Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
It's great to see everybody here this afternoon. If we can go and find our seats,
we will go ahead and get started.
Once we've all found a seat, let's grab a hymnal and we'll start this service off with song number 39.
How beautiful heaven must be.
Song number 39.
Let's all sing it out together.
soul-winning this afternoon and we just thank you for all those that were
reached Lord we love you and we just ask you to bless this service and fill
this church with your spirit and it's in Jesus name we pray amen. Alright for our
next song let's go to song number 46 song number 46 my savior first of all
Thanks for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you did not already get a bulletin and you would like one,
you can lift your hand nice and high.
We'll get you a bulletin.
We're getting close to finishing Matthew 28.
Anybody that can quote the entire chapter gets a prize.
Insights are serviced in soul winning times
as well as church stats.
Make sure if you went out soul winning this afternoon
to put your maps in our Dunbin,
as well as update the group chat.
You can do that now if you haven't thought of it.
On the right is a list of expecting ladies, and then we have our upcoming events.
Our kids' choir is going to be performing for us on Easter, and I really encourage you to be here
and check it out. I'm sure it's going to be not only cute, but I'm sure they're going to perform
very well as well, so I'm excited to see their performances. The Mansville Soul Winning Marathon,
there is a sign-up sheet out here in the foyer if you'd like to attend. We'd love for you to come
out and join us for a couple different soul-winning opportunities. We'll do it in the morning and
afternoon. We'll have some food here at the church, and then we'll have lunch as well, so
We're just trying to encourage not only us, but other people to do soul winning on that day
There's a lot of other churches participating in marathons and events on the 19th and kind of a kind of like a mini
Megamarathon in a sense, but maybe that's too many adjectives. I don't know but
Essentially just an idea of trying to encourage a lot of people to do a lot of soul winning on that day before Easter
Easter services, we're gonna have the Lord supper for the evening service next Sunday
So if you'd like to join us for that
Our church, I know this is really controversial, but I guess in a sense our church is kind of open communion
in the sense that anybody who's saved is
and baptized is welcome to
have
have communion with us even if they're not technically a member of
Our church and I know that'll cause some Baptist does not even be fellowship with you ever again
so I don't know why closed communion is such a big deal for some of these people but
I guess it is highly controversial.
I do give warnings.
I mean, obviously the Bible says it should be for saved people
that are baptized and write with God.
They shouldn't be on the first Corinthians five list.
But if you meet that criterion,
let every man examine himself, right?
Down below we have the Scott baby shower
and then we have the Mother's Day brunch.
You can either do the sign up sheet
or you can just do the ladies group chat.
I think we're gonna have a big group this year.
I think my wife's, there's already 90 ladies signed up
and so we're gonna be doing a different venue
because the venue in the past
can't accommodate the growth of our church
and so we just have to keep finding new opportunities
but that's a good problem.
We're excited for all the ladies
that are gonna be joining us.
I'm sure it's gonna be a lot of fun.
My wife's already been planning this
so I look forward to hearing how it goes.
Church reminders down below on the back. We have the baby shower details
please
If you would like to get them a gift the Scots and their baby boy, they register on Amazon
You can bring a side dish or dessert
Nursing's only preferred RSVP to miss Milstead and then we have our prayer list. That's pretty much all I've got
We'll go to our third song Psalm 126. So it's there in your Psalm binders
Psalm 126
All right, that was Psalm 126.
Let's all sing it out together, Psalm 126.
shall we enjoy. Then surveil underneath him, the Lord of done great things for them, the
Lord of done great things for us, whereof we are glad. He that goeth forth, and we've been
bearing preciously shall doubtless come again, shall doubtless come again.
And great things for them, the Lord, and great things for us, whereof we are back.
Great singing, everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around,
go ahead and turn on your Bibles to Daniel chapter number six.
That's the book of Daniel chapter number six.
Daniel 6 the Bible says, It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom on 120 princes which
should be over the whole kingdom.
And over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give accounts
unto them, and the king should have no damage.
Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was
in him.
Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom.
But they could find none occasion nor fault, for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
Then said these men we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the law of his God
Then these presidents and princes assembled to the king and said thus unto him King Darius live forever
All the presidents of the kingdom the governors and the princes the counselors and the captains
have consulted together to establish a royal statute,
and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask
a petition of any God or man for 30 days,
save of thee, O King,
he shall be cast into the den of lions.
Now, O King, establish the decree
and sign the writing that it be not changed,
according to the law of the Medes and Persians,
which altereth not.
Wherefore, King Darius signed the writing and the decree.
Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed,
And his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four time.
Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.
Then they came near and spake before the king concerning the king's decree.
Has Thou not signed a decree that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within thirty days, save of theo king, shall be cast into the den of lions?"
The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardless not theo king.
nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day.
Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself,
and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him,
and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him.
Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king,
No, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is,
that no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed.
Then the king commanded and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions.
Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou service continually, he will
deliver thee.
And the stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with
his own signet, and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed
concerning Daniel.
Neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep went from him.
Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste unto the den of lions.
And when he came to the den, he cried with the lamentable voice unto Daniel.
And the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom
thou service continually able to deliver thee from the lions?
Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever.
My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lion's mouths that they hath not hurt me.
For as much as before him, innocence he was found in me.
Then the king was exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den.
So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.
and the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel,
and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives,
and the lions had the mastery of them, and break all their bones and pieces,
or ever they came at the bottom of the den. Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth,
peace be multiplied unto you.
I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear before the
God of Daniel, for he is the living God and steadfast forever, and his kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed."
and his dominion shall be even unto the end.
He delivereth and rescueeth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven
and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus, the Persian.
Let us pray, Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the word of God.
I thank you for.
Being able to deliver Daniel in such a great work,
and I thank you that you're able to deliver us also,
please fill past Shelley with your Holy Spirit
to preach the word now in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
I want to look at the beginning of this chapter.
It says it, please, Darius,
to set over the kingdom 120 princes,
which should be over the whole kingdom.
And over these three presidents,
of whom Daniel was first,
that the princes might give accounts under them,
should have no damage.
So the entire earth is essentially conquered,
at least the developed world, the civilized world,
and we need leadership, we need a hierarchy.
We have the king, King Darius.
He ushers out 120 princes, is what the Bible says.
The word prince simply means ruler.
Often we get confused with Disney Channel
or Disney movies and think of prince as the son of a king.
Prince just simply means ruler.
And so these are 120 rulers, of those 120 there's three presidents and then of those three presidents there's one person that's the first president or the chief president and that is Daniel.
What is the point of appointing Daniel over everyone?
Because it's just like King Daniel, then the three, then the 120, then who knows there's probably a lot more leadership underneath that, but that is the hierarchy of the structure.
The point of putting Daniel in charge is that there would be no damage.
There would be no damage to the king.
And I believe that this principle could apply to a lot of different scenarios,
but I want to also apply it to the things of God, because what's more important
than physical carnal ruling is spiritual ruling, and our king is the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the Lord Jesus Christ empowers and gives authority
unto pastors and unto bishops to rule the house of God, and that there is no damage.
And so what I want to preach a sermon on this evening is called Damage Control.
Damage control.
And there's this idea that's constantly thrown out by people
how they say, oh, you guys always preach
damage control sermons.
Amen.
Why would I want there to be damage in the house of God?
Why would I want there to be damage under the King?
We should constantly be limiting damage
that's going on in this world.
And let me tell you something that's really damaging.
It's called sin.
Sin is really damaging, and we should be getting up and preaching the Word of God and causing people to have a fear of God.
I love the end of this chapter. Did you notice at the end of this chapter what it said in verse 26?
I make a decree, this is the King Darius, that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.
What to God? We would have men thundering forth the fear of God and that people would actually tremble at the thought of God.
They'd be afraid of the God of the Bible.
They would see, oh, my company is losing money
because I attacked the people of God.
Oh, this guy's getting a skin disease
that's destroying him because he didn't fear God.
Oh, there's this guy dead in an alley
because he didn't fear God.
People should be trembling and be afraid of God
and what God can do unto people.
And at the end of the day,
when we talk about damage control,
you could look it up in a dictionary or online.
The idea is just trying to limit the damage
as a result of some issue or some problem.
That's kind of just a basic idea of what that means.
But really what I think this is,
is it's a psychological technique of enemies.
to try and get you to not do something that you should do.
And, you know, a lot of people will say,
oh, I bet you're going to preach a damage control sermon
about this subject.
And what they're trying to get you to do
is not do what the Bible wants you to do.
And I have eight things I'm going to bring up.
There's eight things, there's probably more.
There's eight things that they don't want me to do
when I get up and preach.
All right, go to 2 Timothy chapter four.
And again, it's kind of like,
If you play a sport, or if you play a game with somebody
and they want to win,
they'll use psychological techniques against you, right?
So if you play chess or something, you play a sport,
and there's not a lot of trash talking in chess,
but just go with me for a second.
But you know, you're sitting there playing chess
and they're like, I bet you're gonna move
that piece over there.
And sometimes they'll say that to you to psych you out
so that you won't move that piece over there
because they know that that's the right move.
They know that you should do that.
So they're saying that and trying to psych you out,
saying like, oh, I bet you're gonna probably
move your piece over here.
They're trying to get you to second guess doing that.
Or, you know, it could be a sport event.
They say like, oh, I bet you're going to try and run over here.
You know, tell those people, I bet you're going to try and throw a touchdown.
Yeah, we are.
Like, that's the whole point of the game.
So they try to use these psychological techniques to call you out.
Say what you're going to do before you do it to try and get you to second guess
that you're going to do it.
Hey, I bet you if I punch you, you're probably going to punch me back, huh?
And you're like, yeah.
Hey, I bet if I break into your house, you might shoot me.
Hey, I bet if I start keying your car. You might try to stop me, huh? Yes, I will and it's like
Oh, I bet if I lie about you and slander you and attack you you might preach against me. Yes, I might
I mean, that's just the reality
But they think by calling you out and saying oh, I bet it's a damage control you won't do it
You know just because someone calls you out or says hey, I bet you're gonna do this doesn't mean it's still not the right thing to do
Don't let people psych you out about doing what the Bible says and here's the one thing that they really don't want to do is name names
They'll say oh damage control is naming names, but you know what the Bible names names
Look a second Timothy chapter number four verse ten for Demis have forsaken me. You know what the word Demis is there?
It's a name
And Demis, I think it's pretty clear in the text,
if you read the Bible, Demis was a saved guy.
He was probably even on the right path at some point.
But Demis, what did he do?
He first took Paul.
Oh, Paul's a cult man.
Why do I have to follow Paul?
It's not about Paul.
But notice what Paul says, hey, you've forsaken me.
Why? Because hey, he's the man of God.
He's the one going out and doing lots of works.
And sometimes you rely on servants.
You rely on church members. You rely on people.
And when they leave you, they drop you like a bad habit.
It causes damage to the cause of Christ.
And sometimes people need to be called out.
So then other people don't make the same mistake as Demis
and go down the same path of Demis.
And sometimes you got to name people like Demis.
Why did demons forsake him having loved this present world and is departed under Thessalonica?
So here's a guy who doesn't care about the things of God. He cares about money
You know what people will often leave our church or leave our churches or leave our friends churches for money
because they just love money,
they don't care about the things of God,
they're not interested in telling the truth,
and they are just interested in just
the pleasures of this life, the pleasures of this world.
Probably the best case scenario,
I'm sorry, the best example I could think of
would be Paul Wittenberger half-versaken,
the new I of B, having loved this present world.
There's a guy that just is love,
is trying to make a lot of money
and doesn't care about truth anymore,
doesn't care about, you know, the things of God.
And you say, how dare you say that?
Paul Wittenberger has filed copyright strikes
on gospel presentation videos on the internet
and then sells the exact same presentation on his website.
So it's not like he's against the gospel presentation.
He's against someone getting it for free.
Why?
Because he cares about money.
He cares about money.
That's just fact.
You can't argue with those facts.
Those are just things that are happening.
So that's someone that forsook us
not to get right with God,
not to do things that are more spiritual,
but simply just like money.
And you say, oh, how dare you name the name?
This is damage control.
Okay, well, I don't want more people
to leave our church to go chase money.
Yeah, right.
Why did Paul call them out? Paul called them out and look Paul filed a false copyright strike on my videos
For all kinds of different things. The guy is just cares about money. He doesn't care about truth
I've never done any damage to Paul
In fact, I've given Paul thousands and thousands,
tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime
of being a pastor of this church,
done nothing wrong, he files copyright strikes against us,
lies about us, slanders us, puts us down.
This is a guy that's forsaken us
for nothing that we did to him.
Why? Because he loves money.
This is damage control.
Sure, you can call it whatever you want,
but you know what?
The Bible says to call these people out.
Crescians, because of Galatia, Titus and Dalmatia, only Luke is with me.
Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
So you know, some people get an honorable mention, some people get a bad mention.
You know, here's somebody that's done great.
Ben Naim did a great job putting together the Daniel series,
and we put that out online for free.
and Ben was promised $0 from anybody to make that.
He just, of his own time, just nights and weekends,
puts out the Daniels Series product.
When people in our church and churches
gave money and resources to produce this product,
and then Paul Wittenberger won't do it,
won't finish the job,
we volunteer our free time to get it done.
And then he has to criticize it
and act like it's an inferior product and trash us.
Well, you know what?
That's his problem.
And you know what, he shouldn't do that.
He shouldn't trash churches.
He didn't, you know, our bad version of the Daniel series
is better than his, no version anyways.
I don't even think it's bad.
I think Ben did a great job.
I'm just saying, even if it was an inferior product,
that inferior product is better than your no product.
And let me tell you something.
You single guys, a not perfect wife's better than no wife.
Okay?
Sometimes you have to just realize,
don't let perfect get in the way of good.
and sometimes people allow perfect to stop them from actually accomplishing anything.
You know, we need to call people out.
How about Alexander the Coppersmith? Look at verse 14.
Alexander the Coppersmith didn't mean much evil.
Who did Alexander the Coppersmith hurt?
Paul.
He attacked Paul. He did evil unto Paul.
And then Paul's calling him out.
And we're talking about the Apostle Paul here.
So you know, here's another name. How about Tommy McMurtry and Cassandra McMurtry and of course this guy is just
Probably the poster child for one that's trying to psych everybody out and saying oh everything's a damage control sermon
But there's nothing wrong with a damage control sermon
What does the Bible say thou should not preach damage control? I think the Bible preaches that you should
Hey, Daniel was a damage control expert.
He's seeing no damage to the things
that the kings entrusted to him.
And you know, as a pastor, as a leader,
you should try to reduce and eliminate damage
over the goods that have been entrusted to you,
over the flock that's been entrusted to you.
And sometimes that's naming the names,
marking and avoiding certain people and calling them out.
And you know what the Bible doesn't say?
Thou shalt not call out women.
So here's the number one thing people do they'll try to psych you out and say oh, this is a damage control sermon
He's probably gonna mention my name. Yep
Why because they don't want you to name a name the name
The second thing that they do is they don't want you to call out women
They're afraid of you calling out women go through to act chapter 5 go to act chapter number 5
But you know what there's nothing wrong calling out women
If women want to be loud and obnoxious and slander,
they're gonna get called out just like a man would.
If they're meek and quiet, they have nothing to worry about.
Just like a man that's meek and quiet.
Hey, a man that's a busybody, called out.
Woman that's a busybody, called out.
Man that's quiet, not called out.
Woman that's quiet, not called out.
It's not about men or women,
it's about what is your behavior.
Hey, you know what? Men and women get called out in the Bible, not just men.
Okay? Everybody's fair game.
And if you want to enter into the arena, then guess what?
You have the opportunity to be called out.
Peter didn't get afraid to call out women.
Even women when they had no one to defend them.
Look at verse one.
But a certain man named Ananias was to fire his wife's soul to possession and kept back
part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid
it at the apostles feet.
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and keep
back part of the price of the land?
While it remained, was it not thine own?
And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?
Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?
Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost,
and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
So Ananias makes a mistake, he lies, he's killed.
That should cause people to fear and tremble before the God of the Bible
when someone dies for having lied unto the Holy Ghost.
Well, keep reading.
It says in verse 6,
And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
So he was in the car playing games on his phone, waiting for his wife to come out.
And then he just left early for church, right?
So she comes out three hours later.
This is just my ad-libbing, all right?
We don't know. Why did it take her three hours later to come in? I don't know. We don't know what was going on.
Women take a lot longer to get ready, though. I know that's for sure.
She should have been with her husband verse 8 and Peter answered under tell me whether you sold the land for so much
Hey, how dare you Peter ask her questions?
How dare you you know how dare you try to figure out if she's lying to well Peter's gonna figure out where this lady's at
Hey, did you soul for this much?
And she said, yay for so much.
Then Peter said, how is it that you have agreed together
to tempt the spirit of the Lord,
behold the feet of them which have buried thy husband
or at the door and shall carry thee out.
Then fell she down straight way at his feet
and yielded up the ghost.
And the young men came in and found her dead
and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
And great fear came upon all the church
and upon as many as heard these things.
Look, you should follow your husband.
but not to sin against God.
If your husband is going wayward,
you don't go down with him.
Hey, if you get thrown out of church
because your husband's a railer, don't rail with him.
Don't be a slanderer with him.
Don't go down the dark path with him
because you know what, God will hold you accountable
for your sins too.
And if your husband's a liar, you don't lie with him.
You don't tell false things with them
But you know what women can get called out just in the same way that the husband gets called out for the exact same sin
With the same punishment because God's not a respecter of persons neither am I and you know what?
If a woman's gonna be loud and obnoxious like Joyce Meyer like Beth more and run her mouth online
Someone gets to call them out if you want to teach the Bible online. Well, you're fair game
You don't get to just go online and preach false doctrine and lies and slander and no one gets to respond because you're quote a woman
You know, that's not I don't play that game
And say how do you how dare you ever call out a woman? Well, you know, I didn't force Cassandra
Mercery to put a bunch of my videos on her YouTube channel. I
Didn't force her to make videos slandering me and talking about my church constantly online
That's not me doing it.
That's just her doing that kind of stuff.
So, you know, I get the opportunity to defend myself
and I get to call them out.
Just like Peter's calling out,
Sapphira, hey, I can call out a woman,
go to 1st Timothy chapter five.
People say, oh, the men of God only called out bad women.
And?
And, you know, this is what people always do.
They'll say, oh, how dare you call out a pastor's wife?
But but I'm not calling someone out because she's married to a pastor
I'm not calling someone out because they're a virgin on their wedding night. I'm not calling out a woman for loving her family
I'm calling out a woman for slandering and lying
But then it's like he's like here's where you slandered, but I was a virgin my wedding night
Okay, that has nothing to do with the fact that you slandered or lied
Can we address the slander or the lies that you made?
And again, this is what people do,
is they just try to distract from the actual argument
and just bring up something else about themselves
that's positive.
And again, Tommy and the Mercury
is someone that's attacked my church relentlessly,
lied about me, lied about our church,
calls us all Kool-Aid drinkers in a cold
and says, you guys have all been emasculated by me
in all kinds of just nonsense.
And people in our church have left because of him.
They've been in communication with him.
And so I get a chance to defend myself against this guy.
And look, this guy's teaching all kinds of heresy.
This guy's teaching weird stuff.
He taught that Jesus Christ was in Jerusalem,
the entire Old Testament,
up until the children of Israel took over,
offering sacrifices.
He said that he think Jesus Christ was an Old Testament
Melchizedek that was there from the time of Canaan Abel
all the way up until the children of Israel take over Canaan.
Okay, he taught all kinds of just bizarre things.
He's teaching all kinds of weird wacky things
about Melchizedek, Temple, just sacrifices.
I mean, you just, I did a whole show about it
last night if you care, all right?
But if you don't know who it is, you don't need to know.
But what you, think about it this way.
We didn't know who Demis was.
We didn't know Alexander the Coppersmith was but we just learned from the example.
Sometimes people get called out, you don't have to know their name, you don't have to know anything about them.
But you know what, the people that know, they need to be warned about bad people.
Okay? First Timothy chapter number five, look what it says in verse number six.
But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
This is talking about widows,
and this is the Apostle Paul giving instruction in Timothy.
Hey, widows that are not serving God
don't deserve money from the church.
We're calling them out.
We're examining their lifestyle
and determining whether they're worthy or not
of even receiving money.
It says in verse nine,
let not a widow be taken into the number
under three score years old,
have him in the wife of one man.
You're gonna have to ask women their age.
Now that's spicy.
Think about it like you know women get offended about being carted
You know like 21 or whatever this is what they really get if they get offended when they stop getting carted
You know they're like what you don't think I look 20 or whatever. She's like 45. It's like hun. No, sorry
But think about it. It's like you're like 50 and they're like hey are you over 60 that would offend a lot of women wouldn't it?
But it's like, hey, you got to check what her age is.
Notice this, having been the wife of one man.
How dare you question some woman
that got divorced from her husband?
Well, you know what?
You don't get money from the church
when you're gonna leave your husband.
When you're gonna get a divorce from your husband.
Well reported up for good works
if she had brought up children,
if she had lodged strangers,
if she had washed the saints' feet,
if she had relieved the afflicted,
if she had diligently followed every good work.
Boy, it's gonna be hard.
for the church to give a lot of money to widows.
Have you seen that list?
That's an incredible list, but you know what?
Here's a cool thing, if you are that woman,
the church should be able to provide for you
if you don't have a family member that can provide for you.
So the church can take care of that.
But what does it say in verse 11?
But the younger widows refuse.
For when they begin to wax one against Christ,
they'll marry having damnation
because they've cast off their first faith.
And with all they learn to be idle,
wanting about from house to house,
and not only idle, but tatlers also,
and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not,
I will therefore that the younger women marry,
bear children, guide the house,
give none occasioned adversary to speak reproachfully,
for some are already turned aside after Satan.
So you have women, according to the Bible, going down a lifestyle that the Bible describes as Satanic.
So if you see a woman being a tatler and a busybody,
which the Bible calls satanic,
and she's an example, under other ladies,
putting herself out there as the example
for lots of other women,
and she's leading them to go down a tail-bearing,
gossiping road, that's satanic.
Why would I not then want to say,
hey, don't do that.
Don't follow this woman going down this path.
I mean, that only makes logical sense.
Oh, but.
I was a virgin on my wedding night.
Okay, did it say in this list that any of the women here
were not virgins on their wedding night?
Or did it say, hey, here's the problem,
they're tatlers in busy bodies?
You could argue that every single woman in this
was a virgin on their wedding night
and pure on their wedding night,
yet they were a tatler in a busy body,
and that's what makes them satanic,
not that they were a virgin on their wedding night.
Quit bringing up that as some excuse
as to how you could never do wrong
or never be called out for something.
Yay, you're so much better than us.
And you also know Hadassah, okay?
So congratulations, you are holier than all of us.
But you know what, you could be the holiest person ever
for your whole life, and then you start tattling,
and now you're a Satanic.
Because all your righteousness will not be remembered.
When you sin, go to Ezekiel.
You can be perfect all the way up to a point,
but then think about this,
I've never done anything wrong in my life.
As soon as you kill someone, now you're a killer.
You know, we're not going to talk about what you did in your past.
We're talking about what you did right now and the sins that you have right now.
Women can be called out.
Go to Revelation chapter 20.
Or, I'm sorry, 2.
Revelation 2.
Revelation chapter number 2.
I'm uncomfy, Pastor Shelley.
Well, you know what?
Welcome to St. Basil's Baptist Church.
Men and women can be called out and they are called out in the Bible.
And this is what I've noticed.
People that don't like a damage-control sermon, they just don't like the New Testament.
I mean, what have I showed, what have I said that is not clearly in the text so far?
He's calling out women, calling out women by name.
Here's another one where we're going to get a clear call out by name specifically, Revelation
chapter 2 verse 20.
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel.
which called herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication
and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication
and insure her repent of not. Behold, I will cast her in her bed and them that commit adultery
with her into great tribulation, accept their repent of their deeds, and I will kill her
children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searches the
reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works."
Now, if you understand the context of this, this is supposed to be written under the seven churches which are in Asia.
Go back to chapter one.
Look at verse four.
John, to the seven churches which are in Asia.
So let me tell you something.
Six churches read about Jezebel and heard about Jezebel and she doesn't go to their church.
She has nothing to do with her church.
How dare you talk about someone that's not in your church?
Why would God write an epistle and give it
to seven different churches at the same time
if he doesn't want them to know about issues
going on in other churches?
You know what, God doesn't wanna have to punish
seven women in seven churches to make this point.
He wants to punish one woman
that's in the most extreme category of error here
so that all the churches may know.
Did you read that?
Go back if you had to chapter number two.
And look what it says in verse number,
let's see, what is the verse that I want?
Yeah, verse 23.
And I will kill our children with death
and all the churches shall know
and all the churches shall know.
It sounds like people knew about drama
and other churches, didn't they?
And you know what I like about this epistle?
It's not a coincidence.
It's not like Jezebel died with all those same people and they were like man
That's a random coincidence. This lady was doing all this stuff and then something bad happened to her
No, it's like no, you know, God did it
God took care of this person and God dealt with this person and you know what this woman got called out
She shouldn't have been doing what she was doing
She didn't be teaching teaching this false doctrine teaching this heresy and God even killed her and the people that were partakers with her
Go to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 go to 2nd Timothy chapter number 3
First Corinthians chapter 5, we're going to go there in a minute, but in verse 1 it says that there's an issue in that church where a man has his father's wife.
Did you realize that the sin of fornication, it takes two to tango?
Both parties are getting called out. It's not like they were only calling out the dude, you can't do that.
You're calling out both parties in that particular sin,
in that particular issue.
So you got that woman getting called out for her sin.
Yes, women can get publicly called out.
Women can be publicly excommunicated from the church.
Women are named in the Bible,
and it's not even just the unsaved Jezebel of the Old Testament.
It's, I believe, the saved New Testament Jezebel.
You have Sapphira.
being mentioned. You have First Corinthians chapter number five, the woman that's obviously the
father's wife that's being mentioned. Now that's not by name, but I guarantee everybody in that
church knows her name. I would even, I would even guess that many people knew her name that weren't
even a part of that church. If you realize many of the epistles are even written to multiple churches
at the same time, they're not written just one singular church because, you know, God wants to
Did you realize that we're reading the New Testament?
It's written to the Romans, but I thought that was for us.
No, no, that's just for the Romans.
Oh, Corinthians, that's just for Corinth.
Galatia, that's just for Galatia.
Ephesus, that's just for Ephesus.
No, no, we're reading about what happened in other churches
so that we would know how our church should operate
and the issues that are going on in our churches.
Look at what it says in 2 Timothy,
chapter number three, verse three.
Without natural affection truce breakers false accusers and continent fierce despises of those that are good
So according to the Bible, there's false accusers is something that's going to happen in the latter days
Okay, and it says them to skip down to verse 6 for of this sort are they which creep in houses and lead captive silly women?
laden with sins led away with divers lusts
So false prophets and false teachers
Come with all these all these sin issues and who do they affect the most silly women now silly
We don't usually use the word silly, I think,
the way the Bible's using it too much.
I think silly, like I'm thinking of like tricks or for kids,
you know, silly rabbit, tricks are for kids.
And silly just kind of means like weird or goofy.
But in the Bible, silly is kind of more synonymous
with just being kind of dumb or an airhead
or just someone that's kind of foolish or lacking wisdom.
Maybe doesn't take things very seriously.
And silly women are usually taken advantage of by bad men.
bad people and so they need to be warned from these type of issues
and of course false accusations
they really just resonate well with silly women. They'll just repeat all kinds of stuff
gossip, lies, slander. That's why it's important to stop it right at the head.
Call things out and not allow women
to just repeat and go through the rumor meal of all kinds of false accusations
and issues.
Why would you call somebody out or call a woman out or call these things?
If there's a woman that's an example of slander
and causing all kinds of problems,
it needs to be dealt with.
It needs to be publicly addressed.
And if you say, oh, that's damage control.
Amen.
Why would I not want to control gossip?
Why would I not want to control slander?
Why would I not want to limit the damage of sin
and these problems in churches?
To me, you just love lies if you don't want to control that.
People should be kept, you know, is basically in control.
Go forward to Titus chapter 2 and look at verse 3 there.
Titus chapter 2, we're right there, just turn the page.
Verse 3, the age and women likewise that they be in behavior
as we come with holiness, not false accusers.
You know who's preaching this?
The pastor, the pastor's addressing the men, he's addressing the women,
he's telling the women, don't be false accusers, don't be gossips, don't be liars.
Why? Because it's going to cause a reproach on the cause of Christ. It's satanic, okay?
You have a way to second Corinthians chapter 7. So number one,
people say, oh, you preach damaged controlled sermons,
they're trying to get you to not name the name. I will name the name.
Don't test me.
Number two, they want you to not call out a woman.
I will call out a woman if I feel like it's necessary.
Number three, here's another thing they don't want you to do,
is they want you to never defend yourself.
You know what?
The authors of the Bible are constantly defending themselves
against lies, slander, false accusations, and all kinds of different things.
Second Corinthians, chapter number seven,
the apostle Paul is addressing issues that he had with his church
and issues he's already dealt with.
Having therefore these promised dearly beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Receive us.
We have wronged no man.
We have corrupted no man.
We have defrauded no man.
Now, keep your finger here.
Go back to chapter one, verse one.
Second Corinthians, chapter one, verse one.
Just keep your finger there.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother under the
church of God, which is at Corinth with all the saints, which are in all Achaia.
So it's written in a sense that it's kind of written from we.
Who's the we?
Paul and Timothy.
Paul and Timothy are saying, we have wronged no man.
Paul and Timothy are saying, we have corrupted no man.
Paul and Timothy are saying, we have defrauded no man.
Oh, how dare you defend yourself?
Why is he happening to bring this up?
Well, if you read the context, 2 Corinthians is clear,
somebody in the church is probably accusing the Apostle Paul
of stealing money or doing something wrong with money.
And as a result, he has to defend himself over and over.
Read in this chapter a little bit more
and we'll say, let's go to verse eight.
For though I made you sorry of the letter, I do not repent, though I did repent, for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were for but a season.
Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance, for you were made sorry after a godly manner that ye might receive damage by us in nothing."
So the Apostle Paul is saying he wrote in 1 Corinthians about issues that they had, and in that epistle he's calling people out.
He's calling serious sin issues out.
He's calling people out by name in a sense,
just because people could recognize who he was talking about.
And he's saying, when I wrote that and I sent it out,
I then later thought about it and then I was like,
ooh, I probably shouldn't have said that.
Ooh, I don't know if that was right.
I don't even know if that was appropriate.
And he kind of saying like, I repented.
Did you notice that when he said that?
He says, I do not repent though I did repent.
That's kind of confusing.
What is he saying?
He's saying at first I kind of thought that was too harsh.
Maybe I shouldn't have said that maybe I shouldn't have done that but then I noticed that you guys actually got right with God
And I realized that it needed to be said
It just it was it was supposed to be done. It's not it's not comfortable
It's not something I wanted to do
But I'm glad that I did it because I see what ended up happening and you guys sorrowed after a godly sort
Which means what you got right with God?
Godly sorrow doesn't only make you feel bad. It causes you to change
Whereas the world's sorrow, you stay the same.
You don't actually end up changing.
You want people to just feel sorry for you like Saul.
Saul can sit here and cry.
Pharaoh cried.
Pharaoh was upset.
But you know what?
Pharaoh didn't actually change.
Pharaoh was just still angry at God,
angry at the people of God and never relented.
And we need to make sure when we get our feelings hurt,
but it's right.
that we change.
That's a godly sorrow is one that says,
you know what, I didn't like that,
that wasn't comfortable, I don't like getting called out,
I don't like hearing that subject,
but hey, I need to just change.
And think about this, this is gonna happen occasionally.
But isn't it possible that in a sermon,
at some time in the future,
that there's an issue being addressed
and that issue you feel like,
hey, I kind of feel like people will realize
that's about me?
But this is what you should think.
Well, but is it true?
And if it's true, maybe you just say,
hey, it is kind of about me, but it's kind of true.
Why don't I just change and then fix it?
And then of course the apostle Paul addresses this
in 2 Corinthians like, hey, when people get things right,
let them live it down.
Let's love on these people.
Let's be gracious to these people.
You know, when you're hearing a sermon,
there's a temptation for you to worry about other people.
Don't think about other people right now.
Don't think about your spouse don't think about your kids
Don't think about the person across the room. Don't think about the loud amen guy. All right
Don't think about the person you ever crush on. Okay, think about you and if you need to change
I'm reading a lot of Bible here. The Bible is true
What do you need to change in your heart? And you know what? Sometimes it's okay as a pastor or preacher to defend yourself
And I'll say this, you know sometimes pastors make mistakes. I mean doesn't Peter get called out by Paul?
Was Peter in the right? No
But you know sometimes you still need to just defend yourself because you're an important person as a leader
And you need to just go ahead and move on. Is it right? Does Peter now have to step down because he made a mistake?
No
Oh, well, he's preaching damage control by defending himself or causing people to, you know,
want to stay under his leadership or follow him in some way.
Look, do you think the Apostle Paul is perfect?
No.
You know the Apostle Paul made mistakes.
You know the Apostle Paul was told not to go back to Jerusalem repeatedly
and the Bible says the Holy Ghost told him not to?
But did the Apostle Paul give up?
No, did Peter give up?
No, hey, Peter made mistakes,
and it was nice that even Jesus came back to him
and said, hey, you know what?
Feed my sheep.
And I don't think there's probably any of us.
Especially in a church context that have forsaken Christ the way that Peter did.
I mean Peter denied Christ, that was a serious issue.
But you know what, God wasn't done with him and God wanted people to still follow Peter
and Peter was still in my opinion the first basically pastor or leader of that church
and helped that church grow.
God could use imperfect people that make mistakes and allow them to keep going.
And you know what, sometimes you need to defend yourself against false accusations
or unreasonable conclusions.
But you know a lot of times you're defending yourself because it just flat out lies
Hey John Mark made a mistake, but he got right and Peter. I'm sorry Paul even defended John Mark later
There's another example of hey, sometimes I see a friend make a mistake or people are attacking him
I'll defend him against them
Because you know what we should defend our friends. We should defend the work of the ministry
We should defend the position of a pastor. We should defend things from the Bible
Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 verse 8, 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 verse 8.
I robbed other churches taking wages of them to do you service.
Now he uses really dramatic language here.
Obviously he didn't hold them up at gunpoint or something like that.
He's just simply saying, I got paid money from other churches
that really didn't have anything to do with them.
I think that's why he's using the word robbed.
Essentially, think about it, there's a church that he's not helping giving him money so
that he can help this church who's not paying him.
So he's like, I'm robbing this church, in a sense, to pay my wages because you guys
aren't taking care of me financially.
And this is going to happen in church planting, for sure.
Some churches are going to have more money than other churches and sometimes you have
to take from one to satisfy the other.
And it doesn't really matter because it's the work of the ministry, it's all the same
The apostle Paul got paid from this church,
but he didn't get paid from the Corinthian church.
Verse 9,
And when I was present with you and wanted,
I was chargeable to no man,
for that which was lacking to me,
the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied,
and in all things,
I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you,
and so will I keep myself.
So he's also defending himself by saying,
look, I haven't even taken a penny from you guys.
You guys are making some accusation against them about money or something and he's like, I haven't taken a penny from you
I haven't defrauded you. I haven't burdened anybody
I'm taking money from other churches and these people from Macedonia are the ones supplying my need
You see him defending himself here
Then he goes into this weird
Diatribe here look at verse 16. I say again, let no man think me a fool
If otherwise yet as a fool receive me that I may boast myself a little
He goes on this whole monologue bragging about himself and says,
hey, I'm not a fool.
Only a fool would brag about themselves.
But I am going to brag about myself to show you what it would
be like to be an idiot, to be a fool.
This is, again, a whole defense of himself.
I mean, this is the word of God.
I mean, why would I have just chapter after chapter of Paul
defending himself, going against false accusations,
and then get up here and say, like, how dare a pastor get up
and defend himself in a sermon?
It's the Word of God. It's the Bible.
You have Moses defending himself to the people of God.
You have Paul defending himself to the people of God.
You have constant scenario and example of the men of God
having to defend themselves from false accusations, slanders,
and all kinds of weird things.
Nehemiah is constantly defending himself against false people.
Look at chapter 13 verse 1.
This is the third time I'm coming to you in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established
I told you before and foretell you as if I were present the second time and being absent now
I write to them which here before I've sinned and do all the other that if I come again. I will not spare
Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me which to you word is not weak
But is mighty new for though he was crucified through weakness yet. He liveth by the power of God
If we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you
Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith prove your own cells know you not your own cells
So that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reparates, but I trust that ye shall know that we are not
Reprobates he's saying man somebody's even in there calling me a reprobate
And he's like, there's no new thing under the sun.
Hey, if you serve God, if you're a pastor for a while,
you'll have people come out and they'll just start calling
you a false prophet, calling you a reprobate,
calling you all kinds of stuff.
And he's trying to tell his church,
look guys, don't listen to them.
I know you know I'm not a reprobate.
Wouldn't you think that's kind of silly?
I mean the apostle Paul gets you saved and baptized and starts your church and does miracles
And then he even has to defend himself those people saying look
I'm obviously not a reprobate guys you should realize because if I'm a reprobate
You're a reprobate that's the point he's trying to make examine yourself because if you're not reprobate
Then you know, I'm not reprobate
Right, that's what he's trying to explain
That's the point that he's really trying to drive home and it's so funny
There's there's all these people that got saved by pastor Anderson and then they'll call him a reprobate later
And I'm thinking like you know you're reprobating yourself
You're pointing the gun back at yourself when you do that type of a thing
I love the Bible, I love all this defense.
I love all this drama because you know what?
It's the word of God and it's reality.
You serve God and you're on the front lines.
You will see this stuff happen.
Go to 1st Timothy chapter number one,
go to 1st Timothy chapter one.
Some people get uncomfortable about this.
Some churches will never name the names.
Okay, but then why do the Bible include names?
Why is the Bible telling us about women that got called out?
Why is the Bible giving us an example of men of God defending themselves?
It's because that's what needs to take place sometimes.
Hey, there's positive sermons, there's encouraging sermons, there's gentle sermons,
but there's also times for correction, for approve, for buke, exhort, you know,
exhortation, hey, there's long suffering, there's all these different things,
but sometimes we need to preach.
Uncomfortable truths sometimes issues have to be addressed and you know
I'm not against a quote damage control sermon in fact
I hope they're all damaged control sermons because someone needs to limit the damage of sin right now in this world
Sin is is uncontrollable right now
Someone needs to get control of some of this sin and the attacks are relentless. Someone needs to defend against these attacks
Here's the fourth thing people don't like is you calling out heresy?
Calling out false doctrine. They'll say oh, I bet there's a list of things that I preach that are wrong and people are gonna call
Me out on it
Yeah
You know hey if I preach something wrong
Everybody has the right that's a preacher a pastor to call me out on something. I preach it's wrong
I'm not afraid of that. In fact, I would love that.
Why would I not want to be corrected by the Word of God?
Why would I not want someone to say,
hey, what you said here is not right.
What you said is not what the Bible teaches.
You know, you said this, it's wrong.
Here's what the Bible says, and I'd be like,
oh, thank you, you're right.
That's what the Bible says.
But the people that don't want to be called out it's because they don't want to be held accountable for their false doctrine
Look at verse Timothy chapter 1 verse 19 holding faith in 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
Why does the Apostle Paul call it Hymenaeus and Alexander because of the blasphemy which they spake in
Some way they're preaching blasphemy
Let's keep reading, we get more information.
Look at 2 Timothy 1 verse 15.
2 Timothy 1 verse 15.
This thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me
of whom are by jealous and homogenes.
Why would you call out a person by name
and the heresy that they're teaching?
Because they can affect whole churches and whole movements
and turn them away from you
and turn them away from the truth.
Let's keep reading.
Look at chapter 2 verse 16.
But shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase in a mourn godliness and the word will eat is that the canker of whom is
Hymenaeus and phylites who concerning the truth have aired saying that the resurrection is passed already and
overthrow the faith of some
Some people will teach that the resurrection has already happened. Who is this? How about all millennialists?
All millennialists and Preterists will say that all those things have already happened
and they're denying the resurrection and they're overthrowing the faith of many people.
And you know what? They should be called out.
And you know what?
Tommy Mercher got mixed up in a bunch of this Preterism trash at one point.
I think he's tried to moderate his view,
but thinking that Jesus Christ has already ruled and reigned on the earth for 2700 years
almost seems like the same boat.
It's like a weird version of Brederism or something
that just creates all kinds of heresies and blasphemies.
You know, that's gonna destroy people's faith
when you have stupid doctrine like this.
When you have one bad doctrine,
sometimes it leads to more and it just dominoes
and it escalates and it gets worse and worse and worse.
And look, these people, notice, profane and vain babblings,
they will increase under more ungodliness.
False doctrine leads to more false doctrine.
How dare you call me out for this little thing?
Well, it can escalate, can it?
You know, in cancer, they try to get it early
and they try to get it cut out real quick
because if it spreads, it becomes way more dangerous.
And the same way, that's the canker here.
And this is the cancer that a little bit of leaven,
a little bit of false doctrine,
can just start spreading like a wildfire.
And then all of a sudden,
now you have all kinds of crazy doctrines, crazy ideas.
We can't allow that.
Look at Romans chapter 16, Romans chapter 16.
We need to call out heresy,
and sometimes we have to mark the person
that it's associated with.
Hey, here's the person preaching heresy.
Here's the person preaching blasphemy.
Here's the person saying nonsensical things.
And it's important, I think, in the day and age
because a lot of people that are false prophets
will say good things.
I bet I could clip out Jolosteen,
Kenneth Copeland, T.D. Jakes.
I bet I could clip out Mormons saying things
like just a small snippet and you'd be like,
well, that sounded good.
Well, that was right.
It's in you know, we don't criticize people for the good things they said we criticize people for the lies and the false doctrine that they said
Here's an example of them preaching lies. Here's an example of the preaching works
Here's an example of them blaspheming the Lord Jesus Christ Romans chapter 16 look at verse 17
Now I beseech you brethren mark them
which caused divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrines you've learned and avoid them.
For they that are such serve not,
O Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly
and by good words and fair speeches
deceive the hearts of the simple.
If you don't like me naming any names,
you're telling me to violate this commandment.
This is a commandment in the Bible
saying to mark certain people.
What if I just said,
there's someone that's bad out there
and they're doing bad things.
Stay away from them.
You're going to do nothing with that information.
There's a person that does bad things.
Don't hang out with a bad person doing bad things.
That doesn't help you.
But if you say, here's the person's name, here's what they're doing,
stay away from that person.
Then you can actually apply that and it actually helps you.
That's what the Bible is saying, mark this person and avoid them.
Hey, core, stay away from him.
Saul, stay away from him.
Deotrophies, stay away from him.
I mean, the Bible just gives scores of people's names,
Alexander the Coppersmith, all these different people.
Stay away from Hymenaeus and Phyletus and Phygellus
and Hermogenes, just stay away from these people.
Mark them and avoid them.
Ah, damage control.
Yeah, we're trying to get you away from those people.
Core and his family is gonna go to hell.
And we're trying to limit the damage by saying,
get away from them so you don't go down with them.
We don't want other people to fall into their heresy.
Govv would to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
So point one, we need to name names.
Number two, we need to call out women.
Number three, we need to defend ourselves.
Number four, hey, we need to call out heresy.
Number five is we need to exercise church discipline.
And I notice people, they get mad.
They say, oh, this is a damaged control sermon
because they'll actually throw someone out of church.
But what does the Bible say?
It says in verse number 11, but now I've written unto you,
not to keep company if any man that is called a brother,
be a fornicator, a covetous, an idolater, a railroad, a drunkard, an extortioner,
with such in one, know not to eat.
For what have I to do to judge them also that are without do not you judge them that are within
But them that are without God judges therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person
So the Bible says some people need to be marked some people need to be avoided
Some people need to be put outside of the church
These are just things the Bible just clearly explicitly states and we need to do them
Go over to Acts chapter number 20 go to Acts chapter number 20
I will address issues as a pastor and, I mean, I just have so much Bible on this.
You know, people say, I want relevant preaching.
What could be more relevant than addressing issues?
And, I mean, you know, again, you say, oh, that's damage control.
Yeah, I don't want damage to the church.
I don't want damage to you, I don't want damage to my family,
I don't want damage to the cause of Christ,
I don't want damage to the soul-winning,
I don't want damage to any doctrine.
I want there to be, you know, these things to be protected.
Isn't that the point of a shepherd?
Like, what is the point of a shepherd with the flock?
Isn't it to not have any damage to the flock?
And what if a wolf somehow got past you,
or a wolf snuck up,
and he just starts tearing into one of the lambs?
Wouldn't you want to go over there and and try to limit the damage?
Wouldn't you want to try and rescue and salvage what you can?
That just makes logical sense and they're like, oh this shepherd such a damage controls shepherd
What do you want an idle shepherd? What do you want a lazy shepherd?
What do you want a hireling or a non-existent shepherd? Yeah, of course you wolves want the shepherd to not do anything
You know what the shepherd is gonna limit the damage to his flock
And one thing that I like to do is I like to try to keep the sheep that we have.
I want to keep the sheep that we have.
Look what it says in Acts chapter number 20 verse 28.
Take heed therefore on yourselves and to all the flock
over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers
to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood.
For I know this.
that after my departing shall grievous wolves
enter in among you, not sparing the flock,
also of your own selves.
So amen arise, speaking perverse things
to draw away disciples after them.
So people will say perverted things,
just crooked things, false doctrines, weird heresies,
and their whole goal is just to get people to follow them.
Come with me and I'll show you where Satan
Okay, Tommy and Mercury said that he has been where Job one took place
Tommy and Mercury said that he knows exactly where it was and he was there literally
Where the sons of God and the devil presented themselves for the Lord in Job chapter one. He says it's somewhere in Israel, okay?
Now I know they're the synagogue of Satan
That's what the Bible says in Revelation you have to do but look that's stupid Job one happened in heaven, okay?
and he hasn't been to heaven yet, all right?
But here's the thing that's funny about this is,
look, some people say weird things like this.
Why?
Cause they're trying to get attention.
They're trying to draw people away with them.
Come detox with me.
He did this like nine part video series,
detoxing from the new IMB or something.
And this is what's so funny to me is like,
he thinks that our church and churches like us are so bad,
but then it's like the majority of his friends.
The majority of his friends are people
that used to be new IB.
So think about it, if we're so bad,
why do we keep supplying you friends?
Why are you just so great buddies
with everybody that is in there?
Cause you're trying to draw away
disciples after yourself, okay?
Now, what does he say in verse 31?
Therefore watch and remember that
by the space of three years,
I cease not to warn everyone,
night and day with tears.
Boy, Paul, you know how often
every night and every day.
Every night and every day, he said hey,
wolves are gonna come in, wolves are gonna come in.
Some of you are wolves.
Even some people in here are wolves
and they try to draw people away.
That's what the apostle Paul's saying.
He said hey, I know especially when I'm not paying attention,
I'm not here, when I can't be present,
the wolves are gonna come out.
Because Paul, why is Paul know that?
Because Paul's dealing with these issues constantly.
Think about it, Paul leaves and then it all happened.
Like there's all these serious issues in the church
and he has to come back and crack some skulls again
and get it back in order.
He's just like, man, I just know as soon as I'm out of here
it's just gonna be chaos again.
Because you know what?
Weak leadership, wolves reign terror.
With strong leadership wolves are terrified, and they're like oh you damaged control preacher
Why because he wants you to stop?
Protecting the flock and I will not stop protecting this flock
You know what I love the people in this room, and I want to keep them
And I don't want you to have damage
And I want to control the damage,
so I want to warn you about bad people
and bad doctrines and bad issues
so that you don't destroy yourself.
So you don't become a busy body and a gossip
and a tail bearer and a railer
and start believing weird things
and try to go to Israel to meet where Satan
presented himself before the Lord or something.
And donate money to movies that never come out
and donate money to movies that are lies
and false doctrine, you know, that doesn't make sense.
You know the first Peter chapter 5 is being instructed to elders and he says to feed my sheep
Jesus told Peter to feed the sheep and we need to make sure that we're taking care of the flock as a leader
Go through to Proverbs chapter 10
Proverbs chapter 10 I just have two more quick points that I want to make but number one
Hey, I'm all for damage control because I want to name the names when it is serious
Call out women if it's necessary defend myself against lies and slander and evil call out heresies for the heresies
Exercise church discipline when appropriate. Keep the sheep in the flock. You know I have said a
couple times
recently
that if you're not wanting to be here,
you don't like us just to leave
and I've been pretty emphatic about it.
But it's not like me saying that I want you to leave
because I don't want you to leave.
I just want fake people to leave.
I just want insincere people to leave.
It would break my heart
if any sincere person in our church left.
And it does every time, you know, it's disappointing to see people walk away from church or not
want to be your friend anymore or not serving God or making bad decisions.
And even when people lie about me and whatever, I still feel bad about it.
I've lost really close friends.
I've lost people that I've invested a lot of time and effort and energy into.
I've had people just say craziest things about me and it is heartbreaking.
And you know what? I don't want to lose people.
I don't want people to go away.
Not because I need a big church,
but just because I like having you guys as friends.
I like seeing your children, and I like seeing and hearing about your lives,
and I like seeing you getting people saved.
And, you know, I want the work of Christ to be magnified and glorified,
and I think the more of us that are rallied together,
it just gives more honor and glory to the things of God.
And so, you know what, I don't want people to leave our church,
but, you know, if people don't want to be in our church,
if people don't like us,
yeah, that's going to cause damage to more people.
and I want to limit that damage.
So I've tried to give those people an excuse to leave.
You know what I mean?
You probably do.
I've given them some excuses.
But at the end of the day,
I don't want people here that aren't going to be able
to handle certain things.
Handle, you know, some rough things around the edges.
And of course, I'm not perfect.
I've never been perfect. I never will be perfect.
Sometimes I listen to my preaching and I think,
that was a weird thing to say.
That wasn't the best thing to say.
But, you know, you get up here and preach three hours a week for a year.
And let's see if we can cherry pick some statements you made that weren't very good.
Let's have you raise a whole bunch of kids and manage all these things and try to get
all the finances and all the issues and the tax that are happening.
And then you preach three quality sermons every single week where you don't speak a
Okay, and again, I'm not saying that some people aren't cable.
Maybe there are people in here.
Maybe there's someone here that's better than me.
Praise God if they are.
But at the end of the day, I guarantee no one in here will be mistake-free.
Yet some people want to hold you accountable for every little grievance and in many cases as grievances that aren't real grievances
It's just they think it's a grievance. Okay, they just have their own personal issues
But you know what? I want to keep people in this church and you know what? I also number one number seven is I want us to stay friends
Even if you left our church, I still want to be your friend
Why can't we just be friends? I mean we're gonna be friends in heaven. We might as well be friends now
And I think this is what people want.
Hey, you're gonna preach this damaged control sermon.
Why?
So that we stay friends.
Wouldn't you want it like, hey,
if I did something wrong to you,
wouldn't you want me to try and make it right
or fix it or try to explain my side of the story
so that we could stay friends?
And that's the whole point.
We want to be friends.
And I like being friends with our church.
You know, the Bible talks of good things
about being friends.
You should not be on a hair trigger to drop your friends.
Look at Proverbs chapter 10 verse 12
Hatred stirs up strifes, but love covereth all sins if you love me
You will cover up for things that I do if I love you
I'll cover up for things that you do because we actually love each other if we hate each other
We'll call each other out on everything
Right, we'll judge each other for every little grievance that doesn't show any love look at chapter 17 verse 9
Proverbs 17 verse 9
He that cover the transgression, seeketh love.
He that repeat of the matter, separate the very friends.
Someone that loves you,
is not gonna call you out for everything.
Someone that wants to destroy you,
will repeat everything they hear about you,
whether it's true or not.
And there's some people that hate me,
they will repeat any wild accusation they hear,
whether it has any basis of reality or not.
And they'll do it about you too.
Look at Proverbs 27 verse 10 Proverbs chapter 27 verse number 10
Hey, we can't we limit the damage for our friends
How about at first John chapter number five if you see your brother sin of sin which is not under death
He shall pray for him and he should give him life under them. Isn't that damage control?
I see my brother's sin and I'm asking God to give them grace
and limit whatever issue that they have.
That is me seeking love and damage control
for that particular person.
Now, if they sin on the death,
I do not say you should pray for it,
but there's a sin which is not on the death.
And hey, when someone sends us in, which is not under death,
hey, let's pray that God will give them life.
Let's try to cover that transgression.
Let's try to extend grace under that person.
Let's love that person.
Let's try to stay friends with people.
Proverbs 27, verse 10.
Thine own friend and thy father's friend, forsake not.
You should not forsake your friends.
You know, even if my friend made a big mistake,
I don't want to forsake him.
I don't want to give up on them.
You know, what's the point of having friends
if they're only your friend when everything is good?
That's not really a good friend, is it?
A good friend is someone that even when things
aren't very good or they're a burden.
You know, what's a burden?
Something bad happens.
What does it mean to bear someone else's burden?
Let's say something happens to someone else
and they're burdened, they have a problem,
and you just take care of it, you take it,
and now you've taken the burden.
Right someone has to carry a 50-pound bag and it's heavy and you just grab the bag now you're carrying the bag
You're burying their burden. You know, we should do this for our friends
We should love our friends. We should love each other. We should try to limit damage and problems in our lives
How pleasant how beautiful it is for brethren to dwell together in unity
Go to Titus chapter 2 this last place. I'll be turned so
quick reminder, hey, I'm all for damage control.
Because sometimes we need to name names.
Number two, we need to call out women if necessary.
Number three, we need to defend ourselves
from constant false accusation.
Number four, we should call out heresy.
Number five, we should exercise
church discipline when necessary.
Number six, as a leader,
I need to try and keep the flock together.
Number seven, I want to stay your friend.
Not just us be together and tolerate each other's distance. I want to enjoy your presence. I want to be your friend, but number eight
Why would someone get up and preach a damage control sermon?
It's so that they respect their pastor and
This is a commandment in the Bible
It says in second and Titus chapter 2 verse 15 these things speak and exhort and
Rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee
The Bible says that churches are not allowed to disrespect their pastor to not like their pastor
To not appreciate him to not have some kind of envy or hatred or whatever bitterness towards their pastor
I'm not allowed to let you do that
So if you have an issue, you know what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to confront you on that and fix it
Let no man despise thee. Well, it sounds like you're trying to control damage
Someone's mad at you, and you're not letting them be mad at you.
What does the Bible say?
Don't let people stay mad at you.
You need to address issues, fix issues, deal with things.
You know, all of the stuff I'm saying is not fun, it's not pleasant, but someone has to do it.
Who in here of you children, when you grow up, you want to go around and pick up trash all day for a living?
Who wants to do that?
Who in here wants to clean toilets for a living?
You know what I'm really glad somebody picks up trash and cleans toilets
Hey some jobs in this world are not pleasant and let me tell you something being a pastor and many ways is not pleasant
Because there's a lot of spiritual trash and a lot of spiritual toilets. So you have to clean up
There's a lot of junk you have to deal with there's a lot of spoiled and rotten food someone has to you know that thing in the fridge
You forgot about
And it changed colors
and it's like taking over the container.
If you love that, but it's that special container
that your grandma gave to your wife.
Cause you're thinking like toss it, man.
You know, get the gloves and just toss it.
But she wants to preserve the container.
Well, someone has to get in there and wash that thing
and scrape it and get in there.
It's a nasty, disgusting, gross job.
You might even kind of hurl a little bit
when you're cleaning it up.
Someone's gotta do it.
And let me tell you something, in church, people have issues that are kind of like that.
No one wants to deal with, no one wants to have to talk about.
You know, I don't like the ugliness.
It's not, it's not always fun to call out names.
It's not always fun to defend yourself. It's not always fun.
I mean, the apostle Paul said when he defended himself, he felt like he was acting like a fool.
He's like, hey, let me act like a fool for a second.
I got to defend myself.
It's kind of ridiculous. He has to explain to people he's not a reprobate.
This is the apostle Paul.
who's writing most of the New Testament.
He hasn't explained to us he's not a reprobate.
That seemed pretty trivial, didn't it?
We see in the book of Revelation,
people getting called out, women having to get called out.
Nobody wants to call out a woman.
You know, no one wants to hit a woman.
You know, in our society, it's kind of looked down upon
if a man ever hit a woman.
But let me tell you, if a woman came at me with a knife
and was trying to hurt and attack me and my family,
I might punch her in the face.
Now someone might get mad like how dare you punch a woman in the face?
But you know if I love my children my wife, I wouldn't let a woman just run at them with a knife
And you know if someone's gonna attack my flock spiritually hey, they need to sometimes get
Put back into their cage or whatever put back in the kitchen or whatever, you know
And it's it's not my fault that women are running around crazy
running around unchained, not being chasen,
not being scourged, not being put in subjection.
It's not my problem, but you know what?
If it threatens me, if it threatens my flock,
hey, we gotta deal with these issues.
No one goes out.
I mean, have you seen cop footage?
Watch cop footage, you know what they're constantly having to do?
They're constantly having to control women that are just insane.
Throwing stuff, biting them, pinching them, stabbing them with objects.
There was this like famous video that went viral not that long ago,
I think it was an Asian cop and there's this black woman just like running at him with a knife.
and he does everything he can not to shoot her
because he knows the headline.
He knows he could be like Derek Chauvin
and just put in prison for the rest of his life.
And he actually sustained multiple stab
and slice wounds from this woman.
She sliced his hand multiple times
and he was gushing blood everywhere
before he finally shot her.
And it's just kinda sad that a person running at you
uncontrolled with a knife, you can't shoot
because of political pressure.
and because of how backwards their society is.
But let me tell you, hey, you're a woman,
you got a knife, you're running at me,
I'll just shoot you in the head.
I'm not gonna wait for you to slash my arm up
and risk everything just because you're a woman.
You know, we shouldn't have this attitude
where we can't defend ourselves
and we can't deal with these issues.
Hey, talk about damage control.
He didn't limit the damage.
He got all sliced up and killed.
I don't know if he died actually,
but I'm just saying in some cases they actually do die.
You don't want to do these things.
Hey, I don't want heresy to get in this church.
I want to keep people in this church.
I don't want to keep you guys healthy.
I want to stay healthy.
So don't get offended at damage control.
You know what?
You should be thankful for the guys that take out trash.
You should be thankful for the guys that clean toilets.
You should be thankful for the people
that do the dirty jobs, because someone has to do it.
And you know, I enjoy preaching,
but I don't enjoy all the other stuff, but I will do it.
You know that I'll do it and I'll keep doing it and I don't care if they call me out
Hey, he's gonna preach damage rule the sermons called damage control
He preached the damage control sir. Yeah, I did
That's not the last
I'll continue to preach them. All right, let's go some prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us the word of God
Thank you for the church. I pray that
There will be pastors in this world that would have a desire to limit damage to churches today
I pray that you would have people that appreciate a church
where damage is going to be assessed,
where damage is going to be limited.
I pray that we could have the attitude and the spirit like Daniel
that whenever you entrust us with something will protect those that are owned.
I pray that men will protect their families and protect their wives.
I pray that leaders and ministry will protect their soul winners and will protect their church.
And I pray that we wouldn't be offended by the things of God.
When we have to whenever we have to deal with difficult issues that we would just deal with them
And I pray that you would continue to use this church for your honor and for your glory
It's a Jesus name. We pray and then
All right and closing let's go to song number 18
Song number 18
Song number 18, take the name of Jesus with you.
Oh, the birth and joy of heaven, bless your day for our sleep.
Oh, the birth and joy of heaven, take the name of Jesus ever, as our shield from every sin.
of Jesus, how it thrills our souls with joy. When His loving arms receive us, and His songs
Jesus bowed me, holy cross, they had his feet.
These aren't things that men will cry.