- Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to our services here at Faith Forward Baptist Church.
It's very good to see you all here on this Wednesday night.
If you don't please find your seats.
Now grab the hymn, they'll go to hymn 224.
We'll begin tonight.
Hymn 224.
224, there shall be showers of blessing.
Hymn number 224, once you've found your place,
we'll sing it out together right on that first hymn,
number 224.
(piano music)
So if you would, bow your heads together with me.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege
that we have to be in church on this Wednesday evening.
We thank you for the safety that you've given to each
and every one of us to be able to be here tonight.
We thank you for these songs that we're able
to sing out unto you, Lord.
We just ask that you, for our hearts,
as we sing out these hymns unto you,
help us to be encouraged and edified
as we sing these hymns.
And they'd also fill Pastor Enrique Reyes
with your Holy Ghost.
Thank you for bringing him here safely
to us this evening.
We just ask your power and unction to be upon him
as he preaches to us.
Help us to have open hearts and ears
to receive the message tonight.
And that all that said and done would give you the honor
and glory that you deserve for it.
And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen.
Up to hymn 364, 364, standing on the promises.
Hymn number 364, we'll sing it out on that first verse.
Standing on the promises of Christ, my King.
Hymn number 364, sing it out.
Standing on the promises of Christ, my King.
On the promises of Christ, the promises of--
And at this time, we're going to have bulletins.
So if you need one, please raise your hand,
and then Usher will get you a bulletin.
If you have one, go ahead and open it up.
And on the upper left-hand corner,
it's just our service times.
Below that is our sowing times.
And at the very bottom is our salvations and baptisms
for the year.
On the right side, we have the information
about our mega conference.
And in case you didn't know, Pastor Enrique Reyes is here
and he's down here.
When you get a chance after the service,
please go up to him and thank him for coming by and preaching
for us tonight.
And below that, thank you to those
who participated in the Small Town So-Winning in Eden,
Arizona.
We have 14 So-Winners, 7 Salvations,
that knocked every single door.
And also join us for another So-Winning event.
This is going to be on Navajo Nation on Friday, July 26
and Saturday, July 27.
Speak to Brother Raymond if you have any questions about that.
On the back of the bulletin, please
continue to pray for our expecting ladies
in our church.
And at the very middle of that is information about a skate
now that we're going to have in Mesa on August 15
for 5.30 to 8 PM.
And our upcoming events are right there.
Take a look at those when you get a chance.
At this time, we're going to go over our soul winning number.
So if you've got somebody saved on Monday,
I'm going to start from my left side.
Go ahead and raise your hand in the number of salvations
that you got.
So if you've got somebody saved on Monday,
go ahead and raise your hand.
Five.
So we've got five right over here, Brother Larsen.
Any other salvations for, what is it, Monday?
And Tuesday.
Six.
Anybody else for Tuesday?
22.
Anyone else?
And today, Brother Scott is here on this side,
four actually is, what is it, three for the van?
Okay, we got it.
Okay, so that's basically three, four outside the van.
Okay, anybody else?
Two.
And anyone else for today?
One's going twice.
All right, Brother Hernandez, what?
Three for the van, gotcha.
Anyone else?
All right, Brother Hernandez,
lead us in the next song, please.
- All right, you should find the insert
in the front of your hymnal with Psalm 19.
If you don't have an insert,
you can raise your hand, you'll receive one.
We'll sing it on that verse.
♪ All along the Lord is perfect ♪
♪ Unburied soul, testimony of the Lord ♪
♪ Is sure making simple to be ♪
♪ Desired are they than we ♪
♪ That choose of the Lord ♪
♪ We choose of the Lord ♪ - Buddy has a big cabbage.
♪ Your people are ♪
♪ To be desired are they than we ♪
♪ That choose of the Lord ♪
♪ We are awesome and mighty ♪
♪ And the power of fear ♪
♪ Of the Lord is clean ♪
♪ In the hands of the Lord ♪
♪ And righteous are together ♪
♪ To be desired are they ♪
♪ Awesome and mighty ♪
♪ And the power of ♪ - Let's take your songbooks.
Now go to Hymn 242, Hymn 242.
Been a few years since we've sung this song,
but if you remember it,
sing it out nice and strong with me.
242, "It Took a Miracle."
Number 242 begins, "My Father is a Miracle."
And then number 242, sing it out.
♪ My Father is a Miracle ♪
♪ It's written in the sky ♪
♪ It took a miracle to work the sky ♪
♪ It took a miracle to make a world ♪
♪ It's been a way to save my soul ♪
♪ When they made me know ♪
♪ He took a miracle of love and faith ♪
♪ I'm still hearing of my father ♪
♪ Still can't believe ♪
♪ The wonders of the miracle ♪
♪ But the stars and the stars ♪
♪ Took a miracle to make a world ♪
♪ It's been a way to save my soul ♪
♪ When they made me know ♪
♪ He took a miracle of love and faith ♪
♪ I'm still hearing of my father ♪
♪ He lived over a test of peace ♪
♪ He took a miracle to cut the stars ♪
♪ He saved my soul ♪
♪ Likes that made me ♪
♪ He took a miracle ♪
- This time we're gonna pass on to John chapter number eight.
Please turn your Bibles to John chapter number eight.
- On chapter eight, the Bible reads,
Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives
and early in the morning he came again into the temple
and all the people came unto him
and he sat down and taught them.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him
a woman taken in adultery,
and when they had set her in the midst,
they say unto him, Master,
this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.
Now Moses in the law commanded us
that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou?
Thus this they said, tempting him,
that they might have to accuse him.
But Jesus, stooped down and with his finger,
wrote on the ground as though he heard them not.
So when they continued asking him,
he lifted up himself and said unto them,
He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her.
And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
And they which heard it, being convicted
by their own conscience, went out one by one,
beginning at the eldest, even unto the last.
And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman,
he said unto her, woman, where are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee?
She said, no man, Lord.
And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee.
Go and sin no more.
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying,
I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life.
The Pharisees therefore said unto him,
thou bearest record of thyself.
Thy record is not true.
Jesus answered and said unto them,
though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true.
For I know whence I came and whither I go.
But ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go.
Ye judge after the flesh.
I judge no man.
And yet if I judge, my judgment is true.
For I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.
It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men
is true.
I am one that bear witness of myself,
and the Father that sent me, beareth witness of me.
Then said they unto him, where is thy father?
Jesus answered.
Ye neither know me nor my father.
If ye had known me, ye should have known my father also.
These words spake Jesus in the treasury,
as he taught in the temple.
And no man laid hands on him, for his hour
was not yet come.
Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way,
and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins.
Whither I go, you cannot come.
Then said the Jews, will he kill himself?
Because he saith, whither I go, you cannot come.
And he said unto them, ye are from beneath,
I am from above.
You are of this world, I am not of this world.
I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins,
for if you believe not that I am he,
you shall die in your sins.
Then said they unto him, who art thou?
And Jesus saith unto them, even the same
that I said unto you from the beginning,
I have many things to say and to judge of you,
but he that sent me is true.
And I speak to the world those things
which I have heard of him.
They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.
Then said Jesus unto them, when you have lifted up
the Son of Man, then you shall know that I am he,
and that I do nothing of myself.
But as my Father had taught me, I speak these things.
And he that sent me is with me.
The Father hath not left me alone,
for I do always those things which please him.
As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,
if ye continue in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
They answered him, we be of Abraham's seed,
and we're never in bondage to any man.
How sayest thou ye shall be made free?
Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto you,
whosoever commiteth sin is a servant of sin,
and the servant abideth not in the house forever,
but the Son abideth ever.
If the Son therefore shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed.
I know that ye are Abraham's seed,
but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
I speak that which I have seen with my father,
and ye do that which you have seen of your father.
They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father.
Jesus saith unto them, if you were Abraham's children,
you would do the works of Abraham.
But now ye seek to kill me, a man that
hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God.
This did not Abraham.
Ye do the deeds of your father.
Then said they unto him, we be not born of fornication.
We have but one father, even God.
Jesus said unto them, if God were your father,
you would love me.
For I proceeded forth and came from God.
Neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Why do ye not understand my speech?
Even because ye cannot hear my word.
Ye are of your father the devil,
and the lust of your father ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own,
for he is a liar and the father of it.
Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
Which of you convinced me of sin?
And if I say the truth, why do you believe me not?
He that is of God heareth God's words.
Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
Then answered the Jews and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan
and hast a devil?
Jesus answered, I have not a devil, but I honor my father, and ye do dishonor me.
And I seek not mine own glory, there is one that seeketh and judgeth.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil.
Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall
never taste of death.
Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead?
Who makest thou thyself?
Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing.
It is my father that honoreth me, of whom ye say that he is your God.
Yet ye have not known him, but I know him.
And if I should say I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you.
But I know him, and keep his saying, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and
he saw it and was glad.
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art yet not fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Jesus saith unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Then took they up stones to cast at him, but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple,
going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
Father in heaven, thank you for this church.
I pray that you please bless Pastor Reyes as he preaches your word.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Good evening.
How's everybody doing today?
So now I understand why Pastor Anderson usually preaches on Wednesday without a shirt.
It is hot.
I didn't realize how hot.
You know, I come from Texas, but I definitely did not think it was going to be this hot.
You know, we always tell everybody, "Oh, Texas is great because everybody complains
about the heat.
We can handle it, but I might need to take back some of those words."
Anyways, I want to first thank you all for having me here.
I want to first thank Pastor Anderson and Mrs. Anderson, the entire family.
I also want to thank Brother Segura for the hospitality.
We got in here way too early.
I came with my kids.
My daughter's birthday is on Saturday, so we took advantage to just have a couple of
days where I'm going to spend some time with the kids.
We got here like at 7 o'clock in the morning, and I was like, "What am I going to do for
the next eight hours?"
But we were able to figure it out.
And I just want to thank the Faithful Word Baptist Church for hosting me.
I know some faces here, but most of you guys I'd love to meet afterwards, so thank you
for just hosting me and the kids and having us here.
And then I just want to give you a really quick, just very quick synopsis of, you know,
what the impact that Faithful Word has had on my life.
You know, I got saved when I was 25.
That's a longer story, and you guys, I'm welcome, you can talk about it with me later on.
But the biggest thing just is the impact that it's had on even the subject that I'm going
to preach today.
You know, I would never have imagined to be in an environment like this, let alone be
a preacher.
You know, when I was growing up, I grew up Seventh-day Adventist, and people said, "Oh,
you should become a preacher."
And I was like, I would make fun of those guys.
And of course, thank God, I was a false religion.
But you know, the Lord just led in different ways, and one of the ministries that really
impacted my life is not only Pastor Anderson, but this church and the things that you guys
are doing.
As a matter of fact, I was able to speak to Brother Segura for a while today, and I was
like, "Man, I got some really good ideas just from all the stuff that you guys are doing."
So I was really encouraged, and if I take nothing back, I just took some really good
ideas with me.
And then, sorry, I'm just getting used to this pulpit, you know, being short.
It's kind of hard sometimes.
I feel like I'm having to look over you guys.
I might end up moving around here a little bit.
And then, you know, the only other thing I wanted to just say to start off is I'm not
going to be preaching on queers and fags and whores.
But since it is a safe space, I figured I'd let you guys know because, you know, there's
not a lot of places where you can say that, and there's not a safer space.
You know, snowflakes have their safe space, but we also have our safe space, right?
But you're there in John 8, and the title of the message this afternoon is "The Truth
Shall Make You Free."
And I thought about it, I thought, "What do you preach to churches that are well fed?"
And the thing that you do is, you just feed them again.
And so really, as I kept thinking about it, I was going to go through this elaborate process
when Pastor Anderson reached out in April, and I was going to have this checklist of
titles and topics, and then the Lord just laid this one on my heart immediately like
a week later, and then I'd just been working on it on and off ever since.
So the nice thing is I did truthfully have this set in stone like a couple months ago,
but then the events of the last few weeks have really just made this sermon even more
important.
There's a couple things I just want to point out, and you guys are there in John 8, and
what I want to point out is I feel like a sermon like the one I'm going to preach today
will either have one of two impacts.
It'll feel really simple, or it'll feel like you really got something really deep, because
it's a subject that's actually really deep, and even today I won't even touch the surface.
Speaking on truth is just something that's really difficult, because everybody has their
opinion on truth, but then there's absolute truth.
It's not difficult in the sense that truth is truth, but it's difficult because we deal
in society, and society decides that what you say to be true can be actually divisive
or hateful or offensive when we know what it is to be true, right?
So you're there in John 8, and in verse 30, the Bible says, "And he spake these words,
many believed on him, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, 'If you continue
in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed.'"
And I love all the conditionals in the Bible, right?
"If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed."
And we know that salvation is not enough to get the rewards here on earth and heaven,
right?
Salvation is enough to get into heaven.
We're saved by grace, but I think sometimes people miss the point because we preach an
easy salvation that we're just going to give up and not preach the rest of the counsel
of God, right?
And so we actually don't believe that, and it's interesting that the easier we make the
gospel message, the more we're willing to preach on all the other parts of the Bible,
right?
And that's really what it folks on.
Then verse 32 says, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
And I want to just, I normally don't do this, but I thought it would be interesting.
John 8 is really interesting, right?
Because Jesus comes to the temple, and I almost feel like you're reading through the book
of Job, except it's not the miserable comforters, it's a bunch of reprobates, right?
The Pharisees.
But it's this back and forth, and it keeps escalating.
Every time that they rebuttal Christ, it gets worse.
The mockery and the assault and the attacks, to the point where they're just be like, "We're
just going to stone him."
Right?
That's what they wanted to do.
There he shows up at the temple and immediately they bring the woman in adultery and I love
the way that the Lord reacts because we're going to be speaking on truth, right?
And liberty and trust and these topics and immediately he questions the motives of their
heart, the true motives of their heart, right?
They all leave.
And like I said, I'm just doing a very brief overview.
Then Jesus speaks again in verse 12 and while he's in the treasury and he speaks of his
true testimony and the Pharisees, they don't believe, but then immediately in verse 22
they mock him.
So they already start the mocking, right?
And verses 21 through 27 he speaks of dying in your sins and if you believe not in Jesus,
they still don't understand.
And then you get to verses 28 through 33 because he speaks again, he's going back and forth
and Jesus is speaking to everyone again.
Some Jews believe, but they're not the ones that answer, right?
It's always like the crowd that hates everything.
And we know that at the time, we see other examples in the New Testament where some Jews
believe but they didn't want to speak up for fear of the other Jews, right?
And so we know that that's a fact right there.
And then verses 34 through 30 says Jesus speaks and he really reiterates the truth and freedom
and makes distinction of like the flesh of Abraham's seed versus the spirit, which is
the devil, their father.
And then right towards the end, he clarifies that if they were of God, then they would
understand they would believe the father and they would believe him, but who's their father?
The devil, right?
And so they discredit him in front of the multitude.
They're like, who's this Samaritan?
And not only is he who's this Samaritan, but he has a devil, like he's demon possessed.
And then Jesus speaks back and obviously he rebuttals them.
He's like, I'm not, I don't have a devil.
I'm speaking to devils, but that's a whole other thing.
And what do they do now?
They mock him and eventually he tells them that I am and what do they do?
They pick up stones to stones him, but it wasn't his hour yet to come.
So just as a way of introduction, what I want to do is I want to get a clear understanding
of truth, because we want to know what is that makes us free.
And if you look up a dictionary, it's interesting.
Some words that you look up in the dictionary, they kind of twist, but then there's some
words that you just can't twist.
I mean, truth is truth, right?
People understand this concept.
They don't want to accept the concept, but they understand the concept, right?
I mean, the word truth is just, and I'm not going to read you all the definitions, by
the way.
There's a lot of them, but it's just a true or actual statement of fact.
But what I love is it gives you the antonyms, right?
What's the opposite?
It's falsehood.
And like I said, it might feel very simple, but it's not.
And I'm going to get to a point here, but you have conformity with fact or reality or
verity, but then you also have what?
Falsity.
And it just keeps going back and forth.
But then the other thing is there's a really strong correlation between the word truth
and the word true.
And as a matter of fact, I'm going to read you a little snippet here in a little bit of
the word true and I'm just giving you a disclaimer.
I'm going to have to pronounce the German word, so I hope Mrs. Anderson doesn't hold
me in high contempt on that.
So I hope I don't butcher that word, right?
But the word true means being in accordance with actual state or condition, conformity
or reality of fact, not false.
So in other words, in order to have truth, you have to understand what true is, right?
And then you want to have something that's real or genuine or authentic.
But the one that really stands out to me is not deceitful.
We're going to spend a little bit of time on that.
And then I love this one, firm in allegiance, loyalty, faithful, steadfast.
I mean, they might as well just have taken the scripture and put it in here, right?
It would have been better to describe this.
Like I said, I'm not going to go through these for the sake of time, but you're there in
John 8 and go to verse 13.
Let's just focus on a couple of verses before I get to my first point.
Let me just get a drink.
Right there in John 8 and verse 13, the Bible says, "The Pharisees therefore said unto him,
Thou bearest record of thyself, thy record is not true."
Jesus answered and said unto him, "Though I bear a record of myself, yet my record is
true.
For I know whence I came and whither I go, but ye cannot tell whence I came and whither
I go.
Ye judge after the flesh, and I judge no man.
And yet if I judge, the judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I and the Father that
sent me."
It's also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.
I am one that bare witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bareth witness of
me.
Now, skip down to verse 24.
It says, "I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe
not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."
So, I mean, what I mean by that, like, even the sermon today, Jesus is being real simplistic
here, and I'm stopping here just, he's making it blatantly obvious, and they still don't
get it, right?
And then some of them in the middle believe, and then I'm pretty sure there was a group
in there that's just like, they're not totally convinced because of this other group that's
in direct opposition, right?
We see there in verse 25, it says, "Then they said unto him, Who art thou?
And Jesus said unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning, I have
many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true.
And I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.
They understood not that he spake to them of the Father."
So we just got to come to the realization that some people just are never going to understand.
We also preach it, we know it's the reprobate doctrine, but sometimes we get so caught up
in the fact that these people are so far gone that it's just like this big spiritual battle.
But also, we then get frustrated when people don't get what we're saying.
But you got to come to terms with, sometimes we just don't get it.
They just have a hard head.
And then no matter how many times you tell them, how many times you preach to them, they're
just not going to get it.
As a matter of fact, it makes me think, you know, in Isaiah 6, when he says, "How long,
Lord?"
And he says, "Till the streets are desolate."
He's not going to shut up their eyes, make, you know, he basically says, "They're not
going to get it."
And you still preach the Word.
So our duty is not to get people to understand, although that should be a purpose of ours.
But really, the goal is just to preach the Word of God, right?
We don't know what the result is always going to be.
I mean, you look at a ministry like this, and I remember listening to Pastor Anderson
back in like 2008 or '09, which for most people, it's rare, but him and I are a similar age.
Some young kid who was like military school, and he was the son of my mentor, like came
for summer, and he's the one that introduced me to Pastor Anderson like a long time ago.
But I would just listen on and off, and the impact wasn't until almost a decade later,
right?
It wasn't just him, of course.
We're doing things, but these are the things that you just got to preach it because you
don't know who's going to get it.
Some people might not get it right away, but there's still a chance that they're going
to get it.
Go down to verse 30 right there in John 8, and the Bible says, "And he spake these words,
many believed on him."
But here's the thing.
When we're speaking the word, even though a lot of people aren't going to get it, some
people are going to get it.
And you say, Pastor, you point out the obvious.
Yeah, but sometimes we miss the point.
We get caught up in rabbit trails, and these rabbit trails detract you from the main thing,
keeping the main thing the main thing.
And I'm going to make some points on that, just even with current events, right?
And it says, "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, 'If you continue in
my word, then you are my disciples indeed, if you continue in my word.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of
God, this did not Abraham.
Then go down, I'm sorry, I should have told you, skip down to verse 40, I had them all
together.
Then skip down to verse 44, that's why you guys are looking at me weird.
Skip down to verse 44, and it says, "Ye are of your father the devil."
I hung out with Brother Segura too much, now I'm, you know, I'm high strong as it is, if
I hang out with someone like that, we're both just going to like, we're going to see who
can race the fastest, right?
I'm going to be the Energizer, but he's going to be the Energizer Max, right, so just keep
up with me.
Psalm 44 says, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will
do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him."
This is an important point, right?
Just keep that in mind.
It says, "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father
of it.
And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
Which of you convinces me of sin?
And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
He that is of God heareth God's words, ye therefore hear them not because ye are not
of God.
You know, when we're talking about trying the spirits and discerning, this is a good
set of scripture of how to discern who is of God and who isn't.
Because, you know, I'll hear this statement, you know, I know you guys hear it out when
you're sowing it, right?
Oh, what about their fruit?
What about it?
Right?
Some people don't have fruit.
Everybody wants to argue fruit.
You know, I mean, my children are the fruit of our, you know, my wife and I.
That doesn't mean they act like me or, well, they look like me.
I'm sorry, but I can't help that.
But they don't always act like me or do things like I do.
Sometimes they do them better, sometimes they do them worse, right?
So the first thing I want to focus on right there is go over to Jeremiah 37.
That was just my intro.
No, I'm not going to keep you guys long.
I know some people say that.
I really got it focused in.
But first thing I just want to give you, we see this, if you look at Jesus' ministry,
He doesn't focus in the middle.
He doesn't really focus in the gray.
He's always truth or deceiving or false.
Light or darkness.
And I think the point that I'm trying to make is sometimes we miss that point.
A lot of times we miss that point.
In the last week and a half, we had a murder attempt, an assassination attempt.
We had, I don't know what, some virus or code that got sent through and all the computers
or half the computers in the world went down.
And then we thought Biden was dead, but he's not, right?
That's what they told us.
And then now we have a, like a whore that's running for president and he resigned.
I mean, it's just all kinds of stuff.
I told, I was telling somebody, like the highlight for me actually, because I don't follow politics
that much, but I didn't know that was the only thing I did watch was, you know, I watched
the Hulkster.
I didn't know the Hulkster was in politics.
I grew up watching wrestling and WrestleMania, and everybody loved Hulk Hogan, right?
You wanted to take the vitamins and you'd buy a t-shirt only to tear it, but now it's
like the leaders of the free world are like, let's bring Hulk Hogan to the stage.
And not only that, I mean, you would think maybe he made a change in his series.
No, he literally tore his shirt off.
Thank God he had another one underneath, right, to tell us about the Trumpamaniacs, you know,
and how they need to take their vitamins and say their prayers, because what you going
to do when the Trump comes for you, you know, I mean, seriously, that's the world we're
living in.
This is when this is so important, because people get caught up in that.
And you know what?
There's a ton of Christians that are actually saved by grace who think Trump is their savior.
And there's actually Christians on the other side who think Kamala is their savior, right?
At this point, aren't they all like unified?
I mean, it almost seems like, you know, we're headed somewhere.
But the first point I want to make to you is we want to look at what the world's definition
of truth is.
It's really interesting, right?
I looked this thing up.
I was like, what is truth defined?
I was kind of blown away.
It says, "According to the world," well, I mean, it says in my notes, "According to
the world, these are the types of truth.
There's absolute truth, complex truth, objective truth, empirical truth, relativism, aesthetic
truth, moral truth, arithmetical truths, religious truths, science, normative, subjective," and
I just stopped there.
I was like, "Man, this is insane."
Right?
I mean, literally, it's insane.
So I'm going to read a couple of scriptures here, but you guys turn over to Jeremiah
37, but in 1 John 1, 5, it says, "This then is the message which ye have heard of him,
in declaring to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
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 with one another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
And what I want to focus on here is a couple of things.
If we don't take action on the word of God, it's a sin, right?
It's not just enough to read it.
It's a sin and we know this stuff, right?
But what it is, is when we take a world view of truth, not only is it a sin, but it's
also deceit.
And I didn't focus on be not deceived.
The Bible does warn us a lot about that.
But I wanted to focus on the verses that I chose are about deceiving ourselves.
I think the reason the world gets deceived so easily is because we're very good and innately
well programmed to lie to ourselves.
And I think it's time that Christians just take a deep look inside and just own up to
your mistakes.
And, you know, don't be Trump, right?
I know more about the Internet than anything.
Have you ever seen that clip where they splice all the how he knows everything about everything?
And it's insane.
I wish I was making this stuff up, right?
It's like, I know more about infrastructure than anybody in the world of infrastructure.
You know, I know more about oil and gas and I'm like, dude, I know more about the Internet
than anybody else in the world.
I'm like, yikes.
Maybe that's why we're having the problems we're having today, right?
But we need to stop taking this position of lying to ourselves, you know, because as
I thought about what do you preach to you guys have, you know, Pastor Anderson, he's
deep in the word.
He's dedicated his entire career to preaching the word of God, whereas some of us came later.
You know, I had a whole career and another life, and I look back and I'm like, now I
know, you remember watching, I don't watch movies anymore, but you remember watching
movies and like the character would have one life and then they would like, the scene would
cut and it was like they were leading another life and then it was cut and you felt like
they led different lives.
You know, now I'm not even that old, right, but I look back and I'm like, oh, that's
a whole different life.
My kids will never even know that part of my life.
My wife doesn't even know that part of my life, like just things that just life just
changed so much.
But when you wholeheartedly dedicate your entire life to something, you know, that's
why you're able to feed a flock like this, right?
And so what you want to do then is, or at least in my opinion, if you come somewhere
like Faithful Word, is just to re-emphasize what's already been preached, right?
Because honestly, the danger of trying to preach something new is first of all you shouldn't
preach something new unless it's in the Bible, but if you're trying to preach something that
doesn't line up, then you're just going to create, you know, challenges and that's never
the goal.
But you're there in Jeremiah, let me just read for you really quick in first Corinthians
3 verse 18 it says, "Let no man deceive himself.
If any among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may
be wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and again the Lord knoweth
the thoughts of the wise that they are vain."
Now in this instance right here who is he talking about?
The wise in the world, right?
And what's that wisdom?
Vanity.
You know I love that word vanity because that word vanity just means fruitless, void, with
no purpose, right?
Vanity of vanity sayeth the preacher.
All is vanity.
Like, you spend time trying to figure out, because the one thing I told our congregation
back home, I was like, "You wait.
By the end of the month we will have called out like the end of the world, you know, the
mark of the beast, the man of sin, right?
Like the false prophet."
I mean all of it.
Who's going to call it all out?
And everybody's trying to figure stuff out.
At the end of the day, the truth is that the world, the devil is a liar and he's there
to deceive you.
So who cares what the truth is?
The truth is he's trying to destroy, right?
Who cares if it was one shooter or three shooters or seven bullets or five bullets?
What difference does it make in the grand scheme of eternity?
But Christianity is like, "Oh no."
You know, I mean you guys know, I mean as a matter of fact, I've made it a point to
try to stay offline because it's nuts.
I mean I've heard all kinds of stuff like, "Hey man, make sure you have all your prepping
material."
And I was talking to my wife about it, I don't remember where we were going right before
I came here, and I told her, because I used to have a prepping mentality, just so you
guys know, I understand where they're coming from because I've been down the conspiracy
black holes.
You know, when YouTube was great, I was up until two, three o'clock in the morning dooming
myself to death, right?
My wife was like, "What are you doing to yourself?"
You know, as a young, new Christian, you know, in the milk and not the meat.
I mean, I went down every, as a matter of fact, I don't even want to admit what I went
down, right?
Like it's just, it was just horrible.
And the thing is, you're going to prep for this disaster.
We just had a hurricane.
It took them about a week to get us all in order.
Let's say that you have even a year or two of prepping material.
At some point, you know what's going to happen?
You're going to run out.
And now what are you going to do?
Well, at least if we're in the battle, we'll have figured out a system, right?
We know who the corrupt ones are, who we can barter with.
That's really how the world's going to be.
But if you've been cooped up for two years eating your own food and protecting yourself
and you have to come out, you're like a deer in a headlight.
The world's changed.
They're really going to eat you up.
Like you're just wasting your time.
Not even to take away from the fact that you shouldn't leave because you need to be out
there soul winning and preaching the word of God.
I'm just talking in general like how these people think, right?
What's the logic behind that?
What are you looking to gain?
You're deceiving yourself.
You're just playing games.
Go to Jeremiah 37 or you're there already.
And it's interesting, you know, when people ask me what I think now, nowadays, I used
to get in the arguments, right?
You try to prove, that's an ego trip.
Now I just preach the gospel.
As a matter of fact, if someone doesn't even, if I can't discern that they're saved, I don't
want to talk about anything else.
Well, what about the mark of the beast?
What about it?
I don't want to talk about it with you.
Like, because we know they don't understand, right?
Or if I'm just simply telling you what I think, you know, I try not to do that.
Instead, what I want to do is tell you what the Lord says.
Because the role of the preacher, and you know this, is to preach the word of the Lord,
right?
If you go there to Jeremiah 37, the Bible says in verse 6, it says, and by the way,
just in context, we know Jeremiah is always preaching hard to the nations, to the people
of Israel.
Like, Jeremiah is a rough read, right?
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Lamentations, I mean, these are some hard judgments, right?
I mean, there's good in there, but for the most part, it's like you guys are going down
and you guys are going down.
And it's like everybody's because they've all fallen away.
And you get there, you're there in verse six and it says, "Then came the word of the Lord
unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 'Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, thus shall you
say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to inquire of me.
Behold Pharaoh's army, which has come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt in their
own land, and the Chaldeans shall come again and fight against the city and take it and
burn it with fire, thus saith the Lord, deceive not yourselves, saying the Chaldeans shall
surely depart from us, for they shall not depart.
And one of the things I grew up, I got here in 1985, so I was five years old, so I grew
up in the United States, I speak perfect Spanish for like a, you know, every day, but my English
is way better than my Spanish.
I mean, I'm just going to be honest with you, there's a point where I have to start translating.
But the one thing, remember, whoever's old enough to remember the good old '80s and '90s,
that'll never happen in America, right?
And what are we doing?
We're deceiving ourselves.
People, I mean, the good old patriotic, red, white, and blue, apple pie, you know, baseball
eating Americans, that'll never happen in America.
And God said, "You sent to inquire my word from the preacher, let me tell you something.
Don't deceive yourselves."
And what are we doing right now?
We're deceiving ourselves.
Oh JD Vance, whatever, Kamala, and all this stuff, right?
Everybody's so excited.
It's just entertainment.
You're deceiving yourselves.
You're wasting time.
You're not redeeming the time.
And I could go into other stuff, but I mean, that's just like the most current.
And I would like to think, I mean, I hope I'm not just, you know, reaching at straws,
but you guys are just, you're human by nature, right?
And so you're going to probably get sunk into some of that.
I mean, I like to admit that even as hard as I try, you know, I listen to one or two
and I'm like, "Oh, what's going on?"
And then I'm like, "What am I doing?
It's ridiculous."
Right?
I think it was three shooters.
I'm just kidding.
I don't know.
I don't know how many shooters it was.
But the angle of the bullet.
I'm just...
But there, go over to John, go over to the book of John, go to John 16 and also the
book of Psalms.
These are the last few places I'll have you be as we run this out.
But in Romans seven, the Bible says, in verse 11 says, "For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceiveth me, and by it slew me."
And that's the problem with America today, is we're living in sin.
And we tout it with virtuous, like moral platitudes, "Oh, I'm anti-abortion," but we don't talk
about Christ.
And I'm going to show you some verses here that are really just kind of telling about
some of this stuff.
And right there, in Galatians four, 16, this is just a good transition to my next point,
it says, "I am therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth."
Right?
And the thing that we want to focus on is, we as Christians, we don't believe in all
these truths.
We only believe in the first one, right?
Absolute truth.
I mean, I know that's hard sometimes, but the Bible does give us those answers.
And when you come down to it, when you start believing in absolute truth, you're going
to get sanctified, number one, but you're also just, the world's just going to start
hating you.
Right?
And I've realized, in my life, I want to give you, because you guys know your pastor
better than I do, right?
In my life, I've talked to Pastor Anderson maybe in person, maybe four or five times.
One time I had him for a while because I was his soul-winning partner.
I didn't even get his phone number, like his cell phone number, until like two years ago.
I sent him one text.
He never replied.
I'm just, I'm not, I'm just giving you an example of where I'm at with this, right?
And then when he invited me, he invited me through Facebook Messenger, like, you know,
the Messenger, because I think he had sent me an email and I didn't check it and so he
reached out.
But you would think that him and I are like the best of buds, like that I could just show
up to Arizona and like say, "Hey, where's my room?
I'm going to stay there," because the way that people have ostracized just for even
being in the same vicinity is amazing.
But it's not Pastor Anderson.
It's the Word of God.
And I think the difference is some people like telling that story because they want
to have the attention of Pastor Anderson.
I like telling the story because then it points me to truth, which is the Word of God.
I don't care who that person is, whether it was Pastor Anderson or Pastor whatever.
The fact that the Bible is accurate, right?
It says, "Look, if you start believing on these things, and it just so happens that
it lines up with what other people believe, it's not everybody, these things are going
to happen."
And then when they happen, you're like, "Oh, well, that makes sense," because that's
the Bible, right?
Over there in John 16, I'm going to try not to butcher this.
I wrote it down because I don't want to sound like a Kamala Harris, but hopefully that doesn't
come out.
Oh, and maybe this is not the one.
No, this is the correlation between trust and truth.
Further in the sermon, I have like a tongue twister and I hope I don't butcher that one.
But you know, the words, here's a really interesting fact.
The words truth and trust have a shared linguistic root in the Proto-Indo-European word deru,
which means something that is firm, solid, and steadfast, and in this example they said
like wood, some say that truth is based on the concept of trust. Possibly though, the
proto-Germanic root, travas, which means belief and faithfulness. So, you need to have truth,
but you also need to have trust. What's interesting is you can't have trust if you don't believe
the truth, and you can't, you know, have the truth if you don't trust. So, I mean, they
really are tied together, and that's what, you know, makes us stand out. So, there in
John 16, you guys are there in John 16, this makes me think, when I read these verses,
of the Republican and Democratic Party today. But it also makes me think of all the virtue
signalers, right? Today, there was protests, because Israel's in the house, right? Right?
You know, we say H-Town's in the house, or Israel was in the house today, and everybody
was excited. Not me, but everybody else was excited, right? And the only stupid thing
I heard, I heard just a quick snippet, I think it was five seconds, of Netanyahu saying that
we will win. Win what? Victory's ours. God's given us the victory. I don't know what you're
looking to win, but at the end you're going to lose. But go to John 16, and you're there
in verse 1, it says, "These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth
you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do unto you, because
they have not known the Father nor me." And then skip down to verse 13, it says, "Howbeit
when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show
you things to come." You know, that second part, that's the goal of not only every preacher
but everybody here, your goal should be to speak what the Spirit lays in your heart.
But that first part, it says that "whosoever killeth you will think they do it for the
service of God." I actually did try to follow a couple of the, because I was really interested
in what the show was going to be after the attempted assassination. So I tried to watch
a few snippets of the Republican convention. I mean, you can only stomach so much, right?
I mean, really. When Dana White and Kid Rock are there, it's like, come on. Like the final
day was just like the worst, right? It was like Hulk Hogan, Dana White, Kid Rock. I
was like, what is this? Like, is this Woodstock or something? I don't know. But the one thing
that stood out was how much they mentioned God. Even though they had Wahooweehoo present
on the first day, like they kept mentioning God and God and God and God. Right? I mean,
the ladies, they wear like the big American flag shirt with the big earrings and everything.
They're saying, "Christ is our king." These are the people that think they're going to
kill you and they think they're doing a service to God. They're going to go around thinking,
"We're doing the Lord's work." Because they're deceiving themselves. They have no absolute
truth because they're not seeking the Spirit. Go to Psalm 119. Psalm 119, and just like
I said, keep your fingers there. Well, in the book of John, we're going to jump around
in John, but you're going to be back in John. The Bible says there in Psalm 119, verse
151, it says, "Thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are true." What's interesting
is the progression to 151 from verse 41 in Psalm 119. If we get to Psalm 119, verse
41, just go back a few verses. The Bible says there in verse 41, it says, "Vow, let thy
mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy word. So shall
I have wherewith to answer him that reproaches me, for I trust in thy word. And take not
the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I hoped in thy judgments. So shall I keep
thy law continually forever and ever." And I love this verse, it says, "And I will walk
in liberty, for I seek thy precepts. I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings,
and I will not be ashamed, and I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have
loved. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved, and I will
meditate in thy statutes." And you see, obviously we know Psalm 119 is this great Psalm, right?
It's about the Word of God. But we like sometimes hearing these verses, but we don't like executing
on these verses. We like truth, we just don't like absolute truth. Christianity likes saved
by grace, they just don't like when you question their salvation. I mean, who are the hardest
sometimes to reach? Oh, I'm saved. Okay, well, what is it that you believe in? I don't have
time for you, right? Or I already know. I settled that a long time ago and you press
them and they give you all the wrong answers. You're like, you're not saved. Then they get
offended, right? And that's the challenge. Look, the reprobates are going to do what
the reprobates are going to do. We already know that. But the lost world, the only way
we're going to win the lost world is to continue staying the course, right? The true course.
And I'm not literally just saying true like in truth, like that's actually one of the
definitions, right? If you're on course and you haven't deviated from it, what? You have
a true course, right? It's deeper than that. So go over to John 1, actually go to John
3. Sorry, I just got one quick verse. Go to John 3. But in John 1 verse 17 says, "For
the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Right? He's
the foundation. As a matter of fact, I thought of bringing, because I've seen some of the
pastors, they bring good props. I was like, you know what? It's my first time. Let's
not mess something up. But what I wanted to bring was like, we know that there's those
fake rocks, right? Where you put a key in there and all that stuff. But that rock wouldn't
do anything. Like, you couldn't break a window with it. I mean, this is a cheap plexiglass
window or something. But you couldn't break one of these windows. But, you know, we think
of what's a true rock, a rock that's going to do some damage, right? But that's what
the world sells you. It looks like a rock. It feels like a rock. But inside it's just
devoid, right? The Bible says their rock is not our rock. Our rock is Jesus Christ,
right? And so, right there in John 3, verse 19, the Bible says, "And this is the condemnation
that light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that
his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. And so we need to take action
on truth. Look, I'm not preaching anything you haven't heard before, but the Bible says
that we are his little children. And for you single guys, you might not know, but once
you have children, repetition is the mother of skill, right? And it's the father of learning
and the grandfather of character. I know now why they say it, right? Because one of the
things we do is don't do that. Don't touch that. Don't do it. Come here. Sit down. Stand
up. Follow me. Why did you say that? Stop it. We sound like a broken record. Sometimes
I just catch myself like, what am I doing? What is going on, right? That's how it is
also in the Christian walk. Sometimes you find yourself answering the same questions.
Didn't I just preach on that last week? Didn't I preach on that a year ago? But I always
love, I tell people immediately, I love the people that come up to me and be like, "Pastor,
what do you think? Do you think it's a sin?" As soon as that, when that starts, I already
know where we're headed. I'm like, "Yes." If you have to ask me the question about it,
it's a sin. Right? But it's like, we have to just drill it, and drill it, and drill it.
And you preach truth, and you preach truth, and you try to show truth, and you try to
do truth. And people are like, "I don't know if you're preaching truth." And it's kind
of like John 8. Jesus is like, "I am true. I have a witness." You know, this and that.
They're like, "This guy's nuts. He's got a devil. You know, let's kill this guy before
he does any more damage." And we have this bipolar country, and we need to bring them
together on Christ's truth. Because the reality is just a two-headed monster. Look, I know
for a fact. I served as the chief of staff for a council member in the city of Houston,
which is the fourth largest city in America. And at the time, the mayor of that city was
Anise Parker, which if you don't know who she is, she's basically this reprobate lesbo
who's just one of the most wicked people that's ever lived. And I witnessed the show. And
they would get up there on the dais, and they would beat each other up, and they would say
all kinds of insults to themselves. And I mean, I remember being prepared. Like, I took
my job seriously, right? This is a council member, and I'd have all the... And then they'd
go to the back, and they're like, "Hey, what are you doing tonight? Oh, just come on over.
We'll have a barbecue, and this weekend we're going to do the..." They're just puppeteering
you. That's when I made the decision, I don't want to live like that. You know, I want to
live in truth, right? The result of trusting in the truth is that it strengthens your faith.
Well, I mean, you really do... This is a work in progress. This is something that's not
easy, trusting in truth. You know, because you got to get up, and people are going to
be like, "Oh, you read a book full of fairy tales." Right? I mean, that's insulting.
You believe in your mythical, bigoted God. Right? And if you're not grounded in truth,
it'll shake you. Right? I mean, so here's my little tongue twister. Hopefully it comes
out right. Right? But you trust in Christ, and it leads to truth. And only believing
in truth can you trust in Christ. So in order to be successful in life, it's not just enough
to be saved. Right? In life, here on this earth. Salvation is great. You're going to
be saved. But if you want those rewards, not only on earth, but in heaven, you got to trust
in truth, and you got to have truth to trust. Right? I just didn't want to say that Ukraine
was a country, and it's a small country, and Russia's a bigger country, and they're trying
to take a smaller country, and that's why we have the war that's going on. Right? Like,
something like that. I probably said it better, but you have to trust the process in the Word
of God. And a lot of people will go to heaven because they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,
but not a lot will experience His full plan. They won't. Right? He on earth and in heaven,
without trusting and resting on the scriptures. And this is the difficult part, right? The
part that requires the work. See, we believe in works. We just don't believe in works for
salvation. I mean, you better work hard. As a matter of fact, I've never worked harder
in my life since I became saved and decided to commit to actually learning the word of
God. My life was, I mean, honestly, sometimes I'm like, I should just go back to my own
life. I'm not kidding. I mean, I've had great jobs. They were paying me well. I clocked
in, I clocked out, I had a weekend, vacations, I could do honeydews. I can't even, sometimes
I can't, like, it's like, whoa, what's going on? I'm just keeping my head above water,
right? Because you're just invested in the truth. And so go over to 1 Timothy, go over
to 1 Timothy. Psalm 56 verse 3 says, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." Psalm
18 verse 8 says, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." I
mean, that verse couldn't be more true today than it was in my entire lifetime, right?
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. I mean, literally,
that should be the slogan of every Baptist church that believes in truth. Not Trump,
but trust, right? I mean, literally, people think Trump is the savior. I wish I was exaggerating.
Have you talked to the people that follow QAnon and all that stuff? Or, what is it,
Blue Max or Navy Max? I don't know what that ... There's another, I guess, right wing,
radical wing news something. And the things that they say, like ... Newsmax. And Trump
is behind the scenes, imprisoning people, and that's why you haven't seen a lot of these
celebrities. What is going on? And one day he's going to come in writing ... I mean,
I wish I was exaggerating, right? I've heard this stuff from people's mouths. I'm not
going to tell you who. He's coming in, and when he shows up, it's going to end all world
hunger and all sex life trafficking. I mean, literally, I've heard stuff. I'm like, what's
going on? But it's because we've gotten away from the truth. We've gotten away from the
things that matter. First Timothy 3 is talking about the office of the pastor and deacons,
and at the end we see the responsibility for them that preach the truth, right? It says
there in 1 Timothy 3.15, it says, "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou
oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of truth." See, the church needs to represent what? This foundation.
And today it's not, right? I mean, it's, we're afar, I was talking about how I was
asking somebody, I think I verified it. You know, Franklin Graham, I think he still says
he's Baptist. What an insult to Baptists. That on day one of the convention, you get
some idiot, satanic, demonic reprobate spewing some kind of mumbo jumbo. And then somehow
four days later, it's okay for you to get up and pray in front of the same group. Like
any Baptist, first of all, I mean, we wouldn't be there, but if you were there, any Baptist
worth their salt would have gotten up and walked out and never come back. I mean, isn't
that the story of a lot of people that got involved in politics? I was a Texas delegate
for the Republican convention and I was like, I'm done. I ran for the national delegate.
I was trying to be like me. I filed to be the mayor of the city of Houston. I filed
in the wrong place. I didn't even know what the process, I filed at the state and it turns
out you have to file in the city or in the county, but I filed over in the, I sent it
to the Capitol, to Austin, Texas. I have the paperwork. I paid the due. I wanted to make
a change and the first call I got, like, first of all, I didn't even know how they found
out. This is how you know it's all. And all of a sudden it just started. Before it even
started it ended. And I got a call from Pastor Riggles. I don't know if you know who he
is. He has one of the biggest mega churches in Houston. It's called Grace, not Grace, it's
called, not Grace Baptist, but Grace something. And he called me directly and he's like, he's
famous because he wrote a letter to Denise Parker saying, if you want my sermons, come
get them or something like that. And he's like, he's like, what's going on? I was like,
well, I'm running. I said, I'm a Christian. I believe this, this, and that. He's like,
well, but the other guy, we already kind of put our support behind him. I said, well,
the guy's fag. I didn't say it like that at the time. I said, he's a homosexual. I said,
the guy's, he swings both ways. He's like, yeah, but we already put our support behind
him. And I just knew right then and there that it was over. I lost all flavor for it.
But that's the reality of what we live in. These guys that say they're Christians, they're
either too knee deep in it, or they just don't want to say anything about it. Just like Pastor
Anderson, right? You know, tell us what you think, Pastor. But, you know, go to 2nd Timothy,
just one page over, and there in verse, in chapter 2, 2nd Timothy, I mean, a couple of
pages over, in 2nd Timothy chapter 2, verse 1, it says, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among
many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."
See, that's the main thing.
A lot of you guys get caught up in, you know, your keyboard warriors, I'm not saying you
guys, I'm just saying in general, right, Christians, keyboard warriors, or you want to have that
fight with that guy, you mean, you're going to prove him wrong, and he says, "Who shall
be able to teach others also."
Not fight with others, teach others.
"Thou therefore endure heartness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that warroth,
entangledeth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen
him to be a soldier.
And if a man also strives for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully."
See, the challenge with getting caught up in all the other truths is you're entangled
in the affairs of this world.
You're having an affair with Christ because you're so interested in who the shooters are,
or who Black Rock is, or whatever.
I've seen all this stuff, right?
It's almost impossible.
I guess I do need to just put my phone on airplane mode, because you get emails.
People are sending you all this stuff, right?
Now you can get it in any form, Instagram message, Facebook messenger, Telegram, Signal.
There's this WhatsApp.
It's just insane, the community of this, the community of that, but that's just entangling
yourself in the affairs of this world.
You need to remove all of that.
And I'm going to close out with a good set of verses, but go to James, and I have two
more verses, and I'll start to conclude, but in James 1, the Bible says there, in James
1, verse 1 says, "James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes
which are scattered abroad, greeting, 'My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into
diverse temptations, knowing that this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience,
but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire.'"
And I love that, this is one of my favorite parts of scripture, wanting nothing.
Really my prayer for everybody, including myself, would be that we would want nothing
but Christ.
We'll never fully get there, but we can get close.
I know some good people that I'm like, "Man, I just, that's a good model," right?
And we should have models that are better than ourselves.
The Bible says to esteem others better than ourselves, right?
It says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to giveth to all men liberally
and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him; but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering."
But we already saw that in order to have faith, it's tied directly to what?
Truth, and true, and trust.
You can't separate them.
"For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed; for
let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."
We're not going to get the blessing of the Lord because we've got a bunch of double-minded
people.
They want to go to church, but they also want to see Kid Rock at the Republican convention,
right?
And who knows?
I mean, at this point, Jay-Z might show up at the Democratic convention, for all we know,
right?
And so people are like, "Well, you know, I believe the Bible, but I also believe in
the Constitution."
You know, I'm not knocking...
The Constitution is a great document, but it's not the Bible.
"Oh, I believe this, but I also...
I believe the Bible, but I also..."
And you're just always on the wrong path.
And then you're like, "Well, what is truth?"
And then you get all these existential explanations, and you're like, "Well, you know..."
And now you sound like just really dumb, right?
Because it's really that simple.
The conclusion, what's the conclusion?
If you want the truth to make you free, really, truth is all that matters.
It's all that matters.
I mean, you can have the worldview of truth, you can understand absolute truth, but to
understand it, it has to matter at the utmost, right?
The result is that it strengthens your faith, because who is truth?
Jesus Christ, right?
I mean, we either believe in him or we deny him.
It's that simple.
I mean, it really, people even, you know, because I know we talk about like the reprobate
and there's the spectrum, right?
And we talk about the saved and then there's the lost world.
But you know what?
Once the lost world is lost forever, they're just in the same group as the reprobate.
They're lost forever.
They rejected Christ so much so that they didn't get him.
And you spend all this time trying to convince them that Trump was a savior.
Instead of telling them they're going to hell for all eternity, right?
You spend all this time trying to argue these super fancy ways of explaining the gospel.
You know what I love about the new IFB?
My favorite thing about the new IFB is a clear gospel message.
You know, eternal security was like this foreign concept to me.
I knew I was saved forever.
As a matter of fact, I have it written in my journal.
I was 25.
I was saved at 715 a.m. on the northwest side of Houston, you know, on February 15, 2005.
And I said I have perpetual rest.
And then I didn't think about eternal security for years until somebody started preaching
it to me.
And then you run into people that are confused about that subject.
They're saved, but they couldn't explain it to get themselves out of a paper bag, right?
What's eternal security?
I don't know.
You could maybe lose it, right?
It's sad.
They're laughing, and I appreciate that there is humor in it, but really it's sad because
they're the ones that are supposed to be doing the job.
I think about, I love preaching, but I think about all the failed attempts because I didn't
have truth, right?
I'm not talking about I was saved, but I wasn't in truth, I wasn't doing truth, and so I got
on all these arguments, and I drove people away, and they might be going to hell.
That's on me.
It's on you, too, if you had those kind of conversations, right?
But in conclusion, go to John 17.
That's the last place I'll have you turn.
The way to really anchor in on this is that the burden of proof, if you read John 8, you
notice the burden of proof is not on Christ.
It's on the enemy.
Now, the devil's always trying to get you to backpedal.
I love, because people, I've heard sermons like, "What did Jesus write?"
But if you pay attention to John 8 at the beginning, I'm like, "What didn't he say?
He ignored him."
He's like, "I'm not going to play this game with you.
What do you say about the law of Moses?" and he just ignored him.
And it says, "As if he didn't hear them.
What is it like in you two?
I never knew you."
Right?
I don't have time for this.
You don't have time for that.
You don't.
Life is short.
I'm telling you, I don't know, the days, I heard that saying, it's more true now than
ever.
Right?
What is it?
The days are long, but the years are short.
You'll be whatever age you're not thinking you're going to be sooner than you think.
Let me just tell you that.
'44 came way too quick.
So we've got to stay the course.
I'll read for you, John.
Go to John 17.
This is the last place I'll have you turn, verse 12.
But in the third book of John, in verse four, the Bible says, "For I rejoice greatly when
the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in
the truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."
And we know the context.
It's talking not only about, we can apply it to our children, but it's really our spiritual
children, right?
So it's not just, "Oh, I led a lot of people to Christ," but the greater joy is that you
show up.
You know, one of the reasons people like coming to Faithful Word, and I know people will like
to give, Pastor Anderson is doing, deservedly so, but also they like because they like seeing
a church and it gives them hope of the church that they could have, right?
I like coming here, and I'm like, "Man, this is great."
My daughter was like, "Daddy, this is a big church."
I was like, she's like, "You think we'll ever have a church like this?"
I said, "Well, God gives the increase, but that's what we're headed for, right?
That's what we're shooting for."
And it's not a competition or like a comparison, it's an encouragement.
But the testament is to you.
You don't have to show up on a Wednesday night when it's 100 degrees outside, right?
But go to that verse 12.
You know, I thought it was bad when our people didn't want to show up, but it is hot.
Like I'm burned up up here.
But the Bible says there in verse 12, it says, "While I was with them in the world, I kept
them in thy name.
Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition.
And the scripture might be fulfilled, and now come I to thee, and these things I speak
in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them my word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world."
And I love this.
He prays for us, right?
He says, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth."
Thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so I have also sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the
truth."
So it's through Jesus that we get sanctified.
Right?
"Neither pray I for those alone," I love this, "for them also which shall believe on me through
their word."
Right?
He's praying not only for us, but for those who are going to believe because of the work
that we're going to do.
That's a big responsibility.
People, "Oh, I read my Bible."
Yeah, did you read John 17 verse 20?
Well, yeah.
Well, what is it?
You know, I mean, obviously, I don't know if I've had this conversation, but couldn't
that conversation go like that?
That's a big responsibility.
You know, I was talking, you guys know, I mean, I know sometimes I'm stating the obvious,
but I talked to Brother Chris, and he has a lot of plans.
But his plans are great, and he encouraged me, right?
I want to get all these things and millions of people and talk to all these people, and
it's all about salvation, because at the end of the day, what does it all matter?
You know, I've run businesses, I still have to provide for my family, so even now I work.
But the most frustrating thing about life is if you're just working a secular job, it's
all in vain, the Bible says.
I mean, just read the book Ecclesiastes, we just finished, like the first time, I always
tell people the first time I read that book, I was like, "Wow, this is depressing."
It's not until you really, right?
The first time you read Ecclesiastes, you're like, "Wow, what is this book for?"
But you realize later, it's talking about the flesh and how the spirit, you know, at
the end of the day, everything that matters is God, is truth.
So the goal today was just to get you to anchor more on the truth, right?
The only way you're going to be made free is to really anchor in on that faith.
Because the Lord's praying for not only us, but those that are going to believe because
of the word that we preach to them.
So it's important for us to go out there and do it.
So let's close in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for today.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here, Lord.
Thank you for the safe travels.
And Lord, thank you for a church like this that edifies and admonishes the world.
And it really is a sanctifying church, right?
I mean, you either love the people at Faithful Word, or you hate them.
I mean, it's not one or the other.
And so, you know, I really love this congregation.
I'm really grateful.
I'm thankful to everybody that showed me and my family kindness.
Help us to have a great week.
And thank you for all that you do.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
Let's take our hymnals, please, and go to hymn number 13.
"Must Jesus bear the cross alone?"
Hymn number 13, we'll sing it out on that first verse.
Hymn number 13.