here in our seats we will get started go ahead and grab a hymnal tonight's song
be in song number on number 56 in your hymnal when we are singing everybody
let's open up the service now with a word of prayer just thank you for such an
awesome place to serve you awesome people go out so wanting this afternoon
and all the people that want unto you we love you Lord we thank you for all that
you're allowing us to do through you we just ask now that you fill this room
with your spirit help us sing out to you this afternoon it's in Jesus name we
pray amen for our next song let's go to song number 396 sing throughout the week
so little time 396 a little bit of a newer song to church we sung it this
morning hopefully you remember song number 396 we're gonna sing it again
all together on the first. Thanks for coming to Set Fast Baptist Church if you didn't get a
bulletin yet and you would like one just lift up your hand nice and high one of
our ushers can come by get you guys a bulletin on the front we have our Bible
memory passage is a new one Psalm 53 so if you can quote the entire chapter you
can get a special prize and then in our midweek service any kid that can quote
the verse of the week can get an ice cream on the inside we have our service
and soul winning times and then our church stats down below this evening we
have a guest preacher again pastor Bruce Mejia from First Works Baptist Church in
LA his church is the bomb and so you know sometimes they just literally blow
up you know you never know what you're gonna get with them but no we're great
to have him out here it's he's been a great friend of ours for years and so
it's really fun to have him out here and he's brought his sons with them so
make sure to thank pastor Mejia for coming out and preaching for us and
taking the time out of his schedule on the right we have the list of our
expecting ladies continue to pray for them upcoming events we have a false
swap October 26th we have a Texas chili cook-off October 31st and so it is a
competition as well if you'd like to come you can just show up but if you'd
like to enter one of your chilies into the competition it does have to be made
Texas style that means no fillers including beans and I know this like
triggers out-of-state people or whatever but welcome to Texas all right so there
you go we try to help you get better even if you don't want it yourself all
right we don't want to California or Texas you know what I mean yeah all
right also we have some some mentions here about some other events Faith or
Baptist Church one of our friends in the Phoenix area is having a missions
conference I was invited to go preach there on Thursday also pastor he is
gonna be out there preaching and I'm gonna be talking about our Bahamas
missions trip that we just recently went on encouraging people to go out to the
Caribbean and then also anchor Baptist Church is having their one-year
anniversary so pastor Dylan Oz invited me to come up there and I'll be
preaching both services for them also the turkey bowl will be playing some
flag football if you'd like to join us November 29th ladies Christmas party
it's December 5th and you know that's just a dinner party all ladies are
invited it's of course completely free we have Christmas caroling December 8th
and that's that's a lot of fun if you've never gone Christmas caroling with us
it's honestly one of the coolest things people have ever gotten to do and even
though you're tone-deaf we'll drown you out I promise but honestly it's a lot of
fun to just go out and you know we go soul-winning in the poor
neighborhoods this is our one ministry to the rich people okay so we'll go to
the nice neighborhoods and we'll sing some Christmas caroling for them and
usually it's it's received really well I think people really enjoy it also
Christmas cookie bake-off December 21st it's also another competition it's the
one time a year our church gets to vote on anything so everybody's to vote on
their favorite cookie so that's your one time you get to vote Christmas
candlelight service December 24th and then our men's preaching and pizza is
December 31st so if you'd like to come out for any of those events there's one
other event that I didn't have in the bulletin but I just want to make notice
of is a baby shower for Hannah Villarreal and Lauren Campisi it's
November 8th from 12 to 2 p.m. here at the church on the back is our prayer
list and so if you have any prayer requests that you would like us to pray
for with you you can email us and we try to keep up our prayer lists accurate
throughout the week we also go over that on Wednesday nights so thank you so much
for being here if you're a guest or a visitor we'd love to get your
information and if you'd like to visit again we'd love to have you so thanks so
much for being here we're gonna go ahead and sing our psalm of the week so it's
on our special psalm hymns and binders it's not in the hymnal it's in a special
book that we have of some psalms that we've written psalm 58 and it's not the
nicest psalm but it is a psalm and so we like that we love to sing the Psalms
here and even even the gruesome ones we like to put to music and so psalm 58 but
the dust is gonna lead us churches you can go to and sing about breaking out
teeth you know welcome to steadfast psalm 58 psalm 58 let's all sing it out
together singing everybody now as the offering plates are being passed around
go ahead and open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 25 that's the book of
Genesis chapter number 25 Genesis chapter 25 the Bible said then again Abraham
took wife and her name was Keturah and she bare him Zimran and Jokshan and
Midan and Midian Ishbeck and Shua and Jokshan began Sheba and Dedan and the
sons of Dedan were Asherim and Latushim and Liumim and the sons of Midian
Ephah and Ephur and Hanukkah and Abida and Aldeia all these were the children
of Keturah and Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac but unto the sons of the
concubines which Abraham had Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac
his son while he yet lived eastward unto the east country and these are the days
of the years of Abraham's wife which he lived on hundred three score and 15
years then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age an old man and
full of years and was gathered to his people and his sons Isaac and Ishmael
buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the
Hittite which is before Mamre the field which Abraham purchased of the sons of
Heth there was Abraham buried and Sarah his wife and it came to pass after the
death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac and Isaac dwelt by the well
Lehi Roy now these are the generations of Ishmael Abraham's son whom Hagar the
Egyptian Sarah's handmaid bear unto Abraham and these are the names of the
sons of Ishmael by their names according to their generations the firstborn of
Ishmael Nabejoth and Kedar and Abdeel and Mibsam and Mishmah and Duma and
Massa Hadar and Timah Jeter Nafish and Kadimah these are the sons of Ishmael
and these are their names by their towns and by their castles 12 princes
according to their nations and these are the years of the life of Ishmael
130 and seven years and he gave up the ghost and died and was gathered unto his
people and they dwelt from Hevala unto Shur that is before Egypt as thou goest
toward Assyria and he died in the presence of all his brethren and these
are the generations of Isaac Abraham's son Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac was
40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian
of Padanaram the sister to Laban the Syrian and Isaac entreated the Lord for
his wife because she was barren and the Lord was entreated of him and Rebekah
his wife conceived and the children struggled together within her and she
said if it be so why am I thus and she went to inquire of the Lord and the Lord
said unto her two nations are in thy womb and two manner of people shall be
separated from thy bowels and the one people shall be stronger than the other
people and the elder shall serve the younger and when her days to be
delivered were fulfilled behold there were twins in her womb and the first
came out red all over like an hairy garment and they called his name Esau and
after that came his brother out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel and his
name was called Jacob and Isaac was three score years old when he when she
bare them and the boys grew and Esau was a cunning hunter a man of the field and
Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents and Isaac loved Esau because he did eat
of his venison but Rebecca loved Jacob and Jacob sawed pottage and Esau came
from the field and he was faint and Esau said to Jacob feed me I pray thee with
that same red pottage for I am faint therefore was his name called Edom and
Jacob said sell me this day thy birthright and Esau said behold I am at
the point to die and what profit shall this birthright do to me and Jacob said
swear to me this day and he swear unto him and he sold his birthright unto
Jacob then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils and he did eat and
drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Let us
pray. Dear Heavenly Father thank you for this day. Thank you for a great service
this morning. Thank you for bringing Pastor Mejia out here. I pray that you
would please turn our attention to the Word of God and please remove
distractions. Help us to listen to the Word of God. Please bless Pastor Mejia in
Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Alright it's a blessing to be here. Thank you so much
for coming out. I heard we need like one more person to break record attendance
so I requested to bring some sort of homeless person in from outside so I
will offer a meal to anybody who's able to do so but if not then I guess we'll
just we'll just keep it at that. Thank you for being here tonight. It was a
blessing to be here in Texas. This is the only place I like to come to in Texas
is Steadfast Baptist Church. No offense to you Texans but I love Steadfast
Baptist Church. I love Pastor Jonathan Shelley aka The Weasel. Amen. So that's
great. Oh honey badger sorry yeah yeah sorry about that. But it's a blessing to
be here. Thank you for coming out. Let's go ahead and get into the sermon here.
Genesis 25 the title of my sermon tonight is unrighteous trade-offs unrighteous
trade-offs. Now what am I referring to? I'm referring to the fact that you know
sometimes people want the product without the process right and anything
worth having requires some form of struggle. It requires difficulty. It
It requires an arduous battle to have, right? In order for us to have something that's worth having,
it requires some form of sacrifice. No, some people just want no struggle with all the benefits,
all the rewards that come with it. And so it's important for us to realize that as Christians,
we just can't have it both ways, right? If we want something of value, we need to be willing to pay
the price. If you want to go to a good church, you need to be willing to pay the gas price to come
to a good church. If you live far, Hey, if you want to be in a good church that preaches good
doctrine, that has the right salvation, you have to put up with the hard preaching from the pastor.
If you want a church that's producing the right type of results, you got to be willing to get
with the program, go and preach the gospel and back up the church when it's serving the Lord,
right? Come to the sacrifice and anything worth having requires a sacrifice. And unfortunately,
a lot of people today want it both ways. They don't want the struggle, but they want the benefits.
They don't want to suffer. They don't want the afflictions, but they want everything that comes
with actually struggling to have that particular thing. I think about Moses and Moses understood
that, you know, there requires some form of sacrifice in order to be blessed of God, right?
He chose God's people over Pharaoh's palace, right? He chose to suffer the afflictions with
the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. That's a good trade off
to say, you know what, I'm going to forsake Egypt, which according to the Bible is a picture of the
world. I'm going to forsake all the fame, maybe the fortune, all the riches that are in Egypt
in order to follow the Lord and his people and be rewarded of God. That's a good trade off.
That's a righteous trade off. Moses is a great example of that. Think of the disciples who
essentially chose the nations over the nets. Instead of fishing for actual fish, they went
fishing for men. And now they go down in history as being the 12 disciples, the 12 apostles doing
great works for God. They straightway left their nets and followed him and were greatly rewarded
for that. Why? Because of the fact that God wants us to make good trade-offs. We have to sacrifice
if we want the actual result, if we want to be blessed of God, if we want all the benefits.
But tonight I'm going to talk about some unrighteous trade-offs that people in the
Bible have made and apply it to Christians today. The first thing we're going to look at
is Esau. Esau is a prime example of someone who made an unrighteous trade-off. Why is that?
Well, because of the fact that Esau chose the bull over the birthright. He says in verse 31,
"And Jacob said, 'Sell me this day thy birthright.' Esau said, 'Behold, I'm at the point to die,
and what profit shall this birthright do to me?' And Jacob said, 'Swear to me this day,' and he
sweared to him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob." Now obviously Esau was exaggerating,
right? He's like, "I'm at the point to die. I'm starving. Dude, just wait a little bit.
Mom's probably cooking some Texan chili, right? Just wait another hour. It's almost done." But
he wanted immediate gratification. He wanted immediate satisfaction, and so he was willing
to sell his birthright in order to get it. And let me submit to you that that was an
unrighteous trade-off, essentially forgoing, forfeiting the blessings of God just for some
immediate gratification. That is an unrighteous trade-off that Esau made. It says in verse 32,
"And Esau said, 'Behold, I'm at the point to die. And what prophets shall this birthright do to me?'
Jacob said, 'Swear to me this day,' and he sweared to him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his
way. Thus Esau despised his birthright." 2 Corinthians 2, if you would, go to 1 Peter chapter 2,
1 Peter chapter 2, if you would, Hebrews chapter 12, and verse number 11 says, "Looking diligently,
lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring it up trouble you,
and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau,
who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears." What is the Bible telling us here? You know,
there's certain things that are just not willing, we shouldn't be willing to trade,
right? The birthright for the bull. And let me give you some examples of how we could apply this
today. You know, as far as forfeiting our spiritual birthright, you know, let's talk about
soul winning for a minute. Okay. And for those of you who are new to this church, you're you walked
in here today. What is soul and it's when we open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of
the gospel. It's when we talk to an individual and we present the gospel in a very systematic way,
using the Romans road, aiding them and calling upon the name of the Lord and gaining them saved.
That's basically what it is. It's getting people saved. He that when it's souls is wise. That's
what soul winning is. But you know, a lot of churches and Christians are willing to make the
trade off when it comes to soul winning. They would trade their birthright of preaching the gospel to
just handing out a track. That's an unrighteous trade off. Like, Oh man, you know, our church
does evangelism. Our church preaches the gospel. Oh really? What do you guys do? Oh, we just hand
out tracks. That's not preaching the gospel. That's an unrighteous trade off. Now, obviously
it's important to hand out tracks. We do track. We do, you know, track drops when people don't
answer the door. But quite frankly, the mailman does that. And at the end of the day, we need to
make sure that we promote preaching the gospel, actually opening your mouth boldly and showing
people how to be saved, going through the scriptures with them, helping them to call upon the name of
the Lord to be saved. Why? Because using just the track to get the gospel out is an unrighteous
trade off. It's an easy way to just kind of ease the conscience and say, well, I've done my part,
not until you actually show someone what the Bible says on how to be saved. Right? How about this?
You know, you have soul winning, which is our birthright, our spiritual birthright to go and
preach the gospel. But then people trade it for what? Lifestyle evangelism. That's an unrighteous
trade off. Why? Because lifestyle evangelism doesn't get anybody saved. You know, how many
of you can say like, oh man, someone saw what a great Christian I was. They saw how clean cut I
was. They saw me with my kids and they're just like, what must I do to be saved? Like, can you
just, I do not want to go to hell. Show me what the Bible says on how to be saved. Right? Now,
you know, I've had some pretty gnarly experiences when it comes to soul winning. I remember years
ago when we were in LA prior to the bombing, which by the way, if you, if you didn't get the joke
that pastor Shelley was talking about, my, our church was bombed literally by the homos back in
2021. So now you get the punchline. Okay. So, you know, back when we were in, in Los Angeles,
you know, we're about to start a Sunday night service and a guy walks in, he has his girlfriend
and he's like, I want to be saved. I said, Oh, great. I said, well, let me show you what
the Bible says. He's like, I know what the Bible says. I'm like, Oh, okay. You know, well, can I
just show you, you know, what the world, I know, I know we're sinners. I know I deserve hell.
I know. I believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins. I believe that salvation cannot
be lost. It's only by faith alone. I just need someone to help me to call upon the name of the
Lord. So I know all these things. I just need you to help me to call upon the name of the Lord.
I mean, talk about low hanging fruit. It's just like, you just, you know, I mean, what,
no effort whatsoever, but that's like the only time that's ever happened. Right.
Or someone who's just like, Hey, it's not even like, what must I do to be saved? It's a,
I know what I must do to be saved. Help me to call upon the name of the Lord. I mean,
that was a pretty incredible experience, but it's only happened once. But at the end of the day,
guess what? It wasn't lifestyle evangelism that got that guy to believe in the gospel. It was the
gospel itself. You know, a lot of times people, they think, well, I just need to make sure that
I let my light so shine before men that they may see my good works and glorify my father,
which is in heaven. Yeah. Glorify your God, your father, which is in heaven,
not get people saved though. And what's important for us to realize that although a good testimony
is necessary to be a good Christian, to be a good representative of Jesus Christ,
at the end of the day, we have to make sure that we're actually preaching the gospel to people
and not forfeit that birthright that God has given to us to make that unrighteous trade off to say,
well, I'm not going to preach the gospel because confrontational soul winning is just too much
going out there, knocking on doors, talking to people, risking getting cussed at risking
getting the door slammed in my face. Now, I don't think I'm willing to do that. Give me the bowl.
Give me the bowl. But you know what? We need to go for the birthright of actually preaching the
gospel. And I'm sure I'm talking to a crowd of people where there's someone in here who does not
preach the gospel. I'm sure of it. Even though this is a soul winning church, even though this
is a church where people evangelize and soul winning is being promoted, I promise you there
is someone in this church that has not yet stepped out, gone soul winning. Why? Because
that's just the nature of the beast. And here I am as the guest preacher trying to motivate you
to not make that unrighteous trade off. Well, you know, my wife goes soul winning.
So, you know, it's, it's okay if I stay by, Oh, you know what? My husband does all the work,
but you know, I kind of just stayed behind. No, don't make that unrighteous trade off.
Obviously we know certain people can't go soul winning as much as others. We don't want to be
a bunch of holier than now's in that regard. People need to go when they can. But the point is you
need to go though and not make the unrighteous trade off to say, well, you know, other people
do it. Steadfast Baptist Church is going to continue to win souls to Christ regardless if
they have my help or not. Don't make that unrighteous trade off. Make sure you place
the responsibility upon yourself to go out and give the gospel. Cause you know what? At the end
of the day, it is our responsibility. Anyway, if you're not good at preaching the gospel,
then get good at it. You have enough people around here that you can go with and learn
illustrations from and you know, making sure that you are, uh, keen on your gospel presentation,
that you can win souls to Christ. Take advantage of the fact that you're in a church like this,
that's preaching the gospel to be a good soul winner. Don't make the unrighteous trade off
of doing so. How about Bible reading, right? Some people will trade the birthright of understanding
the Bible by simply submitting themselves to the Holy Spirit and use like a commentary. That's
the thing. Or people are like, well, I'd rather just read a devotional book. I'd rather just get
Charles Haddon Spurgeon commentary. I'd rather get John MacArthur's interpretation of this passage
than to actually study myself. And let me just say this, you know, studying the Bible yourself
is a lot of work. It's a ton of work. I mean, doesn't the Bible say study to show thyself,
approve them to God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
The key word there is work, man. It means you can't be like a microwave, right? You know,
don't chat GBT and interpretation, you know, yeah, I got the answer. See, I've been praying
about it. That's an unrighteous trade off. Why? Because we have the narrator living within us.
We have the author dwelling within us. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is available to us
and us alone, by the way. Only saved people have that privilege. You have the most scholarly dude
out there and he claims to know the Bible cover to cover, but if the guy's not saved, he can't
understand the Bible. Bro's still trying to figure out, you know, what must he do to be saved? He's
still like Nicodemus. What do you mean? How am I supposed to go into the second time to my mother's
room and be born again? Type of thing. A thou master of Israel knows not these things. And so
it's important for us not to make that trade off to understand sometimes we just need to pray and
say Lord open down my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law you know help me to
understand the word of God help me to just study as much as possible and look you know the Bible
seems to indicate that when it comes to understanding the scriptures we got to cry for knowledge
what that means it means Lord please help me to understand this passage it means to to just
travail in prayer begging God for that answer don't make the unrighteous trade off of depending
on unrighteous people who are not safe to understand the Bible and definitely don't go
to no Jewish encyclopedia either you know that's the mistake that a lot of our old IFB brethren
have done where they want to go to the rabbis they want to go to the Jews to understand the
scriptures but folks they're more blind than your regular run-of-the-mill unsafe person
right they can't understand the scriptures yeah but they understand the cultural context yeah but
they're liars though so you can't even like trust if it's true or not right they're going to give
you some form of interpretation that exalts israel and makes you give money to the temple and
all that other nonsense we need to make sure that we submit ourselves to the ministry of the holy
spirit and we don't make the unrighteous trade-off of depending on others to understand the scriptures
let's use that which god has instituted to understand the bible to get it right whether
that is reading the scriptures or coming to a bible-believing church like this one to understand
the scriptures you know the bible tells us that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some
pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying
of the body of christ he says that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro carried
about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive so what is the solution to not being deceived by false prophets get into a bible
believe in church like steadfast right you get into a bible believe in church where the pastor
is actually opening up the scriptures showing you from the word of god what the bible actually says
that is a righteous trade-off there sacrificing your time well i just kind of like to be a big
fish in a small pond you know well you know that's an unrighteous trade-off you know and how are you
going to grow well i just kind of like to be the head honcho at my church well why don't you get
around some other head honchos and see how well you fare because folks how do you get better
as a christian if you're not around better christians if you're just like the the the the top
dog at your church and you know more than the pastor will get around this church because i
guarantee you you probably don't know more than him and it's probably people here who know a lot
more than other members that are in this church as well don't make the unrighteous trade-off
to forfeit your spiritual birthright of soul winning of reading the word of god you just we
need to make sure that we recognize the value of sacrifice right and look obviously i'm preaching
to the choir here because you know people in this church they travel what like who travels here like
two hours to get here two hours all right two right there how about an hour hour and a half three
hours three hours visit okay cool well still you hey you made a good trade-off amen okay anybody
over here four hours all right so we have a range for between one and three and a half hours that's
a good trade-off and look folks if i knew of a church that preached the word of god the pastor
was a hard preacher that was not apologetic that is constantly being persecuted okay that is
producing the numbers the soul winning numbers that are getting people saved that has this kind
of crowd on a sunday night oh i would gladly sacrifice my gas money i would gladly run my
car into the ground coming to a church like this it's worth it it's a good trade-off but you know
people are like well you know i'd rather just be you know with the zionist pastor he might tell me
to pray for Israel once in a while but hey you know at least i save on gas not a good it's an
unrighteous trade-off anything worth having always requires sacrifice it always does and so a lot of
people are like esau where they're willing to sacrifice the birthright for a simple bowl
of pottage go to judges chapter 16 if you would judges chapter 16 and yeah i am putting a shameless
plug for steadfast baptist church why not this is a great church we need more churches like
steadfast baptist church we need more pastors like pastor jonathan shelly you know we need more
sermons on gross people you're like oh man if i come to this church i'm going to be associated
with controversy it's a good trade-off good trade-off i mean you worship the most controversial
figure in the history of mankind jesus christ right he is the most controversial figure people
use his name as a cuss word you know and people crucified him i mean he is a controversial figure
you know we should be willing to also associate with his laborers as well with his churches with
his people no matter what controversy surrounds it yeah but if you guys are always centered around
you know surrounded with controversy well let's look at the lives of the disciples
and the apostles they're always surrounded by controversy yeah but you know not this kind of
kind of no it was actually worse some of them died how about that it's a worthy sacrifice don't
make unrighteous trade-offs that you're going to regret later let's look at another example here
Samson is a great example of someone who made an unrighteous trade-off what did he trade he traded
being a deliverer for Delilah bad trade-off Samson he wanted the power of God while living in the
pleasures of this world and more specifically fornication says in verse 16 it came to pass
when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death
that he told her all his heart and said unto her there hath not come a razor upon mine head
for i have been a nazarite unto God from my mother's womb if i be shaven then my strength
will go from me and i will become weak and be like any other man this is one of the reasons
i don't shave my beard amen because then i shall be weak and be as other men you know samson's kind
of stupid though would anyone disagree with me on that i mean this is by the way like this is how
many times this was she asking him this how many times did she set him up and then he just kept
dating her right this kind of shows you how dumb guys can be when you put the wrong girl in his
path right they just kind of they're just kind of blinded to everything bro the girl's trying to
kill you you know can you wake up here it's like hello you're about she's trying to kill you yeah
but it's it's delilah though damson the girl's toxic bro she's toxic she's seeing other dudes
she's trying to kill you yeah but delilah though all brawn no brains now look at verse 18 so he
finally tells her what where's the source of his strength which is his hair right and when delilah
verse 18 saw that he had told her all his heart she sent and called for the lords of the philistine
saying come up this once for he had showed me all his heart then the lords of the philistine
came up unto her and brought money into their hand and she made him sleep upon her knees
and she called for a man and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head
and she began to afflict him and his strength went from him and she said the philistines be upon
thee samson and he awoke out of his sleep and said i will go out as other times before and shake
myself now that's one of the most that's one of the most saddest statements in the bible because
this is the statement of a man who thought well i've done this before i can do it again i will
go out as other times and shake myself you know there comes a time where you can no longer shake
yourself you may think that you know fornicating committing adultery getting involved in sin you
might have gotten away with it a couple times but let me just say this you didn't get away with it
it's called god's mercy it's called god's grace you know it's something that didn't happen to
you the first or second or third time it's not because you're getting away with it it's not
because god can't see you it's because of the fact that god's being gracious to you he's hoping you
repent he's hoping you get right with god so you don't destroy your life but then you know so many
times young men are just like well i'm just going to go out as other times and just shake myself i'll
just go out as other times and you know what everything is going to be fine and dandy not this
time samson not this time he says i will go out as go out as other times before and shake myself
and here's the kicker and he wished not that the lord was departed from him now this doesn't mean
that he lost his salvation okay let's clarify this because a lot of people bring this up along with
saul and they'll often think well you know this says that the lord departed from him and so you
know how does this work with one saved always saved well this is how it works in the old testament
when people believed on the lord for salvation the holy spirit was involved and in fact he did
regenerate the dead spirits of those who were unsaved the difference is that he didn't dwell
permanently the believers at that time okay and then the new testament the only thing that changed
the transition is that when we believe on the lord we are in dwell with the holy spirit permanently
now why is that you know some people ask like why how come he didn't dwell the believers in the old
testament but he does indwell believers in the new testament and here's the answer it's because of
what the temple is in the new testament compared to the old and the old testament the tabernacle or
and or temple was essentially the main place where the presence of god dwelt well who is the
tabernacle and or temple of god now we are so therefore now in the new testament there's not
a physical temple that we go to to worship god we are the temple of the holy ghost which you have
of god and you're not your own that's what the bible says so now the holy spirit indwells within
us permanently so when it says here that the lord was departed from him the way we can interpret
that is to mean that he lost the power of god you know god's hand is no longer on him his blessing
is no longer on him doesn't mean he's not saved and in fact the fact that he's getting punished
is an indication that he is saved are you saying that i could just believe i don't want nothing
will ever happen no actually you'll get punished no actually you might die no actually you'll get
chastised according to hebrew chapter 12 because whom the lord loveth he chastineth and scourgeth
every what son whom he receiveth why because as many as receive them today and give you power to
become the sons of god even until they believe on his name behold what manner of love the father
bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of god god becomes our heavenly father we
are his children therefore when we sin we are chastised of god as noted right here that god
is chastising samson by removing his power from him why because now he can't just get up and
whoop all the philistines and i don't even believe that like you know samson was buff or anything
like that you know he wasn't looking like dwayne johnson or whatever you know he wasn't some big
samoan looking dude whooping i think samson was probably you know skinny probably had little to
no muscle upon him which is why it's such a miracle that he was able to do these incredible
physical feats it's because of the fact that the power of god was upon him right that's where the
power came from was the spirit not from the flesh what we see here that he whisked now what does
that mean it means he didn't even know that god had departed from him you know what when
christians make these unrighteous trade-offs it messes it impairs their judgment when christians
make these unrighteous trade-offs and friendships with churches and things of this nature they
sometimes don't even know that the lord departs from them they don't lose their salvation but
you know sometimes they begin to lose the blessing of god god's hand is no longer with them you know
it's not really hard to tell whose hand god is on right or whose whose person god's hand is on why
because the the the proof is in the pudding ain't that right pastor shelly proof is in the pudding
just look at the results look at the churches let's look at the members let's look at the who's
producing joy who's producing salvations who's producing the the attendances in the church
it's the ones who god's with right samson on the other hand made an unrighteous trade-off
and it resulted in him losing the power of god in his life i don't mind you but i don't want
to lose god's power i want god's power to continue to be upon me so i can keep reaching more people
for christ i keep getting people saved you know thank god that the instagram is blowing up right
now and it's not because there's anything special with me it's not because i'm a great communicator
it's not because of the video quality because quite frankly anybody else can do it i'll tell
you who it is it's god god's the one who's trying to reach these people god's allowing me to do so
and you know what it has nothing to do with these guns thank you for laughing got nothing to do
with the quads or the lads or the deadlifts or the squads it has everything to do with god's hand
and you know i want to make sure that i don't end up like samson so i need to make sure that i
avoid the unrighteous trade-off of getting involved in sin but you know this applies to you too maybe
you got a good streak going on in this church by getting people saved maybe you're a fantastic
soul winner maybe god is using you well you want to keep that going samson maybe you're strong in
the lord and in the power of his might you want to keep that going you better make sure you stay
away from delilah because she's cast down many wounded that's what the bible says turn with me
if you would in matthew chapter 5 matthew chapter 5 i'll keep reading and judges says the lord is
departed from him but the philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to gaza
and bound him with fetters of brass and he did grind in the prison house how be it the hair of
his head began to grow again after he was shaving isn't that interesting that the bible mentions to
us that though he failed though he made this unrighteous trade-off the hairs of his head
began to grow what does that mean god was going to give him a second chance and you know what you
might be listening to me tonight i'm telling you right now this may be your second chance you may
have already made the righteous unrighteous trade-off you may have already selected delilah
well here's your second chance samson here's your chance the hairs of your head are beginning to
grow and it might be god trying to help you hey you know what maybe as a wife you've chosen
the unrighteous ideology of feminism you know feminism is garbage i absolutely hate feminism
i can't stand um loudmouth women i'm only gonna be preaching tonight and that's it and i'm god so
you know so if i offend you too bad we already we already broke record attendance
it's already done i can't stand feminists i can't stare blue hair dykes i can't stand i can't stand
rebellious women i can't stand it with women don't submit to their husbands it makes me sick you
know who they are to me delilah's who are seeking to remove the power from their husbands by shaving
off their heads the hair of their heads to remove the power of god from them you know what if you
don't want to be like samson young lady or wife or whoever you you are you know submit to your
husband keep the power of god on your life by actually submitting to your husband yeah but he's
not really like abraham you're so what you're not like sarah either and and since when does
the bible says that you're supposed to submit to your husband if he acts like abraham and look
abraham wasn't necessarily the best guy either rolled over here lying and stuff and a little
scared right can we can we be honest about abraham i know he's a father of faith but god the guy kind
of had some you know he was a little weenie sometimes too point that i'm making here is that
we have too many women today in churches and i'm not just talking about like the secular
the females out in the secular realm obviously they're a bunch of feminists but i'm sick and
tired of feminism coming into the churches and i'm not even talking about like panacostal churches
because it's not a panacostal church you know they got feminism there you got women preaching
behind the pulpits and jezebel whatnot i'm talking about disobedience to your husband what about
abuse though oh you mean because he told you to cook a meal for him oh you mean because he raised
his voice at you oh you mean because he told you to do something and you disobeyed and then what
because he he he took away your debit card or something like that oh this is horrible abuse
it's non-existent and i know you guys don't like what i'm saying right now it's okay but you know
what he has to deal with you when i'm gone so too bad feminism is crap it's garbage it's a wicked
ideology and you ought to be ashamed of yourself if you're a lady in our church and you don't submit
to your husband there i said it you know what if you're not married you ought to be ashamed of
yourself you don't submit to your father too plain and simple because you know what you know what
you know what you're gonna grow up to be a delilah shaving off the locks of hair from samson to take
away the power of god from his life that's what you are where am i at here look at matthew chapter
five someone asked me this morning one of our visitors you know they found me on instagram
and they were talking outside or right here by the doors and the wife was like do you have anything
on feminism do you guys have anything on feminism i'm like yeah i think we got a couple things on
we check my rolodex real quick amen you know if you want to improve your marriage this is a great
church to come to right here you know where you know what uh no the pastor is not going to castrate
you spiritually and remove your authority from you and you know make you feel like you're you're
supposed to be guilty and make you you know act like you have to tread lightly around your wife
or something like that it's a place where biblical leadership is reinforced in the home amen don't be
afraid to say amen now blink twice if you're scared throw a little you know pass me a little
paper you know if you're being held hostage. Samson made an unrighteous trade-off and he paid the
price dearly a lot of women are like Samson too because they don't realize that not submitting to
their husbands is essentially it's the equivalent to that is like basic Samson cutting off his hair
he's damaging himself you're destroying yourself by not submitting to your husband you're destroying
your family you're destroying your kids you're destroying your daughters you're destroying your
sons you're destroying your household you're plucking down your house with your own hands
but let's talk about Samson again so look at Matthew chapter five he got his eyes plucked out
he was bound with fetters he was grinding in the prison house look at Matthew 7 verse excuse me
Matthew chapter 5 verse 27 you have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shall not
commit adultery but I say to you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart and if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it
from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole
body should be cast into hell isn't it interesting how that kind of relates to Samson you say how so
well Samson got his own eyes plucked out by his enemy if he would have plucked out his own eyes
he would have been he would have been better off and you know what sometimes we need to make the
trade-off of making sure that we cut off either certain friends that we have a girlfriend a
boyfriend relationships family members that are causing us to sin causing us to lose the power
of God in our lives rather than suffer the consequences of our sin and we get our own
eyes plucked out by the enemy right that's the trade-off that we need to make Samson made an
unrighteous trade-off man what if what if the story just ended with Samson and all his great
exploits and Delilah was never in the picture he would have been a great judge an awesome judge
well what do we have at the end of his life suicide eyes plucked out grinding in you know
the area with the philistines being mocked yeah his hairs began to grow but at the end of the
day he finished his life in an unrighteous manner because he chose an unrighteous trade-off we need
to avoid that as much as possible proverbs chapter 7 verse 25 says let not thine heart decline to her
ways go not astray in her path for she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men like samson
hath been slain by her you know this actually more applies to the young men in our church
you better stay away from delilah better stay away from delilah making sure that you don't you know
start dating girls first of all that are not christian they're not saved and let me say this
that are not even in church they don't have biblical values they only want to hang out with
you in the dark they're okay with just kind of being alone with you you better stay away from
delilah no it's okay i shall go out as other times i'll shake myself like other times proverbs chapter
2 verse 16 says to deliver thee from the strange woman even from the stranger which flattereth with
her words which forsake at the guide of her youth and forget at the covenant of her god the bible
says what is the bible telling us here you know we need to make sure that we are willing to make
the righteous trade-off of waiting till marriage right you know every man has that desire to be
physical with the woman but god wants us to fulfill that in marriage in a righteous manner
you know to to abstain from fornication to live a righteous life until the right one comes along
she's saved she's a Christian i have offended pastor shelly all right pastor shelly get out
the unrighteous trade-off is willing to just get involved in relationships when you know for a fact
this is this is a wrong path here you know every dude who's been involved in a relationship like
that knows exactly what i'm talking about you're like this is bad but i shall shake myself as other
times yeah it might have happened to samson but not me hey the the wisest man in the bible the
strongest man of the bible the godliest man of the bible they all fell into sexual sin so in order
for you to avoid that you got to be stronger than samson wiser than solomon and godlier than david
and i just don't see that so why don't we just steer clear of delilah and not make that unrighteous
trade-off and you know what you might be sitting here thinking like dude i can't even get a girl
talk to me well you know praise god for that you know you think that's a curse but that might
actually be a blessing you're like oh man i i'm not having trouble fornicating i can't even
fornicate even i wanted to well you know what maybe that's a good thing not maybe that is a good thing
and you know what instead of counting it a curse counting it a blessing thank you for making me
ugly because you know what maybe that is a blessing because you know what fornication
destroys lives you think the good-looking dude on social media who fornicates with all kinds of
women you think that person is happy you think that person is being blessed you know how many
bastard children that guy has you know how much child support he has to pay you know my venereal
diseases he probably has you think that's a blessing i'd rather be butt ugly and not have
any girls want to fornicate with me but you know what at least i'm pure at least i'm a holy person
i got god's hand on me and i'm beautiful on the side of the lord right then to just have all of
the looks you know the the gigachad look and you know have all types of opportunities to commit sin
it's not worth it it's not worth it at all maybe some of you need to pray god make me ugly why are
you scared the point that i'm making the point that i'm making is that we can't go the way of
samson making unrighteous trade-offs keep under your body bring it into subjection let's by any
means when you preach to others you yourself should be a castaway make sure that you discipline
yourself to stay away from the delilahs from the wicked people of this world that will tempt you
and cause you to sin and make that unrighteous trade-off god has ordained you to be a deliverer
to deliver people from hell to deliver others from unrighteousness don't be samson who chooses
delilah over being a deliverer be the salt of the earth let's look at another example go to luke
chapter 17 if you will luke chapter 17 and this point i actually should have saved the the feminist
part for this point lot's wife she made an unrighteous trade-off she chose sodom over
a second chance and what happened with her she turned and became a pillar of salt because he
chose homos over being delivered with her husband and her daughters right lot's wife wanted to escape
judgment yet cling to sodom her heart turned back even as her body moved forward and she became a
pillar of salt luke 17 28 says likewise also as it was in the days of lot they did eat they drank
they bought they sold they planted they built it but the same day the lot went out of sodom
it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all even thus shall it be in the
day when the son of man is revealed in that day he which shall be upon the housetop and his stuff
in the house let him not come down to take it away and he that is in the field let him likewise
not return back and look at this great phrase here remember lot's wife now every time i read
this i chuckle a little bit because it's just i'm just kind of picturing the lord like remember
lot's wife like he didn't need to add any extra commentary he didn't he didn't quote the story
he just knew everyone knew remember lot's wife what happened to lot's wife she turned back and became a
pillar of salt why because she disobeyed the word of the lord that told her not to turn back she
disobeyed the authority that told her not to turn back and what happened she became a pillar of salt
if the salt hath lost its savor wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing
but to be cast out to be trodden under the foot of men lot's wife wanted to escape the judgment yet
cling to sodom and she became a pillar of salt she was destroyed you know there are wives that hold
back their husbands maybe a husband is trying to serve god maybe a husband wants to be more
faithful to church maybe he wants to go to all three services maybe he wants to preach the gospel
a little more maybe he wants to teach the bible to the kids maybe he wants to have a biblical
marriage and then lot's wife he's married to a lot's wife who's holding him back from doing so
wives can i just give you a word of advice well i'm not asking you i'm just going to give it to you
anyways hold your husband back and you know what he might be light years ahead of you but you know
what still don't hold him back let him serve god as much as he wants and i promise you you'll be
thankful for it later on i'm just not ready to commit that much then let his commitment make
make up the difference for you and him and just follow him wherever he goes you know i've dealt
with marriages in my church and various other congregations that i've been a part of where the
husband's just on fire for god he's serving the lord he's doing great but you know what gets out
of church you know why not because of him but because of his wife you know i've never really
lost the guy in our church but i've had guys who left our church because of their wives i mean i
don't think that's very uncommon i've had people in our church who are just fiery soul winners
they love the preaching of god's word they like hard preaching but the wife you know like this
morning but the jews on this day is just like but the wife keeps holding him back i've had wives
literally sit in my office and say i actually hate this church and they're like i hate this church i
don't want to be here my husband wants to keep coming wants to bring the kids and i'm just like
that sucks you know like start liking it you know what am i gonna tell you you know and look we
don't have a horrible church our church is a great church the ladies in our church who are godly
ladies they're extremely happy in our church they're wonderful godly ladies in our church
they love their husbands they love their children they just they love our church and they have the
joy of the lord they like serving god and you know what they exhaust themselves serving god
but they're fulfilled and they're happy submitting to their husbands the most miserable ones we don't
have any currently but in times past the most miserable ones were the ones who did the opposite
of that, who rebelled against her husbands, rebelled against biblical authority. Are you saying that
they have to submit to your authority? Well, you got to submit to the authority of the pastor while
you're in the church, obviously. And let me just say this, if you don't like pastoral authority,
I'm just going to tell you right now, you're probably the person who doesn't like God's
authority either. That's just it. Because you know, God's people should be characterized by
loving authority. That's what we should be characterized by, by submitting to magistrates,
submitting to authority. Whether that is the authority in the home, the authority in the
church, governmental authority to a certain degree. We're supposed to submit to authority
just in general. God's authority, biblical authority, the Bible itself, the final authority.
That's literally what's supposed to be, as Christians, is lovers of authority, not these
Korah, Dathan and Abiram types that hates authority. Looking for excuses to leave their authority,
looking for excuses to rebel against their authority. That's a wicked thing to do, my friends.
And you know what? I, let me just tell you right now, you should get away from people who are
encouraging you to leave your authority, too. Yeah. It's wicked. Well, if he doesn't do this,
then what? Then what? The way you should finish that sentence is make him his favorite meal.
If he doesn't like that, then make him a different meal. Oh, you're just a like male chauvinist pig.
Why resent that? Because pigs are females. Hog. We need preaching like this again. We need preaching
like this over and over and over again till the cows come home. Because you know what? God is not
pleased with the church that teaches its congregants to buck authority. God's not pleased with that.
God is not pleased with the wife who doesn't submit to her husband. He's not pleased with the
man who doesn't submit to God. He's not pleased with the congregant who doesn't submit to the
pastor. He doesn't like that. Are you trying to say your wife obeys you? Yeah. Yeah, she does.
And you know what? She's not happy when she doesn't. You know, if this bothers you,
if it causes you to kind of like, you know, twitch a little bit, it probably means you need
to reform your mind a little bit. It probably means you need to turn off those podcasts by
those women out there who are constantly telling wives to disobey their husbands. That's the
problem. You can't even picture Sarah making a podcast. Sarah, Abraham's wife making a podcast.
It's just not going to happen. And I'm kind of extreme in that area. So you don't have to agree
with me on that. Like I'm not for any women podcasts, just at all. You know what I mean?
Like if my wife said, can I make a podcast? I would say, yeah, but put it on private and
only me and the kids can listen to it. No, I'm just kidding. No, you can't. I know some ladies
don't like what I'm saying right now. Hey, but you know, that's how I run my home. And you know what?
That's the kind of home she grew up in too. Her father was a pastor. Her father ruled like that.
His wife was in submission to him. And you know what? So were their kids. And you know, that's
the kind of home he ran. And you know what? That's the kind of home I want to run too. I want to run
a home that enjoys authority, respects authority, submits to authority, and isn't looking for reasons
to get out from under authority. Always looking for the loopholes in the contract to figure out
what we can do to disobey authority. I'm not going to sit with dissemblers. I'm not going
to sit with people who are encouraging others to rebel against their spiritual authority,
whether it's the pastor, husband, or God himself. It's not going to happen. We need to reinforce
authority. I'm reading military time. So I don't know what time it is. Go to Joshua 7 if you would.
Nah, just go to 2nd Timothy chapter 4. The point that I'm making is this,
is that you need to take into account ladies, you need to take into account men,
the kind of trade-offs you're making here. You need to make sure you're making some good trade-offs
because actions have consequences. And you know what? You may think to yourself, "Oh, you know,
I don't think it's going to be that bad." Yeah, let's see you in five years. Let's see you in
10 years. Let's see how that works out for you. But you know what? Let's just say that you make
an unrighteous trade-off and you don't suffer the consequences because of it. Let's just say you
ride off into the sunset. You live happily ever after or just a rebellious wife. It's still wicked
and wrong to do because it's always right to do right regardless of the outcome. Always right to
do right in spite of the outcome. Obviously, God hangs the carrot before us to do right because
we'll be blessed. But you know what? We should do right regardless if we're blessed or not. We should
love our wives as Christ loved the church even if she doesn't love us back. You should submit to your
husband as unto Christ even if he doesn't love you back. Why? Because it's the right thing to do.
It's the Christian thing to do. God loves his children even though sometimes his children
don't love him back. You know why? Because God is love and God will always do right.
You know what? God will love you as a Christian in spite of the fact that you're disobedient to him.
Right? Doesn't God just, you know, love you until you die and you go to heaven even in spite of the
fact that there are Christians out there that disobey the Lord? Of course. You know why? Because
he's God and he's always going to do right. You know, we need to follow that example and recognize
we need to do right even if the consequence doesn't come out in our favor. Even if the results are not
in our favor. Why? Because it's always right to do right. So you know what? If you're loving your
wife as Christ loved the church and your wife is just wrong to you, mean to you, doesn't obey you,
you should still love your wife. You know why? Because it's the right thing for you to do.
And at the end of the day, God will bless you for it in the long run,
but it's just right to do right no matter what. But in like manner, you should submit to your
husband even if he is a jerk, right? Why? Because it's the right thing to do. You know,
we as Christians need to do the right thing, not just the thing that ends up resulting in our
success. You understand what I'm saying? We need to be a people of conviction and a person of
conviction doesn't look for the result to determine what kind of decision he's going
to make today. He makes the decision based off based off of what does God say I should do?
My last point, let's talk about Demas. Demas chose dishonor for honor. The Bible says in second
Timothy chapter four in verse number 10, do thy nine, excuse me, do thy diligence to come shortly
unto me for demons have forsaken me having love this present world and is the pardon to Thessalonica
Christians to Galatia Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with the
priest profitable to thee, excuse me, profitable to me for the ministry. Demas will go down in
history as just being a loser. He chose dishonor over honor. And we don't know what it was about
the world that attracted him and caused him to get out of the ministry and forsake Paul,
but it doesn't matter. It was wrong no matter what. And you know what? Don't be like Demas.
Let me just apply it. You know, don't forsake your pastor. Don't forsake that man. Stand with him.
Don't be a Demas. And look, don't be a Demas when you get offended because he is going to offend
you. You know how many shorts this guy has made about me? Ragging on the rod of iron,
making fun of my coffee addiction, using my Mexican culture against me. I'm a man of principle.
I'm still going to be his friend. He's the thing. Pastor Shelley always asks me this.
Oh, he doesn't ask me. He says, "Well, I'm just glad you're still my friend." And it's almost
like a question, but he's just like, I'm almost expecting at the end, like, "Right?" He's like,
"Well, I'm just glad that you're my friend." You know what I do? I don't say nothing.
Let him keep guessing. Amen. You say, "Why are you Pastor Shelley's friend?" Because he's a godly man.
He's doing the work of the Lord. He serves God. He's got a great church and it's just a Christian
thing to do too. You said, "Do you guys disagree on stuff?" I'm sure we do. You know, I mean,
we wouldn't be real humans if we didn't, right? If we have disagreements. And you know what?
We're not exactly the same, but it doesn't matter. And you know what? If, you know,
your pastor doesn't have like the best reputation. I don't know if you know that.
And some of your visitors, just don't Google. Don't Google him, all right? It's just not fair
if you do that. Don't Google any of us, actually, not to think about it. But let's just say you end
up Googling him, which you shouldn't. You're like, "I can't believe what in the world?" Now,
we're not talking about anything sinful either, by the way. He's not involved in any sin. He's
not involved in anything illegal. And in fact, all the controversy that surrounds Pastor Shelley
is just centered around the Bible. That's all it is. And you know what? Don't be this Christian
who's just like, "Well, there's just too much controversy surrounding you, and so I can't really
be your friend or something." Don't be a weak Christian. Don't be a demis. Don't just forsake
your friend. Ride or die, right? To the very end. Why? Because this is the right thing to do.
Choose honor over dishonor. Choose supporting this church over leaving the church because you
got offended at a sermon he preached, or because there's too much controversy that surrounds him,
or because no pastor likes him. Who cares? Look, let's just say this is not going to happen,
but let's just say him and I part ways, still be friends with Pastor Shelley, support him.
It's not going to happen, but let's just say for illustration's sake, you keep supporting Pastor
Shelley no matter what. And when I say no matter what, I'm obviously not referring to like sin or
anything like that. I'm talking about no matter what he preaches, no matter what person is saying
whatever about him on the internet, support the man. Don't forsake him. You know, your pastor has
sacrificed, your pastor is the perfect example of someone who's made a lot of righteous trade-offs.
Bro has sacrificed a lot. Since he took over this church, he sacrificed a lot. So how do you know?
Because he complains about it all the time to me. And so it's just like, I get it already, right?
I'm, okay. You know, he has sacrificed a lot, but they're all good sacrifices, though. They're all
righteous trade-offs. And may that be an example to you to keep making the righteous trade-off.
You know what? Here's an unrighteous trade-off. Well, I don't like the controversy here,
so I'm going to go to a church where there's not a whole lot of controversy.
That sucks. Not a good trade-off. You're not going to get the bang for the buck on that one.
That's not going to work. Well, I'm just going to go somewhere where the pastor isn't constantly
surrounded by controversy, where he's preaching against feminism,
where he's calling out sodomites, he's calling out the Jews. Bad trade-off. Stay in this church,
amen? Support this church. Love your pastor, pray for your pastor, let him know that you're
praying for him, let him know that you love him. That's the righteous trade-off. I might
sacrifice all kinds of friendships though if I keep being the church member here and I keep
being his friend. That is a righteous trade-off. You don't need friends like that. You know what,
anybody who doesn't want to be friends with me because I'm friends with Pastor Shelley,
they weren't really good friends in the first place then. I literally had someone text me as
I was on my way over here. This is disgusting that you're going to go preach for Pastor Shelley.
I can't believe you're doing this. Weenie, what a sucker. Ha! Hilarious. You're like, well,
you know, doesn't that bother you a little bit? Not a bit. Why do I want people like that around
me? Why do I want people who like leave being my friend at the drop of a hat? And it's not like
people don't know that I've been Pastor Shelley's friend this whole time. Of course I have been.
So it's just like, you just found out that I'm going to go preach. I was supposed to preach
from last year. We've been friends. But all of a sudden, oh, I can't believe it. We're going to
go to Steadfast Baptist Church and all the stuff that he says. That's why I'm going there. So I
can say the same stuff too. He dropped the F bomb. You ready to hear it again? I'm saying, you know
what? May your life, listen to me, be characterized by righteous trade-offs, not unrighteous trade-offs.
Take it into account. Think about your decisions. Think about the trade-offs you're making and think
to yourself, is this a good or a bad trade-off? You need to take that into account because you
know what? This church, my church, our churches are filled with people who have made both trade-offs,
both good and bad. And you know what? I can show you a list of people who made unrighteous trade-offs
and they are paying the consequences of it today. And you know what? Come see me next year. I'll
show you another list of people who are making currently unrighteous trade-offs right now and
they're going to suffer the consequences because of it. That's a fact. It's a fact. What's the point?
Point is, screw feminism and make righteous trade-offs, avoid unrighteous trade-offs,
be willing to pay the price to be blessed of God. But even if you're not blessed of God,
you should still do it anyways because it's the right thing to do. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you so much for your word. Thank you for those who sought to make a righteous trade-off by reaching
us. Someone literally spent time out of their week, spent hours learning how to sow one so
they can come and give us the gospel. People who sacrifice time, talents, and treasures to befriend
us, to invest in us. Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed much for us as well. He sacrificed
himself. May we also do the same for others. And I pray that you'd give us discernment and wisdom
and judgment as we do. So we love you. We thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, in closing, let's go to song number 409. Song number 409. Fight is on.
Song number 409. Give it all we got and sing it out tonight. Song number 409. Fight is on.
Baptism this evening. Sister Isabel, if you trust the Christ as your savior,
then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in newness of life.
Thank you all so much for coming to Steadfast this evening. And you made a righteous trade-off
because for being here for about an hour and a half, you're going to get to have an ice cream
after the service. So we ended up breaking our attendance record. We had 230 this evening.
Thank you so much for coming out. Everybody can stick around. We're going to hand out ice cream.
Is it in the fellowship or right here? Yep, right here in this window.
We're going to hand out ice cream to everybody. Thanks for coming. God bless. You're dismissed.