a lot of the decisions at that church that is a modern-day deacon in most
IFB churches and basically the deacons get to vote on things so they can out vote the pastor I want
you to notice verse number 12 it says let the deacons be the husbands of one wife ruling their
children and their own house as well you say well there you go brother stocky see the deacons have
to rule their house as well but remember with the bishop they had to rule their house well because
in the same way they would take care of the Church of God in the same way they rule their house is
the same way they take care of the Church of God but notice with deacons in verse 13 for they that
have used the office of a deacon well purchased themselves a good degree and great boldness in
the faith which is in Christ Jesus it doesn't say anything about them running the church see with
the bishop or the pastor they must rule their house as well and in the same way they take care
of the Church of God it's not like that with the deacon deacons must rule their house well but not
because they're going to take care of the Church of God in the same way now here's the thing at a
church a deacon is going to have some authority at a church a deacon is going to be someone who's
very godly and it's going to make some decisions but that's all going to be an in submission to the
pastor so yes they should rule their house well because if they have some authority at church they
need to make sure that they know what they're doing but it's not because they're going to take
care of the Church of God in the same way you don't see that it's very obvious from here that
the Bible says that the bishop in the same way he rules his house is the same way he takes care of
the Church of God you know I heard this this story a long time ago about Jack Hiles and Jack
Hiles he started pastoring a church you know he had moved from another church and it was just like
a few weeks in and basically a lot of people weren't too happy with the preaching and there's
a lot of deacons that kind of like the lame guy that was before and one of the deacons came up
to him and he said you know he's like we need to have a meeting you know about your preaching you
know you're in a new situation different church you know this is a this is different you kind of
know the customs here and things like that and and we're gonna be having a meeting this week you know
all the deacons are gonna be there so we can discuss you know and help you out and Jack Hiles
is like oh that's great great and so the meeting comes around that week and Jack Hiles doesn't show
up to the meeting and so the deacon is and all the deacons are really ticked off and then the deacon
comes up to him says hey we had a meeting he's like hey that's great you can sit around talk
about my preaching all you want but it's not gonna change and see that's the way it is the deacons
don't run the church and it doesn't matter if everybody's upset with the preaching we don't
make the decision the pastor is the one who makes the decisions of how the church runs and this is
something we know but it's easy for us to kind of stop thinking about as we go about through life
at this church you know new situations come up in our minds when I think man we have the right
solution pastors wrong but the Bible says the authority to make the decision is by the pastor
whether or not they're right or wrong it doesn't matter and I'll just be honest with you that you
know I've had sometimes write a different opinion from Pastor Menes and I was positive I was right
and your months later you know I realized well there's a reason why he's a pastor of the church
and he has experience cuz I realized man my way would not have worked out it seemed like it would
work out it but honestly most of the time when we have an idea it might seem great but there's a
reason why he's the pastor and there's a reason why God put him in charge to make the decisions
and he probably is usually right even if you think you're wrong or even if you think he's wrong I know
it's been that way with myself when I thought you know maybe I had a different way to do something
I usually realize you know what I was wrong about that now at IFB churches you run into these deacon
run churches but when you look at some of these other churches that are out there there's this
big elder run movement by the Calvinists and the home church movement and I want to give you a
couple quotes and it's the same sort of thing but this is from John Piper's website it says we
believe the New Testament teaches that there is to be a plurality of elders this means that a
church is not to have unitary leadership where only one man has ultimate authority instead of
churches is to have shared leadership same philosophy that people use about the home that
the husband's not the head same philosophy that does not work shared leadership so you got one
pastor who believes alcohol is a sin another guy who doesn't and then one preaches one way the
other one gets offended it's not gonna work I mean it just doesn't logically make sense here's from
John MacArthur a quote from him biblically the focal point of all church leadership is the elder
an elder is one of a plurality of biblically qualified men who jointly shepherd and oversee a
local body of believers the word translated elder is used nearly 20 times in Acts and the epistles
in reference to this unique group of leaders who have responsibility for overseeing the people of
God turned to Acts 15 let's see what the Bible says because John MacArthur is saying well the
book of Acts shows that we need to have plurality of elders so let's see if that's what we see in
James in not James but Acts chapter 15 what you notice in verse number 12 the Bible reads then
all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring what miracles and
wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them and after they held their peace James answered
saying men and brethren harken on to me James is saying okay everyone's had their opinion but I'm
the pastor I make the final decision he says harken on to me drop down to verse number 19 notice what
he says he says wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are
turned to God but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols and from
fornication and from things strangled and from blood for Moses of old time hath in every city
them that preach him being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day so he says in verse 19 my
sentence is it would be like for example if a judge says hey this is the sentence you can't
argue with the judge they made the decision because they have the authority to make that
decision and James had the authority and he heard people's opinions he says my sentence is why
because the Bible teaches that the pastor is the head of the church and he has the authority to
make the decisions turn to Deuteronomy 17 and so the first point we had tonight with this it takes
a village philosophy was with raising children the second thing we saw was with running a church a
lot of people think well the pastor is not capable of getting the job done we need to buy this village
philosophy of everybody's holy everybody can make the decisions but the third thing we want to look
at is with this idea of reading the Bible a lot of people take this it takes a village philosophy
notice verse 18 it says and it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that he
shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests of Levites and
it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to
fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them that his
heart be not lifted up above his brethren that he turned not aside from the commandment to the right
hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom he and his children in the
midst of Israel and so the Bible says that he's supposed to read the words of this law every day
we're supposed to read God's Word and it says it will help him not to be lifted up it will help him
to fear the Lord I didn't notice anything in this verse about needing a commentary I didn't notice
anything about needing the Schofield reference Bible or somebody else to teach you all I see is
you're supposed to read and that's going to teach you the the words of God are going to teach you
it says turn to Joshua chapter 1 and honestly this is the truth that if we don't read this book
we will end up getting lifted up it's a it's not a possibility it's a guarantee because the Bible
talks about the pride of life and if you're around the world you will end up being filled
full of that pride if you're not in this book this is the book that's going to help us to fear
God and keep us humble we need to read this book as much as possible Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 this
book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that
thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make that way
prosperous and then thou shalt have good success so the Bible shows that all of us we need to read
God's Word all of us that nine chapters a day that shouldn't be the end of our Bible reading for the
year we need to keep up the Bible reading keep setting aside time to read God's Word that's what
the Bible teaches but you know denominations across so-called Christianity they take this
it takes a village philosophy they don't really believe that you can read the Bible on your own
they don't trust you to read the Bible on your own you know I went to an Orthodox website this
week and you know a stories I've heard the Orthodox Church they don't want you to read
the Bible at all or have a Bible but there's different types of Orthodox I guess but they
put up a Bible reading chart and this is the weirdest thing I've ever seen these are the
verses you're supposed to read Isaiah chapter 19 verse 1 verses 3 through 5 verse 12 verse 16
and verses 19 through 21 I mean who comes up with something like that so we don't want you to read
verse 2 or verses 6 through 11 or verses 13 through 15 or verses 17 through 18 because they
just all contradict what we believe we don't trust you to read those verses I mean that that
is the weirdest thing I've ever seen I mean your bet I want to give a tip to the Orthodox leaders
this will help you out don't even put a Bible reading chart up on your website that might help
your church grow a little bit more than having the weirdest thing like this and we put up a video
this week where this Orthodox priest was talking about how we cannot understand the Bible on our
own they said in the Orthodox Church we believe you need to be inside the church and learn in
the whole church system will help teach you now we do believe that the preaching of God's Word
we can learn from it but everything that's preached you can learn in your free time and
honestly you should be learning more in your free time than from the sermons that are preached up
here because it's only three hours a week of preaching that's not that much considering how
much we're in the world you need to be in this book a lot you should learn more from reading
the Bible than from the preaching now we learn from both and we go to a great church where we
don't have to just you know pretend like we're paying attention and be reading the Bible underneath
while the pastor's preaching you don't have to do that at this church like you know I've done at
other IFB churches but you should be learning more in your free time we had a missionary come in at
my old independent fundamental Baptist Church and he wanted to be a missionary to Georgia now Georgia
in case you don't know is both a state and a country okay and so Georgia was part of the
Soviet Union and Georgia is a completely Orthodox country and I don't know 90 whatever percent and
you know typically most of them don't speak English and he was telling us a story about how
they were handing out invitations and he had a translator and he ended up handing out an
invitation to someone who was really curious and he ended up getting this guy saved it took like
four hours through the translator because their church is really warped and using the translators
gonna take time but this guy said that when he was younger he had found a portion of Scripture
because they weren't allowed to have the Word of God and he read something and he said you know
what this is not what we do at the Orthodox Church and so he asked his Orthodox priest about
it and the Orthodox priest said if you ever try to read the Word of God on your own again you're
damned to hell you have no hope of going to heaven unless you just listen to what we say and so you're
in a tough position because you grow up in that society you might be scared to death to listen to
this missionary you know praise the Lord that guy did listen to the missionary and it ended up
getting saved but it's like it's just like the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages it's the exact
same thing we do not want you to read the Word of God because we don't trust you with it we want you
to believe what we believe and we'll teach you what you're supposed to believe that's exactly
like the Catholic Church that's the reason why Guy Fawkes tried to kill King James because they
was putting the Bible into the English language with the Catholic Church did not want the Amish
are the same way though here's a quote from study someone who has has done written a lot of books
on the Amish I don't believe they're Amish but you know they know a lot about it but this what
it says the Amish are allowed to read the Bible for themselves well it's like praise the Lord
they're allowed to read the Bible that's good but studying it deeply is discouraged they believe
studying it too much will make you arrogant and even confuse you that's funny because the Bible
said you read the Word of God it will make you humble the Amish Church says you read the the
Bible is gonna make you arrogant they often point out in they often point out different people who
studied the Bible too much and ended up leaving the Amish Church it's like well imagine that you
read the Word of God for yourself and it's like whoa it turns out nothing that we teach is right
in the Orthodox the Catholics the Amish we know the culture like this Jehovah's Witness Mormons
and honestly people have different definitions of call but when you have a church or denomination
that basically forbids you from reading the Word of God to me that's a cult and all of these churches
to me fit that when they do not allow you and do not want you to read the Word of God why they want
you to be in darkness and have to listen to what they're saying and just automatically believe it
well how does this apply to us because we're Baptist you know we're a little bit different
but you know IFP churches are the same way not to this extreme but a lot of IFP churches they
almost force that Schofield reference Bible on you they almost force all these certain things
they want you to read these certain sermons they want you to hear but they're scared for you to
read Matthew 24 on your own they don't want you to read that they're scared for you to read the
book of Revelation on your own it's like well that's in time stuff that's too deep for us you
know we need to rely on people that have been saved 30 years you know I've been teaching and
studying that topic and that's the truth if you've been in IFP churches they are literally afraid of
you reading the Bible on your own most IFP churches would never have a nine chapters a day
thing reading the Bible because they honestly do not want you to read certain parts of the Bible
because they can't answer it and they don't want you coming to ask questions because they will not
have a valid answer turn to first John chapter two and I mean ask anybody who goes to Bible
college how much Bible reading they actually do you think that's what you're doing full-time just
studying the Word of God wouldn't you think you'd be reading the Bible for four hours a day
memorizing spending tons of time in prayer when people go to Bible college guess what they're too
busy to read the Bible they're reading all these other books about the Bible and learning all these
false things they don't actually read the Bible it's the truth first John chapter 2 this is what
it says in verse 27 but the anointing which he have received him abideth in you and you need
not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things in his
truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught ye shall abide in him see the Bible says you need
not that any man teach you you know if you're saved and you have the King James Bible and the
Holy Ghost that's all you need you don't need a village to teach you the Word of God you can
wake up in the morning and just open the Bible and you can understand the Word of God and honestly
you know if you read the Bible like you learn a lot of things that you know a right that it's
obvious you're like wow I never noticed that before you don't need some guru to teach you
now we need Church for the fellowship we need Church to send us out to preach the gospel as it
says in Romans 10 and we do learn from the preaching and I think most of us we love Church
obviously we're here on a Sunday night so obviously we love the Word of God but you can learn
everything on your own Bible reading is so important if you're gonna stay in the fight
you need not that any man teach you the Bible says turn to Matthew 28
and so the first thing we saw was raising children where the worldly philosophy says it takes a
village we saw with what was the second point we saw the second point was running a church where
the worldly philosophy says a pastor can't get the job done even though God says he can the third
thing we saw was reading the Bible and honestly this was only meant to be a three-point sermon
but in honor of Billy Graham I decided to make it a four-point sermon because the fourth point is
reaching the lost this Billy Graham philosophy look at Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20
the Bible reads in verse 18 and Jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given onto
me in heaven and in earth go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
have commanded you and lo I'm with you always even on the end of the world amen these are
very important verses the Word of God because God tells them Jesus tells them to go out and
preach the gospel he tells them how to baptize in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost and
basically the church has the authority to do the baptisms that's what he's showing us the church
has the authority to the baptisms and the church is how we're gonna get great soul wing going on
honestly you know this this big soul wing event we have on March 31st a bunch of people are gathering
it together but when you talk about the great soul wing that's coming through America in the
world it's gonna come because churches are sending people out to preach the gospel how
shall they preach except they be sent people that go to dead churches they don't do much so winning
but when you go to a church that sends you out you're gonna get the soul winning done but here's
my point on this of reaching the lost God says a church has the ability to get the job done just
sending them out two by two on Saturday you went out with the soul winning partner you had the
ability to get somebody saved you didn't need this giant production but see you know the the
non-denom crowd and the Pentecostals they don't really believe this they believe you need to get
together and yoke together with all the denominations to have these big ecumenical
services you know we need to hold hands with the Lutherans and Presbyterians and the Pentecostals
and non-denominational and you look at Billy Graham and Billy Graham was a complete charlatan
if you know anything about this you could look at his interview on Larry King live where he says
there's multiple ways to heaven you can see quotes where he says hell is not a literal place of fire
he was not a safe guy he's in hell now he realizes now it is a literal place of fire but you know
Billy Graham and his Crusades he had Johnny Cash playing the music now why did he need Johnny Cash
playing the music is it because Johnny Cash was really godly does anybody think that Johnny Cash
also I'm just being honest because I used to be a Johnny Cash fan I'm just being honest with you
Johnny Cash was a Repentance of Sins guy and when he died he did fall into a burning ring of fire
forever but why do they have Johnny Cash because it can attract more people that's the only reason
why we don't need somebody godly we need some special speaker special music person you know
special guitar player and then they have you know sappy music to try to get them to come down and
you get down to the bottom and you get there and you say well you know you know I was really touched
for that message I want to be saved they say oh what denomination are you I'm a Presbyterian oh
well here's a Presbyterian you can talk to you talk to anybody who's been to those Crusades
that's how it works you get down there you say I'm Catholic guess what Billy Graham accepted
the Catholics look at all the pictures of Billy Graham with the Pope's online you can see him on
Google he was good friends with the Pope it's like are you kidding me Billy Graham was good
friends with the Pope you get down there it's like well here's a Catholic priest that can help you out
I mean how in the world you have to get together with all these denominations that's the worldly
philosophy that's not what we see in Matthew 28 that's not what we see throughout the entire
Gospels or the book of Acts they're going out and preaching the gospel churches are getting started
in those churches are sending people out that's how you get people safe you don't see these giant
productions we have this great musician and this really you know every sermons on salvation let me
show you a couple quotes here as we're wrapping up here are some famous people who had quotes about
Billy Graham after he died here's TD Jakes the famous Pentecostal today we lost a general in the
kingdom of God you have earned your rest sir well done good and faithful servant does anybody think
that TD Jakes would say that about Pastor Menes if he died does anybody think that probably not
gonna happen here's Joyce Meyer here's another great ringing endorsement while I was sad to hear
the news of Billy Graham passing I am rejoicing that he is now home in heaven Billy was a great
man of God who made a tremendous impact all over the globe his love for people in integrity had a
great impact on my life and so many others I saw other quotes from people that said Billy Graham
did so much for the Christian people and faiths all over the world why because Billy Graham
accepted people outside the Christian realm too you didn't even have to be Christian according to
him you go to heaven so what does this have to do with us because Billy Graham was a Baptist by the
way a Southern Baptist but you know IFB's have something kind of similar called the altar call
where every single sermon is about salvation pretty much and you have they're playing at the
very end either just as I am or is you're all on the altar or song like that because that's the
songs that will motivate you to come to the front and talk to someone and anyone who's been at IFB
churches knows those people come to the altar two minutes later the person prays a prayer with them
it's like do people get saved in two-minute conversations at the door what do you have
time to explain they say hey would you like to pray to accept Jesus like sure I mean I worked
at a junior church where you know I was helping the boys that need to hear the gospel and this
woman was helping the the young younger girls who need to hear the gospel and I mean she was
popping them off like candy is like just one right after another she got like 11 people saving like
15 minutes and I'm still on the first kid you know I said well he doesn't understand I said pastor he
doesn't understand what can I do I mean he doesn't understand the gospel he wants to be saved but he
just doesn't get it you know but IFB churches they have this altar call which is never found
in the Bible when I mean you don't see at the end of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus has
this big fancy altar call you've never seen it at this church and you're not gonna see it you
know why because it's not in the Bible and it's like why would we have it when it's not in the
Bible and here's the big problem with altar calls in my opinion because when you when you see altar
calls it makes you feel like you can't get people saved on your own it makes you feel like we need
to bring a bunch of lost people in and get them to come down the altar and then the pastor will
preach this sermon and certain people are designed to get them say that is what you think when you go
to a church that has this big fancy altar call it's not going to motivate you to go out and
preach the gospel for yourself but the Bible says the church has the ability going out two by two
you have the ability to get people saved we're gonna end with this one quote from Hillary Clinton
it says the simple message of it takes a village is as relevant as ever we are all in this together
you know no we're not in this together Hillary you're not helping me raise my son you're not
helping run this church you're not helping with you're certainly not helping reaching the lost or
reading the Bible you're not helping with any of this let's not take this philosophy let's just see
what the Bible says about this let's close in a word of prayer dear Heavenly Father thanks for
allowing us be in your house this evening and I ask you to just help us to think about these words
that were preached and help us to apply these things in our life God and and realize we have
the ability to reach the lost we we have the ability in the authority we have the ability to
read the Bible on our own and we also to raise our kids God help us to remember these things
God we pray all these things in Jesus name Amen