I think we'll be fine for that one.
Keep your voice in the minute to rest.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
OK.
It cringes my face a little bit.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
OK.
I want to ask a question before we do it.
We can take more hours during the chorus.
Have you heard the song that way?
The dog is like, there is a pound, pound, two powers,
which is four.
There is a pound, pound, two powers, which is four.
There you get escalated.
And then the next time you eat.
There is a pound, pound, two powers, which is four.
And then you can sing to eat.
It's just like a mass attack.
The
That is a bummer.
Unfortunately, we did have the whole band with us.
Have a place to do it.
But it was still fun singing with us.
Once you get to the 16th, it's just like everybody
was like kicking their thumbs.
Yeah.
Let me find it.
Yeah.
All right.
Yeah.
All right, everybody.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
Glad you could make it here this Wednesday night.
Let's get our, take out our hymnals.
The song number 23.
There's power in the blood.
Song number 23.
Song number 23, there is power in the blood.
All together on the first.
Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There's power in the blood.
Power in the blood.
Would you are evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the land.
There is power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the land.
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood.
Power in the blood.
Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide.
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the land.
There is power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the land.
Would you be wider, much wider than snow?
There's power in the blood.
Power in the blood.
Sand stains are lost in its life giving flow.
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the land.
There is power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the land.
Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There's power in the blood.
Power in the blood.
Would you live daily his praises to sing?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the land.
There is power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the land.
Amen. Great singing. Let's power out this word of prayer.
Dear Father, we just thank you that we could be gathered together in your house tonight
again to hear the preaching of your word.
And I just pray you to fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit.
Help him to teach us the Bible tonight.
You help us all to grow in wisdom.
And we just pray, Lord, you just protect our church and any persecution that might come upon us.
And we just pray you destroy all the reprobates outside
that your people could serve you in all godliness and peacefulness, Lord.
We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Next is going to be Psalm 67.
It's going to be in that white handout under your seat there.
If you don't have one, you can always turn in your King James Bible.
The Psalm 67.
We'll sing it all together on the first.
God be merciful unto us and bless us
And cause this face to shine upon us
That Thy way may be known upon earth
Thy saving health among all nations
Let the people praise Thee, O God
Let all the people praise Thee
O let the nations be glad and sing
For joy, for Thou shalt judge the people
Righteously and govern the nations upon earth
The nations upon earth seal us
Let the people praise Thee, O God
Let all the people praise Thee
O let the nations be glad and sing
For joy, then shall the earth yield her increase
And God even her own God shall bless us
God shall bless us and all the ends
Of the earth shall fear Him
Let the people praise Thee, O God
Let all the people praise Thee
O let the nations be glad and sing
For joy. Amen.
you
Let's get back to some singing, all right?
Four hundred and forty-one
Great is thy faithfulness
Great is thy faithfulness, O God, my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning, new mercies I see
All I have needed I had hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon and stars and their forces above
Join with all nature and manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love
Great is Thy faithfulness Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning, new mercies I see
All I have needed I had hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
And for sin and hell He said,
Endure in Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and pride and hope for tomorrow
Blessings, O God, with ten thousand beside
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning, new mercies I see
All I have needed I had hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
Let's read 1 Timothy 1, starting in verse 1.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior,
and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope, unto Timothy, mine own son in the faith,
grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia,
that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions,
rather than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do.
At the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart
and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned, from which some, having swerved,
have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law,
understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.
But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners,
for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind,
for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God,
which was committed to my trust.
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me,
that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious,
but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief,
and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy,
that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,
the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience,
which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck,
of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for our service tonight.
I pray you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit
and enable him to preach his word boldly for us
and that you would minimize distraction so that we can apply the sermon to our lives.
Help us to pay attention, Lord, and we thank you so much for this church.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen. So I'm taking a quick break from Genesis
and I want to preach a sermon based on verse 18.
The Bible says, This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
thou by them mightest war a good warfare,
and the title of my sermon this evening is this, attacks of the devil.
Attacks of the devil.
The Bible mentions that the Christian life is like war
and anything that's related to war you realize there's attacks.
That's the whole point of war is that someone's fighting another person
and if you're in war you have to realize there's an enemy
and that enemy is going to attack you.
You know, if you're saved, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you're a godly person, there's a real devil out there that is going to attack you
and so it's important to realize that there's a true battle that's raging.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 2 for a moment.
You know, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3
as their time of love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.
And so there's always going to be different cycles that we go through,
different seasons in our life and they may not match the exact seasons of the calendar.
You know, it may not be a summer or winter.
It could be years or it could be decades or it could be five minutes.
You know, it could be all manner of time
but there's going to be an ebb and flow to your life.
There's going to be a time of peace. There's going to be a time of war.
But generally speaking, a Christian life is one of constant warfare, okay?
But even in war, you're going to have moments where you're not in technical battle, right?
You go from battle to battle.
You may retreat and then you're in peace for a little short pace
or you may win a battle and then you're in short peace for a little while.
But then the next battle comes and the next battle comes
and in general, you know, a Christian life is one of constant war
and there'll be an ebb and flow of that battle and peace, that momentum that's shifting.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1.
Thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus
and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses,
the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that warth entangled himself with the affairs of this life,
that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
Now, Brother Ben preached a really good sermon on being a good soldier of Jesus Christ this Sunday morning.
But one of the things you have to realize about being a soldier
is that you're going to be attacked when you're a soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Brother Ben emphasized a lot of the things that we need to do,
but I really want to emphasize what the devil will try to attack you with
and the attacks that were going to come upon you.
Go to Revelation chapter 12.
I'm just laying a quick foundation.
1 Timothy 6 says,
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life,
wherein to thou art also called, and is professed a good profession before many witnesses.
So again, the Bible's telling us to fight.
And we need, when we go to Ephesians chapter number 6,
to realize that we need the whole armor of God.
We need the helmet of salvation, we need the breastplate of righteousness,
and we need the sword of spirit, which is the word of God.
We need the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
We need our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
We need all the pieces. We need to have our belt girded.
We need to be girded with the belt of truth.
But at the end of the day, it's not just enough to be armed.
You also have to realize the attacks that are coming so that you can ward off those attacks.
But realize that the battle is not going to get easier any time soon.
In fact, it only gets worse.
We're marching from battle to battle to battle,
but we're going to eventually get to the most extreme battles of all mankind of all time.
Jesus Christ made it clear that there's never ever going to have been war
like there's going to be spiritual war coming with the Antichrist, coming with the devil.
We're just ramping up for the biggest fight of our lives when it comes to Christians in general.
And look what it says in Revelation chapter 12 verse 7.
And there was war in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not.
Neither was there place found any more in heaven, and the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.
He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
So there's a war in heaven. The devil loses.
And look, the devil is a loser, and he's just going to constantly lose over and over.
You know what's interesting about the devil is he never quits.
You have to understand this about wicked, evil, reprobate people, they will never quit.
That's why a death penalty was even established.
That's why these people need to be destroyed, made to be taken and destroyed
because that's the only time they'll stop. They're implacable.
They can't stop dreaming up evil. They can't stop wanting to kill and to murder.
Even in the movies, when the good guy knocks the guy down, and he's down,
and you think he won, he's going to try and sneak out that third gun or that knife,
or he's going to try and do something to get you at the last moment because he will not stop.
And so you have to understand the devil's never going to stop.
Even at the devil being in hell for a thousand years, he's not going to quit when he gets out.
He's no different. It's just like locking up pedophiles in jail.
As soon as you let him out, he's still a pedophile.
He probably just had enough time to think about how to not get caught the next time
or how to do it better the next time or how to be more effective.
Or now he's just more muscular or something.
Now he's learned to be more patient, to be more cunning, to be more crafty or whatever.
There's plenty of people that are released out of prison,
and they commit the crime that put them in prison 24 hours later or less.
And look, the devil is no different.
He's going to attack and attack and attack,
and he's been attacking God's people since the Garden of Eden,
and he's never going to stop until he's finally thrown into the lake of fire.
But when he gets cast out, what happens? Verse 12.
Therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them.
That's because they don't have to deal with the devil again.
Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea!
For the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath,
because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth,
he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man-shoppe.
The Bible says when the devil's cast out of heaven,
he knows at that point his time is short.
So he goes into full-scale attack mode.
I mean, just anything and everything he can do.
And so as we get closer to the end, and I don't know when the end is,
I will say this. I believe the attacks of the devil have been ramping up.
And I can almost believe that he feels like he has a short time.
I mean, you look at the world that we live in,
and maybe you live in Texas and you don't feel it as much,
but across the world, I mean, the persecution is at an all-time high right now.
And across the world, and there's a lot of evil.
Are you saying that we're on the footsteps of the end? I don't know.
I'm not going to claim that I know.
You know, maybe when a guy starts walking around calling himself Jesus Christ
and standing in the holy place, you know, saying that he's God and you have to get a mark.
At that point, I'll let you know, okay?
I mean, that's basically what it points to.
It's always like pointing at the abomination of desolation.
Before that, we could have educated guesses and we can kind of figure it out
and we can be watching and being like, this kind of seems to be fitting all in place.
I think this is happening.
But to me, it's going to be real evident.
Is it talking about the mystery of iniquity being revealed, you know?
And then at that point, it's just real obvious when a guy hits a deadly wound,
comes back to life, claims that he's God.
You have to get a mark.
You know, at that point, we're really in for the long haul, okay?
We're in for some severe persecution.
But what I want to point out is the fact that he's not going to stop
and it's only going to get worse and worse and worse.
Look at verse 17.
And the dragon was wroth a woman and went to make war the remnant of her seed,
which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Now notice who the devil really wants to attack.
The last part is testimony of Jesus Christ.
You know what that is? Save people, okay?
But notice it doesn't just say save people.
It also says which keep the commandments of God.
Do you know who the devil really wants to attack?
Godly save people.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
You know, the devil is aimed at those that want to serve God,
that are doing right, that are bright and shining light.
He wants to put that light out.
You know what? He's not going to prevail.
Go to Matthew.
Actually, just go to 2 Corinthians 11.
I'll just read for you.
And admittedly, why preach a sermon on this?
Because it's easy to sit here and say,
oh man, I can withstand the attacks and I don't care what the devil throws at me.
You know, Peter had that attitude and then a little girl is asking him
if he knew Christ and he couldn't even admit that he did, okay?
And if Peter could fall, I feel like church members of mine might be susceptible.
You know, I feel like myself would be susceptible, right?
It's Peter.
I mean, it's not like just some Joe off the street.
It's a Peter off the street, okay?
And he was just as susceptible to this.
The Bible warns that people will be susceptible to this.
In Matthew chapter 13, the parable of the sower,
the Bible talks about a person.
But he that received the seed in his stony place is the same as he that heareth the word,
and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he no root in himself,
but dureth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word,
by and by he is offended.
The Bible says when persecutions ramp up, you lose people.
And it's just how it works, you know?
Protesters show up, less people show up, you know?
Other attacks happen to a church or their job gets threatened or whatever, you know?
People just start fading away, going away, you know?
That's what happens, you know?
And I don't know what will happen to our church.
I hope our church will grow.
I think our church can grow.
It will grow.
It has been growing.
It's never been a better time to be part of Step Fast Baptist Church, according to my opinion.
I mean, we're busting at the seams.
I think our conference, I'm scared about fitting everybody into our conference.
I mean, I don't know how we're going to do it.
But we're going to do it, okay?
But at the end of the day, there's going to be people that walk away.
And I don't want that to be you, okay?
It may be your best friend, it may be your family member,
it may be this section, but you don't have to go away, you know?
Sit in the right section, okay?
Go to 2 Corinthians 11, look at verse 23.
Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool.
Now, Paul's mocking people that are flattering themselves
and speaking well of themselves, who brag about themselves, okay?
So, he does brag about himself, but he's doing it just as an example, okay?
So, we actually learned some of the things that Paul went through.
And I think that if you study this chapter, you would understand this is not a good thing to do.
Like, you shouldn't be going around and just bragging about all of the difficulties of your life, okay?
Like, well, you don't even know what I've been through.
Let me tell you about this and this and this and this and this, whatever.
As he's explaining, he's speaking as a fool, okay?
But we're just getting some insight to his thought process and what's happening.
And we learn about some of the struggles, some of the attacks of the devil, right?
Look at what he says, I am more, okay?
He was a minister of Christ more than the other fake apostles.
And labor is more abundant, and stripes above measure, and prisons more frequent, and deaths off.
So, he's basically contrasting himself with these fake apostles.
Now, these apostles, they filed with the Secretary of State
that they were legitimate apostles, but you know what?
The paper only runs so far.
They weren't an actual spirit-filled man of God.
They were a fake apostle. There's nothing legitimate about them, okay?
And so, he's saying, look, these guys that are claiming that they are a minister of Christ, you know what?
In every category, I beat them.
You know, I'm actually the one that's here laboring.
I'm actually the one that's going through persecution.
Verse 24, of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one.
Verse 25, thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck,
a night and a day I have been in the deep, and journeys often, and perils of waters, and perils of robbers,
and perils by my own countrymen, and perils by the heathen, and perils in the city,
and perils in the wilderness, and perils in the sea, and perils among false brethren.
Like, oh, what's wrong with Paul? He's got all these problems.
There's nothing wrong with Paul.
It's just like, why do you think he has these problems?
Because the devil's going to attack the most bright and shining light,
the one that's keeping God's commandments, the one that's starting churches,
the one that's thriving churches, the one that's getting all these people saved.
Notice the devil's throwing everything he could possibly throw at him.
Say, if I could pick the church, which church would you pick?
I'd pick the one where they have perils of waters, and robbers, and countrymen,
and heathen, and city, and wilderness, and sea, and false brethren.
Say, why? Because that's where Paul's at.
You want to be where Paul's at? You get a deal with all this.
You want to go where Joel Osteen's at? None of it.
No problems where he's at.
Verse 27, and weariness, and painfulness, and washings often, and hunger and thirst,
and fastings often, and cold and nakedness,
besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily,
the care of all the churches, who is weak and I am not weak,
who is offended and I burn not.
If I must needs glory, I will glory at the things which concern my infirmities,
that God and Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forever, knoweth that I lie not.
So the Apostle Paul brings up all these different instances,
and I break them into three quick categories.
Here's the attacks of the devil. You ready?
Number one, he's going to attack your possessions.
Didn't we see that? Robber, peril of robbers.
What does a robber do? He steals you of your possessions.
He takes things that don't belong to him.
Number two, you're going to have physical harm.
Now, if you read this list, unfortunately that one's just hit a lot of places.
I mean, beaten with rods, and shipwrecked, and fasting, and hungering,
and just stoned to death, and all kinds of stuff.
They're attacking him physically. Physical persecution.
Third we see in this list is mental harm. Mental harm.
Because notice, he even says, who's offended, and I burn not.
Meaning, you know, he doesn't like all the lying, and the slandering,
and all the evil that people are, you know, throwing at him.
He doesn't like the false brethren.
You know, he gets frustrated with inviting someone over,
feeding them a meal, being their buddy, being kind to them,
getting on their knees and praying for them every single day,
and then they turn out to be a Judas.
They turn out to be a just complete fake and fraud.
You know, he looks at Demas, even people that aren't even Judases,
just the Demuses of this world, who forsook him.
That's got to hurt. It hurts when your friend leaves.
It hurts when a false brethren enters into your life and messes with your brain.
I mean, it just freaks you out that people can just literally look at you,
and smile at you, and be friendly to you, while inside they hate you.
It's weird. It's freaky.
And you know what? Normal people don't really deal with a lot of Judases.
They don't deal with a lot of these freaks, and weirdos, and creepers, okay?
It's God's people that unfortunately attract all these freaks,
and Judases, and creepers, or whatever, and so you have to literally see evil firsthand.
I mean, you literally just see, like, the wickedness of Satan right before your eyes.
But it exists, my friend.
Go to Job chapter number 1. Go to Job chapter 1.
Job's a good picture of someone going through all three of these.
I want to go through a few pictures of Job real quick.
But the devil, you should expect this.
If you're going to serve God, the devil is going to attack your possessions.
The devil is going to come after your physical possessions.
And you know what? I look at it as a test from God, because God wants your heart.
And you know what? When you're wrapped up in your possessions,
when the devil starts attacking your possessions, it shows where your heart's at.
Well, I can't lose my job for Christ.
Who cares about a stupid job?
I can't lose my house. I can't lose my boat. I can't lose my money.
I can't lose my building. I can't lose...
Whatever it is, you know, we should just go ahead and just kiss it goodbye,
because then when you lose it, you're just like, I'm going to get 100 in heaven.
You know, like, I can't lose my job.
Look, you're going to have a job in heaven.
Which resume are you working on?
The one here or the one up there?
I'd rather have a better job in heaven.
At the end of the day, God is going to give the best job in heaven
to the guy that didn't care about the job here,
that said, kiss it goodbye, I'm not doing it, I'm not interested.
You know why people will quit church?
Probably the number one reason is their job.
Pastor Shelley, I can't tell people that I go to Step Past Baptist Church, what will my job say?
I can't tell you how many times I've heard that.
I can't tell you how many times people have contacted me after they've been to our church,
and they say, will you take down all of my sermons, I don't want my job to find out.
And I'm like, me either, you know, I want my job to find out.
You know, so stupid.
You know what's so funny to me?
How I had, like, when I was at Pure Words Baptist Church,
I had a full-time job and a side job.
And then people would be like, I don't want my job to find out.
And I'm like, really? You just, you just attend?
You know, like, it's just, oh, every job will fire you if they know who you are.
And it's just like, that's not even true.
It's just, people build these boogeymen that don't even actually exist,
and they're scared of their own shadow.
And you know what, even if God takes a weird job, maybe they'll give you a better one.
And you say, will it pay the same? I don't care.
And you say, well, that'll hurt your tithes and donations. I don't care.
You know, I'd rather people serve God and wake up today and say nuts to my possessions.
You know what, God could pull a Job on you tomorrow.
Let's read about Job. Look at Job chapter 1 verse 1.
There was a man in the land of us whose name was Job,
and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil.
This guy is perfect.
You know what, the devil's gonna attack him.
Look at verse 8, skip down.
And the Lord said unto Satan, As thou consider my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, perfect and an upright man,
one that fearth God and escheweth evil.
Ashew means to abstain from, have nothing to do with.
He has nothing to do with evil. He doesn't even look at it. He doesn't like it.
Verse 9, Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for not?
As thou not made an hedge about him, and about his house,
and about all that he hath on every side?
The house blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
And as it tells me, when you're one that's perfect and fears God,
God just protects the crap out of you.
But, he may let the devil attack you.
Because how can you go to war if you're never attacked?
Right?
I mean, is it really fair if you say, I was in battle?
And they're like, oh yeah, what did you do?
I was a dentist.
Oh, were you a dentist on site? Did you get deployed?
No, I was a dentist back here.
So, did you fight?
I fought tooth decay.
You know, man.
You know, it wouldn't be that glorious.
That's why a lot of military people do this thing called stealing valor.
Well, they'll pretend like they actually got deployed, and they really had a gun,
and they really shot at an enemy, and they did something.
Even though a lot of people don't even do anything.
Now, I'm not saying that they didn't contribute to the war effort.
I'm not saying that they didn't have them.
They weren't legitimately military.
I'm just saying it's really hard to kind of sit up there and be like, I was in the war, buddy.
They're like, okay.
You know, Job, living his high life, protected by God, he's not really in the war.
God's fighting the battle for him.
Okay?
But God's going to let Job enter into the battle.
He's going to let the devil attack him, and look what the devil says in verse 11.
Put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power.
Only upon himself put not forth thine hand.
So Satan went forth in the presence of the Lord.
It was the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,
and there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The ox were plowing, and the acid was feeding him beside them.
And the Sabeans fell upon them, took them away.
Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said,
The fire of God has fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them.
And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
And while he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said,
The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away.
Yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said,
Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smelt the four corners of the house,
and it fell upon the young men. They are dead.
And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Talk about a bad day.
You're just hoping no more servants show up.
But here's the thing, there wasn't any left to come.
He lost all possessions.
Everything you could ever want, everything you could ever have, he had it.
And then he lost it all in a moment.
Just servant after servant, all your money, all your stocks, all your goods, all your kids.
He's gone.
That's what the devil will do, he'll take away your possessions.
Now here's the thing, how many people would keep serving God
if tomorrow you lost all of your money, your job, your house, and your kids?
Who would still come to church?
Now I think a lot of people would walk away with that.
They'd be frustrated and mad at God.
That's a serious attack.
You know what, that's what the devil is going to do.
The devil will take any possession he wants from you if God will allow him
because he wants to hurt you.
And you know what, if Job can still serve God,
I mean look what he says in verse 20,
Then Job arose and ran his men and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground in worship,
and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave, the Lord had taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
And all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
If all your kids died tomorrow, would you still praise God?
That's hard.
That's real.
That's a real attack.
I mean that's to show how Job really feels.
And if you think about it, it's a pretty great saying
because when you were first born, you didn't have any kids.
Certainly didn't have any money.
None of my kids came out with money.
Any of your kids came out with money?
They came into this world with nothing!
And he says, If God wants me to start over again, so be it.
You know, it's easier said than done, don't hear me wrong.
But at the end of the day, we need to have a heart that says,
If I had to start a thousand percent over, just a hundred percent over,
blessed be the name of the Lord.
I could do it.
That's the type of preparation you have to have.
You know, Jesus was tempted in the same way
where the devil wanted to take or offer him possessions.
Go to Luke chapter 4 for a moment.
I want to show you.
Keep your finger in Job.
Come on back.
Go to Luke chapter 4.
Look at verse 5.
The Bible reads,
And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain,
showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee,
the glory of them.
For that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it.
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written,
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Now this is the inverse of what we just looked at
because in Job, he lost the whole world.
He lost everything.
But now the devil's coming to Jesus.
What he's doing is enticing him with everything.
I'll give you all possession.
Because the devil doesn't care which angle of attack he comes from.
If you have nothing, he wants to try and offer you it all.
If you have it all, he wants to take it away.
So for those of you that are poor,
your temptation is going to be to chase money,
to get a better job, to spend more time working.
And that's how the devil's going to try and pull you out of church.
That's how the devil's going to attack you with possession.
But if you have a lot of money, you know what the devil's going to attack you?
He's going to attack you by trying to take it away
by saying, oh you better not do that.
You better not serve God.
You'll lose all the stuff you already got.
But you know what?
The devil is going to use possessions to his advantage
to try and draw you away from serving God.
And it's stupid because when you're born, you had nothing.
We get our heart and our mind wrapped up
in all the possessions that could be had
or that we do have
when really God wants our heart.
God wants us to just possess him
and for him to possess us.
You know, at the end of the day,
we need to be aware of this attack that will come.
And it's not just like, oh the rich people are attacking this way
or the poor people.
It's everyone.
Everyone's tempted with either more possessions
or losing their possessions.
Or both, okay?
Go to verse 4.
How was the second way the devil attacked you?
Physical harm.
Now, look what it says in verse 3.
The devil said in, sorry, verse 3.
And the devil said to them,
If thou be the son of God, command this stone,
that it may be made bread.
Okay, now, in the context,
Jesus hasn't eaten for 40 days and 40 nights.
Now, you know what that'll cause?
Pain.
Severe pain.
Okay?
And so the devil's saying like,
why don't you just start feeding yourself?
If you can just do whatever you want,
why don't you just,
I mean, if you're the son of God,
I know you could just turn a rock into bread.
I mean, the son of God can do whatever he wants.
He's God.
He's the one that created everything anyways.
He created bread out of basically thin air
when it came to the five loaves and the two fishes.
I mean, how in the world did he do that?
Obviously, he can do anything he wants.
The devil's tempting him.
What?
To end pain.
He's in pain,
and he's offering a way out of pain, isn't he?
He's saying, here's a way out of pain.
But what did Jesus say?
And Jesus answered him, saying,
It is written that man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word of God.
What if you were in physical pain?
Would you still serve God?
Go back to Job.
Go back to Job and look at chapter number 2.
Here's the second way that God will try to stop you from serving,
or the devil will try to get you to stop serving God,
is by hurting you physically.
Hurting you physically.
Now, this can happen in all manner of ways,
and I believe it does happen in all manner of ways.
It could happen through the threat of physical violence.
It could happen through beatings and physical persecution.
It could come from sickness.
It could come from illness.
Look what it says in Job chapter number 2, verse number 1.
And again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord,
and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
Notice he's not a son of God.
Verse 2.
And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou?
And Satan answered the Lord, and said,
From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
The Lord said unto Satan,
That's not considered my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, and perfect, and an upright man,
one that feareth God and sheweth evil.
And still he holdeth fast his integrity,
although thou movest me against him, to destroy him without a cause.
And I like this because it's like God's like kind of like ribbing the devil.
Hey, what do you think about Job?
Notice how he stirs serves me?
Sucker, you know.
And Satan answered the Lord and said,
Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh,
and he will curse thee to thy face.
The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he's the inline hand, but save his life.
So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord,
and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown,
and he took him a potcher to scrape himself withal,
and he sat down among the ashes.
So the devil has granted the power to not kill him.
Notice that the devil would have the ability to kill him, right?
He's a roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour,
because the devil would kill you if he could, if he wants to.
God's just not allowing him to kill Job.
But he is putting him in a position where he probably wants to die.
I mean, when you read the book of Job, he really wants to die.
And look, you can be in so much pain where you just want to die.
It's out there, and he's just covered in boils.
And again, this probably is elevating the pain,
because losing all your possessions,
there's plenty of rich people that are really sick or injured
that they would say, Have all my money if I can have perfect health.
They would press that button.
They're basically saying, You know what?
Worse than taking all his physical possessions away,
because you could replace those, let's take his health away.
Here's a question.
If God allowed you to get really sick tomorrow, would you still serve God?
What if you had boils all over your body?
You're just hurting everywhere.
A lot of people would be like, Why?
Why is God afflicting me? Why is God tormenting me?
Why is God allowing this?
Did it to Job?
Why did he do it to Job?
He wanted to see if he would still serve God, didn't he?
Wasn't that the whole point?
He wanted to see if he was going to still be a faithful servant.
Can you still serve God when your health isn't 100%?
And look, some people would look at someone that's sick and say,
Oh, this guy's really wicked, otherwise you wouldn't be sick.
Well, you're like Job's three friends.
Miserable comforters are ye.
You know, don't look at yourself.
You know, this is a question you should ask yourself.
Why am I not sick?
Am I more godly than me?
Maybe you should ask yourself that question
before you start accusing people when they're sick away.
Okay?
Because maybe God's testing to see how faithful they are,
and he already knows you're not, so he's just not testing you.
But he knows you can't handle it.
Right?
Now, look, I pray for physical health.
I want physical health.
I don't want to go through this kind of suffering.
You know, in the Apostle Paul, I'm sure he was tempted.
He gets beaten in the city.
Why?
So that God can see,
knowing you'll probably get beat again.
And he's like, yep.
And then he goes to the next city.
Yep.
Goes to the next city.
I mean, isn't it sad that you know you're going to only do good
unto people, and you're only going to be loving unto people,
and heal people, and you care about them,
and you know, like, they're just going to turn on me,
and hate me, and hurt me.
But a few people in here will get saved.
Now, he wasn't just asking for pain.
He wasn't just, like, going to a gay bar asking, you know,
to get people saved.
Obviously, he realizes no one is going to get saved there ever.
They're all reprobated.
But, you know, he's going into a mixed crowd,
realizing if he preaches what is the truth,
while he gets a few people saved,
he's going to take a lot of punches for it.
He's going to take a lot of marks for it.
But again, would you take some marks for Christ?
I mean, people will hardly drive 15 minutes for church.
How are you going to then take punches for Christ?
You know, we've had literal soul winners get punched
while soul winning.
We were out soul winning.
It was, like, brother Nick and brother Thomas.
They're literally just preaching the gospel
to some girl trying to get her saved,
and these guys just run up behind them
as they're walking away and just sock them.
And I'm, like, I'm jealous, you know?
I'm just sitting here, like, man,
why do they get punched?
I'm, like, thinking, like, I must not be as godly.
I must not be as good a soul winner as these guys.
I need to elevate my Christian life here, you know?
We need to have the right mentality here and say,
look, you know, when you go to battle
and they know who the real threat is,
they try to take them out first.
And I'm thinking, like, am I not a threat here?
I need to start ramping up my soul winning.
Hey, you're not a real threat until you get punched
in the face for soul winning, you know?
And we can glory in their tribulation.
We can glory in their persecution.
We can glory in their vermin.
The world thinks that's nuts.
The world's, like, oh, man, you still do that after that?
It's, like, yeah.
I hope it happens again.
Now, look, I'm not saying you walk up
to the most unreceptive person and you're, like,
I hope you hit me, you know?
You wouldn't hit me, would you?
You're not, like, I'm dead, man.
Yeah.
Wouldn't you like to get a piece of me?
Look, if someone's not receptive, I walk away, okay?
I'm not asking for a fight.
I don't want a fight.
If I never get hit, great, okay?
But at the end of the day, I'm not going to say
I don't want to serve God just because I might get hit.
Something evil might happen to me.
Physical pain could happen, you know?
And that's a real test, a real test if you'd be willing.
You know, when it comes to your children,
if their life was on the line, I guarantee you
it would endure all kinds of physical pain for their life,
wouldn't you say?
And so God wants you to say, you know what?
I'm willing to lay down my physical life,
my pain tolerance is at the highest level to serve God.
That's what he wants for a job.
He's saying, look, it doesn't matter what physical pain you do,
I'm going to serve God.
Look at verse 9.
This is the third way the devil will attack you.
Then said his wife unto him,
Dost thou still retain thine integrity?
Curse God and God.
And yeah, the third elevation, this is the highest level,
is a wife.
The third is mental, mental harm.
The devil will attack you by taking your possessions,
enticing you with possessions.
The devil will attack you with possessions.
The devil will attack you with physical harm.
You know what?
The highest level, the worst, is he'll attack you mentally.
He'll attack you mentally.
He wants to mess with your emotions and your mind
and he wants to attack you.
You know, that's why the Bible tells us
and gives us comfort in saying, like,
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of sound mind.
In fact, being fearful is probably more agonizing
than even physical pain to some people.
You know, just terrified of everything and just horrified
and just, you know, just scared of everything.
You know, it's a horrible suffering, horrible pain.
People that go through mental anguish and mental suffering.
You know, having your wife turn on you
hurts more than a lot of things.
I liken this unto adultery.
I mean, the inside part of your body has got to hurt so bad
to have the one that you married and loved
just commit adultery on you.
It's a wicked, evil sin.
You never, ever do.
And honestly, it was like, if I had two options,
like hammer to my hands and, like, my kneecaps
or my wife commit adultery, I'd be like, Hammer away.
I'd take the physical pain.
You know, the emotional turmoil of something like that.
And here's the thing.
While his wife didn't commit adultery,
she's, like, completely forsaken her.
I mean, he has nothing.
He just lost all of his kids and his money
and he's in physical pain and his own wife turns on him.
His own wife is like,
Why don't you just curse God and die, buddy?
And it's like, you?
You turn on me now?
My own wife?
The mental pain.
And as you read Job,
you know what he's constantly suffering the most from?
Why?
Isn't that the whole?
I mean, you read the book of Job,
you might as well just put this big word, why.
You know, you're gonna go through
all kinds of pain and suffering.
And this is always the question, why.
Why did this happen?
Why did I lose this person?
Why did I lose this money?
Why did I lose this house?
Why did I lose this job?
Why did I lose, you know, my physical health?
Why did my knee get busted?
Or why did this happen to me?
You're gonna always want to ask these questions.
And you know, sometimes the mental suffering
can be worse than anything.
But at the end of the day,
we have to find our peace with God.
We have to find our comfort and our strength from the Lord
and not decide to give up on God
just because we may be going through a rough act,
going through something really difficult.
And you know, the lies are gonna come out
and the slander, and you know what?
It eats everyone up.
It eats me up.
Go to Job 33, go to Job 33.
You know, when someone lies about you,
it's really hard to not want to defend yourself.
You have to work on it.
But at the end of the day, you know,
it's better just to just leave it alone most of the time,
not worry about it, not let it eat you up.
And eventually you get to a point where it's like,
you start finding it hilarious.
You know, people just make up
the craziest accusations against you,
and you just think, you're just laughing.
You know, you're just kind of like, that's so silly.
But realize, it happened to Job.
Realize it happened to Christ.
You know, they're gonna lie about you.
Job 33, look at verse 1, this is Elihu,
and this guy is just an evil, wicked, false creature, okay?
He even teaches the work of salvation.
Let me show you this. He's a Daniel heretic.
Look at Job 33, verse 1.
This is part of his talking to Job.
Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches,
and hearken to all my words.
Behold, now I have opened my mouth.
My tongue hath spoken in my mouth.
You know what's so funny about these people?
And I always say this, but the false preachers,
they're so good at speaking and saying nothing at the same time.
Verse 2 is the most meaningless statement I've ever heard.
Behold, now I have opened my mouth.
My tongue hath spoken in my mouth.
Thanks for telling us that you literally
are making noises with your mouth.
He just has to just talk, and he's saying nothing.
And you know what? These wicked evil people,
they're the same way. They just blah, blah, blah,
but they're saying absolutely nothing.
And it's incredible to watch.
Now, when you go to Job, and we're not going to do this for the sake of time,
every time Job talks, it's just straightforward.
He just immediately says exactly what he's thinking.
It's right to the point. These people are just saying,
this is nothing. He said absolutely nothing so far.
I'm talking. I'm using my tongue to talk.
Words are coming out of my mouth.
That's how stupid this is.
Verse 3, my word shall be of the uprightness of my heart.
Yeah, because you have a wicked heart.
And my lip shall utter knowledge clearly.
You still haven't said anything.
Verse 4, the Spirit of God hath made me,
and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
Now, this is what you have to understand about wicked evil people,
is they will say things that are obviously true,
that everybody can agree with,
and they try to establish this foundation that you can agree with,
so that you'll think that they're telling you the truth.
Who would disagree with this statement?
God made me. Oh, wow.
It's like, you go to a Christian's house,
what Christian wouldn't admit that God created us or something?
Of course everybody agrees with this foundation.
Again, meaningless statements.
And this is what they do, they make meaningless statements.
False preachers will get up and they'll just say things that everyone agrees with.
Murder's wrong.
Oh, wow. Really?
That's impressive.
You know, sin's bad.
Oh, sin's bad.
Don't do evil.
Look, that was the motto of Google.
Don't be evil.
I think they got rid of it.
Maybe there's, like, too vexing for them.
But look what he, let's keep reading.
Verse 5, if thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up.
Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead.
I also am formed of the clay.
Now, he had said earlier in the chapter, in chapter 32,
he had said that he's not going to give any flattering titles to men.
But he just happens to say that he's the messenger of God
and that he's literally in God's stead.
He's, like, acting on God's behalf.
The whole book of Job is wanting to ask God why this is happening to him
and then a lie who's just like,
I'm your wish, buddy.
Wish come true. Here I am.
I'm literally God to tell you everything.
I'm not going to give any flattering titles to anybody, but I am God.
Wink, wink, nod, nod.
Mind you, anybody?
How about the Antichrist?
Skip down a little bit in this chapter,
and let me show you how he teaches work salvation.
He says in verse number 26,
He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him,
and he shall see his face with joy,
for he will render unto man his righteousness.
He looketh upon men.
He's saying God is looking upon men,
and then he says if any man says,
I have sinned, and perverted that which was right,
and it profiteth me not,
he will deliver his soul from going into the pit,
and his life shall see light.
Now, I know this is worded differently than how we speak today,
but let me explain to you what he just said.
He said in order to go to heaven, you have to repent of your sins.
He just literally taught that people that repent of their sins
are going to go to heaven.
He's a works-based salvation teacher,
literally preaching to many of his sins.
Notice what he says.
He says if someone sins, and they do wrong,
because they perverted that which is right,
and they realize it was wrong,
because they said it profiteth me not.
So he's saying I shouldn't do that.
I shouldn't sin. That's wrong.
I'm not going to sin anymore.
Then he will deliver his soul from going into the pit,
and his life shall see the light.
By giving up sin, you're going to go to heaven,
is what Laihu teaches.
Why? Because he's a works-based salvation teacher.
Now, here's the thing.
You know how much you should listen to a works-based salvation teacher?
Zero! None!
After you figure that out, have nothing to...
And look, there'll be people attacking us constantly.
They literally teach works salvation,
and then people will bring up to me accusations that they have,
and I'm thinking, like, why do you care anything they said?
They believe in works.
They believe in repenting of your sins.
They're a false prophet. They're a false teacher.
Have nothing to do with this guy.
But then, of course, what is he going to do?
Slander Job. Look at Job 34 verse 7.
What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water,
but goeth in company with the workers of iniquity,
and walketh with wicked men?
For he hath said, it profiteth man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
Does that sound like Job?
I mean, he's literally said that he's the scum of the scum.
He drinks up scorning like water.
He's scorning just constantly.
He's walking with wicked men,
and in fact, he's claiming that Job says there's nothing profitable about serving God,
or keeping his commandments, or doing right.
Now, will you have to understand about this context?
For the sake of time, I can't go to all these places.
Go to Psalm 31, okay?
What does he do?
If you study the book of Job, what Elihu does is he takes things that Job did say,
and twists them into a weird context.
What does Job teach?
Job teaches that whether you follow all of God's commandments or not,
evil can still happen to you.
Whether you do right or wrong,
you know, God is ultimately in control,
God's the ultimate judge,
and evil could still happen to you.
You could still be considered an enemy of God,
even if you were perfect with him.
And that's what he's trying to teach his friends.
He's trying to teach them the Job doctrine,
that just because someone's suffering,
you can't equate that to them being sinful.
And he's saying, I didn't sin here, guys.
That's not what I did.
That's not my problem.
The problem is God's just counting me as an enemy for whatever reason,
and I don't know why.
But I do know this.
It wasn't because I sinned.
That's what Job's whole argument is,
and his friends are like, no, you sinned.
No, you're wicked.
No, this is because of your actions.
And then Elihu takes it so far as to say,
oh, when you said it's not,
it doesn't matter if you follow God's commandments or not,
he's basically teaching there's no profit in serving God,
twisting what he actually said,
twisting the context in which he brought up.
And look, wicked people, what they love to do
is take a preacher's words, twist them out of context,
and try to use it against them, teach false doctrine,
lie and slander and rail,
and it's never going to stop until they die.
And let me tell you this.
If you serve God,
if you want to go to a church that serves God,
you're going to have these attacks from the devil.
He's going to attack your possessions.
He's going to attack you physically.
He's going to attack you mentally.
And why do you think the devil wants to lie?
So they trick you and be like,
well, I just think that may be true, you know?
I have a friend, Pastor Aaron Thompson,
I've heard a lot of lies about him recently online,
and people even give ear to this stuff.
And it's coming from people that don't even believe the gospel,
the accusations.
And look, I don't even know of any of them that are true.
They're all taking things that are true,
twisting them out of the real context,
and making up lies and slander about it.
And it's evil if you decide to start changing your heart
towards a man of God and start being like Job's friends
and saying, oh, I want to listen to a lie who
about these wicked evil people,
the guy that teaches a work salvation,
that hates God, that's teaching false doctrine,
that would just lie and slander all kinds of men of God.
I mean, the same people that are mainly attacking
my friend, Pastor Aaron Thompson,
Ryan Gallagher, the same loser,
he said that Pastor Mejia is a false prophet too.
He said that Perus Mejia teaches work salvation,
and so did his wife.
He also slandered Pastor Anderson.
I've seen the text messages of these wicked evil people.
Why would I even give ear to anything that they have to say
or anything that they do?
These people have been proven liars and thieves.
Ryan Gallagher was going to make a documentary
about the flat earth and just got all these donations
and then totally reneged on it.
And if you gave money online to that, to GoFundMe,
you can go and request a refund and they'll give you a refund,
and you need to do it.
Take your money back from that lying, stealing thief, okay?
And you say, ah, I don't think he stole.
You tell people you're going to make a documentary
and then you don't do it and you won't give the footage
to the people that were interested in making it, you stole it.
It's that clear. You're a thief.
And there's probably all kinds of other theft
that you're going to be caught for later down the line.
But at the end of the day,
the devil's going to try to attack you and mentally afflict you
and try to get you to not like Job.
You know what? You just keep liking Job.
You just stick with God's commandments and you just be faithful
and you say, I don't care what the devil throws at me.
I'm a soldier of Jesus Christ.
And I have my marching orders, the King James Bible.
I already have the upper command.
He already gave me the rules.
He already told me what to do.
And look, there's been thick and thin.
There's been evil. There's been attacks against our church.
And you know why the devil's attacking our church?
Like crazy right now?
Because we keep God's commandments and he gives us the testimony of Jesus Christ.
That's why.
Look, the devil's throwing the kitchen sink at our church right now, okay?
And that makes me want to come here more.
Hey, that makes me love Steadfast Baptist Church.
That means we love you guys.
You know, it's interesting when we change the crop
and we get a bunch of good people in here
and throw out all the trash that God starts to,
God allows us to go through all these attacks through the devil.
Why? Because he now knows that we can take some of that.
Look at it this way.
God obviously looks at you and thinks that you are capable of being tempted with this.
Otherwise, he wouldn't tempt you with it.
Otherwise, he wouldn't try to attack us.
Otherwise, he wouldn't try to afflict us, you know?
He's not going to tempt you above that you're able.
God wants us to come out as gold tried by fire.
You know what? In order to do that, you have to be tried by fire.
And I'm telling you, it's so light affliction when you read the Bible.
We don't even know what real persecution looks like.
And if you're going to fall away now, just hit the road, Jack.
Go be buddies with a bunch of losers that don't even know the shape of our earth, okay?
Can't even figure it out.
And I'm done trying to convert them.
I don't want to convert them because you can't convert flat earthers typically.
I mean, maybe someone gets a little mixed up and they don't know what's right.
You know, I'll pray for you.
But at the end of the day, these people that are ardent flat earthers are always wicked.
They're the most evil people.
And they're the dumbest people on the planet.
Except for atheists. I give that exception, all right?
But you say, what's the cure to all this, okay?
I'm going to give you two passages here in Psalms and we'll be done.
But the Bible says the joy of the Lord is your strength.
You know how you get through all these attacks?
By rejoicing in the Lord, okay?
And look at Psalms 31 verse 23.
You say, I don't know if I can do it.
Well, just go ahead and trust in Him.
Just keep doing right and the Bible says you'll strengthen your heart where you can make it.
Where you can take it.
Notice God's going to strengthen you.
You've got to be courageous and just keep serving the Lord.
And you know, I've had people, you know, for the sake of time,
I don't want to tell too many stories, but I want to tell one more.
Go to Psalms 34 and we'll finish on that passage.
But you know, when our church started, as far as me being the pastor,
and I was coming in and Fanon was pulling all kinds of junk.
This guy was a wicked liar and railer and just attacking all the people in our churches.
And he'd spread so many lies and railings about people.
Well, I knew it was Dicey and Jacksonville.
But everybody that would call me, I tried to encourage them, I tried to talk to them.
But I remember specifically, I talked with Brother Ben
and you know, he was pretty good friends with Fanon.
I don't hold that against him, but you know, he was pretty good friends with him at the time.
And he tried to be friendly and encourage his leadership.
And he was really distraught by me calling him out
and saying a lot of things that were negative about his friend.
And admittedly, Ben didn't want to turn on Fanon
or think anything negatively about him at first because he was his friend.
It's weird when you turn on your friends like a dime.
No matter how wicked they are, it's just weird.
You kind of have to go through this weird grieving state.
And you know, I was already, in my mind, like, Fanon is a wicked Judas, like, false prophet, evil person.
Ben was just like, maybe he's just confused.
Maybe he's just having a bad day or something.
And that's fine.
But I told him, I said, look, I know I'm making some really strong statements about him
and I know there's a lot of evil going on.
But I said, I know this, no matter what happens, me or him,
I said, as long as you serve God, as long as you're just faithful to his commandments,
it's all going to work out for you.
And I said, don't trust in me, don't trust in Fanon, just trust in the Bible.
Make sure every decision you make is based on what the Bible just says.
And I said, it worked out.
And why don't you ask him later after the service if it worked out.
You know, it's easy to say it, but it's harder to do it, but it's that simple.
Just, hey, just look at the Bible, what does the Bible say?
Who's right, who's wrong, what is the Bible saying?
And just constantly do right and you'll constantly find yourself in the place that you need to be.
Where God wants you to be, it's all going to work out for you.
And you say, I don't know if I can trust all these other people.
You can't, you can't trust anyone, frankly.
I have this philosophy, everyone sucks, okay?
Because we're all sinners, all right?
And the world just, it seems like our whole society is just crumbling at the seams.
You know, everybody, nobody shows up to work anymore.
Nobody does a good job.
Customer service is gone.
You know, the customer is always right, was gone, you know, with COVID.
I mean, now it's just like, nobody cares.
Everybody's just frustrated, everybody's overworked, everybody's stressed out.
Nobody does a good job anymore.
Everything in society is breaking down.
But you know what?
As the world crumbles around me, Jesus hasn't changed.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And you know what?
It's fine because the whole world is going to burn up anyway.
Look at what it says in Psalms 34 verse 15.
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open under their cry.
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
I love that.
Maybe you should underline it.
All their troubles, all of them.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are, notice this, of a broken heart, and save as such as be of a contrite spirit.
You know what?
God's heart breaks with your heart.
God cares about you.
He's supposed to cast all our care upon him.
He's supposed to strengthen ourselves in the Lord.
Here's our verse, verse 19.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous.
Oh, it seems like you guys are afflicted in all these ways.
Yeah.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous.
If you tell me this guy's righteous, I'm going to ask this.
Where's his afflictions?
Where's his scars?
You say, hey, Paul, are you righteous?
He'll just show you his back, and you'll be like, whoa.
Hey, when we go to heaven, we'll see the lamb slain.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous.
You're so clean cut, probably you're not very righteous.
But the Lord delivereth them out of them all.
He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.
Evil shall slay the wicked, and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
Hey, strengthen yourself with the word of God today.
You know what?
If you're going through hard times, this is what I recommend to you.
Open the book of Psalms and just start reading it.
Because it'll take like 30 seconds to read one Psalm.
And before you know it, you'll read like three or four Psalms that'll be exactly your situation.
I mean, you're going to find evil, because the Psalms are just all kinds of stories of affliction, pain, suffering, evil, woe.
And you know what?
It'd be just a good daily habit, just read some Psalms.
Just encourage yourself in the Lord.
When you're going through hard times, when you feel heartbroken, when you feel sad, when you feel distressed, feel the attacks of the devil.
You got to strengthen yourself in the word of God and say, you know what?
I'm going to keep walking.
I'm going to keep stepping by faith.
I'm going to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain, Lord.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your word.
Thank you for this church.
Thank you for all the people that are in this room.
I pray that you would just strengthen all of our hearts with the word of God today.
We realize the wicked are going to get what's coming to them in this life or the next, or both.
I pray that you just give them both.
Just please relieve the afflicted tonight.
Those that are suffering, those that are being persecuted across this world and in this room, all of God's people today.
I pray that you would just give them favor, Lord.
I pray that you would look down from heaven and that you would judge in the earth.
That you would just not spare.
That you would find out all the wickedness of all these evil people.
That you would just expose all of their evil.
That they would get the just due of their recompense.
That you would just show yourself strong on the behalf of them that have their heart perfect towards you.
And I pray that no matter what comes our way, no matter what evil, that we'll be reminded of the promises and the scriptures you've given us.
That we can have courage in the day of adversity.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen. With that, let's go ahead and sing one more song before we head out tonight.
Go ahead and take out your hymnal.
The song 314, More Love to Thee.
Song number 314.
314, More Love to Thee.
More love to Thee, O Christ.
More love to Thee.
Here now the prayer I make.
On bended knee.
This is my earnest plea.
More love, O Christ, to Thee.
More love to Thee.
Once earthly joy I crave.
Sun, peace, and rest.
Now Thee alone I see.
Give what is best.
This all my prayer shall be.
More love, O Christ, to Thee.
More love to Thee.
Let sorrow do its work.
Send grief and pain.
Sweet are Thy messengers.
Sweet they refrain.
When they can sing with me.
More love, O Christ, to Thee.
More love to Thee.
Then shall my latest breath.
Whisper Thy praise.
This eve, a parting cry.
Thy heart shall raise.
This village, prayer shall be.
More love, O Christ, to Thee.
More love to Thee.
Thank you all for being here tonight.
God bless you.