Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you can please, church, if you can please find your seats.
And we're gonna turn to our first song this evening, 224.
There shall be showers of blessing, song 224.
If you know it, sing it out nice and loud, song 224.
There should be showers of blessing.
On the first.
Let us say a word of prayer this evening.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our church.
Thank you for those who have been able to gather here.
I pray that you would be with those
that are not able to make it.
That you would bless all aspects of our service time
and that you would allow us to draw closer to you
and that you give us those showers of blessing we need.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
We're gonna turn to our second song, 472.
This is My Father's World.
472, this is my father's world.
Good singing if you don't already have a bulletin and you'd like one just look to bring in nice and high
One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin
On the front we're getting close to wrapping up our Bible Marie passage Jude verse 20 on the inside is their service and soul winning times
Please keep up off our soul winning
Also on the right a list of several expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them
Upcoming events, our Mexico missions trip is happening very soon, September 8th through the 12th.
Please be in prayer for our missionaries that are going down there.
Also, if you'd like to be a part of one of our soul winning marathons that are close by Tyler, Texas is going to be happening September 27th
It's a great opportunity
We have a soul winning seminar at the church October 4th brother Marcel is going to be leading that and so if you want any
Tips or help working on soul winning. That's a great opportunity to come out our missions trip to Nassau Bahamas is October 6th
11th. I'm planning on maybe next week sending out a
a tentative email to those who have already confirmed their spots, just so that way people
are aware, hey, you're confirmed, we gotcha, and so we'll be looking for that next week.
It looks like we have almost 50 people already signed up and so we're excited to go out there to the Bahamas and have another successful mission strip.
Pastor Bruce Mejia is coming October 19th.
He's going to be preaching for us, both services, and then we have a chili cookoff October 31st.
Of course, that's Texas style. There's no other way.
On the back is our prayer list.
We'll go over that right now.
Continue to pray for the Carlson's, their parents' health.
Also, if you pray for the Millers,
friends' mom who has cancer treatments,
please, if you'd pray for the Scots,
both Brother Horace, Miss Grace, and then also Miss Olivia.
Continue to pray for Brother Tony's health.
We're praying for the Foley's,
dad who has kidney disease.
Continue to pray for the Abanax grandmother,
and also for their friend.
We've been praying for Brother Gabe's mother.
Who has an issue with her foot and then if you pray for miss ginger's cousin who was diagnosed with breast cancer?
Please be in prayer for the major's daughter and also friend miss Martha and then continue to pray for brother Paul if you'd pray for the illy's
Also for his his work and then if you'd pray for brother goodwin sister
If you'd pray that I guess they had a lost loved one if you just pray for comfort for them and their family
And we're also continuing to pray for our missionaries in the Philippines and for their family as well on their back
They have if you'd pray for their soul winning laborers and good weather
And then also pray for miss Arju's mother who has stage 5 kidney disease and then pray for miss Arju's also expecting
So we'll say a quick word of prayer for our church family
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church.
Thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church.
Thank you for the conference that we just had
and all the fun that we enjoyed.
I pray that you'd bless all these ladies
and our bullets in who are expecting.
Please be with these mothers.
Please help them with their delivery.
I pray those that have recently given birth,
you'd please help them with their recovery
and help with their children's development.
I pray that you would please just bless our church family
that is struggling with illnesses and sicknesses
for a long time that you could be with them,
comfort them, if possible, give them healing.
of injuries and suffered other issues.
I pray that you just please give them favor,
give them healing.
I pray that you bless those that are sick right now,
just that they could have a speedy recovery
and then get back in church.
I also pray that you give favor
under those that are needing in their work
or in their jobs that you'd please just help them right now.
Please give them that shower of blessing that they need.
I pray that you'd also bless our evangelist
in the Philippines and his new church.
Please be with his family.
Please be with his wife who's expecting.
And we just thank you so much for all that you've given us.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
There is a monthly newsletter
that was added.
I'm gonna go over this on Sunday as well.
But if you want a little bit of an update,
but it's when going on with Avengers or Panic,
it's here for the month of August.
They had 861 salvation.
So that's really incredible.
Now he's kicking our butt.
So, you know, I don't know what to say,
but they're definitely doing a really good job.
We're gonna have to get some miracles in the end,
you know, to catch up.
But it's great to hear that they're doing
such a good work out there.
Also, they've been getting in in schools.
He said that he had 325 salvations
schools they've been preaching in and there's a lot of other details there if
you'd like to read about it. On the back they have a note about specifically
their church building. They have about a 750 square foot building and they've been
meeting and a little bit further area than they were. They were meeting in
Senai and now they're meeting in Kisau and it's about 30 minutes away.
So, their first service, they had 22 in their church attendance,
which is a little bit lower than some of the previous attendances they've been having,
but also they're meeting at a restaurant, so you never know exactly.
The jollybee might have been the fact there, I don't know, but it's still great.
22 is a great attendance number for their first services,
and we'll just continue to pray for their church and what they're doing over there.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements in the Bulletin.
I did want to say a special thank you to everybody who helped with our conference.
Things went really well and it seemed like we had a great conference.
I was getting a lot of compliments from the people that visited and just really...
Honestly, most of the compliments were just about you guys in general.
They just said that they really enjoyed the fellowship.
A lot of people were very hospitable, took them out.
took them over to their homes, we're just friendly to them, and just kind, and they
felt really at home, really welcome, and honestly going so many a day it reminded
me how normal you guys are because there's a lot of weirdos out there in
the world, and so you know just being a normal church is also a huge blessing, so
thank you guys for being just normal people, and so really appreciated that,
but a lot of people worked really hard for our conference, and so thank you guys
other events in the future like that so without any more announcements we're
gonna go to our third song 100 I'm sorry Psalm 147 it's in our special binders
Psalm 147 it's our Psalm of the week and if you need you you can use the
King James Bible but it's a lot easier if you use the binder here
Very good singing if you turn to third John this evening
We'll pass around the offering plates and then we'll read the entire chapter of third John
3rd John the Bible says, the elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy
soul prospereth.
For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever
thou doest to the brethren and to strangers, which have borne witness of thy charity before the church,
whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well.
because that for his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles.
We, therefore, ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth.
I wrote unto the church, But diographies who loveth to have the
preeminence among them receiveeth us not, Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his
deeds which he doeth, Prating against us with malicious words,
And not content therewith, Neither doth he himself receive the brethren,
Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good.
He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself.
Yea, and we also bear record, and ye know that our record is true.
I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee.
But I trust I shall shortly see thee and we shall speak face to face
Peace be to thee our friends salute thee greet the friends by name. Let us pray. Dear heavenly father
Thank you for a successful conference. Thank you for the word of God
Please bless our Bible study now and help Pastor Shelle as he preaches your word in Jesus name. Amen
And then so we've been going through some of these similar books here, we went through
1 John, we went through 2 John and now we're going through 3 John and in 2 John the epistle
was written unto the elect lady, here we have it written unto the well-beloved Gaius and
so it's directed to a particular individual, this particular epistle and we see that the
lots of different people.
Gaius is not really somebody who's mentioned
in other places of the Bible,
and we don't really know a lot about him,
but we have him here.
And that just goes to show that there are obviously
some great people at this time and in the Bible
that we didn't necessarily know of or hear about.
You don't read about Gaius in the book of Acts
or something like that.
Yet there was obviously a lot of people
that were contributing to the efforts of
the church and doing great things for the church.
Now, it makes sense a little bit why you'd be writing to a particular individual
because in verse 9, notice it says,
I wrote under the church,
but deotrophies who love to have the preeminence among them receive it, it's not.
So, sometimes we have to understand that, you know, when it talks to...
the Bible really just addresses good, bad, and ugly situations.
And in life, there's going to be good, bad, and ugly situations.
There are going to be times where there's a church that exists and at one point maybe
that church was good, maybe at one point that church had fellowship with the other brethren,
with those that are influential, but then it could go bad or you could have bad leadership
and now you can't write under the church, you can't write under these individuals anymore
because the leader is taken over and he's hijacked the church, he's destroyed the church,
church and so now he just has to talk to individuals and now it's just hey I'm
writing a letter on to Gaius this particular guy because this was a great
guy in this particular church and you know in life and in ministry there's
gonna be times where you make personal connections with individuals even though
that church relationship may not exist anymore.
Sometimes you're going to have a relationship with the church and that church relationship ends where it ceases to be but you may still have a personal connection to Gaius.
You might have that guy out there that, hey, I like Gaius though.
Gaius is a good guy.
Yeah, this church has been hijacked by a bozo,
but hey, we like Gaius and we are for Gaius.
And so you kind of see this dynamic here in this epistle.
And I'm sure some of you are thinking like,
this sounds like the new IFB, you know?
This sounds like people I know and churches I know.
Why?
Because there's no new thing under the sun.
The same things that are happening to us
or the same things that happened in the Bible
where churches come and go.
good leaders, bad leaders, bozos, weirdos, all things in between.
And yet, you know, what's important is just people are important.
And Gaius is important to the apostle John, and he loves this guy.
And in fact, he repeatedly tells him how much he loves him.
Notice he said, well, beloved, look at verse 2, beloved, look at verse 5, beloved, look
at verse 11, beloved.
He really likes.
Gaius he really holds him to be special. He's trying to make it clear like hey
I really love this guy
He's a really loved guy of many people because the apostle Paul sometimes is speaking in a
Plurality a little bit of him and other people that know Gaius in this particular epistle
But notice what he says the elder under the well-beloved Gaius whom I love in the truth
So the reason why he loves Gaius is not because they have a personal
connection on some carnal level.
It's not being brought up like,
oh, me and Gaius go way back,
we used to go to school together.
Or me and Gaius, you know, we really like to connect
because we both play golf or something,
or we both play basketball,
or hey, we both connect
because we both like brisket or something.
You know, it's not really about that.
The reason why he likes Gaius
is because Gaius is a Christian who loves the truth,
and the Apostle Paul is a Christian who loves the truth.
And a lot of us in this room, we have a really close kinship,
a really close brotherhood, not so much because we just definitely
connect on some carnal level or some past that we used to have together,
but just the fact that we just love the truth together,
that we both love the King James Bible,
that we just love salvation by faith,
that we just love soul winning,
that we just love going out and preaching the gospel,
that we just love hard preaching.
And really, if you love soul-winning, you love hard preaching because I was looking up, you know, a week or two ago,
I don't know, it wasn't that long ago, I was looking up like the most controversial things that the Bible teaches.
Because I was just thinking like, hey, let's just see what, you know, is out there.
Like what does the world think is like super controversial?
What's like the most extreme thing that I can get up behind the pulpit and say?
And what was funny is like number one was that salvation is by faith and people who don't believe it are going to hell.
I mean, basically just believing that salvation is exclusive to those who put their trust
in Jesus, that is the most extreme thing you can say and really when you think about it,
it is like that.
You got soul winning and you're trying to tell the Methodists that they're not saved
and they get really offended.
You try to tell the Catholic that they're not saved and they get really offended really
quickly and they don't want to hear what you have to say or anything else.
Where we talk about something what we think is kind of extreme that they might think like yeah, I kind of agree with you
You're like hey, I think these you know sodomites or pedophiles, and they'll be like yeah
I think so too, but then you start talking about salvation, and they're like no no no yeah
I think it's by works and in fact just going out and preaching the gospel will make you one of the most hardcore preachers ever
Because it's the most offensive thing you can possibly tell someone is that they're not saved and that they're headed for hell
That's why we love hard preaching.
That's why we rally around together is because we love that hard preaching.
We love telling people the truth and we're rallied around the truth and you love Gaius
because he's a lover of truth.
And you know, it's frustrating to be around people that are reality deniers.
It's frustrating to be around people that don't love the truth.
You know, I was talking to someone today.
And at first, it kind of sounded like maybe they were saved,
but they were kind of giving me some nondescript answers,
just some generic things like,
yeah, yeah, I know about church,
and I know about this.
I don't really go to church,
but I know it's just, you know,
just accept Jesus and whatever.
And you know what I'm saying?
Like, is it by what you believe
or how you live your life?
Like, it's what you believe.
And I was like, okay, can you lose your salvation?
And then this is where it kind of starts to fall apart.
And he's just like, oh yeah,
yeah, you can definitely lose your salvation.
And
And I said, okay, so if someone, you know, believes,
but they're doing bad things and they go to hell,
he's like, oh, well, I don't really believe in hell.
You know, hell doesn't really exist.
And I'm like, okay, well, you believe the Bible?
He's like, oh, no, I don't really believe the Bible.
I'm like, dang, this conversation took a U-turn fast.
And then he's like, yeah, there's like other books,
you know, like the book of Enoch.
And this was so funny to me, it's like, this isn't trustworthy, but the Book of Enoch is.
Like, if you're going to be skeptical of literature, why is it that the Book of Enoch is so authoritative,
but the King's Bible's not?
Right? Like, I don't even understand their logic.
And I even pointed out to this guy, I said, well, you know, the Book of Enoch says that there was babies born that are 450 feet tall.
Do you believe that?
And he's like, yeah, have you ever been to South Dakota?
I've never been to South Dakota,
but I don't think there's any babies that are 450 feet tall.
And he's like, yeah, they found these like petrified trees,
you know, and they're just sawn right across.
And I'm just thinking like,
and then my son goes,
what does that have to do with a 450 foot tall baby?
And I was like, nothing.
It's just confusing.
But it's like, it's hard to have fellowship with someone
that's gonna sit here and tell me that, yeah,
the book of Enoch with its 450 foot tall babies
is authoritative and the King James Bible's not.
You know, it's hard to have the same kind of relationship with someone that's just going to deny reality, deny the truth,
deny the gospel, deny things that are just evident and obvious.
You know, it's hard to have that same kind of love and fellowship with that person, whereas, you know what?
It's great to love Gaius because why? Because you love him in the truth. He loves the truth.
I love the truth, so it's really easy for us to both like each other.
And, really, this is how the world works in any other category.
You know, why is it that someone can go to a stadium that they've never met before and
just instantly be friends with another person?
Because it's like, I love the cowboys, you love the cowboys, now we're just buddies or
something.
And it's like, somebody likes the Steelers, well, they're just a scumbag, right?
And that might be literal, but I'm just kidding.
But it's like, hey, you have this instant camaraderie because you both share kind of
And for this picture here we have, hey, Gaius loves the truth,
the apostle John loves the truth,
and ultimately, if you love the truth, who do you really love?
Jesus, because He's the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh under the Father, but by Him.
The ultimate truth is Jesus.
The ultimate truth is the King James Bible.
When someone doesn't like the Bible,
let me tell you something, they don't like Jesus.
And when they don't like Jesus, they don't like the truth.
And they're not a lover of truth.
And you know, it's not fun to be around people
that don't love the truth and don't love Jesus.
This is why you see the left,
which worship Satan in many cases,
that they're so allergic to truth.
They can't seem to get any truth right.
They seem to be wrong on almost every issue.
And you're thinking like, what's wrong with you?
It's like the left actually believes lies.
And then the Republicans, they know the truth,
but they just choose lies because they're fake.
And then really, you know, you're left with a small remnant
that actually believes the truth.
And it's hard for them to find a political camp to be in
because both of them are just terrible.
It's like, hey, are you with the Sadducees or with the Pharisees?
It's like, well, I just want to follow Jesus around.
You know, I'm not really with either of these particular movements.
And it's like, yeah, but the Pharisees are better than the Sadducees.
Okay, but they're still Pharisees.
I mean, it's like, oh, the Republicans are so much better than the Democrats.
Yeah, but they're still Republicans, and they still have severe issues.
And you know what, it's hard for me to have close kinsmanship with someone that's super Republican.
You know, I watched this video, this guy's laughing about how Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were more conservative in like 2005
than the Republicans are today, than every single Republican is today.
He was like bringing up just quotes of Hillary Clinton, quotes of Joe Biden, on marriage,
on family, on these issues, and they were way more conservative and right-leaning than
the entire Republican Party is today.
And it just goes to show you, like, I don't want to be super political because they just
keep getting worse every single year.
And our church needs to be like the King James Bible where it's not changing.
You know, the non-denominational churches seem to get a little worse every single year.
We want to stay the same and be like the same and be steadfast
and just using the tried and true King James Bible.
We're not going to change on doctrine. We don't need to change on Bible.
Hey, our soul winning works. We're not going to change on that.
All we're trying to do is scale it. We're just trying to do more of it.
more of the King James Bible, more preaching,
more soul winning, more church planting.
We don't want to do anything, we don't want to change things,
we just want to get more people involved on the truth
because we just love the truth.
We already found the truth, we don't need anything else,
and we should love people that love the truth.
Look at what it says in verse two, beloved.
I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper
and be in health, even as thy soul prospers."
So he wants three things for him here.
Number one, prosperity.
This could look at...
This could be financial, it could be a little bit above just financial,
but I think in general, it's just basically things are going well for him.
The plans that he has, the tasks that he's doing, they're working out.
He's in health, the Bible wants us to be in health, generally speaking.
And then secondly, or thirdly, it says, soul prosperous.
I believe if you think about this, you know, the word soul...
It's kind of a tricky word in the Bible just because it can apply to a lot of different things, you know
We could think of like the body spirit and soul so it could be talking about the immaterial
Person who you are it could just be talking about the whole person and then sometimes I think it's kind of talking about your personality
So it's kind of like, hey, your immaterial soul
that goes to heaven or hell,
it could be talking about you as an entire person,
it could be talking about you as a personality.
And when we talk about your body,
it's kind of like how it relates to the world,
your soul is kind of like how you relate to each other,
and your spirit is kind of how you relate to God.
And again, these are not necessarily perfect definitions,
perfect explanations, but they give us some idea.
You know, when people talk about soul food, you know,
what do they typically mean by that?
They typically mean that it makes you feel good.
It's about your feelings, it's about your attitude, you know?
And so,
Obviously there's overlap, sometimes spirit can also be in relation to how you feel but I think
what it's trying to talk about here is your soul prospering is just kind of your emotions,
your just mental health as in general that not only do you have financial success,
not only have physical success and physical health, you know you also have kind of this mental health
and it kind of goes to what I preached on Sunday night, the importance of having both physical health
you know, mental health and even spiritual health and you kind of how these things overlap and work
together. But keep your finger and go to Psalm chapter one. Let's just go to Psalm chapter one.
God wants us to have these things. God desires us to have these things. Now does that mean that
If you serve God, you won't have low points.
No, we all will have low points.
We'll all have tribulation.
We'll all have difficulties.
But in general, the Bible teaches for most people,
you know, they're not going to be the exception.
They're going to be the rule that when you follow the Bible
and you're meditating on the Bible
and you're thinking about the Bible,
you will be successful.
What does the Bible say in Psalm 1?
Blessed is the man that walketh not
in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat.
of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law that he meditate
day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth
for this fruit in the season, his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper.
Notice here it's saying when you're plugged into the spiritual aspect of your life, when
you're plugged into the things of God, when you're meditating on the things of God, it
says you shall prosper.
That is what the Bible teaches now again. Does that mean there aren't exceptions?
There's always exceptions. We're not focused on the exceptions or focused on the general principles of the Bible that hey
When you do things that are godly and right you're gonna prosper
How do you not prosper? Well, you walk in the counsel of the ungodly you're listening to advice
That's not coming from the word of God
You know, you should be very careful with any advice, any wisdom that is not coming from biblical principles,
Bible preaching, or you reading the Bible on your own.
You know, that's why it's important to go to church and saturate your mind and your affections to renew your mind
and to prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God.
We need to be testing every idea that we have with the Scripture and meditating on the Bible
and making sure that this is what the Bible teaches.
And when you do that, hey, you're gonna be successful.
When you allow yourself to be saturated
with the counsel of the ungodly,
with the counsel of why read Donald Trump's book
on how to be successful.
Robert Kawasaki, or Elon Musk's plan for success,
or I'm just listening to all the counsel of the world,
I'm going to college and I'm just taking everything
in that they teach me and I'm not testing it
against the word of God.
Well, you know what, you could often end up
having some bad ideas.
Some unbalanced ideas and principles and you're going to go down a bad path.
What is going to be success following the Word of God?
Standing in the way of sinners, you don't want to be around people that are just committing obvious and open and egregious sin.
This is you know you don't want to hang out with the drunkards. You don't want to hang out with the fornicators
You don't want to hang out with the railers
You don't want to be around the people that are forsaking church and just going down these bad paths
And this last one's really interesting sitting in the seat of the scornful
You know, you don't want to be around people that are just scorning everything
A scornful person is always negative, critical, just against everything, mocking everything,
everything's bad, church is bad, people are bad, everything's just a horrible thing.
This is not the type of person you want to be on, you want to be on positive people.
People that are pro-things.
Now again, obviously we as Christians,
we understand there are things to avoid.
There are people and groups that we say,
hey, we don't want anything to do with this particular individual.
But our lives are not consumed with deciding who's bad.
It should be consumed with what's good.
Hey, but we're pro going to church, we're pro the King James Bible,
we're pro soul winning and Christianity and good men
and we're focused in on those type of people and we don't want to be around
this negative, scornful, hating
attitude. You know, you want to be known for what you love, not what you hate.
Instead of being an ex, you want to be a pro.
You know, instead of being an ex, you want to be a fan. Right? And then there's no real
ex-husband, that's not really, you know, you don't want to be labeled as the ex-husband or the ex-wife, or the ex-boyfriend,
or the ex-girlfriend, or the ex-new-ive-be, you know, it's just like all these things are just not cool.
You know, it's not really that beneficial.
X American, you know, being an X something
isn't really that great.
You want to be pro something.
You want to become something.
You want to do something that you actually enjoy.
You know, you want to be an X fan.
You want to be someone that is a fan
and doing something they love.
Life is short. You need to be a fan of something and find something to do that you actually enjoy
And you know what? That should be the lighting in the word of God
Delighting in the law of the Lord and then you can prosper go back to 3rd John
He's saying hey, I'm wishing these things for you, but how are you gonna have them?
You know I can wish for you to do right. I can wish for you to be successful
I can wish for you to be in health, but you know what if you don't actually
Walk in right kind of counsel
If you're not actually staying away from sinners,
if you're not staying away from the scornful,
if you're not delighting in the law of God,
you will not be successful.
You have to actually do these things.
He wants them, but you have to do them.
Verse 3,
For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee,
even as thou walkest in the truth.
Notice, why is it that Gaius is going to be successful because he walks in the truth?
And the apostle Paul is happy that he is walking the truth.
You know, it would be like, hey, I haven't seen so-and-so in a while, his church just
got hijacked and taken over.
You know what?
I found out he got out of there and now he's going into a good church, he's going three
times a week, he's reading his Bible, he's still going soul-winning, and you know what?
You're just rejoicing greatly that they're in a good church, that they're in Springcrest
Baptist Church, and they're going three times a week, and they're going soul-winning, and
they're walking in the truth, and you know what?
It doesn't matter what church it is in general,
as long as it's a church that's got the King James Bible,
that's going soul winning, that's got the truth, right?
And as long as that person's doing it, it's a success.
Church is the people, it's not a building,
it's not a piece of paper, it's the group of people,
and you know what you want, if you love the church,
you'll want those people to be walking in truth
and going to a church where they're walking in truth.
And you know what? He rejoiced greatly because at the end of the day the most important things that people are just walking in truth
You know, it's like hey, this guy got a huge promotion at work and is making tons of money and
You know, he got a new Ferrari, but he hasn't been to church in several months
And he hasn't got he's not going soul-inning anymore. He forgot all the Bible verses. He memorized
Then you got another guy. Well, he lost his job
and he had to move, he had to move,
but now he's close to church,
now he's going three times a week,
now he's reading his Bible, now he's going so many.
You know who I would rejoice more greatly over?
I'd rejoice more greatly over the guy
that's actually walking in truth.
Now here's the thing, that might be in the short term.
You think like, oh, I thought you were talking
about prosperity.
Yeah, but the guy that's chasing money,
let's check on him five years from now.
And five years from now, oh, his wife divorced him.
Because they're not going to a good church and he committed adultery and now they've been taken to the cleaners and
Is his little his business that he's working for was actually in Ron and they were stealing money
So it totally collapsed
He lost his entire retirement because he invested in Bitcoin and Bitcoin blew up or something
Sorry for you Bitcoin lovers or whatever he you know
He was it was all going great and he had all this money and they had to sell it all his wife divorced him
Oh, and he found out now he has
a bunch of kidney stones and he has cancer.
And this other guy, yeah, he lost his job,
but someone in the church took him up
and he got a new job and now he's making good money
and he has another kid on the way.
We check on them five years from now
and it's like, oh wow, the guy that was plugged in
is actually doing really great
and the guy that got out, now his life's a train wreck.
Then he started drinking alcohol.
Then he got on drugs.
Now he's at the meth clinic.
Look, I'm telling you, these people,
when they get out of church,
their lives get to become a train wreck.
And I know that they don't like to highlight
these people's lives, but it really happens.
People call you up and they're like,
yeah, I've been going to church.
I'm backslidden.
And just the worst things you can imagine.
Adultery.
just people just having no reason to live,
losing their whole family, losing all their money,
losing their health, addicted to drugs, dead,
all kinds of horrible things.
And the people that get really plugged into church
and are going, they typically seem to just find a way
to keep going.
Does that mean that everybody's going to be a millionaire?
No, not necessarily, but it does seem like the people that are really working hard seem
to prosper a lot more than those that are just forsaking church and not doing the things
of God.
It's a common pattern.
And this is what the Bible is teaching.
What do you believe?
What do you believe for your life?
Well, I just think that I need to focus on me and my stuff.
Well, you don't have much faith.
You know, if you put God first, which is the Bible tells us in
Matthew chapter number six, seek He first, the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added
unto you.
You know, why don't you just try putting God first in your life for five years
and then look back and then tell me what that was like?
And you know what? How about just ask people in this room?
Just go find somebody you feel like that's been plugged into church
and been faithful for the last five years.
Just ask that person specifically,
hey, do you feel like the last five years have been a lot better?
Have improved? You've been prospering more?
Or has it just been a total train wreck?
And you know what?
You'll probably find nine out of ten people giving you a pretty positive report.
And go find five people that are out of church and it's usually not nearly as positive.
It's probably 50-50 at best.
And so, you know, I believe the Bible.
I've seen it in my own life and I don't want to get out of the truth
because I know that the truth is the only way I'll be successful.
It says in verse 4,
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
In fact, you know, I like it when people get a promotion.
I like it when people are able to get that new car that they need or that clothing or
just, just carnal successes that they have in this life.
I enjoy that.
Everybody enjoys that.
But at the end of the day, I have a greater joy when I hear about people becoming more
spiritual.
them taking good steps and and getting closer to the Lord and serving God and doing things that are right
That's the greatest joy you can have and in fact for my own children
You know the one thing I would want the most is for them to just love church
I would love for them to grow up and after they move out
I don't really care so much what job they have.
I don't care as much.
I mean, obviously, I want them to marry someone that's saved and loves them, right?
But it doesn't really matter to me exactly who they marry, but you know what, I just
want them to just want to go to church and want to read their Bible and love Jesus and
love the things of God.
That would give me the greatest joy.
You know, it's not like, oh, well, my family's a bunch of doctors and lawyers.
That's not necessarily the most important thing.
Now, to me, it's just that they love Jesus and they want to serve Jesus.
That's the most important thing.
Verse 5, Beloved, thou doest feefully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers which have borne witness of thy charity before the church whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort
Thou shalt do well because that for his namesake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles now
This sentence is really kind of a hard sentence for me. I don't know if it is for you or not
But for me it was I kept reading it. I was struggling to kind of understand what it's saying, but
I believe what he's trying to communicate, John is saying about Gaius.
He's saying, beloved, so he's talking about Gaius, thou doest faithfully.
So Gaius is doing something faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and the strangers.
So Gaius is faithful to brethren and strangers, and he says, which have borne witness of thy
charity before the church?
Who has borne witness of whose charity?
Because again, these pronouns get confusing.
Gaius helped a bunch of strangers.
Those brethren and strangers whom Gaius helped
went and told the whole church about Gaius' charity.
They're saying, man, Gaius really helped me out.
Gaius brought me in.
Gaius went and bought me a dinner.
Gaius is taking care of me.
Gaius is really friendly.
This is what these people are bearing witness of.
Gaius' charity that he has been doing
and he's very faithful in the charity that he shows.
whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well, saying,
what you're doing is the right thing to do. Taking these people and loving them is the right thing
to do, because that for his name's sake, they, who's the they there, this is the brethren and
strangers whom Gaius is loving, went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. So
I believe if you kind of, this is a difficult sentence,
but from my unpacking of it, basically what he's saying
is a lot of the apostles and disciples
and the important people going out evangelizing,
the evangelists, the missionaries, all of these people
coming into this area, Gaius was receiving, helping,
and doing good unto.
And they are going around telling everybody
how great Gaius is, Gaius is really helping.
Why?
Because these people that were going out were going out just to preach the Gospel.
They weren't looking for money.
They're not even necessarily thinking about taking care of all their needs.
They didn't understand that.
And when Gaius is there, he is end up helping them because they're not taking anything of
the Gentiles.
You know, the apostle Paul kind of does this too, where sometimes he comes into a town
or an area and he's not taking money.
He's not taking goods.
He's just simply just there to kind of bless the church
and help the church.
So what does this look like?
It's people who go out into the mission field.
And some guy that has a lot of means,
has a lot of capability to bless people,
is taking people under his wing and blessing and helping them,
while a lot of other people are not helping him,
or don't have the capability of helping him.
And additionally, they're not even there to ask for anything.
They were going to pay everything, they're dying,
or try to figure out some way, or didn't even know.
And so, you know, this happens in real life,
where if you go, especially into third world countries,
you go into poorer places,
they're not going to be able to take care of you.
You know, if you go to the Philippines and preach to the church, don't expect a check,
you know, and even if you get a check, it's deceiving.
It's like 5,000 pesos, and you're like 5,000 pesos, and then you like do the conversion
and it's like $4 or something, you know, I don't know.
Sorry, forgive me.
I think it's 55 to one or something, so it's probably a little bit more than that.
But it's just, you know, it's like, they're not going to give you a donation.
They're not gonna be able to take care of you, you know
You go to some smaller church or some church plants or you go into these places, you know a lot of people when they go out
To do this work, they're not going to get a paycheck. They're not going to get some money
They're not there to ask for anything
They're just going out of their goodwill because they just love the gospel and they're going for Jesus Christ's name's sake
That's their mission. That's their goal in life and Gaius is one of these guys that recognizes this
and says, you know what, I still want to be a blessing to these people.
Hey, I know you're not here for any of that stuff,
but why don't you just come, I just want to buy your meal anyways.
I just want to take care of you anyways.
I just want to do some good unto you anyways.
And that's what the apostle Paul is alluding to here
and saying,
whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort,
thou shalt do well.
What is after a godly sort?
He's bringing them in because he just wants to be a blessing unto them.
He's not bringing them in because
He just wants to get close to the Apostle John,
or he just wants to just rub shoulders
with the cool people or something like that,
or he just wants to brag about,
oh, did you see, I bought them a meal.
I did good unto them.
No, no, he's doing it after a godly sword.
He has good intentions he has godly intentions whom he's trying to just be a blessing
He's trying to do good unto why because he just loves God's people and he loves God
Because that's what first John's all about that if you love God, then you're gonna love those
whom have been gotten of God,
and specifically the Bible's telling us
when you have this world's good
and you see your brother have need,
you're not supposed to shut up your bowels
of compassion from them,
but rather you're supposed to bless them.
The Bible says when you have goods
and you have the capability of helping somebody
that you're supposed to do it then and not wait.
And so, you know, the Bible's just basically
just talking about someone who, hey,
they notice someone that's doing something for God
and evangelists, whatever,
and they want to be a blessing on them.
Now, go through to Matthew 10,
I think something that's similar to this, Matthew chapter number 10, this concept of this idea.
And Gaius is someone that basically exercised this principle.
But Matthew 10, I don't necessarily have every chapter of the New Testament memorized, but
as far as what it's about, but Matthew 10 is usually pretty easy to remember because it's just like,
it's one of the chapters where they send all the people out.
And so that's the whole context.
Matthew 10 is one where they're just sending the disciples out to do this work.
So this is kind of the same context that we've been talking about,
how guys is receiving those people, right?
Well, look at the end of chapter 10, verse 40.
He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward,
and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
And whose service shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water,
only in the name of a disciple verily I stand you, he shall know wise lose his reward.
So I believe that this is the principle
that Gaius is acting out how Gaius is receiving the brethren,
receiving people in the name of a prophet,
receiving people only in the name of a disciple,
and doing good unto them,
and how he's going to receive rewards
as a result of his love and his charity
and what he's doing because he's receiving the brethren.
A general principle in Christianity is that we should receive those who are coming in
the name of Jesus Christ, walking in the truth.
In chapter 2, I'm sorry, 2 John, that other book that we had read, people that are coming
not bringing the doctrine of Christ, we don't receive them, we don't wish them God's speed,
we want nothing to do with them, we would say let them be an anathema maranatha.
If any man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be an anathema maranatha.
The Bible says in Galatians chapter 1 verse 8, if someone's bringing another gospel,
let him be accursed.
So we don't receive people bringing a false gospel, they're not walking in truth.
But those who are walking in truth, they have the same Savior, we're brethren.
What does the Bible say?
We should do good unto them.
We should be like Gaius who is doing well
and he's loving the brethren.
It makes sense that God will want to prosper this guy,
bless this guy when he's blessing God's people
and receiving God's people and doing good unto God's people.
Go back if you would to 3rd John.
Hopefully that gives a little bit of insight
to this sentence because it's like three verses.
I found it really difficult.
Maybe you just got it right away.
I don't know.
For me, it's kind of difficult.
He says in verse eight,
we therefore ought to receive such
that we might be fellow helpers to the truth.
Now that verse makes a lot of sense
after we just explained that, doesn't it?
He's saying, hey, we ought to receive such, what, the brethren, strangers,
those who are coming in the name of Jesus Christ, those who are carrying the Gospel with them,
we ought to receive them, why? So that we can be a fellow helper to the truth itself.
Someone that's going out doing evangelism, someone going out bearing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
needs that cup of water along the way.
needs that meal, needs that roof over their shoulder or over their head
so that they can go out and preach the gospel. So we're not just talking about
a random dude that happens to be Christian.
What is the context about? It's people that are bringing the gospel with them.
It's people that are going out doing the work, doing evangelism, doing missionary work.
This is the main context.
Now that doesn't mean that we couldn't be kind and loving to other Christians and help them.
But again, the primary thing that we're talking about here is people that are bearing the gospel,
preaching the gospel, doing church planting, people like evangelists are banning.
Or even us, when we go to the Bahamas, us, we're bringing the Gospel with us, soul winners.
People that are going out evangelizing, preaching the Gospel.
If someone was doing that, this is what this is primarily about.
Why would I help this person? I'm not helping this person, I'm helping the truth.
I'm helping the Gospel. That's how we should look at it.
It's not about a person, it's not about a personality, it's about the Gospel, it's about the truth.
And in general, we as Christians should have this attitude that it's not about persons,
it's not about personalities, it's about the gospel.
It's about the Word of God.
And you know what?
We should love those who are carrying the right gospel, who are walking in the truth.
It doesn't matter if they're our friend, it doesn't matter if we like them, it doesn't
matter where they're from.
If they're a brethren or a stranger, we should receive them and we should do good unto them.
But, verse 9, I wrote unto the church,
but deotrophies who love it to have the preeminence among them receiveeth us not.
Now, who's the us here?
Again, the us by implication is the apostle John
and then other apostles, other evangelists,
and other disciples that he's associated with.
Essentially, those that are going out doing this main work
and deotrophies want nothing to do with him.
Now, this on the surface is just insane.
Who would not receive the Apostle John the disciple in whom Jesus loved?
I mean this is considered, you know arguably the most lovable
disciple is the Apostle John the most likeable guy and yet this guy doesn't want to receive him
He doesn't like him. Okay, and sometimes this is what people would have you to believe. Well, I just don't like John
Yeah, but if you love the truth then you're just automatically gonna love John
You can't you can't disassociate the person bearing the gospel the greatest
With this idea of like why just don't like his personality or something like it doesn't matter because it's about the truth
It's about the gospel and if you just love the gospel you're gonna love John
You can't hate John and just love the gospel and love the truth if you love the gospel and love the truth
You're just gonna love John and if you hate John it's because you have a heart issue with the gospel and you have a heart issue with the truth
Okay, because otherwise he would just receive them, but he won't receive them
He won't receive the brethren, you know if someone came to visit our church that's saved and got a King James Bible in their hand
How dare us not receive him?
Right, I mean how can we sit here and say like you're not welcome
That doesn't make any sense.
It doesn't matter what country, what nation.
Obviously, if they're in violation of clear scripture,
like 1 Corinthians 5, or they have some other issue,
yeah, we reject people, but that's because we're using
the Bible and we're walking in truth.
Is someone's walking in truth?
How dare we say that you can't come to our church?
And they're like, well, I listen to so-and-so preacher.
Okay, who cares?
I mean, can you imagine someone coming here and saying,
I listen to such and such old IV preacher?
Well, you're not welcome.
I listen to Paul Chappell, OK?
I listen to this old IV guy, why would we care?
We'd be like, OK.
No problem. Come on in. Are you saved? Sure. In fact, we even let unsaved people come and visit our church
As long as they're not attacking us as long as they're not like doing causing some kind of an issue
Because we're just trying to be friendly. We're trying to be kind, but this guy he won't even receive the brethren
He won't receive the apostle John, he won't receive other godly people like Gaius, like these other individuals.
It says in verse number 10,
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth,
Prading against us with malicious words and not content therewith.
Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
This guy is not only rejecting John,
He won't let any of the brethren come to the church.
He's forbidding them from coming to the church.
He's casting them out of the church.
Why?
It doesn't have a legit reason.
And in fact, that's what prading even means.
Prading is essentially, there is no reason.
What is prading?
It's babbling.
It's talking and saying nothing at the same time.
And boy, I'll tell you, deotrophies is really good at preaching and saying nothing.
And boy, when you listen to people that are like deotrophies, you listen to them preach,
it's incredible how they can speak so much and yet say nothing all at the same time.
But they do insert something.
What do they insert?
Malicious words, okay?
What does this sound like?
This guy is just bad
Have you heard this preacher? He's such a narcissist
Can you believe this narcissist? I mean he's like a cult leader
Not only is it cult leader. He's a malignant dictator there
I said it this bad guy is a malignant dictator cult leader and in fact, he's just acting the whole time
Just an actor and he's just a copycat and he's just a water carrier and he just says things
And not only that, he's an emulator too.
And did I mention he's a railer?
What does that accomplish?
You have no idea why I just said any of that.
You don't even know who I was talking about.
That's how meaningless it really is.
Boy, you listen to people that don't like the new I've beat,
that's what they're preaching sounds like.
They're like, uh, Pastor Shelley,
he's just such a narcissistic, cult-leading,
malignant, dictator, copycat actor.
It's like which one in it am I you know how am I this like dictator that's also acting or what it's just like
Boy, we need some more actors out there apparently you know what I mean
It's just funny how they just sit here and just say things
They just say that you're bad. Well, if you were not a malifactor, we would not have delivered him under you
Okay, what did he do what was the mouth what malifacting did he do or whatever? I don't even know if that can be used
He's a malifactor. What did he do?
Right, what evil has he done testify of the evil, right?
But they don't have anything to say they don't have an actual accusation. So they just say oh he's bad
New I FB is bad. I'm done with the new I B
Why just done with them
What did they do? I don't want to have anything to do with them
What's their what's their fault? I don't like the new I B. Why?
Because I don't like them
Okay
But how does that even make any sense?
That doesn't make any sense.
You should at least provide some kind of a reason.
And at the end of the day, you know,
oh, John can't come, why?
Cuz he's a bad guy.
Why is he a bad guy?
Cuz, cuz I said it.
You know what, that's what a real cult leader's like.
Okay, go to first Corinthians chapter number three.
Go to first Corinthians chapter number three.
And this is what I've noticed is,
These people that often are accusing the new idea of things. They're they're typically projecting projection is where you're
basically
Putting your sins on someone else
Because you're a railer you call them a railer
Because you're a dictator, you call them a dictator.
Because you're a harsh ruler, you call other people harsh rulers.
Because you're prideful, you call them prideful.
Because you're self-absorbed, you just basically are constantly calling other people a narcissist,
which is really a meaningless statement because everyone's selfish.
Okay, everyone thinks about themselves primarily.
And so, being a quote, narcissist,
this is kind of a meaningless platitude,
a meaningless statement that people will make about someone.
Oh, this guy's a narcissist.
You know, what does that even mean?
You know, and again, obviously these people would say,
oh, well, narcissists wouldn't know
what that means, you know, whatever.
Look, just preying with malicious words.
Just, they just say things
that no one really understands as being communicated.
Look, good preaching, you know exactly what was communicated.
You know exactly what was stated.
You know, when you go to college
and you have a good professor,
you walk out saying, I now understand
how to solve this problem.
You have that foreign professor, and you're like,
I have no idea what they just said or did,
and it's confusing.
You know, it's not a very good teacher.
A good teacher is one that you clearly understand
the material, a bad teacher is one you walk out
with more questions than you had before.
When we talk about the Apostle John,
and we talk about these people,
this is what people want you to believe.
They want you to believe that they love Jesus and they love God,
but they just don't like John and all his comrades
or all his buddies because of a personality conflict.
You know what? I believe this is garbage.
Believe this is garbage and I don't believe in it's legitimate whatsoever because I believe if you love Jesus and you love the truth
You will just love those that are bringing the truth and the gospel with them
And you wouldn't hate them that you're not allowed to hate them because it's not about
personalities and they'll often take you to 1st Corinthians 3 to try to tell you it's not about a person. It's not about John
But you know that's missing the entire point of what 1st Corinthians chapter 3 is actually explaining
Because while it's not about John it is about John at the same time
It's in fact called Third John.
Did you realize that the book of the Bible reading is called
Third John and it's written to Gaius?
Now look, you cannot abstract the gospel
and the person bringing the gospel completely from each other
because the person bringing the gospel
should be respected for bringing the gospel.
It's not about their personality.
The apostle Paul should be respected because of the works that he's doing,
not because of his personality, his upbringing, his height,
or something you like about him as a person.
It's not about him as a person.
1 Corinthians 3, look what it says in verse 3.
For you are yet carnal.
For whereas there is among you envy and strife and divisions.
Are you not carnal and walk as men?
Notice that being carnal is causing division.
What is what is not being carnal?
unity
Now again our unity has to be around the word of God our unity is about the King James Bible and about the gospel
But you know what people that are causing the vision that are not based on these things. They are carnal
When they're not basing it on clear scripture when they're not basing on first Corinthians 5 they're basing it on other things
You know that's a carnal person
For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another I am of Paulus,
are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?
But ministers, by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave
to every man.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that plantedeth anything,
neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
How he that planted, and he that watereth, are one.
And every man should receive his own reward
according to his own labor.
for we are labors together with God,
you're God's husbandry, you're God's building.
Now here's the thing, if you don't like Paul,
if you don't like Apollos,
what you're really doing is you're hating
the works that they're doing
and the works they're doing are coming from God.
You're despising the work of God
by despising Paul or despising Apollos
because here's the thing, when you say I'm of Paul,
what are you saying?
You're not saying I'm of Paul.
Don't get confused by this if I say I'm a Paul you're not saying you're a Paul you know you're saying I'm not of Apollos
That's what you're really saying and by saying I'm of Apollos what you're really saying is I'm not a Paul
Whereas the people that are godly say I don't care who got me saved because I'm on Christ's team
And it's not like, oh, well, you know, Paul got this person saved, so, you know, they're
fans of Paul, or they like Paul, but I'm of Apollos.
You know, that's the carnal person.
The non-carnal person doesn't care who got you saved, or who got you into church, or
who you listen to, or who you like.
No, no, no.
The carnal person is the one that's like, no, no, no, you need to listen to me.
I'm a Paul, I'm of Apollos.
You need to go and hear from me only.
It has this attitude that I've heard
from people that used to go to Grayson Fritz Church
that said he told a bunch of people like,
you can't listen to Pastor Anderson
and come to this church.
Why?
Because you have to be of Grayson Fritz.
You have to be of Grayson Fritz.
I am of Grayson Fritz and I am of all scripture
Baptist Church.
I am not a faithful word Baptist Church.
Because that's what they're saying.
What they're saying is I'm not a faithful word.
I'm not a pastor Anderson.
And look, it's not about a person.
It's about the gospel. It's about Christ.
But you know what? The person that's not carnal
is not ashamed of who got them saved.
They like the person that got them saved.
Why would you not like the person that got you saved
or the person that got you into church or influenced you?
And then they'll try to trist that
and convince you that you're carnal.
You're like, I like Pastor Anderson.
Well, you're just carnal because you're making about a personality.
No, I just like the person that got me saved.
I would like anybody that got me saved.
If Paul has got me saved, I'd like a Paulus.
If Paul got me saved, I would like Paul.
And you know what, Paul got me saved,
but I still like a Paulus.
And you know what, a Paulus got me saved
and I still like Paul.
Why?
Because it's about Jesus Christ,
it's not about an individual.
And the person that says, no, no, no, no,
I got all of my church members saved,
that's the carnal person.
Oh, well, you know what, some churches, they're just filled with people that got saved by
apostles.
Who cares?
Like, am I supposed to sit here and be like, my church is inferior because my church members
got saved by Paul and apostles and not by me, but you know what, my church is better because
I got this section saved or whatever.
Who cares?
Who got who saved?
Who cares?
Who got people in church?
You know what we should care about?
People are actually going soul-winning, people are actually saved, that's what we should care about.
And you know what, deotrophies, he loved it to have the preeminence. What is preeminence?
Preeminence is having the supremacy, it's surpassing all others, saying,
I'm better than other people, I'm better than these other individuals.
Do you know what I've done for you? I gave you the fire-breathing,
Who can't did I really give it to you or did we all come together and have a conference together, right?
It's like well, I preach sermons to you on Sunday morning
So you can't listen to someone else you can't go home and listen to another Sunday morning sermon because that'll offend me
You know, I'm sitting here thinking like I hope they do listen to some good preaching when they go home. They need it
I'm not gonna be like, oh man, I'm so scared
of people getting an extra sermon in
because then they might like someone more than me.
You know, I would be offended if you liked a sermon
because it was lies.
I would be offended if you go home
and you listen to Joe Jones and you're like,
well, that was a great sermon.
Not because it's from Joe Jones,
but because he preaches lies.
Because it's not about Joe Jones. It's not about Pastor Anderson. It's not about Jonathan Shelley. It's not about any of these people
It's about the truth and it's about the gospel and the people that are saying oh, no, I'm not in a cult
I'm of this person. They're lying. Oh
You know, I'm not like you guys who like people or like men
You're trying to yet their deatrophies. They're being a deatrophies the whole time
You know the person that is not deotrophies is going to say this I'm a fan of the apostle John
I'm the I'm a fan of Gaius
I'm a fan of Apollos. I'm a fan of Paul
They're not gonna be against all these people because they're bearers of the gospel and these people are doing the works of the gospel
They're gonna like these people and you say like oh man you make everything about you
It's not about me, but let me tell you something, our church is doing the works of Christ and so when we are, you know,
protecting our church, protecting our pastor, protecting our brethren, we're protecting the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We're protecting the works of Jesus Christ and that's what I love.
Because you're right, it's not about me, it's not about you as a personality, but it is about us because we're bearers of the gospel.
and that's what makes us special
and that's what makes us important
and that makes us worth protecting
is because we're going out there and bearing the message
and we need to be receiving those
who are the brethren who are carrying the gospel.
We need to be receiving the soul winners
and loving the soul winners.
Now, it says in verse, let's skip ahead.
Go to verse 22, whether Paul or Paul's or Cephas
or the world or life or death
or things present or things to come.
All are yours, and ye are Christ, and Christ is God.
He's saying, look, it doesn't matter.
Everything's ours. Look at verse 21.
Therefore, let no man glory in men, for all things are yours.
Paul's mine, Apollos is mine.
Look, if I don't go to a certain church,
and I just like a certain pastor,
he's my pastor because everything's mine.
It's all mine.
We're on the same team because we're either on Christ's team or not.
And anybody, someone in an old IB church that doesn't even like my face,
that's preaching good messages, you know what, he's on my team.
Everybody has the same gospel and the same Bible, and hey, they have the same Christ.
You know, we're on the same team.
We shouldn't get offended by people that are on the same team.
Verse 1 of chapter 4,
Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ
and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you
or of man's judgment.
Yea, I judge not my own self.
For I know nothing by myself, yet I am not hereby justified.
But he that judges me is the Lord.
So what he's trying to say is, look, you should account us of what?
Ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
So just strip the name and just say, hey, this is a minister,
this is a steward of the gospel, this is a steward of Christ.
How can I then be against that person or attack that person or not want good for that person?
And in the end, we should have the same attitude that anybody bearing the same gospel and the
same message and walking in truth, they are on our team and we should love them and do
good under them, especially those that are excelling, especially those that are doing
big works, especially those that are thriving.
We should be the biggest cheerleaders.
We should be the biggest fans of those that are succeeding in this context.
Yet, then you become a big cheerleader of an individual who's doing what?
Who's preaching great sermons and having a soul-winning revival, and then you're labeled
a cult follower.
Because why?
Because you like John, because you like Paul, because you like Apollos.
But it's not about Apollos.
It's not about John.
It's not about these people.
But you know what?
That changed for me.
That changed for people at one point.
We stopped being a fan of Demis when, when he stopped walking in the truth.
And in 2 Timothy chapter number 4, verse 10, it says, For Demis hath forsaken me, having
loved this present world, and has departed unto Thessalonica.
Look, Demis, we were going to receive Demis and do good unto Demis and help Demis when
he was on the truth side, when he was walking in the truth.
But now that he's forsaken us, well, he's not on the same team anymore.
And you know, I'm not saying that we wish evil on Demis, I'm not saying that we don't
like Demis, but at the end of the day, he's not the person that's the most important anymore.
And this is what some people would say.
Oh, when someone leaves your church, it's not like they're leaving Christianity or leaving
the work of God or something, but wait a minute.
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.
Is it okay to forsake Paul?
What does the Bible say?
The Bible says by forsaking Paul, he was doing something.
He was loving this world.
Why?
Think about it this way. Paul is the one producing the greatest works for God at that point in time.
I mean, it's pretty pretty hard not to argue with that. Let's just say he wasn't even the best necessary.
Let's just say he's one of the greatest. He's for sure one of the greatest fruit producing trees going out preaching the gospel doing the work.
To go away from Paul, to leave Paul, is
not a good move. If you love the gospel,
If you want the gospel to go forward,
if you want the gospel to be more successful,
why would you want to kick the legs underneath someone
that's producing such great fruit
and doing such great works for the Lord?
That's a picture of what?
Loving the world more than loving the gospel.
Because he left Paul.
Now it's like, is it about Paul?
No, but Paul is producing so much for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now look, what if you were like John the Baptist disciple
and then all of a sudden Jesus comes along?
and you jump ship, you jump over to the Jesus train.
Was that bad?
No, because you found a tree that's producing even more
and you joined there.
But why in the world would you go from the apostle Paul
back to something else?
And look, it's not about Paul,
but at the end of the day, it's about the gospel,
it's about the work that's being done,
and you know what, people that leave new IP churches
and leave their pastor,
they often aren't going to a church
that's bearing more fruit.
In fact, many times they're going to no church whatsoever.
And you know what? It's wrong.
It's wrong, and it's not the right attitude.
And you know what? He's calling out Demas for having done that.
He's saying, Demas has forsaken me.
And you're like, oh, you're making everything about you.
It's not about me.
But you know what? Steadfast Baptist Church,
I don't know if you looked in the bulletin lately,
we're getting 3,000 people saved in half the year.
Evangelist or Bandit's getting four or something thousand people saved.
What if we just said, you know what, we're done paying Evangelist or Bandit salary,
we're just dropping him like a bad habit.
You know, we need more money around here, we need a new building,
so we're just going to cut off funding him.
We still like him, we're just going to cut off funding.
Would that be a good move?
Or would God be like, why would you have this guy producing all this fruit?
Why just don't like Duncan's personality?
I listened to one of his sermons and what he said was a little mean.
I just think it was kind of mean, so I just don't want to fund him anymore.
You know, he didn't like one of my texts the other day, you know.
I put a Facebook post up and he didn't share it.
So we're just going to cut him off.
You know, what I'm really doing is I'm hating the gospel, aren't I?
Or what if I just got up in front of everybody and just say, well, you know what, I'm just
done with evangelist or banic and I'm never changing my mind, but I'm not going to tell
you why.
Wouldn't that be weird?
Wouldn't that be unusual and look well some people say like no no no it's just about me and Duncan
We he called me and he was mean one time and so we're just not friends look. I don't care if I'm friends with Duncan
I don't, I do care, but let me phrase this the right way.
I'm not gonna stop supporting Avengers or Bandit
just because we weren't the best as a friends
or even we stopped being friends.
Because in the day, I'm more interested in the gospel
than I am about being friends with people.
And frankly speaking, how do you even have a great friendship
with someone that's 12 hours different than you
and lives in the Philippines?
You know and like this is this is insanity. It's like people in America that live like
Like a day's car ride away from each other that are almost never gonna see each other
Why do I need to make such a big deal about not being this person's friend?
I could just not be this person's friend because it's really easy already and then just still support them anyways
Because they're doing a great work for God
Because you know what I'm fans of people that are doing great works of God
And they'll be like, oh, you just think the new IFB is like better than other churches
or other movements.
Yeah, that's why I'm in it.
It's like, oh, you're a Cowboys fan, you must think all the other teams are worse than
the Cowboys.
Right, that's the point.
Oh, your favorite color is green.
That means that you think green's better than blue.
Yes.
Oh, you like your wife other than other women?
That means you think your wife's better than other women.
You know people are trying to gaslight you and twist your mind on things and make you feel uncomfortable about liking something
Like oh, you like stuff this bad news church. You think it's better than other churches. Yes. Why move there?
Yes, why go there?
And look, you don't have to have that opinion to come to this church,
but I'm just saying, there's nothing wrong with liking your church.
There's nothing wrong with liking your pastor.
There's nothing wrong with liking any pastor that's doing a great work for God,
that's preaching the gospel.
Hey, and you know what? Even if you don't like him, just support him anyways.
Why don't you just keep your mouth shut
and actually support people that are doing work for God?
And you know what? I don't believe in this philosophy.
Go to James chapter 2 if you would.
I don't believe in this philosophy of there's all these little tiny micro churches out there
and their pastors are just the most amazing Christian ever, we just don't know about them.
Now you can believe that all you want, I just don't believe it.
Because everyone in the Bible that's doing a great work for God
ends up becoming super famous and everybody hears about them.
Now sometimes they're infamous, don't hear me wrong,
but I'm just saying like these that turn the whole world upside down are come hither also.
They're not like over here doing nothing in a tiny little area and no one's ever heard
of them.
You know, if someone is in a tiny church somewhere preaching awesome sermons and on fire for
soul winning and preaching the gospel and tearing it up, you know what will happen?
It will go on the internet and become Faith Word Baptist Church.
What do you think they were about this church even is it was a tiny church in the middle of nowhere out in the wilderness
Where some guys just losing his mind on a camcorder the worst footage you've ever seen and
Then it blew up the internet
Why?
Why it's not anything special about him. It's definitely not the camera
You know why it's because it was the truth
And let me tell you something someone that gets a fire under their belly and starts preaching the truth and doing a big work for God
They will make some noise
You cannot hide it under a bushel
You cannot just go somewhere and just quietly just tear it up. No, no, no and oh I but you don't understand
I have a huge faith
Okay, well what does the Bible actually teach?
James chapter number two, verse 18,
yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works,
and I will show thee my faith by my works.
You know why I love the new IFB?
Because of the works of the new IFB.
And you can sit there with your old IFB faith,
but you know what, show me your faith with your works.
And you know what, I'll show you my faith with my works.
Because you know what, faith is seen.
Faith can be seen what what you think Hebrews chapter 11. It's like faith can't be seen end of chapter
Or is it just telling you about all the works that the men of God did in the hall of faith?
So you can actually see the great faith that they had
Abraham being a pinnacle of faith here in James chapter 2 being willing to sacrifice his son on the altar
It's pretty hard for you to argue with me and say I don't think Abraham was very faithful
He's sacrificing his son on the altar.
It's like, oh, I don't think there's a new idea
that's that much faith.
Okay, look at all our soul winning times.
Look at our mission strips.
Look at the people that we're bringing in.
And then tell me we don't have faith.
And then show me your faith with your like missionary
that's sweeping the floor.
Show me your faith with your gospel message
every Sunday morning that doesn't even make it clear
that you don't have to repent of your sins.
Show me your faith with the works that you're doing.
And you know what I'll show you people that don't actually have that great of a faith
Look, there's not this like hidden faith out there in secret like oh, there's this church
That just has the best faith ever, but we can't see it. It's not tangible. There's no evidence. There's no metrics
There's no way to see what's going on. No, no, no
What did Jesus say? Hey the people are gonna be bearing 30 60 a hundred fold
You're gonna see the fruit the guy that has five talents got five more
He didn't say like you don't understand. I was really faithful in my trading. It's like no. Here's five talents
It's like obviously this guy in fact. He's like oh take the one and give it to him to give him the other one
Just take from him and just give to this other guy
Look the Apostle Paul didn't go out and start zero churches. He started churches everywhere
And he was getting people saved everywhere, and they were getting people baptized everywhere.
Look, Christianity will be successful.
Did you remember in the beginning of this chapter that if you're actually walking the truth,
you're going to be prosper?
You're going to be successful?
Psalm 1, you're going to be successful?
But I don't actually believe that.
Wait, no, no. If you really preach the gospel, if you really are serving God, if you really are plugged into the vine,
you will bring forth fruit. And in fact, he'll purge you so they'll bring forth more fruit.
Churches that aren't producing fruit are dead, and they don't have a faith.
Faith without works is what?
Dead and we often think of James 2 in the context of like trying to make sure that people don't get screwed up on salvation
But we need to actually apply what it's really saying
What it's really saying is when you're going to a church that doesn't have works
They don't have faith when you meet people that claim the big faith that they have and they have no works to show
Well, then they don't really have a big faith
And you know it's so funny to me how people keep leaving our churches and attacking our churches
You know they never show me all the amazing sermons being preached by other people
Because let me tell you something, I love amazing preaching.
Just show me it.
Show me your amazing preaching.
Show me your great Christianity.
Show me your amazing Bible reading.
Show me your amazing Bible understanding.
Because you know what, when I go out into the sea of all these other independent Baptists,
you know what I hear?
A bunch of commentaries.
I hear a bunch of Charles Spurgeon.
I hear a bunch of watered down lukewarm, preying against the new IFB with malicious words.
Oh, you're just against everybody.
No, no, I love the truth.
You just don't like the truth.
And you know what?
I'm sick of deotrophies in this world, falsely accusing of this junk.
We should remember his words and we should call him out.
Probably one of the worst is Joe Jones.
What a deotrophies.
Just completely destroyed that church, ran a bunch of good people off, and he's just
a jerk.
He's a jerk, and he doesn't understand what he's saying.
In fact, it's so hard to clip out his sermons
because the majority of his sermons,
he's saying absolutely nothing that makes any sense.
It's complete nonsense.
You would upload it and people would be like,
we're missing context.
The context is a brain in his head.
Because he just literally says nonsensical stuff.
He's like, now pretend that we're Batman.
Now if I'm Batman, you know, I don't I don't know you just be Batman
I have to like dress like Batman and then if I dress like Batman then I have to act like Batman
And then if I act like Batman, then you'll see, you know, what we're talking about
That's how much this this the sermons make sense. It's just like I heard Batman
And then it's and then it stopped making sense. That was the most sense that it made
Look, this guy has a complete deotravese, hijacked the church, destroyed the church,
has no fruit, no good sermons, no soul winning, they don't count numbers anymore.
I wonder why?
I guess you just, everything multiplied by zero is still zero.
You know, in the Bible, when the demons run into the men of God, they say, hey, Jesus
I know, Paul I know, but who are you?
Look, why would I believe that the God of the universe, whose truth just shatters everything,
the two-edged sword, nobody's ever going to hear it?
You know, maybe it's a movement that is banned from 33 countries.
Maybe it's a movement whose preaching is banned and censored on almost every platform because they're so afraid of it getting out there.
Maybe it's a movement whose movies have been seen by millions and millions of people and the preaching has been heard by tons and tons of people.
Like maybe those are the people that are turning the world upside down.
Not the people that you didn't even realize they existed.
Look when I grew up, I grew up about five minutes or five miles or something like super close to an independent fundamental Baptist Church
I never even knew it existed for like the vast majority of my life. I didn't know it was a thing
I thought southern Baptist is the only thing that existed
That's sad. It's sad that you're just over here serving God quietly, but really he's just a Rachmanite disciple
That's why I've never heard of them
Bible Believer's Baptist. You find a Bible Believer's Baptist. It's basically a ruckmanate church and it's weird, okay?
And it's not preaching the gospel truth usually
Look, it's it's go to I'm spending a few minutes on this but go if you were to Titus chapter one
I'll finish this point. We'll finish this chapter
You know when God is talking with the devil, you know what he says as thou considered my servant Job
You know what he didn't you know what the devil didn't say who's Job?
Job, I don't know what you're talking about.
No, the devil knew Job was.
The demons know who Paul is.
And, you know, when you have a real literal demon on this planet
telling you who are the real Christians, maybe you should listen.
You know, there's another story where Paul and his buddy are like walking by
and they're like, these are the servants of the Most High God.
Right this demon-possessed woman. He's just like these are the servants of the most high God and he's like they have the way of salvation
It's like when you have someone named Tyler Doka
Who's obviously filled with devils and literally it's tattooed on his face alpha and omega and
Claims to be Jesus and then says my biggest enemies in the world are the new IFB
Pastor Anderson and Pastor Thompson and whatever like why wouldn't you listen to that?
Why didn't he mention Joel Osteen?
Why didn't he mention Robert Morris?
Why didn't he mention the Catholic Church?
Why didn't he mention all these other people?
Why did he attach himself to our movement?
Why did he try to be like us?
Why did he attack us?
Let me tell you something, because we are his biggest enemies.
Why? Because the gospel is his biggest enemy.
And we're the ones trying to get the gospel out the most right now.
And if there's someone doing it more, show me and I'm going to join his team and I'm going to be his buddy.
Show me someone preaching our sermon, show me the Red Hot Preaching Conference and I'll go join it.
You know I'm not against these things. I'm for these things, but let me tell you something
There's not people just privately secretly, you know sharing the gospel out there in the cave
No, no, no, no people that are making a big splash are the ones that are the real servants of God
I'm telling you now I get
Obviously, in some parts of the world, like China and some of this,
sometimes they have it up underground churches.
And I get that sometimes you have, you know, different things like this.
But in general, the people of God are going to make a splash, be known,
people are going to hear about them.
They're going to hunt them down.
The devil knows who's attacking.
Don't give me this nonsense.
And you know, when people hate me and they hate my friends,
they don't hate me and they don't hate my friends.
They hate the truth and they hate the gospel and they hate soul winning.
Cuz that's what I represent. It's not about me. It's not about my personality. It's not that I like golf. It's not the car that I drive
It's not the lack of money. I have in my wallet. I know contrary to popular opinion
I'm have a lot of money. I have zero dollars in my wallet
Because anytime I get 20 bucks my wife's like sweet, you know or whatever
It's like, I mean, look, it's not about my height,
it's not about what I like or what I don't like,
it's about the gospel.
This church is about the gospel.
And you know, the Bible says in Titus 1, verse eight,
but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men.
These are the qualifications of a bishop,
but you know, these qualifications are there
for all of us Christians to partake in.
Gov'ywood back to third John will finish his last few verses,
but you know,
If you're not a lover of good men, you're just not right with God.
And look, again, we have to understand good men.
There's none good, no, not one.
Obviously, we're not talking about people that don't sin,
because that doesn't exist.
We're talking about good men.
What is a good man?
Someone that actually stands for the truth,
someone that loves the truth, someone that loves the gospel,
someone that's going out and trying to, you know,
make a positive difference in this world through Christianity.
That's a good man.
And let me say this, not only are pastors like this,
people are like this.
This church is filled with good men.
And it's so frustrating when I see people attack our church,
not just me, talk about how bad our church is.
You know what, they're not a lover of good men.
And you know what the apostle Paul is?
He's a lover of good men, he loves Gaius.
Have you read this epistle?
My well beloved, and he's saying beloved, beloved.
He's a lover of good men.
Why does he love Gaius?
He loves Gaius because Gaius loves the gospel and he helps anybody that's bringing the gospel and doing good for the gospel
And you know what? We should be lovers of the truth
If you're a lover of the truth
You will love those who are bearing the truth who have the truth and those who are attacking the truth and hate the truth will become your enemy
And, you know, it's not about personalities, it's not about friends, it's not about circles,
it's not about clicks and all this different stuff.
It's about just loving the truth and being on the side of truth.
And when you have this opinion, you know what?
You will age like fine wine.
When you start making it about personalities, you're going to spoil like rotten, spoiled
milk.
Don't make it about personalities.
and stand with people that are standing with the truth.
And don't stand with people that are, you know,
rebellious teens hating their dad.
Those people weren't standing for the truth.
Where, don't sit in the seat of the scornful.
And look, all the people that made their bed to lie
with all of these weirdos attacking, you know,
parents and being disrespectful and what,
where are they now?
What's their fruit now?
Where's their great preaching now?
You know you think of you took a stand for the truth and you did what's right
God would bless you and you just start preaching even better sermons
You start even doing bigger works, but then it's like that's not what I see
Look when you see people that are on the right side of things the preaching will be great
The people that are on the wrong side of things it will become carnal weird confusing and a bunch of prading with malicious words
Prading with malicious words
What does it say in verse number 11 beloved fall not that which is evil
But that which is good he that doeth good is of God
But he that doeth evil have not seen God deotrophies has not seen God just insert Joe Jones has not seen God
Look, you don't you don't destroy a soul-winning church and you're of God
You're just not a God. Just look at the work
Why don't care what they say because the Bible says with feigned words they make merchandise of you people can give the right answers and not believe it
Don't believe it if you're gonna destroy God's people not receive God's people hate God's people and destroy soul-winning churches
I'm just gonna say you're not of God. You haven't seen God
Demetrius have good report of all men and of the truth itself
Yay, and we also bear record and you know that our record is true saying look you know what we're saying is right
What we're saying is right, and Demetrius is good, and Gaius is good, and Geotrophies
is a piece of trash, and Geotrophies is evil.
And you know that that's right. Why? Because Demetrius loves the truth.
He has a good report of the truth. He's not a heretic.
He's not believing lies. He's not prading against people with malicious words.
You know what? He's clear. Look, if you don't like someone, just say,
I don't like you because you did this.
I don't like you because you preached heresy, Joe Jones. That's why I don't like you.
I don't like you because you know what, you lie about me and you lie about my friends.
That's why I don't like him.
I'm not just making up arbitrary distinctions of not liking him, or because he's out of
a certain circle or not, I just don't like people that don't like the truth.
And they're going to preach lies, and they're saying, you know, we need to scale back soul
winning and no rewards, and all of this nonsense that we don't need to fear God.
It's trash.
I had many things to preach.
Says, but I will not with ink and pen right under thee,
but I trust I shall shortly see thee,
and we shall speak face to face, peace be to thee,
our friends salute thee, greet the friends by name.
So he's gonna visit Gaius, he's gonna visit Dmitrius,
but you know what, sometimes there's gonna be bad churches,
there's gonna be bozos, there's gonna be bad guys,
and look, it's not gonna stop in 2025.
You know, some people wonder, like,
what's the future of the new IFB?
Just more of the same.
We're gonna plant more churches.
We're gonna make new friends.
Some of our friends are gonna turn on us,
hate us, and become bozos.
Some people are gonna join our church, rage quit.
Somebody's gonna secretly record me
and upload it to the internet, at some point.
People are going to have problems and issues.
The devil's going to attack you.
You're going to be persecuted.
Yeah, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
But you know what we're also going to do?
We're going to go on missions trips and we're going to get thousands of people saved.
And evangelists are banished and we're going to keep getting thousands of people saved.
And we're going to keep planning churches.
And God willing, we'll have new men and new people step up to the plate.
We may start more churches and more people do more things for God.
You know, I don't know what the future beholds, but...
We just want to keep doing the same thing, the tried and true, because we just love the truth.
And what we want to do is we want to make sure that we're careful that when these controversies happen,
that we're not thinking about personalities, we're thinking about who has the truth on their side.
Who cares about the gospel? Who cares about soul winning? Who cares about Bible doctrine?
Who's trying to do that which is right and who's over here prading with malicious words and is not content and is just looking to elevate
Themselves and again, they're gonna they're gonna lie to you and they're gonna be like oh you say you're of Apollo
You know I'm of Apollos, but that's the really person. That's car. Let's close in prayer
Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us a great chapter and giving us churches that we can go to that we can love and be excited about
Thank you so much for giving us the gospel that we can be ambassadors of I pray that we would have the right attitude the right mentality
That we'd love anybody bringing the gospel to us and that we would stay away from and and shun
and curse those who would destroy soul-winning churches
and would cause people to just lose their ability
to go out and share the gospel freely.
I pray that you would just allow our church
to be a bright and shining light in such a dark world,
not for our name or not for our recognition,
but rather for the gospel.
And I pray that we would have the right mind
and the right spirit.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Can I pull an audible? Can we do can we do 162 to God?
We're gonna sing 162 in our hymnals to God be the glory
Great singing, God bless, you're dismissed.