You
to get started. If you'd find a seat and grab a hymnal, our first hymn this evening, 143
Blessed Assurance. 143, 143 Blessed Assurance. We'll sing there starting right on the first.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Heavenly Father, we thank you again for another opportunity to gather together this evening.
Thank you for the Salvation that we're having.
this afternoon. Lord for the service as always I just pray that everything would
be done decently in an order and just to the honor and glory of your name, of your
son's name. I pray that you just be with us and guide us into all truth for the
message this evening and be with us and keep us safe as we go our separate ways.
These things we pray in Jesus' name amen. Alright for our next hymn 145 should
just be one page over is well with my soul.
145, please remember in the chorus that first part of the upper line is going to be ladies,
bottom part is men. 145, don't forget the parts in the chorus. It is well with my soul on the furs.
verse of the week, Galatians chapter number one, verse 19 on the inside, our
service times are listed Sunday morning at 10 30, Sunday evening at 4 30, and our
Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock. We do have our soul winning
times listed below there, as well as our nursing home preaching ministry
schedule.
Also, we have our year-to-date statistics for salvations and baptisms, and just wanted
to give a praise report that this weekend our church had 13 salvations, and Sister Haley
had her first ever salvation, so give her a round of applause for that.
Super exciting and honestly there's just been so many great things happening at
our church but the thing that excites me the most is for soul winners preaching
the gospel and getting someone saved for the first time ever. Super awesome
congratulations Haley we're excited for you and you know anyone can preach the
gospel you can learn how to preach the gospel if you haven't done it it
absolutely can be done we've given you the tools to do it you just have to take
that step of faith and do it and God is definitely pleased with that.
We do have our upcoming events. May 18th is the men's preaching night. If you'd like to preach,
there is a sign-up sheet in the back and then we'll have a potluck following the service like we
May 31st is the Durant Oklahoma soul winning marathon with steadfast looking forward to teaming up with them for that
June 28th is the tinker air show fellowship day
Followed by brother Ben naeem preaching both services for us on June 29th
August 27th through the 31st is the fire-breathing Baptist fellowship and
October 6th through the 11th is the Bahamas mission trip on the back. You'll see our prayer list
also, please add
the collages to your prayers. There's some health issues going on with
brother Zach's mother and so he's actually driving to go see her right
now so please do pray for their family during this time
and if you have any requests please email the church. I'd be happy to add that
for you. It's going to be it for announcements this
evening. We'll go and go to our third song.
One hundred fifty-four.
Blessed be the tide that binds him. Number one hundred fifty-four. One five four.
We'll sing their starting on the furs.
Blessed be the tide.
are being passed. Turn, if you would, to 2 Timothy, chapter number two. 2 Timothy,
chapter number two.
2 Timothy 2, Thou, therefore, my Son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and
the things that Thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit Thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that worth entangle with himself with the affairs of
this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."
And if a man also strived for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strived lawfully?
The husband men that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits.
Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to
my gospel.
Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the Word of God is not bound.
Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with all eternal glory.
It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him.
If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
Of course, these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive
not about words to no prophet, but to the subverting of the hearers.
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth."
but shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase unto more ungodliness,
and their word will eat as doth a kanker, of whom Hymenaeus and Phyletus,
who concerning the truth, have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already,
and overthrow the faith of some."
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal.
The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameeth the name of Christ depart
from iniquity.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and
of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified
Flee also youth youthful lust but follow righteousness faith charity peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender stripes and the servant of the Lord must not strive
But be gentle unto all men
apt to teach patient and meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if
God per adventure will give them repentance to the to the acknowledging of the truth
that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken
captive by him at his will. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you be with us tonight
and be with pastor as he brings us a message. I pray that you give us, soften
our hearts and give us the years to hear, Lord, and just pray that you bless
this church and it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Men, all right, we are in 2 Timothy chapter number two, start reading in verse eight,
the Bible reads, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead
according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word
of God is not bound.
So here we see that the apostle Paul is suffering trouble as if he were an evildoer.
as if he was doing something wrong or wicked or criminal.
But really what he's doing is he's just preaching the gospel
and the Bible says that all those that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution. So he's doing that which is right,
but yet he's suffering trouble for it. Then it says in verse 10,
all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
with eternal glory. So he's going through all these problems. He's having these issues,
but he's saying, hey, I'm not quitting. I'm not giving up. I'm going to endure
all things for the elect's sake. Now, what does it mean to endure? To endure means to hold out against.
to sustain without impairment or yielding to undergo to bear without resistance or with patience
tolerate. So basically he's just saying hey I'm willing to continue going through these hard
things. I'm willing to continue to even suffer as an evildoer even though he's not doing anything
wrong. He says I'm enduring all things for the elect's sake and when I think about this word endurance
I just got done reading a really awesome book called Endurance and any of you
homeschool parents out there I would highly recommend that you read this
book and that your kids read this book but I'll give you a quick synopsis of
what it's about. The book Endurance recounts Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914
through 1916 Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition where his ship the Endurance
was trapped and crushed by Antarctic ice stranding the crew.
The book was about how the crew survived
extreme conditions, isolations,
and an open boat journey to secure rescue.
Really awesome book.
This guy, Ernest Shackleton, in 1914,
he wanted to try to be the first person
to sail to Antarctica and then go basically
on foot across the Antarctic.
you know, continent to the other side.
His boat ends up getting trapped
and him and his crew kind of have to survive
on these ice flows where they're not even on land.
They're just kind of going from ice flow to ice flow
and it's constantly like breaking up
and they're losing their stuff
and they're just going through insane hardships.
They end up making it to shore
and I'll stop right there.
You can read the book if you want the rest of the story.
But it's just a great picture of like a group of people
that just endured and went through hardship.
And of course the most important area
that we need to endure in life is in our Christian life.
We need to make sure that we're enduring
in our service of God.
Of course, you know, it's great to have this attribute
in any part of life, you know, enduring in your career,
enduring through your workouts, enduring through everything.
But really, we want to make sure
that we endure in our Christian life.
And so the title of my sermon this evening is,
Endure All Things.
And I wanna show you first the purpose of enduring.
Let's read verse 10 again of 2 Timothy 2,
the purpose of enduring.
The Bible says, therefore I endure all things.
Notice, for the elect's sake.
that they may also obtain the salvation,
which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
Go to 2nd Corinthians chapter four.
So we see here, Paul, he's going through problems.
He's going through issues.
He went through tons of hardships
that none of us have gone through.
He's been shipwrecked several times.
He's been beaten with rods.
He's had people turn on him.
He's constantly having people stone him, falsely accuse him.
I mean, he has a rough life.
But yet he endures and he says, why does he do that?
He does that for the elect's sake.
He does that so that people can get saved.
He's doing it for other people.
And really that should be the main motivation
that we have in life as Christians.
We should be those that serve other people, right?
Jesus came and he gave us that example
of he came as a servant, he came humble,
he came to minister.
unto others. That's our role in this life is to give our lives in service of other people.
Why do we endure? We do it for others. Look at verse 1 of 2 Corinthians 4. Paul said this,
therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. Why is it that
he's enduring? Why he's not fainting through all his trials? He's saying, well, because we've received
And, you know, all of us too in this room have received the ministry of reconciliation.
And if you get back slidden, if you decide to stop serving God, if you just completely
quit church and quit soul winning, you know what?
That will hurt other people.
And there are tons of people out there that you can reach with the gospel, that you can
be a blessing to, that you can help come alongside you in the Christian life.
And if you don't do that, let me explain something to you.
You know, our church yesterday and today got 13 souls saved that Jesus Christ died for.
And what if just we didn't go soul winning this weekend?
What if we didn't care?
We just quit soul winning.
We didn't go out and do the work that we were called to do.
Those 13 souls would still be on their way to hell.
And who knows if they would have ever gotten reached?
Who knows if they would have ever been at the place of life
where they were ready to accept like they were this weekend?
I'm telling you, God has given us a ministry.
And if we fail to do it, if we quit,
that will hurt other people.
Notice verse two, it says,
but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness
or handling the word of God deceitfully,
but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience
in the sight of God.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,
in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
The truth is, is that if you fall away, if you are led away by the air of the wicked falling from your own steadfastness,
if you stop serving God, stop soul winning, if your gospel is hid, it is hid to those that are lost.
You know, recently, even amongst the new IFB, there's just been so much drama, there's been so much infighting,
but you know what my sincere goal is?
for every Christian in this world including even ones that don't like me or don't like our church
or don't like Pastor Shelley or Pastor Anderson. My sincere goal for those people is that they
will endure in their Christian life and that they will still preach the gospel with their life,
that they will still serve God despite our differences, despite any infighting.
The devil would love to see people get all upset and all tired of the fighting, tired of the drama,
tired of the war and just give up and stop serving God. The devil would love to see that.
But you know, all the people that don't like me,
that think I'm over the top, that think I'm mean,
that think Pastor Shelley's mean,
hey, I hope you still go soul-winning.
I hope you still preach the gospel.
I hope that you still endure,
because if your gospel's hid, it's hid to those that are lost.
If my gospel's hid, it's hid to those that are lost.
So the rest of the sermon...
I want to give you several areas of life that you should focus on enduring through.
And the reason why is because all of these areas we're going to talk about, it's going
to serve the main purpose of enduring through preaching the gospel.
Because sometimes if you mess up some area of your life, it can cause you to withdraw
from the things of God and withdraw from soul winning.
And so I want to give you several things to endure through this evening.
Endure through hard times in your marriage.
Go to Matthew chapter 19.
You know, don't listen to any preacher or Christian
that wants to paint this picture of marriage for you
that there's never gonna be any fights,
there's never gonna be any issues.
You're always just gonna be 10 out of 10 madly fiery
in love with each other at all times.
There's gonna be no problems.
That is not reality, folks.
The reality is that marriage has its ups and its downs.
It's a human relationship that takes work and effort and is going to go through hardships.
It's like, why is divorce so rampant?
Because marriage is hard.
That's why.
Because people go through hard times.
And you know, I talk about that early phase of dating or marriage where you're infatuated
with the person or you have that like in love feeling.
And it's just so easy.
There's no sacrifice required.
It's just every moment spending with them is just ecstasy.
And every word they see is great.
And every second around them is just so wonderful.
But you know what?
That's not how 50, 60, 70 years of marriage is at all times.
And anyone who tells you differently is lying.
Oh, I've never fought with my wife.
You're a liar.
Or you just don't like your wife at all.
You just stay away from her or something like that.
No, you're going to go through problems.
Matthew 19, verse 3 says this,
the Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him,
and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man
to put away his wife for every cause?
He's saying, hey, can I just divorce my wife
whenever I want?
Can I just get rid of her?
Can I just trade up for a new one?
Notice Jesus' response, and he answered and said unto them,
have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning
made them male and female?
By the way, when people have false doctrine on divorce,
it comes from not reading the Bible.
because the Bible's very clear that God hates putting away.
It's wicked. The Bible never condones divorce.
I believe you should never divorce for any reason.
And that's what the Bible teaches.
And so you're saying, hey, have you ever read the Bible?
Because if you have, you wouldn't have been asking this stupid question.
He says, verse 5 and said,
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. Here's the words of Jesus,
what therefore God hath joined together. Let not man put asunder.
Now, that is a clear statement from the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when you build your doctrine, you want to build your doctrine off of a clear statement.
And when it's a clear statement from Jesus, that's even better.
Now, of course, the whole Bible is God's word.
All of it's the word of Jesus Christ, in a sense, because He's the Word of God.
But, I mean, especially here, Jesus is just flat out saying,
what therefore God have joined together?
Let not man put asunder.
What is He saying?
Don't get divorced.
Don't leave your spouse.
Don't give up on marriage.
Verse seven says, they say unto him,
why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement
and to put her away?
Notice these people are not sincere
because when Jesus gives you a plain statement,
that should settle it right there.
I mean you read something Jesus said don't don't separate don't put us under and
they're like but doesn't moses somewhere in the law say this this that you know
it's so funny is these liberal preachers and these permissive preachers on
divorce
They never believe anything in the Old Testament.
They don't want to go to the Old Testament and talk about the death penalty laws.
They avoid the Old Testament whenever it's convenient for them.
But just like the Pharisees, as soon as the law is convenient to excuse their sin,
they'll try to twist the law of Moses to back up divorce.
And that's kind of what's happening here.
It's like, Jesus says no.
They're like, well, doesn't somewhere in the Bible say that it's technically fine?
No, it doesn't actually, but we'll go there in a minute.
He's like, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement to put her away?
You know, when you want to do wrong,
you'll find any excuse to do wrong.
When you want to disobey the Bible,
you'll find some obscure passage
that you could try to twist to make it
look like you're doing right.
But you know what Jesus said?
He said, don't put us under.
He said, flat out, no, don't do it.
And notice Jesus' response.
Verse 8 says,
suffered you to put away your wives,
but from the beginning it was not so.
So there is a provision.
in the Old Testament and we'll turn there, look at it in a minute that has certain specifications
for when you could do something that we would now call like an annulment if you found some
uncleanness in your spouse before coming together. Yes, that exists. But even in that scenario,
even in that exception, if you will, Jesus says that the reason why that exception was given
was because of the hardness of your hearts.
So Jesus isn't saying like, yeah, this is good.
This is great. This is what you should do.
He's saying, yeah, there was this provision given
in the Old Testament, but it was given
because of the hardness of your hearts.
He's not saying, yeah, this is great.
Yeah, do this. Yeah, this is wonderful.
No, it was bad.
Go to Deuteronomy 24 and keep your place there.
In Matthew 19, we'll come back to it.
But let's look really quickly at what the Pharisees are referring to.
Remember, we just had a clear statement from Jesus saying,
hey, don't do it.
These guys are looking for an excuse.
That's why they said, can we put her away for any cause, any reason?
They didn't take his answer.
They want to use this old scripture here.
Look at Deuteronomy 24-1.
The Bible says when a man have taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that
she find no favor in his eyes because he have found some uncleanness in her, then let him
write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house.
And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.
He takes a wife, he marries her, he's got the ceremony and when they go to consummate
the marriage, he says, oh, there's no favor in his eyes.
Not just for no reason, like, oh, I just don't like this girl.
Oh, she's kind of annoying.
Oh, she's kind of loud.
No, she doesn't find any favor in his eyes because he had found some uncleanness in her.
So she's got some sort of disease or some sort of issue here.
No big deal, and then it comes out that that's a lie, that that's not true.
Well, then in this case, Moses is saying you can write a bill of
divorcement, give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
Now, Jesus is going to add further clarification
to this scripture. Let's continue in Matthew 19, go back there and look at
verse nine. So this is the scripture that they have in mind.
Keep that in mind when we read in Deuteronomy 24.
Look at verse 9, he says,
And I say unto you,
Whosoever shall put away his wife,
accept it be for what?
Fornication.
and shall marry another committed adultery.
And whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
So he's clarifying, he's giving us more information about this scripture in Deuteronomy 24.
It wasn't just like, oh they've been married for a while and he just randomly decides
she doesn't find any favor in my eyes anymore.
Jesus uses a very specific word here, fornication.
Now what is fornication?
Fornication is carnally lying with someone before marriage.
What is it when it's during marriage? It's adultery.
So he says, hey, you cannot put your wife away
except to be for the cause of fornication.
A lot of preachers will say,
oh, any type of infidelity or any type of sexual immorality
allows for divorce.
No, no, no, Jesus said very specifically fornication
that happens before marriage.
So in the case of like Mary and Joseph,
Joseph thought that this situation had happened
His wife is pregnant, and he had never been with her.
And he was gonna be a just man and put her away privately,
but then the angel came to him and said, no, take her.
This has been conceived of the Holy Ghost.
And obviously, you want an angel to clarify that for you
because that's not happening every day, right?
So in that situation, if that was true
that she had committed fornication,
that would be an example of this scripture here.
You marry a woman, oh, she lied to you,
she's got uncleanness, she's got some sort of disease.
This would be kind of like an annulment,
something that happens before the consummation.
But this is not, this is not,
oh, she spent too much money, I'm, you know, divorcing her.
Oh, she's dirty, I'm divorcing her.
Oh, my husband's lazy, I'm divorcing him.
Oh, my husband doesn't make enough money,
I'm divorcing him.
No, you can't just put away your spouse for any reason.
There is one annulment exception in the Bible
and even that annulment exception,
Jesus said it was because of the hardness of your hearts.
because the reality is the right thing to do would be,
hey, you already made a vow to God,
you already said till death do you part,
you already said for better, for worse,
the right thing to do, the best thing to do
would still be to stay with that person,
but for the hardness of their hearts,
there was that one exception.
Go to Colossians chapter number three,
Colossians chapter number three.
Now,
As you're turning there, I forgot to read one thing for you from Matthew 19.
I'll keep reading verse 11.
Jesus said, but He said unto them,
All men cannot receive this saying,
save they to whom it is given.
Look, this is admittedly a hard saying for many people.
This is a hard truth to accept,
which is exactly why a lot of people try to deny it,
try to twist scripture,
try to make themselves feel better about what situation they're in,
why a lot of pastors won't preach the truth about it,
why a lot of people get divorced.
in general.
It is a hard saying, but you know what?
You need to endure all things, like the Bible said.
You're gonna go through hard times in your marriage and look, I hope that everyone's at a great point of their marriage right now
I thank God my marriage is wonderful right now, but I'm just gonna be honest with you
You're gonna go through times of very hard difficulties
You're gonna go through times where you're struggling in your marriage where the love isn't as hot as it used to be
Don't give up during those times realize that everyone will experience those times
and you know I just think that Hollywood and TV and songs and all these you know love songs
that are out there it's just put its brainwashed us into thinking like marriage is a certain way
marriage is always just super super exciting a hundred percent of the times everyone's always
super in love and everything's always wonderful it's just not reality
We are sinners when you got married you got married to a center and that other center got married to you
Who is also a sinner? You know what that's gonna bring problems issues fights?
Bouts of selfishness doing wrong to each other. It's just reality, but you have to endure through these times
Marriage takes work. Look at Colossians verse Colossians 3 verse 18
The Bible says this, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the
Lord.
You know, wives, what is your main calling in marriage?
What is the big thing that the Bible focuses on that your duty is in marriage?
It is to submit to your husband.
It is to obey him and do what he says.
And you know what? That is going to take work at times.
Let's just be real.
I'm sure that wives, not 100% of the time,
agree with 100% of their husband's decisions and opinions.
And it's just like, so what?
Obey anyways. That's what the Bible says.
Yeah, you're going to go through those times.
You're going to have those feelings.
But you know what? You should do the work
of obeying your husband anyways, right?
Then you have verse 19.
The Bible says, husbands, love your wives
against them. Why does it bring that up? Because it's going to be a natural temptation in marriage
to get bitter at each other for husbands to hold on to bitterness against their wives,
but the Bible commands us as husbands to love our wives. Why does it give us that command?
And this is what we've been brainwashed into thinking,
that love just hits you and there's nothing you can do about it.
And really what happens, what they're really meaning
is that that infatuation feeling can hit you sometimes.
And there's nothing you can do about that.
But here's the truth, love is a choice.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, the Bible says.
Love is the fulfilling of the law.
Regardless, men, of how you're feeling in your marriage,
whether it's just the greatest, hottest time of love
that you're feeling for your wife ever,
or not, you should make the choice
to continue to do good to your wife, period.
No matter what you feel, you should still love her.
You should still sacrifice for her.
You should still give her the things that she needs.
You should still be there for her, support her.
You know, show actions of love,
even at times that you're not really feeling it inside,
because you know what often happens
is you start doing the action and then the feeling follows.
You know, commit thy works unto the Lord
and thy thoughts shall be established, the Bible says.
The more work you do and the right things, oftentimes it can change your heart and how you feel.
And I'm just telling you, especially if you've never been married, you should just expect
to go through times where you don't really feel the emotions that you thought you would feel.
You should expect that. That is normal. That is completely normal. But you should endure through
those times, endure all things. And why am I even talking about marriage? Because when people have
marriage problems, this is one of the biggest things that causes people to quit church.
This is one of the biggest things that causes people to stop soul winning stop reading their Bible is they'll go through a
Serious rough patch in their marriage and it'll just take them away from the things of God
And I'm telling you just to expect hard times, but hey when those hard times come still love your wife
Still do good to her ladies when those hard times come still obey and honor and reverence your husband anyways
That's gonna carry you through those hard times
Go to Job chapter 1
Here's another area of life we need to endure through endure through personal tragedy
Endure through personal tragedy. You know, we kind of touched on this this morning that we're all gonna have hardships in our lives
We're all gonna have different crosses to bear and we're all some of us are gonna go through extremely traumatic things
You know, one of the hardest days of ministry for me has been when a family lost their young
baby in a car accident one time and was in a different church, but that was one of the
worst days of my life and it didn't even happen to me.
You know, and I'm just saying like those days happen to real people, folks.
They're people who lose their kids.
There's people who lose their spouse in a tragic accident.
There's people that die suddenly, have serious illnesses, come out of nowhere,
kids get cancer in this world.
Like, there's just evil in this world.
And we can go through it just because, you know, we have this normalcy bias
that life has been good so far, nothing can happen to us.
Look, it can happen to you.
This is why it's so important to make sure that your faith is strong now, that you're
digging those deep roots now, that you're laying a solid foundation on the rock of Jesus Christ
now because these days can come.
Job 1.13 the Bible says, and there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating
and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
And there came a messenger unto Job and said the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding
beside them.
The Sabians fell upon them and took them away, yea they have slain the servants with the
edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking there came another also, and said the fire of God has fallen
from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I only
am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking there came also another and said the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels
And have carried them away. Yea and slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee
While he was yet speaking there came also another and said thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest
Brothers house. Behold there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house
And it fell upon the young men and they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said,
Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
You know, what an amazing example to us
of a man who endured through personal tragedy.
And this was a real story, folks.
This really happened.
But I think the reason why,
God shows us such a severe and extreme case of tragedy is that you and I are
probably not going to get to this level. I mean even if something terrible happens
to us, even God forbid if one of our children died tragically or our
parents died tragically or you get some illness or disease or something like
that, you're probably not going to get the full totality of circumstances that
Job went through. Because if we kept reading, you know, he gets struck with
He's got some terrible disease.
He's got his wife nagging him.
He's got his three friends saying that he's evil,
that he's wicked, that he's deserved all the stuff
that's happened to him.
But yet the Bible says what?
That he did not charge God foolishly.
This was a man that endured through personal tragedy.
And you know, we're all going to go through this,
but I love the mentality that he had.
He said, look, the Lord gave.
That's the first part of his mentality that he had.
The Lord gave.
What does that mean?
Anything you have good in life, it came from God.
And this, anything you have good in life, you do not deserve.
do not deserve. Why? Because what do we deserve? We deserve hell folks. We are
sinners deserving of hell and you know what? Us as fallen, sinful, wicked
creatures, I'm not deserving of the beautiful family that God gave me. I'm
not deserving of the beautiful sunshine outside today and the nice food that we
eat and the nice coffee we drink and you know the clothes that God gives us and
the car and the house, all the things that God gives us, I am worthy of none of it.
And you know what, if you're honest with yourself and you read the Bible, you know, neither are you,
neither are you. And the fact that we have any good in this life, the fact that God gives us
any amount of years with our parents and our children and our friends and our church,
all of it is so much more than we deserve. When we lose it, we can say, hey, the Lord gave. And
you know what, the Lord have taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. He's like, hey, can we not,
are we not going to receive good from the hand of the Lord and also receive evil?
You know, can the thing form, say to it that formed it,
why has thou made me thus?
Why are we gonna sit here in judgment of God?
We should not look at our circumstances
and say, why God, why me, why am I going through this?
You know, you should just say is like, wow,
my life is so much better than I actually deserve.
Let me focus on all the good that that should be our mentality is focusing on all the good.
And of course, when you're going through these times, of course, you're going to be extremely sad.
Of course, you're going to be heartbroken.
But when we read the end of the story, we know that Job comes forth as gold.
You know, God used this trial to strengthen him, to harden him.
But why is it that he got to experience the latter end of him being blessed more than the first was because he endured.
If he would have given up, if he would have cursed God, if he would have stopped trusting
in him, well then that blessed latter half wouldn't have even come in the first place.
And so don't sit here and say, you know, oh, I expect my life to be perfect and God, how
dare he ever put a tragedy in my path?
How dare he ever put any hardships in my path?
No, no, no.
You should expect that and you should thank the Lord for anything that he gives you and
you should thank the Lord for the time that he gave it to you and not get angry and bitter
Go to 2nd Corinthians chapter number seven 2nd Corinthians chapter number seven
2nd Corinthians seven verse seven Paul said unless I should be exalted above measure
through the abundance of the revelations,
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan to buffet me,
lest I should be exalted above measure."
So that is some suffering.
That is some pain.
And the Bible says that God allowed
this suffering and pain and problem in Paul's life
so that he would not be exalted above measure.
Because if Paul would have gotten prideful
and arrogant and puffed up,
you know what would have happened?
He would have been destroyed.
His ministry would have been destroyed.
He would not have been able to continue
doing the great work that God was having him to do.
So hey, he had this messenger of Satan to buffet him
with a thorn in the flesh.
And what I believe that is, is, you know,
if you read 1 Corinthians, I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians,
it lists all the terrible physical tortures
and persecutions he went through,
how he was beaten and stoned and shipwrecked
and all these things.
And so I think that messenger of Satan
was the Jews that were attacking him.
And the thorn of the flesh, I believe,
is the pain and permanent scars and issues
that he had in life as a result of that persecution.
I think that it tends to be probably an issue with his eyes,
because it talks about in Galatians
how he wrote so large a letter with his own hand,
and it's really a short letter.
It's not that large of a letter.
I think it's talking about the fact
that he wrote really large, because he had eye problems.
elsewhere. Don't quote me on it. I want to say it was in Philippians. He talks
about how the, no, I think it's second Corinthians I'll check later, but about
how they would have given him their own eyes for his sake. So I've always kind
of thought that it's talking about his eyes being the issue as his thorn in
the flesh. But regardless of what you believe it is, it was something that
wasn't pleasant. It was something that was not fun. That's why in verse eight
it says, for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart for me.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches, in necessities and persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong.
And you know, for us as Christians, the bright side of our problems and tragedies and hardships
is that there can always be a good outcome as a result of those things when we endure
in Christ.
You know, they're not really getting chastened by God.
They're not really getting strengthened and hardened by God.
They're kind of just going through life and bad stuff is happening to them,
just as a result of sin and being in a sinful world.
And then they die and go to hell at the end.
It's really sad, but it's true.
But you know, for us, you can go to John 6.
I'll read for you Romans 8.
For us, it says,
to them who are the called according to His purpose.
You know, the good news for us is that there can always be a positive outcome
when we go through our sufferings, when we love God,
when we are the ones that are called according to His purpose.
Number three this evening, endure hard preaching.
Look at John 6, verse 57, the Bible says,
As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father,
This is that bread which came down from heaven.
Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead,
he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.
These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.
Notice verse 60,
many therefore of his disciples,
when they had heard this said,
this is in hard saying.
Who can hear it?
So notice, Jesus here is preaching and he's preaching some hard truths here, some truths
that really offended people and even his own disciples, they start to murmur and complain
when they hear it, they say, this is a hard saying.
Who can hear it?
And you know, a lot of reasons today why Christians stop serving God, stop going to church, stop
going soul-winning is because they can't endure the hard preaching.
But you know what? If you can't endure hard preaching, you also would not have been able to endure if literally Jesus Christ was your pastor.
Because sometimes people want to use the pastor as an excuse.
And he'll read something from the Bible, and even though he's reading it from the Bible,
and applying it correctly using the scripture, people say, well, that guy's mean.
That pastor's mean. He preaches too hard.
Well, you know what? You wouldn't have lasted with Jesus either.
Because even some of his disciples murmured at him,
complained, saying this isn't hard saying who could hear it.
But the question is, was Jesus saying true?
Was it not true? It was true.
And you know, this is always how you should evaluate preaching.
Not, do I like it? Was it nice?
Was it directed at me? Are people thinking something?
What you should think is, was it true?
Was it true?
And you know what, if you go away from a sermon
and you're mad, even though it was true,
you need to change your heart.
You need to endure hard preaching.
And I've told this story before.
It just blows my mind how people get offended
and quit church.
When I literally had a pastor of mine,
look me in the eyes and said,
come to church tomorrow
because the whole sermon is about you.
He was not kidding, he wasn't playing around, he wasn't trying to be funny.
He was saying, don't skip church tomorrow because the sermon is about you.
And you know what I did?
I showed up to church, I opened my Bible and I took the rebuke that I needed.
Now what's so funny is all these people that quit church, that give up on hard preaching,
that get all angry at the pastor and join the little hater groups that complain and whine,
they've never had anything even close to that happen.
Ever.
But they heard a sermon where one part might have kind of applied to them.
Guess what? If the sermon applies to you, then you should just take it as it is about you.
But what's funny is I never even told you, hey, this is about you.
Even if I did, you shouldn't quit.
Even if I said, hey, next sermon is about you. Don't skip church. You should just take it.
You should just do it anyways, but what's funny is people get so soft and there's such babies to like
I've seen people use misquote this teaching of Jack Hiles where Jack Hiles he says hey
pastors should not use their pulpits like as a bully pulpit or as a whipping
post to pick on certain people and amen I agree with that. I agree with that a
hundred percent but people will twist that into saying like you could never
preach against individuals or you could never call out certain sins or
certain instances or where someone could even possibly understand who you're
talking about. Look that is not biblical that's not what Jack Hiles was
teaching that's not what the Bible was teaching it would make preaching
If I could never say anything that could ever apply directly to someone or you could ever kind of know what I'm saying,
no, that's ridiculous, folks.
I mean, if I preach something...
and I'm preaching what the Bible says,
and someone could say, hmm, that might apply to me.
Okay, you're thinking that maybe
because you were intimately involved with the situation,
and so you already knew details
before the sermon was being preached.
But if some random person
who didn't know about the situation heard the sermon,
they wouldn't have known it was about you.
They wouldn't have known that it was applying to you.
And so it would be so immature and foolish
to sit here and get all butt hurt and all upset
about hard preaching.
And you know, I use this really silly example because I don't think this will ever happen,
but it's true if we had multiple church members in the parking lot that just kept getting in fist fights.
Just like, what's up with this, guys?
Every Wednesday, you know, Brother John and Brother Cameron
are just duking it out.
And it's just like, they won't stop.
You know, I might preach a sermon on violence.
I might preach a sermon on being a brawler.
I might preach a sermon on patience.
And people here that know the situation,
they might be like, huh, that might apply to them.
I think that might.
Yeah, but you know, people on listening online,
they wouldn't have known.
They wouldn't have had any idea, right?
And so look, don't get this idea that, oh, preaching could never be specific.
Hard preaching is specific.
That's what we need.
Why would you not want the sermon to apply to you?
And look, hard preaching is not hateful, folks.
It's loving.
Getting called out for your sin, you should want to be corrected.
You should want to get that out of your life
because the sin is actually what's going to hurt you.
The hard preaching is not.
The truth from God's word is not going to hurt you.
Look at verse 61, when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them,
Doth this offend you?
What, and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?
You know, I like how Jesus didn't back down.
I like how Jesus didn't apologize.
He didn't back off from the truth that he was saying.
He's like, oh, does this offend you?
Well, here's another offensive statement.
How about that?
And you're like, hey, if you don't like hard preaching,
the worst thing you could do is come and complain about it.
The worst thing you could do is tell me what I am and what I am and I'm not allowed to preach on.
Like one time I was told you can never preach on vegetarianism.
And I'm just like, wow, I know what I'm preaching right away.
Don't come up to me and tell me what I can and cannot preach on.
That's a really bad idea.
Oh, you're so offensive.
So is Jesus.
Verse 63, it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, that believe not and who should betray him.
And he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except they were given unto him of my father.
Verse 66, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
I mean, that is a crazy statement in your Bible right there, that these guys are following Jesus Christ.
He's the perfect leader. He's the perfect preacher. He never even messes up his words.
He never even just crosses words like I do sometimes.
I mean, everything he says is right and he says it with the right attitude.
He says it with the right intensity. Like, he's just perfect. He's a perfect leader.
Yet there are still some of his disciples that got offended and no longer walked with him.
And guess what? You know whose fault that was? That was their fault. Not Jesus' fault.
And don't sit here and tell me as you've quit on church, you've quit soul winning,
you've quit serving God, don't sit here and tell me, oh I'm a recovering fundamentalist,
I'm church hurt, it's church abuse. No, no, no. You go follow Jesus. You go find a church then
but you don't have an excuse to just stop following, stop, you know, listening to Jesus.
No, you need to keep following. And then Jesus asks in verse 67,
then said Jesus, under the 12, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? That has the words of eternal life. You know, he doesn't change his
message. He doesn't soften the preaching. He doesn't change the culture of his ministry.
He just says, you're offended by the truth.
He's like, OK, well, you guys also go away.
That is the type of leadership that we need today in pastors
where it's not like.
You know, if you offend people, if you preach hard,
that you all of a sudden just change the culture,
change the strategy, stop hard preaching.
No, you need to stick with the hard preaching.
Stick with what the Bible says,
and if people quit on Jesus, realize
that they're going to quit on you too.
That people might leave church sometimes
through no fault of the pastor,
no fault of the ministry,
but just through their own weakness.
But I like Peter's attitude.
He says, Lord, to whom shall we go?
That has the words of eternal life.
Look, I think if everyone is honest,
if you've been in church for any long amount of time,
there has to have been a time in church
where the preaching stepped on your toes,
where it got on you, where you felt a little uncomfortable.
And you know, you have two options really at that point.
You could quit, just stop serving God because you got angry,
or you could just, hey, take that rebuke.
fix what needs to be fixed and move on serving Christ.
But you ought to ask yourself this question before you quit.
It's like, to whom will we go?
And look, no pastor is perfect.
No church is going to be perfect.
But it is interesting to me how people
will be in a good church with a good pastor.
It's King James only.
It's salvation by faith alone.
It's eternal security.
It's King James Bible.
It's soul winning.
It's hard preaching.
It's events.
It's doing all these things.
And they'll quit because they're offended from one sermon.
They'll leave that and then they'll go to the old IFB where there's Zionism every every Sunday
Where there's altar call every service where it's hopefully it's the King James Bible, but not all the time
It's man half the time the guest preachers are preaching repent of your sins, right?
I mean, it's just crazy that people will just
Strain at a nat and swallow a camel. They'll be so mad about one sermon
But then they'll just gladly lap up the old IFB and all their major serious issues
Or, they'll just not go to church at all.
It's just crazy to me, and it's like, look, even if you disagree, even if you think like,
hey, I kind of got my toes stepped on there, and I don't even think it was right.
I don't even think the pastor was correct in his facts or anything like that.
But did you die, though?
Honestly, because I could say I've had times when I was in a subordinate position where
I was corrected, and I believed that the person correcting me did not have the facts and was
not correct.
You know what?
I just took it.
My head didn't explode.
I just said, hey, that's fine.
I don't have to have myself understood
and I don't have to be right in every situation.
Sometimes you can just let the situation be how it is.
And here's the thing, I guarantee you
that the authority, whoever that is in your life,
is gonna respect you more for just taking it
rather than saying, but, but, but, but,
but every single time you're corrected.
Even if sometimes your authority is a mistake, you don't always have to go and correct that.
Sometimes you're going to hear a sermon.
You know, there's been times I've heard, I'm just like,
oh, I don't think they have that correct about my situation.
Oh, well, move on to the next service.
Move on to the next soul-winning time.
Hey, let's go get someone saved.
Let's hear another great sermon, right?
Passes are going to make mistakes, but it doesn't make sense to quit the church over a mistake
or especially over the truth.
That's even crazier.
Quitting the church over a hard sermon is nuts.
Go to 2nd Timothy 4 while you're turning there Psalm 141 verse 5 says this let the righteous smite me
It shall be a kindness. I love that verse and let him reprove me
It shall be an excellent oil. Let the righteous smite me
it shall be a kindness.
That is some vivid imagery there.
Let the righteous hit me, and it's actually nice.
Now, of course, it's not talking about physically hit there,
but sometimes the preaching of God's word is going to smite you.
It's going to feel like you just got hit.
But was that mean? Was that hateful?
No, it was actually a kindness.
And you know what, 99.999% of the times that I was corrected by my boss or by pastor through a sermon or directly face-to-face, they were right and I was wrong.
And you know what, that correction, that reproof, that what felt like a smiting to me, it was actually a kindness to me.
It actually helped me, it actually made me better.
2 Timothy 4 verse 1, the Bible says I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
Notice, preach the word! Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
And you know, I want to think about this from two ways, when it comes to hard preaching.
Number one, from the perspective of a preacher, what does the Bible say?
Preach the word.
It should not be that most of your sermons and most of your statements, it's just like
opinion, opinion, opinion, human philosophy, article, poem, story, it gets annoying.
It's like insufferable to listen to, preaching, where someone is just constantly giving their opinion,
especially when they're so adamant and worked up and angry about their opinion.
It's like, you know, screaming your opinion louder doesn't make it true.
And it's funny to me when I see sometimes pastors, it's like, they don't really scream and yell and rip face
on things that the Bible actually says, but the moment their opinion comes out, man, it's like,
literally. I'm not exaggerating.
You know what I'm talking about.
It's like,
SPREAKING TENATORS DOESN'T WORK!
It's like, okay, that's interesting,
but the Bible doesn't say that,
and that's your opinion.
And you know what the Bible says?
Preach the word!
Hey, why don't you yell that?
PREACH THE WORLD!
How about that?
How about you get real angry about what the Bible actually says?
It's so weird to me how pastors, they won't get fired up
for things that the Bible says,
but the second they're ready to punch their other preacher,
Ready to get something over on us.
Then they're just so fired up, so angry.
Hey, preach the word.
Preach the Bible.
Let that be the majority of your preaching.
That's what the Bible says.
Be instant in season.
Out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort.
With all long suffering.
Then I want to focus on the congregation.
It says, for the time will come,
they will not endure sound doctrine.
Hey, endure sound doctrine.
Don't endure lies, though.
Don't put up with lies.
Don't just soak in and accept lies.
It makes me sad today to see so many of God's people
just drinking in the world's philosophy,
drinking in opinions as if it's scripture
and defending that even though they've got no scripture to defend it.
To me, that's sad.
You're not enduring sound doctrine.
You're not enduring the Bible.
You're doing what?
After their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
Here's the truth.
Most people do not like hard preaching.
most people do not like hard preaching.
And look, even amongst churches that are friends with us,
there's gonna be peppered in throughout the congregation,
the occasional wife that's being dragged,
or the occasional husband that's being dragged,
I don't know, occasional kid that's being dragged.
There's gonna be people in the congregation
that they just don't like the preaching.
They don't like the hard preaching.
They don't like the Bible.
But you know what?
Preachers should not cater to those people.
Preachers should not be afraid of the people that are reading the Bible,
their backs slid in, they don't like the hard preaching.
Preachers should be concerned with one thing, what is the truth?
What does the Bible actually say?
That should be the emphasis of our preaching.
And you, you should endure hard preaching, you should endure sound doctrine,
but you know what, you should not just believe lies.
And you know what? If a lie is coming out of the mouth of your pastor,
believe the truth. Believe what the Bible says.
And look, even great men can make mistakes, say things that are wrong.
I've listened back to some of my preaching and be like,
I meant to say the exact opposite of that, but I said the wrong thing.
You know, hopefully you understand sometimes that I'm just making a verbal air with my words.
But look, when preachers just dig in and it's like they're corrected
and they just keep digging into false doctrine, don't just follow that off the cliff.
You believe the truth. You believe what the Bible says.
Good Ephesians 6. 1 Thessalonians 5.20 says,
despise not prophesies. Do not despise hard preaching.
Do not despise when your pastor has to fight a battle.
Do not despise when he has to call out false doctrine, bad preaching,
bad philosophy. Don't get tired of that.
Number four, endure spiritual warfare.
Endure spiritual warfare.
Ephesians 6 verse 10, the Bible says,
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil,
for we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
You know, whether you understood it or not,
when you got saved, you got enlisted
into a spiritual battle.
You know, the Bible says that we're supposed
to endure hardness as what?
Good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
And while we don't fight a physical battle,
we're not taking up AR-15s today and tanks
and all these, you know, fighter jets or stuff like that.
We are still in a war that is just as real.
Just as real, but it's a spiritual war and here's the thing
I think sometimes people they just get tired of the fight
I see it in people all the time. They just get battle weary. They're just like man
Why is there all the fighting? Why is there all this drama?
I'm just here to tell you that fighting in the Christian life is here to stay
Do not think that there's just going to be this time of your life where there's this huge season of no drama
No battles. It's all peace. It's all good. That's just not reality
That's not the reality of a war and it's like have you ever read the Bible? Have you not read?
You know, I missed that time in the Old Testament where it's just like and then everything was going great for hundreds of years
There was no problem. Everyone served God perfectly. It was great turn the page then the next generation. They just did great
They all love God. They all followed His word.
Everyone was just singing and dancing in Kubaiao.
Wow, the third generation in a row.
It's just so much peace.
No, you know what the Bible constantly is?
It's just like warfare, death.
Oh, then this group of people started serving idols.
Oh, then, you know, Moses has to come down and burn all the idols and make them drink it.
Oh, God's killing 24,000 people for fornication.
Oh, Babylon's destroying your entire nation because you're wicked as hell and you stopped serving God.
That's what reality is.
And you know what, in the New Testament,
we're not fighting a physical battle,
but we're still fighting a battle.
and you need to stop being such a baby.
I hate to say it like that,
but you need to stop being such a wimp
and just embrace the warfare.
Embrace the battle.
I mean, how would you like to go out to war with someone
and like, you're dressed out, you're ready to go to combat,
and everybody's like, I don't want to do this.
I'm scared. I don't want to do this.
Just punch that person in the face.
Come on. We're going to war.
You're getting fired up here.
Wouldn't you like have some doubt if your buddy next to you is just like crying and sucking his thumb and asking for mommy?
It's like look, this is war.
There's going to be times where preachers are going to have to preach sermons that piss a lot of people off.
Sometimes it's going to piss off backslidden Christians and sometimes there's going to be men that rise up among us
Trying to draw away disciples after themselves who are actually wicked who are wolves and sheep's clothing
You know that can happen. We could have battles with the world
You know, Steadfast had years and years long battles with lawsuits and with sodomites.
You know, there could be damnable heresy that creeps in to a church.
There's just always going to be a battle.
And as soon as this battle is over, there's going to be another battle.
And I don't know what that battle is going to look like, but what I know is that there's
going to continuously be battles, and you need to learn to endure.
endure through the spiritual warfare.
Because what I see happen is I see people get tired of the fight,
they just want everyone to get along,
they don't want any drama or any issues,
and they just slowly get out of church,
they slowly get out of soul winning,
because they just can't handle the fight.
You know what? You need to endure the fight.
Let's go to Judges chapter number eight.
Judges chapter number eight.
Judges eight twelve, the Bible says,
And when Zeba and Zalmunah, these are wicked kings of Midian, fled, he, that's Gideon, pursued after them and took the two kings of Midian, Zeba and Zalmunah, and discomfited all the hosts.
And Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from the battle before the sun was up, and caught a young man of the men of Sokoth and inquired of him.
And he described unto him the princes of Sokoth and the elders thereof, even three score and seventeen men.
And he came unto the men of Sokoth and said, Behold, Zeba and Zalmuna, with whom you did
a braid me, saying, O'er the hands of Zeba and Zalmuna, now in thine hand, that we should
give bread unto thy men that are weary.
And he took the elders of the city.
Love this part and thorns of the wilderness and briars and with them he taught the men of Sukkoth
He's teaching them a lesson here with some thorns and briars some old-fashioned
Education there for sure verse 17 says and he beat down the tower of penuel and slew the men of the city
I mean, this is spiritual warfare here. I mean Gideon's a great man of God. You know, he's doing
He's just taking it to the enemy just capturing the kings
of Midian. He's teaching people a lesson with briars and sticks. He's just beating them up.
He's going. He's beaten down the tower. He's slaying the man of the city. I mean,
this is a man of God who's taking care of business and he's slaying the enemies of God.
And you know, in the New Testament, we spiritually need to take it to the enemy
and we need to use the sword of the spirit. We need to constantly be cutting down false prophets,
cutting down bad teaching, bad ideology with God's word.
Verse 18 says this, then said he unto Zeba and Zalmuna,
what manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor?
They answered as thou art, so were they.
Each one resembled the children of a king.
And he said, they were my brethren,
even the sons of my mother, as the Lord liveth.
If ye have saved them alive, I would not slay you.
And he said unto Jethar his firstborn up and slay them.
So, you know, Gideon's about to have these kings of Midian here executed for killing a bunch of innocent people.
And so Gideon, he gets Jethar, his firstborn son. He's like, all right, son, I've got a job for you.
You know, dads, how would you like to tell your sons to do this?
I want you to go ahead and kill these kings real fast. Go ahead and just chop off their head.
But notice what it says, but the youth drew not his sword, for he feared because he was yet a youth.
And then of course, Gideon takes care of business.
But you see that the firstborn son here, the youth,
he didn't want to draw his sword.
He didn't want to shed blood because he was afraid
because he was a youth.
And, you know, I can excuse a child.
I can excuse, you know, a Christian
that just got saved last week,
just got saved a few months ago
for not fully understanding why it is
that the pastor's up there screaming and yelling
about why we have to call upon the name of the Lord.
You know, maybe not understanding,
whoa, did you just call out someone by name?
What is that?
That's crazy, I've never heard anything like that.
I could understand how a little child
and someone who's a babe in Christ would not necessarily understand that.
But you know, it just goes to show though that that person is weak.
Why did the youth not draw his sword?
Because he was afraid, because he was weak.
But you know, when you mature and grow up,
you expect to tell the man to take the sword and slay and for the man to do that.
And it's really sad to me when sometimes the people I hear complaining the most
about the fighting and the drama are grown men.
And it's like, aren't you supposed to be a man?
Aren't you supposed to be a leader?
Aren't you supposed to be setting the example here?
Aren't you supposed to, when there's the enemies of God,
aren't you supposed to say, hey, give me the sword,
I'll cut their heads off right now?
You know, why is it that even some men get battle weary?
You know, they're weak spiritually.
You need to start doing some spiritual push-ups.
You need to start waking up every day and reading your Bible.
You need to start consuming some hard preaching,
instead of listening to whatever soft,
so preacher you're listening to out there.
You need to start getting strength,
spiritually.
Go back to 2 Timothy 2.
2 Timothy 2.
So look, stop whining about the battle,
because the battle's not going anywhere.
Anywhere where people are doing a great work for God
and actually striving to preach the correct doctrine
and striving to reach a lot of people with the gospel,
striving to do something big for God,
there's going to be a lot of opposition from the devil.
There's going to be Satan infiltrating churches with false prophets.
There's going to be people rising up.
I mean, it seems like every two or three years,
the calling upon the name of the Lord battle resurfaces.
And it's just like a fight we have to fight.
And guess what?
Get used to it.
Just endure it.
Get ready for it, because I'm sure it'll happen again.
I'm sure we're going to have to fight over the King James Bible in the future.
I'm sure we're going to have to fight over...
I mean, we're fighting over authority.
In the last couple of months, I never thought that the new IFB would be divided over authority.
I never thought that the new IFB would be divided over corporal punishment, over hard preaching
of the Word of God, yet here we are.
And some people can cry and moan and say, oh, give up.
It's too hard.
And others can just embrace the battle.
And just say, hey, whatever the battle it is you want me to fight, Lord, I'm ready for it.
I'm here for it. I'm here to preach the word. I'm here to be instant in season, out of season.
Whatever battle needs to be fought, I'm ready to fight that battle.
And I hope that you and the P you are also ready to fight with me.
And that you're not just going to be like, oh, another battle, oh, another drama.
Get used to it because it's going to happen.
It's going to happen.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2 3,
thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that wareth entangleeth himself
with the affairs of this life,
that he may please him who hath chosen him
to be a soldier.
See, God likens us unto soldiers
in the spiritual army.
And you know the soldier doesn't wake up at least he should not wake up and just be like sir
I'm tired of fighting. Oh, sir. I'm tired of doing whatever you're having me do
You just follow the orders you just go out and do it whether you want to or not
And it's like no one wants to go fight no one wants to go die in combat
But hey, if you're a soldier you've called to been a soldier you need to endure hardness you need to keep going
Go to Hebrews 12. This will be our last point this evening
Endure chastening. Endure chastening.
What does the Bible say in Hebrews 12 verse 5?
And you have forgotten the exhortation,
which speaking of unto you is unto children.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.
Nor faint when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth."
So notice, what is the command?
What is our emotion supposed to be when God chasens us or corrects us or scourges us?
The Bible says, despise not thou the chasening of the Lord.
You are not allowed to get angry at God when he corrects you.
You're not allowed to get all bitter and get all rebellious and get all mad at God when he corrects you.
That's not allowed.
And you know, if someone was having that bad attitude, would I look at God and say,
Oh God, look how terrible you are.
You provoked him to wrath.
Why are you provoking this person to wrath?
Or would I tell this person, hey, fix your attitude.
Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.
Right? You're supposed to endure chastening.
You know, I heard this ridiculous preaching recently from Pastor Jared Przarski,
where he just said, like as a carte blanche statement, just like as a total fact,
he said that if you spank your teenagers, that you're provoking them to wrath.
Just period, every situation, every family unit, doesn't matter the situation, doesn't matter the case.
If you're spanking your teenagers, you're going to provoke them to wrath.
Well, what's funny is that, number one, the Bible doesn't say that.
Now, the Bible does say not to provoke our children to wrath,
but to raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
And amen to that verse, and I believe that 100%.
And I believe 100% that we should balance love and care and friendship
and camaraderie with our kids and the rod, 100%.
But to just say like, oh, you spake your teenagers,
you're provoking them to wrath.
Okay, so are we going to use that same logic with God?
Because the Bible tells us,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.
So if God chastises us, are we allowed to sit here and get angry and mad at our Heavenly Father for spanking us?
No, we're not allowed to do that.
And if you're mad at God for disciplining you, you're the problem.
You're the one with the bad heart.
And let me tell you this.
Children, I don't care if you're two years old, 12 years old, or 18 years old,
if your parents punish you, if they spank you, if they discipline you,
and then you hate your parents, you get mad at your parents, it's your fault.
You're the one that's got a bad attitude.
You know, I'm sick and tired of this preaching that is promoting an excusing rebellion.
where instead of backing up mom and dad, who are the God-given authorities,
who God has given in place to rule those children, to give them rules and to punish them
and chastise them the way that they see fit,
instead of getting mad at the children rebelling, now we're saying,
oh, well, parent, you're provoking your kids to wrath.
Don't you dare spank your kids. Don't enact discipline on them because you're
provoking them to wrath.
And then you know what that's done
since the pastor has preached that behind the pulpit.
What happens is when kids get spanked by their parents,
they now get provoked to wrath.
You know why?
Because they heard that that was the reaction that should be happening when parents spank
their teenagers.
So kids have heard, oh, parents who spank their teenagers are terrible.
They're over the top.
They're authoritarian.
They're bad.
They're wicked.
All these things.
Then they have parents that do that.
Instead of the preacher saying, hey, children, you better honor your mother and father.
You better respect them.
You better obey them.
You better follow their commandments.
You better take their chastisement with a good attitude like you should.
Now, they've been emboldened to rebel, right?
And it's the same thing with God.
Like, we're not going to sit here and blame God for our chastisement.
And if God decides to punish me for something or correct me for something,
I'm not allowed to sit here and get mad at him.
How dare you?
How dare you provoke me to wrath, God?
No, you know what we should do?
We should submit and respect authority in our lives.
It says, if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chastened, if not?
So every single dad should be chastening their children.
And the Bible says, if you endure that chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
So when God chastens us, what should our reaction be?
We should be to endure that.
We're not going to quit the things of God just because God came down on us for something.
We should endure that.
And of course, we can then apply that to every other situation of life, every other authority
structure in life.
You know, wives, if your husband corrects you for something, you should endure that
and take it.
And it's like we live in this weird society where like if the wife is mad, the husband has to cater.
I mean, he has to change. He has to win her back over.
He has to make sure he bends over backwards to fix her attitude.
When the reality should be, no, no, no. If your husband corrects you, you should be worried about pleasing your husband.
You should be worried about if you've just pissed your husband off.
Because you know what's funny? If I go to work and my boss isn't mad at me, I'm not like, you corrected me.
No, yeah, don't talk to me you corrected me and wait for him to come make things right with me
That's not how it works folks
No, no, no the person who's under authority should be trying to please the person who's in authority
If at work my boss is pissed at me
It is now my job to bend over backwards to make him happy
And to accept the correction and to do whatever I need to do to please that person, same thing in marriage, same thing with God, don't get mad at God if he corrects you, don't get mad at the pastor if he preaches a sermon that steps on your toes.
No, you should actually be worried about pleasing your authorities by doing right and just accepting the correction, endure chastening like the Bible says.
Verse 8 says this.
But if you be without chastisement, where of all our partakers, then are you bastards and not sons?
So look, every single child of God is going to receive correction from the Lord.
And if you don't, the Bible is saying you're a bastard. You're not even a son. Period. You're gonna get chastened by God.
Then verse 9, this is interesting. It says,
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us. Notice, and we gave them what?
Reverence.
Huh, that's interesting the Bible says actually that when our parents corrected us did it provoke us to wrath did spanking provoke us to wrath
No, no our father's correction actually caused us to revere them
respect to them and so it's just bizarre to me to hear pastors getting up and
saying oh anytime you spank your teen that's provoking them to rap when the
Bible's saying we've all had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave
them reverence and you know I use the example of my wife how my wife and all
of her siblings did get the occasional spanking in their teen years of course
it was nowhere near as often as when they were young children but my wife and
and respect their father.
And he did not abuse them by spanking them as teens.
He did not provoke them to wrath.
It didn't work.
It worked.
It's funny how it worked, though.
Weird, right?
No, it's not, because the Bible teaches this.
He says,
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?
Oh, God!
Hey, God!
Chasing your children doesn't work.
It's making your children doesn't work.
Really?
It's saying like,
Hey, let's be much more rather in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live!
Endure chastening!
You know, that should get your attention.
And if you don't want to get constantly chastened, you know what you should do?
Take the correction, take the chastening and change.
And then you wouldn't have God constantly coming down on you, just like parents.
You know, kids, if you're constantly getting spanked, you need to change.
You need to not get mad at mom and dad and don't despise them and don't get angry at them.
No, you need to change your attitude.
You need to change your heart and obey your mom and dad.
Keep your place in Hebrews 12. Go to Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13.
You know, these people that are just saying with their full chest, you can never spank
a teen.
It's always wrong to spank a teen.
It'll never work.
I mean, let's just think about this logically.
We've already looked at a lot of Bible.
But are you telling me you could really never foresee any instance whatsoever that a teen
might need some corporal discipline?
And I'm telling you, these guys are a bunch of liars.
Because I could just start telling you instance after
instance that everyone would agree, oh yeah, in that
situation, they would need corporal punishment.
Like, how about if your teenage son called your wife a bee?
Oh, it's always wrong to spank a teen.
Yes, you can continue calling her that, no problem.
No, you and I both know that you'd start laying hands on
that teen.
And rightly so.
Or what if your teen boy struck his mother?
You'd punch that kid right in the face.
And you know what? That kid would deserve it.
You can never do that for any reason.
No, no, no, no.
Teen puts his hands on mom,
hits mom.
I mean, the Old Testament, the Bible says that kid's worthy of death.
Oh, yeah, that could be killed, but it's not spanked.
This is the retardation
that's being preached.
And that's what happens when you just stick with your opinion
rather than what the Bible says.
Here's what Proverbs 13 verse 24 says,
Hated his son, but he that love with him chasing with him be times look if there's ever a time
Where your team needs the rod and you spare that from them. You're in the wrong
Now look, I hope we're all smoking the hopeium lately at Baptist churches. It seems like hey
I hope that your team rarely or never needs the rod. I I hope that for you
I hope that for my future kids, but here's think if your kids do need the rod though
You know you should do you should give them the rock
at whatever age that is at whatever
age appropriate spanking you're giving.
It's not my job to interfere with
your authority as father and mother
in how to raise your kids.
It's my job to preach with the Bible
says not preaching what it does not say.
Not sitting here and undermining
your authority in the home.
Hey, if that's not, I mean, I've heard as a teenager, you know, I went to public school.
I had a bunch of friends in baseball teams that weren't Christians and I've seen a lot
of different things with kids.
I've seen teenagers say to their parents, I hate you, mom.
I've seen teenagers call their mom Satan.
She's like, shut up, Satan.
I literally have seen, I've heard kids do this and it's just like, I was sitting there
as a teen just thinking like, I wish that his dad would just beat him right now.
I wish his dad would just smack him across the face.
It's like, do you really think there's never, ever
an appropriate reason for a teenager to get spanked?
That's just wrong, my friend.
It's just wrong.
It doesn't make sense how there's, you know,
corporal punishment for kids.
There's corporal punishment for adults.
There's death penalty for both, but for some reason
it's just wrong all the time to spank a teen.
It's just not biblical.
Look at Proverbs 20 verse 30.
Proverbs chapter 20 verse 30.
The Bible says, the blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil.
So do stripes, the inward parts of the belly.
You know, I believe that this is talking about an adult receiving corporal punishment and this person's receiving a serious beating.
I mean, this isn't just like a spank on the butt with a spoon or something like that like kids get.
This is the blueness of the wound. It's talking about bruising.
I mean, this is a serious beating, but it says the blueness of the wound. What? Cleanse it away evil.
So do stripes getting a whipping the inward parts of the belly what this is teaching let me just tell you what this is
Teaching it's telling you corporal punishment works
That's what this is saying.
It's saying, hey, you can correct someone's behavior
with corporal punishment.
Now, of course, this is a general statement
because there's some people the Bible talks about
that though you brayed them, I'm gonna misquote it.
It's like, if you bray them like mortar and a pestle
or something like that,
yet will his foolishness not depart from him?
There's some people it's just like,
no matter what you do, they're gonna be an idiot.
They're not gonna listen.
But.
The rule, though, is that corporal punishment works.
And this is talking about on an adult.
So if corporal punishment works on an adult,
why would it not work when they were 17?
12 months earlier.
Why would it not work when they were 16, 15, 14?
No, again, it's just people preaching their opinion
and not actually sticking with what the Bible says.
Let's look at this verse in Deuteronomy 21.
Turn there, Deuteronomy 21.
You know, I know we've talked about this a lot in the last couple of months,
but you know what?
Hey, endure the spiritual battle.
I'm not going to just keep letting these bad philosophies and bad ideas being
preached out there without being checked because I don't want it coming here.
And look, a lot of these preachers that have suddenly gone all weird,
I've heard from multiple individuals in this church like,
oh, I listen to that person all the time.
Oh, I listen to every sermon.
Oh, man, I had no idea what was going on.
And it's like, that's why this stuff needs to be talked about.
It's not like it's just fun or a hobby for me.
But again, I want you to look at this, Deuteronomy 21 verse 18.
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father,
or the voice of his mother, and that notice when they have chastened him.
will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city
and unto the gate of his palace or place, and they shall say unto the elders of the city,
this our son is rebellious, stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice.
He is a glutton and a drunkard, and all the men of the city shall stone him with stones that he died.
So shalt thou put away evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.
So notice, there's actually a capital punishment law in the Word of God that if you have a
wicked son, and this isn't talking about some 10 year old kid, I believe this is talking
about an adult son, you know, late teens, early 20s, something like that, stubborn and
rebellious son, he doesn't obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother.
And that, notice what it says, when they have chastened him.
So before this stubborn and rebellious son who's a glutton and a drunkard and doesn't obey his father and mother
Before he's taken to the elders of the city to be killed to be judged and executed
They have to have first said that they have what?
chasing him
What does that mean? Corporal punishment.
So in order to even exercise this law,
the parents first had to attest that they have been
chastening their son.
Okay, so no spanking as teens though, right?
So are they saying like, well, yeah,
you know, we spanked him back when he was two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 10.
Then we stopped because after that,
spanking is wrong somehow.
After that, spanking is bad.
After that, spanking doesn't work.
You know, the elder of the city is gonna be like,
what is wrong with you?
No, no, no. It says, after they have chastened him.
So this kid, this teenager, this young adult, was still getting chastened in his teen years.
Getting whipped. And look, it's like, I thought that we're actually supposed to base our beliefs off of the Bible.
I thought that we're not supposed to sit here and just, let's just drink in worldly philosophy and our own ideas and our own opinions.
Aren't we supposed to base what we believe off of what Scripture says?
Hey, isn't every word of the Lord pure?
Aren't all of His laws right?
You know, I thought that we actually love the law of God.
I thought that we looked at this law and said,
yeah, this is a good law.
I think we should have this law in our society right now.
By the way, I do believe we should have this law in our society right now.
You wouldn't have all these crazy videos you see on X.
I feel like my X algorithm is just cursed,
it's just stuff to piss me off.
Like, I saw this video of these older teen kids
that just took an old lady and just body slammed her on the ground
and just threw her in her swimming pool.
And I'm just like, number one, why is this on my feed?
And number two, that would be like these kids right here.
I mean, what kind of a child does something like that?
It's absolutely insane. It's wicked.
Those kids should not be in our society.
Period.
Go to, if you will, Second Timothy chapter 2 and Hebrews chapter number 12.
Second Timothy 2 and Hebrews chapter number 12.
And look, it's fine to have a personal opinion, but you know what?
Don't condemn people that believe the Bible.
Don't condemn people for their other opinions.
Keep that opinion and you believe it.
But you know also I heard this preaching from Pastor Bazarcki. He said first Corinthians chapter number seven
Teaches your wife can leave. Do you guys catch that in first Corinthians chapter seven first Corinthians seven teaches your wife can leave
He said this isn't Afghanistan
Your wife has to be with you willingly
I mean, I am so sick and tired of this preaching
that undermines authority, that enables rebellion.
It is Satanic, just saying like,
oh yeah, 1 Corinthians 7, it just says your wife can leave.
And it was coming from an era of like,
you know, you dads that are like ruling,
they're leading by constraint.
It was coming from this attitude of like,
oh, those that lead by constraint better be careful,
because you know, 1 Corinthians 7 says that they can leave.
Could you imagine how pissed people would be if the roles were reversed on that?
And I would never say this to someone, but just imagine for a moment
that a pastor said, hey ladies, you better be really careful with how you act
because he can go find him another woman. He could do it.
Do you know that? He could do it. He could find another one.
Wouldn't we all be sickened and disgusted and just outraged
by such a suggestion coming from a pastor?
But it's totally fine because it's like, oh, you know,
first Corinthians 7 teaches your wife can leave.
You know, what if I told you that Afghanistan had some things right?
What if I told you that there's some things about Afghanistan that are actually pretty cool?
Like, how about the fact that they execute sodomites?
Hey, I would love to have that in the United States.
And is that my opinion?
No, that's Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13.
That's the Bible.
Oh, you know, does Afghanistan make divorce illegal?
I'm not even sure, but if they do, I'm for that.
I'm for divorce being illegal, and why would I sit here and make fun of Afghanistan for
doing things right?
You know, why don't we attack Afghanistan for the things that they're doing wrong?
About like worshiping a pedophile named Muhammad.
Let's get on Afghanistan for that.
How about strapping bombs to women and children to go kill innocent people?
Let's go ahead and condemn that for that, but I'm not going to condemn them for something
that's right.
I'm not going to condemn them for believing that divorce is wicked.
And here's the thing, no fault divorce was illegal in the United States until 1970.
So it's like we were all Afghanistan here in America until 1970.
It just shows how far people's mind has gone from the word of God.
Where it's like we're sitting here mocking Christians for believing that divorce is always wrong
and that it shouldn't be allowed.
And then we're comparing that to Afghanistan.
He said this about wives. He said, she has to follow you like you have to follow me willingly.
So he made the comparison that the same level of obedience and
Fidelity and followership, if you will, of congregants to their pastor is the exact same as a wife to her husband.
No, folks. The Bible says that a pastor is not supposed to lord over God's heritage.
The pastor is the under shepherd that's in charge of running things in the church, but I'm not allowed to rule your lives.
I'm not allowed to walk up to your wife and say, do this and do that, but you are!
You are allowed to walk up to your wife and tell her here's the rules. Here's what you're gonna do
You could walk up to your kids and tell them here's the time you're going to bed
Here's the time you're waking up
You actually do have that authority because the Bible says that a wife is submit to her husband as unto the Lord
See, the Bible actually compares the husband's authority over his wife to that of Jesus's authority of the church.
It does not compare your obedience to the pastor as the same thing as a husband and wife.
That is weird, folks.
And I wouldn't even want that type of power or authority.
Not interested. It's weird.
I don't want to run your life.
I don't want to tell you what to do.
I don't want to be that involved in your decision-making.
Like, ladies, your husband is for that.
Men, you command your family that.
I'm not going to do that. I think that's such a weird statement and he said this,
if you need the Taliban to be running the United States to get your marriage to work,
you've got problems, buddy. Big problems. So, you know, if we needed the U.S. government to
actually have laws that the Bible supports, then we're the problem. Again, it's this preaching of
And then all your problems will be solved.
Great. So helpful.
I love that preaching so much.
Just be awesome like me and you won't have any problems.
Oh, you know, if you need the U.S. government to be run by the Taliban,
you've got big problems, buddy. Big problems.
No, what if the problem is that the United States is forsaking God's word?
What if the problem is that the government should be enforcing God's law
and it's not?
What if that's actually the problem?
What if the problem is preaching lies?
He says this, leading by constraint doesn't work.
Constraint means limitation or restriction.
So, leading.
By constraint doesn't work, he says.
No limitations, no restrictions.
It's like, how do you even have discipline then?
How do you even have chastisement?
Why does the Bible tell us not to despise
the chastening of the Lord?
Why does it tell us to endure chastening?
Sounds to me like God rules with constraint.
Sounds like God has given us some rules
and it sounds like if we step out of line,
he's gonna enforce those rules.
He's gonna chasten us.
No, leading by constraint is the only way
that leadership works.
Leading by constraint is the only thing that works.
But here's the thing, preaching ought to be emphasizing what the Bible emphasizes.
What does the Bible emphasize? Hey, don't despise the chastening of the Lord.
What does the Bible emphasize? Indoor chastening as sons.
What does the Bible emphasize? You know, let no man despise thee.
What the Bible emphasizes is for followers to be in obedience to their authorities.
The Bible does not emphasize this preaching that is constantly
chastening and tongue lashing leaders and getting mad at leaders for being leaders.
That's not what the Bible emphasizes.
We need to emphasize what God emphasizes.
Hey, don't despise your husband, ladies.
Obey your husband.
Don't despise your parents.
Obey your parents.
Don't despise God.
Obey God.
And within the constraints of biblical authority in the realm of church,
don't despise your pastor, obey the legitimate authority that he has.
Now, please don't ever compare me to the same authority that you have over your wife,
because that's creepy and weird.
But you know what? A pastor does have authority.
He is in charge of the house of God, humanly speaking, under Jesus Christ.
And he should be obeyed as well.
Hebrews 12 verse 10 says this,
for they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure,
but he for our prophet,
that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Now, no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward,
it yieldeth the peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them,
which are exercised there by.
You know, discipline
that's coming from a godly authority,
it is for our prophet,
and especially when it comes from God.
And so you should not despise God's chastisement, His discipline.
You should endure it patiently because that endurance yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
You've got to realize, if God's correcting you through some situation in your life or through the preaching of God's word,
you should take that in stride. You should obey that and submit yourselves to that because it's going to be for your profit.
Let's finish in 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2.
2 Timothy 2, verse 8, the Bible says,
Remember that Jesus Christ of the seat of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.
Verse 9,
Wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake,
that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Look, salvation, thank God, is easy.
Salvation is like drinking a glass of water.
It's like walking through a door.
It's like eating a piece of bread.
But you know what?
The battle, the Christian life,
becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ,
that is hard.
That is not going to be a walk in the park.
And you are going to suffer trouble sometimes
as an evil doer.
You might go through persecutions, you might go through personal tragedies.
You're going to have warfare and fighting and striving,
but you know if you actually want to make a difference, if you actually want to be in the real fight,
in the front lines making a difference in the war, you're going to have to endure hardness,
you're going to have to endure all things the Bible says for the elect's sake.
that they may also obtain the salvation,
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Hey, let us not be people that are the battlefield casualties
that quit in the war, that quit serving God.
And again, I want to reiterate one more thing
that I said at the beginning.
Even those people that have turned from us,
that have separated from us,
that don't like us anymore,
that don't like the new IFB anymore,
here's my sincere hope for those that are saved
is that they will endure in their Christian faith.
that they will endure all of this for the elect's sake.
And you know, if you go to a different church and your pastor doesn't like me,
doesn't like the new FB, doesn't like Pastor Anderson, all these people,
but you know, you're in a church that's saved and he's preaching the King James Bible
and there's still hard preaching going on and he's winning people to Christ.
I want you to still adore. I want you to keep serving God and those of us in this room,
hey, I want us to be ready to endure the fights that we go through,
not get tired of it, not complain about it, but just endure all things for the elect's sake.
Let's have a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord.
For the word of God and for the spiritual warfare that you've entrusted us with I pray that you help us to be strong to be good soldiers of
Jesus Christ help us to have endurance in all things
For the elect's sake for those that are hanging in the balance out there
I pray that you give us hearts to win them to Christ to teach them all things that you've commanded
We love you in Jesus name. We pray amen
when the roll is called up yonder.
M number 55, when the roll is called up yonder,
we'll sing their starting on the first.
When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound,
and time shall be no more,
and the morning breaks eternal by and fair.
When the same number shall matter over on the other shore,
And the roll is called a ponder, I'll be there.
When the roll is called a ponder,
When the roll is called a ponder...
the betting price shall rise, and the glory of his resurrection share, when his chosen
one shall gather to their home beyond the skies, and the role is called up yonder, I'll be there.
the dawn till setting sun. Let us talk of all this wondrous love and care.