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Baptist Church. At this time, we're going to get our services started. If you'll find a seat,
grab a hymnal. Our first hymn is number 112. Be still my soul. 112-112. Be still my soul.
We'll sing there starting on the first. Be still my soul.
to gather together freely to sing praises in your name
and to just set our hearts and minds on you.
I pray that you just fill us all with your spirit
that we'd be in the spirit on the Lord's day,
that this service would all be done decently and in order
and that you'd have your hand of protection
on our services.
These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Our next hymn this morning, 406.
Who is on the Lord's side?
hymn number 406.
406 who is on the Lord's side we'll see they're starting on the first
Salvation's we're at 1472 for the year and you'll see that the guys in the Philippines broke a thousand Salvation's
They're at 1109 for the year and of course, it's great to have brother Eric
with us definitely very pleased and proud of all the work that they did over
there and Theodore is still over there so keep him in prayer for the work that
he's doing and just for his safety as well but and just great year for soul
winning upcoming events July 27th which is next Sunday we're going to have our
next men's preaching night followed by a potluck and a game night so please
bring something to share for that evening
And we're looking forward to that. August 2nd is the Anadarko, Oklahoma, soul-winning marathon.
And I should mention there's a sign-up sheet in the back for both the men's preaching night
and the soul-winning marathon. So if you're going to be joining us, please do sign up for that.
August 27th coming up real quick is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship at
Steadfast Baptist Church. It's gonna be an awesome conference. Hope you can make
it or at least tune into those sermons. And then lastly there October 6th
through the 11th is the Bahamas Mission Trip. It's coming up really quick. As soon
as fire breathing happens this is just gonna you know sneak up on us. So if you
have not gotten your passports make sure to get that taken care of soon.
We do have our prayer list on the right.
Make sure to keep all those requests in prayer.
And if you have any new requests,
please do email the church.
Definitely want to be praying for you.
Also, there's some information there
about visitor cards and online giving,
but that's gonna be it for announcements this morning.
We'll go and go to our third song.
Our third song this morning, 223.
springs of living water, 223, 223 springs of living water.
223 there on the first.
at this time as the offering plates are being passed turn if you would to Proverbs chapter number 16
Proverbs chapter 16
The preparations of the heart and man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord wayeth the spirits.
Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.
The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked, for the day of evil."
Everyone that is proud in heart is in abomination to the Lord, though hand joined in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged, and by fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.
When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Better is the little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
A man's heart divides it his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.
A divine sentence is in the lips of the King.
His mouth transgresseth not in judgment.
Adjust weight and balance are the Lord's.
All the weights of the bag are his work.
for the throne is established by righteousness, righteous lips are the delight of kings and they
love him that speaketh right. The wrath of a king is as messengers of death, but a wise man
will pacify it. And the light of the king's countenance is life, and his favor is as a cloud of the
How much better is it to get wisdom than gold and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver?
The highway of the upright is to depart from evil.
He that keepeth his way preserveeth his soul. Pride goeth before destruction and in haughty spirit before fall.
Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud
He that handleeth a matter wisely shall find good and who so trusts it than the Lord happy as he
The wise in heart shall be called prudent and the sweetness of the lips increase with learning
understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it but
The instruction of fools is folly.
The heart of the wise teaches his mouth and addeth learning to his lips.
Pleasant words are as in honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.
There is a way that seameth write unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
An ungodly man digeth up evil, and in his lips there is as a burning fire, a frower
man so with strife, and a whisperer separateeth chief friends.
A violent man enticedeth his neighbor, and leadeth him into the way that is not good."
He shutteth his eyes to devise forward things, moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass.
The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleeth his spirit, then
he that takeeth the city.
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.
Let's pray.
Gracious Lord, thankful for our church,
thankful to have instruction from the Bible,
from the Lord of God, to the instructive,
and the way we have the Christian living,
pray, Lord, to fill the pastor out of your spirit,
and be in prayer, amen.
Amen.
Proverbs 16, let's start reading in verse 32.
The Bible says,
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.
And he that ruleeth his spirit, then he that takeeth a city.
When we think about men and their strength, we often think about physical strength.
And of course, this is a good thing.
This is something the Bible emphasizes.
And a lot of people really need this reemphasized today in our society of just sitting around being sedentary, working at a computer all day.
You know, we need to remind men that being strong physically is very important, but what's interesting about this verse is as important as it is for a man to be strong.
The Bible actually says there's something that's better than that in a man.
then he that take if a city you think about someone who's so strong that they're able to take over a city. I mean that's a quite a.
amount of strength that they have there, but the Bible saying that if you rule your spirit,
if you're slow to anger, you're actually better than that kind of guy. And you know,
yesterday we played paintball. It was a lot of fun. And you know, you're getting hurt,
you're getting shot. And if you can't rule your spirit and you kind of get angry or upset by
getting shot, it could affect your, you know, wherewithal in the battle can make you make
bad decisions or do stupid things. And so ruling your spirit is even more important
than being strong physically. But I want to show you some verses on this.
Let's go to Proverbs 24, Proverbs chapter number 24, a few pages over.
Look at verse number five.
The Bible says, a wise man is strong.
Yea, a man of knowledge increases strength.
So look, it's wise to be strong as a man in every category of life.
It's wise to be strong physically, spiritually, financially, you know, all these different
areas of life.
A wise man is strong, yet the Bible teaches more importantly than your physical strength
is your emotional strength.
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without
Walls, what is the city broken down without walls? You're completely vulnerable
You're completely at someone else's mercy of complete destruction when you cannot rule
your own spirit. And what does it mean to rule your spirit? It means to control your emotions.
And when you can control your emotions, you're actually very powerful. You're very mighty
because by controlling your emotions, then you can control your actions. Someone who's very strong,
but can't control their emotions is a vulnerable person. And in some ways is a weak man. And so
Emotionally weak men, you know, there's a lot of men today that are just lacking
strength in all sorts of different categories, but you even have some guys
today where they may be strong, they may be jacked, they may hit the gym all the
time, but they're very emotionally weak. And so what I want to do with this
sermon is just go through a bunch of different attributes of what an
emotionally weak man looks like and its biblical solution to that.
And look, one caveat here, if I go and show you a man of God in the Bible that had a weak
moment or did something that was emotionally weak, I'm not saying that person was just
weak overall in general.
But here's the thing, what we can learn from that is that all of us probably have a weakness
or multiple weaknesses emotionally that we can all work on.
I could show you some emotionally weak moments in King David's life, and I'm not saying he's
And so don't get this prideful attitude of thinking like,
oh, I'm a pretty strong guy.
The truth is we probably all have weaknesses somewhere
and we definitely need to work on those things.
So number one, go to First Kings 21.
First Kings chapter number 21.
The first attribute of a weak man emotionally.
Number one, weak men throw tantrums
when they don't get their way.
This is an attribute of a weak man,
where something did not go according to plan.
You know, a wrench is thrown in their plans,
things that they weren't expecting happen,
and instead of just dealing with it,
adapting, overcoming, pushing on, they throw a tantrum.
I'll show you that, look at verse number one.
And it came to pass, after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which
was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
So Naboth is Ahab's next door neighbor, and he's got this vineyard next door.
Verse number two, the Bible says in Ahab, spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard,
that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house."
and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it,
or if it seemed good to thee,
I will give thee the worth of it in money.
So Ahab, he's just presenting this proposition to his neighbor,
Naboth saying, hey, I like your vineyard.
I want to have it to be able to do whatever I want with it,
and I'll give you a better vineyard.
I'll pay you money.
He's giving him this offer.
But notice how things don't really go according to plan for him.
Verse number three, a Naboth said to Ahab,
the Lord forbid at me that I should give the inheritance
of my father's unto thee.
So this vineyard was special and cherished by Naboth.
He's saying this is an inheritance of my father's.
This has been in the family for a while.
He's saying, hey, God forbid that I should give this to you.
He's basically saying, no, I reject your offer.
I don't want to do that.
Verse number four says an Ahab came into his house,
heavy and displeased.
because of the word which Neyvoth the Jeseralite had spoken to him for he had said I will not give
thee the inheritance of my fathers and he laid him down upon his bed and turned away his face
and would eat no bread. This is a weak man right here and look you know I said that some men they
just kind of have a weak moment in the Bible but Ahab is just a weak man.
I mean, there's multiple stories of how Ahab is just a super emotionally weak man.
He wants something. He proposes to buy this vineyard. The guy says no. What does he do?
He goes up stairs, locks himself in his bed, lays down on his little pillow, faces the wall,
crosses his arms, pouts and says, I'm not eating any food. He's going to throw a little baby tantrum
here. And this is what weak men do. Something doesn't go their way in life. Things don't go
And instead of just figuring it out,
working harder, being the leader,
showing a good example, what do they do?
They just pout and moan and complain
and make excuses.
This is what weak men do today.
And you know what?
It's very, very detrimental to yourself
because you cause people around you
to lose respect for you.
It's like when you're the king, Ahab, and you're the husband of some lady, Ahab, and
you're in bed pouting and moaning and refusing to eat, it's going to make it hard for people
to respect you.
And look, if you're in a position of authority, people should respect you, period, because
that's what the Bible says, but why would you try to make it as hard as possible on
them to do that?
By throwing a fit and being this weak man.
Look at verse number five, but Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said unto him, Why is
And they'll eat us no bread.
You know, she's thinking like, did your mom die?
What's going on?
Why are you acting so sad?
And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite,
And said unto him, Give me the vineyard I've vineyard for money,
Or else if it pleases thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it.
And he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard.
And Jezbel's wife said unto him, Does thou now govern the kingdom of Israel?
Arise and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry.
I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.
So you got this.
wife here who's just like
shocked that her husband is being
such a baby that he's being such a
weak man emotionally.
She's probably expecting something big
happen in his life for him to be this
messed up.
It's like I tried to buy something and
they said no.
And she's like, do you govern the house
of Israel?
Are you the leader of this nation?
She's like, I'll take care of it.
I'll go get this vineyard for you and of course she goes and does something very
wicked to obtain it. And Jezebel is not a good woman,
but it kind of goes to show that like when men are weak, when men are emotionally
weak and they're not fulfilling their role as leaders,
sometimes that vacuum gets filled by other weak people, by other,
you know, wicked people, namely Jezebel here. And so your emotional strength as a
man is just as if not more important than your physical
He doesn't get what he wants throws a fit she says you know what I'll take care of that for you
But you know what there's a lot of times in life that men kind of show this attitude think about for example career setbacks
There's some men, you know, they apply for a job and that promotion maybe was given to one of their co-workers and
What emotionally weak men do is they get all bitter. They get all angry
They start treating the co-worker that got the job, you know bad and they're kind of pissed off at him
You know, that's a weak man right there. You know what a strong man would do is like hey, okay?
You got the promotion. I'm gonna be happy for you and I'm gonna support you and I'm gonna work towards something else
You know what? Hey, this door was closed.
Time to find a new door, right?
Some guys, you know, they ask a girl out,
they get rejected and they just give up.
They just pout and cry and say,
you know, I'm never going to get married.
I might as well just become a Migtow
and join the Adolf Hitler worship groups
on gab.com or something,
become one of these losers in my basement.
No, no, no, you just, you asked the girl out.
She said, no, you just find a different girl.
You just move on to the next, you know,
opportunity in life.
And look, it's same thing in ministry.
You know, maybe you really want to be a pastor someday.
Maybe you really want to be in the ministry.
And maybe that's just not in the cards for you.
Are you just going to throw a fit and be a baby and quit serving on God and say,
you know what, I'm not coming to church anymore, or are you just going to say,
okay, that door's closed.
Why don't I just serve God the best way I can in whatever role I can?
That's what a strong man emotionally does and a strong man emotionally.
He's not going to get everything he wants in life, but he's going to make the most out of his life.
He's going to make the most out of the opportunities that he gets.
Whereas a weak man emotionally, even if he gets good opportunities,
he often squanders those by being a weak man emotionally.
You know, I've seen grown men lose their mind over their favorite sports team losing.
I mean, haven't you guys seen that kind of stuff?
That is an emotionally weak man right there.
I remember back, I want to say it was like 2010 or 2011,
there was a San Francisco Giants game
versus a Los Angeles Dodgers game.
And these fans got in a argument in the parking lot
because this Dodgers fan was so upset that his team lost
and he literally beat this, this Giants fan
within a half inch of his life.
And he's like permanently disabled for the rest of his life.
The Giants like created this fund for him
to pay for his medical bills and stuff.
It's like, that's a weak person right there.
Oh, he might be real strong.
Oh, he might be able to beat someone up in a fight.
But if you lose your bearing and get that angry over your sports team losing,
you are a weak person and that that's what a lot of men care about in this world
today. They're not really interested in the Bible and the things of God and
working hard and getting skills. It's like my sports team, my sports betting.
And that's what they get all fired up about and get angry with. You know,
it's like,
the playground as a kid when you don't get picked for the kickball team you
wanted or you didn't get the partner you wanted in a certain sporting event and
you throw a fit over it let me explain something to you you are a weak person
and sometimes you even see adults doing stuff like this that it's just mind
boggling to me you know like the soul winning captain pairs you up with
someone that you weren't really trying to go with it's like hey if the soul
Don't complain, don't throw a fit.
You know, I've seen people on missions trips
kind of get this entitled expectation
where they expect certain things to be handled
and you know, handed to them or done a certain way.
Hey, don't complain, go along with the program.
As a man, you want to be strong emotionally
where hey, if things don't go your way, you just adapt.
You just roll with it.
You say, hey, okay, you're not gonna sell me this vineyard.
It's time to look for another vineyard.
It's time to look for another property.
What's the solution to this?
I think there's a couple solutions.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 7,
because I said I'm going to kind of show you the problem
and the biblical answer to these weak attributes.
Ecclesiastes chapter number 7 verse 9,
the Bible says this,
be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry.
for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.
What is one way you could check this weak emotion?
It's by checking your anger, by sitting for a minute
and really asking yourself,
is this really that important to get angry over?
Should I really throw a fit
over getting a different soul winning partner
or a different person on a sporting team, you know,
or just whatever it is in life,
check your anger and ask yourself if it's really worth it.
Go to James chapter one, James chapter one.
You know, it'd be nice if people did this with road rage.
You know, someone cut you off.
Like is it really worth it though
to pull out your gun and start shooting a family?
It seems like a pretty valid question, right?
But yet this happens.
And what does it come from?
Emotionally weak men.
If someone could just get you angry very quickly,
if you just fly off the handle at nothing,
you are a weak person.
James 1, verse 19.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
We would solve a lot of problems in our life if we were quick to hear people, meaning we
actually want to understand the situation, want to understand where they're coming from.
We're slow to wrath.
We're not trying to get angry quickly.
We're really considering our spirit.
Slow to speak.
You have to realize the vast majority of the time when we get angry and when man in general gets angry at things
It's not over a righteous cause. Now. Look, I'm for getting angry over righteous causes
You know, we should get angry about sin. We should get angry about false doctrine about bad churches about, you know
The demise of men in America. Let's get angry about that, but let's not get angry about our sports team losing
Let's not get angry about not being picked for the kickball team
You know on the playground and it's like look kids should be spanked for having this attitude
So they don't grow up and become these weak men for having this entitled brat attitude. Go to Philippians chapter number two
Here's another solution to this attitude is prioritize the wants and needs of other people
Prioritize the needs of other people. You know what Ahab should have done is he should have considered his neighbor
and actually been slow to speak and think about,
hey, this vineyard is actually special to Naboth.
And he just wants it to produce fruit and to work in it,
but it actually means something to Naboth.
It's the inheritance of his fathers.
He doesn't want to give it up.
And what he should have done
is been considerate of other people.
Look at Philippians chapter two, verse three.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory,
but in lowliness of mind,
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
See, when Jesus Christ came to this earth,
he was not interested in just getting his way with everything.
In fact, you know what? Things did not go his way,
because when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he was praying, Lord, if there's any other way,
if there's any way you could take this cup from me,
nevertheless, thy will be done.
That's a man right there.
Hey, he's about to face something
that was not according to plan,
not something he wanted to go through.
There was definitely a big wrench
being thrown in his plans,
but he said, you know what?
God, if that's what you want me to do,
I'm going to do it.
Why?
Because he was considering other people.
He realized, hey, if there's another way to purchase the salvation of this world, to pay for the sins of man,
let's do that other path. But if not, I'm ready to do it. Why? Because Jesus loved us.
Because Jesus actually was considering us and he wasn't putting his needs or his priorities first.
He was actually thinking of other people. This is what a real man does.
See a real man has all the power real man has all the authority in their home
But you know what they make those decisions for the betterment of their spouse for their children for their church for their business
For their nation. That's why they have the power is to consider other people
But a leader a man that has all the power and he's just selfish about it. That's a weak man right there
And so, Ahab, he should have considered Naboth.
You know, let's think about the job situation.
Someone else gets a promotion.
Why don't you just be happy for that person?
Why don't you just think, okay, maybe God needed to bless them more.
Maybe they needed that money more.
Maybe they needed that opportunity more
and just pray for your opportunity in the future
and then seek that out as hard as you can.
But you know what? In life, one person's gain is not necessarily your loss.
There's other vineyards out there AHAB. There's other jobs out there. There's other ladies out there single guys
And so we don't need to throw a fit when things don't go our way
Go to Genesis chapter number three Genesis chapter number three
We talked about how number one weak men they throw a fit when things don't go their way
Number two weak men refused to take ownership. They refused to take ownership. Genesis 3 verse 11
And he said that's God who told thee that thou was naked
Has thou eaten of the tree?
Whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat now that seems to be a very straightforward question from God
Did you eat of the fruit? But look at his answer Adam's answer verse 12 and the man said the woman
Whom thou gave us to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat."
So think about what Adam's doing here.
He's asked a direct question by God, did you sin?
Did you eat of the tree?
And his response is not to take ownership or accountability for himself.
He blames two people.
He blames the woman and he blames God because he's saying on one hand, well, the woman gave
me the fruit and I ate thereof, but he also say the woman that thou gave us me, right?
And so a lot of men today they do the exact same thing.
If something's wrong in their family,
they don't try to just do the best they can
to fix those issues, address those issues,
take accountability for whatever they can.
Their just default setting is to blame other people.
And look, sometimes things can be other people's fault.
We can realize that.
But as a man and as a leader,
your first person you should always look at
is yourself first, right?
Yes, other people can be rebellious, disobedient, wicked,
All those things, amen.
But you know what, if something's wrong in my home,
I'm looking at myself first.
If something's wrong in this church,
I'm gonna look at myself first.
Hey, if something's wrong in your finances,
you should look at yourself first.
Hey, if you're in a stage of life
where you wanna be married, but you're not married,
you should look at yourself first
and not be like, well, the Jews,
which the devil has given us,
has made all American women whores.
Wrong, my friend.
And it's like people just love this attitude of making excuses.
Here's why, because making excuses makes you feel better about yourself.
It does. This is why human beings make excuses.
You know, I'm fat because my parents gave me a really bad diet as a child.
Or I have these issues because my parents didn't teach me good finances.
And that makes you feel good about yourself.
Right? I didn't do good in school because I have ADHD.
Because some doctor told me I had this mental issue.
And that makes you feel great about yourself.
But here's the danger. It does nothing to help you.
It's like this it's it's like doing drugs where like your body kind of feels good your mind feels good
And you're tricking yourself into thinking it actually is good, but what you're really doing is harming yourself
Why do people drink and do drugs because they want to get that high?
But does it actually help their health? No, they're poisoning themselves. This is exactly what excuses do
You can sit here, you can make excuses, you can not take accountability, and you'll feel
better about yourself, and you might get other, you know, emotionally weak people to commiserate
with you and pat you on the back and tell you that it's okay, but yet here you are
still in the same situation.
And a lot of times, people get angry at a person that says,
hey, you just need to toughen up.
You just need to be strong.
You just need to keep going.
You need to change something about your life.
They'll get offended by that person,
but that person is actually trying to help you.
That person is actually trying to get you out of the rut
that you're in, because if you just keep making excuses,
nothing will change.
Here's the truth, is that you know what?
Adam was responsible for eating the fruit.
Yes?
His wife was the one that was deceived by the devil.
Adam was not deceived, but he was weak though,
because his wife offered it to him and he took it.
He should have told her, no, honey, that's bad.
That's dangerous.
That's not something that we're gonna be doing.
We are not going to disobey the Lord in that way.
Then, you know, things would be a lot different right now.
But because the weak man harkened to the voice of his wife
and did this, now we are in the situation that we're at.
Go to Exodus 32.
Exodus chapter number 32, Exodus 32 verse 21, and Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?
And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot.
Thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief.
So Aaron makes this idol while Moses is up in the mount,
this wicked abomination, graven image here,
and Moses is confronting him on it
and calling him out on it.
And what's his response?
Well, you know the people, how set on mischief they are.
It's like, okay, even if that was true though,
you had the authority.
You got to make the decision.
of whether or not you're going to make this idol, so this excuse does not actually hold water.
Verse 23, For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses,
the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we what not, what has become of him.
and I said unto them,
whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.
So they gave it me, then I cast it into the fire,
and there came out this calf.
I mean, isn't that weird when you throw something in the fire
and just all of a sudden it becomes a graven image?
Don't you just kind of hate it when that happens
at the campground?
Oh yeah, that doesn't happen because that's a lie.
right? And so he's making these excuses saying, oh, the people are set on mischief. They asked me to
make them a God to go before us because you're taking too long, right? So it's Moses' fault,
it's the people's fault, it's everyone's fault, but the guy making the idol.
right? And this is what a weak leader emotionally does. And man, we need some men today that are
strong emotionally that are going to stick with what's right, regardless of what the people want.
Because here's the truth of this story. There's going to be times where churches,
businesses, families, where the followers do want to do wickedly.
Where they do ask their leader to do something wrong and what is the leader expected to do in that situation?
They're expected to be a strong man emotionally and not just cave in to the pressure
Right because that pressure is a real thing
I mean if you got all the people coming at you as a leader
They're wanting things done a certain way that pressure is real
But you know what if you give into that pressure and you change you are weak
And you know, there's a lot of pastors like this today where there's pressure from the congregation for the church to become more liberal to get away from the King James Bible to bring in the rock and roll CCM music or to change on a certain doctrine or to change in a certain direction of the church.
You know, the pastor should take the people's opinion of the Bible into account exactly zero.
You hear me? The pastor should care about what the church thinks about the Bible zero.
You know what the pastor should care about? What the Bible actually says.
Because you know what? A lot of people today are not reading their Bible, are not very mature Christians.
They don't meet the qualifications of a bishop.
They're not in any position to lead the church in the direction it should go.
And so why should the pastor listen to the congregation? That's not how it should work.
But, you know, we live in this American society where people have been so brainwashed into
thinking that we're a democracy, which we're not even.
We're a constitutional republic, first of all.
We're not even a direct democracy.
But look, democracy is a terrible, terrible idea.
Why?
Well, because democracy, if you're in this situation, what do the people want?
They wanted the idols.
They wanted the false gods and so in a pure democracy then Aaron as leaders should just take a vote.
Okay, who wants to worship idols and he would have just done it.
No, no, no, we need strong leaders.
We need men in the home that are not running a democracy.
Men in the home need to be running a benevolent dictatorship.
where they are completely in control.
They have all the power and the say so,
but they love their followers and are being selfless
and leading for their benefit.
That's actually the biblical model of leadership.
And look, it's the same thing in church.
We do not believe in this system of church government
where we have a board of deacons.
This exists in most most churches where there's like a board of directors and a board of deacons and just all these random people from
The church that will vote on everything when I say everything I mean
everything. And look, you know, for example, I read this book called The
Hiles Church Manual. And look, full disclosure, I love
Pastor Jack Hiles. He's a great preacher. Love all the work that he's done.
But in this book, he talks about church government and I definitely disagree
with his model of church government. Because in there, he was recommending
that pastors take a vote on everything from the color of the carpets
and just like the supplies you're going to buy at the church and stuff like that.
And you know, no offense to that group of people, I'm just 100%
We just need to have pastors that are empowered,
that are able to lead and do their job.
But of course, that's why we should not lower
the qualifications of a bishop either, right?
We wanna put quantity, or sorry, quality over quantity
when it comes to planning churches.
And look, God bless anyone who just wants
to start a bunch of churches, I'm for that.
But me personally, I'm not interested in just trying
to throw as many bodies behind a pulpit as possible.
You know what, we're going to have high standards for Abyssa, high standards for the pulpit because
of the fact that when a church gets started, that man is granted a lot of power and a lot
of authority.
And so you don't want to just hand that out willy nilly because that could be a dangerous
situation.
And that's usually the argument that the church governance board model would give is like,
well, if a pastor has all the authority, can't he abuse that power?
You know, you as a husband, you can abuse your power.
The president can abuse his power.
Anyone can abuse their power,
which is why we want to have the highest standards
possible for leadership.
There's not going to be any perfect model
when a human being is in charge,
but I believe this is the model that the Bible teaches.
And so you know what, Aaron, he was being weak here.
He should not have been making excuses.
He should have taken ownership and fixed the situation.
Go to Proverbs 28.
What's the solution to this?
Well, it's simple.
Take ownership.
Take ownership and I think a lot of reasons. I think the big reason rather
Why men don't want to take responsibility and don't want to take ownership when they mess up when they sin is that?
Ironically, they will per they think that people will perceive them as weak
But what's funny about that is it's the exact opposite
people are going to be gracious to their leader when they make a mistake or if
they sin and they're just open and honest and take accountability you know
you're gonna forgive that person and be long suffering to that person but when
someone sins and messes up and is prideful and is totally in the wrong
and they just double down on that and triple down on that that's actually when
people lose respect for you.
That's the funny thing and so look as a man just get this idea into your head
Look what the Bible says of Proverbs 28 verse 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper
but whoso confesseth and
Forsake it them shall have mercy you see that when you confess and forsake your sins
You'll have mercy now of course the primary application of that is from God
But I believe that applies to other people as well
You know, there was, I have great parents,
but I remember there was times as a child
where my parents maybe did something a little too far
and they came to me and they said they were very sorry
and they apologized and I didn't lose respect for them.
I didn't stop loving them.
I love them even more.
I drew near to them, right?
Or we probably have had, you know,
lots of people in our lives that are over authority in us
that have apologized to us.
And did you think they were weak in that moment?
I actually think that that's a sign of strength,
of emotional strength.
And you know, hey,
You know at this church we believe that the husband is the head of the home.
He is in charge.
What he says goes.
But what I'm not saying is that means that every decision
that every husband makes is always necessarily
the wisest right decision, right?
We are gonna make bad decisions.
We are gonna say things sometimes
that we shouldn't have said.
We are gonna hurt people's feelings sometimes.
And here's what you should do.
You know what you should do?
You should apologize, take ownership,
and confess and forsake that.
You know what, your wife is not gonna lose respect
for you for doing that.
And by the way, I know this sermon's about men,
but ladies, you can apologize too, all right?
Sometimes ladies are the ones that don't want to apologize.
Sometimes men are the ones that don't want to apologize.
Take ownership wherever you are.
We could all apply this sermon.
But look, especially men,
if you want to keep your credibility as a leader,
don't double down when you make a mistake.
Don't try to dig your heels in.
Don't try to avoid, you know, the issue.
Just confront it, say you're sorry,
apologize and move on.
People will still respect you if you do that.
Go to Luke 22. I'll read for you 1st John 1 9 if we confess our sins
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
So hey when we go to God and we ask for forgiveness. He cleanses us. He forgives us, right?
It's out of his mind that fellowship is restored with the Lord and it should be the same way with our human relationships
If my boss apologizes to me
I'm going to forgive that.
I'm going to let it go.
I'm not going to sit there and hold it over his head
or anything like that, because that's what God does to us.
Luke 22 and number three this morning,
weak men allow fear to control them.
This is an attribute of an emotionally weak man
is that they allow fear to control them.
Look at Luke 22 verse 52.
Then Jesus said unto the chief priests and captains of the temple and the elders which were come to him
Be come out as against a thief with swords and staves when I was daily with you in the temple
He stretched forth no hands against me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness
Then took they him and led him and brought him into the high priest's house and Peter followed afar off
And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall and were set down together Peter sat down among them
But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire and earnestly looked upon him and said
This man was also with him and he denied him saying woman. I know him not now. Here's the thing
I'm not saying Peter's a weak man overall, but this moment, Peter was weak emotionally.
Why? Because he is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and here Jesus is about to go through the hardest moments of his life,
and Jesus isn't being afraid. He's saying like,
hey, why are you coming against me as like a thief with swords and staves?
When I was daily teaching in the temple, you had nothing to say then,
like Jesus is being bold, Jesus is being courageous,
and he's the one that's facing death, not Peter.
And yet Peter, he's supposed to be with the Lord.
He told the Lord, hey, I'll follow you wherever you go.
I'll follow you even unto death.
And Jesus told him, no, actually, before the cock crow
thrice, you'll deny me, right?
So he's going to deny the Lord.
And that's what it says, look at verse 58.
And after a little while, another saw him and said,
thou art also of them.
And Peter said, man, I am not.
And about the space of one hour after another,
confidently affirmed, saying of a truth,
this fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean.
And Peter said, man, I know not what thou sayest.
And immediately while he yet spake, the cock crew.
And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.
And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow,
Thou shalt deny me thrice.
And Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Very very just emotionally intense story here of just picturing yourself being Peter.
Here you said with your lips, you were going to follow him, you were going to go to death
unto him, you know, to the very end.
And then he denies the Lord three times and when he denies him the third time, the Lord
You know, that had to have been quite the gaze to receive from the Lord Jesus Christ and he internalized what that meant and he just wept bitterly.
And what is it that caused him to be weak in this moment? It was fear.
And here's the thing. We all are going to experience the human emotion of fear.
That is something that in some cases, you know, you just cannot necessarily control fully.
But look, we ought to acknowledge that fear exists.
Even if we're feeling fear, it's okay, okay?
I'm feeling a little bit afraid right now in my flesh. I'm feeling kind of scared.
But what a strong man does, yes, they acknowledge it, but they don't allow that to control them.
What did Jesus say that we should do?
He said, be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life.
And look, none of us in this room
have ever faced anything to that level.
And God forbid we would face martyrdom
or something like that.
But you know what?
You ought to actually think about that
and prepare yourself mentally for that
and say, hey, I'm gonna endeavor
and try the best I can to be strong in that situation.
And a lot of times people, you don't really know what they're made of until they're put
in these situations, but look, I don't want to give us an out already, like some people
teach like, oh, it's okay to lie if someone's got a gun to your head and says, do you believe
in Jesus?
You could lie and get out of that.
No, no, no.
Be thou faithful unto death.
Be willing to die for the Lord Jesus Christ and do not allow fear to control you in life.
Go to Joshua chapter number one.
Again, I think about the ministry a lot and a lot of pastors are just afraid to take certain
stands in life because of fear.
They don't think that, oh, I'm not going to preach the post-treat rapture because I'm
not convinced of it biblically.
They know it's true, but they just won't preach it because they're afraid.
Or a lot of people, thank God, are waking up today on the fact that the Jews, the people
are not God's special chosen people today and that we should not just blindly support Israel
because that's what Genesis chapter 12 is talking about.
No, a lot of us today have woken up to the fact that as Galatians 3 talks about,
that seed is about Christ and all the worlds blessed through Christ.
And the chosen people, the peculiar people, the chosen nation is Christians today.
And look, there's a lot of pastors I guarantee you.
There's a lot of pastors that are reading their Bible.
that are waking up on this issue,
but there's a lot of people that are just too afraid
to preach it, right?
So they know the truth,
what's stopping them from doing it?
Fear, fear of what?
Fear of losing church members.
Fear of being called anti-Semitic.
fear of dealing with a bunch of issues at their job,
fear of whatever it is.
But look, we as Christians, we ought to just get to this point
where whatever the Bible says,
we're gonna believe regardless of what people think of us.
That's what I love about being a fundamentalist.
That's what I love about the new IFB.
Is that, you know what, or at least it should be this way
in the new IFB, is that we don't allow politics to guide us.
in our church decisions, or in our church culture, or in our doctrine,
we just care about what the Bible says.
And you know what? If I'm looking at the Bible, and I see something that the Bible clearly says,
and I make a stand on that, and half the church leaves will nuts to you,
then you deserve the old IFB, you deserve whatever pastor you get that doesn't have the integrity
to actually stand on the word of God, I'm not taking that into consideration.
And it's like, you know, I went through all the training of Pastor Shelley, I went through all the persecution.
I didn't get into this position just to start compromising now.
It doesn't make any sense, right?
So like, hey, I'm here. I'm going to make decisions based off what the Word of God says.
And if you don't like it, you can leave.
And now I don't want you to do that.
I love our church, I love everyone in here.
But I'm just saying, like, if you're ever hoping
that Anchor Baptist Church will get a little softer someday
or you're hoping that, you know,
we'll get a little more feminist
and a little different in our culture,
well, you're just gonna have to hope until Jesus comes
or you're just gonna have to go to one of those churches
because it's not going to happen
because I'm never, ever gonna allow fear
to dictate my actions as a pastor.
Husbands never allow fear to rule your actions as a husband.
Some men today are afraid of their wives
Some men today have actually slept on the couch. I've never slept on the couch
I will never sleep on the couch, you know, and here's the thing
I love my family and I will strive to make those decisions that are best for them
But let's be honest
There's gonna be times in every human relationship you have where you make a decision and someone's upset about it
Guess what? They're gonna have to deal with it because it's my program. And you know what? I'm not gonna be afraid
of their faces. I'm not going to be afraid of the congregation's face if I make a decision
or my beloved wife's face or anyone's face because hey, I'm the man. I'm in charge. I'm not going
to be one of these emotionally weak guys that are ruled by their wives or ruled by their church
members. It is a bad idea. Joshua chapter number one, go to Joshua one. Here's the solution to
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth,
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night,
that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein,
for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success.
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong, and of a good courage, be not afraid,
neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, wither soever thou goest.
You know what, Peter should have reminded himself of this, is that, hey, this is the Son of God here,
this is the Lord in the flesh here, and you know what, regardless of what happens to me,
or regardless of the threats that are coming my way, I need to do right and not allow fear
to control me, because hey, God's with me, whether so ever I go.
And here's the thing, when you're doing right, that's when God's with you.
When you're doing that which is right and you're in God's will,
that's when you have the maximum protection from God.
So the ironic thing is you're actually always the safest
when you're the closest to the Word of God as possible.
The pastor who is not afraid to preach against the Jews
and preach on the post-trib and preach on all these things,
that pastor's ministry is going to be established more
than the guy who compromises.
And maybe it seems like things are going really well at that moment,
but you know, you reap what you sow.
And if you are just sowing compromise, and sowing backing off on doctrine, and sowing
not preaching hard, you will eventually reap that in your church.
And you know what?
If you preach really hard, and you make hard stands, you know, sometimes people are going
to go away, but in the long run, you're going to reap a really good group of people.
And I would rather have a smaller group of solid Christians than a larger group where
I'm constantly having to deal with people disagreeing on just major doctrines and all
this division.
Look at verse 10 then Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying
Pass through the host and command the people saying prepare you vitals for within three days
He shall pass over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God
Give it you to possess it. So hey, he's gonna go lead a physical battle, right?
So he's told don't be afraid don't be dismayed be strong be of a good courage
You know, you're gonna need that if you're going into a physical battle
I mean, we even feel like a little tiny microscopic version of that in the paintball game, like,
all right, we're gonna get shot, we're gonna get welts. It's like, don't be afraid, don't complain,
go and fight hard, right? And he's doing it in a literal physical war. That takes a lot of strength.
That takes a lot of courage.
I'll read for you Psalm 377.
The Bible says the angel of the Lord
in campeth round about them that fear him
and delivereth them.
Hey, that's a good reason to not be afraid.
To not be afraid of the world.
To not be afraid of people's opinions
because the angel of the Lord in campeth
round about those that fear God.
That's really who our fear should be directed to.
And you know, if you want to minimize the fear that you experience in life,
you just direct that fear to the Lord.
And you realize, hey, God's the one who's in control.
God's the one who could keep me safe in any situation.
So I ought to fear Him.
Go to 1 Kings 20.
We're going to look at our friend Ahab again for this fourth emotional weakness.
Number four, weak men are passive, right?
They just let everything go.
They're not going to take a stand.
They're not going to put their foot down.
This is Ahab, he's a very passive man.
First Kings 20 verse one,
put yourself into the story here.
And Ben Haydad, the king of Syria,
gathered all his hosts together
and there were 30 and two kings with him
and horses and chariots.
And he went up and besieged Samaria and warred against it.
And he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city, and said unto him,
Thus saith, Ben hey dad, thy silver and thy gold is mine, thy wives also and thy children,
even the goodliest are mine."
Put yourself into that story here.
Someone comes up to you.
Let's say someone knocks on your door.
Hey, everything you have in your house is mine.
I'm going to come in.
I'm going to take all your money.
I'm going to take all your furniture.
I'm going to take silver and gold, your guns, everything you've got.
Oh, by the way, I'm going to take your wife.
And I'm going to take your kids.
I mean, this is a quite an extreme demand
that's being leveled right here.
And just think in your mind for a second
what you would do in that situation.
How quickly you would resolve that situation,
or at least I hope how quickly you would resolve that situation.
But notice, verse number four,
and the king of Israel answered and said,
My Lord, O king, according to thy saying,
I am thine, and all that I have.
I mean, this is insane.
Bro, just like this folded.
It's just like, hey, I'm going to take your wife, kids,
everything you have.
OK, sounds good.
It's like this is insane that this is a king,
that this is a leader somehow.
And it's like, man, just because someone's in a position
of authority does not make them a strong leader,
does not make them a strong man,
does not make them a good king.
This guy's in authority and someone comes up and says,
hey, give me everything you've got.
And he just folds like a deck of cards.
This is an attribute of a weak man.
A man who is just passive, who is afraid of confrontation, who's afraid to deal with any issues,
who's afraid to say no?
I mean, and I think the Bible gives us this extreme of an example,
because if men do this in such an extreme case,
don't you think men do this for things that are less important?
Yeah, they do.
But us as men, we ought to be strong.
We ought to not be passive and just be these guys
that just let everything go, let people walk all over us,
let people walk all over our wife and our kids
and our families and our church.
Absolutely not.
Look at verse five.
And the messengers came again and said, Thus speaketh men, hey, Dad, saying,
Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver and thy gold and thy wives and thy children.
Yet I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time, and they shall search thine house and the houses of thy servants,
and it shall be that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand and take it away.
Here's the problem with being a passive leader as a man,
is that it breeds more and more evil, right?
When a strong man does not say no
at the point he should have,
well, then the enemy is emboldened.
The wicked are emboldened.
And at first he said,
I just want your money, your wife and your kids,
which I use the word just there very lightly.
But he says, oh, I just want this.
The next day he's like, man, this guy folded over so quickly.
He gave up so quickly.
In fact, now I'm going to send messengers to your house,
and they're just going to go do a deep search into your house
and just whatever they look, whatever they look at and they
like, they're just going to take.
And this is the truth of how evil works in this world.
There's a quote. I don't know who said it, but it is so true that all it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to
Do nothing. That is true because you got been haydads in this world that they want to commit wickedness
They want to steal they want to kill they want to destroy and when they're met with an ahab
Nothing is stopping them
Nothing is stopping them, and what needs to happen for someone to go in and steal everything in your house is for the strong man to be bound first, right?
If the strong man is bound, then they could go into your house and steal whatever they want, but if there's that strong man that's not passive, that's saying no, then evil is actually curbed.
And you know, this is what we need in church today, is there's all these forces, there's all these social issues that come up throughout the decades that are pushing on Christians.
for us to compromise, for us to change, and all it takes for evil to thrive in our country
is for pulpits to just say, okay, we'll let it go. Right? And we saw this happen with the example of the LGBT.
right? Where it used to be in the 1960s and throughout the entire history of this continent,
Christians preached hard against the issue of fags. They preached Leviticus 2013. They said no,
and then people started getting soft, and they said, well, you know, we'll let them live,
we'll give them equal rights, but they just can't get married. Then they get softer on that,
There are sodomites in this country that own little slaves that they call children.
Those children are slaves if they are living in a sodomite's home.
You know, human trafficking is alive and well in the LGBT community.
You always read these stories. Some poor kid is given to these demons, these faggots,
and then they're chopped up and raped and killed and all this horrific stuff.
And you want to know why that happens? It's because we didn't have people that said no.
that said, hell no, you're not adopting kids.
In fact, we're gonna reimplement Leviticus 2013
like the Bible says.
But when we have pulpits today that are just passive,
that are allowing sodomites in church,
that are just not preaching hard what the Bible says,
you're gonna see evil grow more and more.
And really, the sin in our country is often times a reflection of our churches and a reflection of our pastors.
You know, it used to be said that someone was more uncomfortable than a whore in church because it used to be implied
that if you dress like a whore in church, there's going to be some hard preaching.
That it used to be socially unacceptable to be dressed like a whore that people would shame you.
You know what? We need some shame on evil today.
I don't know about you. I think it should be shameful
to go into someone's house and steal all they have
and steal their wife and kids.
Oh, no judgment. We should never judge anyone.
Don't you think we should judge that?
You think we should judge people,
you know, involved in human trafficking and kidnapping?
You know what? It's not the only thing we should judge.
We should judge all the things that the Bible says to judge.
And we have strong men saying no,
we're going to live in a much better place.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 8.
And Ecclesiastes chapter number eight, and this is a great, great verse.
Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,
therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
So when authority does not check evil when sentence is not carried out speedily against evil
Wickedness gets emboldened in man's heart. That's what this is teaching, right?
So for example, if we get rid of the death penalty and we don't have the death penalty for things like murder
People are going to be more likely to murder, you know, we have a rampant problem in the United States of America today called adultery
And this has been all in the news lately because there was that cold play concert where these
two adulterers got caught hugging each other on the big screen and the big screen showed
them and they kind of scurried away and hid because they're ashamed of getting caught.
But guess what?
If we actually had the death penalty against adulterers, then we would have a lot less
adultery in our nation.
And it's funny, you know, all these people there,
there's so many people that don't have a biblical view
and are just so warped in their mind.
I've seen so many people defending that adulterous man.
defending that adulterous woman saying like oh man they should have had their
privacy just let them do themselves or they're even attacking the wife of this
CEO saying like oh she's gonna be rich this is all you have to do to get rich
in America is get divorced and people are like oh man she's gonna get 50% of
his assets you know that wife should get a hundred percent of his assets
because he should be shot in the back of the head by the government
because if you commit adultery according to Leviticus chapter number 20 verse 10
you should be put to death. So you know that poor wife who was not committing
adultery on her husband she should get a hundred percent of all of his money and
then he should be put in the ground and then she should be free to marry another
man. You know what adultery is disgusting and wicked and anyone who
defends that crap is a piece of trash. What do we need today? We need some men
We are not going to allow adultery to go unpunished in our nation.
Think about how crazy it is that adultery is legal in America.
Not just like, oh, there's not the death penalty on it.
Adultery is legal, folks.
You could just go and commit rampant adultery on your spouse
and nothing will happen to you from this government.
That's crazy.
And you know, people want to, you know, exalt our Western values, our Western, so, oh, we
need to go invade Iran so that we could give women there the right to commit adultery and
men the right to commit adultery and bring them our wonderful freedom of phagotry and
adultery and alcohol.
That's a bunch of trash.
Look, I love America and I love the culture we live in, but things like adultery, fornication, alcohol,
fagotry, these are terrible aspects of our country.
And anything bad that's going on in our country, it's a result of sin.
It's a result of pastors not getting up and preaching hard what the Bible says.
Go to Leviticus chapter number 20.
What's the solution to this?
Man, the solution to this is to say no.
The solution is this, is to be bold.
While you're turning there, I'll read for you again,
1 Kings 20, verse seven.
Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land
and said, Mark, I pray you and see how this man seeketh mischief
for he sent unto me for my wives and my children
and my silver and my gold and I denied him not.
So he's you know, he brings this council together. He's like, what do I do guys?
I mean this enemy wants to take my wife and my kids and all my stuff and I'm just racking my brain here of
How do I handle this situation? I need some wisdom. I need some council and all the elders and all the people said unto him
Harkin not unto him
Nor consent that's some pretty deep advice right there
I mean these people had to go to like the American School of Psychology or something to be able to give this really profound advice
Hey, if someone's coming after your wife and kids and all that you have say no
Don't harken unto them. Amen. This is what we need to do in America
Is that we just need to get to the point where we're gonna be bold and say no
We got this church, Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Indianapolis, who recently has
been all over the news, big, huge protests, all these angry sodomites calling them and
death-threatening them, because I guess there was this guy at a men's preaching night who
was preaching hard against the sodomites, and he was saying something to the effect
of like, hey, these sodomites want our children and they want to be accepted, and we need
to look them in the eye and say no.
And I'm like, oh, that's pretty wise advice right there.
I mean, this guy should have been involved
in this council of Ahab.
You know, he had very, very wise things to say, no.
And look, I'm not belittling what that guy said.
It's true.
What do we need to do?
We need to say no.
Why?
Look at Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13.
If a man also lie with mankind, as Eliath with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.
They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
Hey, this isn't our opinion. This isn't our issue that we just decided to come up and believe.
This is what the Bible teaches. This is what Christians have read in their Bible for thousands and thousands of years.
This has been the law of God.
that has existed for a long time.
And today people just lose their mind over the fact
that we get up and just read what the Bible says.
And you get up and you just read what the Bible says
and people want to fire you from your job.
People want to come after your church and protest you.
And it's like, hey, do whatever you want
because we're not gonna let fear motivate us.
You know, you might go through experiences where it's like,
oh man, they're showing up at my house.
They're showing up at my church.
You might feel that in your stomach for a little bit,
but you know what you do?
You say, I'm not letting fear rule me.
I'm not letting fear dictate what my decisions are.
What I let dictate my decisions is Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13.
This is God's word. This is what the Bible says.
And you know, woe unto me if I don't preach what the Bible says.
Woe unto Christians when they don't back up other Christians
preaching what the Bible says. What always makes me the most angry.
Whenever any church goes viral for preaching what the Bible says is not the sodomites attacking them
I mean dogs are gonna be dogs we expect the wicked to get upset at God's word
But what really makes me angry is Christians that criticize those pastors
Christians that don't stand with them
Christians that don't rally around them saying no to these perverts
You know what, it just shows that these people have no fear of God,
that they don't read the Bible,
and that any man that gets up and wants to criticize another pastor
for preaching the word of God, let me tell you, you're an emotionally weak man.
There's a lot of emotionally weak pastors today that are just so afraid of Leviticus,
they're so afraid of the hard things of God's word, and it just goes to show they're weak.
And you know, I don't know if I have the greatest bench press in the world.
I guarantee you I don't.
You know, I don't know if Brother Stephen Falco has a 400 squat.
I doubt it.
But you know what?
He's more of a man than all the pastors that refuse to preach Leviticus.
That refuse to get up and say no to the sin of our nation.
Go to 1st Timothy 1.
Man, what's the response today to fear it's being bold?
It's trusting in the Lord and being confident in what the Bible says.
First Timothy chapter number one, look at verse number 18.
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
that thou by them might as war a good warfare.
Hey, you know what the ministry of Jesus Christ is? It's war.
It's spiritual warfare in a lot of churches today.
They're not fighting a war.
I mean, they're getting together and they're having a little
soy milk coffee clutch with a soft weak pastor with skinny
jeans and a glass pulpit who's giving you a Ted talk that
he wrote with AI.
ChadGBT, write me a sermon in the style of a TED talk
that's not going to offend anyone,
that's going to get me more church members and more money
about a chapter of the Bible that everyone has read
and that could not possibly offend anyone, go.
Oh, that's too long. Please make it 15 minutes or less.
That's like most churches today.
That's the new evangelical movement today, summed up.
And I even saw this morning a news article of an Oklahoma pastor
just talking about how he writes all the sermons with AI.
Yep, this is where we are today, you know, we need some men that are gonna be bold and say hey
We're gonna fight a war. We're gonna war a good warfare like the Bible says
Go to first Samuel chapter number 18 first Samuel chapter 18
Number five, weak men are envious and insecure.
Boy oh boy, one of the most pathetic things where I'm just embarrassed for someone
is when a man is just weak and just insecure and envious of other men.
Boy oh boy, is that a bad look.
1 Samuel 18 verse 6 and it came to pass as they came when David was returning from the slaughter
of the Philistine that the woman came out of all the city that the women came out of all the
cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tabrits with joy and with instruments
of music so David's coming back from the battle and all these ladies come out and they're dancing
and they're celebrating but what's funny is it says they came out to meet King Saul
So, make note of that as we read, verse 7,
and the women answered one another as they played and said,
Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.
Right? So they're giving a higher number to David than to Saul.
And verse 8, and Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him,
and he said they have ascribed unto David ten thousands,
and to me they have ascribed but thousands.
What can he have more than the kingdom?
And Saul eyed David from that day forward and it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul
And he prophesied in the midst of the house and David played with his hand as at other times
And there was a javelin in Saul's hand and Saul cast the javelin for he said
I will smite David even to the wall with it and David avoided out of his presence twice
This is such a weak and pathetic attitude that Saul has of just what is it? It's emotional insecurity
and Envy. Here he is, he's getting praised by all these ladies, they're dancing to him,
they're singing to him, and they're ascribing to him thousands. Now, I don't know about you,
if I killed a thousand enemies in war, that's pretty cool. That's like, oh man,
you'd be getting the Medal of Honor. I don't think there's any soldier in American history
that's killed a thousand enemies, maybe from the air, but like some land soldier like that.
You know, if someone had that, that's a lot of honor, right?
But he's not content with a thousand
because they're ascribing to David 10,000.
And, man, it just makes you look so weak and pathetic when you are insecure by other men.
What's going to actually make you look strong is when you're confident with who you are.
And look, not everyone's going to slay 10,000.
I'm pretty happy if we have a bunch of people that slay 1,000.
That's a great thing.
It's like a lot of pastors will get like this.
It's like, you know, I have 1,000 subscribers, but he has 10,000.
What is he going to have more than the kingdom?
It's just such a gross look.
It's so embarrassing when men are like this.
They're just insecure.
Again, let's think about some just everyday examples
in life where men are like this.
Someone else gets promoted at work over you.
Don't get envious and insecure about them.
You're in your position.
Do your job the best possible way you can.
And that is honorable.
Pastors don't envy other people's success.
Think about this, layman.
Let's say you're in church for a while
and one of your friends, God ordained to start a church.
God ordained to go to the Philippines
or God ordained to be a deacon or something like that.
You don't want to start getting envious of that person
and just insecure about your situation.
That's just emotional weakness.
Don't be envying other people be content with who you are be content of the stat state that you're at in life
Be happy for other people when they get exalted
You know I have told this story before about how on my wedding day
Someone walked up to me the first thing they said they were just like man
I wish I was getting married today, and I was just embarrassed for them that they said that
I was just so uncomfortable that they said something like that.
It's like, OK, then go get married.
Like, go find a woman and go get married someday.
But it's very, very insecure, where
someone is going through something good,
and you're just like, well, I wish I was getting ordained
as a pastor today.
Mm.
I just preach every once in a while, it's just weak, it's gross, and someone that has that attitude should never be in the ministry.
If you're offended that a man of God was ordained, instead of cheering that on and being happy for the cause of Christ, please stay the hell away from a pulpit.
Anyone who's like that as a little baby, stay away from the pulpit. We don't need crybabies in the ministry.
Here's the solution. Go to John 3.
Here's the solution to insecurity and envy is be content
Be content with who you are. I think a great example of this was John the Baptist
Look at John chapter number three verse 25
Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying
And they came unto John and said unto him Rabbi
He that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou bearest witness behold the same baptiseth and all men come to him
They're trying to make John envious, saying like, hey, you know that guy you baptized Jesus, yeah,
everyone's following him now. Everyone's listening to his preaching. Everyone's going to his church
service. Look at John verse 327. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing except it be given
him from heaven. He's saying, hey, God's blessing that ministry. You know, God's blessing his work.
Ye yourselves, bear me witness, that I said I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him."
He's like, I never claimed to be something special.
I never claimed that everyone should be coming and following me.
I never claimed that I'm the end-all, be-all, best preacher ever.
So why are you trying to provoke me to envy?
Why are you trying to make me insecure?
I never claimed that I'm some big shot.
He says, verse number 29,
He that hath the bride is the bride groom.
But the friend of the bridegroom, this is funny how this example is used by John, which
standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
This my joy therefore is fulfilled.
He's saying like, hey, I'm like that good friend at the wedding, not the bad friend,
the good friend at the wedding, where it's like, hey, my friend's getting married.
I'm rejoicing.
I'm happy for him.
I'm excited.
Right?
Why?
but I must decrease. Now here's the thing.
John is being humble here.
He's content with his, you know, a state in life, his position in the ministry.
But would any of us look at John the Baptist and think like, uh, he's alright.
John wasn't really that great. John wasn't really that awesome of a preacher.
No, John is awesome. In fact, we're Baptists, right?
John the Baptist. We love John the Baptist.
He was a great preacher. Jesus even said, of those born among women,
there's not been a greater than John the Baptist.
So look, John is awesome.
But you know what? John had a bunch of wicked people that tried to provoke him to envy and he did not take the bait because he was a strong man.
You know the man who's out in the wilderness preaching dressed in camel hair and eating locusts and honey
Is not going to be the little soft man that is going to get all you know full of himself and sure of himself
That he's going to start getting envious of the Lord Jesus Christ
Why would you be envious of the Lord Jesus Christ if you're a Christian if you're a follower of Christ?
Don't you want to see Christ exalted?
And so hey, if we actually look at the ministry, the proper way, the way that you should be,
that this is the work of God.
Not the work of you, not the work of me, this is the work of God here, and other saved churches that are doing the work of God, we cheer them on.
We want them to do well, whether they're old IFB or new IFB, whatever it is.
If there's a church out there that has the right gospel, that's preaching salvation by faith,
that has the King James Bible, that's doing the work of God, please slay your 10,000s.
You know, here's a great example.
You know, our church, we've had
salvation's in the thousands, right?
But you know, I'm sure faithful words,
probably in the 10 thousands this year, praise God.
We love them.
They're our friends.
Pastor Shelley at Set Fast Baptist Church,
their church is just blowing up,
tons and tons of people, great soul winning events.
I actually am joyful about that.
It makes me smile.
I thank God for the work of God.
prospering in our country and it's just such a weak attitude when you see someone else succeed
their church starts growing this person gets ordained and you get bitter and envious in your heart
and it really just goes to show that you're not cut out for this work because the greatest guy
was John and he wasn't envious he was saying hey he must increase I must decrease when other people
are exalting getting exalted in life be happy for them
Be truly happy for them and if you actually get bitter in your heart towards someone else when good happens to them
You need to go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to help you with that and you need to check your heart because that's not
Right go to 2nd Corinthians 10
What's a way that you can kind of avoid this pitfall of envy and insecurity?
Well, here's the thing don't compare yourself to other people focus on your own walk with God and your own
life 2nd Corinthians 10 12
For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves
But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise
It is not a wise thing to look at your life look at your ministry
at your stage of ministry and compare yourself with other churches in different stages of ministry,
different stages of life. Your career as a young man, don't compare that to your father's career
in his 60s. Your marriage starting out, don't compare that to your grandparents' marriage
in their 60s and 70s. It's not wise to do this. What you should do is you should focus on the Bible,
focus on your personal growth, focus on
what you could do in your career, in your ministry, to the best of your ability, and
just run your own race.
And you know what?
God's going to bless someone like that that humbles themselves and just says, hey, I want
to be the best pastor I can be.
I want to be the best church member I can be.
I want our church to be the best church that we could possibly be and not just compare
yourselves to other churches.
All of these, you know, people that turned against the new IFV last year, they all have
It's strong envy of being upset by other churches success other pastors success
And they make all the snide comments about you know, I don't I don't need to be on YouTube
I don't need to have a podcast. I don't need to go to the to the conferences or anything like that
It's just insecurity and you know, you ought to rejoice when other Christians do well
You ought to rejoice when your co-workers do well got to rejoice when your neighbors do well. This is what a strong man does
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 4. We'll go to our last point as you turn there Romans 12 15 says rejoice with them that do rejoice
That's a command of God
Your brother's doing well rejoice with him the Bible says weep with them that weep right they're struggling weep with them
last point here number six of
Emotionally weak men weak men quit
Weak men quit look at 2 Timothy 4 10 for Demis half forsaken me
having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica,
creations to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
You know, Paul is saying this because this is something that's not good.
This is something that is negative.
And look, if you quit in life, that is a weakness on your part.
Verse 14, Alexander the Coppersmith did me much evil.
The Lord reward him according to his works.
of whom be thou where also, for ye hath greatly withstood our words, at my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.
I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
So here we have the greatest apostle who ever lived, the apostle Paul, and what do we see? We see all men forsaking him.
And you know what I just gathered from that is that just the sad reality of life, I wish it wasn't this way, is that people are going to quit on you.
People are going to quit on this church.
There's going to be pastors that turn their backs on us.
And it's like, I don't look at a pastor who had people betray him and think,
you must be terrible, you must be bad,
because the Apostle Paul was pretty great,
pretty awesome guy, yet everyone first took him.
And you know who's in the wrong for that? All the people that quit.
Those are the weak ones that quit on the Apostle Paul, but verse 17 not withstanding the Lord stood with me and
strengthened me that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the
Mouth of the lion see the Apostle Paul talk about emotional strength
You study the life of Apostle Paul that is an emotionally strong man where everyone has forsaken him
Everyone has given up on him, but there's only one thing that's important that the Lord is standing with him and
That's really all you need folks and if you just put your anchor down on that
That's what you really care about is that the Lord is with you
You know you can continue and persevere through people backstabbing against you lying against you turning their back against you
Go to 1st Corinthians 15
The Bible says in Proverbs 24, verse 10,
if thou faint in the day of adversity,
thy strength is small.
Do not be a quitter in life.
You know, adults that are raising children,
especially young men,
do not allow them to become quitters.
Because this is just such a weak attribute that so many people have today.
As soon as things get hard, as soon as there's persecution,
as soon as something doesn't go their way,
they immediately just give up and quit.
And the Bible says that's a weak person.
If you quit in the day of adversity.
What's the solution?
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
What's the solution to being a quitter?
Be steadfast.
Do not be a quitter.
Do not be someone that quits on your church.
Hey, other people are going to quit, but you don't quit.
that gets weak emotionally.
You don't be the person that as soon as the storms come,
you bounce, no, no, no, you decide,
I'm gonna be steadfast.
Hey, don't quit on your marriage.
As 50% of Americans are getting divorced,
you say, hey, I'm not quitting on my marriage.
It is not an option in our home.
That's the attitude that you ought to have.
You know, you go through something hard at work,
just even a secular example,
you got some problem, you got some issue ahead of you,
Be a man, you know the the person that people go to to solve the problems is the man
That's who they go to the man at work be the man at work. That's not going to quit when things get hard
Let me tell you this don't quit on your friends
Do not quit on your friends
You know the Bible teaches that having a faithful friend is something that's very rare
That it's not every day that you have a super faithful friend
And man if you've got good friends in your life do not quit on them
You know, a brother is born for adversity, the Bible says.
Don't quit on your friends, and you know, of course, don't quit on God.
Don't be like these men that Paul is calling out here that just quit serving God
They just quit following the Apostle Paul they quit doing the things of God and look while you'll never lose your salvation
No matter what you know, you could be in danger of stopping serving God
That's something that's always on the table for someone to quit serving the Lord
Hey, other people may quit serving the Lord, but don't let it be you. Don't be the emotionally weak man today
We got a lot of strong men today in our country physically
that have a gigantic weakness in their life.
It's their emotional weakness.
We as men, we ought to strive to be strong physically.
You know, I'm someone that promotes going to the gym,
working out, running, you know,
learning to use your weapons skillfully
to defend your family.
Hey, I'm all for that.
Be a strong man intellectually.
Read, study, become smart.
Be strong spiritually.
Walk with the Lord.
But you know what?
You need to also be strong emotionally.
You need to stop being a baby in life.
You need to stop having this huge
weakness that leaves you vulnerable
into other areas of your life.
Quick review.
1.
Don't throw tantrums.
Check your anger.
2.
Don't make excuses.
Take ownership.
Number three, don't let fear control you.
Trust in the Lord.
Number four, don't be passive.
Be bold.
Number five, don't be envious.
Be content.
Number six, don't quit.
Be steadfast.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank you for this day, for our church here.
I just pray that you would bless all the men in this room.
I thank you for the strong men that we have,
and I pray that we would not be content
with our level of growth right now,
that we would strive to become more strong.
physically, spiritually, and especially emotionally, Lord,
I pray that we would consider all of these different
attributes in our own lives, help us to grow to strong men.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Our last hymn this morning will be number 401,
set my soul afire.
Pam number four hundred one four zero one
Set my soul a fire
We'll sing they're starting right there on the first