people leave for, they are unmerited.
And let me just say this is that offenses
should be confronted.
I'm not talking about doctrinal offenses.
I'm not talking about preaching offenses.
You need to correct that.
I'm talking about instances where there's offenses
that are sinful that need to be confronted.
You know, someone sins against you in the church,
instead of leaving the church,
you should confront that sin.
Go about it the Matthew 18 route and confront that person,
rebuke that person so that they would repent,
get it right with you and be reinstated once again
to the fold.
You reconciled with your brother and you're good to go
and you live happily ever after.
But you know, a lot of times people avoid conflict.
They avoid confrontation.
We live in a world that doesn't like any confrontation,
especially in church.
So what's their solution?
Well, let's just leave the church, okay?
Because I'm just offended and I can't get over
how sister so-and-so said this about me
or how brother so-and-so did this to me or whatever.
Instead, why don't you actually go confront it?
Now, let me just say this is that
there are legitimate reasons why people leave church, right?
And sometimes if you go to a church
that's doctrinally unsound, you should leave.
Plain and simple.
If they're not teaching you the Bible,
if they're not preaching doctrine,
if their doctrine is off, if salvation is off,
if the pastor's super apologetic about what he preaches,
it's time to find a new church.
If the church is dying,
meaning that it's just not reaching anybody new,
it's not evangelizing, it's not doing a work for God.
You know, it's probably time to find a new church.
That's plain and simple.
So we're not saying that there's no good reasons
to leave church.
You should leave a church if it's not fulfilling
the qualifications of a local New Testament church, right?
But there's instances where people get offended,
they leave and you know, instead of leaving,
they should just confront the offense, forgive,
have reconciliation.
The answer is not seek another church.
And you know, I don't like confrontation,
but I like reconciliation.
And in order for me to experience reconciliation,
it requires confrontation.
So a confrontation is very uncomfortable.
You know, it's very awkward, you know,
to go to someone and say, brother Maury,
just wanna let you know you offended me
when you said I was ugly.
And you know, 'cause I don't think I'm ugly,
but it just, you made everyone laugh at me.
And now everyone believes I'm ugly.
And now I don't think I'm ever gonna get married.
You know, I'm speaking not, you know,
by my position 'cause I'm already married.
But you know, just, you know,
oh, you've offended me or whatever.
You know, that should be done.
And you know what's gonna happen?
Brother Moore is gonna apologize.
He's gonna feel bad.
And we're gonna reconcile and move on with our lives.
That is the biblical model.
You see, a local New Testament church helps you
to reconcile situations and conflicts in life.
It's a great place to learn how to be offended correctly.
It's a great place.
Why?
Because you are surrounded by people who believe the Bible
and practice what the Bible says regarding relationships.
And so some offenses are merited.
Some offenses should be confronted.
Now, we started off in second Corinthians chapter two,
because this is important.
You know, when I say someone leaves our church
because of an offense,
we're referring to the fact that they become what?
Bitter and often bitterness is something that Satan uses
to get you out of church.
And in fact, look what it says in verse 10,
to whom you forgive anything, second Corinthians two,
I forgive also.
For if I forgave anything to whom I forgave it
for your sakes forgave I in the person of Christ.
And I want you to notice this,
less Satan should get an advantage of us
for we are not ignorant of his devices.
What are one of his devices to get you out of church?
I'll tell you what, bitterness, resentment,
whether towards me, towards your parents,
towards your brothers and sisters in Christ,
this is a legitimate thing.
And you know, sometimes a root of bitterness
can spring up and trouble you and those who are around you
because you refuse to reconcile,
you refuse to confront the offender,
you refuse to get it right.
And look, you know, maybe you come from a family
where when there was an offense within the family,
you kind of just like kept it to yourself.
You know, your mom or your dad
never really quite reconciled with you.
It was one of those elongated reconciliation
where there was like an offense
and then we just knew everything was right.
Maybe a week later when they told you to come down
for dinner or something like that, right?
They never said, "I'm sorry."
They never said, "Forgive me."
It was just, you know, you just kind of slowly started talking
to each other once again and then you realize,
"Okay, I think everything's good to go or something."
You know, that's a legitimate thing,
but it's not a right thing to do.
That's a wrong way to reconcile situations.
You know, when we sin against God,
God doesn't want us to ease our way into reconciliation.
He just wants us to get it right right away.
Confess our sins because he's faithful and just
to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That's what the Bible teaches, right?
Not this just elongated, you know,
state of bitterness and resentment
where it's awkward between us and our family,
awkward between us and our children,
awkward between us and our parents.
Just get it right.
Instead of just living offended,
allowing bitterness to take root
and bitterness will destroy you, my friends.
It'll destroy you, it'll make you cynical.
It'll rob you of your joy.
It'll just absolutely destroy your life.
So it's better to just ask for forgiveness.
And if you're the one offended ask,
you know, confront that person and say you've offended me.
And here's the thing, you say well what if that person
in church refuses to apologize for their sin against me?
What do I do?
Well, the biblical motto is you take another brother
with you to go confront that person.
So more is like, I still think you're ugly
and I'm not gonna apologize.
Well, all right, so I take Paul with me
and I said, this guy offended me.
He said, you know, I was gonna say fat,
but you know, he said I'm ugly.
He said, you know, and he refuses to get it right
and I'm using, you know, I'm being silly here.
And then he comes and he says, hey man, you offended this guy.
Why haven't you got it right?
And he's like, cause I think he's ugly
and I don't care if he knows it.
He said, what do we do then?
If a person refuses to get it right,
even when you bring another brother in Christ,
well at that point they have essentially qualified themselves
for excommunication from the church, believe it or not,
because then they take it before the church.
And then I have the responsibility to remove that person
from the congregation because they refuse to get it right
with their brother and sister in Christ.
And I have the job to come behind the pulpit and say,
we're throwing Maury out for his offense against this person
because he refused to get it right.
He sinned against his brother
and he's refusing to get it right.
Now in light of that, you know,
you would hope that this person would say,
you know what, this is stupid.
I should have just apologized.
I'm sorry, please forgive me.
And you know what happens?
They're reinstated into the fold.
Discipline needs to be instituted though, okay?
The answer is not bitterness.
The answer is not resentment.
The answer is not, well,
I'm just gonna look for a different church
'cause you're gonna get offended at another church too.
The difference is that other church
doesn't practice church discipline.
And so you're better off
just forgiving your brother or sister in Christ.
And look, I know we have a lot of introverts in our church.
I know that, okay?
You know, I'm not one of them, obviously.
I'm a little more extreme on the opposite end.
But I know for introverts it's just like,
well, that's kind of hard to just confront.
I'd rather just keep it to myself.
Well, then you're part of the problem.
And you know what?
I know that you're introverted.
I know you're not very social, but you know what?
The new man has to transcend that old nature and do it anyways.
Cause you're never going to learn how to reconcile relationships.
You're never going to learn how to reconcile situations, God's way.
If you don't do that and you know what?
There's commands in the Bible that require us to be outside of what
our human nature is.
It requires us to behave in a supernatural manner.
Forgiveness is a supernatural thing, right?
Reconciliation is a supernatural thing.
Confrontation, especially if it's not in your nature, is a supernatural thing.
The point being is that Satan's playbook for you in the coming year is to get you out of
church by causing division with another brother or sister in Christ, by causing you to be
bitter, resentful, angry, wrathful, so you can leave church.
And you know what happens?
He devours you when you leave the fold.
He gets you alone so he can devour you and destroy your life.
Go to Hebrews chapter 10, I'm sorry, go to Ecclesiastes 4, Ecclesiastes 4 if you would.
The answer is reconciliation, not seek another church.
Hey, be a professional confrontational person, okay?
You know, if you've got a problem with someone, go talk to them about it.
If you've got an issue with someone, go confront them.
I'm not saying be, you know, like have a fighting spirit about it.
I'm not saying you're going to throw down or something like that.
I'm not saying you have to confront someone and say, like, you know, all right, let's
throw hands, let's run the ones, we're going to, we're going to get down right now because
you offended me.
I'm saying like verbally, just tell them like, Hey, I got to talk to you about something.
You may not know this, but you offended me.
And you know, I just, I, I've been thinking about this and I'm just really offended at
what you said.
And you know what?
I have full confidence in the spiritual maturity of the people of our church that they will
get it right.
Because quite frankly, reconciling with their brothers and sisters in Christ is far more
important than being right.
Okay.
Winning over your brother is far more important.
That's spiritual maturity.
Right.
Anyway, this is also applicable within marriage.
Forgive your spouse.
If your spouse has sinned against you, if they've wronged you, forgive them.
That's what the Bible teaches.
You know, practice one of the keys to a successful marriage.
And I said one of the keys because there's not just one, but one of them is practicing
forgiveness within marriage.
When your spouse sins against you, if they annoyed you, if they wronged you, they forgot
your anniversary, your birthday.
If they have offended you in any which way, you know, here's what you do.
You ask for forgiveness or you forgive, right?
Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath.
That's what the Bible teaches, meaning that, you know, if you want to be mad, be mad, but
don't stay mad all day long before you crawl into bed with your spouse.
Make sure you reconcile, you forgive and you move on with your life.
That is one of the keys to a successful marriage, not bitterness, not, I don't want to talk
to you, not get away from me, don't try to kiss me, reconcile, grow up.
You're in Ecclesiastes four, I'm going to read to you from Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
24 says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.
So the Bible is telling us here that we need to provoke each other, not to wrath, but to
love and good works.
And where does that take place?
In a church.
What does it mean to provoke?
Do it.
Come on, do it.
Let's go sowning.
What is that?
That's provoking someone to good works, provoking someone to love.
He says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together is the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching, people are like, there's
no verse in the Bible that says you should go to church right there, right there.
The Bible says don't forsake the assembling of ourselves.
It's just like, Oh, that doesn't mean church assembly is referring to a church.
And it's telling us here, don't forsake it.
Seek it a discipline to be a part of the local New Testament church.
Why?
Because we all need to be encouraged and exhorted to continue in the faith.
And look, let's say you're just a bitter, let me, let's just, let's just be get extreme.
Let's just say you're a bitter, weak, offended Christian.
Okay.
And you're like, Oh man, I'm just, I'm just so bitter.
I'm angry.
I'm just so spiritually weak.
I'm so effeminate.
I'm just like, I just get offended at everything.
And you know, I just wear my emotions on my sleeve all the time or here's the best place
to go.
Because you know what's going to happen is you're going to be exhorted by people who
are not that way to correct your behavior.
That's what we need.
We need someone to correct our behavior.
You know, we get, you know, let's, let's just throw something out there.
We get young people who are just spoiled little brats.
You want me to park it there?
You know, we get spoiled little brats in the church who disobeyed their parents.
They talk back to their mom.
They talk back to their dad.
Six head, just saying all kinds of nonsensical stuff.
Just behaving like clowns, right?
Where's the best place to put that person?
Here.
You say why?
Because they have mature brothers in Christ that will exhort them to not be that way.
Because we will promote the authority of the parents.
What are you doing talking back to your mom and dad?
Have they slapped you yet?
Maybe we should have a talk with them to slap you.
You know, what are you doing?
You know, a virtue of the Christian life is obedience to authority.
You know, take out the trash, make your bed, get up on time, obey mom and dad, don't talk
back.
And you know what?
They'll be shamed in the church for being disobedient to their parents.
We shame that in our church.
That's shameful wicked behavior.
We will promote maturity, respect, obedience.
That's what it means to exhort one another to provoke them to love into good works.
You know what?
There's nothing wrong with the little peer pressure, amen.
You say, well, what kind of discipleship program do you have here?
Bro, if you talk back to your parents as a gay, OK, stop acting like a little queer like
they do out here in the world where they can't obey authority.
Get right with God.
The respectable things to obey mom, obey dad, respect them, don't talk back and do exactly
what they tell you to do.
You want to keep coming to church, then if you're going to keep coming to church, you've
got to make sure you obey your parents.
And you know what?
If your parents tell you, you can't come to this church, you can't come to this church
and you need to obey them in that area.
That's what it means to exhort them, to encourage them.
Why?
Because you know what?
We don't want to put brats in our church either.
We want them to be respectable people of society and so it helps them.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and verse 9, "Well, I don't like the way you said that."
Yeah, but you're not going to get these results at the liberal church though, it's just not
going to happen.
Most liberal churches don't reinforce biblical authority, they go against it, right?
To disobey your husband, disobey your parents, no, we're all about biblical authority here
and we're here to promote that.
But the point that I'm making here is that the way Satan destroys a Christian is by getting
them away from the structure of the local New Testament church, alone away from the
fold with the intent to devour them.
Look at Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9, it says here, "Two are better than one because they have
a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when
he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up."
You know what this teaches us?
It teaches us that we need each other, right?
You need someone who's stronger than you to aid you, to help you when you fall.
When you fall short, when you miss the mark, when you fail as a Christian, you need someone
there to kind of pick you up and say, "Let's try it again.
Let's get back on board again.
Let's get back in the church.
Get back into your Bible reading.
Get back into soul winning."
We need someone to aid us in our Christian life.
Verse 11 says, "Again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm
alone?
And if one prevail against them, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not
quickly broken."
Go to Matthew chapter 18, Matthew chapter 18.
What is the devil's playbook?
Play number one is that he seeks to disconnect believers from the fold.
And you know what?
Sometimes this happens during the holidays for whatever reason.
People become depressed and they want to isolate themselves, they become discouraged, they
feel like they don't have family.
But you know, Satan is just lying to you because you do have a family, you have a church, you
have me as your pastor, you have plenty brothers and sisters in Christ in church that will
help you and encourage you, love you, they'll spend time with you.
They will be there for you.
Don't listen to Satan's playbook that seeks to disconnect you and isolate you from other
Christians.
Right?
I just feel like nobody loves you, it's because you're on social media too much.
No one on social media loves you.
You're right.
Get in church, you know, find some friends at church, develop some friendships at church,
develop close relationships at church and you'll see that you're not alone.
And when you fall, someone will be there to pick you up.
Romans 15, you're in Matthew 18.
Let me read to you from Romans 15 verse 30, "Now I'll beseech you brethren for the Lord
Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the spirit that you strive together with me in
your prayers to God for me."
We see that we're to strive together for the faith of the gospel, but we're also to strive
together in prayer for one another.
You know one reason why we need you in church is because we need your prayers.
You need our prayers.
We need to know about your trials and tribulations so that in unity we can pray together unto
the Lord to find a solution to your problem.
Or if there is no solution to your problem, pray for you to be strengthened to withstand
that evil day that you're experiencing, right?
The Bible also says, you're in Matthew 18, I'm going to reach you from Galatians 6, 1.
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such in one
in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
So the Bible is telling us here, we who are strong in the Lord need to bear the infirmities
of the weak.
How does that happen if the weak aren't in church?
How does that happen if the weak forsake the local New Testament church?
Meaning if you're weak, if you are overtaken in a fault, you have no one to help you if
you're not in church, right?
Now look at Matthew 18 verse 17.
This is in the context of offenses, but it applies to just unity in the local New Testament
church.
It says in verse 17, if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.
But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a
publican.
This goes back to our illustration of Maury offending someone and he refuses to repent.
He gets excommunicated from the church and the Bible says that he's unto us as a heathen
man and as a publican, meaning we have nothing to do with him.
And that is a punishment that's instituted in order to shame him so that in light of
that, he would be admonished to get right with God and come back to church.
That's what discipline is for.
He says in verse 18, verily I say to you whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loose in heaven.
Now mind you, this is talking about a church by the way, not Peter.
Oh, Peter's the first Pope because he has the keys according to Matthew chapter 16.
Well, we're in Matthew 18 and Matthew 18 says that these keys are given to the church, the
people within the church, right?
He says in verse 19, again, I say to you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching
anything they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father, which is in heaven
for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
And in context, it is referring to a church.
So this is why it's important for you to come to a local New Testament church, to petition
for prayers for the needs that you have, for the trials that you're experiencing in order
for God to hear our prayers.
Go to 1st Samuel chapter 13, 1st Samuel chapter 13.
While you're turning that, I'm going to reach you from Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 13.
This is on the same point of the devil's playbook to disconnect you from other believers.
Hebrews 3 13 says, "But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of
you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin," the Bible says.
And you know, when's a great time to just get a part of a local New Testament church
during Christmas time, believe it or not?
You know why?
Because as awesome as Christmas time is and to spend time with family and friends and
just eat a bunch of food and all this, you know, there's a lot of temptation out there
as well, right?
How about people just becoming more lenient when it comes to alcohol, right?
Oh man, it's just a little bit of alcohol, a little wine for the stomach's sake.
Well, wine is a mock or strong drink, it's raging, whosoever is deceived thereby is not
wise.
And it's interesting that people are so strict when it comes to alcohol throughout the year,
because somehow they just let their guard down during the holidays.
You know why?
It's because of the fact that they don't have people exhorting them not to drink alcohol,
not to smoke marijuana, not to get involved in sin.
The deceitfulness of sin, part of coming to church is reminding you, hey, you're still
a Christian during the holidays.
Be careful with that staff Christmas party where they're serving alcohol, getting involved
in sin, leading to fornication, leading to adultery, leading to just all manner of sin
that can just completely destroy your life.
We need Christians around us to remind us of those things.
Oh, you're just trying to suck the life out of like all the fun out of just a holiday.
No, we're trying to suck the sin out of you is what we're trying to do.
Believe it or not, you can have fun without drinking.
I don't know if you know that.
Okay.
Sparkling cider.
Amen.
Oh man, how can you have fun without alcohol?
Well, how do you have fun having a hangover?
Convince me how a hangover is fun, convince me how drugs, marijuana and all these hallucinogenics
are fun.
They're not.
Okay.
And so that's a sermon for another day, but alcohol is sinful.
It is wicked.
Doesn't matter what other churches talk about.
The Bible literally says, "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its
color in the cup, when it turneth itself a right."
So if the Bible is telling us not to even look at it, does this mean you should just
be like, "No, it's saying just stay away from it completely."
Now I know there's a lot of wine-bibbers out there who get offended at that, but you
know it's what the Bible says.
And you know what?
To bring the argument that Jesus turned the water into wine, well first of all, wine in
the Bible is used interchangeably to describe alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.
That's a fact.
That's consistent throughout the scriptures, okay?
Second of all, the person who says that Jesus turned the water into wine will simultaneously
say that it's not a sin to drink, it's just a sin to get drunk.
Well then you have a problem and a contradiction with your belief.
Why?
Because Jesus turned the water into wine after the people had well drunken.
So after they just killed all the kegs of beer or whatever at the wedding, Jesus provides
six other water pots of alcohol, according to that interpretation, thereby making the
people sin by actually getting drunk according to their interpretation.
But hold on a second, based upon our interpretation, which is the biblical model, it was just juice
that they were making.
That's what it was, okay?
And I know your little wedding that you've had, the weddings you've been to, they've
had alcohol and that's just consistent with how weddings have been.
Not for Christians, not for Christians, according to Christian biblical doctrine, alcohol is
not involved alcohol.
And in fact, think about this, you know, the Lord's supper, the Roman Catholic church literally
uses alcohol in the Lord's supper, but it's essentially saying that the blood of Jesus
Christ has sin because leaven alcohol has leaven in it yeast, right?
Which is a picture of sin.
And it's not that they don't know that that's the case because they have unleavened bread
because they understand that the body of Jesus Christ is without sin, but yet they turn a
blind eye to when it comes to the wine itself.
Okay.
Sermon for another day.
Let's move on with this sermon here.
The point that I'm making here is that the devil's playbook is number one to disconnect
the believer, but the second play is to disarm the believer.
He wants to disconnect the believer, but he also wants to disarm the believer by removing
the word of God from their hands.
Satan is determined to remove your only defensive weapon.
Now here in first Samuel chapter 13, this is during the reign of King Saul.
He's the first king of Israel, but he's essentially taken over during a time where Israel has
essentially been oppressed by the Philistines.
And the Philistines had done a lot of damage to Israel.
One in particular is that they removed the smiths out of the land so that they weren't
able to make swords and in fact look at 1st Samuel chapter 13 verse 19 says now
there was no Smith found throughout all the land of Israel for the Philistines
said lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears but all the Israelites went
down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share and his culture and his
axe and his maddox yet they had a file for the Maddox and for the cultures and
for the forks and for the axes to sharpen the goats so it came to pass in
the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any
of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan but with Saul and with Jonathan
his son was there found go to Ephesians chapter 6 if you would Ephesians chapter
6 in first Samuel chapter 13 you see that one of the tactics of the enemy in
order to overcome Israel is to remove the sword from their hands right to
essentially remove the Smith that was responsible for making these weapons of
warfare so that the Israelites can protect themselves point being here is
that the enemy one of the ways that the enemy attacks you is by removing the
sword from your hand and you know Ephesians chapter 6 is a passage deals
that deals mainly with the armor of God and when we think of armor it's
referring to that which is defensive to protect us from right and it's true the
Christian life is a life of defense we have to defend ourselves from the wiles
of Satan from the attacks of Satan however the Bible also teaches us that
we should also be on the offensive it's not enough to just block all the hits
you got throw some hands too you got to use the sword that God gave you to fight
back and let me just say this is a pastor of what I've noticed amongst
Christianity today in 2025 a lot of people don't know how to swing a sword
they may know how to defend themselves a little bit but quite frankly they're so
biblically illiterate they're just like if they even have a sword okay you know
they're so busy trying to look good as a Christian they actually don't take time
in how to actually wield the sword of God okay look at Ephesians chapter 6 in
verse 14 it says stand therefore having your loins girded about with truth
having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shot with
the preparation of the gospel of peace this is referring to the fact that when
we are going to battle spiritually we should have biblical convictions girded
about our loins meaning that you need to live the Christian life intentionally
and have some core beliefs about you the loins is the core right so we need to
make sure that we have core beliefs already embedded within us you know the
fact that salvation is by grace through faith the fact that we can't lose our
salvation church is important there's certain things that we have to believe
in our core when we go to battle and he says the breastplate of righteousness so
it's not just enough to believe the right things God wants us to live the
right way as well live righteously the breastplate protects what the heart and
the Bible says keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues
of life we need to make sure that we keep the heart righteous before the Lord
right he says your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace so
it's not just enough to have your core values it's not just enough to protect
the heart and live righteously you also got to be a soul winner got to be
someone who preaches the gospel okay know how to present the gospel get
people saved that's important verse 16 above all taking the shield of faith
wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked so the
shield of faith would be somewhat likened unto the promises of God meaning
that when Satan cast darts at you of doubt we can defend ourselves with faith
knowing full well that God is able to perform that which he also promised okay
and then he says in verse 17 and take the helmet of salvation and I want you
to notice this and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God so up
into this point we see a lot of armor being given to us but the last thing is
that God wants us to take the sword of the Spirit meaning the Bible itself
meaning you need to make sure that in 2026 you're reading the Word of God not
just hearing me preach it not just listening to some devotional you need to
make sure that you're cracking open the Bible and you're actually reading it
from cover to cover and folks I can't emphasize how important this is there's
only so much that I can do for you there's always so much I can exhort you
with I can't be with you 24/7 people in our church can't be with you 24/7 but
the Bible is always with you you know what if you want to turn off of God if
you want to avoid the attacks of Satan if you want to divert the playbook where
he's trying to disarm you read the Bible read the scriptures I hope many of you
finish the Bible this year you know and I'm thankful to hear that a lot of
children finish their their New Testament readings amen and you know
that you know why that's impressive is because that's more than a lot of the
adults do some of those don't even some of those you know they're barely read
the table of contents at that kid I mean my kids were reading the scriptures in
the morning they got their Bible reading schedule they're reading through keeping
up with their Bible reading you know what that's important to me because quite
frankly I can protect my children as much as possible but I'm limited and I
need my kids to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might you know
God is their God too and I need to teach my kids how to walk in faith how to
build up themselves in their most holy faith to read the scriptures that man
should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceed out of the mouth
of God it's important for them to walk with the Lord you know what if I'm gonna
see you here at the end of 2026 it's gonna require for you to read this every
single day of your life and you know thank God for those of you who read your
Bible through cover to cover but I challenge you read it twice this year
yeah I read it twice okay read it three times I read it three okay I read it
three times all right read it three times again or whatever or read it a
different language right I'm not really talking to you you say why is that
important because Satan wants to disarm you from the Bible how by distracting
you from reading it daily you know instead of waking up and spending hours
on your social media you know actually get up and read the Bible instead of
getting up and looking through what's going on in the news what's Trump's
next move what's going on with the war what's going on with this that and the
other once you actually get up and read the word of word of God instead educate
yourself in the scriptures give attendance to reading to exhortation to
doctrine why because you know a lot of Christians out there maybe they are
saved a lot of them maybe are but quite frankly they've been disarmed they're
not reading the scriptures I can't tell you how many times in my DMs I always
get this what devotional book do you recommend what commentary do you
recommend I'm like this one right here they're like well give me a book though
I don't have one I got this I got the book amen so he'll distract it from
reading it daily he'll cast doubt on it but let me give you the main way that he
seeks to disarm you he tries to get you to read a different version of the Bible
that is the main way that he seeks to disarm you he'll try to get a colter in
your hand a Maddox in your hand instead of a sword he said what's the sword the
King James Bible and let me just remind everyone here that this is a King James
only church we do not accept embrace read from preach from any of the modern
versions of the Bible because quite frankly they're inferior they're very
and you know what yeah some of the modern versions may teach some of the
doctrines that we see in the King James Bible but they're very inconsistent they
cast doubt on God's Word by removing entire verses you know that that alone
should cause you to forsake the modern versions of the Bible okay when you go
to the Bible and then there's just verses missing from the from those new
versions that's enough evidence to say okay this is not God's Word because it's
deficient of Scripture right and we're not just talking about like deficient and
just you know doctrines that are not essential I'm talking about essential
doctrines I'm talking about doctrines regarding salvation that's an issue it
will but it's easier to read yeah of course heresy is always easier to read
false doctrine is always easier to read do we want what's easier to read or do
we want what's accurate right folks Harry Potter is easy to read what kind of
argument is that I just don't understand the key the language of the King James
you act like it's in Chinese or something that's like the craziest
argument I've ever excused that people ever give me like I just don't understand
you don't understand thou you don't understand salvation Jesus Christ and
look are there words in the King James that are older yeah but you know what
that's not a good enough reason not to read it it's just not how about you just
like read it don't understand it and look it up in a dictionary I know that's
like an extra step I know that's required okay here I'll make it real
easy for you you find a word that you don't understand the King James just ask
AI you already do that for everything else you ask AI what tie you should
wear you ask AI you know what regarding your meal plans and everything AI
controls your life anyways so just add on top of that AI what does this mean
and you know what AI will do a great job explaining what that means for you okay
and so you know the King James Bible is not deficient it's been loyal to the
underlying Greek and Masoretic texts it's what stood the test of time over
the last 400 years there's no new additions you know why because we're not
constantly adding to the King James whereas the ESV and IV you know why
there's new additions because they're constantly adding to it so the people
who've had it in times past thought they had the Word of God what about the new
addition if they're adding to the new additions that essentially implies that
the former additions was not complete so how can that be the Word of God it's
constantly changing it's the shifting sands of this culture so aside from the
fact that verses are missing they also add verses did you know that you know
and most people who own these Bibles don't read through the Bibles completely
that's that's a fact the most widely read Bible in America is the King James
Bible people actually read it the other versions they don't read it they read
what's on the screen at the churches or whatever they bring it with them but they
don't actually read it so aside from the fact that we're removing verses they're
also adding verses let me give you a great example of this in the King James
in 2nd Peter 2 - it says that as newborn babes desire the sincere milk at first
first Peter 2 - as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you
may grow thereby was that referring to what we're talking about now reading the
Word of God so you can grow spiritually right other versions that you may grow
into salvation you don't grow into salvation you don't read the Word of
God to grow into salvation salvation is not a process it happens in an instant
when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and it's no wonder why people who
go to these types of churches that use these types of Bibles are often often
salvation they're confused about salvation they don't know if that you
can lose it they think you can they think you can you know you have to
persevere in your works into the end they have all of this mixed-up doctrine
when it comes to salvation and it's partly due to the versions of the Bible
that they have and there's other there's major anachronistic discrepancies
within the modern versions of the Bible there's like inaccurate depictions in
the Bible in these modern versions regarding the numbers geography I mean
they're not good versions of the Bible you say what is it it's a mad hoc it's a
substitute but it doesn't get the job done and so you say well man feel bad
now you know I got a modern version in my hands right now you know okay here's
what you do after the service comes to me and I'll give you a brand new King
James Bible how about that you don't even have to buy I'll give it to you you
turn in your HIV your AIDS you know you turn in your NIV your ESV or whatever
and I'll give you a brand new King James version of the Bible a nice one really
nice it'll be almost as nice as your ESV or whatever it's actually nicer
because it's actually true you say what if I just decide to stick to this
version of the Bible okay then allow Satan to disarm you I've never met a
Christian who uses the modern versions of the Bible who actually knows their
Bible I'll be honest with you I've been a Christian for a long time and even on
social media most people that I meet online who use modern versions of the
Bible are off on their doctrine now obviously there's people who use the
King James are off in their doctrine too but by and large the essentials of the
faith they have down pat which is the most important thing okay point that I'm
making is that Satan's method for destroying you his playbook is that he
wants to disarm you by putting an NIV in your hand a Maddox a Colter in your
hand instead of putting an actual sword in your hand that's effective in the
Christian life okay you know I think about years ago when I was when I was
newly saved you know I got saved in a fundamental Baptist Church so someone
gave me a King James Bible right off the bat and was it hard to read no
because I read the book of John it's pretty simple did it get hard to read
later on of course but here I am years later and it's not hard to read anymore
and you know what anything that's hard doing is worth doing
plain and simple you know we don't want an ebonics Bible I don't need a Gen Z
Bible okay but I remember you know getting saved and and I remember having
a King James and there's a guy in our church who just wanted to stick to his
modern version of the Bible and I was kind of as a new Christian I was kind of
showing him all the reasons why he shouldn't and why the King James is
superior and this is what he ended up saying he said look let me explain
something to you Bruce this is what he said he's explaining this to me he said
look the King James is a higher caliber Bible okay and I'm like yeah he goes so
you know the reason I use this because just easier to read so he kind of
realized like what he did by saying that I'm like so you're basically saying
that the Bible you have is a lower caliber he's like yeah so why would you
go with the lower caliber why would you go with the BB gun when you can get an
AK-47 right you know don't ask me about guns because I have no idea you know a
desert eagle or you know why would you go for a super soaker when you got
yourself a flamethrower right why would you go for a Tonka truck when you got a
tank the evidence is there my friends okay and look I'm not an expert in
Hebrew I do read Greek and I've read through the Greek New Testament and you
know what it matches up with the King James Bible whereas the modern versions
of the Bible do not they deviate from the original text multiple times even
their you know stream of Greek they still deviate from that it's just
unfaithful and so it's important for us to realize that that we need to make
sure that Satan in 2026 doesn't disarm us time to grow up get a big boy Bible
amen go to big boy church get a big boy Bible get into big boy ministry amen you
know give me that Maddox that you got going on give me that Colter give me
that little plastic sword you got from the 99 cent store right the ninja sword
you got from the 99 cent store and let me put a King James in your hand and you
know we'll teach you how to read the King James Bible become a superior
Christian by using an actual sword by using a katana I don't know if that's a
sharper sword or whatever you know but the point is is that the devil's playbook
is to disconnect the believer from other believers to disarm the believer from
the word of God go to Ephesians chapter 4 if you would Ephesians chapter 4 man I
just think it's just a lot easier to read and this is the Bible my grandma
gave me or whatever folks you know we need to be a people of conviction though
and we need to stop making emotional decisions regarding the Christian life
and make decisions based upon what is right we need to do what is right now
what is convenient now what is emotionally fitting we need to move away
from the sensual aspects of Christianity that's being put forth out there and
just be a people of conviction okay Satan's playbook is to disconnect you
disarm you play number three to defile you through sin I've already hit on this
a lot especially for this month but you know it goes without saying we need to
make sure that we keep our lives clean that we're living righteously staying
away from that which would defile you and completely ruin you the sins that
maybe you have the propensity to commit and you know that requires separating
from people who commit those things as well sometimes we were like why have the
willpower to not commit the sin but you know you don't have the willpower to not
commit the sin when you're around the people who are committing those sins
because just as believers exhort you in the ways of righteousness bad people
exhort you in the ways of unrighteousness it's easier to sin when
we're around other people that are committing those sins you may not
drink alcohol but you know you put yourself in a room with other people
who do who like you who are encouraging you you give it the right time the right
amount of you know sleep deprivation the right amount of discouragement you're
gonna end up committing that sin Ephesians 424 says this and that you put
on the new man which after God has created in righteousness and true
holiness wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor
for we are members one of another be angry and sin not let not the sun go
down upon your wrath was a Bible saying here you know the new man is a righteous
person therefore in light of that we should put away sinful habits if you're
dishonest person become an honest person start telling the truth even if it's to
your hurt don't allow lying to be the normal part of your life there's no such
thing as white lies in the Bible a lie is a lie and a lie is always wrong it's
always sinful right God is not a man that he should lie okay but I want you
to notice this in verse 27 neither give place to the devil don't allow the devil
to tempt you by putting yourself in a position where you're gonna be tempted
with your own sin he says let him that stole steal no more but rather than let
him labor working with his hands the thing which is good he may have to give
to him that needeth let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth
but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace into
the here and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the
day of redemption let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil
speaking to put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another tender
heart of forgiving one another even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you
turn with me if you would to 1st John chapter 1 1st John chapter 1 if you
would what is he saying you know we have to intentionally walk in the new man
because we all have sins that we are tempted with and you know what as much
as you don't want to commit that sin if you place yourself in the environment
that is conducive to that sin you're going to commit that sin now the great
thing about this church is that there's particular sins that you cannot commit
if you want to keep coming to this church so that kind of is like an
incentive to you to keep yourself clean right to live righteously you can't be
in fornication right meaning that if you're in a relationship with another
person you guys aren't married the Bible strictly forbids you to sexually come
together and if you do and if you're unrepentant of that sin you get thrown
out of church so that's kind of mean well here's your other option though you
can get married that's better you know marriage is better you know you can't
commit fornication you can't be a drunkard obviously adultery is also
implied in that you can't be an extortion or you can't be an idolater you
can't be a railer this is not saying you can't be a sinner because this that
doesn't exist now does it but there's certain sins that you don't have to be
guilty of that you can live a clean life from in order to maintain your
membership in the local New Testament Church that is God's incentive to keep
you in the fold okay look at first John 1 verse 6 it says if we say that we have
fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth but if we
walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and
the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin if we say we
have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our
sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness I'm gonna skip some points here because I'm almost out of
time go with me if you would to let's see here go to go to Revelation 12 if
you would Revelation 12 Satan will seek to defile you with sin he will distract
you to try to get you to destroy your testimony and you know what happens is
that when once you get defiled with sin because Satan tempts you to sin he will
then seek to discourage you because now you know aside from the fact that he's
the tempter he's also the accuser so what happens is like you commit the sin
that he tempted you to commit and then he's like oh look at you now oh look at
your little King James guy now huh where's the King James Bible now you
know oh look at look at this guy you're trying to get your life right oh look at
you you try to get your you try to live righteously and now you're committing
all this so you can't go back to church how are you gonna go back to church in
that condition what did you do he's accusing you trying to discourage you
from getting back up and look folks if you sin your sin doesn't get you thrown
out of church it's when you remain in unrepentant sin if you sin come back to
church and just get it right if you commit a wicked sin that's not an excuse
for you to leave church come back to church listen to the preaching of God's
Word be exhorted and move forward a just man falleth seven times riseth up again
if you stay down you played right into his playbook right there why because
he's seeking to disconnect you he's seeking to disarm you he's seeking to
defile you and he's seeking to discourage you to keep you down and get
you out of the fight Revelation 12 10 says and I heard a loud voice saying in
heaven now has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God the
power of Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them
before our God day and night what does he do he weaponizes your past and
magnifies your failures oh you're not good enough you're not really forgiven
oh you're gonna fall again oh you're gonna give it a given again oh you
shouldn't go back to church they're gonna find out they're gonna judge you
they're gonna cause you to feel this way it's better to just find a different
church this is the devil's playbook okay you said what should I do encourage
yourself in the Lord cast down imaginations every high thing that
exalted itself against the knowledge of God so you know what yeah I messed up
but I'm gonna keep coming back and I'm gonna keep striving to do better the
answer is not get out of church the answer is not get out of the Bible the
answer is not stop serving God the answer is just get back up okay this
disconnect disarm defile discourage and here's my last point go to Isaiah
chapter 1 Isaiah chapter 1 here is Satan's fifth plague and let me say this
you know if Satan fails at getting you out of church and just in the world and
just involved in sin and godlessness if he fails to do that here is his final
play he'll keep you in church but he'll keep you in the wrong church you know
what his fifth play is dilute the believer meaning make you a watered
down Christian you know how a watered down Christian is produced by watered
down churches you know one of Satan's greatest methods to destroy a Christian
or to keep them ineffective is place them in a church where the Bible is not
being preached sin is not being talked about the word of God is not being
thundered forth to kind of appease your conscience and make you think that
you're doing well he's seeking to water you down look at Isaiah chapter 1 verse
21 how is the faithful city becoming harlot it was full of judgment
righteousness lodged in it but now murderers and I want you to notice verse
22 thy silver is become dross thy wine mixed with water what does that mean it
means they become watered down Israel lost its potency it's no longer pure why
because it's watered down you know what's the most dangerous thing for a
Christian to become I wouldn't even say going out in the world because you know
if you're going out in the world though we is not recommended at least you'll
be judged by God though and that in turn will motivate you to get back in the
church right you're given over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh but
then you're reinstated because you repent you know a dangerous thing for
Christian is is to be in a really bad church and to think that you're doing
really well to be in a watered-down church what does it mean to be watered
down it means it's enough Christianity to kind of fool you but there's enough
deception in there that it just keeps you inactive it keeps you from growing
and it teaches you a lot of bad doctrine and look folks I believe the most
important thing you should get from church amongst other things is the right
doctrine that's like the emphasis of the Bible right and there's obviously other
things that we should learn in church but doctrine is a major thing you know
real Christianity a real church is sometimes hard to come by hard preaching
is hard to come by you know a lot of people a lot of Christians who are saved
don't like hard preaching but I'll tell you why because they're used to the
watered-down mix the watered-down wine they're used to the silver with the
dross they're used to the nice preaching they're used to the 20-minute TED talk
they're used to all the encouragement they're used to the purple lights and
the smoke and all of the the bells and whistles that really is a covering for
legitimate Christianity and there's a lot of good people in those churches but
quite frankly they bought into the devil's playbook because these people
probably have the character to go to church they go to church right they have
the character to carry a Bible with them they have the character to call
themselves Christians but you know what that's where it stops it's quite
frankly they're not educated in the scriptures they don't read the Bible and
they think they're a okay they haven't won a single soul to the Lord think about
that yeah what do you mean win a single soul to the Lord exactly exactly you
know your job as a Christian is to lead other people to Christ like that's
everyone's job not just the pastor not just the evangelist your job is to learn
how well that's just too hard yeah it's too hard if you go to a church that's
diluted in their evangelism is diluted in their preaching you're not gonna be
motivated to do those things you know why because it's too it's too
confrontational you know no just be a good testimony just let your life so
shine just wear a shirt that says Jesus on there and that'll be your form of
witnessing just slap a bumper sticker on the back of your car that'll be your
form of witnessing I'm not against all those things but I am against those
things replacing real evangelism it's everyone's job to preach the gospel to
get people saved but you know if you attend a diluted church that's not the
emphasis not the emphasis the wine is mixed with water you know what it's
referring to water down preaching that never calls out your sin that never
talks about anything controversial for fear that they might offend you they
never educate you in the scriptures and quite frankly a lot of these churches
can't handle an hour-long sermon too much for them it's not a meaty sermon
it's cotton candy most of the time it makes you feel good by the time you
leave but what did you really learn though did you learn righteousness do
you hate sin more do you know what sin is can you describe for me the sins of
the Bible can you describe what righteousness is can you describe end
times prophecy can you describe what a reprobate is can you describe in simple
terms the doctrine of justification right these are important things can you
describe the importance of going to church have you cleaned up your life are
you different today than you were a year ago based upon the preaching that you've
gotten if not you've bought into the playbook Satan's playbook of diluting
you watering you down and keeping you right where you're at so that you are
ineffective in the ministry of God so what kind of churches it is this is a
potent church this is wine without mixture amen this is the full
this is the full experience right here okay last verse and I'm done here you
don't have to turn there Ephesians 414 says that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine by the
slight of man and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive make
no mistake about it Satan has a playbook for you and he wants you to fall into
one of these five he definitely wants to disconnect you from other believers by
getting offended making you inconsistent he definitely wants to disarm you not by
taking the Bible away from you but giving you an inferior Bible right he
did he wants to disconnect you he wants to disarm he wants to defile you with
sin this this season and by defiling you he wants to discourage you so you don't
get back up but you know the major thing he wants to dilute you he wants you to
be wine with mix with a bunch of water so that you're you're rendered
ineffective in the service of God don't let it happen fight back resist the
devil and he will flee from you draw an eye to God and he'll draw an eye to you
amen let's pray Father we thank you so much for your word thank you for the
instructions of the Bible and we're grateful that we're not ignorant of his
devices and I pray that Lord you'd help us to take these things into
consideration help us not soon forget the righteous instructions from the word
of God Lord Satan is out to get every single person in this room every person
in this room has a target on their back and he's content with having them slip
into one of these five categories help us to be vigilant to be sober knowing
full well that we do have an adversary that works full-time to take us down
Lord I pray that you'd help us to continue to read the word of God to
meditate upon these things and to be strong in the Lord and the power of his
might we love you we thank you pray these things in Jesus name Amen
our last song it'll be the song sheet angels we have heard on high if you don't have one hold
your hand up nice and high one of the ushers will come by to bring you one
your hand raised nice and high from one of the song sheets one over here
angels we have heard on high all together nice strong in that first verse
angels we have seen