Is your phone charged 100%?
I want to hang out with you.
Good.
Don't be like that.
I want to hang out with you.
Did you break it with him or no?
Thank you.
I'm going to tell how it goes right now.
Thank you very much.
I'm going to tell how it goes right now.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your time.
Oh, look here, yeah.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, there he is.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, there he is.
Where's that?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, my cousin was talking.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, he has to be.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
So, here's the thing I was most checking out, like right now, I'm sure, okay, so what I would do is I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to see the call washers and stuff, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm going to take a quick shower, and I'm
Yeah, I know before your channel got new, so when you said it, it all clicked, and I didn't have to stay there, or no, I didn't have to stay in my room, by the way.
So I heard like a minister of service tell me, how did you do in the early hours of the year?
How did you do it? Rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully, rightfully.
I was at, I was for a bit, I don't know, because we're people, we're young, we're definitely good at this.
A lot of us, all of you, we can't leave you behind.
So what part of town do you live in?
It's like 30 minutes.
We're here, we're together.
Oh, we have more.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, this is from the airport to here to the Central Park.
So yeah, it was a jobless, and I like the way that it worked.
Yeah, it was a lot of work.
That's what you're doing?
How many do you think it's like, I don't know,
it's like, okay, so you guys,
yeah, come on, hurry up.
Wait here, like, I'm a big sportsman.
I don't want to be an accident.
Thank you.
That's your office.
How long has it been since the last time we saw each other?
Oh
We need to build it.
Yeah.
We need to build it.
Yeah.
We need to build it.
Yeah.
We need to build it.
I can hear you, Pastor, this is your own problem.
Not really, I don't think so.
Is this your workout?
All right, everybody, if we would all get seated, we're going to go ahead and get started
here tonight.
It's good to see everybody.
Welcome to the Spring Press Baptist Church.
We're in a start in our hymnals.
If you would turn in our hymnals to song 135.
Well, thanks for having me.
Yeah, thanks.
Song number 135, Jesus what a friend for sinners.
Did you turn that up?
Song 135, Jesus what a friend for sinners.
Okay, no just turn it just just play
To Springcrest Baptist Church, everybody,
thank you for showing up.
It's kind of a special night, a Friday night,
and we have a guest preacher.
I'm sure most of you guys know Pastor Stephen Anderson.
Thank you so much for coming and preaching.
And so afterwards, we're gonna have a little bit of pizza.
Be sure to thank Pastor Anderson, make him feel welcome.
And also, Pastor Reyes wants to be here,
but most of you know that he's not here
because of an injury that he had during the men's retreat.
but he's doing pretty well.
He's recovering.
He had a little bit of a surgery, broke his clavicle.
He wishes he could be here,
but just keep him in your prayers.
And so, I don't know that we have bulletins,
but I'm just gonna go through a few things just real quick.
For those of you that may be in town,
we are going to have a soul winning marathon tomorrow.
We'll meet here at the church and our normal
Sunday morning services at 10 30 a.m. Sunday evening at 4 30 and we do go soul winning at 2 p.m. On Sundays
So if you're gonna be in town and can make that please do
Wednesdays at 5 30
Keep going on the memory chapter verse. We've got some birthdays Jesse
We we have him had a happy birthday for him on the 13th the 17th Eli and then the 28th Cynthia
Garcia and so we want to wish them those guys a happy birthday when we see them
And what this is a kind of a special thing is Pastor Cobb
What was it August 9th?
How long have you guys been married?
50 years! I mean, who can say that? That's pretty special. So God bless that marriage
and I hope you have so many more.
things that I wanted to talk about is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship next week
in Dallas, Fort Worth. I'm sure a lot of you know about that. And so there's going to be
a lot of good preaching there. There's going to be a lot of fun activities. If you haven't made
time to get time off from work or didn't know about it, if you can try to make that, it's going
from Steadfast Baptist Church is having a soul winning marathon in Mexico City and that is
September 8th through 12th and it's coming up pretty quick so if for some reason you can make
that if you're just now hearing about it please uh attend that and just help support him but just
pray for uh all the people that are holding these events and the soul winning from you know this
And so one other thing I just want to mention is we have the mother baby room that's back there in case you are not familiar with the church, you just go back through that door on the left.
And it's right there, so if you need to attend to the kids or somebody is cutting up and you need to help them get things right, you can take them back there and there is a TV monitor there, you're not going to miss any of the preaching and then bathrooms are back there as well.
And so that's it for the announcements. We will continue with our next song.
All right, turn in your hymnals to song 259
Song 259 nothing but the blood
Song 259
before we get into the preaching.
That's going to be on page 475, page 475 in our hymnals.
If we would turn in our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter number four.
First Corinthians chapter number four, we're going to have Brother Eric read for us.
The Bible reads,
therefore judge nothing before the time,
until the Lord come,
who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness
and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts,
and then shall every man have praise of God.
And these things, brethren,
I have in a figure transferred to myself
and to Apollos for your sakes,
that ye might learn in us not to think of men
above that which is written,
that no one of you be puffed up
for one against another.
for who make it thee to differ from another?
And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory,
as if thou hadst not received it?
Now ye are full, now ye are rich,
ye have reigned as kings without us,
and I would to God ye did reign,
that we also might reign with you.
For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last,
as it were appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men.
We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong.
Ye are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst,
and are naked, and are buffeted, and
and have no certain dwelling place.
And labor, working with our own hands,
being reviled, we bless, being persecuted,
we suffer it, being defamed, we entreat.
We are made as the filth of the world
and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day.
I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.
For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ,
yet have ye not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through
the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye
followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you
who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in
every church. Now some are puffed up as though I would not come to you, but I will come to you
shortly if the Lord will and will know not the speech of them which are puffed up but the power
for the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. What will ye shall I come unto you with a rod
and in the spirit of meekness.
Let's pray.
Dear Father, thank you for this church,
Spring Press Baptist Church.
I pray this time that you would fill
Pastor Anderson with your spirit
and give us a 10 of years to listen to the message
and apply the message to our lives Lord.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.
Man, it's great to be here with you all and thank you all for coming out tonight to hear the sermon and
To fellowship and to sing these praises to God. It's great to meet Pastor Cobb finally
I've seen him online many times and I'm sorry that Pastor Reyes couldn't have been here
But I've known him for many years as well love him and so I hope he recovers soon and
Tonight I'm gonna be preaching on the subject
fools for Christ's sake. And we just saw that phrase in 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
Well, let's back up a little bit to chapter 3. Fools for Christ's sake is the title of the sermon.
Go back, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse number 18. The Bible says,
that he may be wise. And what the Bible is saying here is that people who the world thinks are wise
and people who the world thinks are smart, people who the world lifts up and exalt,
these are not actually the people that are wise in God's book. And these are not the people that
we should aspire to be. And he's basically telling you, hey, if the world thinks you're great and
right? Woe unto you when all men speak well of you, the Bible says, for so did their fathers
under the false prophets. And so this world's wisdom is totally different than the wisdom of God,
right? This world has a way of looking at things, a way of doing things. They have their values and
And so, when it comes to being popular or being considered wise or smart or being respected
or looked up to, you know, the question is, do we want to be looked up to in the world's
eyes or do we want to be looked up to by God's people?
You know, we want to be looked up to and actually respected by the people that matter, children
of God who love the Lord.
wise in this world then let him become a fool that he may be wise and the idea
here obviously God doesn't want us to be foolish it's not telling us to be dumb
but what he's saying is that in order to be wise in God's eyes sometimes you have
to kind of look dumb to this world why because the wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God
So you end up having to not be as popular or as respected or lifted up in the eyes of this world
in order to actually be wise in God's sight. Because verse 19, the wisdom of the world,
the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written,
he take it the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise
Therefore, let no man glory in men."
And so the Bible is saying, look, don't get all excited about or all starry eyed about the experts
of this world or the celebrities of this world, because whoever the world is exalting for you
and telling you that you should look up to this person, and this is your role model,
it's going to be the wrong person. Right? Because the Bible says,
Okay, and the Bible says that if they called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more so they call them of his household
So if they hated Jesus, he said you know that they hated me before they hated you if the world hates you
Marvel not my brother in the world hates you if you're trying to be loved and accepted by this world
That is a fool's errand. It's never gonna happen. He can't live for God
and be the big man on campus, the coolest kid in school, the most popular guy in town,
the preacher that's being invited to all the presidential prayer breakfast
and all the different things and, you know, interviewed on TV, you know, and not in a bad way.
We get interviewed on TV sometimes, but not necessarily in a good way.
But, you know, it cracks me up when churches, they want to be seen as cool, or they want
to be popular, they want to be seeker sensitive, they want everybody to love them, but at the
end of the day, our driving force should be, no, we want to be a church that pleases God.
You know, we want, we want everything that we do to be pleasing to God, and if people
like it, great, if they don't like it, nuts to them, it's that simple.
So if you would flip over to chapter four now, you know, we saw that from chapter number
three, but then this theme has continued in chapter four.
It says in verse number nine, for I think that God has set forth us, the apostles, last
as it were appointed to death.
all the different people that are operating in the New Testament church in the first century AD,
there are going to be apostles, and pastors, and teachers, and deacons, and evangelists,
out of all these people, who would we probably think are the top guys?
You know, after Jesus Christ has already died and He was buried and He rose again,
And now, the early church is in full swing and the apostles are out planting churches
and the apostle Paul is doing missionary journeys into Asia Minor and into Greece and Macedonia.
You know, if you were living in the first century AD, who would you say are the top
Christians, or the movers and the shakers, who's hand do you want to shake?
Who do you want to get around if you can get a time machine and go back then?
Well, obviously first on the list, the apostles.
You'd be naming people like Paul and Barnabas and Peter, you know, James, John, you'd be
naming apostles as being the people that you would think are the most important people
of the first century.
And in fact, we're reading the New Testament after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven.
What's the book called?
It's called the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of the Apostles, right?
I think that God has set forth us, the apostles, last.
It doesn't really make sense because we would say,
no, you guys are first.
You guys are the top dogs.
And here's the thing.
That's because we're looking at things from a spiritual perspective.
That's because we're Christians.
We love the Lord.
We love and believe the Bible.
But here's the thing.
Back then, at the time, in the first century, the Apostle Paul was not considered the coolest,
greatest, most wonderful guy.
He's constantly being thrown in prison.
He's being accused of stealing.
He's being accused of all manner of things, and even churches that he started, even people
And what did he say?
All they, which are in Asia, be turned away from me, right?
So even though in God's eyes,
the Apostle Paul was the number one guy,
which is why in the book of Acts,
it's just so much about the Apostle Paul.
And we have so many epistles from the Apostle Paul.
I mean, half the New Testament, if we count the books,
it's epistles of Paul.
Half the book of Acts is all about the Apostle Paul.
And then he says, man, I feel like I'm last.
You know, we're last he set the Apostles last and what does he mean by that?
Well in the next breath he says as it were appointed to death
Because of the fact that this guy is always on the verge of getting killed
You know, he's constantly being thrown in prison and people want him killed
The Jews wanted him sentenced to death the Romans take him and they put him in prison
And he's in prison for years and years as we read about that story in the book of Acts
But it says here
That we're as it were appointed to death for we are made a spectacle
unto the world and to angels and to men
We are fools for Christ's sake
but year-wise in Christ. And so he's beginning to use a little bit of maybe sarcasm or tongue
and cheek there in that phrase. But the idea here is that, you know, we're a spectacle to the world.
People are looking at us and mocking us. They're deriding us. They're making fun of us. They don't
think that we're great. That's what the Apostle Paul said. Us apostles, man, we're like last place
They were wonderful great champions for the Lord that are gonna you know their their works will resound throughout all eternity
Okay, so is it any different today? No today the people that are serving God right now
are not necessarily going to be considered the coolest people, you know, if you're the kid at school
who's serious about the Lord and you're bringing your Bible to school and you're witnessing and
you're reading your Bible and doing these things, you know, you're not just going to be considered
and lift it up as a hero or something, right?
If you start taking a stand for the Lord in your town
as a pastor, obviously you're gonna end up
being hated and executed by the community
because of the fact that our world
is just not on God's program.
You know, and it kind of reminds me of what Jesus said too
when he talked about how their fathers killed the prophets
but they garnished their sepulchres.
So what'll happen is after much time has gone by this world would look back and say oh everybody loves the Apostle Paul
Everybody you know, but if they those same people were living in the time of the Apostle Paul
they would hate him because he preached so hard against the things that they stand for.
And so it's interesting this kind of irony that the apostles are set forth last, he says,
you know, because that's talking about the world's perspective. But then it says this,
we are fools for Christ's sake, but you're wise in Christ. We are weak, but you're strong.
You're honorable, and we're despised.
even under this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are
buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. Now think about it, the apostle
Paul's writing to the Corinthian church and we know that the church at Corinth
had a lot of serious problems, right, and and he just finished telling us in
chapter 3, you guys are carnal.
And then chapter one, he talks about how they have all this strife and division.
We know there's fornication going on in the church.
We know there are lawsuits among brethren and brother goes to law against brother.
And all of these bad things are going on in the church at Corinth.
So, you know, who's a better Christian, you think?
Just take a guess.
The apostle Paul or the Corinthians?
Right? But then he's saying the opposite. He's basically saying we're fools and you're wise. We're weak. You guys are strong
You guys are really honorable. We're despised, right?
So I think it's maybe a little bit of sarcasm or tongue-in-cheek here
But part of it is just the irony of the fact that the people that are often doing the most for God are the people that people like the least
And then the people who are half in half out worldly and permissive and not doing a lot for God
They're you know, they're honorable the man of God is despised the preacher who preaches what people want to hear
He's honorable. He's lovable. Everybody thinks he's great
He says, even under this present hour, verse 11,
we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted
and have no certain dwelling place.
Look, this is not something that most people
would want for their lives.
Hey, when I grow up, I want to be a hungry, thirsty, naked,
homeless person who gets beat up.
And it reminds me of this commercial that used to play
on TV when I was a kid, where there was this guy running.
People that are my age don't remember this.
And there's this guy running.
I want to be a track star when I grow up, you know?
But then it shows the guy's actually running from the police.
And the guy's like putting his hand out of his shoulder.
And it's like, nobody says I want to be a junkie when I grow up.
Well, nobody says they want to be a hungry, thirsty, homeless
guy who got his butt kicked.
And obviously, I'm being a little facetious.
But Paul here is saying, look, I'm hungry.
I'm thirsty.
And he said, even in this present hour, I have no certain dwelling place, meaning like,
I don't even know where I'm going to stay tonight. You know, I have no certain dwelling place.
And what do we want in our lives?
We want everything to be perfect, right?
We want everything laid out.
We want to have six months of income sitting in the bank
and to know exactly what's going to happen
and to have all of our ducks in a row
and our stock portfolio and all of our investments
and everything.
And everybody just wants a sure thing, right?
But a lot of times God wants us to live by faith.
and just take it one step at a time.
And the apostle Paul, he didn't have all that stuff
that the world tells you is success.
You know, is he considered an intellectual?
No, he's considered a fool.
Is he considered to be successful or honorable?
No, he's considered dishonorable, he's despised.
Is he financially successful?
No, he doesn't even have a certain dwelling place.
And in fact, he's kind of hungry.
You know, would you mind buying lunch right now?
Because he's struggling.
And so people want everything to just be a sure thing, you know, and, and look, in my life, there have been a lot of times when things were up in the air for me, and I don't know what's going to happen.
And, you know, even, even right now, our church, Faith Forward Baptist Church, you know, we've been having issues with our building.
And, you know, trying to make it work so that we can stay in our building and issues with the city and, you know, different things going on with our building.
And it's like, we're wondering what's going to happen with our building.
You know, where are we going to meet? What's going on?
But you know what? I'm not going to lose any sleep about that because I know that if we're serving God, he's going to take care of it.
He's got something for us. We'll always figure it out.
And you know what? Sufficient under the day is the evil thereof. Take no thought for tomorrow.
I'm not worried about it because I'm just going to just keep on serving God and I remember that
people in the Bible, you know, they didn't always have a certain dwelling place and they didn't
always have all their ducks in a row. Well, don't be shocked if you don't always have all your ducks
in a row.
If you're waiting for all your ducks to be in a row to start serving God, then you're just never going to serve God
He's just waiting until everything's all perfect. You got it all planned out. You know, that's not the way it works
My friend you got to walk by faith
You got to take it one step at a time and so any way you look at it
The apostle Paul is not really successful in the world's eyes. He's saying look I've become a fool for Christ's sake basically
I'm making a fool of myself to the entire world.
I'm considered an idiot by the whole world.
Why?
So I can preach the gospel and get the word of God
out to as many people as possible.
And look.
preachers who preach the gospel. I don't care who they are. You say, well, Pastor Anderson,
people just call you fool because you really are a fool. Okay. You know, somebody might say that
about me. But here's the thing about that is that I've noticed that every preacher who is preaching
the Word of God, preaching the gospel, actually believes the Bible, gets called an idiot by this
I've noticed that any pastor whose King James is just automatically uneducated, any pastor
who's a fundamentalist is just automatically ignorant, you know, any pastor who believes
in the literal creation story in Genesis is just automatically just considered, you know,
non-scientific or something, right?
And here's the thing, I've noticed that even the pastors who try to avoid persecution the
if they're preaching the gospel, if they're saved, if they're preaching the Bible, you know,
they end up being criticized by this world no matter what they do. You can't win with this world
if you're serving God. They're not going to lift you up and exalt you. You've got to be willing to
And again we're not talking about actually being a fool because nobody wants you to be stupid
Okay, why you to be smart, but I'm talking about being a fool in this world's eyes
Look if you were to take a poll of just random people on
Some random internet site is Pastor Anderson an idiot
I'm gonna lose that poll true or false. I mean think about it
We just took a random poll of just the general public
Is Pastor Anderson a fool, the majority are going to vote yes in that poll, right?
But here's the thing, if people ask, is the apostle Paul a fool, 99%, no, no, no, no.
But now let's go back to when Paul was actually alive preaching.
He's gonna get the yeses and guess what it's not just me because we could ask is pastor Enrique Reyes a fool is
Pastor Jonathan Shelley a fool his pastor Eric Thompson a fool, you know
You can go down the list and unfortunately, you know, they're all gonna get dinged by the general public
Why you know why cuz the general public are fools. That's why
Okay, what matters is what God thinks what matters is what spirit filled Christians think what God's people think that's what matters
it's not about being popular with this world because you will never be popular with this world
and serving God at the same time. He says this after talking about being hungry, thirsty, naked,
buffeted, that means like being physically assaulted, beaten.
It's not buffaid, you know, he didn't get he didn't get taken to golden corral because anyway
And I can prove that from the Bible because then he wouldn't be hungry
Okay, it says he's hungry. So it's buffeted. He's getting beaten and then it says we have no certain dwelling place and labor
Working with our own hands. So and here's the thing. Have you noticed that this world thinks you're not as successful if you have a blue-collar job?
Right? They think in order to be successful, you have the white collar job, right?
And you've got to be in an office and you have to be some like high-powered kind of
businessman in a tailored suit and whatever.
And, you know, you got the cell phone and you got...
I guess everybody has a cell phone now, but, you know, you got the fax machine.
but what was that yeah the pager you know but you know doesn't this world
kind of think that white collar jobs are more successful somehow right then
being a blue collar guy and you know before I was a pastor I was a blue
collar guy and I was an electrician for many many years my dad was an
electrician his dad was an electrician for that there was no electricity I
You know, he says, look, I'm working with my hands.
Now, as they're working with their hands, it's great.
I love that blue collar lifestyle.
And I recommend to any teenagers, young men here,
get into that blue collar work because it pays good,
it's honest work, and it's a healthy lifestyle,
getting out there.
and shaking them bones instead of just you know sitting at a desk all day you know and I'm not
against you white collar guys either you know that's a great job too whatever honest work you do to
make a living is great but doesn't this world sometimes look down on certain jobs regardless
of how much they pay they might be like oh you know oh you're in construction or oh you're you
know plumber oh electrician you know they they think that that's somehow like a lower
tear or something you know being a carpenter or whatever but but if you stop and think about
you know the apostle paul's saying hey we work with our hands you know we're not ashamed to roll
up our sleeves and work with our hands we're not trying to impress people with how you know
highfalutin we are you know he's like i can be a blue collar guy and what did the apostle paul do
So that's a blue collar job doesn't sound like a super duper skilled job either. I'm sure there's
skill involved but you know he's doing kind of a manual labor kind of a great job and look what
You know, was Paul's background, was he like me where his dad's a tent maker and his grandpa said,
no, no, no, he grew up as a scholar, right? Because he's growing up at the feet of Gamaliel,
being groomed to be an academic, an intellectual, a scholar at the feet of Gamaliel, right?
But then when he gets called into the ministry and starts preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ,
you know what? He ends up doing some blue collar work to make ends meet.
to pay the bills, he wasn't above that.
It was not beneath him to do blue collar work.
You know, he's just willing to do work.
He's saying, look, I'm not trying to impress anybody.
I labor, work with him with my own hands.
He says in verse 12, being reviled, we bless.
Being persecuted, we suffer it.
You know, he's saying, look, we bless those who curse us.
When we're persecuted, we put up with it, we deal with it,
Being persecuted, we suffer it.
Being defamed, we entreat, right?
So when people lie about us and slander us
and do defamation on us,
that's probably the word that we're used to hearing.
Like a defamation lawsuit.
Being defamed, we entreat.
Meaning that, you know, we basically ask people
to, you know, actually hear our side of the story.
We are made as the filth of the world.
and are the off-scouring of all things under this day.
I love that last part because, you know,
that's just the coup d'et grasse
because he's listing all these things about his life
that are not glamorous.
But then he just sums it up with just such strong language,
just, you know, we're like the filth of the world.
And again, it kind of reminds me of that commercial.
Nobody wants to be the filth of the world when they grow up.
Nobody wants to be the off-scouring,
the trash, the refuse of all things.
And he says, unto this day,
That's what we are in people's eyes now obviously in God's eyes
We're more than conquerors in God's eyes
We're kings and priests and we're gonna reign forever and ever and to God's people were heroes and to God's
You know God himself were heroes if we're serving God and preaching the gospel and living for God and standing up what's right
But you know to this world. We're the filth of the world
We're scum
We're trash, right? That's what he's basically saying
Some pretty strong
words here
He says in verse 14. I write not these things to shame you
But as my beloved sons
I warn you. So he's like, yeah, I'm not trying to make you feel bad by writing this to you,
but I'm warning you. Now, what does he mean when he says I'm warning you? He's basically warning
them that if they serve God, someday they're going to feel like the apostle Paul, because they're
going to go through some of these same persecutions, afflictions, and have some of these same criticisms
thrown at them.
And so he says in verse 15,
for though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ,
yet have you not many fathers,
for in Christ Jesus I've begotten you through the gospel,
wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
And what he's saying when he says be followers of me
is basically sign up for people not to like you,
unfortunately, sign up for being considered ignorant.
and, you know, even wicked. I mean, we had some news crew show up at our church. If you would turn
in your Bible to Luke chapter 16, Luke chapter number 16, but we had this news crew from Germany
show up at our church and they were interviewing some German guys at our church.
Uh, well, they interviewed, they interviewed on Zoom at our church, uh, they, they only
wanted to talk to white people, I think, because they didn't want, they didn't want to interview
Brother Moses because, you know, it doesn't fit their narrative because they, they want
to paint us as like these radical right wing, like, so then they probably want to lump us
in with like white supremacists or something.
So, you know, they, it's like only white people were allowed in the interviews, unfortunately.
But because I was like, Hey, you guys want to talk to Moses?
Maybe not, because I'm like, he's a refugee too, you know?
But anyway, the point is that they came
and they showed up and they're interviewing me
and they're just saying to me how,
oh, you're preaching hurts people.
And I said, this is what I said to this lady.
I said, well, I said, if you were living 75 years ago,
you would agree with me.
Because I said 75 years ago,
everyone agreed with these things.
All of this weird stuff of everybody just accepting,
homosexuality, that's all new.
And 75 years ago, everyone would have been horrified by that.
I said, if you were living 75 years ago,
you'd agree with a lot of the stuff that I'm saying.
And here's what she said to me.
She said, well, no, because I think that my conscience
would have stopped me from being like you.
My cut like like like I'm considered the filth of the world or something because I'm saying against bills
Right? I mean pastors today in independent Baptist churches are preaching hard against sin and they're preaching hard against the filth and abominations that are going on in this world.
And then we have some journalists coming in and guilt-tripping like, how dare you? And oh, my conscience would never allow me to be like, you will guess what?
The Holy Spirit wouldn't allow me to be like you.
Trump's your conscience because your conscience quote unquote in many cases is just programming
and brainwashing that you've gotten from this world and if it's contrary to the word of God
guess what the Bible is supreme and what does the Bible say you know there's there's no counsel
Anything that goes against the Lord is foolishness.
Anything that promotes sin and iniquity and abomination is foolishness.
But it's funny how these people who are living sinful, immoral lives,
who are promoting sin and wickedness, who are attacking God's people,
attacking Christians will then talk down to you
as if you are somehow just this despicable, immoral person.
But the Bible says here in Luke chapter 16 verse 13, this is Jesus Christ speaking in a moment
here, but we'll get a little context. Well, first Jesus Christ says in verse 13,
no servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And so God
Telling us here pretty much what the whole sermon is about is that you got to kind of pick
What's important to you? Are you trying to be a big shot in this world?
Are you trying to be the big man on campus?
Are you trying to have success in the world's eyes and be the high-powered high-paid?
Everybody loves you and you're cutting the ribbon
on the new construction as the mayor gives you the key to the city and you're interviewed on
primetime television. Are you trying to succeed in this world or do you want to be a big shot in
the eyes of God? Do you want to serve God or do you want to serve Mammon because you can't serve
both, right? You got to pick what you're doing in life here. Are you serving God or are you serving
And so Jesus preaches this powerful point, and here's the thing, I think that this scripture in Luke 16-13 is
One of the most famous quotations of Jesus. I mean, it's pretty famous, right?
I mean, I'd be shocked if I if I read this verse in a Baptist church and a bunch of people were like
Oh, I've never heard that before like I'm pretty sure most people if they've been around church and been around the Word of God
They know this thing like hey no man can serve two masters
Isn't that a pretty big quote from Jesus you put it in like the top 10 or 20 quotes from Jesus
Obviously he's like he's got so many good ones, you know, it's hard to say but that's a big one
Today, we would look at this and say, wow, what a powerful truth.
And I wonder how many sermons have been preached on Luke 16, 13, or the parallel passage over
the years.
I wonder this Sunday, I mean, think about how many thousands and thousands of Bible preaching
churches there are all over the world.
I wonder how many sermons were preached this Sunday alone on No Man Can Serve Two Masters.
By hundreds or thousands like all over the world
It's probably like a millions of sermons on this verse because everybody loves it. It's a great verse
But how did the Pharisees react to this powerful truth?
Well, it sells us in verse number 14.
It says, the Pharisees also, who were covetous,
heard all these things and they derided him.
Now you may not be familiar with this word derided, okay?
But it comes from a Latin root, redeo, derided.
And it has to do with basically laughing at him
and making fun of him is what they did.
So their reaction to this preaching
was to make fun of him.
To laugh at him make fun of him act like what he said was stupid
Okay, but why did they laugh at him? Why did they make fun of him?
And why did they act like it was stupid? Well, because it says they were coverages
So he's telling them hey, you can't you know, you can't serve God and money
Right, you can't live for money and live for God at the same time. You can't serve God and mammon
That's what they're claiming to be doing because they are covetous. They're super into the love of money
That's what covetousness is in this context
They love money and then they're claiming to be these spiritual leaders and men of God and he's saying you can't do both
And so here's what they do. They make fun of Jesus. They laugh at him. That's what it means when it says they derided him
They mocked him
But you know what their laughter and mockery is actually just covering up for their guilt is what it is
He hit the nail on the head and so they kind of laugh him off just to kind of you know
Oh don't listen to this guy. He's a bozo or whatever when in reality what he said was was dead on
He had their number so then let's get Jesus response to being made fun of and laughed at for preaching this
Verse 15, he said unto them, you know, they're making fun of him, laughing at him, he said
unto them, ye are they which justify yourselves before men.
And the word justify means to declare righteous.
He's saying you declare yourselves to be righteous in front of men.
But God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination
Right? So whatever this world lifts up and exalts and says, this is the best thing ever.
This is the best person ever. This is the celebrity we should all be following.
This is the politician that we should all love. This is who we should be emulating.
This is the best preacher. This is America's pastor. This is the greatest church. You know,
the Bible says here, that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination inside of God.
So God hates the stuff that the world loves.
Sounds like their tastes are opposite
when it comes to these things.
He says, you justify yourselves before men,
but God knows your hearts.
For that, which is highly esteemed among men
is abomination in the sight of God.
Jump down to verse 18.
It says, whosoever,
and he kind of just brings this up out of nowhere.
I'm not really even 100% sure why this would come up in this context.
But I think he's just kind of sticking his finger in their eyeball here a little bit,
maybe just preaching something that's a little close to home.
Because remember, these are the same people that came to Jesus in Matthew 19 and said,
hey, can a man divorce his wife for every cause?
So apparently, you know, they're probably into easy divorce.
right? No fault divorce, easy divorce, they're into that. And so Jesus just says, oh, by the way,
whosoever put it the way his wife and Marieth another committed adultery and whosoever Marieth
heard that is put away from her husband, committed adultery. Now, that is not a popular message in
To get up and say oh by the way whoever puts away his wife and marries another commits adult if you divorce your wife
And marry someone else you're committing adultery
Let me say it again
And and if I'm wrong
Tell me what you see on the page in your Bible,
because we might have a different book or something.
But it says, whosoever, whosoever,
surely meaneth me, surely meaneth me, oh, surely meaneth me.
Sing it with me.
Whosoever, surely meaneth me, whosoever meaneth me.
That means if I divorce my wife and marry someone else,
I'm committing adultery.
I'd be committing adultery if I go and divorce my wife
and marry someone else.
That'd be called me committing adultery.
Why?
Because whosoever certainly bec-
You know, it's like, whosoever means me when it's about salvation, well guess what, whosoever
means me when it says whosoever put it the way his wife and marries another, commit it to adultery.
Now look, that's not good. That's not God's will. That's not right. God wants us to stay
married till death to his part because Malachi tells us the Lord, the God of Israel, hate is putting
He hates putting away. He hates divorce. And so he says if you put away your wife, Mary, another you're committing adultery and
Who's whoever marries her that is put away from her husband committed adultery period change the subject next point rich man and Lazarus story now
Today in this world
Women are literally praised if they leave their husbands. I mean how many times have we seen this?
you are so brave. Who's heard something like that, you know, right? You are so
brave. It took so much courage for you to just, you know, take that step of faith
and just step out there and and leave your husband, you know, because you just
need to drop that zero and get you a hero.
Or whatever, you know, this foolish advice of this world that actually glorifies women
leaving their husbands.
Now you say, well, why mention women leaving their husbands?
You know, the Bible says it both ways, you know, because here in chapter 16 of Luke,
it's talking about men divorcing their wives, and that's a big problem too, isn't it?
Men divorcing their wives is a big problem.
But, you know, the Bible also mentions women divorcing their husbands, and it says the
same thing.
I don't have it in my notes, but anybody know where that verse is in Mark?
Where's the parallel passage and somebody want to find it for me me a little Bible drill
I feel like it's in the neighborhood of like chapter 11 or 12 or something like that
Maybe somebody can find it for me, but search ask AI or whatever don't Google is outdated man
You ask AI now. All right, so ask AI about the verse about women divorcing their husbands. What is it?
Okay mark 1011 was that actual intelligence to figure that out or artificial that was your brain
Wow. All right. Come check this box to prove that you're not a robot right now, okay?
Yeah, it says, he saith unto them, whosoever, this is Mark 1011,
whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committed the adultery against her,
and if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committed the adultery.
Did everybody see that? So this looks like a two-way street to me.
So, just like what we saw over in Luke, in Mark, we see the same thing, but he gives
us the flip side.
Now, here's the thing.
I'll bet you in Jesus' day, you know, from what I understand, just kind of reading the
Bible and thinking about history, you know, my guess is that it was mainly men initiating
divorce, probably in the first century AD, but today in America it is primarily women
who are initiating divorce.
women who initiate divorce in 2025 America,
and when it comes to college-educated women,
if those marriages end in divorce,
it's over 90 percent,
the woman who is filing for divorce.
And so that's why I'm talking about it from the woman's perspective because that seems to be the bigger problem in America today.
Although both are equally wrong and equally reprehensible, you know, but you have women today leaving their husbands and being applauded.
Now, I feel like if men left their wives, they probably get less applause from this world.
but I feel like women will get the you go girl and and look sometimes every once in a while my
wife because she's in like she'll be in like these homeschool groups or just christian groups or
she'll sometimes see this stuff online every once in a while she'll forward me some screenshot or
something of of of women talking about how bad their husband is and like the stuff's not even that bad
You know what I mean, and then it'll be like oh you got and then there's all these so-called Christians are on there
Oh, you got to leave him and you should divorce him and you just separate
Why because because that which is highly esteemed among men is a combination of the Sun God hates divorce
And then you have women today saying oh you have so much courage. Oh, you're so brave
Oh, I admire you so much for having the guts to stand up
and walk out of there in that horrible situation.
And it'll be stuff like, oh, my husband doesn't do enough chores
or something.
It's like, he's paying the bills.
He's not commanding adultery. He's faithful.
You know, is he beating the crap out of you? No.
Is he not paying the bills? No.
Does he go to work? Yeah.
Is he cheating? No.
Oh, but he just doesn't help with the chores.
Or, oh, you know, he's just not whatever.
I just don't tingle enough or something.
You know, and that's the sad day we're living in.
Oh, I just don't know if I'm in love anymore.
You know, it's garbage.
You need to stay married till death to as far as it's a vow
It's something that is sacred and it should not be broken and here's the thing
Even if your husband is a bad guy because I don't even think these guys these guys don't even sound like bad guys a lot of times
They're just because they're not just I don't know just being a maid around the house or something
But even if your husband is a bad guy, guess what you married him
You picked him you stay with that and you honor that marriage you honor it whether it's the wife or the husband
You honor that because the Bible says hey in my sight. I look at that and I see adultery
Right God's looking down from heaven. He doesn't see divorce and remarriage. He just sees it
He sees adultery he looks at that and is offended by that okay, whereas the world looks at it and just says oh well, you know
That's the way it goes
And this is what they say, oh, it's so much better to get divorced than to be in an unhappy marriage.
You know what? I would much rather be in an unhappy marriage than divorce.
You know why? Because I'd rather be right with God.
And in fact, I'd rather be hungry and thirsty and buffeted and have no certain dwelling place if it meant being right with God.
Because that's what's important at the end of the day.
Not just my personal comfort and happiness and security.
And you have all these what ifs, you know, oh well what if I lose my job, what if my husband
does this or what if my wife does that or what if this happens or what if that happens,
I don't see Paul sitting around wondering about all the what ifs because he's like I don't have a certain dwelling place
What if I don't plan to place the say tonight? I mean I wonder when Paul's treading water for 24 hours in the Mediterranean Sea
Right, do you think he just never got in a boat again?
Well, what if I get in another shipwreck? Well, guess what he did get in another shipwreck
This guy got shipwrecked repeatedly
He's like, he's like, night and day, I've been in the deep.
All right, let's get another boat and go on another missionary journey.
I mean, do the math, study the Bible.
He continued to go on boats and continue to do missions and continue to serve God.
You know, all this, what if, what if, what if, you know, in all your ways acknowledge
him and he'll direct your paths and he's not going to tempt you above that you're able.
Right and so you got to trust him. You got to follow him. You got to do what's right
And you say no no no if you stay with that woman, you're an idiot if you stay with that husband
You're an idiot. Well, you know what then why don't you become a fool for Christ?
And do what Jesus said instead of what the world is telling you to do. Oh
It's just so foolish it's so foolish for you to tithe it's foolish then be a fool
That's a foolish use of your money. Okay. Well, I'm gonna be an idiot with my money, you know
And oh, you know, it's so foolish to drive 45 minutes to go to church
Who drives 45 minutes you passed a bunch of churches
Well, here's a you drive for you're a fool
He this man
Everyone behold the fool this man drives 45 minutes to church. How many Baptist churches they pass to get there?
That makes no sense you need to get a brain
No, no, but here's the thing then be a fool
I want to be a fool if driving 45 minutes to go to the church makes you a fool then I want to be a fool
You know
When I was growing up my parents often drove 45 minutes take us to church
You know why because they they strove to take us to the best church that they get fine
And if the best church was 45 minutes away, we drove 45.
I remember my parents used to drive us to church
on Sunday morning and they didn't want to go back
and forth twice.
So we would have to stay on that side of town the whole day
because they didn't want to come back.
And so my parents, and I don't know why
they had this sick hobby, but they enjoyed going
and looking at, what are those things called
when you go to a new housing track, model homes?
My parents just loved touring model homes.
It's a sickness.
That's not fun.
Especially when you're 10 years old.
It's not fun.
So when I was like, I think I was like nine years old
when we started going to this church 45 minutes away.
My parents, they don't want to drive twice.
They don't want to spend the gas.
They don't want to spend the time in the car.
So we'd go to the morning service.
We'd hit Taco Bell.
You know, we'd have our lunch, whatever.
Then we'd just go to our model homes for three hours, you know, and me and my sister Lisa are just,
we were struggling, you know, but my parents enjoyed this. And, you know, part of it was that
they were like kind of thinking, oh, maybe we should move to this part of town. But a lot of
it was just, they were kind of being a looky loo. A lot of times we were really just trying to kill
some time until that evening service. And then we're back at the evening service. Then they'd
And then when all the lights are out and everybody's kind of like okay time to go home now then it's like all right
We're going to leatherbees. Let's get ice cream and we just we just keep the party going
And here's the thing about that is that, you know,
the world doesn't really understand
why you drive that far to go to church
and just spend three hours in model homes
when you could go to a closer church.
But you know what?
My parents, they were sending me a message.
I got the message.
You know what the message I got is,
hey, it matters which church I go to.
You know, and I should be willing to make some sacrifices to go to church.
And you know what?
There's nothing wrong with spending a lot of time at church, spending a lot of time
fellowshiping, getting serious about the things.
You know, showed me that my parents were serious.
And you know what?
My parents are great parents, godly Christian parents, obviously no parent is perfect.
Right?
But, but let me tell you something about my parents.
that I never one time doubted, never one time did I doubt that my parents believed the Bible.
I never one time doubted that my parents were serious about their beliefs and that they were
serious about what they believed and that what they believed was important to them and that they
believed on Jesus Christ and I knew where they stood and I knew that it mattered to them because
they were willing to to go that extra mile you know to be at the right church and everything
What are you doing? You know or sometimes people even move to a different city to find a better church. What do you do?
What what is that?
Right or some of people, you know would would you know spend hours out soul winning and the world looks at that and thinks
It doesn't make any sense
Right, but here's the thing if that's being a fool then I want to be a fool, you know
I want to be a fool for Christ's sake
Let this world if believing the literal creation account and Genesis makes me a fool then you know what?
I'm a fool because that because I believe it
You know what and I've studied biology. I've gone way deep on genetics and evolution and all those studies
And you know what? I still believe the Bible's creation account in Genesis chapter one
But you know what that makes me ignorant of science
Just by virtue of just believing Genesis one, but I believe it you believe it say amen. Yeah, I believe it too
But oh, it's so dumb. I think that the universe coming from nothing's dumb
You know, I think God looks down and says the fool has said in his heart. There is no God
But I'm saying in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth the Bibles at the Bible the Bible says that the world says
You're fooled you believe that right in the beginning God. Oh, you're you're you're dumb
but then it's like oh well there is no God well then all of a sudden oh you're so smart
Bible says the fool has said in this art there is no God well guess what it's not just like that about
the Creator it's like that about everything you know or not everything but almost everything right
where the world and the Bible aren't necessarily going to jive and you got to pick which side are
you on because you can't serve God and mammon Jesus got made fun of I mean Jesus is obviously the
I mean, if anybody could preach a great sermon, it's Jesus.
If anybody's gonna preach a sermon without making a mistake,
right, because all of us have misspoken at times
or maybe used a bad illustration
or explained something poorly,
Jesus always explained everything perfectly
and always preached a banger of a sermon every single time.
And yet he got laughed at and made fun of.
But then you think you're never gonna be made fun of?
For standing for Christ, that's absurd right you're not better than Jesus the disciples not above his master
The servants not above his Lord if they called the master the house beels above how much more so they call them of his household
You're there in Luke flip over to chapter 21 of Luke
Luke chapter 21
So what's what's the sermon really about today?
The sermon title is Fools for Christ's sake.
What it's about is, is getting this idea out of your head,
I have to be successful in the world's eyes.
I have to make it financially in order to impress these people in my life,
or to bring new people in my life.
I have to make it financially.
I want to be seen as a success.
I want to be a preacher that is beloved and respected
and honorable to the community.
And everybody looks up, you know,
I want to make it in this world.
I want to be the popular kid at school.
You need to just push those things out of your mind.
And look, God will sometimes,
Choose to bless us with a little bit of popularity over here a little bit of money over here
You know a little bit of accolades over here a little bit of recognition over but you know what in general?
That is not what our lives are about and in general that is not going to happen and there's going to be a lot more
Negativity coming from this world when you're serving God
And I can't help but think of what John the Baptist said
He must increase and I must decrease
And so at the end of the day, are we living our lives for our own aggrandizement?
Is the purpose of my life just so that I can have comfort, food, drink, a certain dwelling
place, money, fame, popularity, and just be beloved and leave a legacy behind after me?
The Stephen Anderson library?
Is that what it's about?
100 years from now, probably very few people will know who I am, right?
200 years from now, even less people will know who I am.
Thrip, name, you know, you can't name even, you know, this world lifts up what?
Actors, actresses, singers, okay, who are the big singers in the 1920s?
You know, Billie Holiday or something, I don't know.
But you know, okay, how about the 1820s?
We don't we have no idea nobody cares, right? But kids today are all excited about oh, you know Taylor Swift
You know Michael Jackson or you know, whatever. I don't know you died a long time
But anyway, you know you get all excited about these people
Nobody's gonna care nobody's gonna know
Here's the thing
You know even if people who know who you are now
Even if you're famous now the president of the United States pretty famous Donald Trump, right?
But there are a lot of presidents that we've like barely even heard of
You know President Pierce
Who the heck is that?
Right, nobody even knows. I mean, I'm sure there are a few history buffs out there
But some of these presidents you couldn't tell me anything about I couldn't tell you anything about some of these presidents
Who they even are?
Right, and you know what 500 years from now only like history nerds will even know who Donald Trump even is
Right imagine like some expert having like explained Donald Trump to you 500 years from now
You know and and showing you all the relics and stuff from that era because it just look at the end of the day though
I'm not striving so that a hundred years from now people know my name.
I want Christ's name to be exalted, right?
So here's what matters.
You know what?
After we're all gone and forgotten, Jesus...
goes forth. The gospel keeps going. The people that we win to Christ are going to win people to Christ,
who win people to Christ, who win people to Christ. And the gospel goes forward, the lineage keeps going,
salvation keeps going around the globe. You know, we should be marched in promoting Christianity than promoting ourselves.
Right winning people to Christ is what it's about because after we're all gone
It's just gonna be the work of Christ that keeps going. It was around before we were here
It'll keep going after we're gone so important to keep that in perspective
You know, it's and obviously look we go to our churches. You've got spring crass Baptist here
I know we got people from anchor Baptist, you know, you're everywhere, you know, I everywhere
I don't even know what church you go to because you're you're you just the church. Yeah, he goes to all of them
What other what other churches do we have represented any visitors here any any other churches?
Yeah, so we you know, we got people go into different church and there's things obviously we all love our church
You know, you love your church and and you love anchor Baptist and you love spring crest
I love faithful word Baptist and you know, so it's like hey want to get people to come to our church
We want to promote our church because why because we know that our church is doing something for God
We know that the gospel is preached at our church
We know that people's lives are gonna be changed if they hear the preaching from the church, you know
though, just about pointing people to Jesus and the Word of God and so forth. And so here's the thing,
if we appoint someone to this church, that church, the other church, as long as it's a good church
that's preaching the Word of God and the Bible, it's not about us promoting our brand as much as
it's about promoting his brand. You know, some of us will promote our brand a little bit in order
to promote his brand, but at the end of the day, it better be all about his brand because long after
the church is boarded up and over and look this church been around for a long time. I was just
talking to the pastor before the service and you know he said I believe that this church
been around for 58 years or so. You've been here 40 but didn't you say it was even
Okay, 60, sorry, I messed up the math there.
So it started in 1963, and it's 2025 now.
So what's that, 62 years that the church here
has been in existence, you know,
he's been here for 40 years himself,
but I mean, that's a long time, but here's the thing,
you know, and other churches have lasted even longer than
that, you know, and our church has only been around
Other churches have been around long in that but you know what eventually though they all end eventually
You know at some point because otherwise show me the church. That's 600 years old
Right show me a person who's 600 years old
You can't and you know what you can't show me a person who's 600 years old for the same reason you can't show me a church
That's 600 years old
Okay, because of the fact that churches they're born they live they thrive
They decay and they die. It's just it's just the world that way. It's just life, you know
Just but you know what never changes is the gospel
The Bible the word of God and so some even if faithful word Baptist church stops existing or spring crest Baptist church stops existing
Or you know, I mean, I can't imagine pure words Baptist church stopping existing
But you know, let's just say that there's you know a church somewhere that stops existing
It doesn't matter because the songs are being sung somewhere the sermon is being preached somewhere
The soul is getting done somewhere, you know, it doesn't really matter because it's the work of God that is eternal
It's the gospel that goes on forever. It's Christ work that goes for it
It's not a certain name or brand or denomination or group or whatever. It's just
The truth and it will be around long after and nothing can destroy it. It's a rock. It cannot be destroyed
And so we need to have this attitude,
he must increase, I must decrease.
And you know what?
If I have to look like an idiot, so be it.
I'm willing to be a fool for Christ's sake.
If I have to have what this world considers
a lack of success, then so be it.
So long as he succeeds and his work succeeds,
you know, I don't need, and you know what?
Quit trying to impress people all the time.
Right, this is a bad habit when you just always have to impress people all the time
And here's what's funny is that sometimes independent Baptist churches want to impress people
By you know having a big church or fancy building or whatever this world looks at as success
Here's the thing about that though
is that the world's not even impressed anyway,
because there's always something bigger
and flashier and fancier.
I mean, think about, like, I feel like
if we built up a soul-winning independent fundamentalist,
King James-only Baptist Church,
I feel like if we built it up to like 1,000 people,
that'd be huge.
That'd be awesome.
That would be wow.
But then the world would just go like,
nah, Joel Osteen's down the street.
How many is Joel Osteen right, you know, 25,000 or, you know, uh, there's this guy in Korea running 50,000 or something.
It's like, whatever you do, it's going to, it's never going to be as big as, you know, the U2 concert or whatever, right?
Whatever, uh, again, I'm, I'm totally out of date here, but whatever, whatever we do, no matter how big of a crowd we have at our
Why? Because it's not about impressing this world anyway. You know, God, God looks down and he sees a church with
20, 25, 30 people in it that's winning souls. He's already impressed.
He's already loving it. You know, because here's the thing, you can have a church with a thousand people in it with less than 25 people going soul winning.
You can have a church with 2,000 people in it and nobody's reading the Bible cover to cover.
Or you can have a church with 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, you know, whatever the size, and you
got a bunch of people reading their Bible, praying, going soul-winning, doing great works
for God, caring about truth, loving Jesus Christ, filled with the Spirit of God.
God's impressed.
Amen.
Right because little as much when God is in it and so it's not just about the flashy things that impress this world
Look, you could be meeting in a tent and God's impressed if you're doing the work of God
You could be meeting outside under the trees. You could be meeting in the most mess and you know, this is a beautiful facility
This is a great building
But here's the thing, you could be meeting in a rundown, falling apart building, and
God would still be impressed by the work that's being done.
But you got to have all the bells and whistles in order to impress this world.
Well, hang this world because I'm just interested in serving God.
And so quit trying to impress the world because they're not going to be impressed anyway.
and they don't understand that the world,
in many cases, is implacable.
You can't please them.
You know, it's funny, somebody sent me an article
about the guitarist, Eric Clapton,
who's like a rock and roll, hall of fame kind of guitarist guy,
real well-known guitar hero guy
that the world would exalt and lift up
as being a hero or whatever.
But then he took a COVID vaccine
and I guess he had a bad reaction to it.
But then he was getting so much like peer pressure from his family and friends. He went and got a booster anyway
Even though he was like, I don't think I should do this
But he went got the book even though he had like he had like a bad
Side effect from taking it
And so then they want him to get the booster,
he went and got the booster,
and then he got really sick again,
and it caused him some kind of damage,
and he was doing really bad.
So then he spoke out and said,
hey man, I think there might be something wrong
with this vaccine, okay?
So it was a personal experience.
And what's funny is, somebody sent me the article
where I think it was like Rolling Stone Magazine
was basically,
Saying that he wasn't good at guitar
Okay, but and here's what's funny is that here's a this guy is not some godly Chris. This is like one of the world's heroes
Everybody paying attention. It's like one of the world's heroes that worldly people are gonna say like wow this guy is
Awesome successful great whatever it's somebody they look up to
And he just spends decades and decades and decades pleasing this world
Right doing what the world wants them to do
And then he does one thing that they don't like
And what do they do just they turn on
One thing, like, and it wasn't even like a moral issue,
it's just like his opinion about a medical thing
based on his own personal experience.
But it's like, oh, you're not going with what our agenda is
or what we're saying, you're gone.
And in fact, we don't even like the way you play the guitar.
Like, what did that even have to do with?
They're just like, yeah, some people think
he's a great guitarist or whatever.
They were like acting like he wasn't a good guitarist
or something.
it was just so uh indicative of how this world is that like if you want to please the world
you have to do everything they say all the time you have to have all their opinions
because as soon as you go against them on any little thing they're gonna throw you under the
bus even a super guitar hero like Eric Clapton he's gonna get thrown right under the bus as
He just has to be a media stooge doing exactly what they want or he's just going to be absolutely
roasted.
And I'm sure we could name a whole bunch of other celebrities where they did one thing
that the mainstream media didn't like and they got blackballed or criticized or roasted
and so forth.
So I just think, why are you trying to please these people?
If you're going to do that, you have to do everything their way.
How in the world are you going to serve God?
and do everything that the world wants you to do, everything.
Accept everything that they tell you to accept.
Reject everything they tell you to reject.
That's never going to, it's madness.
So just kiss your Hollywood career goodbye, children.
Kiss your rock and roll career goodbye,
I'm just kidding.
Kiss your, you know,
kiss your musical Broadway career goodbye.
Because you better be just up there promoting sin and wickedness and when you are told to jump
You better ask how high on the way up or the world's not going to promote you
That's what I see and so we need to be willing to be fools for Christ
We need to be willing to do whatever God tells us to do, even if it makes us look bad to the world.
Because we're not trying to serve both. We're not trying to serve God and Mammon.
And obviously, look, the Bible does...
Obviously, I could balance this sermon out by saying, hey, you know, we should strive to live at peace with all men.
Amen. I believe that.
We should try to get along with everybody.
We should try not to offend people.
We should try to just, you know, be at peace with all men.
I believe all that and agree with all that,
but it's not peace at all costs because they're, you know,
we look at your job.
You should try to get along with everybody and be cool.
and go along. You should try to be cool in the neighborhood and get along at school and
everywhere else. I'm not saying to go and just start trouble and things like that. But what
I am saying is that if you stand for Christ and do what's right, the trouble is going to come to you
and you've got to be willing to make that sacrifice and just say, you know what?
It's what he thinks that's paramount.
And if the world hates me, well, they hated him first.
And you know, I ran out of time because my sermon's over,
but what I was gonna go into this passage,
I'll just show you the one verse since you're there anyway.
2117, you shall be hated of all men for my namesake.
I mean, that's what the Bible says, folks.
Luke 2117, you shall be hated of all men for my namesake.
I mean, it's just a reality of the Christian life.
You're not gonna be a hero.
You're gonna be a zero in the eyes of this world
But in God's eyes you are a hero and more than conquerors through him that loved us. Let's fire doesn't have water prayer
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Please just help these words to sink down
into our ears, Lord.
Help us to be serious about serving you
and to understand that this world is just a temporary place
and we shouldn't strive too hard for worldly success.
Help us to really focus on the things that matter.
And in Jesus' name, we pray amen.
Amen.
of these candies during the ceremony, but I'm going to take one now. Alright. Alright everyone turn
in your hymns to song 100. Song number 100.
I'll just play it in the intro.
Song number 100, Blessed Redeemer.
Okay, turning on the keyboard, it's a deal record though.
Okay, got it, cool.
Song 100, Blessed Redeemer.
bless the food right now, if you would all bare heads.
Dear God, thank you for the sermon that was delivered today.
Thank you for Pastor Anderson being here for us
and preaching for us, Lord.
And thank you for all the brethren that came out
and traveled to come and see and preach, Lord.
I just pray that you bless them all
on their way back home, Lord.
And I pray that you bless the food today
and that we can all eat and have good fellowship.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.