Good afternoon everybody and welcome to steadfast Baptist Church
Thank you for coming to the fire-breathing Baptist fellowship if we go find a seat and grab a hymn
Oh, we'll get started with tonight's service
And for tonight's first song we'll go to song number three hundred and ninety two
Song number three hundred and ninety two
song 392 a soul winner for jesus song number 392
let's all sing that out together tonight
song 392 a soul winner for jesus
let's all sing that out on the first
I want to be a soul winner for jesus every day
but we just want to thank you tonight for allowing us all to gather here and attend such an awesome
conference at such an awesome church. We just ask that you bless tonight and bless the following
nights and we ask that you bless it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right for our next song let's go to
Let's all sing that out together tonight.
Thanks for coming to the FBBF or the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
It's great to have you.
If you didn't already get a bulletin and you would like one,
our ushers are going to come up and down the aisles,
and they're going to get you a bulletin.
So just keep your hand up nice and high, and they'll get you a bulletin.
On the front, we have just a cool graphic with our preachers that are going to be here.
Unfortunately, we had to update our schedule just because Pastor Enrique Reyes
he had injured his shoulder and had to have surgery and so as a result,
He recently had this. He just wasn't going to come up just so he could recover.
But we are looking forward to having him out here in the future and preaching for us.
And he said that he's watching from home and he's really hoping we have a great conference.
So also if you just pray for him and pray for his recovery.
On the inside, there is a QR code right there at the top.
It's just kind of a special WhatsApp group that we just are going to make updates or announcements or anything like that for the conference.
and so if you'd like to join that,
we'd love for you to do so.
That way we can communicate to the whole group.
Down below we have a note about our welcome center.
It's in our hallway area.
If you did miss it, it was on the right-hand side
and it's our fellowship area.
And at our welcome center, we have shirts,
we have some cool goodies, we have some stickers
and we have some bracelets for the kids.
So,
Make sure to go and stop by our welcome center if you can and we're trying to get also if you've
never visited or if you're a guest, we try to get some of your information just so we can follow
up with you. So if you can visit by our welcome center at some point, we'd love for you to do that.
down below that is the new IVB fan zone. So outside our doors this way, it's probably not obvious.
We actually have kind of a cool little setup where you can take some pictures
kind of up against a nice backdrop. So we have a design logo backdrop area
where you can take pictures with all your friends and you can share it online. So if you'd like to do that
You can step out and take pictures whenever you'd like.
Also, down below, just some upcoming events.
So, I wanted to just kind of give an announcement about some future events that we're going to have.
September 27th, we're going to have a Texas Marathon in Tyler, Texas.
So, it's a little bit east of us. It's about an hour or so east of us.
But if you're anywhere in the area, or if you'd like to come back out and visit,
we're going to be doing a soul-winning marathon out there all day.
October 6th to the 11th, our church is going to be hosting a Bahamas missions trip.
Now, we did this a couple years ago, and it was a very successful trip.
We had around 60 people actually go out with us,
and we were able to go into a lot of schools and preach in a lot of the schools.
Also, we just did a lot of soul winning in the areas.
And honestly, the Bahamas, for me personally, has been probably the most receptive place I've ever been.
As far as other places to compare it to, I've been to the Philippines,
And the Philippines definitely has more people to talk to.
It's not even close to the same.
So in some ways it's more receptive in the Philippines
because you just have so many people to talk to.
But just from a personal interaction perspective,
I feel like when talking to people in the Bahamas,
they're very receptive more so
than I've met anybody else before.
They're very Bible centered.
They are thinking about going to heaven.
They know a lot of verses in the Bible.
And so, you know, if you ever get an opportunity
to visit the Caribbean, they're all great,
but the Bahamas especially, and Nassau,
the island specifically is where we're gonna be headed.
We have a contact there and he's trying to work
and get things set up for us.
He said he might be able to get me on two radio stations.
So I don't know.
I said, let's bring it on, right?
Um, but I'm excited about the trip.
We have a lot of people signed up so far, but if you'd like to, you can just send us
an itinerary of your flight to the Bahamas and then we'll try to work with you.
Also, Pastor Bruce Mejia, he was invited to our FBBF conference this year, but I didn't
realize that he's actually expecting this week, and so his wife is expecting this week,
so it just didn't work out timing-wise, and he didn't want people to think that he became
a hater or something like that.
Okay, so he's still cool, all right, guys?
Actually, he's going to come out and preach for us in October, October 19th.
and travel and speak for us and so we're really excited to see him. We love
Pastor Mejia and he's not a second-class citizen or anything like that but no we
love Pastor Mejia and we got some people from his church here today and so thank
you guys for coming out here but he wanted me to make that announcement and
I was excited too. Also for parking
Just as a friendly reminder you can't park at this nursing or it's not nursing home
I'm sorry funeral home area across the street, but you can pretty much park anywhere else
And kind of just to help with that we offer some free valet services
So if you did park with us no problem. We love it. Just as a friendly reminder about
After the service
They will be running cars for people for at least, you know 15 20 minutes and stuff like that
But as you know parking spaces do become available
Some of our Valley service will probably just run your car back park it in our parking lot
And then just find you and get your key right away. So that way, you know, it's here for you
If you self-parked no problem
if you have any questions about that you can always ask one of our ushers who are wearing the nice maroon shirts and
Or you could ask my staff member
past, I'm sorry, evangelist fur, or you can ask myself. If you do have any other
questions, you know, with anything, please ask all of us as well. And we've got a
lot of visitors here. Thank you so much for you guys visiting our church.
Also, I have to say a thank you to our church members
because our building looks awesome today,
and the decorations are really awesome,
and the building's really clean
because our church family spills coffee
and who knows what, all over our carpet,
and someone cleaned that up really nice,
and the music sounds really great,
and honestly, to run a conference like this,
a lot of people have been putting in a lot of effort,
and so thank you so much to you guys for doing so
so we can have an enjoyable evening.
I'm going to go through our conference schedule.
So tonight.
We just have our service and that's it.
So after the service, there's nothing specific.
But tomorrow morning, at 10 a.m.,
we are going to have a family-friendly activity,
and it's listed right there in the bulletin from 10 to 12.
Everyone is invited to participate.
It's here locally, so you can do that real easy.
Three to five, we have soul winning.
And then Pastor Dylan also is going to be preaching for us at 6 p.m.
So our service time is going to be again at 6 p.m.
And then we're starting our pickleball event Thursday night.
You basically have, I would just say, one hour after service
to send in an email or something with your official Pickleball teams
if you still want to get into the competition.
If you don't, you just won't make it.
But we have to make our brackets and everything like that tonight.
If you did sign up for it, you...
We put in our group chat...
Those who have been signed up, but we probably should put it in our WhatsApp group, too
We'll try to do that just to remind people but we're gonna be making our brackets tonight and
Giving people an idea of what timelines are gonna be but essentially Thursday from 10 to
to about midnight, and then Friday, 9 to midnight,
and then Saturday, 9 to midnight.
Just to give a kind of an idea, most of the mixed games
are going to be the ones that are the first hour or so,
or first two hours of the evening,
and then the men's are going to kind of be the evening.
Then the women's and the youth, I
think that most of their games are
going to be maybe one or two games on Thursday,
and then the rest on Saturday.
So just to kind of give you a kind of a little bit of context,
an idea of what that's gonna look like.
Friday, we have another family friend activity.
Everyone's invited, it's 11 a.m.,
and then we have a singles event
that's gonna be in the same place,
such as basically right around the corner.
If you have any singles 18 and up
that want to participate, you're welcome to participate.
Someone asked, what's the age cutoff?
There's no age cutoff, so even if you're 90,
you can show up, all right?
It's just singles are invited. So
Soul winning is gonna be at the church three to five
Pastor Steven Anderson's will be preaching for us
at 6 p.m. And then there's an alternative activity in the evening if you'd like to it's called broom ball
I don't know a lot about it
But if you want to do that it does overlap with the pickleball
But if you want to show up you're welcome to participate in that as well. It's kind of like a foot hockey
a game or something that people can play.
Saturday is gonna be our spelling bee for the kiddos
from nine to 11.
Soul winning is from 11 to one there.
Then we're gonna have a cookout
and the park is listed right there in the bulletin.
We're gonna have a men's football event
right then after the cookout.
And I looked at the weather
and it can be somewhat unpredictable.
If it does rain.
pretty heavily on that morning or that afternoon.
We probably will cancel the cookout
and we'll try to do it on Sunday.
So I'm just in between services at a park
that's actually right next to our church.
But I don't know what the weather is going to be like.
But if, for some reason, we have that,
we'll put an update in the WhatsApp group and everything
like that and try to alert people.
But just so you know, if it's raining really hard,
we probably will postpone the cookout and those activities.
And we'll schedule them for the following Sunday
in between services, just as an FYI.
Then we got the Pickleball Events Sunday.
We have a Spanish service, 9 a.m.
So if you'd like to attend, we'd love to have you.
Brother Diego is going to be preaching for us.
He does an excellent job, and he preached against John
MacArthur and got tons of people mad at him.
And so I'm excited to hear what he has to preach for us
this Sunday.
Pastor Aaron Thompson is going to be preaching for us
Sunday morning, and hopefully we'll have less cars toad
throughout his sermon.
And he's a great friend of ours.
And then I'll be preaching the evening service.
It's pretty much our normal Sunday schedule.
So that's just to give you a quick rundown.
I won't necessarily go through that much detail every night,
but I just wanted to give you a quick update.
On the back, we kind of just wanted to help you,
because I know that food is important to Baptist, all right?
And sometimes you're trying to figure out, like, where do we go?
And you're trying to wonder if things are open
or what time they close.
And so we kind of just tried to give you some recommendations
and what times they close, just so people don't have to really
think as much about it if they'd like to just think, like, hey,
let's just go here.
It's open until this time.
One is Cedar Hill, because that's just close to our church.
And then the second one was Mansville,
because that's close to where the pickleball event is going to be.
And so there's a lot of options, especially
over in Mansville, which isn't really that far.
It's probably about 15, 20 minutes directly west of where we are.
And so you got lots of options there.
We really appreciate you coming to the conference this evening.
We're going to pretty much go to our third song.
Psalm 139.
And sing it out nice and loud.
All right, that was Psalm 139.
Should have a black binder.
Surely now we'll say the winded, Surely now we'll say the winded, O God.
Be barred from me, there for ye buddy men, Be barred from me, there for ye buddy men.
And I am in vain, and I am in vain, And I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and I am in vain, and
I hang there with perfect hatred.
great singing everybody now as the offering plates are being passed around go
ahead and open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 28 that's the book of Exodus
chapter number 28
and take thou unto thee, ere in thy brethren.
and his sons with him from among the children of Israel that he may minister and to me in the priest's office.
Even Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, Eliezer, and Nithimar, to Aaron's sons.
And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.
And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom,
that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him that he may minister and to me in the priest's office.
plate, and an e-fod, and a robe, and a broiler coat, a miter, and a girdle.
And they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons that he may minister
unto me in the priest's office, and they shall take gold and blue and purple and scarlet
and find linen, and they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and of purple, of scarlet
and fine twined linen with cunning work.
It shall have the two shoulder pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof, and so it
shall be joined together, and the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall
be of the same according to the work thereof, even of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet
and find twined linen, and thou shalt take two onyx stones
and grave on them the names of the children of Israel,
six of their names on one stone,
and the other six names of the rest on the other stone,
according to their birth.
With the work of an engraver in stone,
like the engravings of a signet,
shalt thou engrave.
the two stones with the names of the children of Israel, thou shalt make them to be set in
ouches of gold, and thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for
stones of memorial unto the children of Israel, and Aaron shall bear their names before the
Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial, and thou shalt make ouches of gold, and two
chains of pure gold at the ends of wreath and work shalt thou make them."
and fasten the wreath and chains to the ouches.
And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment
with cunning work after the work of Ephod.
Thou shalt make it of gold, of blue,
and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twine linen.
Thou shalt make it.
Four square shall be being doubled.
A span shall be the length thereof,
and a span shall be the breadth thereof.
And thou shalt set in it settings of stones,
even four rows of stones.
The first two, the first rows shall be of Sardius,
a topas, and a carbon bunkal.
They shall be the first row, and the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond,
and the third row a ligar, an agate, and an amethyst, and the fourth row a beryl, and anonix,
and a jasper. They shall be set in gold in their enclosings, and the stones shall be with the names
of the children of Israel, twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet,
every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes, and that shall make upon
the breastplate chains of the ends of wreath and work of pure gold, and that shall make upon the
two rings of gold, and shall put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate, and thou
shall put the two reathen chains of gold and the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate,
and the other two ends of the two reathen chains, thou shall fasten two ouches, and put them on the
pieces of the ephod before it. And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and thou shalt put them
upon the two ends of the breastplate, and the border thereof, which is in the side of the
ephod inward. And two other rings of gold thou shalt make, and shall put them on the two sides
of the ephod underneath, toward the four-port f-
four part thereof, over against the other coupling thereof above the curious girdle of the ephod,
and they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod,
with a lace of blue that it may be above the curious girdle of the ephod,
and that the breastplate be not loose from the ephod. And Aaron shall bear the names of the
children of Israel in the breastplate of the judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place.
For a memorial before the Lord continually and that shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim the Thummim and they shall be upon
Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord
Continually and that shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue and there shall be in hole in the top of it in the midst
Thereof it shall have a binding of woven work round about above
Round about the whole of it as it were the whole of an Habergun
That it be not rent and beneath upon the hem of it
Thou shalt make pomegranates of blue and of purple and of scarlet round about of hem thereof,
and bells of gold between them round about. A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate
upon the hem of the robe round about. And it shall be upon Aaron to minister,
and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord,
and when he cometh out that he die not. And thou shalt make
a plate of pure gold and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet holding this to the Lord.
Get on a blue lace that it be upon the miter upon the forefront of the miter it shall be
And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things
Which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts and it shall be always upon his forehead that they may be
Accepted before the Lord and that shall embroider the coat of fine linen and thou shalt make the miter of fine linen
And thou shalt make the girdle of needlework
and for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets
shalt thou make for them, for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother,
and his sons with him, and shall anoint them, and conscrate them, and sanctify them, that they may
minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt make them linen breeches, to cover their
nakedness, from the loins even unto the thighs, they shall reach, and they shall be upon Aaron,
when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they shall come near unto
the altar to minister in the holy place, that they bear not iniquity and die, it shall be a
statute forever unto him and his seed after him. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing
us to be here, Lord. Thank you for this great conference, great church. I pray that you be
with Pastor Russell, Lord, fill him with your Holy Spirit to preach unto us, help us to make any
Amen.
Well, it's great to be here at Steadfast Baptist Church.
This is actually the first time I've ever been to Steadfast Baptist Church in all the
long while.
You folks have been here.
So I guess this is kind of like getting thrown into the deep end.
You know, your first visit, you have to stand up in front of a room full of people that
you don't know and preach to them.
It's great to see a lot of familiar faces, though, all the same.
A lot of you that came out from faithful word and even first works and you made that long
drive.
Across Texas there. I really appreciate everybody being here. I know even the folks that live here coming on a Wednesday night to hear me preach
So I appreciate that too appreciate how great the place looks everyone put a lot of work into this and
Appreciate just all the effort that's been put in that. I know you guys are gonna have a great conference
So I'm excited for the days ahead
And again, it's just great to be here with you guys.
And I'm actually gonna preach a sermon tonight
called Adorning Aaron, Adorning Aaron.
And full disclosure, this is a midweek service
that I already preached.
However, this is the passage that I preached from
when my...
YouTube channel was nuked, so it really hasn't gone outside of Tucson, so I figured I'd just kind of regurgitate this one for you folks tonight
But I kind of tell you that just because it's going to be kind of in the vein of a midweek's Bible study
After all it is the midweek. That's what we're you know, we're here on a Wednesday night
So I figured we just preach the word of God and we'll go through a little bit of this chapter here in chapter 29
And I'll make some application, but I think it's an important chapter to go through because of the fact
that we can make some parallels with pastors today, we can make some parallels with the
pastorate and the priest today. Obviously, the picture of the priest in the Old Testament is
our, you know, a picture of Christ. He is our great high priest. There's a lot of parallels there.
But, you know, even as they administered of the altar, aid of the altar, you know, that's an
illustration that's used.
in 1 Corinthians, even so, they that preach the gospel should live up the gospel.
So even Paul makes some parallels in the New Testament with the priesthood here.
And I think one of the major parallels is that as a pastor, you know, you do a lot of work.
There's just a lot of work that's going on here. The context of this chapter is, you know, Moses
up on the Mount. He's getting all the details about how to build, you know, the Ark of the Covenant
and the Tabernacle. And here in this chapter and the next, we're just really focusing in
on Aaron and all of his adorning, all the things he's going to wear, the different garments
and everything like that.
And what we see here is that this is just a lot of work that's going on.
There's a lot of work involved in the ministry.
And what I want to point out, first of all, is that it can be a burden.
If you look there in verse 5, it says, and they shall take gold and blue and purple and
scarlet and fine linen, and they shall make the ephod of gold of blue and purple of scarlet
The two shoulder pieces thereof join at the edges thereof, and so it shall be joined thereof,
and the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, and of the same, according to the work thereof,
even of the gold, the blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twine linen.
And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel,
six names on the one stone, and the other six names on the rest of the other stone according
to their birth.
With the work of an engraver and stone like the engravings of a signet, thou shalt engrave
the stones with two names of the children of Israel, and thou shalt make them to be
set in ouches of gold.
of memorial unto the children of Israel, and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord
upon his two shoulders for a memorial."
So we see in this chapter, in this passage, rather, that there's just a lot of things
that are being placed upon Aaron.
And these are not light things.
How many people here have ever held gold in their hands, like real actual gold?
Like a gold ingot or a little gold brick, right?
I've only done that once or twice, you know, it wasn't mine, you know, but unfortunately,
But I did that, I remember just being,
I always hear that gold is a very dense substance.
And I just remember picking it up and being,
man, they weren't kidding.
This thing's got some weight to it.
So imagine being Aaron.
I don't think this was,
Aaron was a weakling by any means.
I mean, he's just wearing all of this gold,
not to mention the onyx stones.
And this is just one part of it.
Like this is just talking about those stones,
the ouches of gold with the names on it.
This is being placed upon his shoulders.
You know, later we see the breastplate of righteousness
and all the gold that's there, everything,
all the gold chains connecting everything.
So it wasn't like this light thing that he's putting on.
He's actually being burdened down with all of these things,
all these fine things, all these precious things,
all these heavy things.
And what we can get from that is that the work
of a pastor is a burden.
It's something that has to be born.
And, you know, obviously in Aaron's day,
the bearing that he was doing was a physical substance.
He's bearing.
you know, physical items.
But today, you know, we don't do that.
I mean, I know there's some pastors out there, right?
You know, who got a little too much bling.
Is that the word, right?
I learned drip recently.
So, I guess I learned this is my drip
and this is my bling.
But this is all the bling I got, right?
Aaron here, he's got a lot of bling on tonight, right?
But, you know, we don't, you know,
jokes aside, you know, I know there are some guys
that are wearing a little too much gold, I guess,
you know, in the pastorate.
But, you know, we as pastors today, we don't,
you know, we still bear a burden, just not a physical one necessarily, although
you could make the argument that the ministry does have a physical, you know, aspect to it.
But let's go over to Galatians chapter 6. Keep something there in Exodus. We're going to be back
in a little bit. We're going to look at Exodus 28, 20, just a few passages. I'm not going to read
You know, I'll just begin reading there in verse 1, it says,
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault,
ye which are spiritual, restore such a one.
In the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted,
bear ye one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ."
Obviously, this is a command to all of God's people.
We should all be people who,
if we're going to serve in the ministry in any capacity,
should be people that are willing
to bear burdens,
because that is what the ministry is.
The ministry is bearing other people's burdens.
And you see that here in Exodus,
and we're commanded also in the New Testament,
as we just read, that we are to bear one another's burdens.
And I'm here to tell you that's a big part
of being a pastor.
A big part of it is having to bear the burdens of other people, even just the burden of just
running a ministry in and of itself, just keeping everything organized and making sure
everything gets taken care of, and just all the administrative work that goes behind it,
the preparing of the sermons, and keeping yourself right with God and studying the Word
of God and everything that goes into that.
But even on top of that, there's just the burdens that come with dealing with people.
You know, as the saying goes, as it was told me years ago,
you got more people, you got more problems.
So the more and more people that come into this ministry
just understand that's gonna be a greater and greater burden,
you know, upon your pastor, upon any pastor
that's gonna do a significant work of God
and reach a lot of people and build a great church.
You know, there's just gonna be more and more burdens
placed upon that pastor.
And, you know, again, not just the day-to-day,
just run-of-the-mill problems that he's, you know,
that he's just gonna have to, you know, go through.
But even some of just like the gnarliest stuff
you can imagine.
I mean, there's people with all kinds of different problems
that are just things you would never expect.
And he's gonna have to navigate those waters.
And why is that?
Well, that's the job.
That's what we're called to do.
I mean, Aaron here in this passage,
you know, he's having all these things put upon him.
And what is it that's being put upon him, right?
Those onyx stones, they're not blank.
They have the names of the children of Israel
written upon him.
It has the literal names of the tribes.
He's bearing the burden of the people.
That is a pastor's job today,
just as it was Aaron's job as the high priest
to bear those names into the holy place.
So that is the job today to bear the burden of the people.
And it can be, you know, quite burdensome, right?
It can be something that can wear a pastor down.
And that can lead to, you know, him maybe being tempted
to back off preaching certain things
or not want to make certain points or become distant
or, you know, just kind of, you know,
back out of, you know, that responsibility
because it is a very serious burden.
And he would say, well, why would anyone want to do it then?
for that job.
No, seriously, why am I doing this again?
I ask myself that often.
I'm like, why am I doing this again anyway?
Well, the reason why I believe any pastor
gets into the position of preaching to people
and taking on this burden is because he has a heart for people.
And if you don't have a heart for people,
if you don't love people, if you don't care for people,
the ministry is not for you.
And you should get out of it, because it's not about, you know, self-aggrandizement.
It's not about lifting up yourself or propping yourself or, you know, as much as I love that
poster of me out there in the hall, you know, I've never looked so good, you know.
I like you that you went with the black and white, so it really contrasts all the gray
hair.
I appreciate it.
I'm just kidding.
Right?
You know, but it's not about me, right?
Although I will be signing that, and there will be an auction in the parking lot later,
right?
like crickets, right?
So anyway, but you know, that's not about us.
It's not about, you know, seeing our face on some poster
or, you know, hearing our name spoken
or, you know, our name in lights or whatever it is.
You know, that's not what it's about.
It has to be about people.
And if you're not, you know, about people,
then this just isn't the job for you.
And it is a burden, but notice that's kind of
the next thing here.
I want to make, the next point I want to make,
And you look at verse 15, it says,
And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment
with cunning work after the work of the ephod.
Thou shalt make it of gold and of blue
and of purple, of scarlet.
And a fine twine linen shalt thou make it.
Four square shall it be being doubled,
a span by the length thereof, a span by the breadth thereof.
and thou shalt set in it settings of stone even four rows of stones the first shall be a sardis a
topaz and a carbuncle this shall be the first row and the second row shall be an emerald and a
sapphire and a diamond and the third row a ligure and agate and the amethyst and the fourth row
shall be a barrel and anonix and the jasper and they shall be set in gold in their enclosing so
again this breastplate that he's going to wear in addition to you know the stones that are on
his shoulder now he has this breastplate that is full of gold and all these different precious stones
But it's interesting to me that it's called the breastplate.
Obviously, it's because it's over the breast.
But again, as we read on here,
you'll see that those names are also, again, reiterated.
The names of the children of Israel,
each one of these stones is representing a different tribe.
So, yes, it's even more of a burden, but to me, it's interesting where it's being born,
right, over the heart.
And pastors, you know, they do the job because they have a heart for the people.
They should love people, and we should be encouraging our pastors to bear that burden.
you know, this breastplate being upon the heart,
this is, again, representing, yes, a burden,
but it's a precious burden, right?
These are precious stones.
Look, people are precious.
People are important, you know, we don't want to and look this can happen to a pastor a pastor can just get burned out
You know and just get you know stabbed in the back and just even without those things taking place
Just the burden of the ministry itself can cause a pastor to become distant and maybe you know
Apathetic towards people and stop caring about people like he should it's something that can happen because we're all human
You know, we're not going to get into it, but later in chapter 29, you know, you see Aaron and his sons are anointed, you know, with the blood upon the right ear and the right thumb, and the right great toe, which is the big toe, okay?
You might think your great toe is a different toe, but in the Bible, great means big, right?
But he gets knighted on that one side, and what that shows us is that, you know, we all have two natures in ourselves, right?
We all are anointed, but we all still have the old man.
And that's, you know, one picture of that.
And your pastor is no different.
No pastor is any different.
We still have the flesh.
We could still, you know, withdraw and become distant from people.
We could start to take people for granted and just start to think,
oh, you know, this person comes to my church.
I really don't care, you know, whatever, or this person, you know,
they, we don't really want to bear their burden for them anymore.
We don't want to pray for them or we don't want to deal with their problems.
This can happen.
And it's unfortunate because people are precious.
Every single person that comes to this church matters.
Every single person that attends here on a regular basis, you know, they're worth preaching
to, they're worth praying for.
Look, when you see people come and go from church, it's, you know, sometimes it's worth
reaching out to them and asking them how they're doing and bringing them in.
And, you know, when people come to church, you know, talk to those people, greet those
people.
because I'm in Texas, and I'll just tell you,
Texas is one of the friendlier states I've ever been in.
You know, people, you know, I'm always getting greeted
at the hotel, even and everything like that.
I was like, wow, it's really nice.
Not that everybody's a jerk everywhere else, okay?
But I'm just saying, you know, you being Texans
are probably already had this down.
But you know, any of us that are in the ministry
to any extent, you know, even just being a church member,
you could, we could grow to a place where we just say,
you know, who's this visitor, whatever.
You know, I've had a long week.
I'm burned out.
I've been working and I've been dealing with kids all day.
I just really don't wanna, couldn't be bothered
to care about somebody.
But you don't know what that person's going through.
You don't know what that person is dealing with
in their life and it surprises me how often
it takes so little to encourage people.
Just one, you know, just listening to them, just encouraging them, telling them just a text message,
something like that, just reaching out to them a little bit and just saying,
hey, I'm praying for you, I'm thinking about you.
Sometimes, you know, that can be a very encouraging thing.
And we see here in this passage, you know, it's a burden that's born,
but it's a burden that's born upon the heart, upon the breast there.
And again, the other thing I want to point out here is that this breastplate,
I love that it's called the breastplate of judgment.
Right, so obviously if it's over the heart, you know
It could kind of picture the fact that the pastor should be a loving person should care about these people and things like that
But also because it's called judgment that doesn't mean that your pastor is never gonna tell you things you don't like to hear
He's never going to tell you something that you just, you know
He's only going to tell you all the nice things that you want to hear all the time
A big part of the pastor's job is to do what speak the truth in love
Right to reprove rebuke exhort with all-long suffering and doctrine. That is the job and
You know sometimes we do that as pastors and people just take it as like we're personally attacking them
Or we're just trying to call people out or or draw attention to some sin like that, you know
Often you'll preach and it's like I had no idea you were even involved in that
I didn't you know like was that at me? It's like I didn't even have you in mind when I preached that
I didn't even know that this was a thing for you
But here's the thing you know if a pastor really loves his people he's not gonna hold back
He's gonna preach all of the word of God
He's gonna preach every word of it the good the bad the ugly the parts you like and the parts you don't like
Because it's the breastplate of judgment, you know, and I don't know how it is with Pastor Shelley or Pastor Thompson other
Pastors, but you know there I'll be perfect as there are times when I preach things. I'm like this one's for so-and-so
You know, I don't make it a point, but it's like, you know, sometimes that's what people need to hear
You know, and sometimes it's it's people need to be told even from the pulpit even publicly
You know, hey, this is what the Bible says and this needs to be fixed because, you know,
if it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander.
So this judgment is upon the heart, meaning even when our pastors are preaching to us
hard things that we don't want to hear, we have to understand it's coming from the heart.
It's coming from a place that, you know, of love, that they truly do care about us.
In fact, if you would go over to Thessalonians chapter number two, first Thessalonians chapter
We're gonna look at verses four through eight over there
First Thessalonians chapter number two
He says in verse four
But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God
Which triath our hearts?
So the breastplate of judgment is upon the heart, right?
And it's God that's trying the heart and we have to speak as pastors as men that please God and not men
Notice here it says in verse 5,
for neither at any time used be flattering words, as you know,
nor a cloak of covetousness, which God has witnessed.
This is interesting to me that he's saying,
look, we didn't use flattering words as a cloak of covetousness.
You know, the pastor that's just going to tell you what you want to hear and not tell
you what you don't want to hear, you know, that's a cloak of covetousness.
If he's just going to flatter you from the pulpit and just only say the nice things and
never preach, never get on your sin and never tell you to deal with the situation, or maybe
even come into you privately and say, hey, you need to deal with this.
I know it's our jobs as pastors, we're not to meddle or to lord over the flock, but you
know, there are certain instances where a pastor might have to come to you and say,
you need to fix this.
You know, but the pastor that will never do that it will only just you know, scratch your back and tickle your ears
Just tell you all you're doing great when you're not
When you know when you when you he's never gonna call out your sin when you got sin
You know that guy is a real strong possibility. Why would Paul say it like this? He's flattering words. What are they just a cloak of covetousness?
And, you know, I don't want to get ahead of myself.
That's a point I'm going to make a little bit later, but notice here also he said in
verse 6, Nor of men sought we glory neither of you, nor yet of the others, but we might
have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, for we will gentle among you, even as a nurse
cherishes her children.
So you know, that's not necessarily how I picture myself, you know, or Pastor Thompson
It's kind of an interesting illustration that he uses, right, especially after the preceding
verses where he's saying, hey, we didn't use flattering words, we told you how it is.
We preach the Word of God.
But again, they're doing that why because they're trying to feed you with the milk of
God and with the meat of God and to help you to grow and to be conformed into the image
of Christ.
And sometimes, you know, that can be a little harsh, but Paul says, actually, it's the gentle
thing to do.
that we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only,
but also our own souls. Why? Because ye were dear unto us.
You know, if you have a pastor who's willing to tell you the truth, he probably loves you.
He probably cares about you. You're probably dear unto him.
And that's a special thing because today, you know, there's a lot of pastors,
they hold back and they might seem nice.
And they might seem friendly, and it might seem like they love you, but for all you know, all they're thinking about is dollar signs.
For all you know, all they're thinking about is, well, if I preach against their sin, they might leave.
They might quit the church. I might drive them out.
If I preach on this controversial subject, you know, some of my congregation could go and then, you know, then who's going to pay for all this?
What about myself? You know, that's the kind of stuff that can go through a preacher's mind.
And it's not right.
Go to Ephesians chapter number four, just a little ways back there, Ephesians chapter
number four, we'll look at verse 15 here.
Ephesians chapter number four, I already quoted it, but speaking the truth and love
may grow up.
in him which in all things in all things which is the head even
Christ so again the pastor, you know, he's somebody it's going to speak to you the truth and love that's you know
What that breastplate of judgment? I believe it's kind of rep could represent
I'm not saying this is the primary application to this passage
But I'm just trying to make some application as we go through the chapter tonight
And again, he's bearing the names and if you want you can go ahead and go back there to
To exit his chapter number 28
So what do we see from Exodus chapter from 28 first of all?
that Aaron the High Priest who's you know acting as a
Kind of a mediator between God and the people
You know he has a great burden put upon him like a literal physical weight the gold the you know
Just all the stones the everything just the whole get-up right?
It's like who knows how much weight like literal weight pounds and pounds of weight that he's bearing
You know, that's a great parallel with what the the ministry is for a pastor
It is a burden. It's something you have to carry through this life.
It's something that you have to, you know, buck up under and bear.
But, you know, a big part of it for us today, again, it's people.
We're bearing people. We're bearing one another's burdens.
And it's coming out of a place of love.
How does a pastor do that? By speaking the truth in love.
The next thing I want to look at here is in verse chapter 29.
So if you want to just go over a page or two to chapter 29.
Let's just quickly look at the offering right we kind of look to Aaron's adorning, but you know at the time of the high priests
Kind of ordination I guess you would call whenever there was a going to be a changing the high priest
This whole sacrifice was supposed to take place, and I think there's some great applications about this too
It says there
Well, it's kind of hard to know right where to pick up, but let's let's just pick it up here in verse 11 in first number 11
Because, you know, they're coming to the door of the tabernacle.
They're bringing the bullock.
They're bringing a couple of rams, and they're going to prepare each of these animals in
a different way.
Okay?
And I think there's a lot of application that we can make out of just even the way these
animals were butchered, essentially.
Verse 11, it says, and thou shalt kill the bullock.
Thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Thou shalt take the blood of the bullock and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger,
and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.
Thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the call that is above the liver,
and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.
Notice this in verse 14, but the flesh of the bullock, and his skin and his dung,
For it is a sin offering so this Bullock he says you're gonna butcher this thing and I what you give to God
It's all the fat basically that's in the inwards
Are you gonna go up into the inside of this animal and pull out all that fat and that's you're gonna burn up on the altar
And what I get from this is that God really wants the best of us.
A pastor, if he's going to do the job right, has to do his best work.
He has to be, and it has to come from within.
It has to be something that's a sacrifice he's making from within.
It has to come from deep inside his being, has heart has to be in it.
He's got to give his best to God.
And look, we can all make applications for ourselves.
I know I'm kind of preaching about pastors tonight,
but the same goes for every single one of us.
pastor or not God deserves your best God wants that precious part you know that
fat that that's deep inside each and every one of us he wants that for
himself that sacrifice that comes from within because notice what he says to
discard here right he says that shall take the fat that covered the inwards
the call and he should burn these things upon the altar but then in verse 14 he
says but the flesh of the bullet and his skin and his dung
Shout out burn with fire without the camp for it is a sin offering
So God says you know take the inward the inward fat give me that upon the altar
But then take the skin and the dung and just don't even burn that anywhere near inside the camp
Take it without the camp and get rid of it. God wants nothing to do with it
And of course the sin could represent everything that is superficial in our lives
God doesn't want just a spirituality. That's you know skin deep forgive the pun
God isn't just interested in the exterior of our lives.
God isn't just interested in what we could easily offer to God.
Just what's on the surface.
God wants what's within.
He wants something that actually requires some effort.
I don't know how many people have actually butchered it out.
Being in Texas, I'm sure there's quite a few guys who've done it, right?
Yeah, several hands going up.
Back in Michigan, I had the pleasure of dragging deer out and getting a gut on and everything like that.
What a wonderful experience that is, right?
But, you know, part of that process, you know, that's work.
You know, if you're gonna start butchering an animal,
that's a lot of work that goes into it.
You know, and obviously even pulling a skin off an animal
is working itself too, but you know,
to get deep within the animal and pull those things out,
you had to really put some, you know,
some work into it, some sweat.
You know, look, God wants us to put effort
into our service for Him.
God wants us to offer things that, you know,
might require something of us, not just this skin.
of our service, not just that which is superficial and easy.
You know, for example, let me just go ahead
and park here for a minute.
Coming to church is easy.
I'll say it again, coming to church is easy.
No, no, no, you don't live here.
You don't know what the traffic's like.
I had a glimpse.
Okay, so, you know, and Tucson's not a whole lot better.
Okay, but you got a freeway system, right?
And if you give yourself enough time, you can get here, right?
But sometimes people make out like coming to church is like this huge sacrifice.
Well, I'm here.
It's like, well, man, just, you know, let's just, you are now a saint, right?
Let's just, let's get a statue made of you or something like that.
You know, that's just so easy. It's so simple. It's just so on the surface. It's so basic.
You know, it's just such an expected thing. Of course, you're going to be in church, right?
God wants more than just us coming to church.
You know, God wants us to read the Bible,
understand the Bible, no doctrine,
and actually apply the things that we learn in church.
That's where the real work comes in.
That's when you're kind of getting up
and your hand up into those innards, right?
And you're reaching for some fat.
And you're actually having to put some sweat into your Christian life, not just the superficial outward thing where it's just like,
well, I show up at church and I look nice and I play the part and I sing out loud.
Look, you should do all those things, but I'm just here to tell you that's like just surface level Christianity.
That's like Bible Christianity 101.
You know, in our spirituality ought to be deeper than just going to church and showing up and singing out.
You know, that's just one example.
But notice the other thing that gets discarded here, the dung.
Right, and this could just that's you know, do I need I say more?
You know God is not interested in our lives being full of crap. Oh
I'm sorry. Was that too harsh of a word?
Right, I mean that's what it is. Let's bring it into the modern vernacular
You know, it's crap. And you know what? Here's the thing. You know, this is what some people offer God
Just a load of crap
They're just like, you know, I don't want to do the work of actually having to get my hands dirty and get involved in the ministry of God
I'll show up at church, you know
But my life's gonna be full of sin and I'm not gonna straighten anything out and I'm not gonna fix anything and you know
I'll sit there and listen with the peace a pastor has to say and you know
I and if he says something I like maybe I'll amen him, but otherwise, you know, he can just go, you know
Jump in a lake or whatever
That's a bunch of crap
And look, this is the attitude that some people have when they come to church
And that's descriptive of some people's Christianity.
It's just a life that's full of sin and crap.
And that's what, that's all they have to offer God.
Just, well, you know, here's some superficial, you know,
thing, you know, I do for God,
that just, you know, it looks like it makes me look like God.
But inwardly, you know, my life is just full of sin
and it's full of crap.
And that's, you know, that's good enough for God.
You know, God says, get that skin out of here, get that crap out of here, and do some digging
in that animal and actually pull something out and burn some, you know, sweet smelling
fat on that altar.
Get your hands, buddy, you know, get your hands dirty, you know, put some work into it.
And do something that's worthy of God, He's worth it.
So He's saying, get the skin out of here, get the dung out of here, get all that crap
Now look at verse 15 and thou shalt take one ram and Aaron and his son shall put their hands upon the ram head of the ram
And thou shalt slain the ram and take his shall take his blood and spink it round about the altar
And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces and wash inward parts of them
and his legs and put them unto his pieces and unto his head,
and thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar."
It is a burnt offering unto the Lord.
It is a sweet Savior and offering made by fire unto the Lord.
This application is probably right there on the surface.
He wants the whole animal.
You know when it came to the Bullock, it was like we don't want the skin. We don't want the dung. We just want the fat
You know another application we can make here is that we need to be as God's people people that are willing to give God everything
You know and obviously this is a sacrifice that is particular to Aaron, right?
This is this is a ceremony that they're gonna go through for the high priest
And this is, you know, especially applicable for pastors.
Pastors have to be people that are ready to give everything to God,
to give their lives to God, to spend their time just serving God,
doing everything they can, but it applies to all of us.
There should be no part of our lives where we say,
well, that's reserved for me and not God.
God can't have that.
No, God wants the whole thing, all of it.
And look, that doesn't mean that God doesn't allow us to enjoy things and do things.
Obviously, we still have our personal lives, our own, maybe pursuits and hobbies and things
like that.
But if God asks for anything, we should be saying, here's all of it.
Take it all.
Now, I want to jump ahead here a little bit.
And he says, And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration and seeeth his flesh in the holy place.
So you have this offering that takes place where, you know, they butcher this animal and then, you know,
the first ram just gets burned, but the second ram, we won't take the time to read it all.
You know, part of it goes on there, but then again, Aaron's given the breast,
and he's given, you know, the bread and different things, and that's the wave offering before the Lord.
by Aaron. You know, a lot of people, even myself for a long time had this misconception
that the priests were eating off the altar, which is just not the case.
You know, if you read your Bible carefully and pay attention when you go through chapters like,
you know, this is why it's important to pay attention. This is reiterated elsewhere.
You would actually pick up on the fact that, you know, obviously there were sacrifices.
You know, the Passover, they were to burn and things like that. I understand that.
But there, you know, when the Kims, the high priests, and a lot of those offerings,
they were supposed to boil that flesh. That's what it means to see that.
Right to put it into seething. They're supposed to like it says, you know, you should not see a kid and its mother's milk
You know, you're not gonna boil it in the milk
And so he's being told a real particular way in which he used to eat this meat
He's not and now look this is Texas right the land of barbecue, right?
I know you want to make a claim to some of these other ethnic foods, but
We'll not go there. Okay, and we'll save that conversation for later, but I'll give you credit
Y'all ought to do your barbecue around here, all right, and you know, we all like the smell barbecue, right?
We all like the smell of flesh roasting
You know, it's one of the things that kind of makes, you know, soul winning on a midweek,
you know, after, you know, you get off work and then you go out in some neighborhood where
everybody else is getting off work, except they're going to lighten up their, you know,
their grills and you're knocking on their door and they're just, they're flipping burgers.
Anyone else ever experienced that?
I'm just like, man, I'm trying to concentrate and be spiritual here, but all I can think
about is the smell of cooking flesh right now, right?
Oh, the sacrifices we make, right?
You know, we all like that and we might like to think,
hey man, it'd be great to be a high priest, man.
You got all this barbecue and boil it.
Now, if I were to come to one of you and say,
hey, would you like this nice smoked,
charred-boiled piece of meat or this boiled whatever?
You know, in our church, you know,
I got a little pushback because I like to steam the hot dogs.
I'm one of those little hot dog steamers
because the buns get, you know,
you put the buns in there
and they come out all warm and everything, right?
And then someone's like, hey, man.
We're grilling those hot dogs.
It's like, hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend.
But you know, people have preferences.
They, we would all prefer the charred boiled flesh
over the sodden or, you know, a sieved flesh,
the boiled flesh, right?
But you know, that kind of represents the fact
that God, again, gets the best.
That's burned to God, and Aaron, you know, his here, his seething, his flesh, you know, the pastorate
is not some place where the pastor pleases himself and just lives this luxurious life.
You know, it's supposed to be a place where you just kind of, you know, you get what you need and you take what you need and that's it,
right, and you get the blessing of being in the ministry, and he's taken care of obviously here.
You know, God's giving him his sustenance, but he's not, you know, whining and dining
him here.
He's saying, hey, just boil the flesh.
Just see that.
And that's what they were supposed to eat.
Now what's interesting is that this is the exact, this is a part of this law that Eli
and his son specifically violated.
And let's look at verse 12.
He says,
Now we all probably know what that means, right?
They're sons of the devil.
They're reprobates, okay?
They knew not the Lord.
That's what it means to be a reprobate.
You don't know God, and you can't get saved.
It says there in verse 13,
And the priest's custom with the people was that
when any man offered sacrifice,
the priest's servant came while the flesh was in seething.
So even the people, you know, they would give their portion.
I'm not going to take the time to break down
all these different sacrifices,
but basically they would give a part
to the priests to burn on the altar,
and then God would allow them to keep a part of that animal
and, you know, boil it, eat it for themselves.
But what's going on here is that the sons of Eli,
these sons of the devil, these reprobates would come
and while the people are boiling
or seething their portion of the sacrifice,
they're coming and asking for more.
Now they're already getting their seed flesh,
they're already getting their part,
they're already getting taken care of,
but they come and they want more.
And it says, while the flesh was in seething there in verse 13,
with the flesh shook of three teeth in a hand,
and he struck into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot,
all the flesh shook brought up, the priest took for himself,
so they did in Shiloh unto the Israelites, and came thither.
Also, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came and said to the man that
sacrificed, give flesh to roast for the priest, for he will not have the sodden flesh of the
but-raw."
So now they also, you know, it's not enough that they're getting their own sodden flesh
to themselves.
God's already giving them a portion to boil and eat.
Now they've got to go and take other people's seed flesh, take their portion.
meat so that they could go and burn it.
And they're like, ah, that's sod and flesh.
You know, we're sick of it.
We want to have some barbecue, right?
And that's basically what they're doing here.
We will not have sod and flesh with you but raw.
Look at verse 16, and if any man said to them,
let them not fail to burn the fat presently
and then take as much as I so desire it,
then he would answer him, nay, but thou shalt give it me now.
And if not, I will take it by force.
I mean, they're threatening physical violence.
You're saying, we're just going to lay hands on you
and just take it, so you might as well give it up.
Now, we also know that one of the sins that
that
The Hofni and Phineas committed here the sons of Eli is that they would also lay with the women at the door of the tabernacle
They were committing adultery and fornication
But notice, you know that this portion doesn't really describe that it just describes what they're doing when it comes to the offering itself
That they're taking from the people
and they're taking, you know,
more than that's already been given to them,
and they're not even burning the sacrifice that belongs
to God, they're eating it for themselves.
That's what we read.
But notice what's verse 17 says,
where for the sin?
What sin? The sin we just read.
Obviously, the fornication and adultery
is wicked, and it's just further proof
that these guys are reprobates, I mean, other than the fact
the Bible just flat out calls them sons of Belial,
that they have eyes full of adultery
that cannot cease from sin.
But you know we didn't read a lot of that here all we're reading about here is
Just this part about the sacrifice and it says there
Wherefore the sin of the young man was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord
Men were they were going we don't want you want to go make this offering because those jerks are just gonna come and take it
They're not gonna burn the fat. They're gonna go eat it. They're gonna gonna take more than they need
We don't even want to go
You know and this is a perfect parallel here is you know, that's a lot of reasons why people don't go to church today
It's not right, but you know there is a great. There's a lot of truth to it, too
Oh, oh that pastor wants is your money. Oh that place is just full of hypocrites. You know a lot of times. That's true
Well, you know
there's a lot of people that aren't gonna go to some church because
They just have this idea that all churches are filled with guys like this because there's a lot of churches
That are filled with guys like this
You know, it's epidemic today.
We have a lot of guys who are just, you know, taking more than they need and they're just
more interested in appeasing themselves, appeasing themselves than they are in doing things right
and being content with such things as they have.
And they abhor it.
And the Bible says the sin was very great before the Lord, God looks down and he's just
disgusted with it.
I mean, he's just furious what's taking place here.
Now, you know, let's go over to Titus chapter number one
Because you know the parallel that we would make here is
That of filthy Luke her
Right, they're coming and taking things and they're taking it by force and they're they're robbing people
They're they're in it for the meat, right?
They're just in it for the the meal. That's why these pastors are in it
And, you know, today we have pastors that are in the ministry for the exact same reason.
And look, this doesn't just apply to false prophets.
In fact, as we'll see here, you know, the warning against filthy Luke is to ordain saved men of God.
More than it is the false prophet.
Now, look at Titus chapter 1.
We'll get this one out of the way.
Let's deal with the Hothni infiduances of this world.
He says there, we'll back it up to verse 10,
if there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,
especially they have the circumcision,
Jews whose mouths must be stopped,
who subvert whole houses,
teaching things which they ought not,
why? For filthy, leuker's sake.
So this is the hofnigh infinities of this world,
who are just going to preach things which they ought not.
They're going to preach false doctrine.
And it's gonna be a positive only message why so they can lie in their pockets
You know, it's the Joel Olstein. It's the Kenneth Copeland. It's the Joyce Meyer. It's the man
You guys got some big ones in Texas. Don't you?
You know TD jakes is he still around?
Okay, I thought I'd heard he died, but guess not you know TD jakes who's got you know a suit coat that looks like a cape
They I mean it comes all the way down
some $3,000 suit or something, he's going to wear one time.
You know, put into his walk-in closet, that's like the size of your garage.
You know, they're preaching things which they aren't, and look, what are all these
guys preaching?
Positive only messages. A lot of just motivational
type messages, just, you know, very thin on
doctrine, and you know, just, if at all,
Joyce Meyer, God's not mad at you, just as positive,
Your best life now and all this stuff. It's it's things they they're speaking which they ought not why for filthy lucre's sake
Because they're just more interested. They're like Hof9 Phineas. They're the sons of Belial
They're just more interested and you know in filling themselves up and getting all they can get and they're just greedy for filthy lucre
So that's probably you know when you bring up filthy lucre
That's probably the first example you would think of how it applies to false prophets a warning about false prophets is a description of them
But what's interesting to me?
It's how often, rather, in the Scripture, pastors are warned to not be greedy of filthy
lucre.
And, you know, we're right there in Titus.
Let's just jump down here to verse 7.
Just back it up.
For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker,
not given to filthy lucre. So being greedy of filthy lucre is something that doesn't just apply to unsaved false prophets.
It can apply to saved men of God. It can apply to preachers and pastors.
They get, otherwise why is Paul saying, hey, he can't be greedy of these things?
Well, it's just not possible. That's only something the only false prophets do. Wrong!
And look, I cited several examples of the false prophets that are greedy of filthy
lucre.
But you know what's far more prevalent today?
Saved men of God who are greedy of filthy lucre.
Saved men of God who are more interested in their balance sheet than they are in the
work of God.
This is everywhere today.
I believe it.
You know, I don't know about that. You know, is it really that big? Is it is it really that big of a deal?
Is it really that prevalent? The wise Paul warning about it constantly
First Timothy 3, I mean, it's the qualifications for the bishops over here
Likewise verse 8 of this is the deacons likewise must the deacons be grave
Right not double-tongue not given a much wine not greedy a filthy looker
Chat of verse 3
Not given to wine no striker not greedy a filthy looker. That's for the pastor the bishop
God is saying, hey, you know, these guys that go into the ministry, they can't be greedy of filthy lucre.
And so, well, what's so wrong about that? Well, did you see what Eli Sons did?
They say, yeah, but those were false prophets. But here's the thing, you read that story,
Eli is guilty too. Eli partakes in that sin with them.
You know Eli, he goes ahead and he in fact if you want to you can very quickly turn back there
Let's just look at it together in first Samuel chapter 22 or 6 chapter 2
It says there in verse 27 and there came a man of God and Eli and said unto him
Thus sayeth the Lord did I plainly appeared in the house of thy father when they were in Egypt and Pharaoh's house
And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest to offer upon my altar to burn incense to wear an ephod before me
We just read about the ephod
You know, that burden of getting to where the ephod, where all those, all of Aryans adorning,
you know, that's a privilege.
That's what he's saying.
It's, didn't I choose you?
Didn't you get selected out of everybody else?
I gave you and, you know, your fathers the privilege of serving me in God's house and
I'm providing from you.
I'm giving you the meat.
You know, the tithes and offerings are being brought to you.
Isn't that enough for you?
And God's, God's very upset here and we see that he just doles out this great judgment
And Eli is a saved man of God.
Eli is saved, you know, he's heard the voice of the Lord.
I believe Eli is saved through and through.
But you know what, he's an example of somebody, though saved,
who could allow covetousness to creep in and become greedy of things
and actually compromise and allow sin to creep in
just so that he can keep himself fed.
And this is prevalent today.
He said, Look, didn't I choose you, and did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel?
Wherefore, kick ye at my sacrifice, and at mine offering. Isn't it enough that I'm giving you?
Which I have commanded in my habitation, and honors thy sons above me, to make, notice this word,
YOURSELVES FAT.
And we know Eli was a fat man because when he hears the news about the arc being taken
by the Philistines, he says he fell back and his neck break for he was a fat man.
Right?
I mean, he's just morbidly obese.
Look, you know, as somebody who is on a diet, believe it or not, you know, I've come to
understand this thing about energy balance, right?
And you can't get to that size without eating a lot of food.
You know or whatever it's it's not the chemicals in the food. Okay, it's not seed oils
Okay
The problem with all those things is that they're you know calorically dense
You don't get to that size without eating a lot. So where do you think he's getting all his food?
You think God's you know God's offering again. He's just God's just stuffing him with all that stuff
No, he's taking what his sons are giving him
You know and we know from the story that he also lightly reprimanded his sons
You know that he didn't even really you know rebuke them as he ought to why do you think that is?
Why do you think he went so easy on them these would I mean their fornicators their drunkard and the Eli knows the law
They should have been taken before the elders and stoned
That's what the law prescribes for these gluttonous drunkards
That's what should have happened, but he's just like you know you don't do that guys
Just you know, I'll tell you why because he's just as guilty as they are
You know and maybe he did try to go to him and say hey you guys shouldn't be doing the shut up old man have some more steak
Shut up here eat this and shut up
and
This is what we see a lot of today. I think
even in Baptist pulpits a
Bunch of greasy lipped preachers
Well, how do you know they're greasy lip because everything they say is smooth, you know a grease feels like grab some grease man. It's smooth
You know, they got a bunch of pastors and they had just a bunch of grease on their lips
and the only thing that comes out of their mouth are smooth things.
No hard sayings, no difficult things, no controversial things.
They compromise, they back out, they back down, they won't say what the Bible says because
they got grease all over their lips because they're more concerned with stuffing themselves
and becoming fat physically and more importantly just through all of the wealth that they can
acquire.
And maybe not even become, you know, rich.
Maybe it's they don't even get a lot of money.
And look, I'm not saying every person
that has any kind of wealth is in this category.
Obviously, people work hard and are diligent
and have skills that are marketable.
I get that.
But you know what?
There's a lot of pastors today
who are just more concerned with the bottom line.
They're like Eli here.
They just want to keep that meat coming.
They want that good charred boiled meat coming and they don't care how it gets there
You know and what they figured out today is hey, just don't preach anything controversial
Just don't preach anything hard. Just don't say anything that might upset anybody. Don't get up and preach about the fags
Don't preach about that. Don't turn to these passages.
Look, this happens all the time, even in Baptist churches.
King James Bible Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches,
where the pastor will never once in his entire career
turn to passages like Judges 19, Genesis 19, Leviticus 20.
You know, they're not going to go to these controversial passages.
They're not going to go to Romans 1.
They'll never do a verse by verse chapter by chapter study through the Word of God over there
They're preaching career because they know that at some point they're gonna actually they'll get parked on a passage
We're like oh, oh man if I say that you know then money bags with the fag
You know nephew is gonna leave the church and then I don't know what I'm gonna do and then I'm gonna be out on the street
We'll go get a job and preach the Word of God
Look, ideally a pastor would be able to work full-time, and look, we know plenty of pastors
who can preach the Word of God through and through every bit of it, and they can pastor
full-time.
And that's great.
That's a blessing.
That's the way it ought to be.
It doesn't have to be that way, though.
There's nothing wrong if a guy, he's preaching to a smaller congregation, has to go out and
work a second job.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But it'd be real tempting to say, well, maybe if I didn't preach so hard on these certain
You know, these new IFBers that preach all these crazy doctrines.
Oh, you mean by crazy doctrine what the Bible actually says.
Right.
Now, if I didn't preach what the Bible actually says, then, you know, men, maybe, you know,
more people will come to my church, maybe some more of these watered-down, you know,
people, these watered-down Baptists in my area, they'd say, you know, let's go check
it out.
Let's go see what it's about.
And I could just get up and just preach all the niceties and I could just flatter them
and I could just use soft speeches and I could just use flowery speeches and I could use
these flattering words like a cloak of covetousness and I could line my pockets and just, you
know, take and be on easy street.
You telling me that doesn't happen?
How else do you think filthy lucre would manifest in a pastor's life?
Maybe it's that you think like like church members are coming up and bribing your pastor to preach a certain sermon
Like they're cutting a check. Hey preacher can so and so
Is that what it means by filthy looker
Like he's he's you know, they're meat
He's meeting out with somebody in the in the back parking lot and like getting an envelope and he's like I'll preach that
Hey, you preach that me some minute for you
No, that's not what it means by the filthy looker is when he's compromising on the word of God when he's using flowery speech as a cloak of covetousness
When he's just saying well, you know the being greedy filthy looker how it manifests is I don't preach anything hard
I don't preach anything difficult. I'm sure never gonna throw
You know a have a conference called the fire-breathing Baptist Fellowship
Wherever you know where the whole agenda is we're gonna show up and just preach and talk about the most controversial thing
So we can never gonna happen with a guy who's greedy of filthy lucre because that has the opposite effect
And they say, you know, I don't know, look at everybody.
Look, in the new FB, let's just be honest,
we're ministering to a very narrow group of people.
The demographic is very small, right?
We minister, you know, we're reaching out to,
you know, obviously we reach all manner of people
saved and unsaved or like,
but the people that are drawn to this,
you know, they're saved, right?
Which, you know, you have the vast majority of the world,
they're like a little pie chart, you know,
and then it goes saved, you know, the wedge is this big.
Right, King James only, Bible believing, independent, fundamental, new IFB, right?
There's a lot of other Baptist churches that have got the right doctrine and a lot of things,
salvation, and they're full.
But you know, we could pack out of house, but you know, it's a very narrow group of
people that we're ministering to.
And if you want to be somebody, you know, out there, just a typical pastor,
one way you could build a great ministry is just never preach anything hard.
But you know what the problem with that is?
You know what the problem is?
Is that if I do that, now I'm greedy of filthy lucre.
Now money is my only motivation.
And look, this is everywhere today.
This is happening.
and they compromise, and you know what that tells you
about those pastors?
They don't care about people.
Well, I can't preach on divorce
because I got divorced people in my church.
I can't get up and say that marriage and divorce
or divorce and remarriage is adultery
because there's dozens of people in my church.
Look, there's probably people in that situation
right now in this church.
Should I just never preach that and look if you're in that situation, I'm not mad at you
I'm not trying to embarrass anybody look people do those things
But what about all the people that haven't made those mistakes?
What all those people who who've never heard what the Bible says about that?
I have to warn them as a pastor, and I'm going to do it, you know why?
Because I care about those people.
And if that, you know, if that hair lips a bunch of people, if that upsets a bunch of people,
and they take their money and run, you know what, go ahead and go, go down the street
to, you know, Eli Baptist Church down there where he's got his greasy lips,
and all he cares about is your money.
I'm going to get up and preach what the Bible says because I care about you.
Because I don't want you to wreck your life.
I don't want you to destroy your lives
and the lives of your children.
You know, divorce, it destroys lives.
It destroys, look, you get enough people
to divorce the country.
You'll destroy an entire country.
What do you think's going on?
Why we're in the position that we're in today?
You know, marriage is the bedrock of society.
It's the fabric that holds it all together.
So if you know, how can I as a man of God not get up and preach what the Bible says about that?
If I don't care about people in this country, not just the people much or whatever, you know, I care about people all over I care about the people
You know in this entire world. I have to get up and preach what the Bible says because on these controversial
Tubbs it's such as divorce because it has terrible effects on people
But that's what you have a lot today, pastors who just compromise because they don't care
about people.
They don't want to lose congregants.
They don't want to have to downsize the church or go get a second job and maybe get some
calluses or something like that, you know, or stare at a screen or whatever.
They won't take care of the people of God.
You know, the Bible tells the pastors to be men that feed the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof.
You know, it's their job and to not be what?
Greedy of filthy lucre.
There it is again.
You know, they only interested in feeding themselves.
They want to compromise or, you know, they're cowards.
Or they're crooks.
You know, you have the Elias who are probably more like, you know, just the cowards of this world.
We're too afraid of what might happen and what they might have to do, so they're not
going to preach what the Bible says.
Then you have this straight-up sons of Belial, the Elias, excuse me, the Hophniin Finneuses
of this world, where they're just crooks.
They'll just rob you of everything they can, and they're going to be greedy of filthy
lucre.
But you know what though, they're both either category, whichever one some pastor might fall
into, they're both compromisers.
They're both compromisers.
I mean, I know one's the son of the devil, but, you know, the other one's doing the devil's bidding in a sense.
If I'm not preaching a whole word of God, what am I doing up here?
What's the point?
Well, for a lot of people, I'll tell you what the point is, this.
Right here. That's all they care about.
So, you know, you had to understand some things.
I don't know how long I went or when I'm supposed to be done, but I feel like we're going to wrap that up right there.
But let's just, let's just be, you know, mindful of the fact that, you know, our pastors, your pastor, you know, I believe and I know this of your pastor is somebody who cares about people.
And he's somebody that is going to get up and, you know, he's burying a burden.
He's got, you know, the weight of the ministry.
I mean, this church has been through a lot.
You know, that's, that's quite a, quite a burden has been born for some, you know, for some time in this church.
And it, you know, and you guys have really lived up to the name steadfast and I don't, I don't say that flippantly
I mean, I've often thought I was like man
What a great name for this church because this church has been steadfast through many storms
But that I promise you and you all know it that's a that's a burden that your pastors had had to bear
I'll tell you what though. Well, you know what tells me about your pastor that he loves you
That he cares about you and when he gets up and he preaches something that you don't like if it's Bible deal with it
And go home and you can be mad and look you wouldn't be the first one to do it. I've done it
You know, I I went the faithful word for years
And I've heard sermons where the pastor get up and you're like and I didn't even have to ask if he was preaching about me
I knew he's pretty well
He might as well said my name, right?
I've left that church. Oh, that's it. We're going no fellowship. Let's get out of here
But then I go, well, you know what he is right
That is what it says that is the way I am or was
Clarifying statement
Okay, I learned my lessons right and why was I able to do that because you know as because he loved me
And pastors that preach you the truth, they might not send you a basket of flowers and
come and tell you how sweet you are and how much they love you.
But you know what, if they're getting up and they're burying the burden of the ministry
and they're preaching the word of God, they love you.
Mark it down.
And the guy that's just going to preach lies and compromise and won't tell you what the
Bible actually says, that guy doesn't really love you.
I'll tell you who he loves.
He loves himself.
That's the only person he cares about.
But you don't have that here. You don't have that problem.
You've got a great church. You've got a great pastor.
And he loves you guys. He preaches the Word of God.
And if it offends, you know, deal with it.
If it's what the Bible says, you know, just you can
solace yourself in the fact that you know your pastor loves you.
But he ripped my face off. I know, right?
But the guy that's just going to let you walk out the door
and go, you know, never deal with your sin and never call you on anything
and never confront you with about anything,
And it just, it's everywhere today where so many pastors,
they won't touch certain subjects with a 10-foot pole,
or they have all these cute little ways
of explaining certain things away and why, you know,
the Bible says this, but you know, it really means that.
And I mean, we could go on and on
about all those different examples.
I mean, think about, you know, end times doctrine alone.
I've had pastors look me in the face and tell me,
oh, I preach pre-trib
because I just don't want to deal with the controversy.
I say, but you know what, it does sound like it's after the tribulation, because that's
what it says.
And he's like, yeah, it does sound like that.
Verbate him, his words.
You know, it sounds like it's happening.
It does, doesn't it?
But you know, that explains why when he gets up to preach the revelation, it's like the
most confusing thing you've ever heard, because he's trying to put that square peg in that
Right and you know what and I keep hearing it more and more
There's all these guys out there these pastors that they're post-trib, but they won't tell a soul
They won't tell anybody.
I was just talking to a guy recently,
he had a pastor confide in him,
because he's like, this guy, this other guy
wasn't a pastor, but he was just like,
hey, I'm pre-trib, or I'm post-trib.
And he had like put it on a website,
or was like in some kind of, you know,
something he was handing out in evangelism.
He's like, you're post-trib too, huh?
He's like, me too, he's like,
but why do you tell people that?
Why do you, hey, because we're interested
in telling people the truth, that's why.
Because we're not worried about
what people are gonna think.
We're not trying to just you know get people's money or whatever. I you know, we're not strangers to conflict
You know, we we understand that if they if they hate us, you know, they hated him they hated the Lord
And it's the false prophets that are well spoken of
You know, but you got pastors they don't even they'll know the truth about a subject
And they just won't preach it why because they love themselves. They love their greedy. They are greedy a filthy luker
They're not living up to the job
They need to be disrobed so to speak, you know, it'd be like taking Aaron and say, you know Aaron later
He makes some mistakes. He has his garments taken off him
Disqualified and killed. I'm not suggesting that
Okay, you always got to put that caveat in there, right?
But you know, it's just it's rampant today and it's interesting to me that
We see more warnings about filthy Luke or for saving a God that we do even false prophets
What does that tell you?
That's what's going on and when you once your eyes are open to it. It's just like it makes sense
You said oh that that makes sense why you won't preach the truth on that it makes sense why you you know
You have this cute little way of backing out. I mean I already brought it up, but divorce is is probably a huge huge topic
I mean so controversial
It's not to me because the Bible is just so plain about it, but I understand that amongst a lot of people. It's it's controversial
And I've heard pastors, you know, have all kinds of excuses like,
oh, it's okay if you could get remarried because, you know,
at one point in Israel's history,
they went up and fought the battle of AI when they weren't supposed to.
And so you got married to somebody you weren't supposed to be married to.
I've heard this from a pastor,
from an independent fundamental King James pastor.
And he was trying to tell a divorced guy in our church why it would be okay for him to
go and get remarried because you got ahead of God's will.
Look, that's wicked as hell, folks.
The Bible is clear that if we are divorced and remarried, we are committing adultery.
That's what the Bible says.
And again, I'm not against anybody that's made that mistake, but I'm just, you know,
I'm not going to, I can't get up and just spare people's feelings and let other people
Anyway, I gotta wrap it up, but you know, thank God that we have some pastors in this
movement who are not motivated by money, who are not afraid to lose people.
Good night.
We know that's true.
In fact, it's looking a little crowded in here.
You know?
Look out for Pastor Shelley, he's gonna bring some heat soon, right?
Just you know, you need some more room, Pastor Shelley, just to fend a bunch of people.
They'll leave on the road.
I'm just kidding, right?
But thank God, that's what this conference is going to be.
It's going to be a fire-breathing Baptist fellowship.
There's going to be hard preaching, and it's all going to be biblical.
It's going to be Bible.
And we get so used to it, the new IFB, we're just like,
oh, you know what, we've heard this before, heard this before.
Look, there's a dearth of the kind of preaching you're about to hear over the next several days.
There's a dearth of it.
It's just not there.
It's not happening.
You're going to hear so much fire-breathing Baptist preaching this next several days man. You're going to hear all the gnarly things
It's going to be so many great sermons. They're going to be some controversial things preached. I believe that
There's going to be things touched on that other pastors wouldn't go near you know what that tells me about every one of these guys
It's going to get up and preach like that
That he's not creating a filthy Luke or that he loves God's word. He's bearing that burden
He's bearing the breastplate of judgment and he's not afraid to you know speak the word of truth as he ought
Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for this great fellowship.
I pray you'd bless the coming days, Lord,
that there would just be great preaching,
spirit-filled preaching that takes place
and help all of us, Lord, to listen attentively
and to do something with what we're told.
Lord, help us to understand that those that reprove us
and rebuke us and exhort us, Lord,
that they do it out of a place of love
and that they are bearing a burden.
It's not easy to get up and tell people
but it's something that has to be done and it's something that's falling by the wayside today.
It's something that's harder and harder to find. Bless this conference we ask in Christ's precious
name. Amen. All right for our last song tonight we'll go to song number 405.
The Banner of the Cross, song number 405, let's all sing that out together.
The Banner of the Cross.
There's a royal banner in corn as play to the soldiers of the king.
At the campsite where we lived it up to date.
감사합니다!
Don't you stop, don't you