Man, the title of my sermon tonight is Don't Be That Guy.
Don't Be That Guy.
The verse that I want to focus on there in 1 Timothy 3 is verse 15, but if I tarry
long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Go to 1 Corinthians 12.
We need to know how to behave ourselves in the house of God.
What is right behavior in the church?
Now I'm going to bring up three different kind of guys tonight where you don't want
to be that guy, all right?
Three kind of problem people, okay?
Look if you would at 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 25 that there should be no schism
in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored,
all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.
So the church is also known as the body of Christ.
We're all members of the body of Christ.
We don't want there to be a schism.
We don't want there to be conflict or strife or problems, right?
We want the body to work together for the cause of Christ.
Just like we want our human bodies to be effective, you know, and if one part of our body
just starts doing all the wrong things, that can end us up in the hospital.
Even just one little tiny part of our body could take the whole body down and just
ruin everything, make us ineffective, inefficient, and we want it all to work together like
a well-oiled machine in our human body.
And that's the way the church is supposed to be, a body where people can work together.
Now here's the thing about it.
We as servants of the Lord, whether it's me as the pastor, you as a good solid church
member, we're interested in doing the work of the Lord.
You know, we want to get people saved.
We want to see people grow in the Lord, want to get people discipled.
We want to plant new churches.
We want to take missions trips.
We're excited about doing this positive work for spreading the Word of God, spreading
the Gospel.
But then there are these people who just end up being a pain in the neck and that
ends up slowing down the work of God.
You end up dealing with these kind of people instead of doing the real work of God.
The first person I want to bring up is the tail bearer, the back biter, the gossip,
or you could call this the drama mama.
So it's not just don't be that guy.
This could also be a don't be that gal.
But it's not just women that are guilty of this.
This is both men and women that can engage in this kind of tail bearing, backbiting,
gossiping, drama.
And here's the thing.
We're not interested in drama.
People who actually are serious about serving God, you know, they want to see the work
of God go forward.
They want to accomplish things for God.
And then there are other people who just want to turn their life or the church into
like a reality show or a soap opera, okay?
And these people are a hindrance to the work of God and they can cause schism in
the body of Christ.
So what does the Bible say about this?
I'll give you a few verses.
If you would flip over to 1 Peter chapter 4.
I'll give you a few verses on this.
First of all, the Bible says in Romans 12-8, excuse me, Romans 12-18, if it be possible,
pay attention to this verse, if it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably
with all men.
Have you got that?
If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Ephesians 4-3, endeavoring, endeavoring is trying really hard, endeavoring to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
So therefore, effort should be made to try to get along, to try to have peace, to try
to have unity, not to be just starting conflict, starting drama, gossiping, tail bearing,
backbiting, just trying to stoke some kind of a fire and get something going, okay?
The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse number 14, if ye be reproached for the name
of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.
On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, and
then that's a pretty bad list, murder, stealing, doing evil, or as a busybody in other men's
matters.
But if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on
this behalf.
So we see there that being the busybody in other men's matter is a big deal where
God is telling us don't be that guy, okay?
Let me just read you a slew of verses on this and then I'll get into some specific
examples.
But Leviticus 19, 16, thou shalt not go up and down as a tail bearer among thy people,
neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor, I am the Lord.
Proverbs 11, 13, a tail bearer revealeth secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth
the matter.
Chapter 18, verse 8, the words of a tail bearer are as wounds, and they go down into
the innermost parts of the belly.
Chapter 20, verse 19, he that goeth about as a tail bearer revealeth secrets.
And here's the key right here.
Therefore, meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.
Notice that.
He that goeth about as a tail bearer revealeth secrets, therefore meddle not with him that
flattereth with his lips.
The same person that will flatter you and tell you how great you are is the same
person who's going to talk bad about you behind your back or talk bad about...
And look, if somebody comes to you and they're always talking bad about other people
to you, just take it to the bank.
When you're not around, they're talking bad about you to those other people.
They're going up and down, the Bible says.
Back and forth, up and down as a tail bearer, they're playing both sides.
They're like a double agent, okay?
The tail bearer and the flatterer are often the same person.
The Bible says where no wood is, there the fire goeth out.
So where there is no tail bearer, the strife seeth.
I mean, you could have a church without strife, without drama, without backbiting, without
gossip, just by removing a few people that are just the tail bearers that are the
catalysts for this kind of drama.
Don't be that person that is the catalyst for drama.
Don't be that tail bearer, that person who causes drama and problems in the church.
Now let me just differentiate quickly between what constitutes tail bearing and gossip
and backbiting and what doesn't, all right?
Because a lot of people, they misunderstand this, okay?
If you go to the person that is actually the issue and talk to them directly, that's
not gossiping.
That's not tail bearing.
That's not backbiting because you are to the front of that person, okay?
If you go to the child's parents, for example, and say, hey, your child is acting
up, you need to take care of this, or here's what happened, and report something to
a child's parents, that's not gossiping.
That's not tail bearing.
That's not backbiting because you're actually going to the proper authority there.
You're going to the proper person to deal with the issue.
If you go to the pastor of the church with a concern that it's the pastor's job
to actually deal with, then that is acceptable.
That's not gossip.
There have been so many times where there's heresy in the church, there's horrible sin
in the church, and people say, oh, I didn't tell you about it because I didn't want
to be a gossip.
It's like, well, you know, I need to know about that stuff.
And a lot of times what people will do is they'll bring me stuff and just they won't
tell me the name.
They'll just basically say, hey, what if a person is involved in X, Y, and Z?
Do you want to know about it?
And sometimes I'll just say no.
That's not something that I need to deal with.
And then they haven't told me the name, no harm done.
But a lot of times I'm like, yeah, I need to deal with that.
And then they say, okay, well, here's who it was, and then I can go and deal with
it.
So taking things to the proper authority is a big difference from going to a third party
and talking about it.
Okay.
Let me give you a perfect example.
You know, several months ago my kids came with me to L.A. and I was preaching in L.A.
and they went in a soul winning group with a group of other adults that drove them and
took them and everything like that.
So then at the end of the afternoon I literally said to that adult, hey, how was
everything?
Were my kids okay?
Did my kids give you any trouble?
Oh, yeah, everything was great.
No, they were great.
Everything was cool.
And then I find out a few weeks later that that exact person that told me everything
was good went and talked bad about my kids to other people.
Oh, Pastor Anderson's son is disrespectful.
It's like, whoa, wait a minute.
It's funny how you didn't tell that to my face, you lying, back-biting tail-bear.
And look, I'm not saying that my kids don't make mistakes.
Maybe my kid did make a mistake.
I mean, my kids are teenagers after all, you know, some of them.
But the point is, look, they're going to make mistakes.
They're human.
They're sinners.
But you know what?
I'm the person that you would come to and tell that, right?
And if you're a teenager or your child has an issue, then I'm going to go to you and
talk about it.
I'm not just going to go grab some third unrelated party and say, hey, man, can you
believe so-and-so's kid?
Do you see how bad that is?
That's being a tail-bearer, a back-biting.
And by the way, when you're doing it to the pastor, it's even worse because now it's
like an attack on the church at that point.
You know, when you're sitting there and attacking my character by talking bad about my
kids behind my back or talking bad about my wife behind my back, you know, look,
if they're legitimate, just bring them to me.
I want to hear about it.
I want to take care of them.
Look, don't ever be shy to come to me and tell me that my kids are out of line
because I want to be told that.
I want to straighten them out.
I want to fix it, okay?
And I will not bite your head off.
I'll bite their head off, okay?
And I will take care of the problem.
But when you take that to a third party, now you're a tail-bearer, you're a gossip,
you're just enjoying the drama, you like that little inside information or just being
malicious toward the pastor, toward the church, whatever.
So if you go directly to the person involved, you go directly to the authority figure,
you go directly to the pastor or take it to someone on the staff of the church
because they can actually deal with something, that's legitimate.
It's when you just take it to some random uninvolved person.
And look, a lot of times this gets dressed up and disguised as, hey,
here's something that we need to pray about.
Hey, we need to pray for so and so.
That's often a prelude to gossip, tail-bearing, and backbiting.
And the people who always want to talk about how they want to pray about everything,
those are often malicious people too because now we've added a layer
of holier-than-thou flattery and spiritual facade into the bargain, okay?
So what should be our goal?
The Bible said endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The Bible said if it be possible as much as lieth in, you live peaceably with all men.
That means we don't just go to church and just live our lives at church
and just let the chips fall where they may.
No, we should actually be actively making an effort to get along
and to not have problems.
It's sort of like when they tell you when you're learning how to drive
to be a defensive driver.
Don't just go out there and drive and let things happen.
Don't they tell you to drive defensively?
Well, look, when you go to church, you need to be proactive like that, okay,
where you're actually making the effort to try to get along.
Be a peacemaker.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
When you see strife brewing, hey, if you can diffuse a situation,
if you can calm things down or turn the other cheek, do it, right?
And think about the fact that the rest of the church has better things to do,
the pastor has better things to do, the staff has better things to do
than to babysit your drama.
We're not interested in that.
We stopped being in junior high a long time ago,
and so we don't want to go back to that phase, all right?
We've moved on with our lives, so don't be that guy or gal
that's a tail bearer, back-biter, or drama queen, okay?
And here's another thing.
Here's one more verse that I want to give you.
Go to Proverbs 25, and I'll move on to the second point.
I got to hurry because I got three different people
that you don't want to be tonight.
First one is the gossip, the tail bearer, the back-biter.
Here's what you do when somebody comes to you with this kind of tail bearing, back-biting gossip.
Here's how you react.
Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 25, 23.
The north wind driveth away rain, so does an angry countenance, a back-biting tongue.
So when somebody comes to you with a back-biting tongue,
you need to shut them down, the angry countenance.
In fact, let me just give you an example that I've heard recently from multiple people.
Okay, and I mean, just listen to this, okay?
I heard the same story from multiple people
where it was said about a certain person,
oh, that person in the church is a really bad person.
And then the person that was told this said,
well, okay, what's bad about them?
Oh, well, just trust me, they're really bad.
That's wicked.
That kind of vague accusation, just, oh, well, just trust me, I know some stuff.
And they're just really bad, just watch out.
Look, because when somebody comes at you with a vague accusation like that,
they should be rebuked.
Because you know what?
If they're not going to tell you anything concrete with evidence,
then why are they even just making this railing accusation?
This vague railing accusation is garbage, okay?
It's wicked.
Why?
Because you're going to assume the worst.
I mean, if somebody comes up to me and says,
hey, so-and-so's a really bad person.
You know, I mean, I'm thinking like murder.
You know what I mean?
I'm thinking like it's a pervert.
I'm thinking like, oh, this person is just a total drug addict,
and they sold their mom's TV to buy drugs.
You know, I mean, I'm just, you know,
I'm going to jump to all kinds of wild conclusions.
Because when somebody says somebody's a really bad person,
and a lot of times it'll be just some minor little thing,
but some drama queen or whoever just wants to make it sound bad,
like, oh, it's so bad, and they want to act like they have some information.
Look, that's wicked to come at anybody with that kind of a vague accusation.
If you don't have anything to say that's concrete, then shut up.
But that's a true life story.
And I've heard multiple people say things like that in this church.
And you know what?
It's wrong.
It's garbage.
Oh, that person's really bad, but just trust me.
Well, I'm never going to trust you again if that's the kind of standard that you have
for, you know, what constitutes a legitimate accusation, right?
We should not receive accusations except with witnesses and facts,
and it shouldn't just be this vague thing where we just assume the worst, okay?
So no vague accusations.
If somebody comes at you with that kind of junk,
shut them down, be a little bit rude, give them a dirty look.
The angry countenance drives away the backbiting tongue.
Don't just act like, oh, okay, yeah, and then just go along with it
because then you're encouraging them.
Don't encourage them, amen?
Number two is the stalker sycophant, okay?
So don't be that guy, all right?
Number one, you don't want to be the tail bearer.
You don't want to be the gossip.
But number two, you don't want to be the stalker sycophant.
Now, if you would, turn to Exodus chapter 18.
What am I talking about?
People who are stalkers of the pastor or sycophantic of the pastor.
Now you say, what in the world does sycophantic mean?
Well, a sycophant, this is a dictionary definition,
is a self-seeking, servile, flatterer, fawning parasite, all right?
That's a pretty good definition from dictionary.com.
So I love that double alliteration with the S's and the F's.
So we got the self-seeking, servile, flatterer, fawning parasite, all right?
Now, what does that mean?
That means that this person just really wants to get close to someone who's in leadership
or someone who's famous or someone who's well known,
but they're in it to further their own agendas.
It's a selfish need just to want to get around rock stars
or just to want to get around whoever, actors, actresses, right?
This is sometimes known as groupies, right?
And you have these rock stars and they're followed around
by just these worshipers, these idolaters that want to get really close to them
and they want to get backstage and they'll just do anything to get close to them
and they want to use them for an agenda that they have, okay?
Sycophant is what that word is.
So let it not be said that you didn't learn anything at church.
Stalkers and sycophants is what I'm talking about, okay?
Now, let me give you some examples of this.
There was literally...
This is a few years ago.
It's nobody who still goes there.
Literally, a guy one time told me, hey, I need to meet with you.
And he made an appointment to meet with me.
He needed to talk to me, this and that.
So here I am in the middle of my week.
I stop everything.
I show up to meet with this guy and I sit down and talk to this guy.
And pretty soon it became apparent that he had no issue.
He literally just wanted to hang out.
And this is like old people who make an appointment with the doctor because they're bored.
All right?
Don't do that.
Don't be that guy.
You know, people just...
They just want to make an appointment with the pastor.
And a lot of times, this guy didn't even pretend to have an issue.
He's like, oh, I just want to talk, you know.
What?
That's just an abuse of my time.
That's an abuse of my trust, just pull me out in the middle.
Well, that's your job.
No, it isn't.
Show me the Bible where it's my job to hang around with everybody, coddle everybody,
be everybody's buddy, and make them feel not lonely anymore.
That is not in the Bible.
Don't tell me what my job is.
You know, you want me to come to your work and tell you what your job is?
You want me to, hey, let me tell you how to do your plumbing job.
Let me tell you how to do your electrical job.
No, I'm not going to tell you how to do your job.
Don't come to me and tell me what my job is unless you have a Bible verse to show me.
Now, I could show you some Bible verses on what my job is,
like where the Bible says do the work of an evangelist.
That's my job, right?
To evangelize.
What's my job?
Hey, the Bible says my job is to feed the flock of God, right?
So I'm up here constantly teaching the Word of God, preaching the Word of God.
Hey, I'm supposed to give myself to the ministry of the Word and prayer.
So yeah, going soul winning, reading my Bible, preaching, praying,
going out and evangelizing new areas, doing missions, knocking doors, right?
Administrating the church, being the bishop or overseer of the church.
I mean, look, I have all kinds of jobs, but being your BFF is not one of them.
That's not my job.
But a lot of people, they just want to have attention,
so they'll just want to be like my best buddy.
And listen, there are literally people who move here from another state.
They want to get close to Pastor Anderson.
They literally move here and their goal is to become my personal friend
or to become my wife's personal friend.
You know, ladies move.
We've had families move here.
And then as soon as ladies figure out that my wife's not looking for any new friends,
then all of a sudden they're all mad and bitter.
And by the way, the sycophant is the person who turns on you
and accuses you, also, and accuses you.
They'll either be your best friend or your worst enemy.
As soon as you don't give them the attention they want,
as soon as you don't let them into the inner circle,
they're the first ones to stab you in the back, talk bad about you, lie about you.
In fact, the English word sycophant is actually derived from an ancient word
that means to falsely accuse someone.
But then it evolved in me.
You know, words change in meaning over time.
It used to mean a false accuser.
But now it has become this fawning, self-serving, flattering parasite.
Why?
Because that's the same person, a lot of times.
The one who gets real close to you, they get all the information about you.
You know, they get in there real tight with you.
They just gain credibility.
And then as soon as you do something they don't like,
they're the ones that are ready to turn on you.
Because they never loved you in the first place.
They love themselves.
They're a self-serving type person.
And that's why they want to get close to you.
Look, do not seek a personal relationship with the pastor, the pastor's wife, or his
kids, and that's just your goal.
If it happens, great.
If it doesn't happen, so what?
Okay, have a personal relationship with Jesus, yes, but not with me.
All right?
Now look, go if you would to Exodus chapter 18.
Is that where I had you turn?
It says in verse 17, and the context here is that Moses is trying to do everything
himself, and literally from the time the sun goes up to the time the sun goes down, he's
just talking to people all day, just fixing their problems, dealing with issues, and he
just has people coming to him for judgment.
He's doing everything himself.
And Jethro, his father-in-law, sees this and tells him, this isn't good, what you're
doing.
Look at verse 17.
And Moses' father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou and this people that is with thee.
He said, look, you're going to run yourself into the ground if you try to do everything
yourself.
It says this thing is too heavy for thee, verse 18.
Thou are not able to perform it thyself alone.
Harken now unto my voice, I'll give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee.
Be thou for the people to Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God.
And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein
they must walk, and the work that they must do.
So look, here's the answer for Moses.
Not to sit there and hold everybody's hand and deal with all their problems on a personal,
individual basis.
It's too heavy.
He's going to wear away.
His job is to get up and teach the people ordinances, statutes, and laws.
Right?
So that's like when I get up behind the pulpit and I preach the Word of God, I
preach all these Bible principles so that people can know the answer to their question
and that I don't have to go to each person and explain all the answers to
each person.
I can explain to everybody in church, right?
And that's why a lot of times when people come up to me and ask me a question, I typically
point them to a sermon.
You know, oh, pastor, I need advice about this.
Oh, great.
I did a whole sermon on that.
Pastor, can you explain to me Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 and 39?
Well, I did a whole sermon on that.
You know, instead of me just sitting down, all right, let's sit down for an hour
and let's do a Bible study on Gog and Magog.
Folks, that's just not practical, is it?
It makes a lot more sense to point them to the Gog and Magog sermon.
Okay.
It's not that I don't like you.
It's that I am a human being and that I only have 24 hours in the day and I have other
things to do.
Okay.
And a lot of people are constantly, and look, folks, I don't think there's any doubt
that I'm getting things done.
People are constantly coming to me, how do you get so much done?
How do you get so much done?
I'll tell you, I don't let people waste my time, that's how.
You want to know the great secret to getting things done?
I don't let people waste my time.
People come and try to waste my time, I shut it down.
I give them a sermon to listen to, or a lot of times people say, hey, can I get together
and meet with you this hour?
I say, no, I'm not available.
Why?
Well, how dare you?
Look, if I just say yes to everyone all the time, I'm going to die.
I'm going to just burn the candle at both ends.
I'm going to run myself in the ground.
And it's not anything personal against anyone, it's just that I don't have time.
Let me just break this down for you mathematically, because a lot of people don't get this.
Okay, this morning in church was a fairly average service.
We had 364 in attendance.
Okay, so let's say I spent one minute with each person.
364 people.
Let's say I spent one minute with each person, 60 seconds.
You know how long that's going to take?
Over six hours.
So basically, church gets out at noon.
I give everybody one minute and, oh, it's almost time for evening church again.
And then I'll give everybody one minute again and get out of here at one in the morning.
Folks, that's ridiculous.
Okay, and here's the thing about that, you give people one minute, a lot of times they're
going to be like, well, he gave me the bomb's rush.
I had, you know, I went to talk to the pastor and he talked to me for one minute.
I want to talk to him for five minutes.
I want to talk to him for 10 minutes.
Now here's the thing.
I understand that people have issues that need to be dealt with.
But that's why the Bible says in verse 21,
Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of
truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and
rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, and let them judge the
people at all seasons.
And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small
matter they shall judge, so shall be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the
burden with thee.
This is why we have staff.
This is why we have brother Chris Segura.
This is why we have brother Daniel Ryder.
This is why we have brother Corbin Russell.
This is why we have people on staff.
Okay, so that those people can help you with a lot of issues.
And don't get mad if I tell you, hey, can you go talk to brother so and so?
Can you go talk to my staff?
Can you go, you know, he'll take care of you, or he's the one who handles that.
I want Pastor Anderson to do it.
It's like a little kid where it's like, okay, Miriam, go dress the baby.
I want Rebecca to do it.
All right, Becca, go dress the baby.
No, I want Miriam to dress me.
That's what babies do, don't they?
I want daddy to do it.
They just demand a certain person.
And here's the thing about that.
I am not special.
Does everybody understand that?
I am just a normal human being.
I am not a miracle worker.
I am not, you know, just somebody who just, you just have to just touch the hem of my
garment or something, okay?
My staff has the answers to 99% of your problems.
See, he even said amen.
He's got the answers.
He's over there just filled with answers.
And look, forget the staff.
There are a multitude of men in this church who know the Bible very well that can answer
questions.
There are ladies in this church who know the Bible.
They know what's going, they can help you out with issues.
My wife is not just your one-stop shop for all of your medical, you know, counseling,
marital, child rearing, homeschooling needs.
Now look, my wife tries to help as many people as she can and she's put out different resources.
She's got her blog.
She's got her videos that she puts out and she tries to help people out.
I try to help people out.
I try to put out as much information as I can.
But you know, there comes a point where it's not that you want help.
You just want to be my buddy.
And I'm not looking for a new buddy right now.
My wife's not looking.
You know, when you have 10 kids, you're not looking for a new buddy.
I have all these built-in buddies.
You know what I mean?
I wake up in the morning in my house and it's just buddies are everywhere.
If I want to pal around with my buddies, my house is filled with buddies.
Okay.
I live in a house with 12 people in it.
Okay.
So we got the 12 disciples.
We're done.
So the thing is, you know, we can now listen.
Go through with the first Thessalonians chapter five.
Here's the thing about this.
Okay.
I do have friends.
Okay.
Contrary to popular belief.
I actually do have friends.
All right.
Some bozo recently accused me of having no friends because somebody, somebody asked him,
well, you know, weren't you friends with pastor?
And she's like, oh, well, I wasn't friends with that pastor Anderson, but nobody is.
Who knows what I'm talking about is unnamed bozo about three or four people.
Yeah.
You know, he said, well, pastor Anderson doesn't have any friends.
And there's no such thing as hanging out with pastor Anderson.
This guy said that I'm just a workaholic.
I don't have any fun.
I don't hang out with anybody.
And then he also behind my back called me a nerd and a geek because I just read and
study and I just geek out all the time.
And, and, uh, you know, that I was that nerdy kid in school who just studies all
the time or something.
Okay.
Like I don't have any friends.
I don't have any fun.
That's not really true.
Actually, I do have friends.
I do have fun.
Now look, some people in the church are going to become, you know, my personal friends
or my buddies.
But here's the thing about those people.
They didn't set out to be my personal friend or buddy.
It just kind of happened.
It's just an organic thing where you have common interests with people.
You just hit it off with certain, right?
Certain people you just kind of hit it off with, you kind of click with, you
get along with.
Look, there are a lot of pastors in our movement that basically, you know, I'm
personal friends with because we just kind of click and hit it off.
And they're the kind of guys that I would hang out with outside of church and
just go do something fun because they're just kind of somebody that I click with.
And then other pastors in our movement that I think are great pastors.
I love them.
I love their preaching.
I think they're great men of God, but they're just not necessarily my buddies.
It's just, they're just not, and it doesn't mean that they're a lesser
status.
It's just, you're not going to be friends with everybody the same, right?
And folks, this isn't just about me.
And I know this sermon might seem like it's just all about me.
Okay.
Which is appropriate.
Anyway, the Bible has chapters about the pastor and about dealing with leaders and stuff.
So it's appropriate.
But let me tell you this.
You can actually apply these things to your life too.
You can apply these to your life too.
You need to be aware of people that are stalker sycophants toward you.
It's not only pastors that get these kinds of stalkers and hangers on.
This could happen to anybody.
And not only that, all of us can be attacked by professional time wasters.
It's not just the pastor, right?
So you don't, don't just think, oh, I'm just going to zone out.
Hey, this sermon is not just about me.
It's about you.
It's about everybody.
Okay.
Look, you're not going to be able to be friends with everybody either.
You can't be friends with, with 360 some people, right?
You're going to have certain people that you click with certain people that you're
friends with.
You can't force people to be your friend.
Okay.
It has to just happen organically.
It's like a cat.
You ignore it.
It comes to you.
That's how friendship is.
All right.
People who just set out to just, I'm going to go, I'm going to get some friends and
I, you know, they end up just running everybody off and scaring everybody away.
You're pushing people away when you force the issue.
Look, if your goal is to become friends with me, it's probably never going to happen.
If your goal is to become friends with my wife, it's probably never going to happen
because you've already failed on the first point of being my friend.
People who are my friends.
It has to just happen by accident.
Just normally, right?
You know, you just kind of just, you just start talking, you hit it off.
Next thing you know, you know, you're doing stuff.
You're, you're going places.
You're, you know, that's life.
Life lessons being taught here at Faith Forward Baptist Church tonight.
Okay.
This is an important concept, folks.
Friendship has to happen organically naturally.
And look, the kind of people that I'm friends with, you know what?
They treat me like a normal person.
They're not just like, wow, I can't believe that I'm actually here with you, Pastor Anderson, right now.
You know, no, look, I understand if somebody acts that way the first time I meet them.
But, but if, if I've known this person for weeks or months and it's still like,
man, I still can't believe I'm actually talking to you.
That's not a person I'm going to be friends with.
And it doesn't mean that I don't like them.
It just means that's weird.
Okay.
People that I'm friends with, people that I'm friends with.
They know me as a normal person.
They just know me as just an average guy.
Just, you know, I'm just, I mean, yeah, I'm a pastor.
I preach the Bible.
I love the Lord.
I'm doing my job, but you know what?
I'm just an ordinary person.
I'm not some mystical special person.
Okay.
So therefore my friends consider me a normal person.
Okay.
And they don't set out to be friends with me.
We're just friends because we hung out and we got along and we have common interests.
And look, we're, aren't we going to tend to be friends with people that we have stuff
in common with, you know, maybe let's say we're both from the same part of the country.
Maybe we're the same age.
We have the same interests, same background.
Those are the type of things that make for friendship.
Right.
But look, I do have friends.
I hang out and fellowship at events along with everybody else.
I go places and have fun.
And, and you know, that's a baseless accusation, but let's say it were true for a second.
Let's just pretend that I'm really just this geeked out nerdy guy.
Who's just all work, no play.
And he doesn't hang out and he doesn't have any friends.
Well, does that hinder me from doing my job as a pastor?
It doesn't seem like it is.
Well, I want more personal attention.
Well, you know what?
Then go to a small church, go to some tiny church, but you know what?
You wouldn't like it in the book of acts.
You wouldn't like it in the church of Jerusalem.
You wouldn't like the church of Corinth.
Cause those are all big, thriving, soul winning, growing churches.
We had somebody quit our church when we were running like 75 cause they said the church
got too big and they weren't getting enough personal attention when there were 75 people in it.
They just wanted it to always be 30 people, us four, no more.
That's a joke.
And look folks, there are wonderful people in this church for you to be friends with
besides me and my wife and my kids.
Now look, I want my wife to have friends.
I want my kids to have friends.
I want to have friends, but I don't want people who literally just have a goal.
They are hell bent to become my friend and I'm going to make it happen because those
are bad people.
Okay.
It's unnatural.
So what kind of stalker sycophantic behavior am I talking about?
How about stuff like this?
How about taking aside one of my friends or one of my family members and say, so
what's pastor Anderson like at home?
You know, so what, you know, what?
So what's going on with, you know, his marriage, what's going on with his wife?
What's going on with his kids?
You know, it's like, like pumping people for information about me, like personal
information.
Isn't that weird?
What in the world?
That's not normal.
That's being like a stalker or a sycophant.
And look, we live in a day that feeds into this because now, you know, this is
what people do to celebrities.
They stalk celebrities.
They got their people magazine and they love the pictures they're taken by the
paparazzi.
And look, you know, when the paparazzi goes and takes pictures of people when
they're in their personal time and then it's just published in magazines,
isn't that considered like a scummy thing to do?
Isn't that considered unethical?
I mean, isn't that considered like a lower level of journalism when they
like sneak up on somebody and take a picture of them when they think that
they're by themselves or, or they follow them around, stalk them, wait
outside their house and everything.
It's garbage.
Look, I had, I had a couple of bozos, you know, stalking me in the park by
my house.
You know, I'm at the park by my house on a personal phone call dealing
with an important pastoral matter, and I'm getting harassed by some
stalker bozo that won't leave me alone.
You know, that's not normal.
Coming to my neighborhood, following me around, not leaving me alone, and
then lying about it later and saying, oh, I happened to run into
Pastor Anderson.
No, you didn't because you came back multiple times after I told you to
leave me alone.
That's not, oh, I just happened.
Well, no, you stalked me in my neighborhood.
Okay.
Come into my house unannounced, knocking on the door, inviting
yourself over.
These things are not appropriate.
Okay.
Look, don't move in across the street from me either.
There are, there are several houses for rent on my street right now.
Don't move into them.
I don't want to all of us live in a yellow submarine.
Okay.
And you know what?
A lot of these stalker sycophantic types, it's like sometimes they want
us all to live in like a commune and they want us all to live
together.
No, I want to do my own thing.
All right.
I want to have my private space and my personal life.
I've got my wife.
I've got my kids.
I've got my job.
I've got my church.
I've got my friends.
I don't need somebody saying, hey, we're moving in across the street.
Now we can be best friends.
Oh no.
This city is huge.
There's 4 million people in this city.
Please give me some space.
Now look, there may be other people in the church who want you to live right
next door to them and they want you to move in right next door to them.
But let me say this.
It's not going to work out.
Okay.
Because when you just live right next to people and you're just that close to
you know, usually it eventually breaks down eventually.
You know, so you got to be careful about that.
You got to preserve some, some basic boundaries.
Okay.
And especially, okay.
Women seeking inappropriate contact with the pastor is not acceptable.
Okay.
So a lot of times women will come to me, oh, pastor, I need to meet with you
in private.
And you know what?
I always say the exact same thing to them.
This is as private as I get right here.
Standing in the auditorium talking to you in front of everyone.
This is as private as we're going to get.
Well, can I call you on the phone?
No.
Can you call me later?
No.
Can you meet in my office?
Nope.
Not happening.
But you know, those things typically need to go through my staff or go through my
wife or anything, or I can talk to you briefly in public in church.
But you know what?
I'm not, I'm not going to get into some deep conversations and, and deep hanging
out with women because I'm a married man and I have a big target on me from the
devil to give false accusations, slander, attack.
I'm not going to open myself up to that.
So I'd rather just be above reproach and just keep my distance.
Thank you very much.
All right.
So don't seek inappropriate contact with the pastor if you're a female.
You know, now look, say hi, be friendly in public.
No problem.
But no, I can't meet you.
Yeah, but I need counseling from you.
Well, you know, go look in the phone book then.
You know, and if you have an emergency, then hang up and call 911.
That's what I'm going to put on our church voicemail because you know what?
I get so tired of everybody.
Oh pastor, I have an emergency.
And then you call them and it's like, I don't know who the 144,000 are.
It's like, that's not an emergency that that's been in the Bible for 2000 years.
And that's not new.
And that's not urgent.
That I've literally, you think I'm kidding.
I literally, I could literally just pull up my email right now and just search the word urgent.
None of it's urgent.
I'm not kidding.
I could just go to my email right now, search the word urgent.
There'll be all kinds of things about the tabernacle, the 144,000, the two witnesses,
Gog and Magog, the pre-trib rapture, repent of your sins.
I mean, it's all just an emergency.
Now look, do people legitimately have emergencies?
Yes, they do.
But you know, a lot of times it's not really an emergency.
And if you have to wonder, it probably isn't, but people come to me and they say they have
an emergency, but they don't.
They're just trying to just get close to me.
It's weird and creepy and it's not acceptable.
Okay.
You know, if you have an emergency call 911.
All right.
If it's truly an emergency, other things can wait, or you can talk to my staff, or
you can talk to me at another time.
And look, if I'm there, if I'm available, if I can help, I'll help.
But I can't do everything.
And there've been many times when I did help people out in emergencies, but it's just
that I'm one person.
I'm human.
I'm not able to do that all the time.
So don't get bitter because Pastor Anderson doesn't have a bat phone to you where
you can just get on the phone to him at any time.
All right.
Because I'm a human being.
I have to live my life.
You know, and I'm in this thing for the long haul.
I'm not out here to just be a Roman candle, blow up real big and then poof, gone.
Remember that preacher, Pastor Anderson?
Whatever happened to that guy?
Look, I want to be here 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now.
Look, I'm already 13 and a half years in.
I've been consistent.
I want to stay consistent for another 20, 30, 40 years.
And I'm not going to do that by burning the candle at both ends.
And you know what?
If I spent all my time holding hands with professional time wasters and just coddling
everyone and doing everything myself so that everybody could feel loved, well, you
know what would end up happening?
There wouldn't be any documentaries back there on the shelf that I had anything to
do with, you know, we wouldn't have 122,000 subscribers on YouTube like that.
We wouldn't be planning churches and doing mission strips and all these
different places.
Folks, the reason why our church is growing and thriving is because I
actually know how to delegate things to other people and not try to do
everything myself so that I can work on things that only I can do or things
that are unique to me and then I can delegate things to other people.
You need to be a team player.
Be part of the team.
Don't just be a fan, right?
You don't come to church to be Pastor Anderson's fan club.
You come to church to be a part of the team with Pastor Anderson.
So you're on the team with Pastor Anderson.
It's, you know, Pastor Anderson has a position to play.
You have a position to play, right?
Let's say I'm pitching the ball or I'm on first base, you're on second base,
somebody else on third base, maybe I'm the catcher, whatever.
Hey, no matter what position we're playing, we're all playing on the team.
You know, you're supposed to be over on third base.
Pastor Anderson's on first base.
You just kind of walk over and just say, well, I just wanted to talk a little bit.
Well, now third base is wide open.
Now we got this big chink in the armor, right?
We're not here to hang out.
Okay, I'm here to work.
I'm here to do my job right now.
Look, do I hang out?
Yeah, but can I hang out with the whole team?
No.
You know, I'm probably going to be more likely to hang around with, you know,
the guy who covers right field a little bit or something, you know,
because he's, you know, we can kind of yell to each other a little bit.
I don't really know anything about baseball,
but I know that those guys would be close in proximity.
You know, uh, look, we can't all be buddies with everybody.
So don't be that needy.
Amen.
Have a right attitude.
First Thessalonians five 12 says, and we beseech you brethren to know them,
which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to
esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at peace among yourselves.
Be at peace among yourselves, right?
He says, yes, esteem the pastor highly for his work sake.
Notice it does not say for his personality sake.
It says for his work sake.
So look, yeah, I hope you'd love me.
I hope you love me because of my work.
Not that you just love me.
I want you to love me for my work sake.
I don't want you to have this personality cult of just like,
Oh, pastor is so great.
If I can just get closer to pastor, it's like, get away from me.
You freak.
All right, I got to move on.
Go to Isaiah chapter 65.
And by the way, if you force yourself on anyone like that,
it's going to push them away.
If you just force yourself on people where you're just like, you just,
Hey, you know, come over to my house for dinner.
Hey, it's great to invite people over for dinner.
I'm for it.
I would love to see more of that.
It's great inviting people to dinner, but here's the thing.
When somebody says, Hey, I can't make it on Thursday night.
And they don't suggest an alternative time.
The ball's in their court now.
So if I invite you out to dinner and you tell me that you're busy,
you can't make, look, I'll give you an example.
Look, there's a pastor that I reached out to and I called him up and say,
and I said, Hey, I'd like to get together and, you know,
take you out to eat sometime and, and, and talk.
And you know, he told me, he told me, well, you know,
I'm really busy this month.
Got a lot going on this and that appreciate it.
You know, he's friendly to me, but you know what I didn't do?
I didn't call him up and say, all right, it's August 1st.
New month.
Glad you're through that busy month.
So when are we going to have that meeting folks?
This was last July.
And I guess what?
I didn't call the guy ever again.
Why?
Because I got the hint.
I got the picture.
Does everybody understand?
You know, Hey, I wanted to get together with this guy,
have fellowship with him.
He wasn't interested because if he would have been interested,
then he would have said, Hey, I'm really busy this month here.
Let me suggest it.
The ball's in his court.
I'm waiting for him to contact me now.
And you know what?
You know how long I'm going to be waiting till Jesus comes.
I'm not going to go seek him out though, because I took,
do you see what I'm, does that make sense?
So look, this guy doesn't want to be my friend.
That's okay.
Does that make him a bad person?
Does that make him a bad pastor or bad church?
No, it just means that he maybe just doesn't have time
for a new friend in his life right now.
Or maybe he just doesn't like me personally,
which is very likely.
Okay.
But either way, I'm okay with that.
Hey, that doesn't give some hit to my self esteem or something.
Why?
Because I'm not for everybody.
You're not for everybody either.
Okay.
So you can't force yourself on people.
Look, I want you to reach out to people and look,
and don't complain if you have no friends,
if you never reach out to people,
a man that have friends must show himself friendly.
Okay.
So you need to be the one to reach out.
If you want to have friends, you need to reach out to people.
But when you reach out to people,
you need to understand that sometimes they're not going to be interested.
And here's what you do.
You just go to the next person.
Right.
So you reach out to somebody.
Hey, you want to get together and have dinner after a service?
Or hey, you want to come over?
Hey, you want to get together and have a play date with the kids?
Well, no, we're busy, but thanks.
Okay, no problem.
There's other fish in the sea.
And look, it's not like we're in some backwoods town
where we have a tiny church.
There's 400 people in our church.
You should be able to find friends somewhere in this congregation.
And if not, then I'm sorry.
I don't know what to tell you.
Okay.
But you can't force it.
Forcing it makes you a stalker and creepy and weird.
Okay.
So don't force the issue.
So I got to hurry up because I've got still one more.
So don't be that guy.
Number one, don't be that drama person.
Don't be that pain in the neck that's always creating strife
and stirring up strife and whispering and separating cheap friends.
And you're like the wood, right?
Where no wood is, the fire goeth out.
And where there are no tailbearers, then strife ceaseth, right?
Don't be that fuel for the fire.
Don't be that catalyst of drama.
Amen?
Don't be that guy.
Number two, don't be that guy who wants to stalk Pastor Anderson
or his wife or his kids.
And you just, you moved here to become their buddy.
You want to get close to them.
And you just want to make sure that, no, just don't do it.
Okay.
But number three, don't be that holier than thou church member.
This is the other third.
This is just people that are just a pain in the neck.
Tailbearers are a real pain in the neck.
They're a hindrance to the cause of Christ.
Sycophants and stalkers, they're a hindrance.
They're a pain in the neck.
They don't help the work of God go forward.
And number three, the holier than thou's.
Now let's look up.
This is actually a biblical term, holier than thou.
It's found in Isaiah 65.
Look at Isaiah 65, verse two.
It says, I've spread out my hands all the day
unto a rebellious people.
And by the way, that's quoted in the New Testament,
if you remember.
Which walketh in a way that was not good
after their own thoughts of people that provoketh me to anger
continually to my face, that sacrifices in gardens,
and burneth incense upon altars of brick.
Let me ask them, are these good people?
They're continually provoking God to anger to his face.
And then they're just breaking all of his commandments
where they're sacrificing in gardens,
where he specifically told them not to worship in the groves.
Right?
Don't worship in the gardens and groves.
They burn incense upon altars of brick.
When he specifically said, if you make an altar out of stones,
you're supposed to pile up uncut, whole stones.
Do not use anything that's been cut with a tool like a brick.
So what do they do?
They use the bricks, which remain among the graves.
You know, they're just into death or whatever.
They lodge in the mountains.
They eat swine's flesh, which God particularly told them
in the Old Testament, that that was an unclean animal.
They weren't supposed to eat pork and other things.
The broth of abominable things is in their vessels.
But what do they say?
What are these people who are constantly
disobeying God's commandments,
provoking God to anger?
They're just a smokin' man.
They're just a smokin' his nostrils.
What do they say?
They say, stand by thyself.
Come not near to me, for I'm holier than thou.
These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
And you know what?
These people aren't just a smoke in God's nose.
They're a smoke in a lot of people's nose.
Don't be a holier than thou.
Now, what does it mean to be a holier than thou?
These are the people that are always trying
to hyper-spiritualize everything.
And I'll tell you why.
It's because of the fact that they're wicked.
So they try to overcompensate, right?
Have you heard that term, overcompensating?
Like, for example, you have a guy who's insecure
in his manhood, so he's just always trying
to show what a bad dude he is.
He's always trying to talk about how he's
going to kick this guy's butt, and I'm going to kick that guy's.
They're always talking about just fighting
and beating people up.
Because they have a need to persuade.
You know what I'm talking about?
They're trying to overcompensate
how manly they are, OK?
Because actually they're insecure about their manhood,
so they go overboard on that.
And you know what I'm talking about.
You've seen that.
These people are like that with spirituality.
So because they have a lot of wickedness in their life,
they put on this hyper-spiritual facade.
These people always turn out to be bad people.
Always, OK?
In my experience, 100% of the time,
the people who are just always there
to just rip on you for just the smallest little misstep.
Now look, it's one thing to get out behind the bulb
and preach about sin.
But do you think that I actually just,
in my personal life, whenever I see people
doing something wrong, I just stop them
and tell them that they're doing it wrong,
just every little thing?
You think I just walk into people's houses,
what's that?
What's going on with that?
What's going on with these videos over here?
What's this music over here?
What's that poster?
What is this?
What are you doing?
Do you think I just come in the house
and I'm just pointing out this isn't biblical?
That's not biblical.
That's a sin.
What you're wearing right now, totally sinful.
You think that's how I act to people
in an everyday situation?
Or even at church?
I don't even act that way at church.
But there are people who act that way.
Yes, there are holier than thou's,
who just, they're just there
to just pick everybody apart.
They're so spiritual.
They're so righteous.
Every, they just, they love to pray publicly,
loudly, in the corners, in the streets.
They love to trumpet their prayer.
What does the Bible say?
When you pray, enter into your closet.
When thou has shut thy door,
pray to thy father which is in secret.
Now look, it also says,
I will therefore that men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
There's nothing wrong with praying publicly.
Here's a nice rule of thumb.
When you pray publicly, it's a short prayer.
Sweet hour of prayer is by yourself
in the prayer closet.
It's not publicly sweet hour of prayer
while the food's getting cold, okay?
And you know these people
that they take prayer
and they turn it into a whole sermon.
Oh God of Elijah and you know,
and they're like telling the whole story
of the Bible in a prayer while the food's waiting.
It's like, you know, you led Abraham into Canaan
where he's so journeyed.
And it's just like, shut up.
But you know, these people,
they just love to prayer.
They love to pontificate and even,
and what's even more of a holier than thou
is like they'll rebuke you
for not praying in a certain situation.
You didn't pray before we left the driveway.
You're supposed to pray before every drive.
How dare you roll the church fan
out of the parking lot without praying first?
You know, these kind of just pontificating,
holier than thou.
Who's known people like that?
Pretty much everybody, okay?
The holier than thou's.
They tend to hyper spiritualize everything.
They always talk this great big spiritual talk
and make a big deal.
And then they're always just quick
to point out everything,
literally everything is sinful to these people.
Literally everything, okay?
And they're,
and it's not like they have that
as their personal conviction.
Cause it'd be one thing
if they just have a personal conviction
and they keep it to themselves,
but I'm saying like,
everything is wrong to these people.
Okay.
Like let me give an example.
And they have to just rub
everybody else's nose in it.
Let me just give an example of this.
All right.
And I know I'm going to get a Paul Wittenberger,
amen, on this one.
Okay.
We had somebody in our church,
this is like a decade ago or something.
We had somebody in our church
where we had some Bible memory prize
or something and it was a Starbucks gift card.
And they literally in front of the whole church
said that they could not accept
the Starbucks gift card
because the logo was too pagan.
It's like, what in the world?
Like, okay, look,
did you know that Starbucks
is not a fundamental Baptist organization?
Nor is Chipotle or Panda Express or Panera
or any of these places.
But this, and look,
I'm sure that that probably is some
mermaid or whatever it is,
but there, but, but really,
you're just got to tell the whole church,
oh, I can't accept that gift.
Just give me cash.
Well, here's the problem with the cash.
There's some demonic Illuminati dude on the,
on the cash.
Hey, if you don't like
the Starbucks logo,
you're dead sure not going to like
Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill.
He's the one who set up the central bank.
He was the one fighting
to create a central bank.
And thankfully they stopped him.
Amen.
It wasn't until 1913
that we actually got the central bank,
but Alexander Hamilton, man,
he was in bed with those bankers
and he was trying to set it up
all the way back at the founding.
That's a wicked person.
You don't want him on your money.
What do you want,
Ben Franklin on the money?
He said some obscene things.
I've read some stuff from him
that was totally ungodly.
Well, you want Thomas Jefferson,
the guy who, the guy who,
who literally removed from God's word
as a reprobate.
Am I right?
Didn't he come out with the Jefferson Bible
where he cut out whole sections of the Bible?
Is that who you want
on your gift card?
Folks, when you live in this world,
everything in this world is tainted.
Okay.
God forbid that you would talk about Sunday
or moon day or Tuesday,
which is a false pagan god,
or Odin's day or Thor's day
or Freu's day, right?
All these false gods of Scandinavian paganism.
Or you say,
ah, you're a pagan
because you go to church on Sunday.
Well, you want to go to church on Saturday?
That's a false god too.
And God forbid,
we would talk about January
with the false god Janus,
the two-faced false god Janus.
That's where we get January, right?
Or, you know,
we don't want to talk about Julius
or July or August, Augustus,
because that's men
that were literally worshiped as gods.
How dare you talk about August in my presence?
August is a false god.
July is a false god.
January is a false god.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday.
It's just like,
it's just paganism everywhere.
Folks, we live in a sinful world.
Get over it.
Everything is pagan.
Get over it, okay?
Now look,
obviously our worship of the Lord
should not be tainted by paganism.
You know,
we're not going to bring in
that Starbucks logo
and start lighting coffee-smelling incense to it
and saying,
oh, St. Starbucks pray for us.
We're not going to kiss it
and say, save us,
oh, Mother Starbucks.
That's the wrong kind of paganism.
We don't want to bring that
into our lives.
But folks,
when we're in this world,
we can't just point out
everything is just
everything's bad.
Then you know what?
You're going to end up
living in some monastery
or convent somewhere
whipping yourself
like an orthodox monk
or a catholic nun.
That's not what God called us to do,
you weirdo.
Okay?
So don't just sit there
and
but it's the holier than now
that has to just publicly do that.
Instead of just taking the gift card
and just whatever
or saying something privately,
it's just,
oh, pastor, pastor,
this is too pagan.
Yeah.
I mean, come on.
Look, I can understand
if it was actually something sinful.
But really,
the cake pops at Starbucks.
I mean, it's a sin
how much they cost.
What is it, like $3?
It's like one bite?
$2?
Isn't it like $3 sometimes?
It's like $3 for one bite.
Well, that's great
if your name's Marie Antoinette
or something,
but good night.
What in the world?
That's a sin right there.
Okay.
But you don't have to order
that sinful item.
Okay.
And look,
here's what's so funny.
When the church provides stuff
as a gift
or it's a free prize
or it's a free material
and then you complain about it.
Give me cash.
I bet that's what you do
on your birthday too, huh?
When somebody gives you a gift card.
Excuse me,
can I just get cash instead?
Can you just make out the check
to Steven Anderson instead?
It's like, you know,
it's like, come on.
Like the world just owes you a living.
Like we just owe you all these prizes
and things and stuff like that.
These holier than thou's,
I'm telling you.
And, you know,
just picking apart everybody
who doesn't hold to your
extra biblical standards.
Now look,
the Bible has a lot of rules in it.
We should follow the Bible's rules.
Amen.
You know,
we should follow the Bible's rules
in regard to our clothing.
We should follow the Bible's rules
in regard to every area of life.
But a lot of people
have their own rules
outside the Bible,
don't they?
The Pharisees had a lot of rules
outside the Bible,
but then there were also
good people in the Bible
who had rules outside the Bible.
Like for example,
the Recubites,
John Adab,
the son of Recub,
he had some rules for his family,
but the difference is
they didn't try to impose those
on other people.
So like,
we have rules in the Bible,
but then our church has like
just church rules.
They're just rules in our church,
the way we do things here.
We can't impose that
on another church though,
can we?
Or like in my house,
I have rules for my kids
that you might not have
those same rules.
I can't impose those rules on you
and force everybody to be
just like me.
Okay,
we all have to follow the Bible.
And here's the thing,
also,
you don't have to just go around
pointing out every single sin
that you see.
And you know what?
This is what a toddler does.
And it shows your spiritual maturity
when just everywhere you go,
you just with no discretion,
just blurt out every time
you see something sinful
without even thinking about
what the situation is,
without even thinking about
whether it's appropriate or not.
You know what I'm saying?
You know how kids are?
You take kids to the store
and they just blurt out,
Mom, it's beer!
Mom, look, it's wine!
Oh, Mom, look at that!
Isn't that what little kids hear?
Shh, calm down, you know.
Mom, look, that guy's got an earring!
Is that what you want
your kid yelling in public?
Now, if it's some sodomite,
fire away, kids.
You know what I mean?
Fire away.
But look,
do you really want your kids to yell,
Hey, Mom, look,
that guy's got long hair.
Look.
That's what a little baby does.
That's what a little toddler does.
They have to be taught
not to do that, right?
Hey, look, there's a time and a place.
Let's be appropriate.
Let's not just blurt that out.
But you get these
holier-than-thou type Christians
who just, anytime anything's a sin,
they just blurt it out.
They just point out,
Hey, look at that.
What they're trying to do
is deflect from themselves.
Hey, look what they're doing!
Look at that!
Look at that, right?
Okay, and look,
don't be the holier-than-thou.
And I gotta hurry
because I'm out of time.
You could really park it on this point.
You could park it on any of these three points,
to be honest.
But, you know,
think about,
don't be that guy
on the reservation soul-winning trip
who just says,
No lunch break.
All work.
All soul-winning.
No food.
Don't be that guy, all right?
Why?
Because having fellowship,
having fun,
is part of the trip.
Relaxing, taking a break.
You know what?
Even Jesus took aside his disciples
to say, Hey, let's take a break for a while.
Sometimes when they were just doing too much
and they needed to relax,
I was just reading my Bible
in the book of Mark a couple days ago,
where he takes them and says,
Hey, let's rest, okay?
The point is,
when you're on a missions trip,
you know,
not everybody is at the same spiritual level,
number one.
Not everybody has the same stamina.
Not everybody has the same spiritual growth.
And frankly,
not everybody is just a masochistic person
who just wants to just suffer all day, every day,
and just talk until their throat bleeds every day.
Because we got to get one more person out of hell.
Now look,
if you want to go out and preach the gospel
until you drop,
go for it.
But you know what?
I'm still going to be here 10 years from now.
You know, if I'm still alive,
you know,
God willing,
because I don't know what's going to be on tomorrow,
but if I'm still alive,
you know,
God willing,
Hey,
I'll still be here 10 years from now.
I've been doing this for over 30 years,
the Christian life,
and I'm going to keep going
and keep going,
keep going.
You know,
you see these people that are super zealous,
super zealous,
and then they're gone.
Okay,
so,
and look,
I don't want to throw,
and I always want to be careful
when I bring up this point,
because I don't want to throw a wet blanket on those
who are super zealous,
because I want you to be super zealous,
right?
And if somebody's a soul winning superstar,
if somebody's a soul winning MVP,
if somebody's out there doing a ton of sewing,
the last thing I want to do is slow them down
or throw a wet blanket on them.
They know their limitations,
but the problem is when they try to impose that
on other people,
that's where it becomes a problem.
And a lot of these people on these missions trips,
whether it's a foreign missions trip
or whether it's a domestic missions trip,
what they'll do is,
instead of just going out and doing the extra sewing,
like,
hey, anybody want to come with me
to do some extra soul winning?
You know,
I'm going to head out.
Sure, let's go.
You know,
that's okay.
But,
but they'll just be like,
what's the matter?
You don't care about souls?
What's the matter?
You don't,
you don't love people?
I mean,
that's wicked,
friend.
And you know what?
You know,
when people are treated that way,
you know,
it's going to make them never want to come back.
And then less souls are going to get saved in the long run.
When you take people,
run them into the ground,
they're not going to want to go on the missions trip.
If you know what,
I'd rather do a little less soul winning.
Everybody has an awesome time
and everybody's like,
when's the next one?
When's the next one?
Look,
these Mexico soul winning trips that we've done,
look,
I can't even count how many people are begging.
When's the next Mexico trip?
You know why they're asking?
Because everybody had a good time.
So everybody wants to come back
because everybody had fun.
Now,
did we do a lot of soul winning on the Mexico trip?
We did like four or five hours of soul winning a day.
Okay.
That's a lot of soul winning
and it was super receptive.
We got hundreds of people saved.
You know,
we had a crew of what would we have?
Like 50 people down there?
So winning or something like this.
45 people.
I don't know.
There's a bunch of people.
We got a ton of people saved.
Ton of work done.
Everybody had a great time
and I just can't stop listening to just
when are we doing it again?
When are we doing it again?
That's what I want.
I want people hungry for more.
Not like,
well,
this is the last mission strip I've ever going on.
Faithful word runs you into the ground.
And we,
we have a Mexico trip coming up in October
and we have a Mexico trip coming in December.
I guarantee you,
people are going to sign up for those trips
because they're fun.
Because we have a great time.
We get people saved.
But you know,
that's what we want to do.
We want people to stay in it for the long haul
and we don't want to just be a holier than thou
that doesn't understand that eating a meal together
is what the Bible wants us to do as well.
Doesn't the Bible also talk a little bit about that?
Getting together,
breaking bread,
fellowship.
Hey,
they continued in fellowship
and in the apostles doctrine.
So instead of just being a holier than thou
that can only do spiritual activities,
why don't you eat and drink for the glory of God?
Amen?
Everything you do,
you can do to the glory of God.
So have a little fun,
have some fellowship,
take it easy,
pace yourself,
and look,
obviously,
yeah,
there are some mission strips that abuse this
where basically they just go
and it's just a big vacation
and they barely even give the gospel to anyone.
But look,
when you're given the gospel for four or five hours a day,
that's not even close to being a vacation.
That's hard work.
That's exhausting to be out preaching for four to five hours.
You've done your duty.
Okay,
now look,
some people go on mischief.
They go for six,
seven,
eight hours a day.
Great.
You know what?
I'm not one of them.
I go for five hours,
soul-winning,
I'm done.
And if that makes me a bad soul-winner in your sight,
you holier than thou,
then so be it.
You can look down your nose at Pastor Anderson
as being so lame
because he only spends five hours out soul-winning
on a mission strip.
Folks,
that's plenty of time,
okay?
And if you don't think so,
then why don't you go start a church
and have your own mission strip
and you can decide that everybody goes 16 hours a day soul-winning
when you're the pastor.
But you know,
I'm the leader here
and that's what I've set down as like,
okay,
here's a schedule that makes sense.
Here's something that's doable.
Let's have an hour and a half for lunch.
Amen.
Why?
Because we're brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let's have some fellowship.
Let's relax.
Let's be refreshed.
Let's not get burned out.
Let's enjoy it.
Hey,
if we go down there with a group of 50 people,
get several hundred people saved
or 250 people saved or whatever,
it's like,
good night.
Is there a problem?
Something wrong?
Nothing's wrong except with you.
If you pick things apart like that.
Okay.
So I got to shut this down,
but number one,
don't be the gossip tail bearer.
Number two,
don't be the sycophant stalker.
Okay.
Treat me like a normal person in your heart
and in your,
the way that you act.
And number three,
don't be the holier than thou over spiritual,
trying to get attention with how hyper spiritual you are.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord,
please help this message to sink in Lord God
and help everyone to take to heart the biblical principles
that were laid out here about tail bearing and backbiting
about respecting the pastor's work,
but not obsessing over his personality.
Also Lord,
just about not being a holier than thou and pontificating,
but rather to be humble and meek
and understand that we live in a sinful world.
We're in the world,
but not of the world and Lord God,
I just pray that you would just bless our church
help it to continue to grow and help us to all endeavor
to keep the unity and the spirit of the bond of peace.
And in Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.