Good morning everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. We can go ahead and find our seats. We will get started.
Once you find a seat, grab a hymnal and we'll start in song number 143.
Song number 143.
Blessed Assurance.
Song 143 and everybody sing it out together on the first.
Blessed Assurance is my song.
We thank you once again for Steadfast Baptist and we just thank you for the opportunity to gather here and sing unto you.
We just ask now that you fill this room with your spirit and bless this church.
And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Alright, for our next song, let's go to song number 198.
Song number 198.
I believe we've sang this in a while.
For those who know it, sing it out.
Song number 198.
Joy Unspeakable.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. At this time we'll go through some announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, just raise your hand.
One of the ushers would be happy to get one to you.
You'll notice on the front of the bulletin, we are memorizing Psalm chapter 59.
This week we're in verse 13.
And so if you can quote that to a non-relative church member, you can get a special prize.
On the inside of the bulletin, you'll notice our service and churchwide and regional soul winning times,
as well as our church stats.
There's a prayer list we go over on Wednesday nights.
You can be in prayer for those concerns throughout the week.
We have our expecting ladies list there.
We have our names, just be in prayer for them.
And for those wondering, Pastor Shelley is in Houston, Texas this morning,
preaching for Pure Words Baptist Church.
But he'll be back this evening for our 4.30 p.m. service.
So be in prayer for him to just have some safe travels as he makes his way back up here.
Brother Dylan Oz will be preaching this morning.
We have upcoming events listed August 4th.
It's a going-away dessert fellowship for the Oz family after the p.m. service.
So Brother Oz, as many of you know, is going to be taking on our church plant in Oklahoma City,
Steadfast Baptist Church in OKC.
So we'll be saying goodbye and Godspeed to him at that event.
August 15th through the 17th, it's the Mighty Men's Conference featuring Pastor Roger Jimenez
of Verity Baptist Church, so you'll want to make it out for that.
August 24th, it's a baby shower for Hannah and Lori May.
September 8th, Dr. Phil Stringer is guest preaching.
And, of course, Dr. Stringer was in our documentary, The Preserved Bible,
and he's written many books, one of which is The Unbroken Bible, which I highly recommend.
October 4th through 6th, it's the Heritage of the Lord Conference,
which is designed basically just for children and younger people.
We'll be focusing on them for that conference. We have various church rules and reminders there.
And we ask that you observe a quiet time from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sundays.
There is no talking in the sanctuary during that time.
Both the mother/baby room areas are shared spaces for people to enjoy,
and the fellowship room is basically just for quiet activities, reading, using an electronic device with headphones, things of that nature.
And we also have the baby showers listed again there on the back.
So that's it for the announcements.
And with that, we'll go to our next psalm, which will be actually Psalm 146.
Brother Dustin will lead us.
Psalm 146, Psalm 146, sing it out in the first.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord.
Turn in your Bible 20.
And after the up was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them and departed for to go into Macedonia.
And when he had gone over those parts and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece and there abode three months.
And when the Jews wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.
And there accompanied him into Asia, Sopater of Berea, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus,
and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
These going before tarried for us at Troas.
And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days,
where we abode seven days.
And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,
Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight.
And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.
And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep.
And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.
And Paul went down and fell on him, and, embracing him, said, "Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him."
When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.
And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.
And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul, for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.
And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Midalini.
And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios, and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trojillium, and the next day we came to Miletus.
For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia, for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.
And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house.
I am testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.
Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.
And the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and do all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,
to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood.
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore watch and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel; yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all; and they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him,
sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more, and they accompanied him under the ship.
Father in heaven, we thank you so much for this day, and I pray that you fill Brother Dylan Oz with your Holy Spirit.
Just give him clarity of mind as he preaches the word of God to us, Lord, and also help us to pay close attention.
Give us ears to hear the message, and apply it to our lives. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen. Well, thank you, Pastor Shelley, for allowing me to preach here this morning. It's always an honor and privilege.
And we are here in Acts chapter number 20, and the context of this chapter is that Paul is gathered together with the elders at Ephesus,
and he's kind of giving a farewell address to them. He's giving them some exhortation.
And I want to focus on verse number 28 of Acts chapter number 20. Let's read it together, verse 28.
He said, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,
to feed the church of God," notice this, "which he hath purchased with his own blood."
And in this famous, powerful verse, we learn a few things.
First of all, we learn the fact that Jesus Christ is God because it says it's the church of God,
which he, who's that, Jesus Christ, has purchased with his own blood.
So that's a great proof of the deity of Christ.
And another powerful truth in this verse here is that the church is deserving of our love.
Why? Because it was literally purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.
That means it's very precious to us.
That means it's of high value to us if it was literally purchased with the most expensive thing in eternity,
the blood of Jesus Christ.
And so I kind of want to preach a special sermon this morning a little bit different than what I would normally preach.
And the title of my sermon this morning is Why I Love Steadfast Baptist Church.
Why I Love Steadfast Baptist Church.
You know, here we learn that the church is purchased with the blood of Christ.
So right off the bat, that makes me love the Church of God.
And not only that, I think Steadfast Baptist Church is a special church.
Now, I moved to this church in August of 2020 before I was going to Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
And I had met Pastor Shelley one time at the Red Hot Preaching Conference.
And he was needing an employee and he called me and kind of asked, you know, what is the desire of my life is?
Would I ever want to serve in the ministry? Would I ever want to maybe be a pastor or just work for a church?
And we talked and he ended up offering me a great opportunity to come work for him.
And that was an amazing opportunity that I took advantage of because being able to serve in the church is a blessing.
Why? Because it was purchased with the blood of Christ.
I mean, there's nothing greater than you could do than that. Serving Jesus Christ, serving in the church.
And I have four points this morning of why I love Steadfast Baptist Church.
And number one, I love Steadfast Baptist Church because of its pastor.
I love Steadfast Baptist Church because of its pastor.
Go to 1st Thessalonians chapter number five. You know, if this is the only church you've ever been to,
here's what you've got to understand. Not all churches are created equal, okay?
Some of us have been to other churches. We've been to possibly even bad churches.
I spent three years, three long, grueling years, going to a Rukmanite old IFB church.
In fact, it's the same church where Sam Gipp famously said that Jesus Christ is not your Messiah if you're a Gentile.
And I suffered through three long, grueling years of this.
And as soon as I get out of church, you know what I would do?
I would go on YouTube and listen to Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez and actually get some good doctrine.
But look, you've got to realize that if you're in St. Fast Baptist Church, you are blessed today.
And if Pastor Shelley is your pastor, you are blessed today.
1 Thessalonians 5 says this, "And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.
Notice, to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves."
You know, one of the things that the Bible is exhorting us to do here is to know those that labor among us and that are over us in the Lord.
And you know what? You should endeavor to know your pastor, Pastor Shelley.
You should endeavor to get to know him as a person. Why? Because a pastor is a very valuable resource in your life.
And in fact, the Bible describes elsewhere that pastors, preachers, evangelists, that these people are actually gifts from God to you.
And so because of that, you should get to know him because the more that you know him, the more that he knows you,
the more he's going to be able to effectively minister unto you.
And that's what a pastor's job is, is to minister unto his people.
And it's a lot easier when you know your flock to know what do they need.
You know, if you've ever read Pastor Jack Heil's book, "Teaching on Preaching," he kind of equates preaching to a doctor giving prescriptions to a patient.
And the doctor, he analyzes the patient, he sees what they need, and he gives them the right prescription.
Well, that's a lot what preaching is.
A lot of times, you know, you have the apothecary of the Word of God,
but you kind of need to know what people need so that you can make sure you're getting the right prescription of the Word of God.
And so that's one reason why you want to get to know your pastor.
If you go to Ephesians chapter number five, Ephesians chapter number five,
but you know, the pastor of any church is charged by God to watch over the flock in spiritual matters.
That's a very important job. That's a very daunting task.
And so we should appreciate the work that pastors do.
Ephesians chapter number five, I kind of mentioned this earlier in verse 11, it says,
"And he," that's Jesus, "and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers."
So you know there's different roles in the church and throughout history there's been different positions like apostles.
That doesn't exist today. But we do have preachers. We do have teachers. We do have pastors. We do have evangelists.
We do have deacons. Why did Jesus give us those people? Look at verse 12.
"For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."
You know, the two-fold mission of the church is to evangelize the lost and edify the saved.
And the pastor is the head of that operation and he is making sure that those tasks are being accomplished.
Look at verse 13. "Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
You have to realize that Pastor Shelley cares about this flock and he doesn't want people to be blown about with every wind of doctrine.
He doesn't want people to be carried to and fro. And so what he's doing is he's ministering unto us.
He's doing the work of the ministry. And one of the things that he does that's super important, the most important thing he does, is preaching the Word of God.
And let me tell you something, that is a blessing that we have today. And that is one reason I love Steadfast Baptist Church.
Because you're not going to go to just any church in America and get the type of pastoral leadership that you have here at Steadfast Baptist Church.
You're just not. And it's not about a cult of a personality. No, it's about someone that's just faithfully doing the work of God.
That is a blessing. And that is a reason to love your church.
First Thessalonians chapter number five. Let's read this part again in First Thessalonians chapter number five.
Look at verse number 13. It says, "And to esteem them very highly," means to respect them, to keep them in mind.
Why? "In love for their works' sake, and be at peace among yourselves."
You know, one of the aspects of ministry is the fact that it's a lot of work.
And the Bible says that you should esteem your pastor very highly in love.
What does it mean? It means love your pastor. Respect your pastor. Why? For the works' sake.
And I don't know if you realize this, but Pastor Shelley does a lot of work for this church.
And if you went to other churches, you would realize that this is a special church that has a lot more to offer.
Okay, here's some of the work that our pastor does.
First of all, the most important thing, like I said, is preaching.
He preaches three awesome sermons a week.
All of his sermons are just packed with doctrine, packed with good application for our lives to make us better Christians.
And that's something that we should esteem him very highly for.
That's a great work that he's doing.
Okay, here's something not every pastor does.
How about all these awesome documentaries that our church puts together?
That's a lot of work. But where does the Bible talk about making documentaries?
It doesn't. He's just going above and beyond. Why?
Because he's a hardworking pastor. We should esteem him in love for that.
How about all the great fellowship events that we have for free at St. Vast Baptist Church?
Again, if this is the only church you've ever been to,
you don't realize that most fellowship events in other churches, they charge you money to do anything.
You know, at this one church I went to, they literally charged you money for the handouts
if you wanted to go soul winning. They charged you money for it.
And here, we probably all have a thousand handouts just sitting around at our house, right?
We need to make sure we're being good stewards of the church's materials.
But look, providing those fellowship events, that is a great blessing,
but that's a lot of work that Pastor Shelley's doing.
Okay, multiple conferences that this church puts on.
The Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship, where this church is bringing
literally the best preachers in the world, in my opinion,
here in this room to administer the Word of God to you.
That takes a lot of work, but that's a great blessing.
That's one of the reasons I love Steadfast Baptist Church.
Another thing that he's done that's a lot of work
is he's put on soul-winning seminars in the past.
He wants to make sure that our church is very equipped
to go out and fulfill the Great Commission
and make sure that we're not just going soul-winning,
but we're actually doing it effectively.
So he puts in the work to put on a soul-winning seminar.
How about missions trips?
That's a lot of work.
I've helped him plan some of these,
and it's very hard to run a mission trip.
But we've done it in Mexico.
We've done it in the Bahamas.
I know he's gone to Jamaica in the past.
And as a result of that, our church has seen
thousands and thousands of people saved.
That's a lot of work, but you know what?
I commend him for that.
Soul-winning marathons.
I mean, it seems like Steadfast has a soul-winning marathon
every three or four months.
That's awesome.
It's a great opportunity to go soul-winning
and to get better at soul-winning,
to teach people soul-winning.
Here's another thing that's not in the Bible.
How about a podcast?
The Baptist Bias podcast.
Who watches the Baptist Bias?
Just about everyone, okay?
Look, that has nothing to do with the commandments of God
or anything like that.
But he's very passionate about getting Christianity
into the culture.
And I share that same passion.
I think that is a great idea.
That we shouldn't just be hiding as Christians
and just only sticking to our church.
No, we actually want to make this country Christian.
We want to make the people around us Christian.
We want to make the culture Christian.
And so he's bringing the Baptist Bias to the culture.
Weddings and funerals.
That's a lot of work that Pastor Shelley does.
Counseling people.
Taking time out of his day to help people that are in need.
That is a lot of work.
And here's the thing.
You got to realize that not every pastor puts in that much work.
And so some of us are just spoiled and we've never experiencing anything different.
But I'm telling you, you should love St. Fast Baptist Church because of its pastor.
And you should esteem him very highly in love for the work's sake.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 3.
1 Timothy chapter 3.
1 Timothy chapter number 3 verse 1.
This is a true saying.
If a man desire the office of a bishop, that's just a synonym for the word pastor,
he desireth a good work.
Notice, pastoring is a lot of work, and it shows in the preaching of God's word.
You could tell when you listen to a pastor that hasn't put a ton of work into his sermons,
or hasn't put a lot of work into his study,
but that's not the case at St. Fast Baptist Church.
You could tell Pastor Shelley is studying the word of God.
I went to this old IFB church once, and this pastor was a nice man.
He was sincere. He loved the Lord.
But I remember this one time where I invited someone to church on a Wednesday evening,
and I was a little bit embarrassed by his sermon.
And I'm just being honest, it's not necessarily that there's anything wrong with this guy.
You know, I respect him.
But here was the Wednesday evening Bible studies at this one church I attended for a while.
Everyone would get a little sheet, and it was numbered one through ten, and it had fill in the blanks.
And this was the Bible study. Okay, number one.
God loves Israel. Alright, Israel. Yeah.
Like, this was the Bible study.
There was no expository preaching, verse by verse, explaining the book of Zechariah, explaining the book of Revelation.
No, that wasn't happening. We were filling in a blank that said "Israel."
Okay, and I'm like, "Oh, I just got this guy to come to church."
And this is the most boring thing I've ever heard in my life.
And I'm just, like, feeling a little bit embarrassed to do that.
But look, we don't feel embarrassed to bring people to this church.
They're going to hear hard preaching.
You know, they may be surprised by the content of the Word of God,
but at least they're getting the Word of God here.
At least they're getting the truth here.
If they don't like it, it's because they don't like the Bible.
Flip over to 1 Timothy chapter number 5.
1 Timothy chapter number 5.
Look at verse number 17. It says,
"Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor,
especially they who labor in the word and doctrine."
You want to know why it says those that rule well and those that labor in the word of doctrine?
Because there's some pastors that aren't ruling well,
and there's some pastors that are not laboring in the word of doctrine.
But we have that today, and so what we should do is give our pastor double honor.
Respect him highly.
Give him our love.
Give him our support.
That is what the Bible teaches.
Look at verse 18.
"For the Scriptures sayeth, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.
And the laborer is worthy of his reward.
Against an elder, receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear."
You know, one way that you could show love to your pastor is by not receiving false accusations against him.
And by not receiving criticism and crap talking about the pastor.
Because let me tell you, if you just decided to go on Google this morning and type in any pastor's name
from the new IFB into the Google search engine, you know what you're going to find?
You're going to find a lot of false accusations.
But the Bible is saying here, don't even receive a false accusation against an elder but before two or three witnesses.
So you know what that means?
That means that when your family is talking crap about Pastor Shelley, and I know it happens.
I know it happens.
It means you don't give heed to that garbage.
You say, "Yeah, you know, I love you mom, I love you dad, but I'm not listening to this.
This is my pastor."
You know, you should respect the man of God, the ordained minister of the Lord Jesus Christ,
more than your own family.
You absolutely should.
Because when the pastor's preaching the word of God, he's God's man and someone wants to speak against them,
they're in dangerous territory there.
Ask Aaron and Miriam about that when they speak against God's man.
Okay, so you want to show your pastor love, don't listen to crap talk about him,
don't listen to false accusations against him, and certainly don't engage in it yourself.
It's a wicked sin in the sight of God.
Go to Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13, Hebrews chapter 13, look at verse 17.
It says, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch
for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with
grief, for that is unprofitable for you."
So notice, you have a great pastor, we have someone that's over us in the Lord, so what
does God exhort us to do, is to submit ourselves unto him.
This isn't really a question thing in other areas of the world, you know when you get
on an airplane, there's someone called the pilot in command, and you know what he does?
He makes the decisions.
The stewardess doesn't go to the cockpit and say, "Hey pilot, let's go heading 170, instead
of whatever you wanted to go, I want to just change the heading here, you know, why don't
you just put the flaps down early, why don't we just put the landing gear down in the middle
of cruising altitude at 30,000 feet?
Hey, why don't we turn on the spoilers mid-air?"
It's like, "No, stewardess, go back and serve some water, go back and serve some food, and
shut up and let the captain pilot the airplane, okay?
And look, just like there's qualifications to become a pilot, you wouldn't just let any
bozo fly you 30,000 feet above the air at 500 miles an hour, why would you let just
any bozo preach you the word of God and lead a church?
Yet today we see an epidemic of churches that are being led by unqualified people, people
that have no business preaching the word of God, not to mention pastoring.
How about women pastors?
They don't even have business opening their mouth in church, not to mention leading the
flock of God, yet we have so many people today that have an uppity attitude where they don't
want to submit themselves to a pastor, they don't think that there should ever be any
type of human authority or human leadership that's actually in charge.
They want to live in this democracy where everyone's in charge.
But let me tell you something, democracy is a hellscape.
Democracy is a terrible idea.
Democracy never ever works.
No, you need a strong leader.
And notice why it says that they watch for your souls as they that must give an account.
Some people who aren't very spiritual don't realize the gravity of that statement.
That there's people that have been entrusted to watch over souls and that those people
will give an account to God for what they do.
That is a big deal, you know, there's there's some people that don't even care enough to
read their Bible or do anything for God.
I get that.
So people that are like that may not understand what I'm saying right now.
But there's some people that actually take the work of God seriously.
There's some people that actually realize that pastors will stand before God someday
and give an account for their stewardship of the flock.
And so because of that, we need to just obey the pastor.
We need to submit ourselves to the pastor.
Why that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you.
You know, it would be unprofitable for Steadfast Baptist Church to rebel against Pastor Shelley
to not submit unto his leadership and cause him to do his job with grief.
That would be unprofitable for this church.
And thank God, I don't think that's the case.
I think this is a great church and I think that the church is in line with the leadership
here.
But hey, someone could come in this church in the future and try to change that.
And Acts chapter number 20 talks about that.
And so you need to be aware of anyone that would want to turn your heart away from your
pastor or that would want to incentivize you to disobey him or not submit yourself unto
him.
So look, I love St. Fast Baptist Church because of its pastor, because of the work that he
does.
And even just on a personal level, Pastor Shelley has done a lot for me personally that
I very much appreciate.
And I'm sure there's many people in this room that could say the exact same thing.
And it just shows that we have a pastor with a good heart, with a heart to serve his people.
I love St. Fast Baptist Church because of its pastor.
Let's go to Isaiah chapter number 58.
Number two, I love St. Fast Baptist Church because of its preaching.
St. Fast Baptist Church is a church that believes in hard preaching.
And let me tell you something else, if you've never been to a different church, that is
not the case in most churches in America today.
Most churches are not going to do what the Bible says here in Isaiah 58, verse one.
"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression
in the house of Jacob, their sins."
Notice how biblical preaching is described here.
It's described as being loud.
You go into a lot of churches today, you're going to see a dude with skinny jeans sitting
on a bar stool with an ear mic coming out, and he's like whispering to you his sermon
after you just spent 40 minutes listening to a bunch of effeminate CCM music.
That's what a lot of churches are today.
There's no crying aloud.
There's no yelling.
There's no showing people their transgression.
It's just a joke, is what it is.
It's just a social club, is what it is.
Or it's just a money-making scheme, a lot of times, is what a lot of churches are.
But notice what else biblical preaching is, is showing my people their transgression.
See, a lot of people think hard preaching is when we get up here and we rip on the sodomites,
or when we get up and we rip on the drag queens, or when we get up and we rip on Hillary Clinton.
We get up and we rip on Joe Biden.
And look, that could be hard preaching in a sense, if a liberal was in here, if some
weird Democrat was in here, yeah, okay, that's hard preaching to them.
But notice what real hard preaching is, it's when you're showing God's people their transgressions.
And that is a blessing from God.
You may not think so, you may not feel that way, you may feel upset when you hear it,
but that is what God has commanded pastors to do.
I like what Pastor Shelley says.
He says that hard preaching is biblical, corrective, and specific.
And you see that in the Word of God, preaching the Word of God, correcting people's sins,
and showing people their transgressions.
That's very specific.
But let me just bring a reality to you, and that is that most people do not like hard
preaching.
And I guarantee you, there's a lot of people in this room right now that think they like
hard preaching.
And let me just break this to you, you don't like hard preaching, okay?
Because there's a lot of people that think they're faithful and they're not faithful.
They think they're really forgiving and someone crosses them in the slightest way and they're
not very forgiving.
People think they're so charitable, but actually when I see people's lives and when we observe
each other, there's actually very few people that are charitable.
There's actually very few people that are faithful.
And let me tell you something, there's actually very few people that actually like hard preaching.
There's actually very few people that can have their specific sin called out and screamed
and yelled about for an hour long and actually, though it hurts, internalize the fact that,
you know what, this is actually helping me.
This is actually coming from a place of love and I need to accept this, internalize it,
and apply it to my life.
There is very few people that do that.
And so, look, if you're in this church, I'm very happy you are, but you need to like hard
preaching more because I've seen it over the last 10 years of being in church that people
think they like hard preaching, but no, no, most people do not like hard preaching, even
in the new IFB.
We need to learn to love hard preaching.
Go to Hebrews chapter number 12, Hebrews chapter number 12.
Hebrews 12, look at verse 6, "For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth."
You know, we know that because God is our Father, and because God is a very loving Father,
after we get saved, when we sin, God's going to correct us.
God's going to chasten us.
God's going to punish us for our sins on this earth.
He'll never send us to hell, we can never lose our salvation, but He is going to punish
us on this earth.
And we know that that's coming from a position of love from God, right?
Well, let me tell you, sometimes hard preaching feels like you're being chastened.
Sometimes hard preaching feels like you're being scourged, okay?
And it's not necessarily feeling fun at the time, but look at verse 7, it says, "If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and
not sons.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the fathers of spirits, and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit
that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
You know, when you're being chastened by mom or mom and dad, or you're being chastened
by God, or it seems like you're being chastened by the pastor from behind the pulpit, let's
be honest.
In the moment, it's not fun.
It kind of feels a little bit grievous to our flesh, doesn't it?
It's not a very fun experience.
But keep reading, "Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby."
Notice if you actually take the correction and you actually exercise that in your life,
if you don't just get mad and upset at the preacher and think that he's just coming
after you personally and you just want to shut off your mind and become stiff-necked
and hard-hearted, but you actually exercise that, what does it yield?
The peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Let me tell you something.
The problems that people have in their lives today all over this world are pretty much
the same things.
People struggle with sin.
People struggle with alcohol.
People struggle with adultery.
People struggle with fornication.
And you know what?
Those things are ruining those people's lives.
Whether they realize it or not, they may think, "Oh, I love my girlfriend.
I love my boyfriend.
Why would I want to, you know, break it off or have to get married this young or anything
like that?"
But they're actually destroying their life by sinning.
People getting divorced, they think that that's a good idea.
They think that they'll be happier.
But it always ruins people's lives.
It ruins children's lives.
And when people go to a church where they actually hear a man of God say, "No, the
Bible says never divorce.
You're wrong for wanting to divorce your spouse.
The Bible says no to that.
No adultery is actually a capital offense in the word of God.
No you're not to commit fornication.
No you're not to drink the devil's drink."
People will get offended by that.
But you know what would happen if they actually exercised the things that are being preached?
It would yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness in their life.
They would experience peace and that's something that everyone wants.
They may not understand how to get it.
A lot of times people's kids are a nightmare and they want peace in their home, but they
don't want to do what the Bible says to actually spank your kids, right?
But look, it may seem like chastening at times, it may seem like it's hard to hear, but realize
that if you internalize it, you just accept it, you just be strong and you apply it to
your life that it will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness in your life.
You need to learn to love hard preaching.
You know, when I first got saved as a teenager, I heard really hard preaching on alcohol by
Pastor Anderson.
This was like the first year I ever went to church.
I think it was like 2013 or 2014 or something like that, and he's ripping so hard on alcohol.
And let me just be honest to you, as a brand new Christian, when I heard this, I was thinking,
"I don't know if he's 100% right on this," because he was saying, "These are all the
terrible things that are going to happen in your life if you drink alcohol.
This is the consequences of it."
And I was looking at people in my life that I knew that drank, and I'm thinking, "I just
don't see this in their lives."
And I thought, "Well, maybe these people that I know are the exception to the rule."
You know, maybe the Bible is right, maybe Pastor Anderson's right about this, I'm just
not sure.
But I thought, "You know, these people that I know, they're the exception, because I'm
not seeing all these consequences in their life, I'm not seeing their life be destroyed
necessarily."
But then, one day, they weren't the exception anymore.
Finally, that day came where something extremely catastrophic came in their lives that affected
them for the rest of their life because of alcohol.
And you know what I realized, I'm a prideful idiot for thinking, "Maybe the biblical preaching
isn't right about alcohol."
And I realized, "Oh, it's right.
Sometimes God's just merciful and longsuffering to us."
And you think, "Well, I haven't seen the consequences of my actions yet."
Yeah, "yet" is the key word there.
But you know what, we need to have the humble attitude that just realizes that whatever
the Bible says is right about everything all the time, every time.
And when the preacher gets up and preaches against our sins, we may think that we're
the exception, but we're not.
And if you're the exception today, that's only by the result of God's grace to you.
And that could run out.
And so you need to take it seriously when you hear the preaching of God's Word and
love the preaching of God's Word.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3, I want to read a couple verses for you.
While you're turning there, I want to read for you 1 Thessalonians 5.20.
It says, "Despise not prophesying."
You know, the reason that's in the Bible is because it is a tendency of human nature to
despise or want to turn our ear away from the preaching of God's Word.
So God has to exhort us, "Hey, do not despise prophesying."
Still go to where I told you, I want to read for you Ecclesiastes 7.5.
The Bible says, "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear
the song of fools."
Look, that statement is not in line with our human nature, with our flesh.
Our flesh would rather go to a church a lot of times where there's a show, where there's
lights, where everything's nice, where nice words are being spoken.
That's just a lot of people's flesh.
That's just how we are.
But the Bible says it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise.
But how many people today are actually seeking to go to a church where they will be rebuked?
Very few.
Just like there's few that are faithful.
There's few that are charitable.
There's few that are forgiving.
There's few that actually like hard preaching.
There's few today that actually want to go to a church with the desire that the pastor
will rebuke something in their life.
That is rare today.
I'll read for you a couple more.
Proverbs 9, 8 says, "Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee.
Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee."
Look, people that have quit different churches in the new IFB because their sins were preached
against and it says that they hate, if they feel like hatred towards the pastor that does
that, that is showing that that person is a scorner.
That is showing that that person is foward, that that person has a serious heart issue.
And you just have to realize that when your sin is being preached against, that it's not
just you, every single human being in this church is going to have their sins preached
against from time to time because, newsflash, we're all sinners.
And even when I'm writing a sermon, I'm seeing this verse, I'm like, "Okay, that verse just
rebuked me.
Oh, that scripture just rebuked me."
It's literally everyone, all of us.
So what a prideful attitude to think like, "Well, I never want to be preached against."
It's like, "Are you God or something?
Do you think you're the Lord Jesus Christ now, where you have no sin?"
It's ridiculous.
Leviticus 19:17 says, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.
Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him."
Notice, what is showing love to your neighbor?
Rebuking him.
Why?
Because you're not suffering sin to be upon him.
Why wouldn't you want sin to be upon him?
Because it will ruin his life.
It's actually hateful not to say what needs to be said from the Word of God.
You're there in 2 Timothy 4, look at verse 2.
It says, "Preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with
all long-suffering and doctrine."
You know, not only does Steadfast Baptist Church just believe in hard preaching, but
also Steadfast Baptist Church believes in preaching doctrine.
That is something I love about Steadfast Baptist Church is that this church cares about doctrine.
What is doctrine?
Doctrine is just teachings of truth.
And here's the thing, every single person on this earth, every single organization has
doctrines.
They have teachings.
You know, I've never been in the military, but I know several people that have, and I've
heard people say this, that when you go in, you go through an indoctrination phase.
Is that correct?
What, what are they doing?
They're teaching you how to behave, their beliefs, how they want you to represent the
Marine Corps, the Army or whatever, right?
And many jobs have an indoctrination phase where they, this is how you represent the
company.
This is how you dress.
These are the policies.
These are the teachings of the company.
You know what?
The Bible is full of doctrine.
The Bible is full of teachings.
And if we're going to sit here and open the Bible, let's just not make it a game.
Let's actually just see what the truth is.
I want to know what the doctrines are.
I want to know what the truth is.
Go to 1st Timothy chapter 3, flip over, 1st Timothy chapter number 3, verse 15.
It says, "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of
the truth."
What is doctrine?
It's just teachings of truth.
What is the job of the church?
It's to be the pillar and ground of the truth.
This is crazy to me, but many churches today do not care about the truth.
They don't care.
You know, that freaking Watauga that preached the whole sermon against me and Pastor Shelley
when all that stuff was happening a few years ago if you were at our church, and he was
saying, "Yeah, you know, back in Bible college, we're all reading Leviticus 2013, and it does
say that homosexuals should be put to death, but we just don't know if that's really what
it means."
It's like, hello person that doesn't care about doctrine, because you're admitting that's
what it says.
You just don't care.
You just don't actually want to believe what the Bible says.
But the Church of God is to hold up the truth to be a bright and shining light in this nation
and in this world, regardless of that truth is popular or not.
There's a lot of truths today that are very popular, and a lot of churches are still willing
to preach some of those truths because it's popular.
You know what?
Our nation is becoming a dark place.
This nation is forsaking God.
This world is forsaking God.
I mean, thank God I didn't watch the Olympics opening ceremony, but I heard about it, that
they had some sort of tranny last supper blaspheming Jesus Christ.
Look, someone needs to hold up the word of God and say the truth, the uncomfortable truth
that no one wants to say today, that these freaks should be executed by the government.
That they bring nothing good to society, their scourge, their disgusting just cyst on a nation
and on a world that needs to be wiped off the face of the earth and sent to hell.
But churches aren't willing to say that today because it's unpopular.
But you know what?
This church needs to hold up doctrine, whether it's popular or not.
Flip over to Titus 1, if you page over, Titus chapter number 1, Titus chapter number 1,
we're talking about doctrine here, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught
that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
You know, one of the jobs of a pastor, if you read Titus chapter number 1, is to shut
the mouths of false prophets.
And you know how you do that?
You don't do that with good speeches, with being really smart, being really educated.
You do that with the faithful word.
You do that with sound doctrine.
And with that sound doctrine, you can exhort and convince the gainsayers, those that speak
against the truth.
And I love that Steadfast Baptist Church is a church that cares very much about doctrine.
This church is not wishy-washy on what it believes.
Look, I don't know everything, but I know that Steadfast Baptist Church is right about
salvation.
I know it.
I don't have to wonder, guess, hope.
Look, I don't know everything, but I know that Steadfast Baptist Church is right about
baptism being by submersion in water, by being after salvation, that it's not by sprinkling
and it's not baptizing babies.
Look, I know for a fact that God doesn't want us to confess our sins to a priest.
I know for a fact that God doesn't want us to repent of our sins for salvation.
I know for a fact that you can never lose your salvation.
You want to know why I know that?
Because the faithful word.
And preachers today need to get up and just boldly proclaim the faithful word.
Because people today have this attitude, really, "Oh, there's so many religions.
There's so many doctrines.
How do you know you're right?
Are you saying that you're the only one?
You guys are the ones that have salvation?"
Yes!
That's exactly what I'm saying.
I'm saying it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and every other
religion you'll spend eternity in hell.
That's a hard line there.
But we take that hard line, why?
Because of our opinion?
No, because of the faithful word.
Because of sound doctrine.
And it is a blessing to be at a church that believes in sound doctrine.
But not only, you know, I love St. Fast Baptist Church because of the preaching, hard preaching
doctrine, but you know, also the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That is one thing that makes St. Fast Baptist Church special.
Now go to 1st or 2nd Corinthians chapter number 4, 2nd Corinthians chapter number 4.
Now these numbers have changed a little bit because I wrote this sermon earlier this week.
But from the time, from the year that I moved here in 2020 until this week in 2024, this
is the number of people that have been saved by the soul winning efforts of St. Fast Baptist
Church, 9,818 salvations. Glory be to God for that. And look, praise God that we can
go to a church that cares about preaching the gospel. You say, "Oh, soul winning doesn't
make a difference." Really? 9,800 people whose eternity has been changed, who is going
to spend eternity in heaven now, no matter what? Look, that's worth it, folks. That's
worth all the time, money, work, energy, sweat, sunburns. It's worth all of it to go out there
and preach the gospel. Why? Because about 10,000 people are going to heaven now. Just
from the work of St. Fast Baptist Church since 2020. Praise God for that. Second Corinthians
4 verse 3, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." We're not going
to let that happen. Verse 4, "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. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus
the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." You know, this church is not a church that
wants to hide the gospel from the lost. No, this is a church that realizes that there's
a world out there that is dying and going to hell that will spend eternity in flame
and in torments, and we want to spend our time, effort, money, and energy on helping those people.
You know, let me just exhort you, if you're a person that does not go soul-winning,
I want to read verse 6 again. "For God, who hath commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts..." Look, you're sitting here today and the light has been shined unto you.
You're saved. You know you're going to heaven. You have the light. Why would you not want to
bring that light to someone else? How can you live your whole life knowing that heaven and hell are
real? Knowing that your real mom that you know, your real friend, your real co-worker are going to
spend eternity in a real place called hell. You know the truth and you don't want to preach them
the gospel. Look, that's a sick thought. That's a heavy thought to think that we can affect
people's eternity like that, but we can and we do and you need to do the same thing. And if you're
not a soul winner, I exhort you today to learn to go soul winning. Come to a soul winning time,
become a silent partner. You don't even have to preach the gospel. You can just be a silent
partner and that doubles our efforts. If you don't know how to go soul winning, you know,
I mentioned Pastor Shelley has put on a great soul winning seminar in the past. That could be a great
resource to you. Recently, I myself, I've been making some videos where I've just been putting
on a little camera while I go out soul winning and filming gospel presentations. So hopefully
people that don't know how to go soul winning can see what a real encounter looks like with a real
person getting saved with a real gospel presentation. And you can just copy that exact thing and just
write it down. If you have to write down a script, I don't care. Just learn to preach the gospel
because it's the most important reason you're on this earth. And Steadfast Baptist Church takes
that care, takes that very seriously. So number one, I love Steadfast because of its pastor.
I love Steadfast because of its preaching. Number three, go to first Corinthians five.
I love Steadfast Baptist Church because of its policies, because of its policies. I'm talking
about church discipline, something that, again, if you've never been to another church, you might
take for granted and realize that this is something that's not practiced everywhere in America today.
It's not practiced in many churches today, but let's look at the principle behind this. I'm not
going to show you everything that the Bible says someone should be church disciplined for. I just
want to show you the principle here. In first Corinthians five verse six, it says, "Your glorying
is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" What's the principle
here? The principle here is that if you have someone in grievous sin, in sin that's worthy
of church discipline, if you allow that leaven into the church, it will leaven the whole lump
like a piece of bread, meaning it will corrupt the whole church. That is the principle being taught
in the Word of God. That if you just allow someone that's just a rampant fornicator,
drunkard, idolater, all the different things that the Bible lists for church discipline,
someone's unrepentant of that stuff, and you just allow that to be in the church, and it's known,
no one says anything about it, and kids are growing up in church, and they're seeing people
commit fornication, there's no consequences for that. What is that going to do? It is going to
corrupt other people. It's going to corrupt the church. It's just a fact. And look, it's a blessing
today that, of course, yeah, we're all sinners, absolutely. Every single one of us are a sinner,
but it's great that this church is not full of corruptness like this. It's great that I don't
have to worry about if I'm going to church with someone that's just reeking of booze because
they're such a drunk. It's great that I don't have to go to church sitting next to an idolater.
It's great that I don't have to go to church sitting next to someone that is a tranny,
okay? These are great things. It is a blessing to have policies like this. What does the Bible say,
verse 7? It says, "Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are
unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the
feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Look, I'm thankful for the policy of Set Fast Baptist
Church of practicing church discipline. And the only people that wouldn't like that policy are
probably people that need to be kicked out of church anyways. I mean, if you're just a righteous
person, a sincere person with a sincere heart that wants to serve God, you probably read 1st
Corinthians 5 and you're like, "Amen. I don't want those people here either." The only people
that would get offended by this kind of stuff are people that are probably guilty of it themselves.
You know, another policy that I really love about Set Fast Baptist Church is the Family Integrated
Model. Look, that is a blessing to have the children in the service. That is something that's
very rare in other churches today. You go ahead and go to 2 Timothy 3. I'll read for you. Matthew
19, 14. "But Jesus said, 'Suffer, little children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for if such
is the kingdom of heaven.'" You know, we as a church, we need to have a mentality that cares a
lot about the next generation and wanting to make sure that we're passing the torch, that we're
passing the doctrines and the teachings of the Bible to the next generation. Well, what's a great
way to do that? How about having them in church? Yet for some reason, Christianity today has just
cut themselves off at the knees where they don't want the next generation hearing the Word of God.
What is up with that? It makes no sense. Separating them with a random stranger that, oh, they've been
background checked. You don't know who that person is. It's usually someone that's just randomly
hired for a low-paying job to watch kids. It's not a safe thing to do at all, especially in the time
that we're living in. Leaving your kids with random strangers is a terrible idea, and a lot of times
the people that are attracted to that type of position are not necessarily good people. They're
not all bad either, but it's not worth taking the risk at all. One time I was at Sure Foundation.
I was part of the safety team there, and this really weird guy walked into church, and before
church he was looking around at everything, and he straight up asked me, "Hey, where are the kids
kept at this church?" That's a horrifying question coming from an old dude by himself with no family.
Why would you ask that question? But just realize that predators target churches. Predators target
the weak like children, and it's a naive thought to have that you could just drop your kids off
at church in the nursery, and because it's church, they'll be safe. Because it's church, they'll be
okay. Look, some of the worst predators on this earth are in churches. It's weird because church
attracts like the best people on earth and also the worst people on earth, and like pastors are
usually like the best people on earth or the worst people on earth, and so you can't just take a
gamble with your precious children that God gave you to protect, that God gave you to raise, and
just drop them off with a stranger. Don't ever, ever do that, and I appreciate the policy that
Steadfast Baptist Church has of protecting children, having them in the service to preach the Word of
God, or to listen to the Word of God. Lastly, this morning, you know, I love Steadfast Baptist
Church because of its pastor, because of its preaching, because of its policies, but I love
Steadfast Baptist Church because of its perseverance, because of its perseverance. Look, it's in the
name. Steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of God. That's not just a name for us,
that is who we are. And I've seen that because this church has been tested to see if we really
are steadfast. I told you to go to 2 Timothy 3, look at verse 12. It says this, "Yea, and all
that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." It is a guarantee. No matter if
you're living in 1950s America, no matter if you're living in the 1700s or in the colonial period,
or in 2024, no matter what culture you're in, if you are living godly in Christ Jesus,
you will suffer persecution. You know, don't glorify some other nation or some other time
in the past and think, "Oh, if I lived here, I wouldn't suffer persecution." Wherever you are,
whatever time you're living in, if you're living godly, you will suffer persecution.
And we have definitely seen that as a church, haven't we? And maybe not everyone in this room
today was with us during that time and has experienced the things that I'm going to talk
about. So let me just give you a quick review of some of the things that happened to St. Fast
Baptist Church. You know, first of all, before I ever even came to this church, Pastor Shelley
already had protests at Jacksboro Highway. So that was even before my time. You know,
this church was living godly in Christ Jesus even back then. But you know, I remember in 2021,
Pastor Shelley preached a sermon called Sodomite Salvation Debunked, epic sermon, fiery sermon.
And it was like either the next day or the next weekend, I went to go guest preach at
Shur Foundation Baptist Church in Spokane. And while I was up there, I was at the airport and
I got a call from the Hearst police department. And I'm like, this is not good to be getting a
phone call like 6am from the police. And they're saying, hey, there's been a brick thrown through
your guys's window, you know, your alarms going off. I checked the security cameras, cops are
going through our, our church building with guns clearing it and everything. And I'm like, okay,
it's on, here we go. And I'm seeing news articles and I'm seeing thousands of messages coming to
our church, thousands of phone calls and voicemails. Literally, you just put your phone down and it's
just vibrating all day. It just doesn't stop, doesn't stop from all over the world, phone calls
coming in, people hating us. And I remember when that happened, I was thinking, this is not a one
week protest that we're about to experience. I did not think that for a second. I was like, oh,
this is going to be a fight for a long time. And it was, it was a fight that literally went on for
years and years. In fact, this June was the first June since I've been here that we have not had
protests. So that tells you how long that fight went on. We know we're protested all summer long.
And then we had this Satan worshiper, Satanist loving landlord, some faggot loving landlord
that decided to evict Steadfast Baptist Church wrongfully for the preaching of Pastor Shelley,
kicked us out and we had to have church services every single week at different hotels throughout
DFW. So we had to get boxes of audio video equipment, get boxes of hymnals and we sung
acapella or brother Jared plants. Where are you at brother Jared? He's hiding. God bless you Jared,
thank you for your trumpet. Otherwise I would have been singing acapella every single time,
you know, and sometimes they would follow us to a hotel. We had to find a new one and just pack up
just over and over and over going through this mess. Finally we get a new building and the
protesters followed someone from their house, found out where we are and it all started again.
The protests at Watauga, I preached a sermon there which I felt like was the most mild and
caveated and just logical thing ever and people got really mad about it. It went viral too. The
phone call started again. People were following me and my wife to restaurants and coming to my house
for like a year straight and it was just craziness. I mean that time was just crazy, it was. There's a
lot going on. Let's see, I don't want to miss anything. Oh, so then you know we got evicted
from Watauga again and we had to do the hotel church thing all over again. Going to different
hotels once again. These protesters are following us there, getting us canceled at different hotels.
Thank God that this church is in DFW because there's so many hotels here that you can keep
picking all these different ones. Like I'm thinking about towns I used to live in like
Boise, Idaho. Like you would have run out of hotels. Like this would have been a serious
problem there. But there's eight million people there. We could accommodate it. That was great.
Then during this whole crazy time, these three wicked people decided to illegally seize the bank
accounts of St. Fast Baptist Church and stole over a hundred thousand dollars of church money
that Pastor Shelley had to litigate in court and get that all taken care of. Look, that's persecution
and it's quite a bit. And it was a crazy time. During that time, there was a lot of opportunity
for people to quit church. And that's why I'm bringing this up. You know, I love St. Fast Baptist
Church because of its perseverance. Look, you had plenty of opportunity to quit going to St. Fast
Baptist Church. One thing I did enjoy about being protested is that if you were here at St. Fast
Baptist Church is because you wanted to be here. No one's accidentally stumbling into St. Fast Baptist
Church when, like, hordes of demon-possessed freaks are out there screaming at you, right?
Like, if you came here, you wanted to be here. And during that time, we experienced a unity in
church that I've never seen anywhere else. This church during that time was brought very close
together because of the battle that we were going through, because of the hardships that we were
going through. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 58, 1 Corinthians chapter number 58.
And look, I'm boiling that down into a very quick recap, but it didn't feel like just a quick recap
when you're living through it for years and years and years, okay? And just even recently,
I mean, it doesn't happen that often, but even recently, I was getting weird messages from
sodomites. Even recently, random people I went to high school with are messaging me, is this you on
TikTok? Like, there's still kind of weird stuff happening. It's just not as prevalent as it used
to be. But 1st Corinthians 15 58 says this, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is
not in vain in the Lord." That verse is not just words to this church. That verse is who we are.
That verse is how we operate and live as a church. That being steadfast, being unmovable,
not moving our positions, not moving our preaching, not moving our policies,
not moving from anything that we have said or done, but rather remaining unmovable and
steadfast in the Lord. Why? Because we know that the work that we do for God is not in vain.
We know that regardless if the world hates us, if God is pleased with us, that is all that matters.
And praise God we have a building, but we don't need to have a building for God to be pleased
with us. Praise God that we're not going to hotel church all the time. I love that we have a building,
but look we could still be blessed by God greatly being in hotel church forever. And God could still
be pleased with us and love the work that we're doing. Because here here's the truth is that
during this time when we were being attacked we had zero losses. We had only victories.
Say what but you got kicked out you had to move around. Yeah but here's the thing. How many sermons
were stopped by the protesters? Zero. How many how many documentaries were stopped by the protesters?
Zero. How many soul winning times were stopped by the protesters? Zero. How many missions trips
were stopped? Zero. How many conferences were stopped? Zero. How many times was someone coming
to church and getting saved or getting counseled or saving their marriage or learning things about
the Bible to improve their life? How many times was that stopped by God's enemies? Never. They
didn't win at all. They had zero victories. We had all the victories. They lost every single time.
And so here's the thing. Right now, Steadfast Baptist Church is not necessarily going through
persecution right now, but it could again someday. And what you need to do is you need
to remember this time and realize that no matter what the church is going through,
that we are still winning if we're preaching the Word of God, if we're being faithful to what He's
told us to do, if we're going out fulfilling the Great Commission, if we're bringing them in and
discipling them, we are still winning. And look, I love Steadfast Baptist Church because of its
perseverance. Because the devil tried to stop this church. The devil tried to stop the work
that was being done here in Texas. And guess what? He failed. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. That is something that we've seen happen. And here's the thing. Our church may not
be going through persecution or tribulation or trials right now, but maybe in your life,
maybe in your personal life right now you are going through tribulation. Maybe you are going
through a trial. Maybe you are having financial problems. Maybe you are having health problems.
Maybe you're having marriage problems. Maybe you're having problems with extended family members.
Look, in the Christian life, you're always pretty much going to be in a trial or about to be going
into a trial or barely coming out of a trial. That's just how the Christian life works.
And so what you should do is realize, hey, if God took Steadfast Baptist Church through our trials,
He can take me through my trials. He can take you through your trials.
And remember, the perseverance of Steadfast, you too need to be Steadfast on a personal level.
You too need to continue to serve God, continue to read the Bible, continue to support your pastor,
continue to pray and do the things you need to do, and realize that if you do that,
God will take care of you. Romans chapter number five, Romans chapter number five.
You know, the new IFB kind of has a reputation where our enemies will be like, "Oh, you guys
kind of like glory in tribulation. You guys kind of glory in going through battles and fights."
Okay, well, let's look at Romans chapter number five, verse three. "And not only so,
but we glory in tribulations. Also, knowing that tribulation work with patience and patience
experience and experience hope." Yeah, I do glory in tribulation because the Bible literally says
that. Why though? Just so that we could look cool, just to be like, "Yeah, we got protested. Yeah,
we went through a hard time." No, it's because it actually brings experience to our lives.
It causes us to be patient. It causes us to have that experience to say, "I've been through this.
Our church has been through this. You've been through it on a personal level. And what does
that give you?" It gives you hope. It gives you hope for the future to know that whatever comes
our way, God is on our side. And if God is on our side, that's all that matters. You know, someday,
I don't know if it's our generation or one down the road, but someday there's a great tribulation
coming, greater than anything we've ever gone through. And look, there's churches right now
that I know of that have been through more than our church right now on this earth. And there's
people in the future that will go through way more things than we will ever go through. But you know
what though? God's people being persecuted in the past and staying faithful and God delivering those
people and God still being pleased with those people and God protecting those people should
give every single Christian in the world, this generation and those to come, hope that He will
do the same for them. I mean, isn't that why we like to read a lot of the stories in the Old
Testament? We see God's power and His might. We see Him deliver God's people. We see God split
the Red Sea and destroy all the Egyptians and save the children of Israel. And doesn't that give you
hope that we have that same God on our side that could protect us? It gives me hope. Look, it should
give you hope for the future that no matter what this church goes through, you just keep supporting
your pastor, keep preaching the Word of God, keep soul winning, keep doing the things that you need
to do, and God will protect you. God will deliver you. And here's the thing, someday in the future,
if a generation goes through the Great Tribulation, there's going to be some people where God doesn't
necessarily deliver them physically. There will be people that are martyred. There will be people
that God has called for them to die physically for the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a reality
that people can face today. But you know what? He still delivered them from hell, and He still saved
them, and they're still going to spend eternity in heaven. And this life, this body, our age,
our pain, our method of death, all of that is just temporary. It's 100% temporary. The truth is,
if you're saved, you'll live in eternity in heaven with God, forever saved, forever triumphant,
forever victorious, forever steadfast. In conclusion, let's go to Acts chapter 20. Last
verse we'll read. Definitely thank you to this church. The last several years has honestly been
the best years of my life, so thank you. Acts chapter 20 verse 28 says, "Take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers to feed the
church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." Look, church is the most important
institution in this world and you should love it. Continue to love Steadfast Baptist Church.
Continue to love its pastor. Continue to love its preaching. Continue to go soul winning. Continue
to support the policies. Continue to persevere against tribulation. Continue to be steadfast.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for this great church.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve here the last four years. I just pray that you would
bless these people, that they would continue to be steadfast. Love you in Jesus name we pray. Amen.