Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church.
It is that time to go ahead and get started.
If you would find a seat and grab a hymnal.
Our first hymn is at number 136,
Master the Tempest is Raging.
136, 136, Master the Tempest is Raging.
136 there on the first.
Master the Tempest is Raging.
The billows are tossing high.
The sky is so shadowed with light.
No shelter or help is tied.
Here is thou, not that we perish.
How canst thou lie asleep?
Wait moments so madly is bread.
Eating a grape in the angry tea.
The winds and the waves shall obey.
You're a man.
Darken or whatever it be, no wire can swallow the ship.
the sea, or demons or men or whatever it be, the water can swallow the ship.
the service will bow at this time for a word of prayer. If you'll bow with me,
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather together this
evening. We thank you also for the one soul that
was saved this evening as well as any other seeds that may have been planted.
I pray that you just be with us for the service, that you would have your hand
of protection on us and that you'd open our ears to the message. These things we
pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, our next hymn, one page
in times like these 137. Don't forget, this is the one at the very end after it says the only one.
It's going to go back to be very sure. There's like a little s kind of above the staff on the second line here.
Anyway, just keep that in mind so you don't get lost 137 in times like this.
137 on the 1st.
In times like these, you need a Savior.
In times like these.
Please raise your hand and an usher will bring you one.
You'll see there our Bible memory verse of the week,
Genesis chapter number one, verse five.
and anyone under 18 that can quote that this evening,
make sure to get yourself some ice cream.
Also, for those who may not have been here on Sunday,
we got some new merch, some SWAT team soul winning patches.
We've got them in the front there.
Please feel free to grab one.
Those are for everyone.
On the inside of our bulletin,
we do have our service times listed Sunday morning at 10.30 AM.
Sunday evening at 4 30 p.m. And our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock
We have our soul winning times listed there below and of course make note that this Saturday
There will be no soul winning rally here at the building. That's because we have our Anadarko soul winning marathon
Coming up this Saturday and again the details for that as we're meeting at 9 o'clock
Unity Park which I believe is the only park in Anadarko so if you're like man
Where did passers say we were meeting just type up park and that one park that exists is where we are going
It's a very small town. There's no Starbucks. There's no Chick-fil-A. I'm just like what am I gonna do for catering food?
It's gonna be interesting we're gonna find out but really excited for this marathon very heavy Native American population
And so we're gonna go preach to them this Saturday
We do have our year to date statistics for soul winning 521 for July 1526 for the year and we did have one salvation this evening, which is a miracle because Wednesdays have just been our lowest day for some reason.
But hey, we're up to 12 for Wednesdays now. So praise God for that man that got saved and it was a white guy who's middle aged. I mean, what in the world is getting crazy out there?
Then coming up right around the corner, August 27th through the 31st is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
I was thinking today, man, I could really use some time off work, have a vacation down in Texas.
I know, you know, let's use our vacation time to go to the hottest place on earth in August.
Yeah, it'll be fun. Looking forward to it. And then October 6th, another hot place, Bahamas.
And we're still excited for that. Anyways, it's going to be lots of fun. Definitely join us if
you can. On the right is information there about our visitor card. If you scan that code, as well
and before we go to our third song let's go ahead and pray as a church but there's one
prayer request that I was just told about so it's not on the bulletin and that is for sister
remi who recently moved to the Philippines she's just praying that her paperwork would go well
and that would go through for her to her desire excuse me to purchase the property that she wants
in the Philippines so be praying for that please and let's go ahead and pray as a church family
opportunity to come before you in prayer and just to bring our requests to you
and thank you that you just care about each and every one of us and our
desires that we have. I pray that you would answer these according to your
will Lord. We just thank you for Brother Travis's success so far, his new job. I
pray that you would continue to bless him and same for Brother Alex in his new
job. I pray that things would go really well for him, that you help him with all
of his projects and just
As the economy is tough nowadays Lord, I pray that you bless all the men in this room who are
working really hard to provide for their families. I pray that you would just
allow things to stretch and work well financially for them.
Also pray for Miss Remy that things would go well with her desire to buy land in the Philippines that all the paperwork would be finalized and go through
And we also pray for brother Theodore and the work that he's doing with missions over in the Philippines
I pray that you would please keep him safe and just keep that door wide open for him to do great work over there
And of course we pray the same for brother James Perry
evangelist Duncan or Bannock pastor Matthew Stuckey and all the great
laborers that are over there getting many many multitudes saved and we also pray for
our church and churches that we're friends with here in the U.S. that you would just bless the
works that we're trying to do that you would just give us a wide open door to have the word of God
go forth with success. I pray that you bless all the pastors of our church friends Lord.
Pray that you bless the upcoming conference at Steadfast Baptist Church, that things would
go well, that all the things would go according to plan, and that this conference would touch
people's lives and cause us to draw near to you, Lord. We also want to pray for Brother Miles,
his health, that he would just improve in that area, Lord, that you'd bless the Hausberg family,
that you'd give them mercy and grace. And also, Lord, as always, we pray for
the family members of our church members who are unsaved.
I just pray that they would have a soft heart to the gospel
that you bless them more.
We love you and you send me prayer.
In your white handout for the third song this evening,
will be Psalm 149.
In your white handout,
Psalm 149.
song 149 there on the first
You
plates are being passed. Turn if you would to Proverbs chapter 18. Proverbs
chapter number 18.
Good evening, Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18, the Bible reads,
Through desire a man having separated himself,
Seeketh an insurmetelyth with all wisdom,
A fool hath no delight in understanding,
But that his heart may discover itself. When the wicked cometh,
Then cometh also contempt, and with ignominy reproach.
The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.
It is not good to accept the person of the wicked to overthrow the righteous in judgment.
A fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for strokes.
A fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul.
The words of its hill-bearer are as wounds.
They go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.
The name of the Lord is a strong tower that righteous runneth into it and is safe.
The rich man's wealth is his strong city and has an high wall in his own conceit.
Before destruction, the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility.
He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.
The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear.
The heart of the prudent geteth knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.
bringeth him before great men. He that is first in his own cause, seemeth just, but
his neighbor cometh in search of him. The lot causeth contentions to cease, and
parteth between the mighty, a brother offended is harder to be won than a
strong city, and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.
A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth, and with the increase
of his lips shall be filled.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit
thereof.
Whoso findeth thy wife, findeth thy good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord.
The poor useeth in treaties, but the rich answereth roughly.
A man that has friends must show himself friendly and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
That's about our heads for prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day, our church, and everything that you bless us with.
You ask that you fill our pastor with grace and grace.
Man Proverbs chapter 18 verse 1 the Bible says through desire a man having separated himself
Seeketh and Intermedaleth with all wisdom. So here we have this really powerful truth
That those in life who attain wisdom those who become
very wise, whether just intellectually, spiritually,
or regarding some type of skill,
that starts with the desire to do something.
And really, if you wanna do something great,
or if you wanna succeed in any area,
it has to be in an area that you actually desire
to succeed in.
You know, I think about when it comes to language learning,
I really like language learning, but I'm very picky about the languages that I like learning.
I learned Spanish pretty well because I like Spanish. I like working on German. You know,
it's enjoyable to me, but there was a while where I tried to learn Greek and I hated it.
I despised it. I'm just I'm just not into Greek. I'm not trying to discourage you if you want to learn
Greek, but it just wasn't my thing. And so because I didn't really have the desire,
I didn't really end up attaining a lot of wisdom when it comes to Greek. Whereas in Spanish,
I'm out preaching the gospel. I'm getting people saved in Spanish. And it's because I liked that
language. But anything in life that you really want to get good at that you want to excel in,
it needs to be something that you like. And so when it comes to serving God,
who are those people that are going to be used really, you know, greatly by Him and be really
important in church and just the work of God in general, it's going to be those that have the
desire to do so. It's not like you just get saved and you are just automatically going to walk in
the Spirit and do the right things because, you know, if you go soul-winning, you know that's not
There's just thousands of people that our church has reached and churches like ours have reached
and they've gotten saved and those people don't come to church. Is it because they're not saved?
See, some people in certain types of Christianity, they would say, oh, no conviction, no conversion.
They don't come to church. They don't start becoming a soul winner. They don't read their
Bible cover to cover. It must mean that they're not saved. No, it's just the reality. The sad
And this is something that I wish that I could just push a button and fix.
But I believe that this is not something that you could really give to someone.
You cannot necessarily give someone a desire.
You could set a good example.
You could preach the right types of sermons.
But at the end of the day, if you want to grow in your Christian life,
it comes through desire.
It comes through that inner desire of your own heart.
You know, there's so many examples today
of godly pastors or godly Christian families
who raise children and those children
don't turn out as zealous as their parents.
Why?
Because their parents were bad?
No, not necessarily.
It's just that some kids,
they don't make Christianity their own.
They don't make serving God their own.
And so that desire has to come from you.
And what that desire leads you to do, notice what it says,
through desire, a man having separated himself.
Seeketh and intermedaleth with all wisdom.
See, the desire will then lead to a person
actually taking some action steps to gain wisdom,
separating yourself.
What's an example of that?
How about going to church on Wednesday night?
How about going to church on Sunday morning, Sunday evening?
You know, you're separating yourself from the world
or other things that you could be doing.
And through your desire,
you're now seeking wisdom in that moment.
How about waking up in the morning
and separating some time of your day to read the Bible,
to pray to the Lord?
You know, that desire should lead us
to separate ourselves unto the Lord.
Verse number two, it's like the opposite type of person here.
A fool hath no delight in understanding,
but that his heart may discover itself.
You know, that word fool is one of those words that I think we use and we hear pretty often in our common vernacular.
And I don't think that the way that we use fool really carries the weight and the punch.
that the Bible uses the word fool.
Like when someone is called a fool in the Bible,
you are calling it a pretty serious thing
because what you're saying, you're almost saying this,
like you are a person that cannot be helped.
You are a person that has no hope.
You can't really be reformed.
It's extremely difficult to help this person.
Why?
Because the fool does not have that desire.
The fool what he has no delight in understanding so the fool because he doesn't want to learn there's not much you can really do to teach him.
You know, you could show him all the
doctrines in the Bible.
You could show him the right verses
or maybe even in school, you know,
the teachers showing all the material,
doing a good job teaching.
But man, if there's that foolish
student that just doesn't want to
learn, there's not really much that
she can do for or he can do
for that person.
And so, you know, when I call
someone a fool or when we call
someone a fool, we should think about
what we're actually calling them and
kind of reserve that term for a very
seriously stupid person, if you will, because, you know, the Bible talks about the simple
and the Bible talks about how the word of God can make wise the simple.
See, there's hope for someone that's simple.
There's hope for someone who's ignorant.
Maybe they didn't grow up in church.
Maybe they haven't read the Bible before.
And we run into those people out soul winning
and there's hope for them.
They see the scripture that you're showing them.
They hear the doctrine and they receive it.
Yeah, maybe they were simple before
but the Word of God can make wise the simple.
But the fool, the problem with the fool
is that he has no delight in understanding.
And when someone is presented with information when someone is presented with the truth and they decide to continue believing a lie, that is what a fool is.
And that is a seriously terrible attribute.
Notice what the Bible says it says they as he has no delight in understanding,
but that his heart may discover itself.
So the fool is not really interested in gaining knowledge,
listening to what other people have to say.
They are just interested in their own heart discovering itself. And man.
This is so evident today with social media where every single person has a platform and you know
on one hand this is kind of cool because we all can have a platform and we could choose to use
that platform to share the word of God to share wisdom but you know here's kind of the downside
of this is that every single fool has a platform too.
And a lot of fools, they're not interested in going to church
and submitting to the Bible and submitting under a pastor
and learning the Word of God. They're interested in their heart discovering
itself. And you know, an attribute of a foolish person I've noticed, and I see this
all the time on social media,
is especially really young people. I see this both in men and women
who like for some reason just decide that they need to be
And it's like, I've seen this with moms.
Like they have their first kid and it's just every post is
they're going to teach you about mothering advice.
And should you co-sleep, should you not?
Here's how you breastfeed.
Here's how you take care of a crying baby.
And they're like so adamant in their opinions.
They're very staunch in the things that they say.
And they're just like going to teach the world.
And it's like, you just birthed your first child.
Like you think you might want to just tone it down a little bit,
maybe ask some of the older ladies,
maybe ask some ladies that have lots of kids,
maybe consult the word of God,
but no, you got to get on there and you got to tell everyone
how to raise kids as you've raised zero.
Okay, I see this all the time young single guys who maybe they just you know
We're attracted to the new IFB because the passers-up there
You know preaching with authority and preaching with power and they just decide like oh
I just have to do this in every interaction in my life
And I just have to you know get on Facebook and rebuke everyone and rebuke everything
No, you're just kind of like letting your heart discover itself
And it's evident with these people because so many times they're just posting false information or they're posting bad doctrine.
You know, I see young single guys posting about marriage tips and posting when I'm married, this is how it's going to be in my house and I'm only going to find this type of woman.
It's like, that's why you're single is because, you know, a lot of girls aren't really interested in the single guy on Facebook ranting about the evils of women in America.
And it's like, you're just being a fool, you're just letting your heart discover itself.
You need to be quiet and just learn from men who actually know what they're talking about.
And people who just lift themselves up with pride, that's when destruction comes.
That's when shame comes.
Look what the Bible says in verse 3.
Then cometh also contempt and with ignominy reproach that word ignominy is just talking about shame
basically ignominy shame
So when the wicked cometh then cometh also contempt
This is just a statement of the reality of life that society in general
We as people when the wicked come we are going to condemn them. We are going to judge them
We are going to dislike them. That's totally normal and with ignominy
Now, one of the things I was thinking of when it comes to this, again, this is just like a statement of the reality of life.
Obviously, we know as Christians that, you know, when our brothers and sisters sin and apologize, we're supposed to let things go.
We're supposed to not bring that up, not hold that over people's heads, but not everyone's going to do that.
And so the reality of the situation is, is that when you're wicked, when you sin, you're kind of building a reputation for yourself.
Then cometh also contempt, you know, if you're one of these single guys who's just a know it all in a loud mouth, you know, you're going to be contempt, you're going to be judge, you're going to be known as that loud mouth.
Or if you're one of these loud mouth feminist women who get online and rebuke pastors and involve yourself in strife that doesn't belong to you and you're a part of every drama, every scuttle butt.
and you're repeating gossip about people all the time
and posting gossip online,
you might just be condemned as the gossip.
And it's like, hey, you know,
hopefully if you are gossip in times past,
you stop that, you apologize, you move on,
but the reality is you might just be known as the gossip.
And so you ought to be careful
about the reputation you're building through your actions.
When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt.
The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing
Brook. So with this idea of kind of the reputation that the wicked have and that all of us have a lot of it has to
Do with the things that we say, you know
We need to watch our mouth and be careful of the things that we're saying because you know out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh
And look, I'm not saying that you can never, you know,
pop off and say something you didn't really mean
and kind of move on, apologize.
But most of the time what people are saying,
that's what's in their heart.
And that's why it's saying here that the words
of a man's mouth are as deep waters.
The things that come out of people's mouths
came from deep in their heart.
And you know, when you see preachers, for example,
preaching a false gospel,
you know, you don't accidentally teach damnable heresy.
You don't just like slip on a banana peel and just be like, Lordship salvation.
Oh yeah, you could lose your salvation.
Where did that come from?
That came from deep in those waters, deep in the heart.
And so that reputation is being established by what you're saying.
The Bible says in verse 5, it is not good to accept the person of the wicked to overthrow
the righteous in judgment.
So of course, the Bible teaches in many different areas that we're not supposed to judge according
to the appearance, but we're supposed to judge righteous judgment.
And part of righteous judgment is not being a respecter of persons.
or someone's rich or someone's their friend.
But apparently, people can also be respecters of persons
or accept someone's person who is wicked.
to overthrow the righteous in judgment.
So how would this work?
Maybe there's this righteous person
that another wicked person just has some sort of personal vendetta against.
They don't like this person
and they would be willing to accept the person of the wicked
to overthrow the righteous in judgment.
What's an example of this?
When I read this, for some reason,
I immediately thought of the George Floyd and Derek Chauvin case
because everyone, when that happened,
There's this police officer who is accused of murdering this black guy, George Floyd.
And when George Floyd died, the nation basically burned down.
I mean, there was all those protests for 100 plus days.
I was living in Portland at the time, and Portland had riots for 100 days straight because
of George Floyd.
And statues were erected for this guy, and everyone was just, you know, worshiping this
And when Derek Chauvin, the police officer, was having his trial, there was mobs and riots outside of the court, you know, threatening the government, like, we're gonna burn this thing down, we're gonna burn the police down, and police stations literally did burn to the ground during that time.
We're gonna kill you guys, we're gonna come after you, you better give us a guilty verdict.
And, you know, from my review of the case, I'm not an expert on it, but from my review of the case, I don't believe for one second that Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.
Sorry, the autopsy was done.
The guy had enough fentanyl in his system
to kill an elephant for crying out loud.
The guy was on his death bed.
He was dying of a drug overdose.
I don't believe at all that this police officer murdered
George Floyd.
What I think happened is what this verse says.
It says, it is not good to accept the person of the wicked to overthrow the righteous in judgment.
I think that the court and the judge and society in general was pressured by the wicked here,
by these wicked protesters to condemn an innocent man just to appease them.
But guess what? That's not righteous judgment.
And here's just the reality of our world, is that our world is filled with weak leaders who cave in to pressure from people.
And you see this with pastors.
You see this with judges.
You see this with presidents all the time
where there's this pressure coming down on them
from their followers to get them to do something
that they want rather than to do what's right.
But here's what real leaders do.
They do what's right, no matter the cost.
No matter what people think.
No matter what people say about the leader after the fact.
Democracy is dumb.
The idea of let's just let the masses choose, let the mobs choose. No, no, no, we're supposed to do what's right.
Which is why I love the fact that our country is not a democracy.
Despite what every news media source will tell you and what every uneducated school teacher will tell you, we are a
constitutional republic. And the idea is, is that the population
elects leaders and puts them into place so that they can vote according to the Constitution
and what's right. But all the time today. Oh, you know, you need to do what the mob says you need to do what your constituents say. No, no, people just need to do what's right. Pastors today, you know, when pastors are making a decision or when there's drama and controversy or when there's a disagreement on doctrine, you know, what the people think should never enter the mind of a pastor.
What should enter the mind of the pastor is what is right.
What does the Bible say?
And anytime someone falters in this area,
it's just showing that they have poor judgment,
that they have weak character,
that they're allowing to accept the persons of the wicked
to overthrow the righteous in judgment.
Verse 6, the Bible says,
A fool's lips enter into contention.
and his mouth calleth four strokes.
So again, the fool, he has no delight in understanding.
He doesn't want to get knowledge.
He just wants to talk.
And so one thing that fools love to do
is they love to just get a needless strife,
needless contention.
They just want to enter into that contention,
not with the hope of learning anything
or having a real conversation,
but just to let his heart discover itself.
This is why when you perceive that someone is a fool,
you're supposed to depart from them.
You know, this is one of the biggest reasons why I personally just do not like debates whatsoever,
is because in a debate, there's usually a person that's right and there's usually a person that's wrong.
And the person that's wrong is usually a fool.
Like for example, James White.
You know, James White is a fool.
In every debate I've ever seen with James White, he's just presented with Bible verses,
with evidence, with logic, with facts, and does he ever change his mind?
No.
He just wants his heart to discover itself and notice he just wants to enter into contention.
He'll always talk about like, well, I've debated Muslims on this country and I've debated Mormons
and I've preached in the Mormon tabernacle and I'm a champion for the faith. No, you just want
to contend. You just want to let your heart discover itself. Notice another thing a fool does,
his mouth calleth for strokes.
And I think you could view this verse two ways.
One is that a fool is often calling for violence
and calling for fighting.
Hey, let's fight.
Why don't you meet me out at the playground, man?
This childish, foolish attitude of wanting to fight.
Sometimes you see people like this outsole winning.
They'll bow up on you and act all tough.
They're calling for strokes.
Here's another way you could look at it,
is that by the things that a fool says,
He's almost asking to get his butt kicked.
He's almost calling for strokes in a sense.
You know, you mouth off to the wrong guy.
You mouth off being a fool.
You know, you're calling for strokes on your mouth.
You know, you walk up to some guy
and start talking about his mama or his wife.
or as kids or something like that,
you might get popped right in the mouth.
And a lot of guys today, especially young guys,
you know, they just want to mouth off to everyone,
show people how tough they are
until they get hit in the mouth.
And so this is a good verse to memorize here.
His mouth calleth for strokes.
Notice a fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul.
You know, the things that we say can destroy our lives.
And this could be applied even in a physical sense, like I was saying,
pissing someone off, causing someone to commit acts of violence against you.
You know, while that's not right,
for people to go out committing acts of violence.
I should recognize that that's the reality of this world
that we live in.
And you go and say the wrong thing to the wrong guy,
something bad might happen to you.
You notice our words are very important.
Fool's mouth is his destruction
and his lips are the snare of his soul.
Speaking of words, look at verse 8.
The words of a tail-bearer are as wounds.
And they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
You know, this is such a common sin today that people have.
And it's such a damaging sin.
That's why it always needs to be talked about and preached against.
This idea of being a tail-bearer.
What is a tail-bearer? It's someone that is basically carrying stories.
They're just passing information.
A tail bearer could be repeating information that is true, but not all information that you
have about someone is prudent or discreet to share with other people. For example,
people will come to me as a pastor and they'll tell me all the sort of details of their life
to get help and things that are very private to them and things that are very embarrassing to
them. I can just go spread those details and everything would be true, but would that be a
Would that be a righteous thing to do?
No, what the Bible says here is that it's as wounds.
The words of a tail bearer are as wounds.
How is it like a wound?
Well, a wound does what?
It hurts you.
It harms you.
And so, you know, we ought to, you know,
think about the things that we say
and realize that gossip is not some victimless crime.
It's not just, oh, it's lighthearted.
It's no big deal.
No, gossip needs to be condemned.
The words of a tail bearer are as wounds.
You know, this has been talked about recently.
This is something I saw in the old IFB.
When I was in an old IFB church,
the pastor for the Wednesday prayer service,
he would just ask people to raise his hand and be like,
does anyone have a prayer request?
I will never do that.
Because you get some wild prayer requests.
You get some crazy prayer requests.
And some people will literally use prayer requests
as a vehicle to gossip about other people.
Like, I remember being in one of these prayer request services, and this lady raises her hand,
she's like, pray for my husband, he's been gambling away all of our food, money, and
me and the kids aren't doing well, it's like.
Don't be gossiping about your husband like that, you know, and this is just why I'll never do anything like that
And just to be honest, I've just thought about this recently
I think that from now on if anyone gives me any type of prayer request that is embarrassing in nature
Even if they specifically ask for it to be public, I will not make it public. I'm just not gonna do that
You know if you come to me
Feel free to come to me with issues.
I will not gossip about you.
I will not share information about you.
I will keep that as a private prayer request.
And sometimes people will make it clear like,
hey, this is a private prayer request.
But I've had other people even recently come to me
with really jacked up situations and ask for it to be public.
And I've changed my mind on this.
Anything that's embarrassing like that,
I'm never gonna make it public.
So, if you have a really bad situation and you need prayer, I will pray for you.
And if you want to go to individuals and share that, that's on you.
I would not advise that you do that because a lot of people will gossip about you.
A lot of people will not ever let you live that down.
A lot of people will hold that over your head.
for the rest of your life.
You ought to be careful just sharing
every single sorted detail
or every single sin you've ever committed in the past.
Why don't you just keep that between you and Jesus?
Why don't you just pray to him and ask him to forgive you?
Look, if you're right with God right now, you're serving in church,
you are here this evening, you don't got to tell me that when you were 13 you smoked pot.
And no one's done that, that's why I use it as a silly example.
You don't got to tell me, when I was 16, I did this.
There's no reason to tell me that. Like, are you struggling with it now?
No? It's something way in the past, you've repented of it, you've asked for forgiveness.
Why are you telling people that stuff?
Look, if you are in a situation right now, that's terrible, that's embarrassing.
Nothing will shock me.
Believe me, nothing will shock me.
I am here to help.
I want to help you.
But if you're like, hey Pastor Oz, I'm not even going to give an example because I don't
even want to.
But you just come to me with these crazy ideas and say, can you please put this in the prayer,
the public prayer request?
Just from now on, I'm just never doing that.
I'm not doing, you know, unspoken prayer requests either
because it causes evil surmises
and people just to, you know, dig into your life.
Like, oh, brother so-and-so had a unspoken prayer request.
Let's go, what is it?
What do you think's going on with Cameron?
Oh, well, I heard this was, it just like creates gossip.
I don't do unspoken prayer requests.
Also, I kind of want to know what I'm praying for.
You know, what if someone is asking
for an unspoken prayer request
because they like committed murder or something
and they don't want to get caught?
or they committed adultery.
The Bible literally says that we're not supposed to pray for a sin unto death.
So I'm not doing the unspoken prayer requests.
Come to me, exactly what you want,
and if it's not something embarrassing, I'll put it in the public.
If it is something embarrassing, I will pray for you,
but I'm not going to share that with other people.
If you know something embarrassing about another person, even if it's true, do not share that
with other people.
You know, how would you like that if someone did that to you?
If you confided in someone about your darkest moments, about your worst times in your life,
about things that you're ashamed of, about things that you're struggling with, how would
you like if someone goes and blasts that all over Facebook, it's wicked.
It's gossip and it needs to not happen here.
9. He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great
Waster man as a father. Can I attest to the truth of this verse right here?
Because you know who's usually really good at managing assets and not wasting
Things and being very careful with the things at the house. You know who's usually really good at it dad
You want to know why?
Because dad paid for it.
Because dad's out there slaving away every week to buy things.
But kids, kids are just naturally lazy.
So you know what kids love to do?
They love to waste things.
They love to take out the gallon thing of ice cream,
take a few bites, just leave it on the counter.
It's just like, what is wrong with you?
But what does that happen?
Kids are naturally lazy.
But man, what a shame when adults are like this too.
And it is so true, the laziest people of our society
are the biggest wasters.
They're called homeless people.
People that are just absolutely lazy.
They refuse to get a job.
They're always just handed all this food and money by strangers.
And you know what they do with it?
They waste it.
How do I know this?
Because I have to walk over the bodies of sleeping homeless people
just about every morning.
And you know what I see all the time?
Just food scattered everywhere.
Oh, I thought you're hungry.
Your sign says, I'm starving.
Please help me.
Give me food.
No, you're just a wasteful person.
And you know, whether it's adults or kids,
we ought to be good stewards of the things
that God has given us.
You know, we ought to be good stewards of the things
God has given us here in this church
and not just waste the soul winning material,
waste, you know, the song books by drawing in them,
wasting the things that we buy.
You know, we as a church, we give everything away for free
and that's never gonna change.
because Jesus taught that it was a sin to buy and sell in church.
But unfortunately, with the church model that we have of giving away everything for free,
a lot of times people can get very entitled
and they could waste a lot of things or they could just expect a lot of things.
No, that is a lazy attribute. We need to be good stewards of the things that we have.
Verse 10, the Bible says the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe.
The rich man's wealth is his strong city and has a high wall in his own conceit.
So in these two verses we have compared against one another the righteous and the rich man.
And when problems arise for the rich man,
Where does he put his trust in his riches?
And he's kind of having this inner dialogue with himself.
It's saying the rich man's wealth is his strong city
and as a high wall in his own conceit,
meaning in his own thoughts, in his own conceptions,
in his own mind.
So he looks at his money and he's like,
man, this is like a high wall.
This is a defense system for me.
I've got this fortification
that's gonna protect me from evil,
but it's not the case.
It's just in his own mind.
Whereas the righteous, when there's trouble, what do they do?
The name of the Lord is a strong tower,
not just in our own conceits, not just in our own mind.
You know, the name of the Lord will protect us.
The righteous run it into it and is safe.
I've been talking a little bit recently about, you know,
depression, anxiety and things like that
and how it just baffles my mind sometimes,
how people struggling with these things.
The first thing they do is they go get the drugs.
The first thing they do is go to a therapist.
When your first reaction you should do
is to go to the Lord.
The name of the Lord is as a strong
Tower. So really, any problem you have in life, you know, the spiritual should always be the first place that you turn.
It's just amazing to me. People will struggle with their finances,
struggle in their marriage,
struggle with their mental health, and they start cutting back in the amount of church that they're attending.
Or they'll cut back on the amount of Bible reading, or they'll stop soul winning.
It's like, no, no, no. If you were wise, and if you were righteous, you would run to that strong tower.
You'd run to the name of the Lord and not get back slidden.
And of course, we don't want to be people that are trusting in riches,
trusting in the material things of this earth.
You know, the rich are always going to be surprised when they wake up in hell.
Because their whole life, everything's going good and they've got all this money.
But you know what? Yacht not to trust in those things.
Why? Verse 12, before destruction, the heart of man is haughty.
before honor is humility. So the rich, what are they often? Very haughty, very
lifted up and prideful. And you know that comes, it comes before destruction.
Whereas if you want to be honored, you want to be blessed, you ought to willingly
humble yourself and realize that you always need God. You know this is
something that every single person should always be thinking about regardless
that I need the Lord and I don't care how great things look in your bank account
or how wonderful your health has been or how great your marriage has been
you know if you want to keep it that way you would just constantly be thinking
this
I need the Lord you'd constantly be praying Lord I need you
I know things are going well right now and I know that's because of your mercy
not because I'm deserving of it not because I'm so smart or I'm so wonderful
I know it's you Lord when you keep humble like that
then you could receive that honor.
A lot of people can never receive the honor
and they can never receive a stable life
because they can't just humble themselves
because they're just super prideful and lift themselves up.
That always leads to destruction.
Verse number 13, the Bible says,
he that answereth a matter before he heareth it,
it is folly and shame unto him.
Man, right on par with gossip,
one of the most common things
that people struggle with today
is just hearing something,
or even before hearing something,
already having an answer for a situation.
Already coming to a conclusion
without seeing the facts,
without seeing the evidence,
and just running with that.
Folly and shame.
And you know what, there's been a perfect example of this
just this week in the state of Oklahoma.
Who has heard about the scandal
with the education superintendent, Ryan Walters?
Anyone heard about this stuff in the news?
It's been all over the news all week.
There all of a sudden it popped up on my phone
this accusation that said,
Two random staffers basically just accused Ryan Walters, and they said that they saw on his TV in his office
inappropriate material basically like extremely graphic horrific inappropriate material
And so this accusation is leveled against him.
And before the guys had a chance to answer for himself,
before there's been any investigation,
I just see hundreds and thousands of comments
just condemning him, calling him a piece of trash,
not giving him the benefit of the doubt,
not innocent until proven guilty, just trashing this guy.
When all they've heard is just the testimony
from two random people who are working for Governor Stitt,
which is funny,
Stitt and Walters have beef with each other.
They're fighting with each other.
They got issues with each other.
So it's like, Stitt's staff brings this accusation
that on the surface to me just sounds wild.
Because I'm just thinking logically,
first of all, let me say this,
if he's guilty of that, he should be fired and punished.
100%.
That's wicked, that's horrible.
But I'm just like, if some guy was really doing that,
would they really be casting that to their TV?
Like if they're trying to hide that be like, oh, yeah
Just put that on the TV in their, you know, political office TV doesn't really sound very realistic to me
You know, and it begs questions. Was he even in the room? Did someone else cast to this device?
Like there's there's some questions that you should have when you hear an accusation like this and he's had a chance to defend himself recently
He category
Categorically denies all of the allegations.
He says it's false.
He says it's complete political attack,
that it's a lie, that it's smear,
that he says, hey, the only thing that is on that TV
is like one of those little cable TV boxes
that just about every government office has
that plugs right into the TV and all it does,
all it can do is play cable television.
You're not casting to that or anything like that.
So I saw this and I immediately just thought like,
this sounds crazy.
But you have a bunch of wicked people today.
Let me tell you.
It's a wicked person that hears an accusation about anyone and immediately believes it.
It doesn't matter if it's someone you like.
It doesn't matter if it's someone you despise.
It doesn't matter if it is a stinking reprobate.
If you hear an accusation about someone and there's no evidence, you don't know the details.
You haven't actually seen the facts.
And you need to treat that person as if there was no accusation.
And you know, maybe I just can sympathize with him a little bit because I'm a pastor and I've had people lie about me.
Just bold-faced lies based in zero reality whatsoever.
And I just use my brain, okay?
Ryan Walters, he's the guy responsible for getting the King James Bible in schools.
I wonder if he'd have any enemies.
I wonder if these wicked people are just projecting their hatred on Ryan Walters when their real
hatred are with the Christian voters of Oklahoma.
The Christians that actually want the Bible in school.
The Christians that want the King James Bible being taught to children.
You know, maybe the wicked would have an agenda here to smear this guy. Just maybe.
Oh yeah, that's called using your brain for two seconds.
Using some logic for two seconds.
And like I said, hey, if there is an investigation and it is shown that he was doing that.
that he's just projecting this wicked stuff on his government TV in his public office,
he should be fired 100%. So I'm not sitting here being a hypocrite or just defending him
no matter what. But what I'm saying is I thought you believe, I thought we as Americans believed
in innocent until proven guilty. And it is scary as hell that we live in a country where just two
Could level an accusation against someone, and the media will just run with it?
And every retarded voter in Oklahoma, and every just simple, moronic person will immediately
believe it?
That is a scary society to live in.
Let me tell you a society that was exactly like this.
It was called Communist Russia, the Soviet Union.
And in the Soviet Union, you read the Gulag Archipelago.
If there was an accusation leveled against you, you might as well be convicted.
You're not getting a fair trial this doesn't have to be evidence
You're just gonna be brought in a room with you know some Russian Fed with a flashlight in your face and and the light bulb
Swinging back and forth and they're gonna beat the crap out of you until you write a confession
That's what the Soviet Union did. They would torture you. They would beat you
They would threaten to kill you and your family. They would get a prepared statement in front of you sign this confession
And what did it come from?
Random accusations.
Anonymous reporters.
Anonymous informants.
We got a bunch of this communistic ideology today.
Even in Oklahoma, that is a scary society to live in.
I want to live in a society where it doesn't matter what crime you are accused of
or how heinous that crime that you're being accused of is,
you are innocent until proven guilty.
And if you want to come to me about something someone did,
you better have evidence.
Not, oh, first hand, second hand, third hand.
No, no, no, you had to have seen something
with another witness or there needs to be evidence.
And again, the two witnesses thing does not convict.
Having two witnesses begins diligent inquisition.
Right.
So, okay, there's two people who are making this claim against Ryan Walters.
Start the investigation.
Start the inquisition.
But you know what?
Don't smear his name.
Don't destroy this guy over social media.
I mean his poor wife and kids and family members are having to see all this crap about him
And it's probably not even true and let me tell you something all the people who are believing this stuff and slandering this guy
What does the Bible say he that answer it they matter before he heareth it?
It is folly and shame unto him. What a shameful act
What a foolish act to just believe something against someone with no evidence and again you're building your own prison
because when you got all these little commies
that are just going to report on you anonymously,
you know, a lot of workplaces are like this today
where you could anonymously report your boss,
anonymously report your coworkers.
There doesn't have to be any evidence.
You don't have to submit any documents.
You can just say, like, I don't like this person.
And a lot of workplaces in this country
will just send the lawyers, send the investigation,
based on nothing.
That is evil, that is wicked, and we are building a society that is absolutely Orwellian and scary and hellish
when you have this idea that, oh, accusation, guilty.
We believe it.
You know, we saw a lot of Christians doing this last year, and it's a wicked attitude that the world often has.
It should never be our attitude.
The Bible says in verse number 14, the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity.
but a wounded spirit who can bear.
So again, your spirit carrying you through hardship,
it kind of evokes this idea of mental toughness.
We talked about mentally weak men the other day,
emotionally weak men.
If you're strong, if you're strong in your spirit,
if you're strong mentally,
the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity.
You know, you can go through a lot of pain, a lot of trials when you have that strong
spirit to carry you through, but a wounded spirit who can bear.
So someone that's got a wounded spirit, a weak spirit,
they're not going to be able to get through the trials of life
the same way a guy like the Apostle Paul could,
where he's going through terrible physical suffering
above other people, yet the people around him
are quitting, forsaking him, not serving God anymore,
and Paul's just trudging through.
Why? Because his spirit is sustaining his infirmity.
You know, one of the reasons that I like running is not for the physical experience.
The physical experience is hard and like that's the point.
And some people think like, oh, it's just not hard for this person.
No, it's hard for everyone.
It's work.
Your heart rate's going up.
You're sweating.
You're struggling.
But why I like running is because you're exercising that mental muscle.
What I've noticed, when I run a lot and I'm really exercising that mental muscle of telling
my body, no, because your body is screaming at you, stop!
This is terrible.
Don't run anymore.
You're constantly telling your body, no.
Keep going, keep fighting.
What you're doing is you're building that strength
and I've noticed it actually carries over to other areas of life.
It's funny, like I feel like when I run a lot
and I'm getting really disciplined,
I just feel like I'm more disciplined in my Bible reading
and in other areas of my life
because that spirit is carrying me through infirmities
or carrying me through trials and tribulations.
So you got to work that mental muscle.
The Bible says in verse 15,
The heart of the prudent, Getteth knowledge.
And the ear of the wise, Seeketh knowledge.
A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.
He that is first in his own cause, Seameth just.
But his neighbor cometh, and searcheth him.
So, this is a, I almost said search of him out, sorry about that.
Search of him.
This is a principle that is true as well, that people who are the first to tell or the first
to tattle or the first to call the police are often the people who are immediately believed.
You know, you see this outsole winning.
People call the cops on us.
Who are the cops angry at?
Us.
I was soul-winning one time with some brothers at Sure Foundation Baptist Church when I lived in Vancouver.
And we're soul-winning, things are going well, getting people saved.
And this woman comes out and she's on the phone with the police and she's like,
these guys are here, they're trying to break into people's houses, they're trying doors.
And we're just like sitting here with our Bibles like, what is this captain Karen talking about right now?
And the police come and they're all jacked up on adrenaline, they're all mad at us.
It's like, bro, we're literally here just preaching the gospel.
But why do they have that reaction?
Why they have that reaction is because
he that is first in his own cause
seemeth just
but his neighbor cometh and searcheth him.
You know, if you hear something
you should always keep this reservation
in the back of your head that it might not be true.
What do you need to do?
You need to verify information.
And you know, if people, people come to me and they tell all these stories, I'll just
be honest, when people come to me telling me stories about other people, I actually assume
that I'm not being told the full truth.
You know why?
Because people lie.
People lie all the time.
People omit information that's convenient for them.
People try to paint the other person
in a more negative light than actually happened.
So as a pastor, when people are coming to me
about other people, this verse is in my mind,
all the time, he that is first in his own cause,
Seameth Just.
And usually when you hear the first side of a story,
you kind of naturally think,
yeah, I see what you're saying,
there's some truth to that.
But what you need to do,
is realize that there's another side of the story.
And again, you need to refrain judgment,
refrain condemnation on someone
by just hearing one side of the story.
You need to hear both.
You need to actually pursue facts.
You know, marriage is like this.
When people are going through major marriage problems
or people are getting divorced,
you know, he that is first in his own cause seemeth just.
It's like my husband,
is the descendant of Jeffrey Dahmer.
And I'm pretty sure he's got bodies buried in the backyard.
And he's a reprobate, and he always has been one.
He's never been good.
He's always been a gambling, rotten son of a, whatever.
You know what I mean?
And then on the converse, the man should be like,
my wife, she's a lying whore.
She's always been terrible.
That's what you're gonna hear from both sides.
And what you gotta realize is that both sides
are probably lying.
What you gotta realize is that there's sin
on both sides of the situation.
And so you don't just believe one side without hearing both.
The Bible says the lot causeth contensions to cease,
and parteth between the mighty.
A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city,
and their contensions are like the bars of a castle.
So this is a stark warning here that, you know, if someone, if you offend your brother, if you trespass against your brother,
that could be a hard thing to reconcile. That could be a hard thing to win over again.
Now, that's not saying that it should be that way, because Jesus told us when your brother trespasses against you, when he repents, forgive him.
So what are we supposed to do when a brother offends us and they come to us and they apologize you are supposed to forgive that person?
You're supposed to let it go. We need unity in the church
We need unity in the kingdom of God what someone apologizes let it go
But again, there's a difference between what's right and what people do
So, what do people do sometimes?
They get bitter.
They get angry.
Their countenance changes toward you.
They start gossiping about you.
It gets worse and worse.
And so, you know, we ought to be careful not to offend our brethren in matters that are
actually wrong.
Right?
I'm not talking about I preach a sermon from the Bible and you get offended.
That's your problem.
But it's like you actually do wrong to someone.
You know, you should try to patch that up as soon as possible because if you don't,
But let me say this, that side of the equation is true, but what our society really needs
is the other side of this, is that you need to not be so easily offended.
That's really what our society struggles with a lot, is people being easily offended.
Don't be a snowflake.
Don't be someone that's just super easily offended.
When someone is easily offended, I know something about you, you lack charity.
that charity endures all things.
And so if I love someone,
I'm not gonna just get all pissy
and step down on that person's throat
the first time they transgress against me
and just come at them for every little thing.
No, you're gonna be long suffering.
You're gonna wanna patch things up.
You're gonna wanna be nice to your brothers
and sisters in Christ.
You know, let me say this.
If you have an issue with someone
and they come to you trying to patch it up,
and you decide not to do it, not to say your piece,
not to confront the issue that's bothering you,
well then you better shut your mouth and let it go.
Cause here's what I've noticed and this pisses me off.
Like I'll know someone's upset at me or at the church.
I know it for a fact and I will humbly go to this person
and I'll just be like, hey, is everything cool?
Like are we all right?
And then it's like, they'll be like, oh yeah.
Everything's totally good.
Everything's fine.
No problem whatsoever.
And then you hear a month later, oh, this person's trash
talking you behind your back.
It's like, what a weak, cowardly individual.
Like, you love to go online and all your little vague posts
about how terrible the new IV is, and how bad the pastors are.
But it's weird how, like, we humbly come to you.
We just want to patch things up and talk to you
and see if everything's OK.
Oh, it's all great.
It's all wonderful.
By the way, man, that was the best sermon
on homemaking I've ever heard.
I'm so glad you guys are moving to Oklahoma.
This guy's terrible.
What a piece of crap.
Pastor Oz is such a terrible person.
You are weak.
You are cowardly.
And look, you've got a problem with someone, address it, deal with it.
You know, I'm not made of glass up here, you're not going to hurt my feelings.
And I'm not perfect either.
I may legitimately do someone wrong.
And if I do that, you know what I want to do?
I want to apologize.
I want to make it right.
If I've done something to offend you, not from preaching the truth,
but a wrongdoing of mine, I want to apologize.
And you should have the same attitude.
You should have the same attitude towards me,
towards each other,
towards other members of other churches,
and not just get all bitter and then go talk crap to someone,
but you'll never deal with the issue to their face.
That's so unmanly.
It's not even funny.
And I've just noticed like there's such an issue today
with men just being cowards and being mentally weak
and being so easily offended.
It's disgusting.
You know, we as Baptist, we ought to be setting the bar as men, and when we men have an issue
with one another, let's talk about it like men.
Let's just call it like it is.
Let's not get all offended.
Let's be humble.
Let's want desire peace, but let's not just run from conflict that's not a virtue whatsoever.
Brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, and their contentions are like
the bars of a castle.
So on one hand, don't needlessly offend your brothers in Christ.
Don't be such a cry, baby, where you get offended over everything.
Verse 20,
So notice, the end result of a situation of a conflict, where does the power lie in that situation in the tongue?
Even if you have transgressed against someone, even if you are just clearly in the wrong and you're the bad guy in a situation,
you know life can still come from that situation if with your tongue, you're humble, you're apologetic, you want to patch things up.
You know life can come from that situation or you could choose death in that situation by either closing your mouth and not talking when you should
or just lying to a person, flattering a person.
or just needlessly cutting down our brothers and sisters in Christ,
being overly harsh when it's not called for.
There's a lot of different ways that we could do this,
but you know, we need to get some wisdom with how we use our tongue
to edify brothers, to preach the truth.
And let me just say this, any time the word of God is being preached,
that's always a good use of the tongue.
That's always an edifying thing to hear,
and a lot of people today are just so offended by hard preaching,
that's a heart problem on your end, not from the Bible.
Verse 22, who so findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord.
One thing I want to point out about this is that
those of us who are married,
when we have a wife, we ought to thank God
for that good thing that we have.
And not just take our life
for granted, especially
if you're coming to this church. You've got a wife
that wants to hear biblical preaching,
that wants to read the Bible, that wants to go soul winning,
that believes in the
biblical marriage roles. You know, if you're in that situation
you ought to be very thankful to God.
And, you know, we should not deal treacherously with the wife of our youth.
We should love our wife like Christ loved the church.
Because when you found that wife, you found a good thing.
You know, another important thing about this verse is that how is it that you get a wife?
You find her.
Don't sit here and wait for her to come to you.
And again, man, there's just so many issues with men today.
People accuse us of being like so hateful towards women.
I'm so much more pissed off at the men of our country today
than I am with women.
But it's like so many men today will just get on Facebook
or around their friends, will just constantly
complain about the Western woman.
About the American woman, you know, I saw this post recently just like virtually all American women are bad
They're all so terrible, and I'm just a poor guy in my lonesome, and I'm wonderful
I mean, I basically walk on water. I can't believe that I can't find a wife
But man these terrible women, you know what shut your mouth you prideful jerk
I'm so sick and tired of hearing this crap, and I'm going to defend the godly ladies in our church and in the new IFB.
And yes, you know, you're not going to find very many people that are going to preach as hard against feminism than me.
But let me tell you right now, this hateful attitude towards women. All women are bad, all women are trash. Shut up.
It's not going to be tolerated here.
It's garbage.
Anchor Baptist Church is full of women that love God, faithful word, verity, steadfast,
sure foundation.
You know, there's a lot of godly women in our church, churches like ours, old IFP churches,
that fear him, that want to do what's right.
You know what?
Maybe the problem is with you.
I don't know how some men don't realize this, but you know, it's not very attractive to
I just can't figure out how I'm not married.
I just sit here and complain and trash talk women all day.
Why don't women love me?
Because you're an idiot, that's why.
Because you're a prideful jerk who would want to be led by someone like you.
Here's the truth.
You go find a wife.
Okay, there's bad women in America?
Sure.
There's whores in America?
Oh yeah.
There's bad women that don't fear God whatsoever?
Don't marry any of them.
Don't marry the feminists.
And you know what, if you were so awesome and so great and you walk on water, you wouldn't be single right now.
And again, people love.
And look, I'm not talking about guys coming up through their teens and building their career.
Obviously, there's an age you're growing, but it's like, okay, you've reached your 30s.
You're not married. You need to look in the mirror, my friend.
You need to start blaming yourself and look that might be offensive
But you love to make excuses to make yourself feel better, but it never changes the problem
Why don't you actually start working on yourself?
Maybe if you actually worked a job.
Maybe if you actually did some push-ups.
Maybe if you actually stopped talking about how much you love Adolf Hitler.
You know, maybe if you stopped showing off your Pokemon collection
and your video game set and your wee-boo crap or whatever.
You know, maybe ladies would start liking you more.
It's just like, how stupid can you be?
Some of these guys need me to shake them.
Be like, you're an idiot man.
Let me help you.
Work hard.
Hit the gym.
Be masculine and stop being so hateful towards women.
Hey, let's preach against feminism.
I'm gonna destroy that.
I'm not gonna let one ounce of the feminist culture
infiltrate our church,
but I'm also not gonna become a Migtow church either.
That just hates women.
You know, there's like some guys in churches
I've noticed over the years.
Like they're so, for lack of a better term.
All right, I'm just going off right now.
They're so stinking weird.
Like they can't even talk.
to a girl.
It's like, you know,
Mr. and Mrs. so-and-so walks into church.
Here's what a normal person does.
Hey, brother, so-and-so, how you doing?
Hey, Mrs. How are you doing?
Some guys are just like,
oh, hey, brother, so-and-so.
Woman, woman talks to them.
Dude, what is wrong with you?
Do you know that it's not inappropriate to say hello
to your sister in Christ?
Yeah, let's treat them as sisters.
Let's be respectful, but you could say hi.
How's it going?
You know, they ask you a question.
You could respond.
It's okay.
You know, they don't have cooties.
This is why you're not married
because you still think they have cooties.
Good night.
Don't be weird.
That should be a sermon title.
The Bible says in verse 23,
the poor use it in treaties.
But the rich answer it roughly.
So again, this idea of pride, the rich, they're high and mighty, they're big stuff, they're
hot shots, so they answer roughly.
We see this out soul winning.
You ever go to a rich area, oh, I'm good, or they'll just laugh at you, hahaha, slam
the door.
What are they doing?
They're just answering roughly.
Whereas the poor use it in treaties.
Hey, tell me more about that.
Hey, I'd love for you to take some of your time and show me the Word of God.
Verse 24, the last verse here says,
a man that hath friends must show himself friendly.
And there was a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Just like, hey, if you want a wife,
you gotta find the wife.
You gotta go get her.
She's not coming to you.
A man that hath friends must show himself friendly.
You know, one of the things I love about this church,
steadfast, when I went to steadfast,
all the new IFB churches that I've been to
is they're very friendly churches.
And let me tell you, there's no easier place to make friends than Anchor Baptist Church,
Steadfast Baptist Church, Faithful Word Baptist Church.
You know, if you just feel like you struggle making friends, you struggle getting along with
people, you know, again, you ought to be looking introspectively in that case, not blaming everyone else.
You know, I had someone tell me a few years ago,
this person ended up getting disgruntled against the church,
ended up getting disgruntled against me,
was making railing accusations against me.
And when they were kind of on their way out
and I was seeing this person on their way out,
one of the things they said, they're just like,
I just feel like steadfast, isn't that friendly?
And I just can't make friends with anyone.
And I'm just thinking like,
there's like 200 people here and we're all tight.
Like, we're all friends, everyone's super nice to each other,
everyone's long suffering, everyone's graceful with each other,
everyone's inviting people to do this.
It's like, you can't find friends at Steadfast Baptist Church,
you can't find friends at Anchor Baptist Church,
maybe you're not friendly.
And it's like the same people that want to complain,
oh, this church wasn't friendly enough,
are the same people that as soon as church is over, they bounce.
They're gone, they don't talk to anyone, they're not friendly to anyone, they don't ask people how they're doing, what's going on in your life, how are your kids, how are things going in your world, it's just they show up and they're just like, alright, wife, float down from heaven to me, friends, float down from heaven to me, it's like, maybe you have to talk to people, maybe you have to be nice, maybe you have to invite people to do, you know, I would not recommend just relying solely on the church's functions as your only social outings.
Look, I like providing those things, I like providing fellowship, but honestly, my goal
in life is not to provide fun nights for you.
Now, I think you can make those fun nights on your own, all you want.
Invite friends over, do things with church members, that's great.
We have fellowship here at this church, but you know what, if you want friends, you have
to seek those things out in life, they're not going to just be handed to you.
You want really deep friendships.
Some people, maybe they have a lot of surface friends, and they feel like, ah, I just don't
have any really deep friendships.
and it takes a long period of time of you
showing yourself friendly to someone else.
And then of course, reciprocation.
That person showing them self-friendly to you.
That's how you make really, really good friends.
And again, I'm not buying this excuse that,
oh man, I can't make friends at Anchor Baptist Church.
You're probably the problem because we're nice.
We wanna invite you.
We wanna hang out with you.
We wanna talk to you.
And you're like, I just can't find friends.
Well, maybe you need to be more friendly.
And I always want Anchor Baptist Church,
let us always be a church that strives to be friendly.
You know, when we have visitors,
don't box them out in a corner.
Don't ignore them, talk to them, be nice to them.
You know, it's funny, throughout my church years,
I've seen this happen, where a visitor comes,
someone will give them a ride,
they'll come out and eat with the church,
they'll be blessed by the church,
people are just pouring into them,
and then I see that person on line,
this church is so mean, everyone's awful.
It's just like...
Whatever, bro. You know, keep telling yourself that, but here at Anchor Baptist Church, we're going to continue being a friendly church.
We're going to continue reaching out to people. You know, if you want some good friends in your life, show yourself friendly to others.
Let's pray to the Lord. Thank you for this chapter in Proverbs. I pray that we would really consider these things, that we would not be thinking about others,
but that we would look at our own lives and that we would apply these truths to ourselves. I pray that you give us grace, Lord, and bring us home safely this evening.
Our last hymn this evening, 325, trust and obey, 325, trust and obey.
325, they're on that first verse.