I punched in the face as a young teenager, just getting socked in the face.
And I actually really enjoyed it because it was like, because I got socked in the face really hard.
And it was like, I was like really glad because I was like, you know.
You're kind of scared of getting hit in the face.
And then once you get hit in the face, you realize, like,
it's not as bad as you thought.
And then you're just like, OK, now I've done it.
And now it doesn't scare me anymore.
Well, it wasn't the getting hit in the face.
It was just being really gassed out
after the first scenario, the second one.
Because they put you through a workout before.
That's what I think I mentioned that.
And every time he threw a good punch,
I would just fall back and I hit my head.
Eventually, I just saw the room spinning and just felt
like a big divorce.
It's disoriented.
But eventually I like kick them in the right place, punch them in the right place, and like...
But you might get in real life situations of, um, you don't want it to be the first time.
Yeah, that's why they did that, is to like, put you through the worst thing of your life,
and then, so that when you do go through it out there, you'll be like, okay, I've done this.
I can't even move my neck, like, I have to turn my whole body, because it's like...
You're sore.
Because of all the swings, I think it like, messed up my neck and all that.
But yeah, thanks for praying.
Well, you know, whenever you're wearing protective equipment...
you can take a lot more than just like that.
Because in a real fight with no equipment,
you're not gonna get hit that many times.
Because you get hit a couple times
and then you're just done.
Whereas when you have some kind of protective equipment,
you can just keep getting hit.
That's why boxing is more dangerous than like MMA.
Because in boxing, you have to pack gloves.
So you can just get hit scores of times and...
He started throwing up blood after, I think it was just like a tear shot.
Because when you're wearing the protective equipment, you can take so much abuse without, like, being taken out of the machine.
I'm good, man. I'm glad you're not the one who got rushed to the hospital.
Yeah, I know me too. Thank you.
So how big did your class go down to?
She was like shrinking.
Yeah, we started with 45, we're at 35 now, so 10, they've all, all those 10 have quit though, none of us have failed now, so hopefully it'll stay that way.
That's a pretty, that's a higher than normal retention rate, cause they said usually it's worse than that.
So it's good, so you guys are a good class, cause like you're losing less people.
They've said that too, so in the beginning we just came together quickly just...
That's probably part of the reason why there's less attrition is because you're like, it's like a team spirit.
What's the last class that happened?
It's like a bunch of people were 1, 2, 3 meters so bad, and they were not...
It's like too many Chiefs and not enough Indians.
Like half the class, that's the last class.
Well, it's an important lesson about...
How do you feel?
I'm worse.
Did you get the picture?
Yeah, I didn't.
You didn't do anything?
I forgot about it.
Well the thing is, no, because like,
well the thing is like, Monday,
Monday I just had a really sore throat
but I'm just like, oh, this is from Virginia.
Yeah.
And then Tuesday I was feeling a lot better.
So I took a walk on Tuesday, like I was in bed all day, but I took a walk for like two and a half miles.
In the morning I just woke up.
Yeah, but like this morning I woke up and just fell asleep.
And then I tried to take a walk this morning and after like less than a mile came back.
And then...
I was so bad all day, like I told brother Sigura, hey, you gotta be ready for each and every one of you.
But then just like two hours ago, I was like, I think I should be ready.
So I'm just like, barely.
You're just painting all the way through and barely.
You're only here to hear it.
I don't belong here.
You shouldn't be here.
I'm going for it.
That's the good, that's the good one.
Liquid.
I have the, I have her goodness.
But see, it's the right bag, but inside the bag, it's the bag.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Faithful Word Baptist Church this evening.
It's very good to see you all here for our Wednesday night service. If you were to please
find your seats now, take a hymn. They'll go to hymn 147. We'll get started tonight.
Once you find your place, we'll start together on that first now him number one hundred and
Forty-seven what a fellowship what a joy divine leaning on the everlasting arms 147 sing it out now
What a fellowship what a joy divine leaning on the everlasting arms
Let's go before Lord in prayer.
So let's start our heads together.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before you tonight.
We thank you for the privilege that we have to be in church
on this Wednesday evening.
We thank you for the safety you have allowed us to have
this week so that we're able to be here.
Lord, we just ask that you'd meet with us tonight
and be with us as we're...
Singing unto you fill us with your spirit help us to be edified and encouraged as we sing out these great hymns unto you and
Lord also prepare our hearts with the preaching of your word to come
We ask you to fill our pastor with your Holy Spirit fill him with her power
So that he may be able to preach boldly and clearly unto us tonight that we may be edified and
Open our hearts and ears so that we may receive the message tonight and we pray and ask these things in Jesus name. Amen
Back to him number 121 him number 121
Like a river glorious is God's perfect piece him number 121 start together on that first
121
Like
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 time.
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 2 Chronicles 35.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below,
as well as Salvation and Baptisms.
Across the page, thank you to everyone who participated
with the Soul Winning out at the first Friday
an Art Walk Soul Winning event.
These numbers are actually updated later.
There are actually 12 Soul Winners out there
with a total of 12 Salvation.
So good job everybody.
Also, we made diligent inquisition into the chronicles of Faith Ward Baptist Church, and
it was found that we actually hit our 1,000th baptism in January, so that was kind of cool.
So this is a picture of our 1,000th baptism.
We've actually had 1,001 baptisms so far, so praise the Lord for that.
On the bottom there it says each week we have many donations of food and other
items that are available for free and that's over there and you can see that
there are boxes of food over there and a lot of times it's some really good stuff
you'd be shocked sometimes you know I guess what doesn't sell or whatever
that's really good stuff over there so check that out if you're interested on
the back we've got the list of expecting ladies pray for them to have a safe and
And then don't forget, one week from tonight,
we've got Pastor Jonathan Shelley coming to preach.
That's a Wednesday night, exactly one week from tonight.
So be sure to be here for that.
And then other upcoming events,
we have Pastor Corbin Russell from down
at Straight Pads Baptist Search in Tucson.
He's gonna be coming to preach on March the 12th.
So one month from today, or four weeks from today,
you could say.
And then other things that are coming up.
We've got in March 23rd to 28th, the Bahamas cruise mission strip.
And then also, Steadfast Baptist Church also is doing a cruise mission strip to the Bahamas.
And I believe that there starts in like maybe a week or something.
It's like within the next seven days for sure.
And so pray that that's a big success and that many, many people will be saved in that very receptive country.
And here's the thing, it's receptive.
But Man Alive, there are just a lot of unsaved people there
because when you go there and go soul-warning,
I've already done it.
And when I was there just asking people,
do you know for sure?
Like so many people are just saying, no,
they do not know that they're going to heaven.
They don't know if they're saved.
And of course, that's the best kind of people
to preach the gospel to,
because what can be rough is when people are not saved,
but they think they're fine,
they think they got it all figured out,
they think they're good to go.
you know, the perfect situation is when they realize that they're lost but they want to be saved.
And so that's what we've been finding in the Bahamas. We're excited about continuing to do
a lot of missions in the Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean over the course of the year 2025.
Bahamas is also a nice place too, so it's a cool place to visit and go soul-winning.
et cetera.
And that's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning
from the past few days.
So going back to Monday, the 10th.
All right.
Okay, did you say nine?
Okay.
Gotcha.
Okay.
Any other numbers from Monday?
All right, very good.
How about Tuesday?
Okay.
Got it.
Okay, and then, what about today, Wednesday?
Was there a total for the van?
Yeah, three for the van?
Okay, so we have a total of three for the van.
How about outside the van?
Okay, another two.
Okay, anything else outside the van?
Very good, keep up the great work on soul winning,
and with that, let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right, you should find the answer
in the front of your hymnal
with the song entitled Seek You First.
If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand so you can receive one.
We'll sing it on that first together.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
Take your hymns now go to hymn number 192 hymn number 192 ring the bells of heaven hymn number 192
192 ring the bells of heaven there is joy today hymn number 192 sing it out now
great job.
Glory, glory, how the angels sing.
Glory, glory, how the loud arms ring.
Distarance to the army like the mighty sea.
Here we forth the anthem of the free.
Ring the bells of heaven, there is joy today.
come and sit away and is born a new a rex of child.
Glory, glory, how the angels sing.
Glory, glory, how the loud hearts ring.
Disperse and guard it like the mighty sea.
Heal and morph the anthem of the free.
On the last.
Ring the bells of heaven's prevels this today.
glad joy of this dream.
Now the joyful hiding's there and far away.
For a precious soul is born again.
Glory, glory, how the angels sing.
Glory, glory, how the loud hearts dream.
Is the ransom of our delight, the mighty sea.
All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles
to Second Chronicles, chapter 35.
Second Chronicles, chapter 35.
As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter,
beginning in verse number one.
Follow along silently with Brother Dan as he reads.
Second Chronicles, 35, beginning in verse number one.
Second Chronicles 35 of the Bible reads moreover Josiah kept a Passover under the Lord in Jerusalem
And they killed the Passover on the 14th day of the first month
And he set the priests in their charges and encouraged them to the service of the house of the Lord and set unto the Levites that taught all Israel
Which were holy unto the Lord put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build
It shall not be a burden upon your shoulders serve now the Lord your God and his people Israel
And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David, king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon, his son.
And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren, the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites.
So kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
and Josiah gave to the people of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the Passover offerings,
for all that were present, to the number of 30,000 and 3,000 bullocks,
these were of the king's substance, and his princes gave willingly unto the people,
to the priests and to the Levites, Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jeheil, rulers of the house of God,
gave unto the priests for the Passover offerings 2,600 small cattle and 300 oxen.
Konanaya also, and Shemaya and Nethanyel, his brethren, and Hashibaya and Jail, and
Josabad, chief of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for Passover offerings 5,000 small
cattle and 500 oxen.
So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their
courses, according to the king's commandment.
And they killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and
and they removed the burnt offerings that they might give according to the divisions of the
families of the people to offer unto the Lord as it is written in the book of Moses and so did they
with the oxen.
and they roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance.
But the other holy offerings sawed they in pots and in cauldrons
and in pans and divided them speedily among all the people.
And afterward they made ready for themselves and for the priests
because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy in offering of burnt offerings
and the fat until night. Therefore the Levites prepared for themselves
and for the priests and the sons of Aaron.
And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place according to the commandment of David and Asaph and Heman and Judeuthan, the king Sear, and the porters waited at every gate.
They might not depart from their service for their brethren and the Levites prepared for them.
So all the service of the Lord was prepared the same day to keep the Passover and to offer
burnt offerings upon the altar of the Lord according to the commandment of King Josiah.
And the children of Israel that were present kept the Passover at that time in the feast
of unleavened bread seven days.
And there was no Passover light to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet.
Neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept.
And the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel that were present and the inhabitants
In the 18th year, the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept.
After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple,
Niko, king of Egypt, came up to fight against Karkimish by Euphrates,
and Josiah went out against him.
But he sent ambassadors to him, saying,
What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah?
I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have wore,
for God commanded me to make haste.
For bear thee from meddling with God, who is with me,
that he destroy thee not.
Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself that he might fight with him and
Harken not under the words of Niko from the mouth of God and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo and
The archers shot at King Josiah and the king said to his servants have me away for I am sore wounded
His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had and they brought him to Jerusalem
And he died and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his father and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah
Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and the singing women
spake of Josiah and their lamentations to this day and made them in ordinance in
Israel and behold they are written in the lamentations. Now the rest of the acts of
Josiah and his goodness according to that which was written in the law of the
Lord and his deeds first and last behold they are written in the book of the
kings of Israel and Judah.
Father in heaven, thank you for your son Jesus Christ to die to pay for all our sins and rose from the dead
And I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson as he preaches your word so that we your children would become better and better in
Our service toward you in Jesus name I pray man
Men, second Chronicles chapter 35, I may not preach very long tonight just because I'm
still fighting a cold, so bear with me.
But verse number one, the Bible reads, Moreover, Josiah kept a Passover under the Lord in Jerusalem,
and they killed the Passover on the 14th day of the first month.
So in this chapter, we're continuing with the reign of Josiah.
And this is really the last great king of Judah.
before the country ends up being destroyed
and everybody's taking captive into Babylon
and we have the 70 years of captivity
and we know that what's coming in the future
is total destruction for Jerusalem.
But this is the final great king
and he is a really remarkably great king, Josiah.
And so this chapter is specifically homing in
on this Passover that he keeps
because it's a gigantic, magnificent Passover
and we're gonna get to that a little bit later.
But it says in verse two,
he set the priests in their charges
and encouraged them to the service of the house of the Lord
and said unto the Levites that taught all Israel,
which were holy unto the Lord,
put the holy ark in the house,
which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel did build.
It shall not be a burden upon your shoulders.
Serve now the Lord your God and his people Israel."
Now this is kind of a,
Stunning statement here because we would expect that the Ark of the Covenant is already in the temple, right?
That it's already in the house of God.
Why would he be telling them that they need to install the Ark of the Covenant into the temple as if it's not there?
Well, the true story is that throughout history, in the Bible, the ark is not always where it's supposed to be.
And if you remember, they pulled out the ark in the days of Samuel, and it got stolen by the Philistines,
and then they finally got it back.
And then if you remember, in the days of Saul and David, they're kind of going back and forth with what to do with the ark, where to put the ark.
So we don't really know what's going on with the arc at this time in history
because of the fact that the arc has not been mentioned for a long time.
Like we haven't had any mentions of the arc recently
and then this is sort of the last time we ever see the arc or hear from the arc.
So you know after this who knows what happened to it but
For some reason, the Ark is not in the temple.
And so we could guess about what those reasons are.
One possible reason is that because the previous king,
Manasseh was a super wicked king,
and he's desecrating the temple,
bringing in all kinds of idolatry and pagan stuff
and wicked things, you could, excuse me,
there was Manasseh did that, but then also,
sorry, I'm sick, Manasseh did that,
but then Manasseh got right with God at the end,
and then Amon did that.
And so either one of those rains, Manasseh's rain or Amon's rain could have been a time
where they're worried about all the crazy stuff that's going on in the house of God
and pagan idolatry.
And so maybe they took the ark out of there and wanted to sort of shield it from that
time so that it wouldn't get desecrated or, you know.
made less sacred or something like that.
Okay, so that's one possibility.
Another possibility is that because Josiah is a godly king
who's reforming things and we know that part of that
has to do with renovating the house of God and remodeling,
that it could have just been simply removed
so that they could do the remodeling
that they needed to do inside the temple.
And then now that the remodeling is done,
they could bring it back in.
Because just the reality of life is that when you build a building, it needs to be maintained.
And so obviously every once in a while, even if there's no evil desecration going on like happened in the days of people like Manasseh and Amon,
you're still going to need to sometimes just kind of take things apart and renovate and fix things and put things back together and so forth.
So for whatever reason, the Ark has been removed, it's been put somewhere else.
Apparently, they had carried it on their shoulders, and now he's saying,
hey, let's put this thing where it belongs in the temple,
in the house of God, and put it in the temple which Solomon built.
Now, at this point, I want to stop and kind of just digress and take a little rabbit trail
about something. And if you would flip back to 2nd Chronicles chapter 3,
And, you know, we're kind of wrapping up with the Book of Chronicles but we're going to go back and talk about something that I didn't talk about when we were in these chapters 3, 4, and 5.
But if you go back to 2 Chronicles 3, and we're talking about this temple that Solomon built, the one that Josiah is sort of renovating, reopening, reinstalling the ark into.
It says in verse number one,
then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord
at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah,
where the Lord appeared unto David his father
in the place that David had prepared
in the threshing floor of Orn and the Jebusite.
So we see that biblically,
the temple is located in Mount Moriah.
Now, what is the significance of this place?
Well, originally in the book of Genesis, when Abraham is told to offer Isaac his son upon
the altar, he's supposed to go to the land of Moriah.
to one of the mountains specifically that God would show him.
So, you know, common sense tells us it's probably the same location.
So this is kind of a special location spiritually where Abraham offered Isaac.
And then later, there's a threshing floor of a guy named Oran of the Jebusite.
And then when God is destroying Jerusalem in the days of David,
then David offers a sacrifice there to stop the plague.
and then that's where the decision is made like okay we're going to build the temple in this
location in Mount Moriah because you know this is a sacred place where God told him to build
that altar and so forth. So there's this theory that's going around that the actual
temple mount in Jerusalem that we've all seen pictures of or heard about or talked about
location of where the temple was.
You know, everybody's got the wrong location.
It's actually in this other place,
sort of lower down below the temple mount
in the city of David area, okay.
Now here's the thing about this.
First of all, let me just say this, it's false.
Okay, I don't buy into this theory for one second.
And let me give you a few reasons why,
but then I'm just gonna show you point blank
where the Bible just absolutely contradicts this.
this harebrained idea that says,
oh, the temple was actually in the city of David or whatever.
Well, first of all, some place as significant
as the temple location is never going to be forgotten.
Now, a lot of times things happen and you don't really realize how important they are at the time that they happen, right?
Like, for example, when Jesus was born, there were probably only a few people
that knew what was going on and knew that something important was happening, pretty much Mary,
Joseph, and a couple shepherds that really even knew what's going on.
You know, apparently the innkeeper didn't really know what was going on.
He didn't think it was important because he's telling them that there's no room in the inn.
Right? And so obviously something like that, you know, people obviously didn't realize anything important was going on right away at the time, you know, later, of course, and some people realized it, but just in general, the general public didn't necessarily know that something big was happening.
at that moment, okay?
That's why they're so astawneyed a couple of years later
when the wise men come from the east and say,
hey, where's he that is born king of the Jews?
They're like, huh, what are you talking about?
Okay, whereas when Jesus is getting baptized,
you know, that's something that...
people probably realized as it was happening, hey, something big is happening, you know,
something important is happening here because you got all these people listening to John
the Baptist preach, multitudes of people seeing John the Baptist point to Jesus and say,
behold the Lamb of God, which takeeth away the sin of the world.
Very shortly thereafter, Jesus has this powerful ministry, his fame is going all throughout Judea,
And so, you know, that was probably a moment that people at the time realized was important,
and even afterward knew it was even more important than maybe they had originally realized.
But, okay, then we have something like the destruction of the temple.
Okay, the destruction of the temple.
This is something that no one would have not understood.
Wow, something big just happened here.
This is something where you have millions of people living in this area,
millions of people living in this region that witness this event taking place, right?
The Jewish Roman War obviously wasn't necessarily significant to global geopolitics at the time,
but, you know, as far as if you live in that area, this was a big deal.
And in 70 AD, the temple was destroyed.
And not only that, you have to understand that the temple was so important to the Jews.
You know, this is the center of their religion.
This is the center of their worship.
And so when it got destroyed, it's a big deal.
And so they're not just going to totally forget where that was.
Okay.
Now, the Jews continued to be in Jerusalem
Another revolt where the Romans defeated them again, around 135 A.D. in what's called the Bar Kokhba revolt,
and at that time the Romans just completely wiped out Jerusalem and they said that it was illegal for any Jews to live in Jerusalem
and they would not allow Jews to go to Jerusalem, but they did allow them to come to Jerusalem once a year.
on the 9th of Av in order to mourn the destruction of the temple.
And so, even though they're not living in Jerusalem proper,
there's still a bunch of Jews living in that area, living in that region,
living pretty close to Jerusalem, just not inside of Jerusalem.
And then, every year on the 9th of Av,
they're actually going there and visiting Jerusalem every single year
the destruction of the temple, okay?
Plus what you have to understand is that it's always
in the Jews' mind this idea of,
oh, someday being back in Jerusalem, right?
Every single time they do the Passover to this day,
even if they're in America in 2025,
but even if they were doing this 300 years ago,
400 years ago, they'll say,
oh, next year in Jerusalem, you know?
And so this is something that's always on their mind,
you know, going back or, you know, rebuilding the temple.
And there are other attempts to rebuild the temple,
even between...
135 AD and of course, you know, the modern like Zionist movement starting in the late 1800s, right?
This is something that has always kind of been out there, a thought that's always been out there.
And then you also just have millions of people who've always lived in that area and lived in that region.
It's not like that region ever just stopped having anybody living there, okay?
And here's the thing, if you grow up in an area,
and it has one spot that is by far
the most significant spot in that area
that is the most significant place
that everybody's thinking about,
everybody's talking about.
There's even a holiday once a year
to specifically think about it and talk about it
and mourn it.
You're not just gonna totally forget where that was
and just be like, oh, never mind,
we've just been crying at the wrong place this whole time.
It's somewhere totally different.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Like you could lose something if it was something
where an event happened that people didn't really realize
was that significant at the time.
But if a huge event happens, everybody knows about it.
Everybody's thinking about it.
Millions of people live there.
You're not gonna forget where that is.
And that's why, you know,
Everybody knows a temple mount. That's where the temple is. That's why they built that mosque there because the whole point of building that mosque there
You know whenever that was circa thousand years ago or whatever. I don't care
But whenever they built that stupid mosque or dome of the whatever dome of the rock is that what it's called?
Whenever they built that
You know, it's because they wanted to build it like where the temple was, and then it's this controversy now, because Christians want to be excited about the location, Jews want to be excited about it, Muslims want to be excited about it.
I'm over here just being excited about Arizona and couldn't really give a rip.
huge reason why I would just right away say this theory makes no sense to say
oh temple mounts not temple mount it's really this other little thing you know
lower down in this city of David area
But then let's actually look at what the Bible says because the Bible says it's on a mount because it's Mount Moriah, of course
Okay, but let's look at the specifics in chapter 5 verse 1
Look at chapter 5 verse 1 and here's what's funny. The people are promoting this theory. This is what they said
They said oh man, I just so it's just everything I look at everything in the Bible just points to that city of David
everything in archeology, everything in the Bible,
just all the evidence is just pointing to the city of David.
And you know, all the Temple Mount Scotch, just tradition,
just Jewish tradition, that's it.
Well, let's see if all the evidence is just pointing
like a laser beam to the Temple, or to the city of David.
Look at verse one.
Does all the work that Solomon made
for the house of the Lord was finished?
So,
They started building it in chapter 3, verse 1.
They're building it, and now it's just finished
two chapters later, because we went into a bunch of detail
about building it. Everybody following?
I know it's a super boring subject.
I'm bored even just telling you about it.
But anyway, it says in verse 1,
Thus all the work that Solomon made for the house of the Lord
was finished, and Solomon brought in all the things
that David his father had dedicated.
And the silver and the gold and all the instruments put he among the treasures of the house of God now
I don't think it's as hard to understand at all in chapter 3
We start building the house throughout chapters 3 and 4. We're building the thing chapter 5. We're done
What do you do when you finish building the house you install the furniture?
Right isn't that what you do when the house is done? Now we start installing furniture
So we're going to bring all the things and the instruments and so forth look at verse 2
then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes and the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel
unto Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord
out of the city of David, which is Zion.
So when we go to install the Ark of the Covenant
into the temple, we take the Ark of the Covenant
out of the city of David in order to take it where?
Into the temple.
So somebody riddle me this.
How in the world can the temple be in the city of David
if we have to take the Ark out of the city of David
in order to get it to the temple?
Like this verse alone,
just completely demolishes that theory,
but yet these people have the audacity to get up and say,
everything in the Bible is pointing us toward this conclusion
that the real Temple location is in the city of David.
Really, so how do you figure that second Chronicles chapter 5 verse 2
is pointing that?
It doesn't make any sense, does it?
It says, then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes,
the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel unto Jerusalem to bring up, notice
the direction, because the city of David is lower than the Temple Mount.
Right?
So we're going to bring it up out of, I'm sorry, I lost my place, to bring up the Ark
of the Covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.
Wherefore, all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto the king.
in the feast, which was in the seventh month and all the elders of Israel came,
and the Levites took up the ark, and they brought up the ark,
and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle.
These did the priests and the Levites bring up,
also King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him before the ark,
sacrifice sheep and oxen, which could not be told nor numbered for multitude,
and the priests brought in
the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord unto his place,
to the Oracle of the house, unto the most holy place,
even unto the wings of the cherubim.
Now look, anybody who just reads that for what it says,
clearly understands that they built the temple.
and they started installing the furniture.
The most important piece of furniture that goes with it
is the Ark of the Covenant.
And so they bring the Ark and all this other stuff
up out of the city of David and into the temple
and install it, case closed.
That's where the temple was, not down in the city of David,
but rather up on the Temple Mount,
just like everybody has said for the last couple thousand years.
All right.
Not having much to do with chapter 35, but let's go back to chapter 35 now
That we've taken that super boring
aside
And if you want to be more bored, there are all kinds of videos and documentaries that you could watch about this if you like to punish yourself
But honestly, it's just so clear. It's so obvious. I don't even know what else to say. All right, so
Let's look at let's move on to something more interesting. Look at verse number
We're gonna jump down in fact to verse 16
because of the fact that most of chapter 35 is really just describing this Passover that they're doing in
Jerusalem in the days of Josiah and they're making a big
you know, a big Passover, a big celebration to the Lord.
And the thing I want to point out here starting in verse 16, it says,
So all the service of the Lord was prepared the same day to keep the Passover
and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the Lord according to the commandment of King Josiah.
And the children of Israel that were present kept the Passover at that time
and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days.
And this is the really cool part of the story.
Look at verse 18, it says,
and there was no Passover like to that,
kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet.
Neither did all the kings of Israel
keep such a Passover as Josiah kept,
and the priests and the Levites
and all Judah and Israel that were present,
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Now, the cool thing I want to point out here
in verse number 18 is that Josiah
is the last good king of Judah.
And so this is like right before, in many ways,
that Judah is just gonna be completely destroyed,
temple destroyed, people gone into captivity.
And so it's really cool
that they have the ultimate Passover.
in the days of Josiah.
Because here's the moral of the story,
is that even close to the end times,
or at the very end of an era,
or in a nation that is in deep decline,
great works of God can still be accomplished.
And not just great works of God,
the greatest works of God.
can be accomplished, right?
I mean, you think like, oh man, you know,
Israel was at its heyday under David
or under Solomon or something, right?
And you think, oh man, they had great revival
in the days of Hezekiah.
And if you remember, Hezekiah had a pretty cool Passover too.
And that was a pretty amazing Passover that he had,
but you want to know the greatest Passover was the one that Josiah had.
And I think that's pretty cool that that late in the game,
they could still be breaking records,
pushing boundaries, and having their greatest works for God.
Because notice what it says specifically in verse 18,
there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel.
From the days of Samuel the prophet. I mean we're going back before even Saul David Solomon, which was the heyday
He said, look, you could go even before the heyday, go all the way back to Samuel all the way up until now.
There was no Passover like to that, kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet.
Neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept.
I mean, that is a powerful statement about doing something great for God right at the very end.
You know something that I get really weary of is this attitude among Christians or among fundamentalist Baptists
That somehow the glory days were in the past and that there were just all these amazing revivals
Sometimes they'll point to stuff in the 1800s or sometimes they'll point to stuff in the middle of the 20th century
Or maybe the 1960s or 70s or whatever the era that they think was the greatest era
Well, I got news for you. I think we're living in the greatest era for soul winning right now
You know, I think we're going to see the greatest soul winning ever happening still to come in the future.
And it's a foolish attitude to just think, oh yeah, that was backed in.
You can't really do that these days.
Well, you know, tell that to Josiah.
because Josiah is in a nation that is definitely in decline, big time in decline.
It's about to be totally done and over,
and yet he has a greater Passover than David had.
A greater Passover than Solomon had, a greater Passover than Hezekiah had.
He has the ultimate Passover at the very end.
So let me ask this, why can't Christians of our generation do the greatest missions
and have the greatest soul winning and get the most people saved and do the greatest
works for God that any generation has ever done?
You say, no, it's just, you know, it's getting too wicked, it's too sinful, you know, America
Many of those things are true, but at the same time,
that didn't stop Josiah, it shouldn't stop us.
The sky is the absolute limit for what we can do for God.
And anytime people decide to get on their knees
and beg God to do something big,
and anytime they're going to seek His word
and be filled with the Holy Spirit, read their Bibles, pray,
and, of course, importantly, go out there
and preach the gospel to the lost,
and go out there and do the soul-winning locally
and do the missions abroad.
Look, God can do a great work in 2025,
not even a great work, the greatest work.
And in 2026, 27, 30, 35, 40, there's nothing to stop us as God's people.
I'm not saying just our church, all of God's people, from pushing the boundaries and us
being the greatest, soul-winning-est, most missions-minded generation of all time, even
if...
You say, well, the end is coming soon and Christ is going to return soon.
Okay, well, the end was about to happen here with Josiah as well.
Did that slow him down?
Does that mean he can't do the greatest work?
No, they that be strong and do know their God are going to do exploits.
And I believe that in the end times you know you're going to see the greatest level of soul winning and you know I'm not impressed by stories from the past.
You know keep in mind remember this is the guy Pastor Anderson who woke up on January 1st and took out a piece of paper and took a marker and what did I write on that paper.
Does anybody remember?
What did I write on it?
I wrote zero saved.
I took out a piece of paper and I wrote zero saved.
Okay, and I said I have one zero people to the Lord because I'm not going to live my life on past achievements and past
Glory and past exploits, but a piece of paper and I wrote okay zero saved now. Let's go do something for God
Let's do something big in 2025. I don't want to hear about
Some past era. I want to hear about what we're gonna do now. What are we doing today?
What are we doing this year? What are we doing this decade?
And there's no reason for us to be living in the past, okay?
We need to have our greatest Passover now
and not be stuck in the past.
And so I think that's one of the most powerful messages
from this chapter.
And I think it's something that's kind of easy to read over,
but stop and think, wow,
Josiah has the ultimate Passover celebration of any of the kings,
including David, Solomon, and Ezekiah.
That's remarkable.
That's why it gets so much time to be described in this chapter.
But let's jump down to verse 20.
There's another great lesson.
Oh yeah, another thing I want to point out in verse 19.
It says, in the 18th year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept.
So, you know, you see Josiah is deep into his reign.
And yet he is, you know, doing something huge for God at this stage in his reign.
And so it's beautiful to see that great work deep into his reign.
Of course, he's probably approximately, what, 26 years old at this time?
Because he started raining when he's 8.
So something like that.
And so he's a young guy, as we would see it.
And he's doing amazing works for God as a young man.
And, you know, thank God for those guys in their 20s and in their 30s that are tearing
it up and doing great works for God, and we don't want to pour cold water on them.
Oh, you young pups.
Back in my day we had the real revivals the real soul winning, you know
No, no, no let these young guys tear it up and do the greatest works and obviously, you know
Those of us that are in our 40s. We're still young too. I mean we're in our prime
I think Adam was created as a 43 year old man. That's my theory, but anyway
Verse number 20 says after all this when Josiah had prepared the temple
Neco, king of Egypt, came up to fight against Karchemish by Euphrates, and Josiah went out
against him.
But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah?
I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war.
For God commanded me to make haste.
For bear thee from meddling with God who is with me that he destroy thee not
Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself that he might fight with him
We'll come back to that in a moment
But the point here is that even a great man of God like Josiah is not perfect, right?
And so he makes a mistake here because he ends up meddling and strife not belonging to him, right?
Because this battle between the king of Egypt and the king of Kharkimish
has nothing to do with him, right?
Neither of these locations are within the parameters of Israel.
You know, one of them is in Syria,
one of them is in Egypt,
and they're just separate countries.
They're having their own fight,
and Josiah just decides to get involved
in a fight that has nothing to do with him.
And then he even gets this warning.
And it's actually really God that's warning him.
And you know, sometimes people will come and warn you about stuff,
but often God's using that person to warn you and to tell you,
hey, stay out of this.
Hey, don't get involved in strife not belonging to you.
And so Josiah ends up foolishly getting involved in this fight that has nothing to do with him and it ends up being his ultimate downfall.
Let's flip over to the book of Proverbs briefly and just look at some verses about why this was foolish on the part of Josiah.
Because there's just a principle that you should not fight with other people for no reason.
You should not go around looking for fights with people
and just trying to pick fights with people and just starting trouble with people.
And when there's trouble between people that has nothing to do with you, you should stay out of it.
Right?
Don't be this contentious person that's just out there trying to pick fights with people for no reason and
Let's see what the Bible says look at Proverbs chapter number three verse 29
Proverbs chapter three first 29 it says devise not evil against thy neighbor
Seeing he dwelleth
Securely by thee it's just saying look first of all it's just stupid to start stuff with your neighbors
Right and this is something that everybody needs to learn
Do not get in a fight with your neighbors.
Maybe your neighbors are total idiots.
Maybe they're obnoxious. Maybe they're annoying.
Maybe they're immoral.
Just leave them alone.
Strive as much as within you to be a peace with all men.
You don't want to have some Hatfields and McCoy's thing,
some kind of a war going on with your neighbors, a bad idea, right?
And a lot of times, you know, one person in the home,
one spouse, whether it's the husband or the wife,
will be the one who wants to go pick a fight with the neighbors.
And hopefully the other spouse can talk them down and explain to them,
hey, we don't want to have a fight with our neighbors.
It's not a big deal.
The music's not that loud.
Or whatever, you know what I mean?
Just let it go.
Move on.
Because, you know, these things escalate.
And look, it's one thing to start a fight with somebody who lives far away.
But when somebody is dwelling securely by thee,
you don't want to be at war with that person.
Because you have to be there. You're stuck with those people. You're stuck with those neighbors and you say
Oh, I wish I could just get rid of my bad neighbors
But here's the thing you know what can happen when your bad neighbors move is that worse neighbors could move in and
Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil that you don't know you say oh my neighbors are so annoying
Well, are they homos?
Okay, well, then at least that's better than living next to homos, right?
Unless you're living next to homos, then you should just kind of just shut up and just try to get along the best you can.
Okay?
I'm just saying like it could always be worse, right?
And yeah, you know, I think we've all had obnoxious neighbors.
We've had neighbors trying to run some weird business out of their house where it's like a car dealership or something
You know, I remember we we had a neighbor. We were living in an apartment complex
And our upstairs neighbor was literally running a used car dealership out of the apartment complex
I mean this made no sense this violated so many rules and there were so many things wrong with this and then also
There was this weird thing where we would just be in our house. We're in an apartment downstairs apartment
and we would just hear just a vacuum coming on like literally multiple times an hour.
And we're like, what are they, why are they vacuuming
multiple times per hour up there? What kind of, like what is going on with this dust buster?
And there were all kinds of theories and when, when people would come over to our house, we'd be like, listen.
You hear that back, you're like, what is that?
And there are all these theories
that they're trying to hide the evidence of the drugs
or they're just, I think all the theories
involve drugs in some capacity.
But the one thing we knew for sure
is that they were like East Europeans
running a used car dealership.
That was the only thing we knew for sure.
And so, yeah, we've had weird neighbors over the years.
I'm not gonna talk about any of my current neighbors
or neighbors in my recent neighborhood.
But yeah, there's been some stuff that happened,
some annoying stuff.
And you know what?
The smart thing to do is just to say, hey,
these people aren't really hurting me.
They're not really doing anything to me.
You know, if I need to park my car somewhere else,
or just, you know, it's better to just leave it alone
if at all possible.
And I know that some things could get so bizarre
or out of control that they need to be dealt with.
But the smart thing to do is to not,
devise evil against your neighbor
and think about how you're gonna get them back
because they, you know, I don't know,
their dog took a dump in your yard or whatever
and you gotta get them back or something.
You know, you gotta find peaceful ways
to resolve these things, my friend.
And then it says in verse 30,
strive not with a man.
Without cause if he had done thee no harm look if people haven't harmed you leave them alone
You know don't just strive with people without a reason
Okay, now look when David showed up to fight Goliath. What did he say? You know is there not a cause?
Why because he's fighting the Lord's battles
And so, look, obviously, there are some spiritual battles that are called for,
that are righteous battles that have to do with fighting for the gospel, right?
Fighting for important deal-breaker-type doctrines of the Bible.
Yeah, we need to earnestly contend for the faith, which was once living under the saints.
But the Bible is also telling us, don't be contentious.
So what the Bible is saying is the contentious man is the guy who's just fighting over stuff in general
He's fighting for stuff that doesn't matter. He's picking fights with people that haven't done anything to harm him
the right kind of
Contention is the guy who's not contentious by nature
But he'll contend for the faith when it needs to be contended for
You know, it's like Jude, you know,
he's not just setting out to just pick fights.
He says, well, you know,
I went to just write to you about the common salvation,
but it was needful for me to write unto you
that we should earnestly contend for the faith,
which was once delivered unto the saints.
He said, look, we have to fight for the gospel.
We have to fight for good doctrine,
but we don't just pick fights with people for no reason.
and just strive with a man without cause
if you have done the no harm, right?
If people have not harmed you,
then do not strive with them for no reason, okay?
That doesn't make any sense.
Look at Proverbs 25.
Find something similar in Proverbs 25.
It says in verse number eight, while you're turning there, I'll start reading,
Go not forth hastily to strive, right?
Don't be in a hurry to get involved in arguments, fights, battles, contention, strife.
Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou not know what to do in the end thereof,
when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame, right?
You end up, if you're just in a hurry to just get in fights with people,
a lot of times you go off half-cocked and then you end up with egg on your face,
looking like an idiot because you took the wrong side in the argument because you just jumped in
there hastily without knowing what you were doing or what you were talking about, right?
You might be in public and see people fight, you know, maybe you see people in public. Let's say
you see a husband and wife having an argument in public, right? Should you just hastily just be
Like is that really any of your business is that really your problem?
But you know, there's all these people who just really want to be a cowboy, you know
And they're just they're driving down the road and they see a couple people having a scuffle
And it's just like oh, I got to get over there and be the savior and I'm gonna be a superhero over here
She's mind your own business. How about that?
But the idea but because here's the thing you might not even know what's going on
You might not even know the situation and it could be easy to misread a situation when you're just like walking into it and
And sometimes you don't know who the bad guy is and who the good guy is and you might accidentally misread that
Right, and I guarantee you there have been a lot of situations
Where the good guy is like fighting off a bad guy and then people could confuse it and think that the good guy is the aggressor
when really he was defending himself,
and then they beat the living snot out of the good guy
because they see him beating up the bad guy
who is actually the one who attacked or was trying to rob him.
You don't want to just hastily get involved in a situation
without knowing what's going on.
And especially if it's just people arguing.
It's just words, if there's nothing violent going on
and it's just people yelling at each other in public,
well, I better intervene here.
Just mind your own business.
I mean, look, and stuff like that.
Like, look, yesterday, I was sick in bed yesterday,
fighting this cold, and I had my window open,
and I could just hear people yelling at each other
out my window.
And there were people, you know, in the neighborhood,
there were just people yelling at each other.
And I just heard people screaming at each other and yelling,
and you want to know what I did?
What do you think I did?
Nothing.
I stayed in bed.
And you say, well, that's because you were sick.
I don't care if I would have been in the healthiest moment
of my life.
I would have sat there and stayed in my room
and minded my own business.
Okay, because again, nobody was screaming like help help, you know, I'm being killed or something. It was just people arguing
People are mad at each other yelling at each other and arguing. What were they arguing about? I don't know. I don't care
not my problem
But we live in an age of busy bodies
Where everybody just wants to get involved and everybody because what if I told you that?
99% of people that are just mad and yelling at each other. It's gonna end fine
maybe even 99.9%, okay?
Now look, obviously there's a time to intervene.
You know, yeah, somebody pulls out a gun or something
and is threatening someone or pulls a knife on someone.
You know, then yeah, you might need to intervene
or call the police or whatever is the appropriate step to take.
But you know, just getting involved in every argument,
every scuffle, look, when I was in Armenia,
you know, I walked by a couple situations
where guys were just shoving each other
and yelling at each other.
And I'm just like, excuse me, and just kept going.
It is not your job.
And I bet there's some people right now thinking, well,
Pastor Anderson just doesn't care or something.
It's like, no, I just mind my own business,
and that's what most people should do most of the time.
And yeah, there are obviously situations
that actually are violent, but I'm not just
trying to pre-crime somebody for getting
a little loud or something.
about a situation that I don't even understand.
And look, obviously, most of the time,
when people lose their temper and start yelling,
most of the time it's not justified.
And the Bible does say that it is a sin
for us to be angry without a cause.
But sometimes anger and yelling are justified.
Okay?
Usually they're not.
Most of the time that all of us as Christians end up losing our temper, blowing our top
and yelling, usually it ends up being something that wasn't worth yelling about and losing
our temper about.
And yeah, a lot of anger is sinful.
I would say even the vast majority of anger is sinful.
But is all anger sinful? No, right?
Because what about when Jesus gets angry and he, you know,
makes a whip of cords and goes into the temple?
I guess you would have just tackled Jesus.
Because he's mad and he's swinging a cord around.
Jump him, you know?
No, you know, you don't want to just get involved in stuff
that doesn't pertain to you.
Now obviously I'm talking about like a you know a physical
altercation or, you know, things that we run into in public.
But how about just arguments between people
that have nothing to do with you, like family issues or something?
Family drama or drama between members of another church or something
that are just sort of in-house things that go on in people's families, in people's businesses.
Look, every school has drama, every job site has drama.
Every church has drama, take it to the bank, okay?
That's just the world that we live in.
You should not go forth hastily to strive and get involved in these things.
And then look what the Bible says in verse 9,
Debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself,
and discover not a secret to another.
The word discover here in this context means uncover.
Don't discover or uncover a secret to someone else.
He said, look, if you have a problem with someone,
go to that person and talk to that person directly.
Don't start revealing secret stuff about,
oh yeah, here's all the secret grievances
I have against this person.
No, just debate your cause between you and him alone.
Let's see that here if it put thee to shame and on infamy turn not away
What is he saying in both of these verses both verse 8 and both verse 10?
Is that you end up looking like an idiot when you get involved in other people's fights other people's drama?
And you insert yourself in other people's family issues other people's church issues
You end up putting your foot in your mouth because you said something stupid or you took the wrong side
Or you just come off as the busy-bodied gossip that you are
And look, what does it mean to be a gossip?
What does it mean to be a busy body?
Right?
It's somebody who enjoys drama, so they just love to just talk about other people's drama and get involved in other people's drama.
Instead of trying to be a peacemaker, instead of trying to cover the transgression,
they want to just broadcast it and gossip and talk.
I mean, think about these like gossip magazines.
Right? What are these gossip magazines? They literally follow celebrities around and
Try to take pictures of them in weird situations or doing something weird and then not only do they report
Things that they spy on them where they they're literally spying on them
Sneaking up on them listening in on them
Photographing them in compromising
Situations are just looking weird or whatever. They do all this stuff and then the evil surmising kick in
And what is evil surmising?
This is where they start imagining and dreaming up
what they think is going on.
Oh, well we saw so and so the celebrity walk into this building
with so and so the person.
So maybe they're a thing.
Maybe he's cheating on his wife with her, you know, just all these theories and wicked things and look
I think anybody can realize I saw somebody posted something recently that said, you know
People who follow the lives of celebrities closely have a lower IQ like new study shows
It's like wow, we really needed that study
It's if you're super into celebrities, you're not that smart
It's a revelation
But look
I don't want my kids reading People magazine.
And that's all, what are the, is that the one?
What, somebody held me out.
Vogue is, I don't know what that is.
Is that also a gossip magazine?
Nobody wants to say because then we'll know what's coming to your doorstep.
We know what's in your mailbox.
You know, it seems like when I was a kid, there was this thing like E with an exclamation mark,
something E news, something weekly entertainment. What is it?
TMZ is that okay? Yeah, I don't really know anything about this because I've always thought it's just like one of the most
Braindead forms of entertainment is like reading celebrity gossip or following the lives of celebrities
But like look you really would you you'd think of you know those type of journalists who do that
paparazzi kind of journalists that would stalk celebrities
and come up with all these theories.
And look, we all see it when we're in the grocery store
checkout, it's like, oh, is so-and-so cheating?
Oh, Kanye West says blah, blah, blah,
about his wife or girlfriend or whatever, you know, right?
and all that you know turns out that this guy you know ten years ago he's telling everything
about his relationship with this actress and you know eight years later she just spills her guts
about you know all of her weird stuff from her marriage with so-and-so wouldn't we all agree
that that is trashy literature we say like this is trashy literature this is gross this is stupid
These people are immoral, ungodly people.
They're busybys and gossips.
But then you have people that will do that in the church.
Where it's like they want to know every sordid detail about people's marriages or their past or you know
They're out there just digging up the dirt on everybody and trying to figure out what's going on and everybody's home and figuring out
What's going on with these people over here and whatever because they're just they're just a spiritualized version of that same
TMZ people magazine
Phenomenon national inquirer
They're like the, they're like the, you know, spiritual inquirer or whatever.
And it doesn't make it better, it makes it worse.
Okay.
When you're getting involved in people's personal lives and, and just
digging up dirt on people.
And, and here's, and here's, you know, I'm going off on a bit of a tangent here,
but here's the thing.
Okay.
If something, if somebody has something from their past, right?
and it's been dealt with, it's been moved on.
If you bring it up, you're a wicked person
for bringing that up.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, yeah, but so-and-so, you know,
I went and searched and this guy's got a criminal record.
You know, he's, whatever, 20 years ago, 15 years ago.
And you're digging up some dude's criminal record
and you're just gonna just be like, look at that, look.
And it's something that's already been repented of.
Why are we talking about it?
Amen?
I mean, it's just it's it's bizarre or how about this?
What if someone has actually been church disciplined for something, right?
and
Then they got church disciplined and the person was restored to fellowship. Why are we still talking about it?
Right if someone was church disciplined
Now they've been restored to fellowship.
We should not be talking about it anymore.
It should be forgiven and forgotten,
and it shouldn't follow that person around.
But you know what?
This is just what rotten people love to just rub people's nose
and things that they've already said that they're sorry
or they've already repented of.
They've already been disciplined.
Maybe they've already been punished by the criminal justice system
or they've already been punished by their parents
or they've already been punished by church discipline.
Why would we keep talking about it?
You know, because wicked people just want to keep rubbing someone's nose in something
that they did from their past, that isn't relevant at all.
So I didn't know that that person had been church disciplined for that.
Well then, why are you talking about stuff when you don't even know the situation?
Well, I didn't realize, you know, or here's what people say,
well, yeah, but I just have to warn people about that guy.
I got to warn people about that guy.
You know what, here's the thing, you don't, though.
It's not your job to warn people,
hey, did you know that that guy got thrown out of the church a couple years ago for X, Y, and Z?
You're saying, I mean, he's a good, you know, he's a member of Good Standing Now,
but just, you know, be careful with that guy.
He did have a church discipline issue in the past.
That gal did have a church discipline.
Folks, that is not right to bring that up.
Drop that, forgive and forget, okay?
And you say, well, yeah, but if people aren't warned,
you know, blah, blah, blah, that person's dangerous,
blah, blah, blah, you know what, you know what?
Here's the thing, bringing up somebody's past sins
that have already been dealt with is a greater evil
than whatever danger of having this person around
or whatever that had a mistake in their past.
And here's the thing, we're not talking about homosexuals.
Amen?
We're not talking about pedophiles.
That's not what we're talking about, okay?
Pedophiles should be taken out like a dog and shot, okay?
And once a homo, always a homo, okay?
We understand that these weird, creepy predators, but that's not what we're talking about, is
it?
We're not talking about these evil, sodomite predators and pedophiles.
committed crimes even, been church disciplined,
been punished by the judicial system, whatever.
You know what?
You hang that over somebody's head.
It tells me more about you than them.
When you're bringing up people's issues like that,
it tells me more about you than it tells me about them.
And by the way, while we're on the subject of pedophiles,
let me just say this, okay?
Some guy who commits fornication
with a 17-year-old girl is not a pedophile.
Now look fornication is wrong fornication is sin
Fornication is a mega sin super wicked. Do not do it
flee fornication
Amen
But at the same time, fornication is not mean that someone is irredeemable,
that they can't get right with God,
that they can't live a great life for God,
that they can't repent and move on.
It's not punished by the death penalty in the Bible,
although God did kill people that angered him with fornication repeatedly.
It's not something where it had that as a crime or anything like that, okay?
It's super wicked, it's ungodly, God will punish you severely if you do it.
But at the same time, don't go labeling people pedophiles
just because they did something when they were a teenager
or the person that they did it with was a teenager or something.
Hey, it's wrong, it's sinful.
And look, I support laws against statutory rape.
And the reason why I support laws about statutory rape
is because of the fact that when you have an older guy,
and a younger gal that's under 18, okay,
there can be a major sophistication disparity there,
okay, where she's too young and goalable
to be able to make good decisions
or to be able to consent.
And so, you know, obviously girls can easily
be taken advantage of.
That's why we need to protect our teenage girls
and keep them
safe from situations where older dudes could prey upon them potentially, okay?
So yeah, I get it. It's obviously wrong, it's reprehensible, it's wicked,
but let me just let you in on something, okay?
Any man who is attracted to a girl who's underage, quote unquote,
but who is fully developed is not necessarily a pedophile.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
A pedophile is someone who is attracted to those
who are not fully developed like prepubescent boys
and prepubescent girls.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
So some, some guy, and look, I'm not defending sin.
I'm not defending fornication at all because you know what?
If anybody knows me, they've heard my preaching.
They know I hate fornication.
and I was a virgin on my wedding day.
So, you know, I'm 100% for purity
and I'm not gonna make excuses for fornication at all,
but I guarantee you that there are a bunch of people
in this room who back in another time of their life
committed this in fornication.
You know, there are probably a lot of people
in this room that have been guilty of that, okay?
And it's, you know, it is what it is.
You can't go back and change the past,
but you can just be pure from here on out.
You young people growing up in a Christian home don't make that mistake, but here's the thing some guy
Who basically, you know committed some act when he's a teenager with a girl a few years younger than him or or you know
Or vice versa or whatever, you know, and they committed a crime and whatever. Here's the thing
It's it's ungodly. It's wicked. It's sinful, but you know, here's my question. Why are we talking about it?
Years later when that person is living for God
Why are we still talking about the person who got church discipline for railing and is now a member in good standing?
Why would we still talk about the member who got church discipline for fornication and is now living for God and in good standing?
Why would we talk about somebody who you know got involved with some underage chick however many years ago and
You know and now you know
He has a criminal record because she was underage or whatever when she was fully developed
Why are we gonna just call that guy a pedophile? That's stupid. Okay, because let's face it
You know, it's not like
18 is the only time when somebody is fully developed and I'm not again
I'm not justifying this crap and it's super weird when you have these these
Situations where you have you know like let's say a pastor like
You know the famous example
with Pastor Jack Scop, you know, he basically was an unsaid false prophet.
Unsaid false prophet, total predator, total weirdo, okay, praying upon people and stuff like that.
Look, that guy, as a pastor who has permanently disqualified himself, has to be permanently marked as a reprobate.
Not because he was with the 16-year-old girl, though,
because, you know what, the 16-year-old girl
was fully developed.
That's just a biological fact, okay?
But because of the fact that he was preaching
gross, perverted, wicked, sinful,
disgusting doctrines from the pulpit,
I already declared him an unsaved, reprobate,
false prophet, and a pervert
before he was caught with the 16-year-old girl.
I have the sermons online to prove it.
because of the stuff he was saying that was gross and perverted.
Someone like that is a gross, weird, false prophet
that needs to be called out, labeled, marked, avoided, whatever.
Okay?
But here's the thing.
Is it because he was with a 16 year old girl?
No, obviously it was super reprehensible and evil
for him to use his position that way, okay?
But does that necessarily make him a pedophile per se?
No, it doesn't, okay?
It just makes him an evil predator for other reasons.
And I agree with him being punished.
I agree with everything that happened to him
and is still happening to him as a result of that.
But, so, you know, we need to understand here a balanced view on these things, okay?
And so, the bottom line is, it's not our job to just stick our nose into other people's
business, try to dig up all the dirt on people, and this is what evil, vindictive, vengeful
people do.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Why are you digging up the dirt on just laymen and just just people that are just living their lives?
It's it's absurd and you know what it tells me way more about you than it tells me about them and
I think it's disgusting and I think that it's just
absurdly unbiblical
For you to be just people are just going through their lives just living their lives
And you want to pull up their marijuana charge from 15 years ago or the fact that they got church discipline 10 years ago
Or something stupid like that
Anyway
But but again does that mean that I'm saying that you know predators and pedophiles and
Homosexuals should just be we should just forget about that and move on. No people that are
openly teaching false doctrine, teaching damnable heresy is who we're going to expose and fight, okay?
Why expose Jack Scott?
Jack Scott got up and said,
you can be saved without knowing the name of Jesus.
You don't need the Word of God to be saved and you don't need the name of Jesus to be saved.
Folks, that is a false prophet that needs to be called out and publicly marked, okay?
Committing these evil acts of, you know, pedophilia, homosexuality, things like that that the Bible says are reprobate things.
Yeah, obviously those things we need to mark and avoid, but we don't want to just carry that over now and just start demonizing everyone who's ever been on drugs or committed fornication or been church disciplined for railing or whatever, or been church disciplined for...
You know whatever other reason drunkenness drugs. Oh, you know, just so you know that guy, you know was church discipline for drinking
Well, if he's back and he's a member in good standing now, we don't need to know that do we?
Does everybody see the difference between these things? So people will take these extreme situations of like
You know people who are just you know murder serial killers
Rapists and you know, sodomite reprobates or false prophets
that are being rightfully exposed and called out
versus just people who have a sinful past.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Be forgiving, drop it, don't get involved in those things.
Look at chapter 26 verse 17.
I hope that all makes sense to you.
I'm talking about following biblical principles, right?
If the church decides that somebody is okay,
then it's time to move on and drop it.
If a person goes through the criminal justice system,
pays the punishment for their crime,
and I'm not talking about pedophiles,
I'm talking about people that are normal people,
and they go through and they pay their time.
We'll drop it. You know what we're not gonna drop though is a false prophet
Who's teaching damnable heresy that he never repented of and never took back because some people said oh?
Well, you're still talking about John MacArthur denying the blood in the 80s, right?
So please tell me when John MacArthur stopped denying the blood
because John MacArthur was denying the blood in 1987 and ever since then he's been defending his position on
believing that the blood doesn't save
ever since, still teaching works-based salvation,
still preaching damnable heresy constantly.
Okay, yeah, look, the Bible calls people out by name,
and we're still reading about it thousands of years later.
You know, hey, should we let that go?
Folks, no, but you can't just take these extreme examples of false prophets
teaching damnable heresy and
horrible predators and sexual perverts and then just start projecting that onto just normal people who have a sinful past
Right because again if we started just exposing everybody who's ever committed fornication or been drunk or drugs
You know it'd be embarrassing for a lot of people and it would be no point to do that
And it's wicked to do that because we're supposed to be forgiving people
who give people a chance to move on and live it down. Amen?
It says in verse 17,
He that passeth by and meddles with strife not belonging to Him
is like one that takeeth a dog by the ears.
Look at chapter 20 verse 3.
Don't meddle with strife not belonging to you.
Don't just have to know the dirt on every situation that you had no connection to just oh
I need to know all the details about the so-and-so scandal and I need to hear about this person's scandal and oh
You know oh and by the way
I know I'm going off on a lot of tangents
But remember I have a cold and so these sermons get a little bit different because my you know, you know
When you have a cold, it's not just that your body is is worn out your brain's kind of worn out, too
All right, so I'm kind of just shooting from the hip up here, but you know, it's funny
I feel like I'm hitting the target anyway, even though I'm shooting from the hip right now. Okay, but but
But you know the point is that you got
Just give me a second. Sorry
People have this sinful desire to just you know know all the dirt about what's going on with these people are that people
Here's a little rule of thumb that I have when people are being secretly recorded. I don't listen to it and
Here's why I don't listen to it because I don't want to be secretly recorded
do you want to be secretly recorded and
Your private conversations broadcast to the entire world
And there was this disgusting, evil transvestite
who infiltrated one of our sister churches,
you know, one of our friends' churches.
and was going there and pretending to be like someone who wanted to be saved
and pretended to get saved or whatever,
and he's going around and just filming conversations with the church members,
and then he made a documentary, this horrible evil disgusting sodomite,
made a documentary about like what that church is like
and he's just kind of doing all this hidden camera stuff.
and at the time everybody's like sending it to me like oh can you believe this guy did this
can you believe this check this out you need to see this you need to see what this guy's doing
and I did not even watch five seconds of it and I never will because I'm like well I don't want
people coming in and secretly filming me and secretly recording me so why would I watch
some video of godly Christians just trying to go to church in a fundamental Baptist church
Why would I have any interest in that?
You know, are people secretly recording this phone call
and secretly recording this meeting and all this stuff?
You know, as a rule of thumb,
I tend to just refuse to listen to those things ever.
You know, and by the way, here's another thing.
I don't know another thing.
You know, here's another thing.
People will say like,
oh, this other church had a secret meeting.
Secret meeting.
And here's what they mean by a secret meeting
That's what they mean by secret meeting.
So what'll happen is you'll have a church
that advertises their address
and the time of the service, right?
Like Wednesday night, 7 p.m., 2, 7, 4, 1,
West Southern Avenue, Suite 14.
And then basically they'll not livestream a meeting
to deal with something in the church
and then people are like, there's a secret meeting.
How is it a secret meeting if it was open to the public?
Can somebody explain that?
But what they mean is, I'm a little busy-body gossip and I want to hear about private things from 3,000 miles away.
That's what they really mean.
Because here's the thing, whenever we have ever church-disciplined anyone, guess what we don't do?
We do not live stream that to the world nor do we record it and you say well, I've seen recordings
That's because some bozo
Pulls out their camera and records it and I don't have any control over that do I how can I control some idiot?
Pulling out their cell phone when I literally make a point to not record not live stream something because when we've thrown people out we don't
Send that to the world. Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Oh, but we're hiding we're doing a secret secret meeting. No, we're just we're just protecting people's dignity because maybe maybe they'll repent and get
Right with God and come back. That's always the hope isn't it?
So why would want to just permanently, you know ruin that person's reputation? We don't want to eventually forget about it completely
So pretty understand that's not a secret meeting
Okay, but then you know a church will have some meeting where they just want to meet with their own church members
And I think virtually every church has done this
I'm thinking of all the churches I've ever been to and known about they're all at some point could have a meeting where they're like
Okay, we're just gonna meet with just the members and we're not recording it
And we're not broadcasting live or whatever every church does that
But then you have some idiot comes in and records it and then guess what I'm not gonna listen to it
And somebody's like, oh, this pastor's talking about you
in this secret meeting, you know, you need to hear this.
I didn't listen to five seconds of it.
I'm not going to.
Why?
Because I don't want people recording me
when I'm just trying to have a conversation, right?
And you know, I don't like people who walk around
with their cell phone like this either,
with the little camera sticking out.
Makes me nervous.
You know what I'm talking about people walk up to me they walk up to pastor Steve Anderson and they got their phone like this
I'm just like turn that around buddy. Put that in your pocket. I don't I don't trust this kind of stuff
When are you trying to hide? You know look I you know what hey every day when I go to the bathroom
I'm not doing anything sinful, but does that mean I want to be filmed while I'm going to the bathroom?
No, because guess what people have things in their life that are just private and
Other people just need to stay out of their business and mind their own business, right?
And we all have conversations that are private and thoughts that are private and you know
things like that
So don't be a busy-body gossip and don't get involved in fights that have nothing to do with you
Just stay stay out of stuff
that doesn't involve you.
And look, I'm not saying don't defend your friends
or defend your family or defend your church.
You should do that.
Don't get involved in other people's stuff
that's in their house or in their church
or something that doesn't pertain to us at all.
You know, you should stay out of that stuff.
And look, why do people get into this stuff?
Because they're busy bodies.
The same reason why those people magazines,
that's one of the most popular magazines in America.
Right?
Is U.S. Weekly one of them too, or is that an actual news magazine?
I don't want to accidentally malign an actual news magazine.
Is that a news magazine, or is that a gossip magazine?
Us Weekly?
You think it's legitimate?
You're defending it? No, I don't know.
I don't know, yeah.
So, okay, let's strike that from the record.
It might not be.
I know that these gossip magazines must be super popular
because a bunch of women at the grocery store
must be buying them or they wouldn't be selling them
next to candy bars.
If nobody was buying them.
You need to stick to the candy ladies, all right?
If you need some endorphins,
it's better to hit the candy aisle than to hit that rack.
Let's buy ours and have water purp.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Thank you for these.
Lessons from the life of Josiah, Lord that we could have the greatest revival, the greatest works for you, even in the end times, is really exciting and encouraging, Lord.
And Lord God, help us never to become these evil, busy bodies who rejoice in iniquity.
Lord, help us rather to rejoice in things that are godly.
and not just enjoy learning about the sordid details of other people's lives
or, you know, people's dirty laundry from their past, Lord.
Help us never to delight in discovering dirty laundry about our brothers and sisters in Christ,
from their past, or from the inner workings of their home or relationships or whatever, Lord.
Help us not to be these evil, twisted people who just rejoice in Scuttlebutt.
and gossip and tail-bearing, Lord,
and help us not to fight with people
who haven't done anything to hurt us.
And, Lord, help us never to fight with the people
and hurt the people that have actually been a blessing to us
and have actually helped us to turn around
and hurt those people is wicked, Lord.
Help us to learn this lesson from your word.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Lastly, let's turn in our hymnals to song number 308.
Song number 308, I Surrender All.
Song number 308, sing it out on the first.
All to Jesus, I surrender all to him, I freely.
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