Galatians chapter 5, the part that I want to focus on is beginning of verse 16, and
the title of my sermon is The Works of the Flesh, The Works of the Flesh.
Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, and what that means is that they are apparent,
we can see them, it's no secret what they are, and that's what manifest means, openly
displayed apparent, we know that they're there.
The Bible tells us beginning of verse 16, this I say then, walk in the spirit and ye
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, and the obvious counterpoint to that is that if
we don't walk in the spirit, we will fulfill the lust of the flesh.
We have to walk in the spirit in order to not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
That's the solution to the problem of the flesh, okay?
The flesh is that part of us which is not saved, right?
It is the unregenerate man.
When we got saved, our spirit was quickened, but our flesh stayed the same.
Our body didn't change.
It wasn't like the moment you got saved, you looked down and all the blemishes and imperfections
of your body started to disappear as your body was just completely made perfect in Christ.
No, your flesh stayed exactly the same when you got saved.
It was the spirit that was quickened.
So now, you've got this dichotomy between the new man, which is the regenerate man,
the son of God spiritually that you've become in Christ, and that old sinful flesh that
is still there, okay?
So now, you've got this war going on between the flesh and the spirit, between the new
Steven Anderson and the old Steven Anderson or insert your name here, the new man versus
the old man, and part of the flesh is the brain, okay?
This is what is known as the carnal mind.
So when we talk about the flesh, we're not just talking about skin, bone, muscle, blood
vessels.
We're actually talking about your brain as well.
There is something called the carnal mind, and the Bible says that the carnal mind is
an enmity against God.
There's the natural man that receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for their
foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
But then there is also the spiritual mind.
To be spiritually minded is life, right?
So let's read this.
It says, walk in the spirit, verse 16, and you should not fulfill the lust of the flesh,
for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these
are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
You see, when you get saved, you delight in the law of God after the inward man.
When you get saved, you love the Lord on the inside.
You delight in the things of God on the inside because that new man, that new creature in
Christ loves the things of God, loves the Lord, loves church, loves the Bible, loves
the hymns.
But you've also got that old man, and these are contrary, and so you can't do the things
that you would.
You want to serve God, but then the flesh holds you back, right?
So you've got to win that battle.
You've got to put on the new man.
You've got to mortify the deeds of the flesh.
You've got to read your Bible.
You've got to pray.
You've got to sing hymns.
You've got to go to church.
Why?
So that you can feed that spirit and win the battle over the flesh.
And this is something that happens every single day.
You know, Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me.
This isn't a one-time thing.
This is a daily denial of the flesh.
That's why the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is have some kind of
communion with the Lord, whether that be prayer or reading your Bible or singing a hymn.
Just right away get your mind on spiritual things.
Don't just start out carnal and just roll into the day with that which is of this world,
right?
There's something spiritual going on the first thing when you wake up because this has to
happen every single day.
But he says in verse 18, but if you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest.
We talked about what that meant.
Which are these?
And none of these should come as a surprise to us because of the fact that they're manifest,
right?
It says, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings,
and such like of the which I tell you before as I've also told you in time past that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now here's what you have to understand.
If people that did these things inherited the kingdom of God, then the kingdom of God
would not be a very nice place because then the kingdom of God would be filled with a
bunch of adultery and murder and drunkenness and all that.
So in order for us to enter the kingdom of God, in order for us to enter the kingdom
of heaven, we have to be saved, okay?
That's the only way to get there because guess what?
Every single one of us has these tendencies in our flesh.
We have the capability to do these things and we have done some of these things.
And even if you haven't done all of these things, you've done some of these things,
period.
Nobody is without sin.
And you say, well, I haven't done anything on that list.
Well, what about and such like?
You know, I mean, he lists 17 specific items and then he's just saying stuff like that,
such like.
We've all done such like.
We've all done sinful, bad things.
So some people who want to teach a works-based salvation just say, well, hey, you've got
to just clean up your life and get this all out of your life and start living a perfect
life.
Well, you know what?
Good luck with that.
But the Bible says all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone which is the second death.
Even lying could be put on the such like and lying will send you to hell.
Any of these things will send you to hell.
The only way to get to heaven is to be saved.
And you've got to be saved by believing in Jesus.
And when you believe in Jesus, your sins are separated from you as far as the east is from
the west.
And so that's how you're able to walk into the kingdom of God even though you've done
these activities.
Why?
Because they're forgiven and forgotten.
That's why.
And when we get to heaven, we will never do these things again.
And here's why.
Because it is the flesh that causes us to do these things.
If I were to go to heaven right now in my current condition, I wouldn't fit in.
I wouldn't be able to exist there because I'd be too sinful.
Even the greatest man on earth, John the Baptist, wasn't good enough to go to heaven in his
sinful condition.
That's why the Lord said, among them that are born of women, they're not risen or greater
than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he.
Why?
Because even he in his sinful condition is not perfect and heaven's a perfect place.
And there shall not enter into it anything that defileth.
You know, nothing that defiles can get into heaven.
So if we believe on Jesus Christ, we're saved, right?
But we're still in the flesh.
But the good news is we're not going to heaven in this flesh.
We're not getting in a spaceship and going to heaven.
We're going to go to heaven after this flesh is discarded.
Now you're either going to physically die and then your soul spirit will go on to heaven,
which is no problem because that sinful part of you will be left behind in a grave and
buried and eaten of worms.
But if you make it all the way to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, then you
will forego physical death.
The Bible says we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in a twinkling
of an eye.
And when you're caught up to meet the Lord in the air, you're going to be changed in
a moment.
And the Bible says that he shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto
his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
unto himself.
So you're going to go to heaven if you die before the second coming of Christ, your soul,
your spirit, and you won't be sinning.
You'll never sin again once you get to heaven.
Isn't that great?
Never sin again, right?
Then if you make it to the second coming of Christ, you know, you're going to be changed
and get that glorified spiritual body and again still you're never going to sin again
at that point.
It's like the song goes, there is a fountain filled with blood till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more.
He's saying, look, they're already here, the church of God, but they're still sinning,
right?
But someday we'll get to the point where we sin no more.
Why?
Because the flesh is what's making us sin.
And so once we die physically, we're done with that.
Or once we make it to the second coming of Christ, that's over, praise God, and we will
never sin again.
So we're not just going to go through eternity sinning and doing all these things and we're
not going to enter the kingdom of God in a sinful state.
That's what's being taught.
But what I really want, you know, that's just an introduction to kind of explain the context
and explain the passage.
What I really want to dig into, though, are the specific works of the flesh tonight.
Now that we have our bearings spiritually with what we're talking about, what are the
works of the flesh?
Why talk about the works of the flesh?
Because these are the things that we want to avoid.
These are the things that we naturally have a tendency to do.
We have human nature, sinful nature, whatever you want to call it.
But our flesh wants to do these types of things and these are the type of things that
our flesh is going to draw us into if we don't walk in the spirit to avoid these things,
right?
So what are the works of the flesh?
Well, when you look at this list, I find it helpful to break this list into three parts.
And in fact, it's broken in three parts because it spans three verses.
And actually I really like the way it's broken up here in these three verses because it's
sort of broken up by category if you think about it.
Because look at the first verse that lists the works of the flesh in verse 19.
It says, Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these, and then it gives four items,
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.
Now can you see how those four items go together?
I mean that's a great little bundle of wickedness right there, okay?
You've got adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.
Now when I was memorizing this chapter, Galatians 5, I gave it a little mnemonic or memory helper
there of spelling the word awful.
And obviously we're missing a letter there.
You know, there'd be a W in there.
But that helps me remember whenever I'm memorizing scripture and there's a list, I'll use little
tricks like that.
And these are awful things, aren't they?
So that'll help you remember the first four, right?
Unclenicity, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.
Now uncleanness is not talking about what I preached against this morning, right?
You know, untidiness or being a pack rat or something like that.
You know, when the Bible used the word uncleanness, that's a euphemism for all types of just sinful
activity in regard to that which goes on in the bedroom, right?
So that which is related to fornication and adultery, uncleanness and lasciviousness are
two items that have to do with that same type of sin, okay?
So lasciviousness has to do with lusting after those type of illicit relationships of fornication,
adultery.
And, you know what, frankly, that type of lifestyle is unclean.
It's unclean even from a sanitation aspect, and that's why God uses the term uncleanness
because there's disease involved, it's unsanitary, and it's morally dirty, you know, it's spiritually
dirty.
And we even use that term, don't we?
We say, a dirty magazine, a dirty movie, right?
A dirty book.
What do we mean by that?
Uncleanness.
Well, that's what God means here.
So this shouldn't be too hard to understand what he means by uncleanness.
That which is dirty, that which is sinful in that way.
So those four go together, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.
Mankind has a tendency to engage in these activities, and we must walk in the Spirit
to avoid these type of temptations.
You know, you can't just expect young people to just go to their marriage pure and make
it pure to their wedding day just by accident, just by osmosis, because guess where the flesh
wants to take them?
Into fornication.
And when people get married, we can't just expect that they're just automatically going
to be faithful to their spouse for a lifetime.
No, because their flesh is going to tempt them and pull them into what?
Adultery.
And so we need to put on the new man, walk in the Spirit, read the Bible, preach the
Bible, listen to the Bible, being preached, and understand how wrong these things are,
and we are to flee fornication.
So we've got fornication, adultery, uncleanness, lasciviousness.
That's pretty obvious that those are tied in with the flesh, because obviously these
are physical cravings of the sinful man.
Pretty easy to understand, right?
Let's jump to the third part of the series, okay?
So that's kind of the first section, because I said we break this up into three parts because
of the three verses, right?
Look at the third part.
We've got envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.
Now what does this little series have in common, or what does this little series make you think
of?
Well, besides the sexual sins that we saw in verse 19, verse 21 is pretty much giving
you the standard sins that worldly people are likely to commit.
If we're not talking about the bedroom, you know, these are probably the other most common
sins that we're going to see sinful people engaged in.
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings.
And we see revelings there.
I would just insert the modern word partying.
You know, those who party, quote, unquote.
That's what this is talking about.
And so when the Bible says here envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, this covers
a lot of American culture in 2018 of those who are non-Christian or those who are a very
worldly Christian that would do these things, right?
Drunkenness is pretty prevalent, isn't it?
I mean, drinking is almost universal sometimes, you feel like, when you get around the job
site, you get in the business world.
I can't even count how many times in the construction industry I was told, hey, if you do this extra
job or if you run this wire, you know, I'll get you a six-pack of beer.
I got a case of beer for you, buddy.
Hey, I'm going to get you a 12-pack, buddy.
And I'm just like, I don't drink, you know.
But I can't even count how many times I was offered.
Who's had that on the construction?
Yeah, see what I mean?
You know, that's the bonus.
I mean, that's the ultimate to them, right?
That's what they think about.
That's what they do.
So drunkenness is pretty common, isn't it?
I mean, is it rare?
No, it's common.
So it must be a temptation that's common to man.
And you know, the things on this list are temptations that are common to man.
These are the works of the flesh.
They're manifest.
We see them everywhere.
We see drunkenness everywhere.
You say, well, come on, Pastor Anderson, murder?
Is murder that prevalent?
Well, yeah, actually, just ask 25% of women in America
who've already had an abortion.
Ask them if murder is prevalent.
Because abortion is murder.
You can try to sugarcoat it any way you want,
but anyone with any sense or logic or reason
knows that that baby's alive and you killed it.
That's murder.
And so don't listen to the liberals and all the weirdos
that want to justify this wickedness.
It's murder.
So you can see murder is pretty common.
How about envying?
You know, when we think about envying,
desiring that which belongs to someone else,
wanting to be someone else, not content with such things as we have,
but envious of that which does not rightfully belong to us,
this is the love of money, the root of all evil.
And we see it everywhere, the commercialism, the materialism,
the desire for more money, more goods, or wanting to be a star,
wanting to be this celebrity, that celebrity.
So this is pretty common in the world.
And of course, revelings.
I mean, you know, young people, this is what they live for.
Partying.
You know, Friday night, Saturday night, whatever.
And so these things are pretty common, aren't they?
They're manifest.
So that's the third part of the series.
The first part of the series, of course, is also, unfortunately,
pretty common.
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.
OK, so let's home in on that central verse here, verse 20.
Because in verse 20, we find some items that we would probably not
expect to be on this list.
I wouldn't expect these things necessarily
to be on a list of the works of the flesh.
I mean, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness
makes perfect sense.
Works of the flesh, right?
And then when I see things like, you know, drunkenness, murders,
revelings, envyings, makes perfect sense.
I mean, that's the flesh talking, right?
But if you look at verse 20, what's interesting is this list here,
it has a kind of a theme, because these things have to do with religion.
Isn't that interesting?
Because we start out with idolatry, which has to do with what?
Religion.
And we end up with heresies.
What does that have to do with?
Religious beliefs.
And when you look at a lot of other things on the list,
you'll find a religious connotation.
I mean, witchcraft has to do with that, which is spiritual.
Even though it's an evil spirit that you're dealing with,
there is still an element of spirituality there.
And these other things that are listed here, with it, hatred, variance,
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions.
I'm going to show you how this all kind of ties together
into one thought.
You know, the Apostle Paul here, who is obviously
speaking by the Holy Ghost, he's not just randomly stringing together
a list of sins, like my grandmother had a big red trunk or something,
and he's just coming up with a sin to start
with each letter of the alphabet or something like that.
Nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental.
This list means something.
These things are in the order that they're in for a reason.
God's trying to teach us something.
God's trying to warn us about something, saying, hey,
stay away from these works of the flesh
and embrace these works of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit,
rather, that are listed in verses 22 and 23.
So let's go through and talk about each of these.
Let's focus in our attention on verse 20.
And let's start out with idolatry.
Let's just start by defining these things, first of all.
What is idolatry?
Well, idolatry, in the literal sense, is when we carve out an image
or a likeness or a molten image, and we worship that or pray to that
or bow down to that or venerate that.
That is known as idolatry.
So this could be anything from a Buddha statue to Hindu gods.
This could be the Catholic saints, Mary statue,
even a statue of so-called Jesus, even though it's just
some long-haired white hippie dude that, you know, has nothing to do
with Jesus, a random dude, because nobody knows what Jesus looked like.
They just made a guy and just bow down to that guy, call it Jesus.
You know, whether this is the golden calf or whether it's, you know,
whatever Buddha or laughing Buddha or whoever it is, it is idolatry.
Molten images, graven images, bowing down before them,
venerating them, whatever you want to call it.
That's idolatry, okay?
Then witchcraft.
Witchcraft has to do with the dark arts, sorcery.
This is spells, incantations, charms, basically intercourse with Satan or
demons or evil spirits, fallen angels, crystal balls, voodoo, psychic hotlines,
right?
That's what this is referring to, witchcraft.
Then hatred.
Now, when the Bible says hatred here, this is not condemning
all hatred, as some people will try to twist this verse, because of the fact
that we know even Jesus Christ hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, right?
Jesus said twice in the book of Revelation,
I hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans.
And the Bible commands us in Amos 5, verse 15, to love the good and
hate the evil, okay?
So the Bible says, Abhor that which is evil, cling to that which is good.
So this is not a condemnation of all hatred, or as it would even be condemning the Lord
and Jesus and condemning us for following the Bible.
But what this is condemning, when it says hatred, it's talking about hating your brothers
and sisters in Christ, or hating people without a cause.
The Bible talks about being angry with your brother without a cause, hating your brother.
If you hate your brother, you're a murderer, and on and on.
So most hatred in this world is wrong, but obviously there is a righteous anger,
a righteous hatred, even though most anger is wrong.
There's a time for anger.
The Bible even says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, there's a time to love and a time to hate.
So obviously we know that when Jesus Christ hated, he was not in the flesh.
He was doing that which is right.
But hatred is what?
Define hatred.
Hatred is the opposite of love, basically, in a nutshell.
That's a whole sermon in and of itself.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that.
Variance.
What does variance mean?
This has to do with being different, okay?
Think of variations, right?
Well, variance is another way of saying variation.
Being different.
Okay, we'll come back to that.
What does emulation mean?
Vibration is mimicking or trying to be like someone else, okay?
And who's used that word just in your everyday vernacular?
You talked about someone emulating someone else.
Sometimes you might look at a teenager and say that they're emulating this rock star
or this Hollywood star or maybe this band is emulating that band, right?
I know it's a word that I grew up using even just in my everyday vernacular.
Some people might not have grown up with it as much, but it's not that obscure of a word.
It's not that weird of a word, emulation, okay?
To emulate someone is to try to be just like them.
So if I'm emulating someone, I'm going to dress like them, talk like them, act like
them, mimic them, to try to be them.
Does everybody understand what emulations is referring to there?
And again, that could be good or bad because of the fact that the apostle Paul said that
he desired, he said, to provoke to emulation them that were of his flesh that he might
save some of them.
He's saying, hey, I want them to emulate me, meaning I want them to be like me.
I want them to follow me.
But we're going to talk about what the bad kind of emulation is.
The good kind is I see him going soul winning, I go do the same thing, you know?
I see him reading his Bible, I'm going to go read my Bible.
That's good emulation, but there's a bad kind of emulation.
The next thing is wrath, okay?
Wrath is extreme, intense, burning anger.
Usually we associate this word with God because God really takes the cake on having the most
intense anger, you know?
When you're on the receiving end of God's anger, it's called wrath.
But of course, there are also people in the Bible who become wrath.
They have wrath.
And the Bible warns us not to let the sun go down on our wrath and to be angry without
sinning, right?
Be angry and sin not.
Let not the sun go down on your wrath.
Then strife.
Strife is when there is conflict between two people, right?
Strife is when we're not getting along, we're fighting.
If a marriage is constantly having fights and bickering and fussing between husband
and wife, this would be marital strife, right?
So right now I'm just helping define the words, then we're gonna go deeper.
But that's what strife is.
What is sedition?
Who's ever heard of the Alien and Sedition Acts, right?
Whoops.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
From the early days of our country, President John Adams and everything.
Sedition has to do with rebellion or mutiny would be another term of that.
It's when you're overthrowing authority, right?
That's what sedition is.
You're going behind people's back and trying to turn people against the authority and trying
to have a coup d'etat as it were, right?
And then he says heresies.
What are heresies?
Heresies are strange and diverse doctrines, false doctrines that will cause division among
us by teaching things contrary to what we've been taught from the Bible, contrary to what
the Bible teaches, what our parents have taught us, what our church has taught us, strange
new doctrines, false doctrines that will carry people away into error.
These are known as heresies, okay?
And there are different degrees of heresy.
I mean, there's damnable heresy, which is that which would affect even salvation itself.
And then there could be other more minor heresies.
But that's what this is referring to.
Now I'm going to delve into these with a little more detail.
But first, let me stop and say this.
What we need to understand, and this kind of goes back to what I was saying at the beginning
of the sermon, is that these are the works of the flesh.
Who participates in these works?
Well, two groups of people, saved and unsaved.
Because unsaved people, of course, are going to do the works of the flesh.
Why?
That's all they've got.
They don't even have the Spirit.
So this is their life.
This is who they are.
This is what they're like.
This is what's going to manifest in their lives, okay?
So unsaved people are for sure going to do these things.
But also, saved people have the capability to do these things.
When they're not walking in the Spirit, they're going to do these things, okay?
But they also have the Spirit at least warring against these things.
So at least they have a fighting chance of getting these things out of their life, okay?
But unsaved people are going to do these things, and saved people are going to do these things.
Now you say, Pastor Anderson, I find it hard to believe that a saved person could do some
of these things.
But yet, if we stopped and went through each of these, we could think of specific examples
of saved people that we've known that have done these things.
Or maybe if you went real deep into your own life, you could think of times when you did
something along these lines.
Now you say, come on, witchcraft?
Well look, I'm not saying that saved people are just going to go out and worship Satan
or something.
But you know what?
I guarantee you there are saved people who've gone and got their palm read, or fooling around
with the Ouija board, or fooled around with whatever the soothsaying and whatever.
It's out there.
You know, I hope you have it.
I hope you don't ever mess with that stuff because it's very wicked, and it opens the
door to all kinds of horrible things.
But there are saved people who could do that, and you know, an example of this is King Saul.
I mean, here's a guy who believes in the Lord.
He's a saved man, but just he's having a weird day, God's not talking to him, and what does
he do?
He goes to the witch at Endor.
He goes to that woman that has a familiar spirit, so he participated in this.
What was it that caused him to do that?
You know, that was his sinful flesh that led him into that.
That's a work of the flesh.
And even heresies, obviously it's possible for a saved person to go into false doctrine,
to get mixed up on false doctrine, even accidentally or unknowingly follow a lying false teacher
to some degree, or even to go into heresy on their own.
Why?
Because of the flesh, and I'll explain why.
So any of these things can happen.
You know, there are saved people who even have idols and things, and you know, it's
wicked, but it's out there, and it needs to be got rid of.
But when we talk about these things, let's talk about how we could avoid these things
or what they are.
And I especially want to focus in on the ones that are less common, okay?
Like what's this about variants or emulations, right, seditions?
Let's talk about that.
Well, I would say that variants could best be defined as being different for the sake
of being different.
Now this is something that the flesh tends to want to do.
That's why teenagers, they dye their hair all kinds of crazy colors.
They put on all kinds of crazy clothes.
They do all kinds of wild and crazy things.
Why?
They're trying to stand out and be what?
Different.
That's variance, okay?
It's being different for the sake of being different.
Variance.
Okay.
Now, how does this manifest in a church?
Well, if you would flip over to Hebrews chapter number 13.
Hebrews chapter number 13.
You see, when you have young carnal preachers or young men who want to go into the ministry
and they're not walking in the spirit but they're walking in the flesh, they're susceptible
to this sin of variance.
Just like the punk teenager at public school is going to dye his hair green, they're going
to come out with some green hair doctrine just to be different, some different take
on scripture, some different belief to try to stand out and be different, right?
Variance.
And these can go hand in hand.
Variance and heresies.
Because when you're trying to be different for the sake of being different, when you're
trying to find some different doctrine that nobody else believes in, where do you think
you're headed?
Into heresy.
Because, you know, you're trying so hard to be different, you don't even care that much
whether it's for sure right or wrong, you're just going to go with it because it's cool
and fresh and new and different and exciting and edgy and, you know, you found something
that Pastor Anderson has never seen or any of his preacher friends have ever seen or
his parents or grandparents or anyone has ever known.
Look what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7.
Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God whose
faith follow considering the end of their conversation.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever be not carried about with divers
and strange doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace not
with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
The Bible says, look, it's good to be established.
It's good to follow the faith of those who've gone on before.
Why does verse 7 tell you to follow the faith of those that have gone on before?
Because verse 8 says that Jesus doesn't change.
So if Jesus doesn't change, it makes sense that we could follow the faith of those in
verse 7 and it makes sense that we would not follow the people in verse 9 that have all
the weird doctrine and that we would stay with that which is traditional, that which
has been handed down to us, that which is standard, not into that which is exotic, new,
strange, foreign, whatever.
Now here's the thing, tradition can sometimes lead us astray.
I mean the Bible warns us many times of people making the word of God of none effect through
their tradition, right?
And we know the Pharisees and the Sadducees were people that had bad traditions that needed
to be discarded.
So if we come across a tradition that goes against the word of God, obviously we don't
want to follow that tradition because the Bible has to be the boss at the end of the
day, right?
It's what the word of God says.
But our default should be to go with what our parents have taught us, what our church
has taught us, what the people who want us to Christ taught us, right?
The stuff that's been handed down to us and given to us, that should be the default.
That's the starting point, right?
Not to just be carried about with whatever we hear, whatever we see on the, no, no.
We have some kind of a foundation, we have some kind of a basis, we have some kind of
a root or a starting point or a default, right?
And we're going to leave that position only when there's a compelling reason to do so.
I mean, it's going to take a lot to talk us into changing on something.
Now if we need to change on something, we need to change.
We don't want to just say, I'm just going to stick with what the old time preachers
preached and I'm never going to change, it's like, well, wait a minute, you know, if something
was wrong, if something needed tightened up, if something was a little off, let's correct
that, but not at the drop of a hat.
Not flippantly or easily just given to change.
The Bible says we should not be given to change.
If we need to change, let's change, but let's not just be given to change.
Let's not just change because we like changing because we have this work of the flesh called
variance where we just love to be different.
We just love to stand out.
We just love to come out with some new thing.
That is where a lot of false doctrine comes from, it's where a lot of stupid preaching
comes from and I don't know where people are getting, actually I do, it came from
the flesh.
That's where it came from.
It's a work of the flesh.
Where is this stuff coming from?
The sinful heart of man.
The desire to puff up and lift up self with variance.
It's the spiritual equivalent of the green haired teenager, it's what it is.
Now let me give you some examples from my own life where I had to discard tradition
on certain things.
Let me just explain to you how I believe that this thought process should work.
I grew up an independent fundamental Baptist.
I was blessed to be born into a home with parents that loved the Lord and took me to
church from the time I was born all the time.
There was never a time when our family quit going to church.
We always went to church and my parents always tried to take me to the best possible church
they could and without that I wouldn't be here.
I thank God for my parents and I thank God for those churches that they took me to where
I could be rooted and grounded in biblical teaching and I could learn doctrine and learn
the Bible.
Thank God I wasn't raised a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Mormon, a Catholic, whatever.
By being raised Baptist the vast majority of what I was taught was right.
Thank God for that.
That doesn't mean that I'm just going to go with everything I was taught but that's the
starting point, that's the default, that is the basis.
As I got older I came to certain things and I thought to myself, hey, this doesn't seem
to jive with the Bible.
For example, when I was 12 years old I came to the conclusion that the Bible taught that
the rapture is not pre-trib.
It's after the tribulation but all these churches are teaching is pre-trib, pre-trib rapture.
I didn't know the history behind it.
I didn't realize that actually the majority of Christians throughout history have rejected
the pre-trib rapture.
That's actually a minority position that's more recent.
In my world that's what everybody believed.
Even though I saw the post-trib rapture clearly in scripture I was hesitant about it because
of the fact that it was something different.
I don't want to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.
I don't want to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines.
I believed that the pre-trib rapture was false but I still stayed there, listened, learned,
kept my mouth shut.
What I'm saying is that I was hesitant to discard that which I was taught.
I was just like, oh sweet, this is something I can disagree with my church on and I can
prove how independent of a thinker I am.
That's awesome.
That's a dumb attitude.
That's variance.
Rather, I was cautious, kept studying, kept reading, kept learning and obviously you get
to a point where you can't deny it that the pre-trib rapture just isn't there.
Later on in my life there were other things but it was always a slow process.
I remember when I'd been pastoring for six months and I was preaching on a Wednesday
night and I started to say something on a Wednesday night about how the Jews are God's
chosen people and that land belongs to them and all the Zion and stuff I've been taught.
I started to say that and I don't know if I said it or if I was just about to say it.
I must have not said it because otherwise people would have thrown it in my face by
now many times and nobody's ever thrown it in my face so I must have not said it because
they're all recorded and online.
As the words were about to come out of my mouth or maybe they did come out of my mouth,
I was thinking to myself, do I really even believe this or is this just something I've
been taught my whole life?
Just a tradition, right?
So then I went to the scripture and I started saying scripture and right away I was like,
wow, the Jews are not God's chosen people.
But you know what?
I was very hesitant.
I was like, oh man, I'm not just going to just on a dime just discard what I've been
taught, discard everything because I thought maybe I'm wrong.
I read the Bible twice cover to cover before I ever preached that.
So I'm saying once I realize, uh-oh, something's wrong with my doctrine on the Jews, then I'm
like I'm going to read the Bible two times cover to cover just thinking about that one
thing.
You understand what I'm saying?
I read the Bible two times cover to cover and that confirmed, okay, what I'm seeing
is there.
And then I got another preacher that I found that agreed with me.
So then it was like, okay, I'm not the only one seeing this because if we all have the
same Holy Spirit and the same Bible, we shouldn't just have some unique doctrine that's just
unique to us only.
That's a scary thought, isn't it?
So then it was like a well-respected preacher that I admired, he had the same teaching and
I thought to myself, you know what?
This is true.
I have the confidence to preach this.
That's not being tossed to and fro.
That's not being carried about slowly stopping and being very reluctant to discard established
teaching.
But then, you know, we have people who come to our church, haven't even read the Bible
cover to cover at all, let alone about a certain subject.
You know, I mean, before I started the church, I'd read the Bible 20-some times.
Okay, then I read it twice just about that subject.
But then you got these guys who are literally on their first or second time through the
Bible cover to cover and they're just ready to just throw out everything that I teach
at the drop of a hat.
I get up and preach the Bible, it's like, hey, I've been studying this for decades,
I've been studying this for years, you know, this is what the Bible teaches.
And they're just like, I saw a YouTube video that said something else.
You know, and it's like they just throw it out, there's no study, there's no due diligence,
there's no process of figuring out whether these things are so.
Just at the drop of a hat, ready to just jump on whatever the YouTube video, whatever the
doctrine of the week, doctrine of the month, you know what, it's garbage.
It's variance.
And a lot of young preachers, they want to basically put themselves on the map by coming
out with some exotic new doctrine and they end up making themselves look like an idiot.
That's what they end up doing.
Or they end up preaching heresy and leading people astray.
And so don't let that be you.
If you're a young preacher, you need to do things the right way.
You know, a lot of people say, well, what about you pastor, you preach stuff that goes
against the mainstream.
Yeah, but I thought about it for years and then I reluctantly said, hey, we've been wrong
about this, this needs to change.
That's different than just flippantly just throwing everything out the window.
Okay.
And the thing about that is that I never set out to be different.
I never set out of, I'm going to start this new movement, this new IFB.
How did I know that all the old IFB were going to just embrace sodomy?
How could I have predicted that?
You know, and the issue on the timing of the rapture, to me, that was never a major issue
as far as like, it's not a salvation issue.
It's not a core doctrine or anything like that.
It's not like a damnable heresy to be wrong on the timing of the rapture or something
like that, right?
So, you know, I never set out to be this pioneer and start, you know, I just wanted to be an
independent Baptist preacher, okay?
And the way that it worked out, where the old IFB just went off into crazy town, you
know, then it's like, oh, well, here we are and you know, we're leading and people are
following us and people are listening to us.
But that was never the goal, though.
You know, if that's what God does, if that's how it works out, that's how it works out.
But that shouldn't be the goal.
I'm going to be the next big thing.
I'm going to be, you know, just serve God.
Just be humble.
Just win souls.
Just preach the best sermons you can possibly preach.
Preach the Bible.
And if you're not sure about something, don't preach it.
Preach what you know for sure.
Preach what you know is right.
You know, you're still going to make mistakes, but don't just preach wild stuff because it's
going to get you more viewers or more people to show up or more pats on the back of, wow,
your sermons are always so exciting, so much new stuff.
I mean, look, there's a way to have exciting sermons with a lot of new stuff, the right
way.
And you know what the right way is?
A ton of Bible reading.
I mean, look, you put your face in the Bible for a couple hours a day.
You memorize hundreds of chapters of the Bible, you're going to have some interesting
stuff to say about the Bible.
Or you can take the shortcut and just get the crazy new doctrine of the month and preach
that.
And wow, everybody with, wow, I've never heard that before.
Yeah, you never heard it before because it isn't true.
You never heard it before.
I never heard that passage that way.
That's because it's not what that passage says.
So yeah, I'm all for preaching exciting new truths if they came from hours and hours and
hours of mining through the Bible and finding the unsearchable riches of Christ, not just
gimmicks.
But people are looking for a shortcut, aren't they?
We're talking about variance tonight.
What is variance?
Being different for the sake of being different.
Now a lot of times pastors can feel this way or church members can feel this way that they
need to be different, to stand out.
Why don't you just stand out by doing a good job?
Why do you need a gimmick?
It's a lot easier just to dye your hair green, isn't it, than to actually have some real
achievements in your life.
You could have some achievements or you could just pierce up your face and put ten different
piercings in it.
That'll stand out.
You can light yourself on fire or you can actually achieve something, build something,
learn something, do something.
Different for the sake of being different.
Now there are people out there who have what's called a need to persuade or a need to compensate.
What am I talking about?
You know the guy who's got the gigantic 4x4 that's just a little too big?
You know what I'm talking about?
How about the guy who goes to the gym to the point where his biceps are like a cantaloupe
or a small melon?
You know what I'm talking about?
Where it's overkill.
Why?
He's got a need to persuade.
He's trying to overcompensate for his own insecurity.
He's got to prove to everybody, hey, look how strong I am, everybody.
Look how tough I am.
Look what a bad dude I am.
Look at that truck out in the parking lot.
This is coming from an insecure person who's got to persuade all the time and compensate
and impress.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Here's what happens amongst preachers and amongst Christians is they've got to prove
that they're different than Pastor Anderson.
Like I'm not just a blind follower.
So I've got to prove that I think for myself.
So it's like they've just got to find something to disagree with me on, even if it's not there.
Now look, if there's something that you disagree with me on because I'm wrong, then disagree
with me.
I'm wrong.
If the Bible says something different than what I'm teaching and you've actually done
the due diligence and figured out why I teach the way I teach, figured out why I believe
what I believe, why I'm preaching what I preach, and you look at it and you say, you know,
Pastor Anderson, it just isn't there, then disagree with me.
But then there are people who just disagree with me on stuff because they're just looking
for something to disagree on just so they can prove to everybody, I'm my own man, Ma.
I'm a big boy now.
I got my own doctrine.
I got my own religion.
Here's the thing.
If you're just secure in your walk with the Lord, you don't have to go around proving
to everybody, hey everybody, just so you know, I got my own walk with God, everybody.
Just so you know, everybody, I'm not following anybody except Jesus.
This is insecurity talking.
This is variance talking.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Let's just be different for the sake of being.
You know, there's nothing wrong with agreeing with your pastor.
I mean, if he's wrong, he's wrong, but if he's right, he's right.
And the default should be to agree with him.
And look, I sat in church.
You think that I've been a pastor my whole life?
Guess what?
I sat in church my whole childhood.
I sat in church my whole teenage years.
I sat in church as a young adult.
I sat in church as a young married man.
I sat in church with three kids, and you know what I did?
I sat there and I listened, and I, by default, believed what I was hearing.
I received the Word of God with all readiness of mind, then I searched the Scriptures daily
whether those things were so, but I received it with a ready mind.
I wasn't just like, just skeptical about it, right?
I mean, I, look, and if you say, well, I'm not going to just by default believe what
Pastor Anderson preaches, then you need to find a church where you actually believe in
the church enough to where you can say, like, this church is a right church.
This is a godly church.
This pastor is a man of God.
This is a guy I can follow.
This is a guy I can listen to.
This is a guy I can learn from.
This is a church I can get on board with.
You know, this is a church that I can invite my friends to and feel good about it and be
on board and be a part of the team and want to be on that team, right?
Because if you don't feel that way about our church, you should find a church where you
do feel that way.
That's what I would recommend.
If you're like, well, I just kind of hold my nose and go to Faithful Word because it's
the best thing I can find.
It's the closest to the truth.
You need to find something a little closer.
You know what I mean?
You need to just go find that closer church because, you know, we're a team here.
You know?
And you know what?
When I went to Regency Baptist Church, I was a team player.
And when I went to First Baptist Church of Hammond, I was a team player.
And when I went to Citadel Baptist Church, I was a team player.
You know what?
That is what being a part of the church is about.
It's about being a team player, not being a person who's just got to prove all the time
that you're going to do your own thing.
That's just childish.
It's juvenile.
It's immature.
It just shows you're an immature babe in Christ and that the flesh is talking and it's variance.
Let's look at a few more of these.
I've only got a little time left.
Let's look at a few more.
What is emulations?
Emulations is when you are mimicking or trying to be someone else.
Instead of just being yourself, instead of letting God use you for who you are and just
being who God made you to be, getting up and preaching the sermons that God laid on your
heart as you, it's when you feel like you have to get up and imitate someone else.
Now on the surface, emulations and variance kind of seem like opposites on the surface
because one of them is like being different for the sake of being different and then one
of them is like trying to be a carbon copy, right, emulations.
But the ironic thing is that these two things can actually go together because you can have
variance of, well, I'm going to be different because I want to be the leader because I'm
emulating leadership instead of just realizing, hey, it's okay to follow.
It's okay to be a church member.
It's okay to be an assistant pastor.
It's okay to be a deacon.
It's okay to just be a part of the team.
Not everybody has to be the quarterback or the wide receiver or whatever.
You can just be a part of the team, amen?
And you know what?
I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
It's just cool to be on the team.
Over time, people get to the point where they take things for granted, you know, instead
just being excited.
Yeah, we're on the team.
We made the team.
It's like, well, I got to be the star player or I don't even want to be on the team, right?
Emulations, desiring to be someone else.
Just be yourself.
Just be you.
Don't try to be the next this or the next that.
Just be you.
God used you as you are.
Don't have emulations.
Wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, hatred.
Why the hatred?
Well, here's the thing.
When you get into variance, right, and then that leads you into heresy, what is heresy
by nature if it's not telling lies, right?
Because if the right doctrine is the truth, then what is heresy?
Heresy is a lie, right?
And you know what the Bible says?
The lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it.
When you lie to someone, that is a hateful act.
You know, instead of loving your brothers and sisters in Christ, you begin to teach
lies to puff up and lift up self because you want to be different for the sake of being
different for your own ego, which is variance, or you want to have emulations, which is also
ego desiring to be someone else or to lift yourself up to the same level that someone
else has.
And then, of course, you're going to be hateful toward those people that you lie to, and you're
going to be hateful toward those people that you are varying from or emulating.
The Bible says emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies.
Now look, we've experienced this in our church recently.
We've seen these things.
We've seen people, and I just want to make this really clear, and I know that it's possible
that not everybody agrees with me on this.
I just want to say this.
You know, people who reject the Trinity aren't saved.
That's where I stand.
It's kind of hard to accept when these things first happen because you're emotional about
it, and it's hard to step back and kind of take an outside view of things because you're
too close to it.
I know for me it was kind of hard to wrap my mind around when these things first started
happening a year ago, but when I stopped and started listening to other people that were
not emotional about it, and I started listening to other people that were taking a more objective
viewpoint, you know, it's pretty obvious when you look at it from the outside that people
who are rejecting the Trinity just simply aren't saved, and people who listen to a year's
worth of preaching on the Trinity and still don't believe in it are ever learning and
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth at that point.
So I don't want you to get the wrong idea that I'm saying that they're saved because
it's a work of the flesh, because remember, unsaved people and saved people have these
same things going on in their head.
Unsaved people have variants, emulation, sedition, ego, and all these things that would lead
them into error, okay?
So I don't want you to get the wrong idea that I'm saying that these people are saved,
but there are other people who go into other false doctrines and other heresies that are
saved.
And I do think that it's possible for someone to get a little bit mixed up about the Trinity,
a little confused on the Trinity, or other doctrines even, but the difference is that
when a saved person gets mixed up on a doctrine, you show them the Word of God, they're going
to come around to it.
We've all made errors and mistakes in our doctrine, but the difference is that we received
correction when the correction came.
And we didn't go all the way in either to just the most damnable heresy.
There are those who've put their toe in the water of it, as it were, or just gotten a
little bit confused, led astray, mixed up.
I've seen it my whole life.
I've seen people that were clearly saved get mixed up on the repent of your sins thing.
I remember when I was a teenager, I got a little mixed up on it for a little while,
because you hear all this preaching that's wrong, and then you get confused, you know?
And then you're trying to figure out, well, what's going on here?
But then when somebody shows you the truth, you're like, bam, that's it.
That clears that up for me right there.
Okay.
But saved people can get into these cute doctrines.
I'm not saying they're going to deny the Trinity.
I'm not saying they're going to start teaching a full-blown work salvation.
But they can get caught up in trendy and cute doctrines.
What are some of the trendy, cute, little variant doctrines that we see springing up
all the time?
You said it, not me.
Literally now, the flat earth is a big thing, that the earth is actually flat.
And it's the dumbest thing in the world.
But you know, I didn't preach about it for years.
The first person I heard preach about the earth being round was Pastor Donnie Romero.
And I was like, why is he talking about this?
Is this really necessary?
I mean, we all know that the earth is round.
What's he doing?
You know, I mean, I didn't say anything.
You know, but that's just what I was, I'm just admitting, even though he's my friend,
I was kind of thinking like, that's weird.
Why are you talking about that?
But you know, it turns out he was right.
Because there's this huge movement online of the flat earth movement with literally
millions of people, you know, following it.
Literally millions.
And if you go on my sermon that I preached last Sunday night on YouTube where I preached
against the flat earth, it just has thousands and thousands of comments condemning me for
believing the earth is round.
Look at it.
In fact, today it just crossed the threshold where it's got more thumbs down than thumbs
up.
I think it has like 600 thumbs up and 600 thumbs down or something like that.
But it just crossed over that threshold.
It has like 18,000 people watched it.
And I think it's like 600 to 600.
I mean, we're living in some strange times where you got millions of people now who believe
that the world is flat.
Okay.
But the thing about that is that it's variance.
You know, it's like, oh, this sets me apart.
This makes me different.
I think for myself.
Hashtag flat earth.
I mean, so it just shows people are willing to look stupid as long as it makes them different.
You know, tour the local high school.
It's the same thing.
Same mentality.
You try to talk sense into these flat earthers, forget about it.
They don't even listen.
Like, you give them a sentence and they just reply with something totally unrelated.
It's like what you said is just like, just doesn't even register.
Because they want to believe that stuff.
Because it's part of their variance.
They want to be different.
You know, other cute doctrines, divers and strange doctrines besides, of course, the
Trinity denying oneness doctrine.
I'm not going to go into that.
We've already heard enough about that.
But another one is this thing of Yeshua.
You know, instead of just calling him Jesus, instead of just calling him the Lord Jehovah,
Yahuwah and Yahweh and Yahuwahwah and Yahashasha.
It's like, you know, you got to have the sacred name.
But there's 20 different versions of it.
Who do you trust?
You know, because nobody had a taper quarterback then.
And Hebrew doesn't even have any vowels in it.
So we don't know how to pronounce it.
But you know what?
That Yeshua thing, that's a new thing.
That did not exist when I was a kid.
Flat earth was not a thing when I was a kid.
Didn't exist.
Oneness didn't exist unless you're talking to tongue-talking holy roller Pentecostals.
Did not exist in a Baptist church.
Everybody was Trinity.
Everybody knew the name above all names was Jesus Christ.
Nobody was coming at you with Yeshua, Yahuwah, Yahweh.
Never even heard of that stuff.
Okay.
Flat earth, unheard of.
What else is the new trendy doctrine that you see?
Well, that's been around.
That's unfortunately, that's always rearing up its ugly head.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
You know, embracing the sodomites.
That's definitely a new thing.
You know, and we just have to ask ourselves, is there a compelling reason to throw out that which is traditional?
That which Baptists have believed?
That which our parents and grandparents have believed?
That which the churches have gone on before us have believed?
And look, we need to be talked out of those things.
It shouldn't just be, you had me at hello when you're throwing out the standard Baptist doctrine.
We need to get established, rooted, get behind the church's doctrine, get behind what we've been taught,
and only be talked out of it with a lot of evidence.
That's how I've lived my life for the last 36 years that I've been alive.
You know, that's how we should be.
Not just ready to just jump on this train and jump on that train and jump on that bandwagon of every stupid thing.
And you know, I don't know what the next stupid thing is going to be that comes out.
Because if, you know, if flat earth is out there and oneness Pentecostalism is out there, everything's up for grabs.
I mean, there's nothing that's off the table with these people.
Okay, we need to make sure that we don't allow these feelings of variance to come inside of us of,
I want to branch out and be different.
No, just be part of the team.
Just be happy where God put you.
And let God exalt you in due time.
You know, look, God lifts people up and puts them in the ministry.
God gives people opportunities.
It's not that hard.
Here am I, send me.
God will use you.
But go through the right process.
Do things the hard way.
No gimmicks, right?
Keep that variance in check.
Emulations, no, be yourself.
Don't try to emulate me.
Don't try to emulate other preachers.
Just be yourself.
You know, follow us as we follow Christ, but don't try to, you know, dress, talk, act identical to someone.
That's just carnal and foolish.
Seditions?
Why would you want to try to split the church?
I'll tell you what, because you're trying to draw away disciples after you.
Sedition, trying to split the church and create your own little faction.
Heresies?
Well, that's what's going to happen when you're always trying to come out with some new, cute thing.
And be different on this and different on that.
And you know what, the people's hearts that engage in these activities are filled with hatred and wrath for good people.
You know, people that come to this church and they listen to all the preaching, but yet in their heart they burn with anger and hatred toward me.
Why?
Because they want to be me?
Or because they want to vary from me?
You know, what's going on with that?
Why don't you just realize that I'm just like you.
I'm your brother in Christ.
You're my brother in Christ.
We're both serving the Lord.
You know, I've got my place in the body.
You've got your place in the body.
We're a team.
We're working together.
Let's be friends.
Let's get side by side and do something for Christ.
Let's love each other and let's strive for unity.
Not being different for the sake of being different.
Not trying to be someone that we're not.
Let's just have unity.
Let's just get together, work together, be friends, and let's have what the fruit of the Spirit is, love.
We'll close on this.
Verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love.
You know, love your pastor.
Love your fellow church members.
Love your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Don't just be mad because you're not them and wish that you were them.
Or don't just wish that you could be different than them or whatever stupid thought enters your head.
Love them.
Joy. What is joy?
Joy is like being happy, right?
Okay, why not just be happy with what you have?
Don't covet and envy and wish that you could emulate something else.
Have joy.
Peace.
Peace is when you're getting along with people.
Not at strife with everybody.
Not in a fight with everybody.
Not causing sedition.
But you're at peace.
Long suffering.
Patience is what we're talking about, right?
Gentleness.
Goodness.
Faith.
Meekness.
Is the opposite of what?
Pride and ego.
Which is what we see with the works of the flesh.
Ego and pride.
That's what leads to variance, emulations, strife, seditions.
The Bible says only by pride cometh contention.
So strife comes from ego and pride as well.
Meekness and temperance.
Keeping control.
Keeping yourself under control.
And so this is the way we need to be.
Fruit of the spirit.
And stay away from the works of the flesh.
And what we really focused on tonight are things like variance, emulations, strife, sedition, heresy.
Beware.
You're not above these things.
I'm not above these things.
Because we all have that flesh, don't we?
And if we let the flesh go unchecked, we all want to vary and emulate and cause sedition.
And envy.
And I want to be him or her.
And you know what?
And by the way, I'm kind of focused mainly on the men.
Because I am a man.
So I'm kind of talking about preachers and men and everything.
But you know, the same thing goes with women.
Women can be affected by envy.
Emulations.
Right?
And variance.
And things like that.
This is very common amongst women, in fact.
Just like amongst men.
And it's a very different way.
Of, you know, maybe more to do with like clothing and hairstyles and stuff like that.
That I don't understand.
But the point is, you know, just this attitude of constant competitiveness with other women.
Or comparing yourself with other women all the time.
Whether favorably or negatively.
And getting mad, hating women in the church.
Because they're better looking than you.
Or whatever.
Because their thoughts enter the sinful heart of man or woman.
So we need to walk in the spirit, friend.
If we're ever going to have unity and peace in our church, we've got to be as individuals humble people.
And we've got to walk in the spirit.
And get rid of the ego.
And be humble.
And be a team player.
Right?
Get on the team.
And be a part of it.
Not like, well, not like Jephthah.
You know, I'll be on the team if I can be the boss.
You know, that's the wrong attitude, right?
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Help us to walk in the spirit.
Lord, help us not to be carnal.
Prideful.
Ego-driven.
Desirous of vain glory.
Hating one another.
Help us to esteem others better than ourselves.
Put other people first.
Lift up other people.
And humble ourselves, Lord.
And help us not to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines.
Help us to run screaming in the other direction from these stupid, new doctrines.
Whether it's oneness, flat earth, sacred names, or whatever other stupid doctrine, Lord.
Help us to stay with the traditional doctrines where they line up with the Bible.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.