Good morning everyone and welcome to the Steadfast Baptist Church. If you can all find your seats,
we will get started with the service. Thank you all for coming. We'll start this morning's
service off strong with song number 162, "To God Be the Glory." Song number 162, 162, "To
God Be the Glory." Singing everybody, go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly
Father, we thank you for this church. We thank you for everyone that's gathered here. We
ask the Lord God that you fill everyone in this room with your spirit, including Pastor
Shelley so he can preach unto us an edifying sermon so we can walk out better Christians
and give you all the glory, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, next up we
have song number 373. 173 by you. Seven, three. Morning. Thank you so much for coming to Set
Vast Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bulletin, you would like one. Just lift
your hand nice and high. Whatever ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. On the
front we have our Bible memory passage. We're in Psalm 53. So if you can quote the entire
Psalm, you can get a special prize. On the inside is our service and soul winning times.
Take note that our Thursday time with Brother Suhail has just altered the time a little
bit there. So 530 on Thursdays in the South Dallas area. So if you'd like to go soul winning
there, it's a very receptive area. So I encourage you to go out then. Also, there's other times
listed here. The churchwide soul winning times meet here at the building. And then the regional
times meet just in different areas in the city. So you just need to get with those different
leaders. We do have two ladies times, one on Tuesday, with my wife leading that and
kind of helping organize that and then Mrs. Lucy's also helping with Thursdays at 1030
in the Fort Worth area. So you got a couple ladies times just dedicated specifically for
ladies and then of course, everybody's welcome to attend any of the other soul winning times.
Down below is a couple church stats as far as just where we're at with our numbers. On
the right is our list of expecting ladies. Upcoming events, I'm going to be preaching
at Faith Forward Baptist Church soon, November 6th is going to be at Thursday. I'm going
to be out there preaching about the Bahamas Mission Strip and what took place out there.
We have our kids choir practice begins November 9th. That's going to be right following the
evening services. So I think for the first few weeks, they'll just be meeting in our
fellowship room. And then the last couple of weeks, they'll be practicing out here in
our main auditorium, but we'll try to accommodate them. But we're really looking forward to
this. It's ages four to 18. So if you have any kiddos that would like to participate
in the kids choir, we'd love for you to do that. I'm going to be preaching for Anchor
Baptist Church, November 23rd, and that's going to be their one year anniversary. So
Pastor Oz has asked me to come up there and preach for them. Continue to pray for Anchor
Baptist Church and the works they're doing up there. We have a turkey bowl. So you want
to play some flag football with us on that Saturday, I believe it's November 29th. Brother
Marcel is organizing that. So if you have any questions, ladies Christmas party, December
5th. So all ladies are invited to attend our Christmas party. And it's just a free dinner
and just kind of a fellowship time. And so ladies would like to do that. Of course, you
guys we need to make sure to watch the kids you can do at least one night a year, right?
And as I always say, you can just throw peanuts at them. All right. Christmas caroling, it's
like Logan's Roadhouse or something, right? Ladies, I'm sorry, the Christmas caroling
December 8. So if you want to go out caroling with us, it's not illegal, as the Puritans
would make it, but we can go out and sing about Christmas, and so I'm excited about
that. Our kids choir is going to be performing for us December 21st, that Sunday morning,
so you want to come. Cookie Bake Off is going to be that evening, and then Christmas Candlelight
Service December 24th. Men's Preaching and Pizza December 31st. So we got lots of events
there towards the end of the year. Looking forward to finishing off the year strong.
On the back is our prayer list. Also, there's Baby Shower November 8th from 12 to 2 for
Ms. Villarreal and Ms. Campisi. It's going to be here at the church and if you'd like
to register or get them a gift they're registered for, you can. If you'd like to sign up, please
see Mrs. Milstead. It is nursing's only preferred. That's pretty much all we have as far as the
inside. There is a handout that was put into the bulletin as well. And this is a missionary
update for our evangelists in the Philippines. I ask our evangelists to do this about a once-a-month
newsletter update so we can track what's going on and follow in with them. He said for their
October month, they had 532 salvations, which is really great. Their average, or their total
for the year, is about 5,800. They had an opportunity recently to go into a high school
and preach to about 200 students. And so you can read through this whole thing. I'm not
going to read every single thing here, but if you'd like to read that. Also in the back
in the ministry, he said that the church services have been running very smoothly. They had
a local Baptist family of six visit them twice so far. So it's good to see they had a new
attendance record of 28. And so they're definitely, you know, kind of just starting that new church
plant and kind of growing there slowly, but continue to pray for them. They have some
prayer requests here. Pray for them for soul winning and good weather. Pray also for Miss
Argy's mother. Also for her recovery. They had recently given birth and so very exciting
for them. Also, if you'd pray for Brother James, he's kind of going to the Philippines
often and going out and helping that work. Also, I had been talking with Brother Kenton
Knowles who had helped us with our Bahamas missions trip and he was looking to go out
to the Philippines. And so I kind of just said, "Hey, why don't you go help our church
plant?" And so he's going to be going out there soon and being kind of a blessing to
our church plant. We don't know exactly how long or anything like that. It could be a
long time. It could be a short time. But just in the short term, it'll be a great blessing
to have him go out there and just do a lot of soul winning out there. So we might have
to kick into high gear if we're going to finish strong and beat them, all right? So you send
out recruits like Brother Kenton Knowles and boy, it's going to be a tough battle. But
I'm excited. Even if they beat us, that's a win, right? It's a win-win. But they're
not going to beat us, right? No, I'm just kidding. Now, let's keep up the good work
on our soul winning. And it's great to be here this morning. If you need anything, you
can ask one of our ushers. And we're going to go ahead and sing our third song for the
morning. It's going to be in our special binders. It's song number Psalm 117 in our special
binders, Psalm 117. That is Psalm 117 in your binders or in your King James Bible. Psalm
117 on the first. Please turn your Bibles to first Corinthians chapter number one. First
Corinthians chapter number one. Corinthians chapter number one, the Bible reads Paul called
to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes our brother under
the church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called
to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord
both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given
you by Jesus Christ that in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and in
all knowledge. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that ye come behind
in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall also confirm you unto
the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful
by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech
you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and
that there be no divisions among you and that ye be perfectly joined together in the same
mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you my brethren by
them which are of the house of Chloe that there are contentions among you. Now this
I say that every one of you saith I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and
I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were he baptized in the name of
Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should
say that I had baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanists,
besides I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize but
to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of
none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom
of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the
Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. Under
the Jews a stumbling block, and under the Greeks foolishness. But under them, which
are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For he see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are, that no
flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Let's pray. Father God,
we thank you for this day and for our church. I pray that you give Pastor Shelley the fullness
and power of the Holy Spirit and clarity of mind as well as he preaches the message you've
laid on his heart. I pray, Lord God, that you help us to pay close attention, give us
ears to hear, and apply this to our lives so we can be more complete Christians. We
love you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. I wanted to preach a sermon this morning on
drama in church, drama in church. And really, the epistle here, 1 Corinthians, is probably
one of the most notorious epistles about dealing with a lot of dramas going on in church specifically.
But it's not limited to 1 Corinthians, really. We could just let our Bible fall open and
it's drama. And just to give an idea, what is drama? Well, I looked up in a dictionary
and I looked up several different online resources to try and give some ideas of what the word
drama means. Now, most of the time when you use the word drama, it's thinking about it
in a theatrical context. That's like what most definitions are bringing this word up
in. But there's other ways this word can be used. So I'm looking at some like secondary
or alternative definitions. A secondary definition of drama is an event or situation, especially
an unexpected one in which there is worry or excitement and usually a lot of action.
Now when you think about that from a definition perspective, it kind of sounds intriguing.
And really if you think about it, our world loves drama. Our world loves to hear about
things that aren't expected. They love to deal with things that engage your emotions.
They usually want a lot of action. You know, when it comes to media, people want drama.
They don't want it to be the opposite of this. Another definition of drama is the excitement
and energy that is created by a lot of action or arguments. So it's a lot of excitement
and energy that is created by a lot of action and arguments. What would you think it would
be the opposite of this word? I would just think the opposite would be things that are
not interesting, not exciting, very expected. Now when you're dealing with something that's
exactly expected as usual, no excitement, no emotion, what word comes to mind? Boring
exactly, right? So here's the thing, it's like, well, I just want life to be boring.
Here's the thing, nobody actually wants that. People are like, oh, I don't like this church,
it has a lot of drama. But okay, then what do you want? Do you want a boring church?
Because you could, of course, go to a boring church or you could have a boring life. What
would that be? Everything happens exactly as expected. There's not really any excitement.
There's not really any emotions. There's not really a lot of action going on. And the reality
is if there's a lot of action, it's just guaranteed there's going to be a lot of drama. Okay.
And so drama is not really a bad word if you think about it. It's just saying stuff's happening.
Whereas the opposite is basically saying stuff is not happening. Now, here's another form
of the word drama is dramatic, right? Say things are dramatic. Listen to the synonyms
of dramatic. I just took all of the synonyms out of the dictionary. I just said, what are
all the synonyms of something that's dramatic? Breathtaking, climatic, comic, emotional,
impressive, powerful, sensational, startling, striking, sudden, hence theatrical, thrilling,
tragic, vivid. And really, if you think about it, that is going to be the Christian life.
That is what the church is like in the Bible. And really that's just what the Bible is as
a whole. If you think about the Bible as a whole, a lot of it is breathtaking. A lot
of the Bible is climatic. A lot of the Bible has comic elements to it. It's emotional.
It's impressive. It's powerful. It's sensational. It's startling. It's striking. It's sudden.
It's tense. There's theatrics. It's thrilling. There's plenty of places that are tragic.
And it's vivid. It comes to life. There's just a lot of stuff going on in it. And that
is what we love. That's what we crave. Why is it that all of these drama TV shows are
the most popular shows? Because people love drama. In fact, most drama TV shows are fake
because their lives are not interesting enough for people to actually film them. So they
have to make things up. They have to pretend like there's more drama than there really
is just to keep people watching. And if you think about it, it's like any sporting event,
any kind of activity, they're always trying to increase the drama in the sport so as to
make it entertaining. There's a recent sport phenomenon that I've paid a lot of attention
to, even though I have no interest in it, just because of the successful aspect to it.
It's a thing called banana ball. Who's heard of a banana ball? Has anybody heard of banana
ball? It's this interesting phenomenon where it's not like just exactly professional baseball
or minor league baseball. It's kind of got a spin on it. So it's almost like a Harlem
Globetrotter style baseball element where they do all kinds of crazy things. They're doing
backflips trying to catch baseballs. They have all kinds of wacky rules. But I was
listening to the creator because the creator is just a fascinating entrepreneur, got a
lot of energy, really smart. He was kind of talking about how in baseball, a lot of games,
they just get lopsided very quickly. And then people just leave. People aren't interested.
People don't want to engage the whole game because if it's like nine to one or something
or eight to one, people are just kind of like, yeah, it's over. So he was afraid of creating
a product where that would happen. So basically what they did in order to prevent this from
happening is they changed the scoring rules to baseball. So the way it works in their
particular sport is that each inning, you only get a point if you win the inning. So
you could get like five runs and the other team gets only one run, but only counts as
one point for that team. So they get a point, then let's say the next team wins the next
inning and they don't have, I don't even think they have an entire nine full innings. I think
they have less innings in general. But then what he did is he said the last inning, all
the runs count as a single hit. So you could be winning like three nothing, but you could
get four runs in the final inning and still win the game. And he said he did that on purpose
because he just wanted to keep that suspense element, it tense. He wanted to make it to
where people still had a chance in the end. Why? To keep the viewers engaged, keep them
in the stadium, keep them going throughout the entire game. Why? Because people love
drama. And if there was no drama, they would leave. If there was no drama, they would
get tired, bored, not interested. And then it's just so funny to me how people accuse
a church like ours or other churches of being bad because of all the "drama" associated
with the church. And I'm thinking like, "Yeah, but isn't that why people actually stay engaged?"
And what's like the almost the number one complaint of people why they leave a church
is to say the preaching is not relevant. Right? They say the preaching is just kind of boring,
it's just give me the gospel over and over, it's just kind of tiring, they're not feeding
me, there's not really anything going on. It's like, well, there's a lot of Goldilocks
Baptist out there, you know what I mean? Where it's either too cold or too hot and they just
can't like it. But you know, being lukewarm according to the Bible is the wrong attitude.
You should want to just be red hot, and you should just be okay with drama, and you should
realize that the entire Bible is filled with drama. I think people that don't like drama
don't read their Bible. Because the Bible is just drama. That's all it is. You just
can go from drama to drama to drama to drama to drama, and you should just realize that's
what life is like when you serve God. Now let's just look at this one epistle. We're
going to go through this epistle quickly and notice some of the dramas that are going on
in their church. And this one's funny to me. Would you say, "It's okay. I'm going to leave
the Corinthian church." Let's say you live in the first century and you live in Corinth.
I don't want to go to church at the Corinth church because there's too much drama. Wouldn't
you sound like kind of a bad, like a bad attitude there? Like, "Man, you're not going to go
to the church?" Like the Apostle Paul's writing letters to that has the apostles. Like, "This
is the Corinth church." Like, wouldn't you think you should, if you're going to go to
church, you should go to the Corinth church. But people that say, "I'm going to leave church
because of drama." Let's just see. What about the dramas in this church? Okay. Now at first
it brings up just being division. It says in verse 11, "For it has been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions
among you. Now this I say, that every one of you sayeth, 'I am a Paul and I am a Paulist
and I am a Seavis and I am a Christ.'" So what's the first drama we kind of have mentioned
here is there's kind of a division amongst people. People are kind of contending and
dividing based on their origin of Christianity, their origin of Christianity. Essentially,
some people have basically got one to Christ by Paul, some people have been one to Christ
by other people, or perhaps even some people have been discipled more, been ministered
to more by other individuals. But I think it's most likely that they're referring to
their origin, their origin into the faith, their origin into Christ, their origin into
the religion. And he's trying to bring up this point that no matter where you guys came
from, we're all here together for Christ. You know, a church, it shouldn't be like,
"Hey, this section got one to Christ by this person and this section got one to Christ
by that person and this section got one by..." It's like, if you, if you're saved,
we should just all be on the same team. That's the whole point. That's the whole argument.
And look, some people start to think like, "Oh, my church is better because of who brought
them in." Who cares who brought them in? You know, it doesn't really matter who got
you saved. You know what matters? That you're saved. It doesn't really matter what church
you got started in. It matters where you are right now. You know, like, instead of worrying
so much about the origins and what happened, it's just like, that doesn't really matter.
We're here for Christ, this church is here for Christ, and, you know, I shouldn't take
pride. Like, if I got all of you saved, I shouldn't take pride in that. And if I got
none of you saved, it shouldn't matter either. It doesn't matter who's getting you saved.
You know what matters? That we're here right now and that we are saved. That's what actually
matters, okay? And we shouldn't be divided based on how we came into church or who got
us saved. But, you know, you see this playing out sometimes in churches today, where people
will literally reject converts because of who won them to Christ. They'll literally reject
converts based on who brought them into Christianity, who brought them into faith, who brought them
into fundamentalism, who brought them into being a Baptist, saying I don't want to baptize
you because of who got you saved, or I don't want you to be here because of who you like
or who you listen to, or who's brought you to this point. It should not matter who brought
you to this point, it should just matter that you're here. And yet a lot of people just,
they want to take pride in who and where and how they kind of came to their situation.
But again, it just doesn't really matter. Let's look at chapter three verse four as
well because it brings up this point. You kind of see this playing out in movies and
I've never, I don't know how true it is. I would sense that there's probably some truth
to this. You know, you watch movies where kids are at like some kind of an elite school
or some kind of a preparatory school, some kind of a big school. And like some students
are there because their dad's rich. And then there's some students there that are on scholarship
or someone's kind of helping them get there and they're kind of poor. And you always see
this kind of rift between the people that are there because their daddy's rich and the ones
that are on scholarship are kind of catching a break. And again, it's that same attitude that
can kind of creep into church. Like some people think they're better than other people because
they're there. It's like, it doesn't matter how, how you got to the school, you're a student,
right? It doesn't matter how you got into Christianity, you're into Christianity. It doesn't matter if
you're a fifth generation fundamental Baptist or you're a first generation fundamental Baptist.
It doesn't matter how you got saved, whether it was on the internet or someone came to you at your
house. It doesn't matter if your mom got you saved, your dad got you saved. It doesn't really matter.
We should just simply be content with, hey, I'm saved and I'm here in church and I'm ready to
serve God. And we don't want to divide over something like this. First Corinthians chapter
3 verse 4 says, "For while one sayeth, 'I am of Paul,' and another, 'I am of Apollos,' are you not
carnal? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believe even as the Lord gave
every man." Look, we all got a minister. We all got someone that came to us and gave us the gospel
and helped us to get saved. And in most cases, we probably all had multiple ministers if you really
understand how the Bible works. We probably had lots of people ministering parts of the gospel
here and there. And we heard different things. And then eventually someone came and basically
reaped that harvest. Someone entered into other men's labors and got them saved. Look, when we
go to the Bahamas, you know why we love going to the Bahamas? Because a lot of people have laid a
lot of other foundation for us already. I mean, we're walking in ready to just basically plug it
in. You know, it's kind of like grandma or mom is like, "Hey, I can't get the TV and the DVD and
all this stuff to work." And you come and just flip the switch and she's like, "How'd you do that?"
You know, like you performed a miracle or something. And it's just like, "Bro, all I did was just flip.
All I did is I flipped the switch or I plugged it in or I pressed the power button." Right? But
just having that knowledge is what allowed you to do that. And that's what we do in the Go to the
Bahamas. We're just simply plugging it in. We're just pressing the power button. We're just like,
"Hey, but you know, if you're a blind person, you just didn't know, hey, I got to press the power
button. I got to hit these two things together. I got to flip the switch or something." And so
that's why we show up. But you know what? Somebody already put the TV there and put the DVD player
there and put the power cords there and got the electricity and got everything there. So we could
just walk in and just be like, "Power button." But how dare us think like we're so much more
special than the other people that have labored and put effort and energy to get that person so
close. Hey, God is giving ministers to everybody. And does it really matter? No, it doesn't really
matter. And you know what? People that get saved by Paul or Paulist, they're not like a second-class
Christian or something. There's nothing limiting you being a successful Christian based on your
origin into the faith. It doesn't matter who got you saved. It matters that you're saved. And again,
we don't want to have a division in church and think like, "Oh, well, this person didn't get
saved by this person or that person." It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who got you saved. You
know what matters? That you're saved. But again, you can come into churches where people are really
divided on their origin, who's ministered to them, or kind of where they came into the faith.
Chapter four brings up an interesting point. Look at verse 21. "What will you? Shall I come unto you
with a rod?" You know, impossible. Paul's saying, "Hey, you guys have so many problems and y'all are
messed up and some of the people in your church don't like me. I will come with a rod." Now again,
is he going to take a physical rod and go around and start beating the congregation? No. But he's
saying, "Basically, when I come in, I'm going to preach and it's going to be like a beating."
Sometimes preaching can be a beating, okay? That's what you would call hard preaching,
is when it doesn't feel good, when it's a beating, okay? And let's just be honest,
most people don't actually like hard preaching. Most people think they like hard preaching.
And to them, hard preaching is talk really negatively about people I don't like.
And that's not hard preaching. It's like, "Hey, I really like it when you get up and you rip on,
you know, the synagogue of Satan, you know, Jews or something." But you're not a Jew, so you,
that's not hard preaching to you. Or get up and rip on, you know, sodomites or something. It's
like, "Well, if you're not a sodomite, it's not going to really make you feel that uncomfortable."
Right? You know, "Hey, if you come to church three times a week, preaching on going to church
isn't going to bother you at all. If you're tithing, preaching on tithing is not going to
bother you at all. If you go soul winning, soul winning is not going to bother you at all." Right?
If you're not guilty of the sin, it's not going to bother you at all. You know, it bothers you when
you're guilty. You know, it bothers you when you're in the wrong. You know, it bothers you when it
feels like a beating. But you know what the apostle Paul says, "Hey, if you guys don't want to fix
yourself, I'll fix you." And you know, that's how we do it with parenting, isn't it? You kind of look
at your kids and he's like, "Hey, shape up or I'm going to make you shape up." Right? And it's not
like the parent wants to implement the rod, but if he has to, he has to. And you know, this is a
similar concept being applied with the preaching, with leadership in church that sometimes a pastor
has to kind of get the congregation in line, get certain people in line in church. And you know,
those people, when they get beat, they have one or two responses. They just fix it or they leave
and they say, "How dare the pastor beat up on me in the sermon." But wait a minute, the apostle Paul
was saying, "Hey, sometimes when there's problems, he has to use the rod when it comes to preaching
the word of God." And you know what? If you feel like you're getting the rod in church,
change. Repent. Don't get sore. Don't just decide to say, "Hey, you know what? That pastor's mean.
That pastor doesn't love me." You know, the Bible tells us about Jesus Christ, whom he loves,
he chases and scourges every son and whom he receives. You know, Jesus Christ is going to
rebuke and to chasten and to beat and to whip and to scourge those whom he loves. And if you're
without chastisement, then are you a bastard and not a son? And look, at the end of the day,
if the preacher's preaching the Bible and it's hurting your feelings, that's Jesus Christ
actually chastening you, is the one that's actually correcting you and reproving you.
And that's why it actually hurts. Because if I get up here and give my opinion about stuff,
it doesn't really bother people that much. But if you get up and you give the Bible's opinion
and people are wrong on stuff, that's where it can kind of sting. That's where it can actually
really cause you to feel uncomfortable because you know there's some truth there. Look at chapter 5
verse 1. "It is commonly reported that there's fornication among you and such fornication
as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife."
So in this church they're constantly divided about their origin. There's people messed up
where Paul has the possum bring a rod. Then they have a fornication like an open public drama in
their church. Because did you notice what it said? It is reported commonly. What does this mean?
It means it is public news. Everyone's talking about it. And not just that church. Everyone's
talking about it. I mean this is just everyone's talking about how there's this strange weird
fornication, weird situation, this weird couple that's being alluded to. Now again, do we have
names here? No. But I guarantee everybody in the church knows who's the guy and who's the girl.
So in this church is just this big public scene, just kind of this gnarly situation. And look,
it's weird. He says even the world thinks y'all are weird, that one should have his father's wife.
He's just saying this isn't even a normal fornication thing. This is grosser than what
would normally happen in the world. And he's saying you guys have this issue in your church.
And then verse two, and you're puffed up. You're actually prideful about having these people in
your church or how you're handling the situation. It says, "And you've not rather mourned that he
that had done this deed might be taken away from you, for I verily am absent in body,
but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that has
so done this deed." Now think about exactly what's happening. There's a public drama in their church.
Paul is not in the church. He's not there at all. He hears about it. And then he just says,
"I've already judged. I already know what's right and wrong in this situation. And I know how you
should deal with the drama in your church. I'm not even there, but I'm there in spirit." And
because y'all are Christians and I'm a Christian, I already know what's right. Y'all are not handling
this correctly. Y'all should make a change here. You should not handle... This is not how these
public dramas should be handled. You're handling them poorly. That is what is happening in the
Corinthian church, this public drama, where someone from afar is giving their public opinion,
writing an epistle to where everybody can read, everybody can hear what this guy's opinion is
about the drama in their church. But people will be like, "Oh, how dare you comment on drama in
other churches?" Right? How dare the apostle Paul give his public opinion about a drama going on
with these people? You know, isn't he going to shame those people? Look, they're already shamed.
It's being publicized everywhere, probably from gossips and busybodies in that church,
spreading it to everyone because they don't actually love these people and they just want
to cause more drama and more division and more issue in the church. But also at the same time,
leadership's failing here. The church as a whole is failing because the whole church is guilty of
basically not coming together and putting pressure on the leadership to just make the right decision
here and to handle the situation correctly and say, "Hey, this person should be church disciplined
and put out of the church until they rectify this situation." That's the whole point of
this epistle is basically saying, "Look, some situations are not allowed to be in church. You
can't have someone committing open fornication because if you allow this guy to commit open
fornication, you're basically condoning it." What does that condoning mean? Meaning like, "Hey,
if someone else does this, I'm not going to hold you responsible. I'm not going to hold you
accountable. There's no punishment. There's no consequence to this." And so then other people
do it. You have to be careful when there's these public dramas and you seem to just allow people
to get away with things that aren't appropriate or aren't right, who else are you going to greenlight
to do the exact same thing? You have to be careful that you handle those situations,
especially when they're public, with precision and you do exactly what's right so as to not
encourage the congregation or people to get the wrong idea, for people to feel emboldened,
to make a similar decision, to do their same kind of thing. Look, that's why the more public a sin,
it's unfortunately probably going to get the more stricter punishments often and that's how it
should be. Again, the more private it is, the less is a big deal about, you know, necessarily being
as harsh in the punishment. But look, if someone's committing it, you know, and it has a list here in
verse 11, if they're a fornicator, covetous, idolater, railer, drunkard, or extortion, any of
those that are really public, I mean, they kind of have to be dealt with and they should be dealt
with and they need to be dealt with so that you don't leaven the entire church. But this is a
major drama happening in this church. Look at chapter six, verse number five. "I speak this to
your same. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge
between his brethren." You know, he's kind of saying, he's like, you're all idiots. Isn't your
church, is your church is full of idiots? That's what the boss of Paul is basically saying. Why?
He says in verse six, "But brother goeth to law with brother and that before the unbelievers." He's
saying you guys are a bunch of idiots if you're going to just constantly sue each other and drag
each other to court and and just kind of like try to hurt and harm each other through the legal system
because you know who wins in the legal system? Lawyers. No one else wins. Everyone else loses.
Boy I I've paid some expensive expensive lawyer bills and I've learned the lessons the hard way.
The law is a loser for everyone. Now I'm not saying that every legal battle is unjust or
something. I'm not saying you can't defend yourself but boy you want to get in and get out.
You want to try and avoid it as much as possible. Agree with my adversary quickly while they're in
the way with him. I mean there's a lot of lessons that can be learned here and again it's not that
the legal system there's anything necessarily wrong with the legal system it's just that the
people in charge are typically so unjust that it just doesn't it just doesn't really operate
correctly and because it doesn't operate correctly it's basically just a bad bad idea
to get entangled in this any more than you just have to obviously if someone sues you or someone
attacks you you typically have to defend yourself you can't just lay down and just do nothing but
at the end of the day if you can avoid it it's best to avoid it i've had to work with many
attorneys and you know i can like some of them on a personal level but i'm just going to tell
you like attorneys are just like bad okay and and again it's just because it's kind of because the
profession itself is just kind of inherently flawed in a lot of ways so as a result it just
kind of is just like it's it's ugly okay and you got to think about it from an from an attorney's
perspective they get paid whether they win or lose boy when you don't have any incentive i mean
it's just like it just kind of like breeds a bad product overall you want to avoid these kind of
things but in this church think about it people are divided everywhere people don't like leadership
people are committing this weird fornication people are suing each other this is a lot of drama
already chapter 7 verse 1 says now concerning the things where have you roped unto me it is good for
a man not the dutch woman notice there must have been some weird dramas going on with people
committing fornication you know issues relating to marriage and the apostle paul has to deal with
all kinds of scenarios and regate in regards to marriage situations in chapter 7 now this evening
i'm going to go through that a lot more but there's marriage issues in this church for sure
fornication issues who knows harlot issues chapter 11 look at verse 17 and again in chapter 8
he rips on idolatry chapter 9 he has to defend pastors being paid and ministers being paid
in chapter 10 he says all the examples in the old testament were for us in chapter 11 at the beginning
he deals with hair length and talks about you know the importance of men having short hair women
having long hair but i want to skip to chapter uh verse 17 in chapter 11 now in this that i declare
unto you i praise you not that you come together not for the better but for the worse for first of
all when you come together in the church i hear there to be divisions among you and i partly
believe it for there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made
manifest among you now i think this is an actually very important verse what does he say here in
verse number 18 for first of all when you come together in the church i hear that there be
divisions among you what is what does this word here mean when it should be a trigger word it's
called hearsay okay especially in a court of law it's a court of record hearsay is not permissible
if someone starts a sentence and says i heard so they'll just say stop this is hearsay you're
not allowed to testify or witness to something that you heard that's second-hand information
you can only give eyewitness testimony now you could say i heard the defendant say i heard you
know this particular person and i'm an eyewitness to what they said but if you are repeating things
that you did not actually witness that you didn't experience it's hearsay and it's not admissible
in a court of law but we have to understand what is the apostle paul saying i've heard this this is
hearsay this is secondhand possibly third or even fourth hand we don't know how many times it's
gone through the gossip telephone but he's saying i've heard that you have these issues and then did
you notice what he had said in uh the rest part of this and i partly believe it now i think that's
important for you to understand you can sometimes hear things and you kind of think like that sounds
like probably true but as christians we all want to be careful that we don't base any of our actions
or decisions on hearsay now when you have hearsay come to you there's nothing wrong with taking that
information to the primary source and asking them about it hey i've heard this about you i've heard
this being discussed i want to see if this is legitimate i want to see because i'm worried
there might be some truth to this i'm not going to do anything about it until i know if it's true or
not i'm not going to criticize you or judge you or make any decisions on you until i've confirmed
it's true but i do partly believe it and i just want to see is this true is there any legitimacy
is this valid is this what actually happened and you're going to that person so again how do you
handle hearsay go to the source go to the person address it with them hey people are saying this
about you is this true did this happen but don't let hearsay become truth in your mind you know
it's very important and this is a hard point for people to realize we're constantly consuming
information whether that be from television internet things we read people bringing us stuff
people talking to us about stuff and what you do not what you cannot do as a person is you cannot
categorize in your brain where all that information is coming from at all times but that information
gets stuck in your brain so if you go listen to a heretic a weirdo a false prophet a gossip
you know the internet tv the jewish media sources and you just fill your brain with all these
different ideas sometimes later those ideas will re-trigger in your brain and you don't
actually know if it's true or not because you just kind of are a simple person and you
believe every word you have to be careful that when you're hearing information that
you're actively in your brain you're thinking like is this true or is this not true and
if it's not true you're not allowed to receive it meaning you have to like try your best
to try to categorize in your brain i don't know if this is actually true but again it's
very hard that's why it's very difficult it's why it's very important and the bible brings
this up to not listen to constant heretics heresy false preaching because the bible says
that their word does eat as a canker you can listen to someone that you don't like that
you know is wrong but they're just giving you all these ideas and they get planted in
your brain and you don't realize that later you bring up that idea even though it came
from a bad source even though it's unreliable and it just kind of sits there and eats as
a canker that's why it's very important when you're listening information from a bad source
from a bad person or whatever they are careful to not allow that to just settle in your mind
now how do you how do you not do this this is my just personal opinion because we can't
avoid this 100% is that whenever you hear information that seems unreliable that you
immediately challenge it with other information right if I hear false doctrine I'll immediately
go to the Bible and I'll read verses that contradict that so I'm getting that settled
in my mind and my heart not just allowing it to stew not just allowing it to just set
not just allowing it to just kind of sit in or do whatever because if you just allow false
doctrine evil lies gossip or you kind of hear some kind of gossip sometimes it's best to
just like go to the source and try to get the truth so you don't let that gossip just
settle in and then become truth in your mind and I'm just trying to tell you this is a
dangerous thing it's a scary thing that people just allow hearsay and gossip and false doctrine
all kinds of things just resonate in their minds and then they start repeating things
that aren't true that's where gaslighting retconning which I just learned this word
or whatever revisionist history is very dangerous people can hear someone tell them something
and then later someone will reword what actually happened and they'll believe the revisionist
history version of that they'll believe the retcon version of that they won't actually
realize they've been lied to they've been misled they've been deceived it's basically
just an argument with your wife i'm just kidding you're talking with her and she's like this
is what really happened you're like i don't think that's how it went down apparently i
just have an unreliable memory you know my wife's always right folks okay my wife's always
telling me gaslighting is not a real thing so she's helping me realize that but at the
end of the day what's the point that's even being brought up in this chapter that there's
divisions in here about the lord's supper and when they're coming together they're not
having the lord's supper together as a group some people are like having their own private
little lord's supper over here some are just eating an entire meal some people have nothing
so just saying it's just like really divided in the church and we saw that earlier in the
chapter too people are divided based on a paul or apollos or whatever you know we don't
want church to be divided we want church to be unified we want us to come together and
have as much commonality as much unity as possible that's what's best and when it comes
to the lord's supper because of the like think about it it's about christ christ died on
the cross and his blood was shed and his body was given for us if we can't have unity on
at least that then what are we doing here look we're always gonna have our little minor
disagreements we're gonna have personality conflicts we're gonna have other issues but
we should at least be willing to have the lord's supper together we should at least
be willing to basically just think about christ and what he's done for us and just have communion
when we have communion services and that's the whole point of this particular epistle
but he's just saying look in this church they're screwed up on this people are dying as a result
of it people are getting sick as a result of them doing this kind of stuff and so this
is again another major drama in their church go to chapter 14 go to chapter 14 let's get
some more dramas that are happening in this church look at verse 26 how is it then brethren
when you come together every one of you have the psalm have the doctrine have the tongue
have the revelation have an interpretation let all things be done and edifying if any
man speak in an unknown tongue let it be by two or at most by three and that by course
and let one interpret but if there be no interpreter let him keep silence in the church and let
him speak to himself and to God let the prophet speak two or three and let the other judge
if anything be revealed to another that sit by let the first hold his peace for you may
all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted it's you know we
don't know exactly what this church looks like but just from the context clues it kind
of feels like they're showing up at some big space and there's like a church service happening
over here and there's kind of a church service happening over here and there's a church is
having here almost simultaneously if you think about it it's like you got the Paul section
and the Apollo section over here some of them are having the Lord's Supper over here some
are not some start preaching in Greek over here some start preaching and Parthian over
here and it's just it's just a mess they're not unified I mean this is a crazy church
if you think about it think about it we came in and people over here are saying like to
God be the glory over here are saying Jesus paid it all at the same time someone's over
here preaching in Greek someone over here is preaching in Parthian and it's not like
an interpretation of the same sermon it's a different sermon and look after lunch it's
kind of nice that we are the same service we can all talk about it and bring up the
same points like some group over here is getting completely different sermon than the group
over here and it's just kind of a mess and again there's just not really any unity and
he's saying look you can only have like two or three speakers at most if you want that
and it needs to be one at a time and it needs to be in a language that everybody can hear
that everybody can understand if someone's going to get up and start preaching in a foreign
language that no one knows they need to just sit down and be quiet and they can talk to
God in that foreign language they can pray to God whenever they want or sing to God in
that language but not at church at church we're maximizing understanding and having
unity in the congregation to where we can all agree and look they're even supposed
to judge the preaching if someone got up and just preached false doctrine someone's supposed
to get up and just maybe that was false doctrine what you just said was wrong this is not what
the Bible's teaching and being corrected you know potentially in that particular scenario
now I think if you think about it the Corinthian church really feels like to me it's almost
like what we think is a church plant where there's not really a very established elder
pastor that's just leading the charge and that's what's best that's why you kind of
see this just major division crazy stuff happening you know if you found yourself in a church
plant where you have a rotation of preachers as that church right you're going through
different laymen in the church it makes sense that sometimes you're gonna have more drama
more conflict more of a need even to where a if someone gets up and kind of preaches
some weird stuff maybe the next thing that gets up is like I'm gonna kind of correct
a few of those things because at the end of the day we need to be right on the bible here
and that would be the right attitude that's gonna probably be more correction and look
if you're going to a church plant you should be more suspicious of the preaching than
less you should be more careful with what you're hearing and going home and checking
the bible and making sure it's right because boy we've had church plants and we've had
people getting up saying the weirdest things i've ever heard in my life you know bo ballard
and there's many other examples of this but boy that guy's getting up saying jesus you
know having this long train reminds me of women in a wedding dress and i'm just like
what in the world is that talking about he's talking about whenever the children of israel
were like giving their earrings and giving their jewelry unto moses and and then to erin
they're going to erin for the fashion this golden calf that they were basically just
you know completely nude or something and it was just like it's like what is this guy
talking about like this guy's just bringing up weird stuff strange ideas perverted things
or whatever and it's just like you know when you're hearing these lame and preach sometimes
it's really lame okay and it's not biblical and you know at the end of the day like i
don't care so much about skill and preaching as i do the message and the content and we
should try always our best when we're preaching a sermon is it true that's my that's my number
one criterion is it true and i don't really care how nice it is i don't really care how
polished it is i care so much more about truth i would way rather have a rough sermon that's
true than to have a really polished eloquent fun exciting lie being preached okay and
and and again does that mean that we shouldn't work on being more polished and skilled the
mature in our preaching no we should but the most important thing is it true it's the most
important thing is it what the bible says is it true and that's what we should always
be elevating in our minds and when i listen to preaching and i think this is bad preaching
it's because it's not true that's the reason why i struggle with it that's why i don't
like about it okay and frankly speaking you so well it's boring but typically it's boring
because it's not true or it's not something in the bible because the bible is drama man
show me something in the bible that's not dramatic it's just filled with drama it's
filled with excitement it's filled with action it's filled with all kinds of stuff happening
if you're preaching the bible you're preaching drama i'm telling you what the reason why
you're preaching is not very dramatic is because it's not very biblical now in chapter 14
we have another thing brought up here look at verse 34 let your women keep silence in
the churches for it is not permitted under them to speak now why do you think he brought
that up i'll just throw out a guess probably because they were letting women get up and
preach you know why rules exist because probably somebody broke it okay and so think about
think about what's going on in this church just crazy division women preaching all kinds
of stuff it's just like this is a chaotic scene chapter 15 it gets even weirder look
at verse 34 awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of god
i speak this to your shame do you know in this epistle he shames them just over and
over and over again he's saying man you got this is a shame how you're acting this is
a shame that you're teaching this it's a shame you have these divisions and look this
is embarrassing it would be embarrassing if you have a large contingent of your church
that doesn't even believe in the resurrection i mean think about it if you were going to
a church and a large group of the people in your church don't even believe in the resurrection
like that that is shameful that would be embarrassing and look there's a lot of churches today that
are filled with people that are not even saved that's embarrassing you've been going to the
church for five years and no one's actually explained to you how to get saved or salvation
by faith alone that's embarrassing that would be shameful chapter 16 verse 9 for a great
door and a factual is open unto me and there are many adversaries here's another thing
that's going to happen you you preach the bible you're a great christian you're going
to have a lot a lot of enemies many adversaries you know the people that are are really great
christians really great and they think they're so much better than us i just want a list
of all their adversaries because let me tell you something people that are great have a
lot of adversaries and boy i'll tell you man we've had a lot and all kinds of shapes
and sizes and variations and everything right verse 22 if any man loved not the lord jesus
christ let him be anathema maranatha that sounds pretty dramatic too doesn't it hey
he's he's really opposed to people that don't love the lord jesus christ he's cursing them
so i just want to give you a quick recap think about this in just this church we've only
talked about one church i could bring up galatians i could bring up all these other churches
here and i will in a second but think about just just one church they're divided on leaders
they are needing someone to come in through the church with a rod to beat them in a submission
spiritually speaking there's the worst fornication imaginable in the church they're suing each
other constantly with lawsuits they have all kinds of weird marriage issues and harlot
issues idolatry they're mad about paying ministers they have hair issues they have divisions
on the Lord's Supper they're not even having the service together they're having just like
some people singing while the other people are singing and preaching and preaching then
you have women getting up and preaching some of the people in the church don't even believe
in the resurrection that's in one church and then people are like oh I can't go to your
church because of the drama would you go to that church just be honest for a second if
there was a church where there wasn't one person getting up you had to go and it was
multiple people in different languages with women preachers people don't even believe
in the resurrection people are suing each other there's this one couple that has this
open relationship where the guy is with his father's wife you're like I like this church
this is a great church but wait a minute if I lived in Corinth I would go to this church
this is the church that you would go to okay why because this is where the actions at and
obviously the devil is trying to destroy this church is causing problems and the Apostle
Paul is trying to bring it back together be a good shepherd spiritually speaking and try
to bring them back together and unify and do this great work and again I think the Bible
is pretty clear when he going through acts when he goes to court that there's many Christians
there so it's really important for this to be a successful church because there's a lot
of people involved there's a lot of opportunity here this is an important church and so we
want to fight for that church we want to try to bring as much unity as possible and do
these these things now go over to Philippians chapter 1 I'm not going to necessarily come
back to first Corinthians but I just want to give you five quick points to think about
that we've learned through this lesson what are some things that we can learn through
this and why is drama in church actually a good thing in some cases now again I don't
necessarily want there to be conflict when there doesn't have to be I'm not some kind
of a person that just needs conflict but conflict is good and drama in church can be good now
number one I think the Bible teaches that conflict in church causes the gospel to be
spread more if you think about it what does drama in church often do is it spreads the
gospel now look at Philippians chapter number one and look at verse number 12 but I would
you should understand brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather
under the furtherance of the gospel the apostle Paul saying the dramas that happened in his
life has caused more people to be exposed to the gospel itself so how can you get mad
that when there's these dramas and all these events and all these conflicts that are just
causing more people to hear more people get involved and then just by nature of life they
end up hearing the gospel one way or another he's just saying this is a net positive this
is something good that comes out of this trauma something that's good that comes out of drama
and conflict and issues is that more people are just exposed to the gospel by and large
verse 13 so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places
and many of the brethren of the lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to
speak the word without fear some indeed preach christ even of envy and strife and some also
of goodwill the one preach christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction
to my bonds but the other of love knowing that i am set for the defense of the gospel
what then not withstanding in every way whether in pretense or in truth christ is preach i
there and do rejoice ye and will rejoice what is the apostle Paul saying he's saying i
don't really care why people are getting saved i just care that the gospel is just having
max exposure and he's he's again what was first Corinthians talking about he does not
care who got you saved he cares that you got saved he doesn't care how the gospel is spread
he cares that it's spread and with that type of mentality you won't be negative about drama
you won't care about conflicts you won't care about divisions because at the end of the
day there's actually a lot of positive things that happen as a result of it here's a drama
that i can think of you know when jamaica we had a jamaica mission strip in 2018 faith
word baptist church i was attending there i was just serving there i was training to be a pastor
going to be sent out very soon we were exploring a lot of new missions trips at that time our church
hadn't done very much this is one of the first major missions trips we were doing we're going
there our pastor steven anderson was banned and he was not able to go on the trip well because he
was banned it made tons of newspapers and tons of you know literature was put out there media
everybody's hearing about it well there was a person that heard this his name was samson artist
and you know what as a result of that him and his wife got saved and then they got plugged into
our movement and so because of that drama they are now like really involved and good
people going to church you know the gospel look what a benefit to that drama all right you know
if y'all wouldn't preach what you would preach about sodomites you wouldn't get banned from
jamaica but you know what preaching what we preach about sodomites gets you banned from jamaica and
then guess what people get saved and get plugged into christ as a result of that oh you're always
about drowning oh you're bringing up these issues well look people got saved as a result of it
and i'm not talking about a hypothetical person that's in the jungle i'm talking about a real
person that really got saved me personally i was i was saved as a young child but i wasn't a very
good christian i grew up in non-nom churches pretty worldly not that really involved i thought i knew
the bible and i really didn't it was one of those type of people and i ended up finding a video it
was it was titled a response to james white's response to sam gitt's response okay it's like
sam gibb is like fighting james white and james white's responding to him and he's responding to
him this this is the online drama just video response video response video response video
and then a guy not involved made a response video to their response videos and this guy's name was
pastor steven anderson and it was the first video i'd ever seen of his and boy he made james white
look like an idiot and he made fun of him relentlessly and the video quality was like
the worst i've ever seen in my life but you know what i liked the content because i've always been
a content person i've never been about the polish i've never been about the theatrics i've never been
about the video quality because if it was like that i would have just clicked off immediately
it looked terrible it was like the oldest camcorder against a stale beige wall or something
the guy's dressed you know kind of like whatever but what i like the content and as a result i
started listening to his preaching and boy through his preaching it changed my life in a lot of ways
and a lot of positive ways and you know what i'm so glad he made that drama response video to
response video to response video response video but some people they're just like ah they just
keep making your spats videos well maybe it'll reach someone like me and you just make your spats
videos yeah yeah i will especially if you challenge me i mean if you say please make a video i will
probably make the video all right here's another one we made a movie called the sodomite deception
drama why talk about this issue and then there was a person in the dfw area who found that movie
and then said hey i want to go to that church and he's sitting here right here brother rich
praise god for that drama now look i believe he's already saved and stuff like that but again just
reached through drama and look even some of our quote frenemies or pastors that don't like us
or whatever they constantly hear about all of our soul winning and what we're doing in the bahamas
and all this stuff and you know what i guarantee it causes them to feel like i need to do a little
bit more soul winning and get a few more people saved and you know what i don't care if someone
that hates my guts gets someone saved praise god that person got saved even if they're preaching
that person of envy or strife i don't really care because christ was preached and someone got saved
and now you're in the family you know we shouldn't care so much about who got who's saved if someone
came to my church and said boy you know tommy and merchie got me saved i'd be like praise god
now he's kind of weird but you know praise god that you got saved from him but you know i'm
not gonna say you can't come to church because this person got you saved you know that's that's
weird but you know what i'll tell you it dramas cause people to hear more of the gospel now it
probably will never happen that someone's like he reached me online but i'm just saying like
if it happened i would say praise god i'm not mad at these people isn't it interesting of our
frenemies they're they're never bringing people to our churches we're constantly bringing people
to their churches you know i don't know how that works here's the second point i'm not going to
have you go to a passage go to titus one if you would go to titus one second point is whenever
you have drama in church it causes things to be more memorable it just sticks in your mind more
you know i i had a drug we had a drama several years ago about the trinity and boy because of
the dramatic fashion that happened it caused me to learn the trinity better and to get sharper in
that particular way but it was just very memorable anytime there's these dramas or public situations
or whatever it just causes things to just stick out in your mind more now look you maybe you've
read first corinthians a lot so you just know the epistle very well but i would venture to bet you
probably can't just identify what every single chapter is about like if i just said a number
i'm like chapter eight you're like but if i say chapter five don't you all just kind of instantly
know what i'm talking about it why probably because it's one of the most dramatic chapters
in the entire epistle isn't it what it's like hey if i just say what is galatians about you just
kind of know because there's this big drama going on in the book of galatians whereas i say tell me
what colossians about you're like is that a book in the bible i'm just kidding but what's the
difference between colossians and galatians galatians has a huge drama going on doesn't it
huge drama and then you kind of it just kind of sticks in your brain a little bit more
the bible stories that have the biggest dramas you typically remember better it's like hey if
the minor prophets which one do people remember the most jona the guy's eaten by a whale you know
it's pretty dramatic and the guy's like angry and it's like all this crazy stuff like they're
putting sackcloth on animals and stuff i mean he's just like he's like dang this chapter is
crazy the other ones everybody's like i don't even know what's going on you know in these
in these ones it's like hey what's probably the second most popular like what would be the most
like if i just said hey i want you to tell me about this minor prophet what's probably the
number two one that people would think of josea why again major drama in that particular book
and the ones that have a bigger drama you probably have a better idea of what's going on
if i said give me a summary of zechariah or a summary of josea which one would you probably
feel more comfortable with josea because of the drama again so again the point i'm making is
that when there's dramas sometimes they're good because they help you just remember things things
stick with you and like i like to preach about dramas when they're happening because then you
just get that benefit of hey we're going to learn some good doctrine here and that's my third point
is that when you have these dramas it gives you an opportunity a better doctrine notice the apostle
paul is writing on the coattails of drama to then reinforce good doctrine as a result of the
fornication issue in first corinthians 5 he then lays out church discipline so that we can get that
really good doctrine because people deny the resurrection we get the great doctrine in first
corinthians chapter number 15 about the resurrection and the importance of the resurrection so when you
have dramas it's an opportunity to not only remember it but to remember the really good
doctrine and to sharpen your doctrine and to get better doctrine as a result because when you have
two people fighting you want to make sure that you're really dialed in and that you're right
on the right you've got the doctrine dialed in whereas when there's not much conflict sometimes
you get a little loose sometimes you're a little sloppier sometimes you're not saying things as
well when there's a fight there's a conflict there's response videos you're getting it dialed in and
you know what the benefit is we as a whole get that sharp doctrine we get that clear teaching
we get improved on these issues i've constantly been improved on doctrine through dramas conflicts
and issues titus chapter number one look at what the bible is saying here in verse number nine
holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both
to exhort and to convince the gainsayers what is the point he is saying i need to preach against
the people arguing against me so that you understand what sound doctrine is what is a pastor's job to
confront the arguments to confront the naysayers to confront the trolls and the weirdos because
they're constantly planting these bad ideas into people's minds and we have to drive them out with
sound doctrine oh how dare you comment on this or how dare you make a video or how dare you preach
a sermon right look i want to drive out that stupid idea from your mind and look when things
are public or people are hearing this or people are being exposed to this stuff we want to drive
that out that is a that is something that is being demanded of me as a pastor why for there are many
unruly and vain talkers and deceivers especially they have a circumcision so he's saying look there's
a lot of idiots there's a lot of people that are teaching disobedience there's a lot of people
just talk and say nothing while talking now i don't know if this is really true or i don't know if i
really hold this position right just just constantly just squirming around just being jello
doctrinal jello and you never really know what they're saying because it's all vain it's like
hey we got to squash those people verse 11 whose mouths must be stopped now look this is what i've
noticed and you can believe whatever you want when i notice people going out there giving their
little jello doctrines or whatever and they're just kind of doing their little thing you know
i don't know if we're raptured to heaven or not and then you get up and you say this guy's denying
that we get raptured to heaven then they're like oh no no my position's heaven and then they stop
making videos about it they stop talking about it why because that stupid mouth needs to be shut up
for teaching lies i don't know if i like this i don't know if i like this look that's the
whole point whose mouths must be stopped when people are saying things that are wrong that
are stupid they should be made fun of they should be ridiculed they need to be stopped
that is my job why would you get mad at a pastor for shutting people up oh i don't like all the
drama you know manly perry was kind of in a conflict with me at one point and i made a
video showing how he was a giant hypocrite liar and as soon as i made that video he nuked his
entire youtube channel talk about a mouth being stopped and look that is the job of a pastor you
know what a good pastor is going to just shut things down i mean i shut a lot of things down
you know what i mean that's what the bible says hey if you can't take hard preaching then quit
hosting a conference about it says in verse 12 one of themselves even a prophet of their own said
the cretians are always liars he will be slow bellies this witness is true wherefore rebuke
them sharply that they may be sound in the faith hey we are supposed to rebuke people sharply boy
that's not nice that's not kind but you know what it's right sometimes people need to be rebuke
sharply what is that just calling it as it is making it clear hey i don't this could be making
fun of them even i don't something needs to happen go over to chapter two verse one but speak down
the things that become sound doctrine you're supposed to preach the good doctrine to defeat
all of this bad doctrine go to second to be chapter four we're going to go backwards for a
second go to second to be chapter four look at verse two preach the word be instant in season
out of season reprove rebuke with all exhort with all long suffering and doctrine for the time will
come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned
onto fables look when people are just making stuff up you need to with sound doctrine exhort and
convince the gainsayer and win people back over and get them back on the right track because a lot
of people just want to hear lies they want to hear stories they don't want to hear what the truth is
jewish fables the bible is saying they hey there's these jewish fables we should stay away from what
is that it's seven thousand dollar posts there's all these seven thousand dollar posts that we need
to constantly expose and and preach against and look not even just them that's especially them
but other people that are making false claims just making stuff up just weird history we need to
expose that it says in chapter three verse eight now as jannes and jambres whispered moses so do
these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith but they shall
proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was look
when someone preaches weird doctrine you should expose them to everyone it should become manifest
look at this guy preaching this weird stuff oh how dare you expose people for what they're
preaching how dare i not how dare i not expose people and look i'm constantly exposing people
for what they preach for what they preach why because that is what the bible is telling us
to do is hold these people accountable for what they preach we want to expose them he says in
verse 10 but that was fully known my doctrine i will make it clear what i believe as opposed to
what they believe and i want to expose my doctrine i don't want their doctrine to be
continuing to go unchecked unchallenged it needs to be challenged look at first timothy chapter
four verse 13 till i come give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine i need to
constantly teach you doctrine and beliefs and make sure you're on the right doctrine teaching
things that become sound doctrine exposing false doctrine and preaching right doctrine this is going
to be a lot of drama because what was one of the the definitions of drama excitement and energy
that is created by a lot of action and arguments we should be constantly bringing up all the bad
arguments and the bad ideas and the bad philosophies and the bad doctrine and knocking it down destroying
it with scripture making it abundantly clear what the bible says chapter 4 verse 1 now the spirits
begin expressly that in the latter times some should apart from the faith giving heat to seizing
spirits and doctrines of devils as we get closer to the end times there's going to be more bad
doctrine not less and it's important for us to fight and contain with that doctrine i want you
to go to aphesians chapter 4 go back to aphesians chapter number four look the biggest battle and
the biggest drama that we will have in church and should be is a constant fight over words and
doctrine we want to have sound words what is the admonition of the pastors and preachers holding
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught it's also weird when pastors and preachers are
getting completely away from the doctrine they were taught changing denominations changing bibles
changing their belief systems look who's teaching them that stuff and at the end of the day you
know if you got taught right doctrine you should never leave you should be steadfast
be careful of the pastor that's constantly changing constantly getting a new bible
constantly getting a new name on his church constantly just going down this downward
spiral of the toilet bowl okay we should be the same and look this church you can look at our
doctrinal statement it is the same from when i started to now it's the same because it's sound
doctrine we don't need to get away from it if i start getting away from the doctrinal statement
you should leave me we should stick with the doctrine stick with the doctrine does that mean
that we can't learn stuff sure but it's going to be within the framework and the boundaries of
that doctrine we're not changing the doctrine we're not getting a new trinity here we're not
getting a new bible we're not getting a new god we're not getting a new way to get saved
all those things have already been settled established we're not going to leave them
aphesians chapter 4 verse 14 that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie
and wait to deceive look tons of people are going to try and come in and trick you and say like oh
no no they're just so judgmental you need more grace you need hyper grace infinite grace brah
and with their cunning craftiness they come and they take the backslidden person and they get them
out look if you had a huge flock of sheep and you have the wolf who's he going to attack is he going
to attack the sheep in the very middle or is he going to try and find one that's dragging behind
and he's going to go after that person and look it's the same in a church like ours where the
person that's coming to church every once in a while that's a little bit backslidden stop going
soul-winning not that into it they hear these kind of things and they're like yeah yeah that's
right that's why i'm not going to church it's not because i'm lazy it's not because i'm selfish it's
not because i'm backslidden it's because they're not gracious enough and then they just allow that
lie to seep into their minds and their hearts and then they just become bitter it's like you've
never done anything bad to these people in their life you've only done good to them and they're
like you're not gracious it's like how it's like i married you i fed you i mean look what church
could you go to for five ten years and get the number of meals you've gotten at this church for
free and it wasn't like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich either i mean if i asked her raise the
hands i guarantee tons of people could raise their hands they've gotten over 50 meals for free at
this church while being here i mean and not just bad meals like some great meals too go to another
church and get 50 free meals right go to another church where all the information and material is
free free baby showers and free events and free ladies parties and free just free free free free
free free we're not gracious though we're not loving look it's just lies but of course these
lies come and they pray on the weak they pray on the weak-minded they pray on the bitter and they
help them to get more bitterness and then they just say stupid things that aren't true go to
Romans chapter 16 go there Romans chapter 16.3 is this you get better doctrine and look I like
sometimes conflicts when I have a real person being public about stupid doctrine so that I have
something to to point to so that people actually realize it's real there's many times I understand
this is a real threat but without a real person behind it sometimes people think like oh I don't
think this is real or I think that's exaggerated no one would get behind the pulpit and say that
they're a retard and they can't put a puzzle together and they can't understand the verses
in the page it's like no it's real brah they really think that it's like you're like no one
would would say these things or teach these things and it's like yeah like here's the person
here's what they actually said no one would think that you know Jesus is at you know temple zero
during the flood or whatever could have left you know it's like Romans chapter 16 verse 17
now I will teach you brethren mark them which caused divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which you've learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our lord Jesus
Christ with their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple
did you notice what the bible saying it is saying sometimes you have to mark people sometimes you
have to call people out why because if you don't the simple will get sucked away and i think
sometimes the faithful get confused on this point look i go to church three times a week and i
listen to every single video you upload and all of your podcasts and all this stuff who in the
world would follow jose jones off of a cliff well you wouldn't it's the simple person though it's
the person that only comes on sunday morning every once in a while it's the person that's
not following that much and so you're supposed to preach and warn and mark for their sake i'm glad
you're so faithful i'm glad you're so wise i'm glad you're so dialed in i'm glad you got the
baptist bias t-shirt but let me tell you something there's many people that don't and we're supposed
to mark and we're supposed to preach against them and use their examples so that they don't get
deceived and as a pastor i'm not supposed to only care about the people that are doing great i'm
supposed to care about the people that are on the edges and on the outs and the people that are
backslidden and that are weak and that are simple those are the other people we're supposed to care
about we're supposed to warn them and get them back in go to acts chapter 20 go to acts chapter
number 20 well i don't like you know you calling people out and doing all this stuff well go to
boring baptist church okay where it's very predictable it's the gospel every sunday morning
it's 30 minutes i mean they have they literally have the timer on the stage the pastor is not
allowed to go over the timer i don't have a timer i'll just tell you what all right i'd break it
i had it all right they have the timer they have their little routine they they sometimes aren't
even preaching their sermons i we bought a piano it wasn't this one it was the one right before
this one we bought it from some non-denom church and i was talking to the guy and i i tried to see
if he's saved he seems saved after we got the transaction done i tried to give him the gospel
he seemed saved i was like okay that's good but then he's talking to me about their pastors and
how things go and he was telling me like oh our pastor doesn't write his sermons he said there's
another pastor on staff that writes the sermons because i was talking about he was talking to me
about worship he's one of the worship pastors he was saying like every week they have a meeting
it's like five or six pastors like the worship pastor and the kids pastor and the pastor actually
writes the sermons and the pastor that preaches sermons and they all plant he said like we know
what the topic is going to be weeks in advance and we write all the music for that particular thing
and then the guy that you know preaches he preaches the sermon that the guy writes or whatever
and i was just like that's weird you know i don't even know what i'm preaching many times before
i'm about to get up and preach so it's just like like i don't even understand that but again that
is how commercialized these churches have become where it's just it's so predictable i mean they
know every word they know every utterance because they don't want to offend people they don't want
some guy to get up and get a little too animated and say something negative about joe biden you
know what i mean they don't want to get a little too animated and just go off the cuff or offend
one group over here offend that group because then that's going to affect what the ties in the
offerings it's going to affect the bottom line they're running a business here they're having
to make all these decisions on their their new building campaigns and whatever and they don't
want these fluctuations they have to make you know predictions because they're not running a
church they're running a business only and like church sometimes it's business and i get it but
at the end of the day you know if i have to get up and preach what's right and half the church
is going to leave i will do it because i don't want a church that i have to just keep making
sacrifices on the truth just to keep people in the chairs i don't care i really like to me
i have no expectations you know this about me no expectations i didn't know if i would run 20
people the rest of my life 50 people four people you know whatever that doesn't matter to me the
number of people that come to this church does not matter to me the quality of the people that come
to the church is what matters to me and my ability to get up and preach whatever is true no matter
what i don't i think that's why people like preaching in our church is because they know
they can say whatever the bible says there's no holds bar they can preach as long as they want
it's that's that's what i want act chapter 20 look at verse number 28 why take heed therefore
unto yourselves and all the flock over which the holy ghost has made you overseers to feed the
church of god which yet purchased with his own blood for i know this that after my departing
so grievous wolves entered among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves so men arise
speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by
the space of three years i cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears oh well paul
you talked about this on monday and on tuesday and on wednesday and on thursday and on friday
you made two videos and on saturday you made a podcast what are you going to preach on sunday
you're going to preach it again yes i am every day ending in y for three years straight it
sounds a little obsessive well that's what the apostle paul is like i just want to be like the
apostle paul i mean how can you fault me for being like the apostle paul and i guarantee i have never
obsessed about an issue every single day for three years straight maybe the gospel if anything that
would be the only thing but i'm just saying like people think like oh this guy's obsessed well it
sounds like the apostle paul's real obsessed then you know what i don't think i don't think he's
obsessed i think he's passionate i think he's passionate because he loves the people of god
he loves church he loves what jesus did for them and he doesn't want to see it destroyed but by
grievous wolves and idiots and bozos and people drawing away disciples after himself so he preaches
against them chapter 13 act chapter 13 i'm just going to make these last points quickly but
here's other benefits of drama number one was spreading the gospel number two is it's memorable
number three you get better doctrine number four is you get more new people you get more new people
you know the bible says in exodus that as they afflicted the children of israel the more they
afflicted them the more they grew it's getting new people and in act chapter 13 i want to look at
verse number 40 we kind of see the apostle paul going into an area preaching and more people
getting attracted to this the bible says beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken
of in the prophets the oldy despisers and wonder and perish for i work at work in your days the
work which ye shall in no wise believe though man declare it unto you and when the jews are
gone out of the synagogue the gentiles was sought that these words might be preached to them the
next sabbath now when the congregation was broken up many of the jews and religious proselytes
followed paul and barnabas who speaking to them persuaded them to continue in the grace of god
and the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of god it possible
rips on the jews is ripping on them not believing causing conflict and drama and as a result of that
conflict and drama and i'm saying i'm interested in the gentiles it caused the almost the entire
city to come out and hear the word of god that's new people being brought into christianity and
look when there's dramas often you're going to brag bring in new people into the kingdom of god
into the work as a result go if you would to proverbs 25 here's the last point is that when
you have dramas it purges unfaithful people it purges unfaithful people proverbs 25 i want you
to look at verse number 19 and churches are constantly racking up trash internal trash
and people are just waiting to leave and they need that excuse and so when you have a drama
a lot of people leave but it's not really because of the drama they were already ready to leave in
their heart they were waiting for the door to open basically to leave okay it's like when you're
preaching a really spicy sermon and there's that person that's like ready to just walk out of the
service but they're kind of waiting for someone else to get up to go to the bathroom or something
so they can just leave and it just like doesn't look as bad they were already ready to leave
and then people think like the drama is causing people to leave no the drama is just shaking the
tree to see which branches were weak already or which branches were unfaithful really look there's
nothing wrong with being weak it's being unfaithful okay and bible says in proverbs 25 verse 19
confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a fluid out of joint
you know if you had a broken tooth you want the dentist to just come in and rip it out you don't
want to keep eating on it and cause yourself worse problems down the road you don't want to be in
trouble and have some kind of a foot joint issue you want that to be splinted and healed so that
when there's a need you can run away and in the same way you don't want to have a church filled
with a bunch of backstabbing judas traitors that hate you you want them gone okay and it doesn't
matter like hey oh if you preach this 50 people will leave well are they a bunch of backstabbing
judas traitors that are unfaithful please leave i mean you know how i am i get up and scream and
yell please leave she can leave okay he can leave i'm thinking like do it already i'm not you know
obviously when it comes to marriage don't leave when it comes to church please leave i'm hoping
you leave i'm not interested in babysitting people that hate me or hate our church or
don't like our church or don't like the cause of christ or don't like soul winning or don't
like counting numbers or don't like any of the things that don't like drama leave i don't want
you go to psalm 101 go to psalm 101 last place we're gonna go look we don't want unfaithful
people in our church we want faithful loyal people now someone that's unfaithful you know
what they're gonna do they're gonna attack you for being faithful and loyal like there's something
wrong with it there's nothing wrong with being loyal or faithful there's something wrong with
being unfaithful being a traitor being a judas being a backstabber being a gossip being bitter
that's the person that's wrong psalm 101 verse four a froward heart shall depart from me i will
not know a wicked person who so privily slandereth his neighbor him will i cut off him that hath an
high looking a proud heart will not i suffer mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that
they may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me he that worketh the seat
shall not dwell within my house he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight i will early
destroy all the wicked of the land that i may cut off all the wickeders from the city of the lord
notice what is the the psalmist ideal i want faithful people in my life liars deceitful
throwward people i want nothing to do with them and look that's how our church operates
railers slanderers you know backstabbers traders be gone we want faithful people oh well you just
want a cult well then i guess the psalmist just wants a cult look what does the military want
a bunch of traders and backstabbers you need faithful soldiers in order to operate a faithful
military do you want disloyal employees at your company do you want a disloyal family like you
can't function at a high level when you have a bunch of disloyal people and if you don't like
things then leave what is a throwward person according to dictionary difficult to deal with
contrary disobedient opposed rebellious they think they know better they're always smarter than the
leadership we don't want those people and look you will not be successful at being a throwward
person throw word people will always be unsuccessful and fail now you could you could be someone that
was successful and change to become forward but then you're on a pathway down think about pharaoh
pharaoh is at the top of the food chain pharaoh is very successful but when he turns forward
and starts fighting against god and being opposed to god it goes straight down and destroys himself
anytime someone is forward they will destroy themselves you will not be successful being
forward what is being forward being difficult to deal with contrary disobedient constantly opposed
rebellious you think you know better and you're always smarter than the leadership you want to
have a successful company get all the forward people out of your company you want to be promoted
in the company never be like that hey you want to have a successful marriage you know what you as
ladies don't be difficult to deal with contrary disobedient opposed rebellious always thinking you
know better and always smarter than the leadership you have a crappy marriage if you think that if
you have that attitude children you're going to be rotten children if you're constantly difficult
to deal with for your parents you're constantly contrary arguing disobedient opposed rebellious
you think you know better than your parents and you're always smarter than your parents
you'll be a bad child and you will fail in life you'll be a failure as a person you go out into
the workplace in marriage as a child in church if you are in church and you're constantly opposed
difficult to deal with disobedient rebellious you think you know better and you're smarter in the
leadership you will fail in church and even the leader themselves if they have that attitude they
will destroy themselves you must have the opposite attitude and look people that are like this they
hate obedient people they hate people following the rules they hate people obeying authority and
they'll slander and name call you they'll threaten you they'll try to discourage you and use fear
to say oh you're a cult follower oh you just do whatever your goody two shoes oh you just like
people whatever don't allow them to use fear to cause you to make a decision do not make decisions
on fear take decisions on what the bible says make the spiritual decision not the decision on fear
and let me tell you something drama is not your problem drama is good why because it's going to
give it it's going to cause the gospel to go out to more people it's going to spread the gospel
to more people it's going to be more memorable it's going to have better doctrine we're going to
bring in more new people as a result of drama and it's going to expose all the unfaithful people
whereas why would you want to go to a church that's going to be boring where there's going to be less
gospel being spread no memories worse doctrine less new people and more fake people oh i don't
want a drama filled church i want a boring church that's not getting the gospel out as much that's
not making any memories that's got weaker doctrine that has less new people and more fake people that
i'm around look we need drama because it makes us better we grow spiritually and it removes all of
the waste and you know what i don't want a bunch of frower people in this church i want a bunch
of faithful people in this church let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father so much for
giving us all these examples that we could learn from thank you for giving us the drama in the
bible so that it can be exciting it can be fun that we could learn what life is actually like
thank you for the dramas that you've given us in our church so that we could reach more people
with the gospel we get more people saved we could have fun memories we could laugh and and joke
about all the cool stuff that we've been through that we could reach more people new people and
we could have better doctrine as a result and thank you so much for getting all the trash out
of our church all the forward contrary argumentative traitorous backstabbing horrific people in our
lives thank you for cleaning them out of our lives i pray that you would just help us to embrace
drama and love the dramas and take advantage of the dramas and that we wouldn't be discouraged
by them but rather we would use them for the furtherance of the gospel in jesus name we pray
amen amen for our last song let's go to song number 419 song number 419 song 419 sound the battle cry
go to song number 397 37 a couple pages one verse god is in it seeing the last verse verse number four