Welcome to Faithful Word Baptist Church.
It's such a pleasure to have you all here
for our Sunday morning service.
Find your seats, please, and take a song book.
Go to hymn number 227.
We'll begin this morning.
Hymn number 227.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.
Hymn number 227.
Once you all find your place,
we'll begin together on that first note.
227.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.
227.
We'll sing it out now.
Stay by the blood of...
If I won, glory, I'm saved, glory, I'm saved. My sins are all parted, my guilt is all gone.
is blessing on the service so I've asked for the Jason Furbey if we could do some
prayer please. Thank you Father Faith, we're Baptist Church. Thank you for the
opportunity here you're holding your precious word. I ask you to bless the
music that is pleasing to your ears. I pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Amen.
Back to hymn number 22. Hymn number 22. Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Hymn number 22.
Are your garments clothless, are they white as snow?
Are you washing the blood of the Lamb?
Are you walking daily by the Savior's sign?
Are you washing the blood of the Lamb?
Lifting blood on the land.
Are your garments spotless?
Arming white as snow.
Are you washing the blood on the land?
When the bridegroom cometh,
Will your robes be white?
Are you washing the blood?
20 blood of the land.
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washing the blood of the land?
Inside the garments that are stained with sin
And be washed in the blood of the land
There's a fountain flowing for the soul
But we will be washed in the blood of the land
are they white as snow?
Are you washing the blood of the land?
Thank you, St.
All right, this time we'll go ahead
and go through our announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin,
slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service times.
Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our
preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week we'll be in Psalm.
73, so the book of Psalms is divided into five books.
In the past, we've already done books one and two,
so we're jumping in now with book three
of the book of Psalms,
and so that is starting with Psalm 73 this Wednesday night.
That's our new Bible study
since we finished up with Second Chronicles.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below,
as well as Salvation and Baptisms.
Across the page, we've got the birthdays
and anniversaries for the month of March.
Also, there's a soul-winning opportunity coming up this Friday
in downtown Phoenix at an event called First Friday,
that's March 7th, 6 p.m. The meetup is at
Burton Bar Phoenix Public Library. Steve Tilson is the one that you're gonna want
to contact his hands up back there if you're not sure who that is.
So, Brother Steve Tilton is the one who has organized this. Last time is a big
success.
12 soul winners went out there and had 12 salvations.
And so that's a really great result.
One caveat, there were some people who had expressed
some concern about, it's some kind of an art festival thing.
And so, yeah, there's gonna be some weird art
and weird displays that you're gonna wanna avoid.
So just sort of buyer beware that, you know,
watch out for that stuff or if you're not comfortable
with that, obviously you don't have to show up
to this event, there's plenty of door-to-door
soul winning opportunities we have.
But, you know, if you want to go to this, it is a place where you can get a lot of people saved.
You just got to, you know, avoid those things and, and, exactly.
All right, let's move on.
On the back.
Ladies mark the calendar now for our annual mother-daughter tea party at the Spicery in Glendale
And so this is for all ladies and girls to attend. You don't have to be with your mother
You don't have to be with your daughter, but you are gonna need to sign up
And so we haven't opened up the sign up for this yet,
but be thinking about it, plan your schedule,
and hopefully you can pick one of these dates
that'll work for you, either April the 27th or May 4th.
And in either case, this is something that happens
on Sunday afternoon after the morning service.
And so keep that in mind.
And then congratulations to the Roe family
on the birth of baby Phoebe, born February 28th.
301 AM, weighing eight pounds, five ounces,
and measuring 19 inches.
Boy, this font is really kind of pushing me
to my limit here of having to just sight read this thing.
But congratulations, great picture.
Be sure to congratulate them.
Other upcoming events, we've got Brother Corbin Russell,
our very own Pastor Corbin Russell preaching for us,
not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday night.
So this Wednesday will be in Psalm 73.
Next Wednesday night, we will have Pastor Corbyn Russell
from Straight Pads Baptist Church down in Tucson
as our guest preacher.
Later this month is a big, exciting,
soul-winning mission trip.
I'm super excited to hear the results from this thing.
The Bahamas cruise mission trip
got over 20 people signed up.
and go into one of the most receptive places in the world.
And I've been soul-winning a lot of places.
And I have found Nassau, Bahamas to be the best place
that I have ever gone soul-winning anywhere.
Like when you consider all factors,
it's the most receptive best place to go soul-winning.
And so be praying that everything goes well, right?
Because we want God to really bless this trip
and we want to get a maximum fruit.
maximum result out of this trip and so just pray that God works everything out with logistics and
everything so that everybody safely makes it to the field and is able to put in a great deal of
soul winning and everybody's you know feeling good and having energy and feeling strong and be able
to do their best out there soul winning because honestly it's a great opportunity for to you
know to drop 20 of the best soul winners in the world in the best soul winning spot in the world
And so I'm looking forward to hearing about that.
Then April the 9th, we've got Pastor Bruce Mejia
preaching for us.
That just was put on the calendar a few days ago.
So mark the calendar for that one.
And then KJV conference in May up in Vancouver, Washington.
That is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right you should find the insert in front of your hymnal with the song entitled for me to live as Christ
If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand
And you'll receive one
For being a li'livest Christ in Isaiah, sing it out
Oh, my friend, like walking in his will, for me to live, his price to die is gain.
Thus my heart was full of sin and shame, till someone told me Jesus made to sin.
When he said a lot to me, he said, my poor heart free, for me to live, his price to die is gain.
There are things that I still do not know
But of this one thing I'm completely sure
That he who called me on that day
Washed all my sins away for me to live
His price tonight is paid
me a blessing. Hymn number three hundred and thirty-four.
the sunshine where darkness is bright, making the star-roaring glad.
Make me a blessing.
to someone today.
Tell the sweet story of Christ and his blood,
tell of his power to forgive.
Others will trust him if only you prove
true every moment you live.
God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you.
Isaiah chapter number 26, as we always do read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1.
Isaiah 26, follow along silently with Brother Corbin Brock as he reads, Isaiah 26.
Isaiah 26, in that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.
We have a strong city, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.
Trust thee in the Lord, for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.
For he bringeth down them that dwell on high, the lofty city he layeth it low,
he layeth it low even to the ground, he bringeth it even to the dust.
The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
The way of the just is uprightness. Thou most upright dost weigh the path of the just.
Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee.
The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee.
With my soul have I desired thee in the night. Yea,
with my spirit within me will I seek thee early, for when thy judgments are on the earth,
the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Let favor be showed to the wicked yet. Will he not learn righteousness in the land of uprightness?
Will he deal on right unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord?
Lord when thy hand is lifted up
They will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people yay the fire of thine enemies shall devour them
Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, but by thee only will
we make mention of thy name.
They are dead, they shall not live, they are deceased, they shall not rise, therefore
hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation, thou art glorified.
thou hath removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.
Lord, in trouble have they visited thee.
They poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
Like as a woman with child that droth near the time of her delivery
is in pain and cryeth out in her pangs.
So have we been in thy sight, O Lord.
We have been with child. We have been in pain. We have as it were brought forth wind
We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen
Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise
Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust for thy do is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead
Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thyself as it were
for a little moment until the indignation be overpassed.
For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain."
Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for this beautiful day that You've given us.
We ask that You would give Pastor Anderson wisdom as he preaches to us.
We pray, Lord, these teachings would sink deep down into our ears.
And we set this time before You and ask for Your blessing now in Jesus' name.
We pray, Amen.
Men, this morning we're continuing to talk about the fruit of the Spirit.
We've been doing this since last Sunday.
We talked about love and joy.
Of course, the Bible verse that this is based on is Galatians 5 verse 22, but the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law.
peace. Now peace can either be internal or external, right? When we talk about having
peace, we could be talking about peace inside your heart, or we could be talking about peace
externally with other people.
And in this verse, it's primarily inner peace that's in view here when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit in our heart, being loved, joy, peace, etc.
Where you just were there in Isaiah 26, it says in verse number 3,
that will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusted in thee.
And today there are so many people stressed out, worried,
anxious, and there are all kinds of news headlines we could look at about how there's just an
all-time high in the United States of America. This generation is more worried, more anxious,
more stressed out than any previous generation, and I'm here to tell you that a big part of that
is that we are getting away from the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, and the fruit of the Spirit
is peace, and if we don't have the Lord Jesus Christ ruling and reigning, and if we don't have
the Holy Spirit's fullness in our lives,
well then, yeah, there's not gonna be peace, is there?
And so I think that's a big part of it.
Now as I talked about in the Joy Sermon last Sunday night,
yeah, there is obviously a physical component,
there is a psychological component,
but the spiritual component is the big one.
And if you really want to invest in something
to have peace in your life,
you're going to get the most dividends
from investing on the spiritual side.
And so the Bible promises
that God will keep him in perfect peace.
whose mind has stayed on him because he trusts in him, right?
If we keep our focus on the things of God, we're going to have perfect peace.
Whereas our society, as it drifts further and further from God,
there's going to be less and less peace in the hearts of God's people,
let alone the unsaved who don't even have the Holy Spirit in the first place.
But flip over if you would to Isaiah chapter 57.
You're already there in chapter 26.
So just flip to the right a few pages to Isaiah 57.
While you're turning there. I'm going to read you a few verses Romans 15 13 says this now the God of hope
Fill you with all
joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope
Through the power of the Holy Ghost and so not only do we have that fruit of the Spirit list
But the Apostle Paul elsewhere says that joy and peace come through the power of the Holy Ghost
Psalm 4 verse 7 we talked about this one last week in the joy sermon thou has put gladness in my heart
More than in the time that their corn and their wine increased, right?
But then he says I will both lay me down in peace
And sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety."
So again, when he talks about being in peace here, he's talking about being able to sleep
at night because he's not stressed out about anything, he's not worried about anything,
he's not anxious about anything, and even if ten thousands of people will encamp themselves
around about him, he says, I'm not going to fear because God is with me, I can go to sleep
at night, I rest assured.
And of course, we think about the Lord Jesus Christ when he's on that ship and they're
going across the Sea of Galilee and everybody's panicking, everybody's freaking out in the
midst of a serious storm.
Where's Jesus?
He's in the bottom of the ship asleep, perfectly at peace.
And he even rebukes the disciples and says, how is it that you have no faith?
Why are you so stressed out?
Why are you so worried?
Where is your faith?
He says in Luke's account.
Isaiah 57.
is going to show us that living a life in the flesh,
living a sinful life is going to rob you of your peace.
Look what the Bible says in verse 19 there.
I create the fruit of the lips.
Peace, peace to him that is far off
and to him that is near, sayeth the Lord,
and I will heal him, right?
So God can fix you.
God can give you peace.
God can take away your anxiety.
But the wicked are like the troubled sea
whose waters cast up mire and dirt, there is no peace, sayeth my God, to the wicked."
Right? You're not going to have peace when you're out there living a sinful, wicked, ungodly life.
If you're walking with God, God's blessing you, your mind stayed on him, that's how you
can overcome a lot of the worry, stress, and anxiety in your life.
And look, I think this is something that we all deal with in our modern society because
in some ways our lives can be a little bit stressful and our lives can be complicated
in a lot of ways and we can be stressed out, worried.
We need peace.
I mean, I don't know about you.
I want this in my life.
Just the love alone is worth the price of admission, right?
Just to have joy.
But man, peace, that's another big one, isn't it?
That we all want in our lives.
Well, it's like everybody wants it,
but everybody's looking for it the wrong way.
Right? We've got to get right with God.
That's how we're going to have these things in our lives.
But the Bible says, you know, in this passage that the wicked they're like the troubled sea when it cannot rest
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt and the thing is if you go to the ocean if you go to beaches
There will be those beaches that are really clear and pristine
and you can just see all the little fishies swimming around
and it might have a beautiful like blue tint or a green tint.
You know if you don't know I'm talking about sign up for one of these mission strips you'll
figure it out. But then you know you go to other places
and it'll be the same ocean but it'll just be brown.
You know like when we go to Guyana on mission strips for example
and we go to Georgetown Guyana you know you got a beautiful beach
And it looks very unappealing because of the fact that a lot of dirt and mire has been cast up.
It's been stirred up.
And the same thing with rivers and streams, right?
You'll have these really clear streams and then other streams that are just brown.
Why are they brown?
Because the dirt and the mire has been cast up.
And so when we think about peace, the sea is a great illustration of this.
It's just like glass. It's like crystal where you have just a smooth lake
But then you have on the other hand
Raging waves of the sea
Foaming out their own shape, you know
You have that illustration of a lack of peace and what the Bible is saying here is that wicked people are never gonna
Be able to have peace in their hearts because of the fact that you know peace comes from God
He's the prince of peace peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit
They're like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
And so people whose life, for example, flip over if you went to Ecclesiastes chapter 5,
just a couple books to the left in your Bible, people whose life is dominated by the love
of money, for example, they have no peace.
Right?
People, instead of living for God, instead of having their minds stayed on the Lord, they're
just obsessed on the things of this world, notably money, riches, prosperity, they're
not going to have any peace.
Look what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 10, He that loveth silver shall not
be satisfied with silver.
Nor he that loveth abundance with increase.
This is also vanity.
There's no satisfaction in chasing after the Almighty Dollar.
Look at verse 11, when goods increase,
they're increased that eat them.
And what good is there to the owners thereof,
save the beholding of them with their eyes?
You know, so they amass all these riches,
and they have all these houses, and cars, and fancy clothes.
And at the end of the day, what good are they,
except you just get to look at them,
just the beholding of them with your eyes.
Oh, wow, you get to look at your 20-card,
you can't even...
drive them all. You don't have time to drive them all. You don't have time to live in all
these houses. And at the end of the day, whether I'm living in a big house or a small house,
if you've got your own bed to sleep in, then you're probably going to be comfortable and
you're probably going to be fine. You might even be comfortable sharing a bed. But the
point is that
The lifestyle of the rich and famous it really isn't what it's cracked up to be. It's not that great
It doesn't bring them inner peace or fulfilling joy or happiness
You know and and people think oh if I just had some more money then I could be at peace
You know, I'm just stressed out because of money
I'm just stressed out and I'm worried about money if I had a bunch of money
I wouldn't be so worried or stressed out. That's not really the way life works
Okay, because people who have a bunch of money, they just stress out about something else.
They're just worried about something else.
Look what the Bible says in verse 12.
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much.
But the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
Another way of saying that would be, the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
Okay, now, I don't know about you, but my sleep is super important to me.
You know, I make it a huge priority to get enough sleep.
I sleep for eight hours virtually every night,
and if I miss any sleep, I try to make it up later.
Okay, because I find that I can get more done with,
you know, with the 16 hours in the day,
if I get that good eight hours of sleep,
I'm gonna be more productive and get more done
than if I only sleep for five, six hours,
and then I have more time.
But I'm less productive and so if you're working with your brain, it's important that you get enough sleep
It's good for your health. It's good for your mood like I'm very big on getting enough sleep
And you know one of the worst feelings in the world the worst is to be laying in bed
And you're super tired and you can't fall asleep. Isn't it horrible? It's torture and
By the way evil governments and regimes they literally torture people by not letting them sleep
You know, they keep him awake for days and days and as soon as they start to fall asleep,
they shake him awake up.
That's a form of torture because it's horrible and any of you who have dealt with insomnia
or struggling to fall asleep, you know that this is one of the worst things.
It's terrible.
It really just messes with you and it ruins your whole day and it's one of the worst things.
And so when I read this, you know, the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
Count me and then I don't want to be rich if being rich means that I'm stressed out and so worried about my money
Because folks, let me tell you something if you got nothing you got nothing to lose and these people that are rich
They have a lot to lose and then they just stress and worry about how they can hang on to all their money
So on the one end of the spectrum spectrum you have the very poor person
He's stressed and worried because he doesn't know where his next meals gonna come from so he's stressed out
Then you have the rich person. He's stressed out because he's like, oh man, I got all these millions of dollars
You know, what if I lose it? How do I hang on to it?
Who am I going to leave it to for the next part? And there's all these worries about being you know
A good investor of this money and blah blah blah. That's why we should strive as Proverbs chapter 30 teaches
Just for that middle way of life where we're neither poor nor rich
Because being stressed out to where you can't sleep
Sounds horrible. Sounds like torture. You can keep your money
Because I think that I would pay any amount of money to be able to sleep well at night
If that was a problem in my life, I'd be willing to give up the money so I can sleep well at night
Well, how do you sleep well at night? You have peace
You walk with God, you have your mind stayed on the Lord,
you focus on the things of God, and obviously there are practical tips to help you fall asleep at night
if you're struggling with that as a medical problem or whatever.
But my point is though, I don't want to compound any physical or psychological problems
by having a spiritual problem that doesn't let me sleep at night.
You know, and I find that God gives his beloved sleep, right?
What does the Bible say?
It's vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of stars, for so
he giveth his beloved sleep.
Sleep is a blessing from God.
Peace is the fruit of the spirit and the last thing I want to do is be in a situation
Where I can't sleep at night because I have a bad conscience or because I have too much money
Or because my mind is on all the wrong things and again, I'm not chastising if you can't sleep at night
I feel bad for you. I've gone through it. Everybody's gone through it, you know there and you know
Contact the church if you're having trouble sleep. I can give you some tips on sleeping besides the spiritual tips
But again, the spiritual is the big one
Spiritual is the big one, okay?
It's the most important thing.
And it trumps everything else.
Obviously we want to take care of the physical
and psychological things as well.
But the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6, you don't have to turn there, but it says,
Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches,
but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, right?
Having your trust in the Lord gives you peace.
Trusting in money, even if you have tons of money, even if you have a great portfolio,
according to the Bible, it doesn't give you peace.
The abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep,
whereas the sleep of a laboring man is sweet.
You know, whether he's little or much,
he can have lots of money, little bit of money,
lots of food, little bit of food,
but at the end of the day, working hard,
you can sleep at night because you're tired,
because you worked hard all day,
and it makes you tired, and that helps you go to sleep.
And so, in many ways, you're going to be happier
than, say, for example, Michael Jackson.
You know, if you think about Michael Jackson, he's a super wealthy guy, super famous guy
that a lot of people would look up to as being just, oh, he's so great, so wonderful and everything,
but the guy could not sleep at night, to the point where he had a literal doctor, like
Putting him under at night, you know, like when you go to surgery and they put you under with anesthesia
He had a literal
Anesthesiologist in his house and
anesthetizing him so that he could go to sleep at night
Right want oh boy. I'd love to have that life, you know
I want my nose to fall off too
You know God doesn't bless these wicked people these ungodly people who get their riches
By you say well, you know why are you why are you on Michael this morning?
You know what I remember this goes this goes way back for me this goes back a really long time for me
I was four years old. Okay, it all goes back to when I was four years old
I went to kindergarten a year early.
So I was with the five-year-olds, but I was four,
and I went to kindergarten,
and I came home from the first day of kindergarten,
and I told my parents, I said,
mom, dad, I said, there's a kid at school
who keeps grabbing his private and saying,
I wanna be Michael Jackson when I grow up.
And they said, stay away from that kid.
And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna stay away from that kid.
Okay, so this goes way back for me, all right?
So I was warned about Michael Jackson in the early days.
You know, some guy who makes a living, grabbing himself,
making obscene gestures, right?
Let alone all the other things
that we found out later that he was doing, right?
This is a wicked person.
It's a sinful, ungodly, wicked person,
Jehovah's Witness into the bargain.
When you have to be anesthetized to go to bed at night,
you're not living a blessed life.
You don't have peace in your heart.
You're not walking in the Spirit.
You're not filled with the Holy Spirit.
And I would never want to trade places
with people living that kind of lifestyle.
And I'm glad I listened to my parents
and stayed away from that kid who wanted to be
Michael Jackson when he grows up.
He's probably a Michael Jackson impersonator in Vegas right now.
I don't know. Maybe he did grow up to become Michael Jackson.
I don't know.
But the Bible says in Philippians chapter 4, and if you would flip over to John chapter 16,
John chapter 16, but the Bible says in Philippians 4 verse 6,
be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God.
And so when the Bible says be careful for nothing, it's saying don't have a lot of care about something, don't worry about anything, don't have anxiety, don't be stressed out about anything, be careful for nothing, meaning like full of care and worry, concern.
He says be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.
the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. So the Bible says look if we stop stressing stop
worrying and just pray about everything and just let our request be made known
unto God being thankful with thanksgiving just let him know our request then we
can just sleep at night and just go to bed and just realize hey you know what the
ball is in God's court.
It's in God's hands now, we've given it over to the Lord, we've
tell him about our problems, tell him what we're worried about and then it says
the peace of God
and watch this, the peace of God which passes all understanding.
We'll keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Look, the peace of God passes all understanding
meaning that those who are saved Christians
But not only that, they're also filled with the Spirit.
They're also walking in the Spirit.
They have a peace that other people can't even process.
They can't even understand it.
They don't even know what we're talking about.
They don't get it.
Because they've never been a saved Christian
who's walking with God,
who's given everything over to the Lord in prayer
and just fully trusting in God.
His mind has stayed on the Lord.
That's a peace that passes all understanding,
according to the Bible.
They don't get it. They don't understand it, but you know those that have lived that life have experienced it
The Bible also says in Psalm 119 165 great peace have they which love thy law and
Nothing shall offend them great peace have they which love God's law and nothing
Shall offend them now Jesus taught the exact same thing in John 16 where I just had you turn
We'll look at that in a moment, but in this context offended means
Cause to sin or cause to fall away. It's it's sort of a different meaning of offended than we're normally thinking of
So when the Bible says,
great peace have they which love thy law
and nothing shall offend them,
it's saying nothing is gonna sort of knock them off
of their course of serving God.
You know, they're serving God, they're living for God,
they're serious about things of God.
They're not gonna be offended like knocked out of that course
and cause to fail, cause to fall away, cause to sin.
And if you look up the word offend
throughout the King James Bible,
you'll see it used that way a lot in fact.
Like for example, the famous verse,
you know, if thy right, I offend thee.
pluck it out and cast it from the the idea there if I write a Fendi is talking about
It's not saying that you're you know your right eye made it
You know a racial joke that you weren't comfortable with or something
What you know when the Bible says if I write I offend thee it's saying your right eye is like leading you into sin
Okay, it talks about like offending these little ones.
It means causing them to, you know, fall away from serving God or causing them to go off
into sin or something to get off the right path.
And so, you know, for example, the Bible talks about the seed in the parable of the sower.
that was sown in stony places, and it says that that person does not have a root in himself,
but doereth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word,
by and by he's offended.
You know, so the Christian who does not have their root down,
any little persecution or tribulation, and they're offended, like, oh man, I'm quitting.
I'm out.
I'm quitting the church. I'm not serving God anymore.
I can't believe this happened to me.
Look at John chapter 16. We'll see Jesus taught the same thing as Psalms.
It says in verse 1,
He's saying, look, I don't want you to be offended when the persecution and tribulation comes.
Look, these things are going to happen.
They're going to put you out of the synagogues.
He that killeth you will think that he's doing God of service.
Then we get to Bill Clinton's favorite verse, John 16.3.
And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me.
You're saying, look, they're going to do these things to you because they're wicked,
they're going to persecute you, I'm warning you in advance about these things so that
when they happen, you won't freak out, you won't be offended, you won't quit, you won't
fall away because look, when bad things come at us, it's a lot easier to deal with them
if we're prepared for them.
When we're surprised, that's when it's really hard to deal with things.
That's why God's constantly warning us about how all who live godly in Christ Jesus will
suffer persecution.
But look at verse 33, you know, we could read the whole chapter, of course, but jumping
into verse 33, we get to the conclusion.
It says, these things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace.
In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world.
So this is an interesting, Psalm said, great peace have they which love thy law, nothing
shall offend them.
And then he says, in me, you will have peace.
In the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
I've overcome the world.
And so there's great peace.
loving the law of God, loving the word of God, having your mind fixed upon the
things of God so that even if the world is coming down around you and you're in
the midst of tribulation and affliction and severe persecution, you can still
have peace.
God can give you peace. Jesus can give you peace. You can be of good cheer knowing. Well, you know what?
Christ has already overcome the world. We're on the winning side weeping may endure for the night
But joy cometh in the morning
And so there's a lot of peace in that that can help us sleep at night.
Now if you want to go to James chapter 3, James chapter 3 toward the very end of the New Testament, James chapter 3.
So, so far we've been focused on the internal component of peace, right?
Inner peace, peace in your heart where you can be surrounded by enemies but you have peace.
Low on money still have peace. Relationships falling apart still have peace. No money in the bank, no job.
You have peace because you're trusting in the Lord and you know that God has always come through for you in the past.
He's going to come through for you in the future and you've already made your request made known unto God.
And now you can just relax and have the peace of God that passes all understanding.
Keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
But I'm here to tell you this morning also that inner peace also leads to peace with others
Whereas envy and discontentment in your heart leads to conflict with others, right?
So when you're not at peace within yourself and you are just thinking about everything that you don't have and all the things that are wrong and
And you're looking at other people and you're envying them and you're bothered by everyone else and you're discontented in your own heart
That's going to lead to conflict with others. Whereas peace in your heart will lead to peace with others, right?
What goes on in our heart ends up manifesting
Look at verse 14, the Bible says in James 3, 14,
but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts,
glory not and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
And if you think about the word sensual, does that sound like the work of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit?
Because in Galatians chapter 5, you have this contrast between the works of the flesh
the fruit of the Spirit. So the one who is earthly sounds like they're walking in
the flesh. Sensual, that sounds like the flesh, right? Devilish, obviously, when you
are not walking in the Spirit and you're living a life of sin, right? You're
following the will of the devil in that sense. And so that wisdom that
Thinks it's okay to have all this bitter envying and strife in your heart. That's not from above. That is
Earthly sensual devil is for where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work people have envy in their hearts
They end up doing evil deeds
Evil work, confusion in every reward.
Here's what's funny, is on the one hand,
you'll have effective servants of God
doing good works for God,
having a unified, peaceful church
that gets along with one another
and producing spiritual fruits for the kingdom of God,
and be like, ah, you're so envious,
oh, you have so much strife.
It's like, no, that's not the way it works.
Because where envy and strife is,
there's confusion in every evil work.
So, when you have a fruitful, effective, righteous church doing great works for God, it's because
there's not envy and strife there.
But then when you see a bunch of just harmful, evil people lashing out with lies and slander
and garbage trash talk, you know, that's where the envy and strife is.
Those are the people that are earthly, sensual, devilish.
That's why they don't produce good works.
Right? You know, I talked about this recently, this foolish teaching or foolish idea that says,
oh man, that church does a ton of soul winning, wins a ton of people to Christ, but it's a bad church.
News flash, bad churches don't win a ton of people to Christ. Bad people don't win a ton of people
to Christ. That's stupid. That doesn't make any sense. And I'm not going to repreach that sermon
But the Bible says here but the wisdom that is from above is first, pure, then peaceable,
gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy,
and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
And so what we see here is that on the one hand we have people that are envious and strife-filled in their hearts.
And then on the other hand, we have the fruit of righteousness being sown in peace of them
that make peace.
So we have peaceful people and then we have envious people.
These are the two things.
And we're going to see this more in the next couple of verses.
But first I want to point out in verse 17, it says, the wisdom that is from above is
first, pure, then peaceable.
What the Bible is not saying is, hey, peace at all costs.
No, obviously, we need to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Obviously, there are things that we are not going to compromise on.
There are biblical truths that we must stand on, that we must fight for and obviously there's a biblical example of calling out false prophets who are teaching damnable heresy and so forth like we have all that in scripture and so we don't want to just say peace over everything, peace at all costs.
No, it's first pure then peaceable. That's the order, right? First, pure. It's more important to have doctrinal purity.
Okay, it's more important to be pure in our lives than to just have peace.
Just, well, let's just get along with everybody.
So let's just say that, you know, Muslims are worshiping the same God as we are,
and let's just say that Jews are worshiping the same God,
and we can all just sort of, you know, have peace.
No, there's got to be purity.
The wisdom that's from above is first pure, then peaceable.
So we've got to get that order right.
So we don't sacrifice purity for peace.
But peace is a virtue.
We should strive for peace. We should seek peace.
And what you'll find is that the people that have peace in their hearts,
they're going to be able to have peace with other people as well.
Whereas the people who have bitter envy and strife in their hearts,
they're not going to be able to get along with anybody.
Now, of course, we have this chapter division,
but we don't ever want to see the chapter divisions in the Bible
as a really hard break, right?
Because, first of all, these chapter divisions in the New Testament
are not even part of the original text, right?
The chapter divisions were added centuries after the New Testament was written,
and so sometimes the chapter divisions are a hard break, but usually they're not.
And so usually you would do well to read from the end of one chapter right into the beginning of the next.
And this is one of those examples because we just finished talking about, you know, having bitter envying and strife in your hearts
versus the wisdom that's from above, which is first pure then peaceable and people who make peace and so forth.
But then we roll directly into chapter four and what does it say?
From whence come wars and fighting among you?
Now, wouldn't you say that wars and fighting are the opposite of peace?
And again, we've switched from talking about inner peace to what?
Outer peace, external peace, peace with other people.
So he says, from whence come wars and fighting is among you?
Where is a lack of peace coming from?
Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members?
So here's what he's saying.
Warfare externally is a manifestation of an internal warfare, right?
envying and strife in your heart, and then that manifests towards you fighting with everybody,
not getting along with anybody.
Whereas again, having inner peace is going to manifest in being able to be a team player,
being able to get along with people.
Peace starts inside, works its way out.
Envy and strife starts in your heart, works its way out.
You lust and have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight in war yet
You have not because you ask not you ask and receive not because you ask a mist that you may consume it upon your lusts
And so again, we see a person who is not satisfied in their heart. They're not content
They don't have the peace of God which passes all understanding
Therefore they're lashing out at other people and fighting with everyone around them
But then he says this.
He says,
You adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity
with God, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
And the idea here is that we're not saying that you're going to be friends with everybody.
The Bible is not saying be everyone's friend, be everyone's buddy, because he says you don't
want to be a friend of the world, that could make you an enemy of God.
So we don't have to be friends with everybody, but what we do need to do is strive to live
a quiet and peaceable life, as the Bible says.
Strive to live a peaceable life.
And in the local church, we must have peace in order to be an effective team.
And in order for us to have unity and peace as a church,
we need to each individually have peace in our hearts.
Because you could drop somebody into this environment,
which is a very peaceful environment.
Our church is one of the most unified churches I've ever seen.
We have very great unity on doctrine, on soul winning,
on purpose, I mean, we are on the same page around here,
buddy.
We are on the same page. It's great to have a team where there's real team spirit and a real
attitude of camaraderie and unity and so forth. You could drop in a person with strife in their heart though and
they're not going to be able to get along and just gel and be a part of the team.
They're going to end up clashing with everyone and the problem's not us. The problem's them.
The Bible says in Romans 12, 18, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably
with all men.
Right?
We're supposed to strive to live peaceably with all men.
The Bible says in Matthew 5, 9, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called
the children of God.
Right?
And I think the best definition for a peacemaker is someone who takes two people that are striving
with one another and is able to set them at one again.
Right the person who instead of coming in and throwing wood onto the fire and throwing gasoline onto the strife fire
they will actually come along and try to actually resolve things make peace and
Actually get people on the same page and try to produce unity try to put out fires and diffuse these
Fights rather than trying to rile people up and make things worse
You know again the Bible says in 1st Timothy 2 1 that it's God's will
You know that we live a quiet and peaceable life says in 1st Timothy 2 to
Now here's the thing if we have peace and unity in the local church
We're gonna be more effective at getting people saved look at 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3
You know the Bible said
That we may lead a quiet in 1 Timothy 2 it said that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness and honesty
For this is good and acceptable on the side of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge
Of truth so God wants all men to be saved. God wants all men to come to the knowledge of the truth and
he says
God wants us to live in quiet and peaceable life
Because really the end game is he wants people to get saved
And if we're using all our energy on strife and fighting and bitterness, right, then we're not going to be able to be as effective at getting people saved.
Because we're so tied up in and distracted by all of the internal fighting.
And again, we're not supposed to even try to get along with the whole world, that's just a fool's errand.
You're not going to get along with every person out there in this world, and we don't have to get along with every church.
Because obviously there are churches out there that are wicked and we don't want anything to do with them
and no, we don't want to get along with them. We don't want to have unity with them.
But we want to have this unity within our local body here. We want to have unity in our house.
We want to have unity in the local church. We want to as much as we can get along with the people at our job,
get along with the people on our street because those kind of fights and strife and bickering,
they're not going to help us do more for God.
We've got to have unity in the local church says in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 13
But ye brethren be not weary and well-doing and if any man obey not our word by this epistle
Note that man watch this and have no company with him that he may be ashamed
Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother now
Are we talking about a saved person or an unsaved person according to verse 15?
Talking about saved people
Because the Bible says it admires him as a brother. We're talking about a brother. He's a brother in Christ
Okay, and he's saying look if there are people in the church that are not getting along
They're not on board get rid of these people
And of course the Bible talks about throwing people out of the church who are railers, who are covetous, who have envy and stripe, these kind of people that can't get along, that can't function in the local church and be a team player, get rid of them.
He says, if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed.
that are causing these kind of problems.
It's not saying to hate them.
Right? It was not saying we hate them. It says count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
You see, throwing people out of the church is a biblical punishment, and there's a ton of scripture on it.
Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, 2 Thessalonians 3, and more.
Okay, we could talk about that. Romans chapter 16 talks about. There is a doctrine in scripture
about throwing people out of church, and it's, we refer to this as church discipline. This is what most
people call it in the Christian world church discipline is when someone gets church
disciplined it means basically that they are thrown out of the church or sometimes called
being excommunicated. Now here's the thing about it a lot of people are just like oh I can't believe
that but but folks it's really the only recourse that the church has if someone refuses to hear
because if the church tells someone,
hey, you need to straighten up and fly right here,
you can't keep acting this way,
you can't keep doing this,
and they just say, I'm just going to keep doing it,
what else can we do?
The only punishment that we have,
the only recourse that we have is to throw that person out,
excommunicate that person,
which is why Jesus explains that in Matthew 18
and tells you,
Basically, to treat that person as a heathen and a publican, if they won't hear the church, they're out.
1 Corinthians 5, put away from among yourselves that wicked person, because a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
It's not worth ruining the church to have that one bozo in there.
who's committing these grievous sins.
And look, none of us is perfect,
none of us without sin, but we're talking about
certain grievous sins that disturb the peace of the church,
that disturb the purity of the church.
Certain extreme grievous things
where people need to be tossed.
Or people that are just troublemakers
and they can't get along, they gotta go.
You know, the Bible says in Romans 16 verse 17,
now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them
which cause divisions and offenses contrary
to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them.
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ
but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches
deceive the hearts of the simple.
So look, frankly, at Faithful Word Baptist Church,
You know people who can't get along with others and are not team players have to go now
It's funny whenever I preach about how our church has all this great unity and just how
Unified we are and how much peace there is and how we're on the same page and everything like that
This is what people will will criticize. They'll say well. Yeah, of course, of course, everybody's on the same page
You threw out everybody who fought you
Who's ever heard that criticism before like yeah, of course, there's unity at faithful work
Of course everybody's on the pastor Anderson's program. He threw out everybody who wasn't and
I'm just like yeah
Exactly
But here's what's funny about that. What's funny about that is that we're sitting here in a packed auditorium this morning
So pastor Anderson just throws everybody out then who are all these people?
Who are all these people here this morning?
You know what? Apparently, there were still hundreds of people who are team players, who do love God, who do want to serve God, who do want to get along with their brothers and sisters in Christ, who do want to get on board with the programming of this soul-winning powerhouse here called Faith Ward Baptist Church.
Apparently, some people want to serve God and be a team player, and they're not just interested in their own little ulterior motives serving their own belly.
Well, you got rid of everybody, that's funny, if I got rid of everybody, why is our church
eight times the size of your church, or five times the size of your church, if we got rid
of everybody?
No, we didn't get rid of everybody, we got rid of evil troublemakers.
And I'm not just talking about unsaved people, because there are some like unsaved Judas'
We know that but you know what they're even saved Christians though where they get that bitterness in their heart
They get that envy in their heart
They get strife in their heart and look none of us is immune to that happening because even if we have saved Christians
If we walk in the flesh, we're gonna do the works of the flesh
We're going to have all that bitterness and resentment and all those things that will cause
us to not get along with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So it's like, oh, you got rid of the, yeah, you got rid of the people who were, you know,
fighting you.
Yeah, we did.
Exactly.
What's your question?
And look, we just had a guy recently
that we threw out of the church.
I'm just gonna say his name, his first name,
because, and I'm gonna say his name
because he makes a public spectacle of himself
every chance he gets.
So it's not like, there's no point in me
hiding this guy's identity
when he's online doing these things
and saying these things every day.
But anyway, this guy's name is Robert.
You know, maybe that means something to you,
maybe it doesn't.
There's a guy named Robert.
And here's the thing about this guy
And by his own admission, he said,
oh, I got problems with anger.
I got problems getting along with people and stuff.
And this is who I struggle with.
But this guy was fighting with so many people.
Now look, I never had a problem with this guy.
Like, he never fought with me.
I never had a crossword from him.
I never clashed with this guy at all.
But I think everybody else did, you know?
And so basically, this guy was just constantly
just blowing up at people.
like just yelling at people, cussing people out,
just maligning people publicly on social media.
He would just kind of just go crazy on people.
And then we would approach this guy,
and I use the word we loosely because, you know,
typically I will send one of my employees
to talk to people like this because, you know,
I like to delegate as a leader.
And so, you know, I think it's probably Brother Segura
that would usually kind of deliver the message,
You know, you need to straighten up here.
And then he would tell this guy,
hey, you can't do this.
You can't just attack people.
These are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
These are our friends.
This is our church.
You need to chill out and oh, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
And then he just does it again.
Oh, sorry, do it again.
Oh, and we were like super patient with this guy.
And people wanted this guy thrown out so bad,
but I'm always trying to just like see the best in people,
give people the benefit of the doubt.
And you know, if anything,
I'd rather give like too many chances to people
because I understand that none of us is perfect.
We all have different things that we struggle with
and different problems.
And so we were just giving this guy grace,
giving him grace, giving him grace.
But I mean, everybody and their brother had told this guy,
You need to chill out.
You need to stop being angry.
You need to stop yelling at people.
You need to start getting along and be peaceful.
And everybody's telling him this.
Finally, it got to a point where it was just
kind of the last straw where it is like, okay, we're done.
You just, you can't come to church anymore.
You're out and, you know, and we said,
we even said like, look, we don't hate you.
We're not throwing you in the trash,
but you have shown a pattern here
of every time you rebuke, you don't fix anything.
And so therefore, you know, you need to go to another church.
And because usually when we excommunicate people they shouldn't be allowed to go to any church if they're thrown out for being a
Raler because they're unrepentant railers. They should not be allowed at any church
But because this guy kept expressing repentance, you know, that's why we didn't want to just excommunicate him because he was
repentant at least outwardly and
So we just told the guy look you need to go to church somewhere else
You need to go somewhere and just sit down and shut up
and just learn something,
and because you're just blowing off your mouth
and you've pissed everyone in the church off,
and so you can't really be here.
So we're still trying to extend grace to this guy
and say like, let's have you go somewhere else,
and we recommended multiple churches in the area here
that are good churches.
You know and you know the number one church I always recommend if you if you get bitter and disgruntled or something
you know the number one church that I always recommend is
Yeah, I believe it's called Valley Baptist pastor Kevin Cowling out in East Mesa
You know, I think that's a great church and so I've typically recommended people go there
We recommended other churches too that are good churches in the area
There are other good soul-winning churches in this area man. Now here's the thing about that though some bozo online recently said oh
Most of the old IFB is soul-winning. Really? That's funny. That's hilarious. There are 10,000 IFB churches across America
Most of them aren't soul-winning. You think there's 5,000 churches soul-winning right now?
Dream on sucker, okay
There are the vet and even the ones that have soul-winning in Arizona here many of them do it once per month
And many of them it's a door hanger
or tracts, or visitation, it's not actually soul-winning.
I really like that fantasy world you're living in
where most independent Baptists do soul-winning,
but no, the vast majority do zero soul-winning,
and the ones who do do soul-winning,
it's do-do soul-winning, you know,
because it's basically like,
it's basically like once a month or a door hanger,
whatever, sorry about that, I didn't mean to do that.
But anyway.
Here's the thing about this, okay, is that, you know, we told this guy to, you know, we're trying to help him.
Okay, yeah, that's what I'll do. What does he do?
He goes to some church in town that's not a good church that we would not recommend.
He goes to the most bozo church in this whole city.
And they just immediately put this guy behind the pulpit.
And so now the guy's online doing a sermon where he just basically just talks trash about faith the word
And you just hear all these like female amends. It's like hey, man. That's right. Praise the Lord
And it's just like he gets up and just trash talks our church
But this is what was so hilarious is that he literally says in the description of the video. He says you know what?
I was an angry person when I went to Faithful Word.
Faithful Word created a monster.
And I'm just like, dude, we were telling you every week,
be nice, be kind, stop being angry,
stop yelling at people, stop fighting with people.
And then he had the gall to say,
Faithful Word created a monster.
And I'm just thinking to myself like,
you know what, you got this guy
who can't get along with anybody.
You know what he's our gift to the biggest hater church the most bozo church like
Have fun with this guy
enjoy
And you know what's fun and like I said the people that are actually like excommunicated because they're unrepentant
Unrepentant fornicators unrepentant drunkards unrepentant railers these people
You know, they should not be allowed to come to church in Newark.
We've had people who try to come to our church after they got thrown out of another church,
and we tell them,
if you got thrown out of that other church for a biblical reason,
you're not welcome here.
You got to make that right.
But you got these churches that are just like,
oh, you got thrown out by faithful work of me, you poor baby, you know.
And here's what, you want to know what the punishment you say is God going to punish that?
God doesn't even have to punish them.
Because you know why God doesn't have to punish them because the punishment is that they have to have those people in their church
Like like here's the thing we kicked those people out for a reason because they were hindering the cause of Christ here in our church
And so we were we were purging people that were not a blessing
So then if these others will will take you
It's like, wow, you're just bringing in
Unrepentant people you're bringing in corruption. You're bringing in toxicity. God doesn't even have to punish you
I don't have to get mad at you. I don't have to do anything because you're doing it to yourself
By harboring all these weird fugitives from faithful word
And I'm not talking about people who left on good terms and look there are a lot of people who've left on good terms
God bless them. Yeah, I hope they're doing great serving God and another good independent episodes
That's all I'm talking about. I'm talking about people were thrown out of the church
Okay, and like I said, I'm slow to throw people out
People claim that I throw people out a drop of hat.
People who actually know what goes on around here,
they know how many times they have to beg me
to throw people out and I'm just like,
hey, let's give him one more chance.
And even this guy, I even said to brother Seguro
when he brought it to me, I said,
hey, can we give him one more chance?
And Chris is like, no, I don't think so.
And I'm like.
I'm not even, I'm kind of embarrassed to say that.
I'm kind of ashamed to say that, but it's the truth.
Ask what they say, Gora.
Even this time, when we threw this guy out,
I said, well, what do you think about
if we give him one more chance and brother say, Gora's like,
that's not gonna work, pastor.
He's already, this is that chance.
And I'm just like, okay, throw him out.
Ah, pastor, I just throw those people out so fast.
Dude, I try not to throw people out, but look, if somebody needs to be thrown out, we'll do it.
And we have thrown a lot of people out over the years, and we'll continue to do so, you know, when it's...
And the only reason I was hesitant with him is because he keeps putting on a show of repenting.
That's why. Like, if he was unrepentant, I would have just been like, out!
The reason that I was so...
Ridiculously gracious is because I'm just that verse is always popping into my mind where it says hey
if your brother trespass against you seven times in a day and
Seven times in a day comes and says I repent. I'm thinking like that's pretty much this guy's life story
And then that verse is coming into my mind you got to forgive him but but then it's but again
There was no eventually you got to switch to a different scripture bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance
Like you because you start to question the repentance though when it becomes that extreme
And that's why that was a difficult decision, but apparently it was the right decision based on
You know bro's recent activities online or recent activity. Okay, just his activities online
Period every day for weeks or months or whatever
And if you say I don't know who that is well
Amen
but
You know, and like I said, I'm not even saying that the guy's not saved.
You know what I mean? I don't necessarily even think that.
Because you know what, and this is what's so funny is that people just automatically assume if somebody is doing wrong, oh, they must not be saved.
Folks, saved people can be big time bozos and can do some really sinful and wicked things.
You know and that's why this whole argument about whether this guy is saved or not
It's kind of a fruitless argument because it's like certain people whether they're saved or not
They're not right with God
They're way out of bounds on God's will whether they're saved or not between them and the Lord
I hope that we see them all in heaven
But that doesn't change the fact that we've got to
separate ourselves from certain people that are not helping our mission
Also, by the way, go if you would do 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, I'm almost done, 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5.
Also, let me just say this, people who hate the pastor of their church must go.
They're out.
And you say, oh, that's a cult or whatever.
You know what?
Everything's a cult now.
Everybody's a cult.
Everybody's a narcissist.
Everything's gaslighting.
Everything's a cold, everything's abuse,
everything, everybody's a groomer,
like, it's like, these words are so overused.
It's just like, cold, cold, cold, everything's a cold.
Let me turn this back around on you, okay?
Anyone who goes to a church where they hate the pastor
is a psychopath, how about that?
How about that?
Why would you go to a church where you hate the pastor,
you must be a psychopath?
Because normal people,
Go to a church that they like
Right and just stop and think about you know do even people in this world forget the church for a second people's world
Do they go to movies that they hate?
Do they go to concerts of bands that they hate?
Do they go to restaurants where they hate the food?
Stop and think about it. They go to the store and they buy books that they hate.
They go and say, this is my most hated author.
Let me check out all the books out of the library that I can from him.
Oh, I hate this TV show. I watch it every night.
Is that what people in this world do?
What would you say about someone who did that?
That they're crazy.
Okay, well, guess what? It's just as crazy to go to a church that you hate,
listen to preaching from a pastor you hate.
It makes no sense any normal person if they hated their pastor would go somewhere else would be like I hate this pastor
I'm going somewhere else
But then people like you can't just throw people out because they hate you. I'm throwing out psychopaths and
People who go to this church and hate me are crazy and they're out
And what does the Bible say?
It says in 1st, if you want to label it a cult, call it whatever you want.
I don't care what you call it.
It's not a cult.
A Bible-believing church that effectively goes out and gets people saved
and has a great spirit, happy people who hang out in fellowship
for an hour after the service, three times a week.
They come to church three times a week and they hang around for an hour, two hours and
hang out and have a beautiful time and everybody's smiling and happy and then going out and winning
a bunch of souls to Christ.
I don't know, it would arose be any less beautiful if you called it by any other name.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 12 says, 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
For their work's sake. It's not about their personality. It's not about the person. It's about the work
For their work's sake and here's the key and be at peace among yourselves
How can you be at peace among yourselves?
If you don't esteem those who are over you in the Lord that are preaching to you in the Lord
If you don't esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake
How can you be at peace among yourselves if you have a faction in the church that hates their own pastor?
How can you have peace in the church?
Go to another, go to a hater church and joy.
And we'll see which rod buds.
There's no peace when there's anarchy.
Anarchy does not produce peace, does it?
Discipline produces peace,
which is why the Bible says,
no chastening for the present seems to be joyous but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
discipline yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby.
And so, all that to say this this morning,
the fruit of the Spirit is peace.
We all want it, right?
We all want to sleep at night.
One of the most beautiful things
is to go to bed at night and to sleep eight hours
and wake up feeling refreshed.
And there, you know, there are physical
and psychological components,
but there's also a spiritual component to that.
of being right with the Lord, trusting the Lord, and the things that you are
stressed and worried about, giving those things over to the Lord in prayer. Walk in
the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, and have less anxiety. Be calm. Be at peace.
Be relaxed. Walk with God and understand what it's like to actually not be
super stressed and worried and anxious about things, because you know God's
taking care of it. That's a beautiful feeling.
And then the second thing we talked about this morning was the fact that if you do have that kind of inner peace
that comes from being filled with the Spirit,
it is going to allow you to be a team player in the local church
because you're not all discontented and upset and stressed out
and worried about what everybody else is doing, being a busy body about everything else,
because you have all this envy and strife and covetousness in your heart.
If you are chill in your heart because you have the peace of God, which passes all understanding,
You think it's going to be easier or harder for you to get along with other people?
Peace in your heart, peace with other people. And I'm not talking about getting along with some transvestite or something.
I'm not, you know, I'm talking about getting along with the people we're supposed to get along with, you know, our family in our home, our local church,
right, the people that we actually need to deal with, right?
We can get along with those people because we have peace in our heart and then you got these people with war in their heart.
And they just, they're fighting with everybody, lashing out against everybody.
And the churches are filled with confusion and every evil work.
People are confused about what the church believes.
People are confused about what salvation is because the pastor is saying one thing.
The tracks in the back are saying something else.
The guest speaker is saying something else.
Statement of faith is saying something else.
Salvation is all over the place.
Confusion and every evil work slandering good men of God,
slandering good churches,
slandering good people and soul winners.
The wisdom that's from above is first pure.
There's no confusion about the doctrine because we keep it pure and it's peaceable.
So we all want to get along with our families,
our spouse, our children,
and we want to get along with our fellow church members.
We need the Holy Spirit's power to do it.
And most of all, we want to have peace in our heart.
And we want to go through life not super stressed
because it's torture.
Being stressed and worried and anxious, it's horrible.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
God, we thank you so much for the peace
that passes all understanding, Lord.
Thank you for letting us be able to just rest and sleep
and feel good and just know that you're in control.
You're at the helm.
You've got things under control.
Lord God, please just bless our church.
And Lord, help us to continue having the beautiful spirit of unity that we have,
the beautiful camaraderie and friendship and brotherhood that we share here, Lord.
And Lord, I pray that our church would continue to grow as you add people to the church
that are like-minded, that love you and that love one another.
And Lord God, help us to continue being fruitful.
and winning souls to Christ and we'll give you all the honor and glory and in Jesus' name we pray amen.
Amen.
Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen, take your hymnals please.
Go to hymn 112, hymn number 112.
Be still my soul.
Hymn number 112.
We'll begin on that first verse.
Now 112, be still my soul.
The Lord is on thy side.
Number 112.
Be still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief for me.
Lead to thy God.
Through thorny waves Leads to a joyful end.
Be still, my soul, Thy God, God, thunder take
To guide the future as He has the past.