Music
Good singing. Let's open up in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this beautiful day.
Thank you for our church and the great privilege it is to sing praises to your name
and to worship you in your house this morning.
Just pray that you bless every aspect of this service.
Bless those that are away sick, Lord.
We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
All right. For our second song, let's go to 157.
Come, thou almighty King.
157. Come, thou almighty King.
get a bulletin and you would like one you can still slip up your hand and our
ushers are gonna come by through the aisles and they can give you a bulletin
if you missed one if you'd be like one and we have our Bible memory passage
here on the front we're on verse 16 so kind of around that halfway mark still
plenty of time to work on Proverbs 31 those who complete the entire chapter
will get a special prize and then also throughout the week children who are
able to quote the verse of the week and get a treat our midweek service on the
inside we have our service and soul winning times and then we have our
church stats also on the right we have the list of our expecting ladies and we
have our prayer list down below we have on the back the congratulations to the
freedom family on the birth of maybe Ruby she was born on the 6th 831 a.m.
weighing 6 pounds 15 ounces and measuring 21 inches long congratulations
to them it's exciting also we have a baby shower in the honor of Catherine
Crayker and her baby girl on the third and that's gonna be from 1230 to 230 and
it is nursing's only preferred for a baby showers if you'd like to come
please make sure to RSVP to mrs. Milstead and a couple other upcoming
events we have a preaching class that will begin on Saturdays at 2 p.m. and
that's starting on the 20th and it's it's gonna be approximately a 10-week
class we probably will will skip maybe at least one or two weeks we're gonna
skip the baby shower week but it should be pretty much consecutive other than
that so pretty much just ten weeks right in a row it'll probably be around an
hour hour and a half I'm gonna lead some of the classes and then brother Oz is
gonna also lead a lot of the classes as well but well most like will mostly be
just working on five-minute sermons and just kind of working on lots of
different aspects of sermon writing just preaching and just just general
feedback and any any men in the church that are 18 and older that are a
soul-winner are welcome to participate it is only for those who are partaking
in the preaching class so there's no spectators so if you if you want to
participate it's just the men only that are participate if you show up you're
participating so you're gonna get behind this pulpit okay but for those who want
to participate learn how to preach better and it's not it's not really
designed the class isn't designed necessarily just for like a pastor or
something like that it's just learning how to preach better and I think that
honestly it's great for every man to learn how to preach well and you can use
it a lot of different ways you could use it at the nursing home you could use it
on missions trips when we went to Bahamas and other places you know every
guy was basically getting opportunity to preach in the classrooms there's
opportunities for people to preach you know you could preach in the prison you
could preach to your family preach guest preach whenever I'm gone guest preach
for other churches like it's important to have a lot of guys that are able to
preach and preach well when they do it and so I would encourage anybody that
would like to learn how to preach better to come and participate in the class
it's also just open for the whole ten weeks so if you miss a week even if you
missed that first week you still can just come right in you might just ask me
or brother Oz as far as just what the assignment was for that week so that way
you're you're prepared for each class and we'll make sure to put people on an
email group and we'll just kind of email stuff so basically all you have to do is
just show up to that first class and just have just have a five-minute
sermon prepared for that as well that's pretty much all I have as far as just
the bulletin I do have a few other things I want to say real quick so this
week we're gonna brother urbanic evangelist urbanic is gonna be traveling
to the Philippines and also I'm going out there with him simultaneously also
James Perry's going with us too so I conned him into it so but we have a few
people going out there and it's just kind of like a way for me to get a
chance to kind of scout the area and have a better idea to speak intelligently
about you know the vision for there and evangelist urbanic while he's there but
he's gonna be joining up with pastor Matthew Stuckey and Verdi Baptist Church
and helping them in the short term and in the immediate future and then from
there essentially his goal is just you know to basically help grow the church
and not necessarily that churches church in general so whether that be planting a
steadfast Baptist Church plant there or helping with some of the Verdi plants
or whatever we don't know exactly we want to be a little bit flexible on that
but essentially he's gonna go over there and and really just kind of get
plugged in and and pastor stuck he's already been knocking out of the park I
think I think that their church had like over 6,000 salvations for last year and
they have I think they're running maybe like a hundred people and one of their
church plants and then they have like dozens of other people that are in other
church plants so they have a lot of soul winners they have a lot of dedicated
people they have the opposite problem we have they usually have a lot of ladies
you know as opposed to all the single guys here so we figured we would set up
some kind of a dating ring or something I'm just kidding but basically it's it's
just kind of a different it's just different in some ways than this side of
the world I don't know everything I say just take with a grain of salt because
I've never been there that's why I feel like it's important maybe to take at
least one trip out there even for a few days just to kind of get a better idea
of like what's going on what the soul winnings like what the church situations
like and everything like that so I can do a better job of helping evangelist
urbanic for the future in the long term and then in sometime in February
evangelist urbanics gonna return with his entire family and they're just
gonna be out there permanently and and just basically doing that work and so
definitely pray that our trip goes well this week and pray that evangelist
urbanic everything goes really smoothly for him and that the Lord really puts
him where he needs to go it's definitely a daunting task to move across the world
like that and to be in a different environment and to not be in Texas I
mean I don't know it's just it's rough I can't imagine not living in Texas I had
to do it for a short space and in Phoenix but you know I survived so it
was my time in the wilderness all right but now that I'm back and I don't ever
want to leave god willing you know I would love to die here but who knows and
of course with evangelist urbanic we don't know exactly we're just trying to
put them there and just be sensitive to the Lord's will obviously you read the
book of Acts you read different parts of the Bible and people had to go all over
and wherever and I even kind of wrote a new hymn that's based on that that we
were gonna try and sing today and there's one type on here we need to fix
it's that fourth line it says cursing our foes it sounds kind of right but
it's really supposed to be crushing okay so you can curse them if you want to but
we're gonna be crushing our foes we're gonna sing that here in just a moment
I'll try my trip I'm actually gonna try and hit a lot of different spots I'm
actually visiting pastor Kevin Sepulveda from New Life Baptist Church in it's in
Australia he has two church plants I'm going to the one in Sunshine Coast and
so I'm gonna be visiting there on Wednesday night and they offered to have
me preach for them so I'm gonna be preaching for them and then also pastor
Stuckey asked me to preach for them in the Philippines on that Sunday morning
so I'll be gone all that week and I'll be traveling also gonna be doing soul
winning in some different spots and doing some scouting I'll try to do like
a little bit of vlogging and post it on my Twitter and on my Instagram so if you
want to follow the trip a little bit you can but definitely pray that everything
goes smoothly pray for ever everyone here to be healthy my my daughter's kind
of sick right now so we just pray for her as well I think a lot of people are
sick one other thing I wanted to mention as well is I'd asked some of you if you
wouldn't mind writing a birthday card for my father and some of y'all did and
he was just really appreciative that he wrote me a kind of a thank-you letter
that you just wanted me to read for to the church but this is this is what this
is his words okay he just said thank you to the body of believers at Steadfast
Baptist Church I recently celebrated my 80th birthday and through the efforts of
my daughter and pastor Shelley many of you participate in that celebration I
want to thank all of you adults that sent me warm thoughts and you children
that sent me some wonderful artwork along with my birthday wishes and a
special thanks to the Stewart's for a very special blessing he said there's an
older Bill Gaither song that begins I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God
again thanks to the steadfast part of that family for your kindness to me the
Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be
gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee
peace sincerely Trey Shelley so thank you so much to everybody who did help
with that I think that's all the announcements I have so we're gonna sing
a new hymn for the week where the spirit blows and so you should have that in part
of your bulletin look on with a neighbor and try to try to listen and pick up the
song it's really simple so I think you guys are gonna really like it where the
spirit blows all right everyone where the spirit blows if you need one go and
raise your hand usher can bring you one here we go
Jesus told me overland and see red black and white
where the spirit
Oh
yeah
to every time not just let's go
father spirit son these three are one
go go go where the spirit blows we will know the bison
he is all right while the offering plates being passed around please turn
in your Bibles to Numbers chapter 32 Numbers chapter 32
you
Numbers chapter 32 the Bible reads now the children of Reuben and the children
of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle and when they saw the land of
Jaser and the land of Gilead that behold the place was a place for cattle the
children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses and to
Eliezer the priest and unto the princes of the congregation saying Adaroth and
Dyban and Jaser and Nimra and Heshbon and Elilah and Sheba and Nebo and
beyond even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel
is a land for cattle and thy servants have cattle wherefore said they if we
have found grace in thy sight let this land be given unto thy servants for a
possession and bring us not over Jordan and Moses said unto the children of Gad
unto the children of Reuben shall your brethren go to war and shall he sit here
and wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over
into the land which the Lord hath given them thus did your fathers when I sent
them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land for when they went up unto the valley of
Eshcol and saw the land they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel that
they should not go into the land which the Lord had given them and the Lord's
anger was kindled at the same time and he swears saying surely none of the men
that came up out of Egypt from 20 years old and upward shall see the land which
I swear unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob because they have not wholly
followed me save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Canizite and Joshua the
son of Nun for they have wholly followed the Lord and the Lord's anger was
kindled against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness 40 years until
all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed and
behold ye are risen up in your father's stead an increase of sinful men to
augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel for if ye turn away from
after him he will yet again leave them in the wilderness and ye shall destroy
all this people and they came near unto him and said we will build sheepfolds
here for our cattle and cities for our little ones but we ourselves will go
ready armed before the children of Israel until we have brought them under
their place and our little one shall dwell in the fenced cities because of
the inhabitants of the land we will not return unto our houses until the
children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance for we will not
inherit with them on yonder side Jordan or forward because our inheritance has
fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward and Moses said unto them if you
will do this thing if you will go armed before the Lord to war and will go all
of you armed over Jordan before the Lord until he hath driven out his enemies
from before him and the land be subdued before the Lord then afterward you shall
return and be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel and this land shall be
your possession before the Lord but if you will not do so behold ye have sinned
against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out build you cities for
your little ones and folds for your sheep and do that which hath proceeded
out of your mouth and the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto
Moses saying thy servants will do as my Lord commanded our little ones our wives
our flocks and all our cattle shall be there in the cities of Gilead but thy
servants will pass over every man armed for war before the Lord to battle as my
Lord saith so concerning them Moses commanded Eliezer the priest and Joshua
the son of Nun and the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel and
Moses said unto them if the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass
with you over Jordan every man armed to battle before the Lord and the land
shall be subdued before you then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a
possession but if they will not pass over with you armed they shall have
possessions among you in the land of Canaan and the children of Gad and the
children of Reuben answered saying as the Lord hath said unto thy servants so
will we do we will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan
that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be ours and Moses
gave unto them even to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben and
unto the and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph the kingdom
of Zion king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Ogh king of Bashan the land
with the cities thereof in the coasts even the cities of the country round
about and the children of Gad built Dibon and Adaroth and Aroar and Atroth
and Shofan and Jazer and Jogbeha and Bethnimra and Betharim fenced cities
and folds for sheep and the children of Reuben built Heshbon and Elilah and
Kirjathirim and Nebo and Balemion their names being changed and Shigma and gave
other names under the cities which they builded and the children of Makar the
son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it and dispossessed the Amorite which
was in it and Moses gave Gilead unto Makar the son of Manasseh and he dwelt
therein and Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the small towns thereof
and called them Havoth Jair and Nobah went and took Kenath and the villages
thereof and called it Nobah after his own name. Let's bow our heads for a word
of prayer. Father God we thank you so much Lord for the scriptures and for the
truths inculcated in this chapter I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your
spirit now and enable him to preach the sermon you've laid on his heart with
boldness open ears and softened hearts in the room Lord so that we may receive
this message and apply it to our lives and be doers of the word we love you and
in Jesus name I pray amen. Amen. I want to look back at the very beginning of this
chapter the Bible says now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a
very great multitude of cattle and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land
Gilead that behold the place was a place for cattle the children of Gad and the
children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses and to Eleazar the priests and
unto the princes of the congregation sang Adaroth and Tiber and Jazer and
Nimra and Heshbon and Eliele and Shebaam and Nebo and beyond even the country
which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for
cattle and thy servants have cattle wherefore said they if we have found
grace in thy sight let this land be given unto thy servants for a
possession and bring us not over Jordan Moses said unto the children of Gad and
to the children of Reuben shall your brethren go to war and shall ye sit here
and wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel and that's really
what I want to focus in is this phrase where he says why are you are meaning
wherefore why are you discouraging the heart of your brethren and that's the
title of my sermon this morning is don't discourage your brethren don't
discourage your brethren now last week I preached a sermon entitled are you a
good example and in that sermon I really focused on us trying to think about our
lives and how our lives would positively affect other individuals and making sure
that we're doing good things so that we really positively impact those around us
and we set a good example for people but there's a flip side of that isn't there
there's a flip side to where you're not necessarily a good example you're even a
bad example you're the opposite of a good example you're actually
discouraging the heart of your brethren you're not encouraging the heart of your
brethren and kind of at the tail end of my sermon I guess you could say I let
the cat out of the bag a little bit but I really just kind of ran through a list
of a lot of different things that people do that really kind of set a bad example
in a lot of ways and I feel like it's a disservice to only just briefly mention
them so this morning we're gonna go in a little more detail and you know it's
safe for me to remind you of these things okay it's not grievous unto me
to bring these things up again it's just grievous unto you bad offenders
okay but I also don't want you to take this sermon the wrong way I really love
our church I think that our church is possibly the greatest church in the
world I mean and when we talk about church what we're talking about is the
people we're talking we're not talking about I'm not talking about me I'm not
talking about this building not talking about the design of our artwork yeah I
like all that I'm talking about you guys yeah I visit a lot of churches have
been to a lot of churches and there's just something special about Steadfast
Baptist Church there's something special about the spirit here and the people
here and you know what I love this church I love you guys I think that
we're really doing a good job and in fact we're obviously doing a great job
in certain areas but that does not mean that we can't improve and often when we
code to the month of January we try to look for ways to improve make changes do
things differently plus just being honest with you I think a lot of people
make bad decisions or a bad reflection just simply because no one's pointed it
out to them like no one's explained to them how to be a better person or how a
lot of the things that they're doing are not very good you know unfortunately a
lot of that was supposed to be taught from people's parents parents were
supposed to teach people how to behave how to handle themselves they were
supposed to model for their children a person going to church three times a
week and teaching their children and training them and since a lot of us have
missed out on that or didn't necessarily have that as an example sometimes people
are very naive or ignorant about behavior and they they don't realize the
decisions that they're making sometimes discourage their brethren you know I
don't think that when you read this passage in context I don't think that
the Reubenites and and these people were were trying to just discourage the heart
of their brethren they were just being a little selfish weren't they they were
just kind of like hey you know what you guys just have the promised land we're
fine we'll just be here but but they didn't really understand how that was
going to discourage them from then going to the battle or going to the war and
how that was going to cause a lot of riff in the congregation and I think
that's the same with church that a lot of people don't understand that some of
the decisions are making some of the behavior some of their beliefs a lot of
the things that they do can sometimes discourage other people in the
congregation and so it's important for leadership to point that out and say hey
don't do this because you're discouraging the heart of your
brethren does that kind of make sense so I want you to have the right attitude
when we we get to a sermon like this and it is not just because like pastor
Shelley's mad or pastor Shelley just wants to see how much he can offend you
I'm not trying to do that this morning but it's gonna feel like that okay so I
just want I just want to be like really clear this morning and I'm gonna give
really specific examples and I'm gonna talk about a lot of things like really
bluntly but I do I do that because I love you guys and I want you to be
better and unfortunately what's the reality a lot of the worst offenders a
lot of you people that are the worst just continue to stay bad so if you're
someone that's already like I'm ready for lunch you need to buckle up and
listen okay okay because we need you know we we don't want to just say like I
think we're doing really good no room for no we need to get way better not
even if we are the best even if you were the best just continue to get even
better okay and I don't think that we're the best I'm just saying even if we were
there's no reason not to try and get better and improve and and we want to
set a great example we want people to show up at steadfast Baptist Church to
be around us and say like wow they're way different than other people other
churches under congregation they got everything dialed in and I would say you
know obviously coming to a church like ours if you compare it to a lot of other
churches you're gonna like a lot of things immediately you know you're
gonna like the soul winning you're gonna like the hard preaching you're gonna
like hey they're King James only and they mean it you know there's there's a
lot of things to like hey I like the fact that every guy in here is carrying
a gun on their hip right I like a lot of these things I like that the sodomites
stand outside and protest rather than we us rolling out the red carpet for them
you know what I mean you're gonna like a lot of things like that but you know
sometimes you go to other churches and you like the fact that everyone there is
very serious if we go to an old IV church this morning you know what no
one's gonna be dressed in their pajamas no one's gonna be just wearing like a
t-shirt and a hoodie and do it like they pretty much all dress really nice they
take church very seriously everything's very pristine you know when you go into
their sanctuary it you can hear a literal pin drop you can hear that old
person on the breathing machine I mean it's that quiet in their church services
and I'm just saying like they have some things really nice too and it's like why
couldn't we have all of it right why can't we have the everybody taking
church seriously the great music the nice building and then on top of that
the hard preaching the soul winning all the great aspects let's let's get all
the best of everything let's not just settle and just say well I know there's
some rough things around the edges here but it's it's generally better now let's
just try to be better in every category or if someone's excelling let's just try
to match their excellence and try to be like them and do a good job so we see
here in this text that based on their selfish decision to want to just stay
behind they're gonna cause other people to want to do what be selfish and not
fight not go to war not cross the Jordan not do the difficult task and
Moses basically rips them a new one and just says look you're gonna go over
there and you're gonna fight and then afterwards if you've done that
successfully then we'll give you the land that's your only option otherwise
you're going to discourage the heart of your brethren and you're not thinking
about them are you go if you would to Philippians chapter 2 we're not gonna go
back to numbers but ultimately you know from my sermon last Sunday I kind of had
three points where we are you a good example of your family are you good
example by working hard and then my third point was are you good example by
being spiritual and I didn't really I didn't talk about that at all but if you
think about it they just weren't being spiritual they were being carnal and
selfish and I think a lot of times people don't connect the dots and
understand what being spiritual means being spiritual because often when I
think of spirit being spiritual I think of just your basics like church reading
the Bible soul winning you know just kind of the basics things you would
think that are associated with church you know what being spiritual is not
just about church attendance or reading the Bible it's a mentality and an
attitude of putting other people before yourself that's what it means to be
spiritual being spirit though having charity in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 is
loving other people and caring about them it's not just giving the money it's
not just showing up to church give all your money and preach and have zero
charity and it would be worthless what actually makes a church spiritual is
that it cares for and thinks about other people Jesus Christ made it clear that
people be able to determine who is disciples were by those who loved their
brethren it was it was an example of love it wasn't all they preach the
reprobate doctrine that's how you know that Jesus disciples and look I love
preaching the Bible ok and and I don't mind if the world knows me by that but
generally speaking people that actually know us should not notice by that right
the people that actually know us the people in our church the people that
visit our church they shouldn't know us by that they should know us by our love
say wow they're really kind they're really nice the really sincere they're
always thinking about other people not themselves look at Philippians chapter
2 verse 3 let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of
mind let each esteem other better than themselves this is a tall task you have
to genuinely in your heart believe other people are more important than you and I
think that's hard I mean how about Absalom how many people does Absalom
think are better than him I mean he doesn't even think his dad's better he
said oh that I were the judge of the land I mean he's arrived he is the most
important person on the planet and everything in his life being accomplished
is the most important thing it's the most important thing that he becomes the
judge he becomes the king that he everything that he wants all of his
desires happen that he gets to return back that he gets to see the king's face
you know he's all about me me me III he's not focused on any other person the
exact opposite of the Lord Jesus Christ who when he came to this earth was not
concerned with him or what he was doing he was concerned with others and he was
loving others and he was ministering unto others this is the mind of Christ
what it says in verse 4 look not every man on his own things but every man
also on the things of others let this mind be in you which is also in Christ
Jesus so according to the text we're not supposed to be thinking about our own
things we're supposed to be thinking about whose things other people's things
were the Reubenites and the half-tribe of Nasi and the Gadites were they
thinking of other people's things or are they thinking of their things they were
thinking of our cattle and our land and our inheritance you guys do you we're
good that was not the right mentality that was not the mentality of Christ
that was not the attitude of Christ and Moses is trying to impart unto them you
need to have the attitude of Christ where you go over there and fight for
this promised land that's not even yours at all you don't even get it you're just
literally fighting just for your brethren for them to inherit it for them
to have it and then you're coming back over here so that's the type of
mentality that's the type of attitude that we should strive to have is where
we're more concerned with other people's things than our own now this is a this
is not an easy thing this is not something that people are just naturally
gonna do it's not something that you never even want to do your flesh right
now is saying this sounds like a bad idea like no don't do this okay it's
being spiritual that denies the flesh that crucifies the flesh and cares about
other people and loves other people and wants to do good for other people
fighting for other people I mean when's the last day you went and worked a full
day's labor for someone else is paycheck for someone else's things think about
that like that's that sounds crazy it's like I go to work to pay my bills and
and to get money for me right but aren't there people out there though
sometimes volunteer their time effort and energy to go help someone else for
no money and you know that's that's the reality that we live in today is that
people don't want to do that you know if you want to do not even work and then
the government just give them money it's the exact opposite of the Spirit of
Christ these liberals these leftists these Democrats they want to do nothing
and get paid while doing it whereas a spirit-filled God-fearing man would
actually work hard for other people and not even get anything from it that is
the reality of what it's like to be spiritual and then people love to talk
about being spiritual this is how the Democrats are spiritual they'll take
your money and give it to somebody else that's not being spiritual either okay
being spiritual is giving of yourself and giving of your money and giving of
your time and giving of your energy why is it that all these politicians they
basically go broke to the White House and then they come back rich that
doesn't sound like they were thinking of other people whereas Christ at the exact
opposite he started rich and became broke for us so that we could benefit
from his riches and from his glory and from his works and from his righteousness
he came here and he did all of the work and then we get all that credit think
about it Christ came here to do the job that we weren't willing to do are
capable of doing so that we could benefit from his wages we get the wages
of his righteousness imputed unto us and we get to go to heaven based on his work
ethic his attitude his spirit and we're riding on his dime a lot of people think
like how could I bless other people like this well you know that's Christ did and
that's the example that Christ gave and you know why would we be here this
morning if we're gonna try and learn how to be more carnal we're not trying to
learn how to be carnal this morning we're trying to learn how to be
spiritual and when you're carnal you know what you do you discourage the
heart of your brother when you're selfish you discourage the heart of your
brethren this is why communism fails because people don't work hard and then
they get extra money or a paycheck that they don't deserve and it discourages
the rest of the labor force it discourages the workforce and it causes
people to not want to work that's the opposite of how it should be in the
house of God where we should be willing to work hard for others and the bless
others and that motivates other people to work hard and the blessed people not
looking for things for themselves but rather looking to bless others now I
want to go to one more place go to Deuteronomy chapter one them to get a
lot of specifics Deuteronomy chapter one
I was really clear on this attitude that I was really clear on the subject and
I'm just kind of laying a simple foundation Deuteronomy chapter number
one I've probably done enough but I want to show you another example here look at
verse 23 and the saying please me well and I took 12 men of you one of a tribe
and they turn and went up into the mountain and came under the valley of
Eshkol and searched it out and they took of the fruit of the land in their hands
and brought it down unto us and brought us word again and said it is a good land
which the Lord our God doth give us notwithstanding you would not go up but
rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and he murmured and your
tents and said because the Lord hated us he hath brought us forth out of the land
of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us whither shall
we go up our brethren have discouraged our heart saying the people is greater
and taller than we the cities are great and walled up to heaven and moreover we
have seen the sons of the Anakims there then I said unto you dread not neither
be afraid of them the Lord your God which goeth before you he shall fight for
you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and in the
wilderness where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth
bear a son and all the way that he went until he came into this place yet in
this thing he did not believe the Lord your God so we have a passage here where
the children of Israel are being reminded as Deuteronomy so it's kind of
like a reminder the second rendition of the law they've wanted the wilderness 40
years there this is kind of like the precursor to right before going into the
Jordan this is past the event that we are talked about where the children like
two-and-a-half tribes basically just want to quit and give up but he's
reminding them of something that took place 40 years ago he's saying you know
at the beginning of our journey we showed up to the promised land and I
sent 12 spies in 10 came back and gave a bad reporter evil report to came back
with a good report and because of the 10 what happened is the hearts of the
children of Israel melted and they didn't want to fight anymore they
didn't want to go into the promised land and as a punishment God made them
wander in the wilderness for 40 years now that whole generation had died and
so it's now the next generation is reminding them of what the last
generation had done and he's not wanting them to do the same thing again where we
end up focusing on the Giants focusing on the government focusing on the walls
focusing on the land all the obstacles that are there but rather focus on the
fact that hey you really think you're gonna walk to the Red Sea God did that
for you we can defeat the Egyptians God did that for you did you provide food
no man from heaven God did that for you it's like God is the one that bought for
you and you even killed a few kings already you've killed and conquered
certain areas of land every time you did God did it is like why would it be any
different now just keep trusting God and God will deliver you but what
happens is people start to be carnal and focused on the Giants and then they
stopped being spiritual ok and it would be similar to someone who got in the
church a few years ago or a little while ago and and the Lord started blessing
them and the Lord started helping them and they had another kid and they got a
promotion at work and had a job but then this big giant called inflation came and
it hit them hard and they said well you know what now I need to get go back to
just the world and stop being so plugged in a church in order to tackle this
giant and they start getting discouraged to actually trust the Lord
the Lord brought you to this point and the Lord's given you the children you
why can't he slay the giant of inflation to why can't he tackle the
next obstacle in the next challenge and frankly speaking there's anywhere in the
world that you live I mean we live in the land flowing the milk and honey I
mean you can go to the grocery store and literally buy all kinds of milk and
honey you get raw milk raw honey you get the cheap the cheap fake stuff I mean
you can get it all you can have it all and yet people today they're so focused
on the negatives of their life the challenges of their life the
difficulties the cares of this life that they end up stop serving God and stop
being spiritual and when you stop being spiritual and stop focusing on those
things you actually discourage the heart of your brethren as well and so we need
to make sure that we're being diligent in the attitude and the behaviors that
we have because they don't just affect us they affect everyone in this room
they affect every single person now I've given you a lot of scripture to chew on
so I'm gonna give you some specifics for a while alright and we'll still flip to
a few places in the Bible but I just want to bring up some of these things I
talked about previously and just elaborate on a little bit number one
that I want to talk about is being late being late now here's the thing when you
show up late what people notice is you coming in late and then when you come in
late it causes other people to not take churches seriously to think oh well
maybe I can be late or it just changes their attitude because you know if it
was something that was important to you I bet you wouldn't be late to it I mean
think about the thing that you really like or the thing that's really
important to you maybe it's your job maybe your job is really important to
you and you're just never late your job you're like well if I was late to my job
I'd get fired well then you know why don't you have the same attitude or
zeal for church how much more important is church than your job or maybe it's
just mealtime it's like I never go past 1230 without having eaten lunch like by
the time it's 1230 I for sure eaten lunch I'm never late on feeding myself
physically but well wait a minute isn't it more important the Word of God I mean
the author of Job is saying that he esteems the words of God more than is
necessary food and you know that verse always plagues me you know if I ever
think about the idea of like maybe haven't done your Bible reading yet but
then you're like a worried about eating it's like which one's more important
though and of course you know isn't it interesting our bodies is thinking like
foods way more important than the Bible but is it is it more important and you
know doesn't that change your attitude what you feed yourself and who you
become and you know what being late just causes your brethren to be discouraged
it's it's kind of embarrassing it sometimes has a weird effect where if
everybody just shows up at the last minute or late for like the first 30
minutes the people that were early are kind of discouraged thinking like where
is everybody I remember at pure words one one week I think that I was there
for like a Thursday night service and it like the clock struck and like no one's
there now a few people came late and I can't remember it might have been
brother Dylan was it I don't was it you okay I think brother don't even call me
one time is like no one's here what do I do and I was like just start service now
I think somebody came in I had a service like that I think that faithful word
when I was leading the North Church I had to basically just kind of like a
start a service and then people started kind of like slowly creeping in or
whatever and you know what it kind of discourages the heart of people that
showed up and are ready for church when no one else is there you know and just
being late in general just discourages people you know if you're late to your
your company you're late to work you're late for anything even just if you if
you're gonna take your wife out on a date and you're late for that or you're
not showing it it's respect you know it's gonna discourage the heart of them
it's gonna cause other people to think oh it's not serious or oh let's just
all come late or it's not a big deal you don't again I'm not gonna like if
someone shows up and it's late I'm not gonna be like hey late guy hey thanks
for coming in late but you know some people think that way some people feel
that way and you know what it can it can be a little bit discouraging if people
just don't treat things you know with respect and and they care for them your
children can feel that way you know what if you had your kid has an event soccer
game or they're they're playing in the recital or they're doing something and
you come in late you miss their performance how that how would they
feel they would feel like they're not as important they would feel like maybe you
don't care about them as much and look I get it sometimes things happen we can't
always just avoid being late 100% of the time but you can make it virtually
non-existent I think my wife my wife and I were talking about this and we're
talking about when we were at faith for I think we were late like one time there
was and you know why I know it's one time it is when you're not late like you
can remember the times that you are the people that are late all the time they
can't remember because they're just always late and it's really just it's
funny to me there are some people that literally they come in two minutes late
every time and you're thinking like you're really punctual like you really
know how to manage time well you're just off like it's not that you're not
consistent you're super consistent you're always like exactly two minutes
late and I'm thinking like just leave five minutes earlier right I mean then
you're not two minutes late it's just it's just like just change that habit
slightly or just make some kind of an adjustment maybe just set every clock in
your house five minutes behind the time and you're just then you're pleasantly
surprised when you're not late to everything all the time anymore you're
like how wow I'm three minutes early every single week instead of two minutes
late and it just leaves a better impression it'll make people feel better
plus sometimes here's here's what you don't understand and this is what I'm
being more specific okay be specific that's really all right there's some
people in the church that want to talk to you like there's some people in here
there's like I can't wait to see so-and-so I can't wait to see James or I
can't wait to see somebody you know in this room and when you come late I
didn't get to talk to you like they wanted you to come a few minutes early
so they could say hi and they could ask you how your week was and they could
talk to you and they could have a little bit of fellowship and when you come late
you that fellowships gone now there's no fellowship and then by not fellowship
with that person of course after service you might not get the talk to everybody
you wanted to somebody leaves and then what happens is they're a little bit
less encouraged or you're a little bit discouraged whereas if you had gotten
that opportunity to fellowship talk see that person give them a little bit of
time you would have actually caused them to be more encouraged whereas coming in
late now they don't get to see you they don't get to talk to you they didn't get
to ask that question I know myself and my wife there's plenty of times where we
wanted to talk to somebody at church and we missed that opportunity or we wish
that we had gotten to speak to them or whatever the thing is and so I know that
other people the same way that there's people here that would love to have
talked to you to fellowship with you to have had that opportunity and because
you're not showing up and giving them that opportunity it can't happen so I'm
just telling there's a lot of consequences to being late but you know
what being late is for sure not thinking of other people like if there's one
attitude that has nothing to do with being late it's considering other people
because if you consider other people you wouldn't be late you know musicians they
like to practice and work together and you know what it's awkward when one
musicians out of tune or out of sync with the other musicians and it's like
obvious and then it makes everyone look bad so all these people that showed up
early and practice and are prepared you make them all look bad because you were
late that's not thinking of other people that's not considering other people you
know we want to come prepared ready to everything that we have you know
whenever the Bible says when we find something to do we're supposed to do
with all our might whatever thy right hand fine to do do it with thy might
okay and so if you have an opportunity to go to church why don't you go to
church with all of your might say I'm not gonna come late now obviously look
you get in a car wreck something happens whatever the kids throw up all over your
clothes while you're getting them in the car like that stuff happens on occasion
okay we get that but if you're just late three minutes late every single week
change your clocks do something different get a different routine okay
that was point one here's a second one that I had not watching your children
boy this is this is a rough one folks okay now look all children are all
different ages they're they're different genders there's male and female and some
children are better than others so some people they could not watch their
children and the children will be great and then there's most of you the vast
majority of you who if you don't watch your kids they are literal hellions okay
they're like running around screaming and look we make rules for them now
they will not obey like they're not it's not like if I just get up and preach a
hard sermon the kids are not gonna run around and scream after the service
they're still gonna do it the sermon was for you to watch your kids pay
attention and of course you know it's not fair like some people be like well
it's not fair so-and-so doesn't have to necessarily monitor their kids as much
well that's not their fault that's your fault or maybe your kids going through a
hard stage that's life you know what when you don't watch your kids what
happens is they cause other kids to make mistakes run scream yell that normally
wouldn't so they actually cause more bad behavior also some people want to
sit in fellowship or talk after church but then your kids running around
running into them spilling things causing problems actually wants them
they want to leave because they just want to get out of the chaos they want
to get out of the whirlwind and the tornado that's being caused by your
children and you not watching them okay not paying attention to their behavior
additionally you know sometimes you know it just it's mind-boggling how kids cause
bad behavior it's obvious of the parent and then they don't do anything you
should you know you're encouraging your kid to be bad like I get it my kids and
your kids they're all gonna disobey especially when they feel like no one's
watching them or paying attention but they need to be corrected they need to
be disciplined they need to be told no they need to be told no with the rod
many times as well they need to sometimes just sit down and shut up
because they they're not behaving properly in that moment and they need to
be properly disciplined you know it's just it's just crazy what the kids do
and they'll tear up the sanctuary you know last week you would think after a
sermon that I preached people would be a little bit better but there was
literally like a whole row over here right there no one was sitting like all
the chair like if you are sitting kind of ever there's just one row no one's
sitting on and then I look and it's like someone had just taken granola and just
literally like it was like everywhere it was like all this granola and trash and
all of this food just all on the seats and on the carpet I'm thinking like I
know why no one's sitting there because it's like why would anybody ever want no
one would sit there you have too many cleanup session before you can even sit
down in that area of the church and you know it's just embarrassing I'm thinking
like what if we had a visitor come and they like turn to sit in the aisle and
it's just like full of granola and trash and food and kool-aid what it's like
like why do you know people don't like going to daycares like who thinks that a
daycare is the cleanest place on earth who wants to go hang out at the daycare
where everything sticky and smells like Lysol and it's all like weird it's like
that's we don't want our sanctuary the place where we're worshiping God as
adults to become this sticky hot mess or whatever and I get like some people
maybe bring their lunch or whatever and I'm not opposed to that but you know if
it gets out of hand we might just have to take that away look if you have much
clean up after yourself for sure no one's no one's mad at you for cleaning
up after yourself here's here's another idea what have you cleaned up after
someone and you didn't even make the mess I mean isn't that the whole point
of being spiritual he's like I noticed them making a mess and they didn't clean
up well why didn't you clean up for them because think about it what if everybody
had the attitude of I'm not gonna only clean up after me I'm gonna clean up
after my children because they're never gonna clean up after themselves and I'm
not only gonna clean up for my children I'm gonna clean up after your children
you're like I don't want to do that some kids in here are terrible well then
you're like thank you pastor so I've released preaching the sermon okay your
at least thank you you're appreciative of the sermon itself but what I'm
telling you is like somebody needs to pay attention to their kids and look it's
not everyone and it's not everybody has the same problem some people they have
no problem with food but then their kids just running around pushing everybody
screaming yelling always causing problems with other children and look
you got to deal with that kid you got to get more Brown boundaries around that
kid and it's not like oh he's just a stickler at church I'm trying to help
you with your life because you know when you leave this building it's not like
your kids magically behave other places they're probably a hell in there too
they're probably bad when you have a play date they're probably bad when you
go to the restaurant they're probably bad when you hang out with your family
they probably cause issues everywhere because you know what kids are really
consistent and so it's important to watch them not just at church to watch
them in your life to discipline them in your life and look it blesses you but
you know when our church if our church doesn't watch our kids and allows them
to be bad and allows them to have bad behavior you know what's gonna happen
people are gonna say I don't want to have four or five six kids I mean do you
see how many people are pregnant you know a lot of people in here are
pregnant with their first second or third kid and then they see like wow
the families of five six seven they look like a train wreck it could discourage
them from having more kids and look there are people in our church that
choose not to have kids according to the Bible they choose to have birth control
or onan methods or do whatever against what I preach and you know what they
even doing that discourages other people from doing what the Bible says
and having kids like I think that they should be done like the Bible says being
fruitful multiplying you know by having rough kids it actually causes even more
people to feel that way you have rough kids and you're you're doing things that
are contrary to the preaching and you know what it's just causing people to be
discouraged oh man how do you do you know how it's so difficult you know I
there are people in this room that have large families and are doing great and
are excelling and then there's some people have large families that don't do
as well there's some people that have one kid and it's horrible there's some
people have four or five kids and it's great I mean it's all over the map but
let let me tell you something you not watching your kids not disappointing
your kids discourages everybody else it causes the kids not behave to not take
their parents seriously I mean what do you think happened when the kid is just
not behaving and the parent doesn't discipline them what do you think my
kids are thinking oh cool well if I do that my dad won't discipline me wrong I
will discipline you you know what rules you're under mine not some other dad
some other mom they don't discipline their kids you know if I sometimes see
there's like 20 kids running or like 10 kids running in the church you know who
gets disciplined mine I picked mine out I don't discipline yours now I'll say
stop running but you know what I don't discipline them after that either and
yet mine they're not getting away with it they're not gonna just do whatever
they want and if they follow bad example I tell them all the time I say if other
kids are disobeying you don't do what they're doing because I will punish you
so I have to try and combat that I have to try and go against the grain
sometimes on that and you know what if you're the same way do the same thing
but we need as a congregation to try and have a better standard work harder
pay attention our kids instruct our kids discipline our kids make sure that
they're behaving some kids are way easier than others some of you have
young girls and they're sweet and kind and they wouldn't do anything wrong and
some of you have you know young men that would literally burn the place down in
five minutes if we were watching ok and you say well you know you're just you're
just picking on me well your kids harder sorry that's not my fault and sometimes
not even entirely your fault because you know what if you're just you're
really zealous person you have a lot of energy sometimes that transfers your
kids and kids are just after an hour long sermon they're ready to explode you
know I don't know but take them somewhere where they can like a park or
something where things bolted down you know far away from here you know they're
behaving right now to continue behaving until they leave it's not like services
over let's do cartwheels and burn things and find stuff to make paper
airplanes and throw granola everywhere and track like that's just not that's
not the behavior that you want and we don't want visitors to come here and say
like oh man the kids they're just insane I got less about his church but the kids
are bad the parents don't pay attention I'm nervous to bring my kid to church
because they get bullied on but these are things that people even tell me
they're like my kids are getting roughed up bullied they're bad examples things
are you know shame on us if that's how people literally feel about coming to
church we want them to be feeling welcome that the kids are on good
behavior I want people to say like I want to take my kids there so they'll be
good like the kids at steadfast they'll be well behaved that they know how to
handle themselves you know people want to get away from you when your kids are
just a train wreck and especially when you don't do anything no one in here's
kids will be perfect but the worst thing is when you don't deal with it deal with
it here's another thing if your kids make a mistake deal with it right if
your kids you know punches another kid in the face tell that have your kid go
and apologize to the kid and you apologize to the parents because when
you don't do that you know what happens it just it discourages people they think
like I thought we were brethren I thought we like loved each other and you
don't even care that like this happened you know we should be very careful to
apologize make things right now you know for I'm not necessarily big on the
tattling so you know typically this should be coming from parent to parent
if one of your five-year-olds comes up to me and it's like James is mean I
don't I'm not gonna have him come and apologize because I don't know what that
means okay right like obviously though if it's escalated to the point if your
kids see something bad you know have them tell you first identify make sure
it's even valid and then maybe approach the situation deal that if you did some
if they did something wrong though fix it try to fix it try to apologize it's
not a big deal I don't need an apology I don't really even care personally but I
know what happens is other people get offended and and their feelings hurt and
it's not not good behavior and so it could cause other people to get
discouraged or man I don't want to go to church cuz I'll see them or see their
kids or these problems just a lot of problems fix the problem you know deal
with your kids if a problem ensues just go over there and apologize it's not
going to usually be a big deal it's just people get upset when you don't handle
the situation handle the situation there's probably more on this point but
I'm gonna leave leave that one of this just watch your kids okay here's another
one if you don't go so winning it can discourage other people from going so
winning sometimes people like even they don't even have the courage to go so
winning but they would if you it or they were not even going to show up but if
you invite them to go so winning then they would or especially times during
the week you know you so winning leaders that maybe have a regional time or you
have a soul anytime throughout the week and you're thinking like no one's coming
it's like how many people did you invite no one that's why no one's coming it's
like you got it you got to try and find people and invite them and try to work
with their schedule and if the time doesn't work well shift it I remember at
faithful word I used to have a so many time on Tuesday nights and the
passenger to start a preaching class well I noticed a lot of people that came
to my soul anytime also liked going to the preaching class so what I did is I
shifted my time to where they could do both so then people weren't forced to
choose because what's the point of me having a soul winning time if no one
shows up I can go so winning whenever I want the whole point of having a soul
winning time is to encourage other people to go so winning so if you're
so winning time isn't in a good location or isn't a good time for other people
change it right so then other people encouraged and other people go you know
there's a reason why I try to lead a time on Sundays at 2 because you're
already here it's easier you have time off from work you know not everybody can
make that work but a lot of people can so we're trying to encourage people to
go Sundays at 2 right or Saturdays there's a Saturday time that's an
easier time or there's times literally almost every day of the week there's a
time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday to Sunday so any day
ending and why you're covered but still some people won't go because you don't
go you don't invite them you don't you don't encourage them or whatever so we
need to we need to work on encouraging other people you know sometimes I I'm
not joking there's been plenty of times especially even recently I've gone so
winning and like every fiber of my carnal being does not want to go so
like I'm just I'm just being honest with you like but I'm not like after the fact
like disappointed I win or anything like that and in my spirit I know that it's
right but there's there's times where I go and I just carnally I don't want to
be there maybe I don't feel very good you know I'm tired I don't want to think
I don't want to talk to these people like there's a lot of different carnal
excuses but I just go and I know if I didn't show up less people might show up
the next week if I consistently just allow myself to be like why I don't feel
like it today well you know what there's lots of days where I don't feel like
going to work either but I just drag myself to that too there's days where
you might not feel like going to church but you just go anyways there's times
when you don't feel like making dinner but you have to eat right there's times
like you don't feel like disciplining your kids that's almost every time but
I just discipline them anyways you mean sometimes you have to suck it up and
just do the hard thing just go places where you don't want to serve and go hey
just show up and just go soul winning sometimes don't wait until I I feel it
you know I'm just so excited you know you're not gonna necessarily feel that
way in the hottest part of the year and in the coldest part of the year you just
probably not you know it's like a perfect day and it's like 70 degrees out
and you're getting like a dessert afterwards everybody shows up right but
it's like in the colder times or the hot times or whatever you know what you're
discouraging other people to go out to battle to go to war to preach the gospel
I mean we're here to preach the gospel folks the last thing we want to do is
discourage people from going soul winning also when people lead a soul winning time I
always tell them please stick with it for at least six months because if you
just start a soul winning time and then quit on it shortly after you're gonna
discourage other people you just being faithful even if you just go by yourself
you can still encourage other people because they'll every once in a while ask
you about it and they're just like man that guy does that guy's like a rock
that guy just goes out every single week he's just like solid he's steady and
then you actually encourage other people to go when you just never go soul
winning though people can kind of figure that out find out and just it just
discourages them don't be like that hey I'll hang out you know over here with
the cattle no go soul winning and you know don't quit on people what talk
about discouraging somebody hey I'll go so any with you and then last-minute
text sorry I can't make it hey I'll see you church oh sorry can't go hey I'll go
work out with you sorry can't go work out you know I've been guilty of this
okay I need all the encouragement ever to go to go work out okay man I need
like a hundred percent times a thousand I if I went to work out by myself I
would do so much less okay and and sometimes that's just that's just life
right you know don't quit don't tell somebody you can do something and not do
it don't give up when it gets hard don't allow excuses you know sometimes you're
just that excuse prone person if you know you're gonna quit don't tell them
you're gonna do it hey I'll help you move man and then you show up oh I gotta
go sorry yeah I took one book that said for
one box that said for a jolly I don't know I just threw it in there seriously
that happens be careful who you have help at church okay don't quit on people
and and keep your word if you promise to do something do it you know if don't
miss church unless it's like legit because it just discourages people and I
was I even asked my wife this I said when I was going to faith or and I was
thinking about it I think I only missed like three or four services and I was
fit I was like 12 hours away because I was out on vacation one time I was in
Jamaica on a missions trip that's why I also missed and then the day that my
daughter was born that day I missed that one service I don't think I missed a
single time for being sick like not once and this is including Thursday this is
Sunday Wednesday Thursday for years for at when I was at pure words I never
missed a single service until I came up here for the evening service January 6
five years ago the first time I had missed a service and you know you can do
it you can actually come to church now I get it sometimes we get sick sometimes
we're out of town sometimes you're on a mission strip you know there's there's
some legitimate excuses but when you don't have a legitimate excuse go to
church show up you know come through the doors people are gonna be encouraged
when you're here it encourages the brethren when you hear it discourages
them when you're not here you know asking everybody for money all the time
just discourages them and it makes them not want to hang out with you if every
time you hang out with someone they're always asking you to buy them stuff or
asking for money they will stop inviting you to do things you're just
discouraging them but if you ever once in a while pay for them now they're
gonna now they're gonna always want to hang out hey what are you doing later
you know hey where are you going hey what are you doing you know they're
excited to be around you and you know what it changes their behavior it
changes their attitude being someone that can bless other people do good for
other people you know sometimes you think I'll work this hard to make enough
money just for me but what if you made enough money to also bless people to you
work hard enough also to help the poor and help bless other people you know
what if you thought like I'm not gonna spend all of my budget money I'm gonna
use a little bit of it for other people to get gifts for other people or do
things for other people or buy them a lunch every once in a while what have
you never signed up for anything I mean I already talked about this it's just
annoying and and if there was one area that steadfast Baptist Church does not
excel in it's signing up for things I don't know why but it's just so
frustrating and people like they they won't tell you and then it's just like
really hard to guess it's really hard to know I know for them even for the men's
conference we had one year we had like eight or nine people sign up and not
come and it was just it was just frustrating because it's like it costs
like two or three hundred bucks a person plus you have to like you know you get
certain things based on how many people are coming and stuff and it's just like
I just have to waste all this money for literally nothing I mean there's no
extra benefit or something you just you have to pay all this money and whatever
and it's just annoying it's like I can expect one or two but second it's like
eight or nine it's like don't sign up for something and not come and if you're
planning on coming sign up make sure you're on the list you're ready to go
you know what you're doing you're participating boy it just makes a big
difference it's a big difference when it's like 98 percent confidence in the
sign-up sheet as opposed to about four percent we look at the side it's like oh
man this is rough you know get better at when you sign up for things doing it you
know if you just constantly use the bathroom during the service it can cause
people to get you know distracted discouraged during the sermon here's one
go to Proverbs 26 for a moment of Proverbs chapter 26 here's another thing
treat the things of God seriously now I like to joke from time to time I like to
have fun I'm not a person that's just like super stiff necessarily but it's
better to lean towards being sober and being serious than just always being a
jokester not taking anything seriously if you ever get an opportunity to preach
behind my pulpit be serious you know it you know it pissed me off more than
almost anything if someone got an opportunity to preach and they're like
all right I'm gonna preach on the flat earth just joking that's stupid don't be
stupid this is not open mic night it's not karaoke bar we're not just doing
this to just get laughs on on the internet or something like that this is
church ok take church seriously and don't always be joking about everything
don't after a sermon where I rip on being a feminine don't pretend to be
a feminine to me don't if I say hey whenever I preach something don't come
up and joke with me afterwards then people really come up and joke with me
afterwards I'm thinking like what's wrong with you you know there's
something wrong with that person that contrarian take church seriously you
know when you go soul winning take it seriously don't be horsing around
goofing off saying weird things ok take it seriously look at Proverbs 26 verse
19 so is the man that deceiveth his neighbor and say it am I not in sport
notice that it's you know it's it's it's a bad attitude to deceive people and
then just oh I was just joking and you know what it compares it to look at
as a madman who cast the fire brands arrows and death it's like saying what
if you just took your firearm and put a couple bullets in it spun it around and
just started pointing the trigger and pulling it the gun at yourself that's
stupid what you know don't mess around with cars and guns and things that are
serious you know in this life and churches even more serious we're not
messing around with it we're not trying to joke with it we're not trying to
treat it lightly we need to take church seriously if you want to have fun have
it somewhere else if you want to joke joke somewhere else you know this is a
place to be serious to take things seriously not to play little stupid
games going around and you know sometimes people they play like these
weird games like where they like hey look at the circle and read my my belt
at church I think that's stupid you're immature don't make church that I like
that don't be immature around church you know you can just tell these people
are immature they're not taking me seriously look if you don't have
something serious sober or spiritual to talk about at church then just shut up
because you're discouraging the heart of our brethren when they come to talk
about the Bible and spiritual things and you're just joking around horsing
around talking about dumb things and you know in the multitude of words there
wanteth not sin you're probably gonna say something sinful on top of it and do
something sinful you know don't make church a big joke house be serious here
and I let a lot of like when I see things that I don't like I don't I don't
really deal with it or I don't like police people I'm not gonna go around
helicopter pastor and just be like whoa what are you doing what do you say what
did you do you know I'm not gonna do that people want me to police everyone's
Facebook and what they say online everything they do people sometimes
dress inappropriately or things I don't really agree with or do things I don't
really agree with I'm not gonna go around and harass everybody in the
church building for it you know what you might be in a sermon and you like was
were you talking about me yes go to Titus chapter number two go to Titus
chapter when I say that I'm talking about you I always mean it and every
sermons for every person so it's yes it's for you be serious take church
seriously I'm not here to joke this isn't a joke we're not playing church
we're worshiping God in spirit and in truth and we need to take the Church of
God seriously it needs to be a serious place this is a serious institution
we're doing serious work this is the most important work in the world you
know imagine if you are gonna fly on a spacecraft into the you're gonna go be
shot up into orbit and the people in the NASA controls are horsing around hey
let's play around with the ejection seat I'm gonna press it oh I missed it oh
let's let's play let's dance around with coffee on all these controls you know
you'd be thinking like what are you doing like the people at NASA have to
take the job really seriously and they have to make sure that they're following
protocol and they're following the rules and they're they're treating everything
with soberness I mean you wouldn't want to treat that inappropriately you know
some people even mess around with guns never be that person and never be around
me guns are not a toy don't just loosely I remember somebody came to my house one
time and they asked to see my gun and I just I kind of showed it to him he just
like he just pops out the clip just cocks basically just you know cocks it
back drops the charge then you start dry firing at everything in my house and I'm
just thinking like what are you doing like don't just start just unloading my
clip and then just start dry firing and everything in my house like super
inappropriate I'm like let me know how to never invite you back try that okay
you should be very respectful you never ever ever ever point a gun at anything
you don't want to destroy you just don't do it treat it with soberness and
seriousness you know it's more important than a gun this treat this
with all seriousness and we want to be careful with it you know hey don't point
this at someone that's not a reprobate right make sure they're at rate where
you start pointing this at them and slicing them up and down okay be serious
about it you know it makes our church seem like a joke when you say everyone's
a reprobate this person cut me off in traffic probably reprobate this person
had a pentagrams you know shirt on definitely a reprobate they had a Jewish
star necklace definitely a reprobate look are these bad signs yes okay but
let's not get just so reprobate trigger happy that people start thinking like
they're not careful with their gun they're not careful with their sword
they're not careful with things of God you know let us be careful let us be
sober let us not point the gun at someone we're not ready to destroy now
look when you know you have some queer that's protesting your church point the
gun okay spiritually point the sword spiritually we would never do any
physical damage okay except defending ourselves but you know what I have no
problem you know unleashing the sword of the spirit on the people that need it
but you know let's be careful with the sword of the spirit let's treat it with
respect you know make sure you're cleaning up after yourself say thank you
do the memory verse sing the hymn sing loud when you don't sing everybody else
doesn't want to sing you know it's just the volume is dictated by other people
like you go to a church every start singing loud every sings that every just
go the guy next to you is not like brother and brother you know he has a
harder time okay because he's like he's just thinking like you know you know
sing out sing loud you know the song leader needs to start loud so everybody
else can follow their lead you know play your instrument loud we want to we want
to all sing together we're worshipping the God of the universe he deserves some
worthy praise here not some mumbling not just you know that's just not gonna get
do it folks go good to Proverbs 18 here's here's one last point I'm gonna
focus on okay don't hate women okay don't hate women and I don't think that
anybody just outright hates women in our church I don't believe that but I do
think that there's an attitude that's like this or can creep in and can cause
a lot of problems and it's just this this is very negative hateful attitude
towards women and it's especially because in our country and our culture
and our society the women have been victimized taken advantage of and
destroyed in a lot of ways and so it can cause a lot of single guys or even
married guys in general to talk trash on women talk trash on women and American
women and and young ladies and you know what it really just causes a lot of
problems because when you are saying negative things about them it caused
other people start talking trash on women in general and you know what we
have some really great women in our church and a lot of them are from
America some of them aren't we have some great women in here that are not from
America but you know what I'm not gonna sit here and say like all the women in
our church are second-rate citizens or something or don't love the Lord or
can't be spiritual because we have plenty of spiritual ladies that come to
our church there's plenty of great American women that come to the church
and you know what they a lot of them were probably raised feminist they
probably had a lot of like things that you could speak against prior to getting
serious about church or getting saved and you know what they're growing
they're growing they're improving you know what they need time they need grace
you're not perfect either but when you just hate on women in general it just
discourages the conversation it causes women to have a bad attitude or feel
like their second rate or something like that or they're not good enough or they
have all these problems and women are already so self-conscious the last thing
we want to do is just add to that they need encouragement they do not need
discouragement women are their own worst enemy already and they constantly can
cause themselves to just feel bad we need to encourage them and embolden them
and not act like they're just these inferior spiritual beings you know they
have in some ways harder a harder job than us as men our culture praise God is
not wearing a bunch of dresses and skirts as men I feel zero pressure to
wear a dress or a skirt in fact I I feel the exact opposite I feel an enormous
amount of pressure to never do that ever who also feels that way as a man
okay yeah praise God right women have the exact opposite about how they dress
they are encouraged to dress like whores dress like harlots to dress naked to
dress like men I mean for a woman to want to dress like a conservative
god-fearing woman and skirts and dresses is very intimidating they can feel
socially ostracized it can be even difficult practically speaking because
you go to the store and there's almost nothing to buy you know if you're a
taller lady it's even harder I mean my wife to find a dress or a skirt that
goes down to the knee it's difficult that's why they are in the dress cult
because it's hard to find dresses you know it's like they find one they're all
like buy it you know they're all like excited to get that particular garment
just because it's hard and then and then people men young single guys will think
like oh these ladies aren't as spiritual as I am because they struggle in that
area well that's not even a struggle at all for you you have actually zero
pressure to dress like a tranny like you're not sitting home contemplating
like should I do that or not but I guarantee there's sins that you have
that are really really hard on you that are not hard on them I bet you you have
a hard time with your eyes and looking at things that you shouldn't but the
problem is it's a lot easier to hide that one with sunglasses or because
you're in private or whatever it's not as open of a sin it's not as obvious of
a sin and so you can sit here on your high horse and think I'm so much more
spiritual than women but you're not anyways you just you just think more
highly of yourself than you have to think okay you know it's not the biggest
deal like I look I wish that every woman would dress appropriately and the Bible
says when you don't it's an abomination but you know what of all the problems we
have it's not the biggest deal that we have it's not the biggest problem and
you got to first change the inside part of the man before the outward appearance
changes and so I got all the outward right yeah but is your heart right do
you care about people do you love people you know I've met women that don't
necessarily dress right but they're really sweet and they care about a lot
of other people and then you have all you just look really nice as a man but
you don't care about anybody else and you're selfish you know it's the most
selfish people in the world single guys I'm telling you just jet like that's
just their nature I'm not saying every single one there's always exceptions
there's plenty of single guys that come to our church and do a lot for our
church they bless a lot of other people they help a lot of other people but just
generally speaking young single guys are by nature the most selfish beings
you could ever be around virtually speaking and it's nice when they finally
get married and have kids they turn into a completely different creature they're
really helpful they actually are more empathetic they think about other people
because it's forced upon them you're now forced to take care of other people 24
7 so then that just becomes your attitude and behavior whereas when
you're single you only had to care about you so it was just life was easy man if
I was single life would be so easy but you know what I would hate it because I
love my wife and I love my children and I love caring for them and I have so
much more enrichment in life from loving and caring for other people than just
being selfish then just only caring about myself and taking care of myself
look at Proverbs chapter 18 look at verse 22 Proverbs 18 look at verse 22
the desire I'm sorry who so fine to the wife find it a good thing and obtain a
favor the Lord I hate this attitude of thinking that women are bad and marriage
is bad and you can't find one look is there a lot of whores out there yes but
you don't have to marry any of them is there a lot of terrible feminists out
there yes don't marry any of them is there a lot of bad women that live in
America yeah don't marry any of them you know what I don't think that all
American women are bad I don't think that all women are bad at all and
there's a lot of great one there's a lot of people that can be redeemed restored
transformed you know I've seen lots of there's a lot of you posting pictures
of girls basically making a complete transformation being like very liberal
and now they're very conservative they realize wow that was a bad idea and in
fact all of them they they'll admit it they make all these videos a million
they're like alpha conservative male and I really liked it it's like when
you're an alpha and showing them the way often they're like I can see why I would
be submissive I could see why I like staying home I could see why this is
attractive and you know what you know you could win them over and be the
Samson that basically just takes charge and gets a woman and just like you're my
wife and then all the other same guys like I want to be like him as opposed to
being the guy that's like I've been on 50 dates and they were all first dates
and I'm probably never gonna get married now you're discouraging all the single
people they're thinking like oh I don't wanna be like that I want to be like
Samson you know what don't talk negatively about women don't talk
negatively about marriage I I hate this it really it really irks me and it makes
the Bible almost impossible go to 1st Corinthians 7 it's I don't think it's
impossible I think that every single person here can get married if they want
to but you know you also there's single girls that come to our church you make
them feel really awkward and bad how much you hate on women or how much you
talk negatively about how women are bad or something and I mean look if a young
single lady is coming to our church on her own wow that's impressive that's
impressive for someone to do that and you know we need to encourage more of
that not discourage that or cause them to feel like there's something wrong
with them as a person or they they you know are always gonna be the second
class citizen or something like that causing the single guys to feel
intimidated to talk to women like I think all women are bad or you know all
the women in America are bad and they were gonna like try to talk to a girl
that came to church and now they feel like iffy about it you know I'm always
trying to put pressure like go talk to the girls go talk with this lady you
know I've seen it random girls just show up at our church I've never seen before
and none of the same guys go and talk to her and I'm thinking like what's wrong
with y'all like she should be getting like 10 offers you know like I don't I
don't know what's going on and look I get it if you're not attracted to
somebody then you know don't waste people's time I get it but at the same
time like I'm thinking like there's no way every single one of these ugly
looking single guys in here is good like they're like thinking like you start
realizing you're not a 10 so sevens are okay for you okay like you're kind of
like a four or five you know financially you're like a two which
looks looks looks aren't even important it's more like that other number okay
and I'm just thinking like go and talk to her right and look God gave us tens
nines and threes and twos all the numbers you know why look what it says
in 1st Corinthians chapter 7 verse number 2 nevertheless to avoid
fornication let every man have his own life you know the way our structure is
in America right now this isn't happening or very possible because kind
of it's like all women are just attracted to the same guy and trying to
go for the same guy well that doesn't mathematically work we need tens to be
with tens and nines with nines and eights with eights and sevens of sevens
and you know every once in a while there's a lucky person like me like a
five that marries a 10 sorry you know I took but it needs to just be like on
rare occasion not the vast majority of situations like that okay and and we
need people to wake up and smell the roses and realize you're not a 10 stop
trashing women that aren't tens to it's like you're not a 10 but then you get
mad that every girl in here is not a 10 like she's not like looks like a
Hollywood celebrity and she's got her Bible and she's she's like this Proverbs
31 you know perfection or something and she's just like would you like me to
make a meal for our date you don't even have to spend any money in fact I will
make the meal for our date sir yes Lord I just want you to know that no matter
what decision you make I will always support you sir would you you know would
you please take me on a date at your convenience I await your call that's
what that's what they think oh and by the way I'm gonna memorize Proverbs 31
while I wait and I'm gonna write you a note they're thinking like man where are
all these women at it's like where are you at are you kidding me it's like this
is what they think they expect or something like all these young virgins
that are just basically ready to make them flame and yawn and call them Lord
whenever and however they want and rub their back and then they're like oh I
make $20 an hour and I work about you know 25 hours a week and I live with
eight other guys and a one-bedroom I lease my car it's like a you know 20
year old Honda you know it's pretty cool like do you want to do you want to
you want to live with all of us she's like where's all these tens that don't
want to marry me it's thinking like they won't talk to you okay there's a reason
you know women are marrying for security to be provided for to be taken care of
you know do that there's a reason why you they had these show like the most
eligible bachelor or whatever it's usually a guy's like 30 he makes a ton
of money he has his own house he's good-looking he's athletic and it's
like all these girls want to date him you know it's like I live with eight
other guys and I play Dungeons & Dragons and you know it's like what why why
would any girl want to date that and I'm not willing to ever confront her about a
date she has to ask me first you know it's like good luck okay it just it
you're just not being realistic you know you need to woo the young ladies
and talk sweetly to them not constantly trashing them everywhere you go and
telling them and don't talk trash on another man's wife you might get
punched and you know and you would be like is that right no it's not right you
shouldn't get punched but I'm telling you men in this room will punch you if
you disrespect their wife too much if you cross a line too much if you talk
trash on the women in this room stop just don't do it don't hate on women and
it makes people not want to even get married I want to go to one more place
go to Matthew 5 will finish how long you gonna preach why won't you here for a
while okay here's your bonus point okay don't skip church because I'm not here
yes that's you because you're gonna discourage those preachers when they
come you know it's really it's really embarrassing when it's like I have a
guest preacher and it's like half the church doesn't show up it's like I'm
not that much better of a preacher than these guys anyways and they could
probably preach a better sermon or something that helps you anyways you
know it's not about pastor Shelley it's not about the preacher you're here for
Jesus why would I decide who I'm gonna go to church based on the preacher I'm
not gonna say well you know what if it's been I'll go if it's Dylan I won't you
know if it's pastor Shelley you know but I mean Dylan does preach shorter
sermons so that's kind of nice Ben has some cool rants man it's long you know
these aren't thoughts you should be having okay and you're laughing because
you had them you just come to church and you just sit down and you yell amen when
you need to okay and even maybe if you needed it say amen anyways okay cuz some
people in here just need some preaching and I'm trying to be specific I'm not
I'm not mad at anybody individually I just want us to be better as a church
and I want people when they visit to like our church and and look at this
attitude you find in Matthew chapter 5 look at verse 38 you have heard that
have been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I sand you that
you resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to
him the other also and if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy
coat let him have thy cloak also and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile
go with him twain here's the thought for you go twain whatever you think is
expected of you double it whatever you think to do do it twice double it do
more this is you know hey I don't want to go the mile I'll go with you twain
right I I'm not gonna I'm not gonna come two minutes late I'm gonna come four
minutes early right I'm not gonna let my kids just destroy everything I'm gonna
pay attention to my kids and your kids I'm not gonna quit on you I'm gonna do
something you didn't even ask me to do I'm gonna ask you to go so wanting me
twice as much as I have in the past I'm gonna make sure that I'm at every church
service and you know what when they asked me to bring something I'm gonna
bring two things to the potluck or to the baby shower I'm gonna make sure that
I use the bathroom twice before the service so I don't have to use it you
know during I'm gonna make sure I'm serious I'm gonna not clean up after
myself I'm gonna clean up so after someone else too you know that
discourages the cleaners when they show up and the church is trashed it's nice
when they show up and they think like who already cleaned that's that's kind
of nice isn't it I'm not gonna just do the memory verse that pastor so yes I'm
gonna do another one on top of that and you know what I'm not gonna hate on
women today I'm gonna talk to two ladies you know what I'm not gonna trash a lady
today I'm gonna buy her lunch that's what I'm gonna do all right and let's
make sure that we're trying to think about other people and we're going to
extra mile you know that phrase comes from the Bible going the extra mile it's
Christian attitude is a spirituality let us have that let us go the extra mile
for Christ let's close in prayer thank you let me father so much for this
morning thank you so much for our church I pray that we would take the words of
God seriously that we take this job that we have seriously that we would take our
roles here seriously and that we would try to apply them we would try to make
sure that we're thinking about other people I pray that you would help the
church to encourage our guest preachers as they come and they preach services I
pray that you would bless those services that you would help minister the spirit
under those people that they would have better lives I pray that you would keep
everyone safe as they travel they had blessed our soul-winning exploits that
you would bless evangelists are bannock on his way to the Philippines I pray
that people would think about him and message him and support him and
encourage him and I pray that we would have an attitude where we're not just
thinking about ourselves on this side of the river but rather we think about our
brother and be willing to go the extra mile with them Jesus let me pray all
right for our final song 294 since Jesus came into my heart and remember like
what was preached or I'm sorry it's not 294 let me get the right one but
remember what was preached we got to sing loud got to be enthusiastic it's
not the stare at Dylan silently time some some of you adults do that it's
kind of creepy it's the sing time 194 since Jesus came into my heart
what a wonderful change in my life
I had mine in my soul
Jesus came into my heart
my soul like the sea
I have ceased from my wandering and going astray
since Jesus came into my heart and my sins which were many are all
washed away since Jesus came into my heart
since Jesus came into my heart
floods of joy over my soul like the sea billows roll
since Jesus came into my heart
I'm possessed of a hope that is dead, lost and sure
since Jesus came into my heart
and no dark clouds of doubt now my pathway unspewed
since Jesus came into my heart
floods of joy over my soul like the sea billows roll
since Jesus came into my heart
there's a light in the valley of death now for me
since Jesus came into my heart and the gates of the city beyond I can
see since Jesus came into my heart
since Jesus came into my heart
floods of joy over my soul like the sea billows roll
since Jesus came into my heart
I shall know there to dwell in that city I know
since Jesus came into my heart
and I'm happy so happy as onward I go
since Jesus came into my heart
floods of joy over my soul like the sea billows roll
since Jesus came into my heart
great singing thank you all for coming god bless you are dismissed