where the Bible read and
When he had called unto them his twelve disciples, he gave them power
against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness in all manner of
Disease in Matthew chapter number 10 verse number 1. We see Jesus Christ is giving power
unto his
Disciples and notice he gives them unto all 12 of the disciples
And so the title of my evening sermon is empower the righteous and
expose the wicked empower the righteous and
Expose the wicked now, it's interesting when we think about the word empower
I looked it up in a dictionary and it says give someone the authority or power to do something
I think what's interesting is when we read this Jesus Christ
Literally gave this authority to all 12 of the disciples even though one of them was Judas Iscariot
Okay, look at the rest of this chapter. It says in verse 2
now the names of the twelve apostles are these the first Simon who is called Peter and
Andrew's brother James the son of Saba T and John his brother Philip and Bartholomew
Thomas and Matthew the publican James the son of Alphaeus and Lebbeus whose surname is was Thaddeus
Simon the Canaanite and
Judas Iscariot who also betrayed him
So notice Judas Iscariot is clearly defined here as one of the twelve disciples
He is the one who betrays Jesus Christ, but Judas was empowered Judas was given the authority
By Jesus Christ himself to go out and preach the gospel now keep your finger here
But go to John chapter number six go to John chapter number six for a moment
The Bible makes it clear that Judas Iscariot was never a believer Judas Iscariot was always wicked
He was one that did never trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He never believed that he was the Son of God
He might have acknowledged certain facts about him through his life, but the Bible makes it clear. He did not believe in him
He did not put his trust in him and he was never saved
And so when he ended up dying he went to hell some people think that Judas like loss of salvation
Some people would say that Judas even went to heaven I've heard that before and it's bizarre
It's kind of confusing that someone would think that he went to heaven, but the Bible makes it clear
Look at John chapter 6 verse 64
But there are some of you that believe not
Where Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him
So Jesus knew of his disciples which ones truly believed in him and which ones did not
Look at verse 70 it gets even more plain though
Jesus answered them have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil
Okay, a devil being against them. It says in verse 71
He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon for he it was that should betray him being one of the twelve
So the Bible actually makes it very clear Judas never believed Judas was a devil and and Jesus knew that
But notice when we go back to Matthew 10 go back to Matthew chapter number 10
Didn't Jesus still give him the power to go and to do great works to preach the gospel to heal people
He still gave him the authority he empowered him and a good leader is going to empower his people
Understanding that not every single one of those people is always gonna pan out
Not every single one of them is gonna end up being a good person
Yet you don't want to have this timid attitude of saying well just because there could be a Judas or there could be someone bad
Amongst the mix. I don't want to empower people
I don't want to give people the ability to do work or to accomplish things. No according to the Bible
we need to just empower people and we want to empower the righteous and
Eventually when someone's wicked gets exposed or reveals themselves, then we expose them then we make it manifest who they are
Look at verse number five
what was it that they were empowered to do verse five these twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying go not into the
Way of the Gentiles and in any city of the Samaritans enter you not
But go rather the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as he go preach
Saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand
Heal the sick cleanse the leopards raise the dead cast out devils freely ever seed freely give now
What is it the kingdom of heaven? It's talking about the gospel
It's talking about how once someone believes in the Lord Jesus Christ
They get to enter into the kingdom of heaven spiritually. They're safe
That's what the disciples went out and did they preached the gospel and they had these extra signs confirming their words healing the sick
cleansing the lepers raising the dead and
casting out devils
Jesus is saying look freely ever seed
Freely give so a good leader whatever he's received
He's going to end up freely giving out unto other people
He wants to empower his congregation his disciples the people that are under him and I see unfortunately a lot of churches today
Where they're not empowering their congregation to preach the gospel. It's a shame
There's a lot of churches today
We're essentially the only person authorized to give the gospel is the altar call or the altar call workers or something
Whereas we want to be in a church where we're empowering every single person in this room to have the ability
To get someone saved and obviously any saved person has that ability
But we even want to train them and make them successful at being able to deliver the gospel and empower the righteous
You say well what if there's a bad person in the church? Okay. Well, we'll expose them eventually
But you know what?
I don't want to hold back teaching everybody how to give the gospel for the fear of a Judas that's amongst us for the fear
Of a bad person being amongst us go to Matthew chapter 28 go to Matthew chapter number 28
So my first point I have three points this evening. We need to empower people with the gospel
We need to empower Christians with the gospel and help them to be able to deliver the gospel and other people
Not only do we want to be able to successfully give the gospel?
We want to teach other people how to successfully give the gospel
We want everyone that is saved to know how to give the gospel because there's gonna be opportunities
There's gonna be a moments in time where someone's gonna have
You know want to be saved be interested in getting saved and I'm not gonna be there personally
But maybe you are and maybe there's a time where someone's interested in getting saved and you're not there
But your family member is or your friend is or someone else that you know
We want to take as many Christians as possible and empower them with the ability to give the gospel
So that they can get people saved
The only way the whole world is gonna get the gospel is if we empower as many righteous people as possible
If we empower as many Christians with the gospel as possible
So we want to teach as many people we ought not look at giving the gospel is like well, I'm the best soul winner
I'm the best at giving the gospel. You need to let me take this door, you know
No, we want to empower other people to be able to preach the gospel
That's why we even have so winning times
The whole purpose of having a soul winning time is to empower other people to be able to preach the gospel successfully
I don't have to come all the way to the building to go go to go out and preach the gospel
You know, I mean at the building so that we can get more people interested
We can empower more people teach more people how to go soul winning
So in fact, if you're so winning time isn't working for anybody. Maybe you should change it
You know, I've changed my soul winning times when I was at faithful word
We had a soul winning time on Tuesdays that I was leading
but then the pastor, you know pastor Anderson wanted to change that and make a
Men's preaching night basically at the same time and I knew that would interfere and a lot of people wouldn't want to do it
So I just changed my time. I just made it earlier in the day and a lot of more people still came
So I still was able to accommodate people going out
Because I can go so winning whenever I want you can go so winning whenever you want the purpose of a soul winning time
Is that drag other people out there with you?
It's a try and encourage other people and hey
If even if you have a time where not a lot of people are going ask people to go say hey
I have this soul winning time. I'd love for you to go with me. Hey, I'm going out in this area
I know you live over there you you free or what time works
I mean we want to empower other people to preach the gospel and they don't even have to come to this church
Drag I've drug all kinds of people out so any before I've drug my nephews and my dad
I've drug all kinds of different random people out so winning with me
I said hey, I'll buy you lunch you want to just come out with me
Look, we need to empower as many people to preach the gospel as humanly possible. Okay
we want to empower the righteous and expose the wicked look at Matthew 28 verse 18 and
Jesus came and spake of them saying all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth
Go ye therefore and teach all nations
baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever. I commanded you and lo I'm with you always
Even unto the end of the world. Amen
Now I love that last part where it says even under the world because that helps us just make it plain
This is not just for those apostles. This is for every Christian because you know what all those apostles are physically perished
So he's talking about you and me and he's saying Jesus Christ is with us when we go out and preach the gospel
Just as much as used with Peter and James and John and Paul all the Apostles
He's just with us the same way the same power the same authority and we need to empower the righteous to go out and preach
The gospel I don't want to raise a church
I don't want to pastor a church where nobody in my congregation can give the gospel. That's a shame under the leadership
That's a shame unto those that are in charge if no one in their congregation is able to give the gospel
And you know what? There's a lot of churches where it'd be a shame today
You could walk in and nobody would know what to do
Nobody would know how to get well talk to the pastor
Well, talk to the deacon or talk to the assistant pastor or something. Talk to one of the main leaders
Look, we should have every man woman boy child be able to give the gospel every single person
Let's teach them and train them all go to Romans chapter 10 Romans chapter 10
Philippians 4 in verse 3
It says I entreat the also true yoke fellow help those women which labored with me in the gospel
You know the Apostle Paul pointed out certain women and said these women were great soul winners
These women were great at going out and laboring with me in the gospel
They were great at preaching the gospel and getting people safe and you know throughout my you know
Time going soul winning for the last several years. Okay. I've seen a lot of women. There are great so winners
I've seen a lot of women that are very good at preaching the gospel
And in fact, they're probably you know, a little bit more confrontational than I am and I was thinking like that was great
You know, they'll just go grab somebody and honestly a lot of times
You know don't think that all soul winners are created equal
Because there's a lot of people that may not really want to listen to me or care about me
But they'll listen some lady
You know, maybe a lady's more comfortable talking to another lady or maybe some guy is more interested in talking to a lady
You know, I could see both reasons why all right
I'm not that good-looking but you know
There might be somebody else that they're just more interested in talking to and I've seen a lot of great women at preaching the gospel
And so, you know as a young woman, you know, you need to still go out and preach the gospel
It's not just for men. It's not just you know, they're just as important if not more so
Okay, and you know, we have a lady's time you could go to Tuesdays my wife tries to organize that
That's a great time or just any time
Any time hey, if you need a partner contact the church if you want to go Sony
We want to empower people to go soul winning. I don't want anybody to say man
I wish I could learn how to preach the gospel. I just have no one to go with I have no time
Look, we want to make time
We want to empower people and help people to preach the gospel and to be very good at soul winning
Romans chapter 10 verse 13 for whose source will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
How then shall they call on him and whom they have not believed and how should they believe in him of?
whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher so we have the formula for how someone gets saved and
That formula is kind of in a backwards order. It's talking about someone who calls upon the name of the Lord and gets saved
It's kind of slowly backtracking and showing us how that ended up happening
Well, they ended up hearing didn't they and they are they ended up believing right?
That's the first step at you know
Right before that and then after they believed it's because they heard and how did they hear?
Well, someone had to preach it to them but notice verse 15 and also they preach except they be sent
So notice the church needs to empower its people to go out and preach the gospel
It needs to send them out in the authority and in the instruction of the church to go out and preach the gospel
Everybody ought to be able to give the gospel and
Everybody ought to be empowered to preach the gospel says as it is written
How beautiful are the feet of them preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things
But they've not all paid the gospel
right as they say the Lord with lead to report so then faith cometh by hearing and
Hearing by the Word of God, but then this question gets brought up and you know, I've even thought of it
What if we send out a bad person?
Right, what if someone's you know going from our church and they're they're messing up the gospel or maybe they're just really a literally a bad
Person there's a rotten person. They're preaching bad doctrine on purpose or something. Okay, what do we do?
Do we just shut down the soul-winding program? Do we have to just vet every single person?
Well, you can only go with me and I have to check exactly every word that you say
That's not going to be very effective
If I have to personally check every single person and listen to every single instance and go what about the Spanish Gospels
You know, I don't even speak I speak Spanish enough to get someone saved
But you know, I can't catch every single word every single time
I what about somebody that could preach another language that I don't even know
So I have to check that too and have you know, it becomes a micromanaging nightmare. We don't want to do that
We just want to empower the righteous to go out and preach the gospel
I don't have to double-check every single little detail like that. Look the wicked will expose themselves
And you know what once they do get exposed then it's our job to what expose them make it manifest
If people are going out preaching something really weird out soul winning that needs to boil to the surface
We need to figure out what's going on there
You know go to Galatians chapter 1 Galatians chapter number 1
Hopefully
We all speak the same things
Hopefully the teaching and preaching from the pulpit is so consistent that if you hear a false
Gospel your ears would perk up you would notice that there was a problem and that you'd be able to identify that
It shouldn't just be the preacher. It should be all of us and
If someone's preaching a false gospel our tolerance level should be zero
There is a zero tolerance for false gospel
Okay, even if there was it was a sincere mistake it doesn't matter there is no well he was trying he tried
But I know he taught his work salvation, but he was trying. I mean, come on. Give him a break
Look, there is no tolerance for false gospels. Look at Galatians chapter 1 verse 8
But though we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you
Let him be accursed as we said before so say I now again if any man preached any other gospel unto you
Then that you receive let him be accursed
Look, it doesn't matter who's preaching the wrong gospel. You want to just mark and avoid that person immediately and
If it's it's possible that someone got mixed up temporarily or kind of confusing things
Hopefully getting marked and called out they'll fix it right away or otherwise. They're just a bad person
You need to stay away from no matter what? Okay, and
The Apostle Paul he called people out for a false gospel immediately
There wasn't like well you just you just must have misunderstood him or something
Like there wasn't enough time to figure out if there was a misunderstanding as soon as he started hearing false doctrine like that
He's gonna immediately rebuke and expose that you know, some people like oh, yeah
I know this guy taught a bunch of work salvation, but if you sit down and talk with them, you know
You'll figure out they really believe the gospel, right? I don't care
I'm not gonna sit here and call a false prophet and let him talk to me for two hours to explain
How what he taught was not work salvation?
I'm not gonna call John getchup from West Coast and ask if are you sure when you said you can't have sin to your salvation
You you meant that as faith alone. What did you mean there? You know, we please tell me that's stupid
We just just call them out
I'm not gonna sit here and subject myself to such nonsense verse 4 Galatians 2 verse 4 and
That because of false brethren unawares brought in who came in privately to spy out our liberty
Which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage to whom he gave place by subjection
No, not for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue with you
He said look, I'm not even allowed 60 minutes on the clock to tick if I hear a false gospel. I'm calling you out
Like there's no question. I mean, maybe you just misspoke and you clarified real quick other than that
I mean you're just getting exposed buddy
and look we need to empower the righteous and
Expose the wicked and look the wicked will eventually expose himself. Usually someone stays under cover
Because a lot of people just kind of like yeah, it was kind of like
You know, look there is should be no tolerance factor on a false gospel
As soon as someone starts saying weird stuff at the gospel, they need to be fixed. Look at verse 21. I
Do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come by the law then Christ is dead in vain
There is no tolerance for an in for a false gospel
Okay, and let me just say this you should never get offended at someone giving you pointers for your soul-winning. I
Don't like that. We need to be humble enough
If I don't care if they're a brand new soul winner if they have a tip for you
You should be ready to hear you should be ready to receive it
And I'm not saying that every single suggestion someone gives you you have to implement
But you should at least be willing to hear it. You should at least be willing to take the criticism say hey
You know, what do you think about this? And maybe they're wrong. I don't care though. Take the criticism. Don't get so offended
I can't believe you would ask me about that. You know, do you know how many people I've gotten saved?
It's like get over yourself
Look, we should be humble and we should be willing to help each other iron sharpening iron
Look, there's nothing more important in the gospel
and if someone can give you a tip or a pointer and make you a better soul winner you ought to be willing to embrace
That and take that in and if we have a culture where we're willing to give each other positive criticism, you know
What it'll do it'll expose wickedness quicker
Because you start pointing out
Hey
That was kind of weird you said there and then the wicked person usually can't take criticism at all
And they'll just start exposing themselves even more. Okay?
So we need to just have a sharp ear for the gospel and we need to empower people that's my first point
Good acts chapter 14 and and that's a pretty easy one, but
Unfortunately, there's a lot of churches where they're already struggling in that area
They're not really empowering their people the people in the pews are not able to give the gospel effectively
People are forsaking soul winning people are being discouraged and going soul winning. I even remember going to a church and
You know, they're questioning the new pastor and one of the guys was like asking questions about soul winning
But I'd never seen the guy's soul winning and it seemed like he wanted to
But it just wasn't really being empowered and pushed and sent out the door and I felt like this church had a lot of people
That was really strong preaching a lot of would probably go out and preach the gospel
But they're just not because they're not being empowered
Okay
So good leadership is gonna empower people and it should be empowering the righteous to do the work of the Lord
look at Acts chapter 14 verse 21 and
When they had preached the gospel through that city and had taught many they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and
Antioch confirming the souls of disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation
Enter into the kingdom of God and when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting
They committed them to the Lord on whom they believed so Paul and Barnabas
They're going through and preaching the gospel from city to city to city
Some cities they're getting tossed out. They're getting all kinds of different persecution
however
they end up returning back to these cities where churches are starting and being formed and they spend enough time with them to where they
Can now ordain them an elder and notice the purpose is they want to empower these churches to have their own
Pastor have their own elders and be able to do their own thing and then they just commend them under the Lord
But the goal of setting up churches should not be to just have all these strings attached
It should be to empower them to then be their own church
There's a lot of churches a day that setups what they would call a satellite church and they just kind of live stream
The service is from the main campus. Okay, a lot of these churches have their own campus pastor. I
Mean I've seen it. I know there's Baptist churches. They have a church main church, then they have a satellite church
With pastors ordained pastors into them. Okay, but they still just listen to the live stream service
That's not really empowering that church. That's not empowering that ministry at that point
You need to just cut the umbilical cord and say you got a pastor y'all do your own thing
Y'all are committed under the Lord. Y'all go turn up the world upside down with the gospel
You don't need to just get set up a pyramid scheme where you just got one guy
It has all the truth and all the knowledge. Let's just all live stream and why go to a church building
We're gonna live stream the services. I mean talk about not even wanting people to come to church
It just becomes a social gathering a hangout
I mean, let's just find the most popular preach in America and we'll just all live stream it just every church
Well, it's all live stream the best preacher
Well, that's silly. That's not what God has ordained
That's not what God wants and with that type of power and influence, you know
He's gonna end up being corrupted or he's just gonna really trim the message because he can't please that many different people
Okay, please that many different congregations. Okay, so he has to boil himself down to the lowest common denominator
Look God wants us to empower
Multiple churches to go out and do the work of the Lord and hey, they have differences. Those differences are great
I have no problem with differences, you know a lot of my friends they have a lot of different views and doctrines of viewpoints
I think that's great. I'm not gonna pick them apart. Maybe they're right
But I'm not convinced because if I was convinced I'd do it like they do it. Alright, so until I'm convinced
I'm gonna keep doing the things that I think are right and they're gonna keep doing things that they're right and you know what there's
Gonna be safety in the multitude of counselors there. Okay, good acts chapter 20 acts have number 20
another point I'd like to make is
If a church can just self ordain elders, then why do they have to come back and ordain elders? Oh
Yeah, it doesn't make any sense does it
It's not just setting up these like self-sufficient churches yet
They need to get an elder before they could be a self-sufficient church and then they cut off the umbilical cord
They didn't just say hey, we set up the satellite. Let's just let them figure it out. Now. Let's just let them do their own thing
No
He came back and then they who Paul and Barnabas ordained elders in every church and notice how it says this
every church
How many of the churches self-appointed none
Isn't that interesting
Look at Acts chapter 20. That was a side point right verse 28
Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the wits the Holy Ghost that made you overseers to feed the church
Of God which he hath purchased with his own blood now
He says unto yourselves who's the under yourselves verse 17 tells us he called for all the elders of the church
So he's talking to the pastors
He's talking to the leadership of these churches and he's saying the Holy Ghost has made you an overseer
Which is a synonymous term with what pastor shepherd bishop overseer? Okay, so they're supposed to feed the Church of God
Notice has been purchased the blood of Jesus Christ
He says in verse 29 for I know this but after my departing so grievous will is entering among you not sparing the flock
Also of your own selves shall 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
No, I like about this and we think about it the Apostle Paul
He had ordained many elders to be pastors over churches and he's bringing all those elders in Ephesus
He's bringing them back and he's saying alright guys, you know what? I'm out of here. I'm done
You know, my ministry is pretty much done
You guys need to just you know figure things out and you know trust in the Lord and be faithful
But I've got to warn you something again. I know I've already done it three years straight, but let me warn you again
There's gonna be bad people creeping into your churches. And in fact a couple of you guys are bad
He says even of your own selves, right so what does that tell me he wasn't afraid of empowering people
Realizing some of them are gonna end up being bad
Just by having sheer numbers just by sheer volume of empowering that many different people
He realized he was wise enough to understand some of you are gonna be bad
But did that stop him from empowering churches from starting? No
And you know what if our church plants a lot of churches over a long period of time some of them are gonna be bad
But should that stop should that well, we don't want to just do we don't want to do that then
We don't have a bad name. We would never want to start a church and then it end up going bad on its own
You know after we ordained somebody what have you ordained someone they end up going bad after a while
Well, you know what the apostle Paul said that he was certain that was gonna happen
Did that stop him from empowering people? How about Jesus knew there was a Judas. He still empowered them all. Okay
Why is it that Jesus empowered that huge group? Why was that Paul empowered that huge group because they were empowering the righteous
That's why they didn't want to slow down the righteous remember the parable of the tears and amongst the wheat
And he was like, well, let's just get all the tears out
he's like what we're gonna run some of that wheat if we do that and
So look both are gonna grow together
And you know what?
We ought to try our best to root out wickedness and evil people and bad people, but you're not we're not clairvoyant
We're not Jesus Christ
We don't know everything and so we just do the best that we possibly can and we ought not get discouraged
When a wicked person gets exposed, we ought to celebrate all the righteous people that have been empowered
That's what we ought to do
And you know what?
We're gonna try and empower as many righteous people as we possibly can go to first to meet chapter number three
First to meet chapter three and look we need to expose the wicked when their ugly head rears up to
We got not be afraid of that and just well our ministry can't be spotted with any bad people
So when a bad person gets exposed we'll just we'll just kind of gently fire him and ship them off to another ministry
There's a lot of churches that do that. There's a lot of churches and they're afraid to say, you know what?
This guy's bozo. This guy's a wicked person. And so for sake of their own reputation
They won't expose the wicked
Look, there's nothing wrong with having a wicked person pop out of your ministry. Okay, it's gonna happen
It happened to Jesus. Does that disqualify his ministry? Oh, there was a Judas
I mean, does that disqualify Paul's ministry? Does that disqualify, you know, David had wicked people in his company
Does that mean David was a horrible person?
Look wicked people are gonna exist. Okay, get over it
And in fact, if you're doing great things for the for the Lord, you should just count it as it's gonna happen
All right, bad people are gonna come out of the woodwork, but we don't want to get so gun-shy
That we then just reserve all the power to ourselves or the leadership just says you can't trust anybody you can't do it
No, we want to continue to empower people
But there is caveats. Obviously, we don't want to just give everybody the key to the kingdom. Okay, we want to
Think about it first. We want to try these people. Look what it says in verse to be chapter 3 verse 8
Likewise must the deacons be grave not double tongue not giving them much wine not greedy filthy lucre holding the mystery of the faith and pure
Conscience and let these also first be proved then let them use the opposite of deacon being found blameless
So when it comes to a deacon, you shouldn't just be like this guy looks like you probably a good deacon
Just sign him up. Now. You got to test him first. You got to prove him first
Okay, but then after you prove him and he shows himself faithful make him a deacon
but here's the thing there's no guarantee that that deacon is gonna stay good for the rest of his life and
The point that he exposed himself you throw them in the trash
All right, you start over you expose it you go on to the next person, but you don't want to just say well
Let's just wait like 30 years. Like let's just test this guy for 30 years. Then you'll never have a deacon
They never plan a church. They don't never do anything work at work
Look, we want to fulfill the commission to go and teach all nations
How are you gonna do that?
If you're not constantly empowering people if you're not constantly enabling people and giving people the opportunity to go out and do great things
for the work of the Lord
Look at second Timothy chapter number two second Timothy chapter number two
So we have to balance this thought of empowering people with finding good people to empower
Okay, but at the end of the day, we're never gonna find only good people sometimes in that mix of good
There's still gonna be a little bit of bad and that's acceptable. That's an acceptable
Factor that we have to think about look at second Timothy chapter 2 verse 2 and
The things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men
Who should be able to teach others also?
So again, you know when we're finding people to be put into the ministry
We want to at least try them. We need to first find them faithful. Okay, we can't just all right
You're all now hired. You're all now pastors and priests and deacons. All right, let's go turn up the world
No, you need like at least find some people that have already showed themselves to be faithful
But it's still possible for a Judas to be found faithful
It's still possible for a bad person to end up showing good characteristics
And in fact, I've seen lots of people that turned out to be a bozo. They were three to thrive
They showed up at the sole winning times. They seemed to prove themselves as being a faithful person. They had some good characteristics
But that doesn't mean that they were cut out for the ministry and don't let that confuse you
There's plenty of wicked people that have good characteristics
Absalom was praised for his beauty. You know, he was a good-looking guy. He seemed to have some skills and being able to
Figure out how to craft a plan of a coup obviously that takes some level of intelligence
The devil himself is one of the most intelligent beings. Okay, that doesn't mean you know, the devil's a beautiful creation
He's very intelligent. Those are good characteristics. The problem is wicked. Okay, the problem is he has a wicked heart
So if you're sincere this is what I want to say if you're a sincere person though
you will draw a sincere crowd and
This is just proven over and over that good leadership breeds good people and sincere people breed sincere people
but there's a problem wicked people breed wicked people a
wicked element will draw in a wicked element and
I want you to go if you would in your Bibles to 2nd Chronicles chapter 11
I'm going to talk about this for a moment, but
And
Don't give this idea that just because someone doesn't pan out that doesn't mean they're a bad person. Okay, there's some people that
They're a good person at heart. They want to serve the Lord, but they just end up not being that faithful
They're just not really somebody that needs to be entrusted with a position in ministry
They're really not the person cut out to be a possible pastor or deacon or venge. That doesn't mean they're a bad person
That just means hey this person, you know just shouldn't be in that position
There's some people that just shouldn't be in every single position that doesn't make you a bad person
But we might as well try people out and if it doesn't work out then okay, we'll try something different
But we want to constantly try to empower people and help them
Now when it comes to good leadership, you know good leadership is not one that micromanages I
Do not believe in micromanagement, I think that it's a bad trait
I think that it's usually negative now in some instances
It may be required for a short space if you end up realizing. Hey, there's a problem in this area
Sometimes you have to kind of go in and start start micromanaging to just figure out what's going on
Maybe you feel like we talked about the steward. Okay, the unjust steward or whatever
Yeah, he's basically stealing or he's being lazy and he's like give account of thy stewardship
That's kind of the micromanaging all of a sudden. He's like, let's check out what's going on
Then the guy exposes himself when he goes and rips off his employer and quits. Okay, then you're like, wow
There was a problem there. Okay, but at the end of the day
We don't want to spend our whole lives micromanaging because then nothing will get accomplished
we want to still empower people and a good leader is
Going to empower lots of different people now as a good follower. What do you have to do?
Well, I thought about this
If you really want to be good under good leadership
You want to take the least amount of instruction and do exactly what your boss wants?
Whatever your leader is whoever your who is an authority over you?
Okay
You want to be able to take the least amount of instruction from them?
To be able to then produce whatever it is that they want to be accomplished
If you have to sit there and explain everything in great detail and show them how to do it
Sometimes your boss thinks why didn't I just do it myself?
Right, so a good
Follower or if you want to have you know
Your boss really appreciate you you want to be able to do the job exactly or even better
Than they anticipated with the least amount of instruction. They say hey you need to go to this house. I got it
They're like, I didn't even tell you I got it and you can take care of it
You even do it better than they anticipated that guy's like I love this guy you become Joseph where his manager
He didn't even know what's going on. He's just like I know Joseph's got it
However, Joseph's handling it. It's better than how I would even instructed him how to do it
Okay, there's some people when you give them instruction they do exactly whatever you instruct them
Now that's not bad. That's that's good
But sometimes it's even better when you do it even a little bit better than they instruct you
Okay, some people they'll just do nothing more. Nothing less. They just do exactly that's that's good, but they're still better
Doing it even better than they they had instructed you but it's still according to their wants now. Let me say this though
When it comes to taking instruction
You want to make sure that if you don't understand you ask I?
Can't over emphasize that point
There's been times where I kind of like getting the gist from my employer and instead of just like
Making sure I understand all the details. I just kind of try to run with it and then I do not what he wanted
That's way worse. Okay, if you're uncertain of what you're supposed to do
Clarify clarify the position and clarify then you don't want to have to revisit it
Okay, I remember a boss of mine when we go through software development
We would always sit and look at these sheets and it would just be all these different bugs and problems
Maybe like, you know handing them out
He'd be like you got this one
You got the ticket number five and you got ticket six or whatever and if there was a question about how to handle one
Of those tickets you're supposed to ask them. Okay, and I remember I get handed a couple assignments and then I would just like
Go back and I'd look and I'd be like, I have no idea what to do on this
And so I go back to my boss and be like, I don't know how to handle number five
He's like, why didn't you ask me when we're in meeting and I'm like, yeah, you said it was yours
You said you got it, you know
So then I started realizing I need to make sure I know everything about that ticket when I say I'm good
When I'm ready to say, yep, I'm committed to this item
I'm gonna do it
But obviously your boss is gonna appreciate you the least amount of instruction it takes for you to fully understand what he wants
Okay, this is also works in marriage with your wife
All right
She wants you to just be able to do exactly fulfill all of her needs and desires with the least amount of communication. All right
That was a joke, but it was real
And you know, that's what I appreciate about Pastor Anderson's leadership
Pastor Anderson's leadership is not micromanaging at all
But you know what he does he empowers the righteous
But occasionally wicked people sneak in there. Why because he's not micromanaging everything
He doesn't have to okay, and then you know what happens the wicked end up exposing themselves
But you know what's great about his leadership. He brings the hammer down on those wicked people
He doesn't just like I didn't you know, let's just shuffle stuff around and pretend like nothing bad happened here
No, he'll just bring the hammer down and look I like that leadership style and I want to employ the same type of leadership style
So, you know, we're gonna try lots of different things out
And you know if you're a righteous person
You're gonna draw a lot of righteous people in the same direction if you're a sincere person
You're gonna draw a lot of sincere people if you're a wicked person
you're gonna draw a lot of wicked people in okay a ton of wicked people in and
you
Obviously, you know, how do you test that? Well, obviously you have to have some checks
You can't just completely have no idea what's going on under the and you know under the hood
But I'm not gonna micromanage everything. That's why I give a lot of people opportunity to preach
And we have to we need to okay
We need to give a lot of people an opportunity to preach and we try lots of different people out and I'm empowering all kinds
Of different people to do all kinds of great things
But at the end of the day, you know, if it doesn't work out then we just say okay
We'll try again later do something different or the people that are really succeeding
Let's keep using them more or you know, hey, this guy's preaching just heresy
This guy's preaching weird junk. Okay, let's not have this guy preach ever again
But at the end of the day, how do you how do you figure those things out?
You have to try them out. If you don't try people out if you don't empower people then you can never truly understand and
Here's some things that we need to look for. Okay, so we've talked about I'm not gonna micromanage
But we need to be looking for things
So we're gonna empower the righteous and we're gonna expose the wicked. What would be some tests that we want to look at?
Well, how are they self-willed? That's one of the tests we don't look at
That's why I had to turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter 11. Look at verse 14
For the Levites left their suburbs in their possession and came to Judah and Jerusalem
For Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priests office unto the Lord and he ordained them priests for the high
places and for the devils and for the calves
Which he had made and after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God
Of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice the Lord God of their fathers now look at verse 16
He says that some people they left the northern kingdom. They left the northern kingdom of Israel
They left Jeroboam and they went to Judah why because their hearts were to seek the Lord God
They were not interested in just being a priest to be a priest
They want to do a priest according to the Bible according to God's Word. And so they end up having to move
They had enough uprooting their whole lives and then changing their whole lives just to seek God that tells me someone that's not self-willed
But these other people that were deemed for the high places devils and calves, okay go to first Kings chapter 13
We're gonna find out what type of people those were
Okay, and look someone who's self-willed is wicked when it comes to the ministry
Yeah, if you feel like you have to be in the ministry no matter what never be in the ministry. I
I talked to a friend of mine as a pastor. He said I would stop pastoring tomorrow
If there I felt like it was a better guy and it was a good option
And he wasn't saying that because he doesn't want to pastor he does it's just he doesn't have to he doesn't feel like he's
Obligated to do it. It's just someone's got to do it right and he's like, well, I'll do it then even myself included
There's been time. There's been a lot of times
Well, I'm just thinking that I would rather do anything else right now
Okay, and I'm just it's just humanity
Okay, and I'm not trying to say that I'm more humble than in another person
But I'm not being a pastor because I feel like I have to be a pastor. I didn't get that phone call. Okay, I
I even questioned it several times throughout training because I'm like really matter if I'm a pastor
Let's just let all these other guys really want to do it, you know
But then I started realizing there's a lot of wicked people that want to be pastors
There's a lot of bad bozos and I feel bad for people that go to a church or get excited about a church
and then the bozo doesn't pan out and
There's some bad persons leading them and there's some bad persons getting up preaching heresy and rank false doctrine that pisses me off
Frankly, okay, and makes you say well at least I'm not a bad person
I might not be the best pastor in the world, but at least I don't you know, love the devil
At least I'm not gonna preach rank heresy and if I do I'll fix it
You know, I'm not a horrible person. That's why I wanted to be a pastor
And you know, I said, you know, I can help people serve Christ better. I know I can so why don't I get in there?
That's a good reason to be a pastor. I had the desire for the work. You know what? I didn't have a desire for the position
Who cares about the position? It's not worth it
You know what I care about the people and I care about the work of the Lord and someone's got to do it
Someone needs to step up and you know, there's a there's more opportunity than there is people
If you want to serve God for the right reasons look the sky's the limit
Okay, there is so much opportunity
But at the end of the day
I'm not ready to just take some guy that's just like I have to be a pastor and put him in there as the wrong
Person look at first Kings chapter 13 verse 33
After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way
But made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high priestess
whosoever would
He consecrated him and he became one of the priests of the high places
So notice what Jeroboam's qualifications were you're the worst scum of the people and you want to I?
Can think of people like that like Adam Fannin some of the lowest of the people but he wants to
Let's ordain him
Wicked no, you don't just oh this guy really wants to that's not the qualification
okay, and
Look notice. He's making to the lowest of the people priests. Look. Oh, there's a lot of pastors today
They are the worst people they are the scummiest of the scum
They're filthy and just in full of all kinds of iniquity, you know, like the previous pastor of this church
full of iniquity
since the beginning
verse 34 and this thing became sin under the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and
Destroy it from off the face of the earth and look when you have a wicked person in leadership, you know, you draw in
wicked people
He got all kinds of priests under him
What kind were they of the lowest the ones that worship the devil the ones that oh, I'll be the priests
Let me be I'm such a good guy. I'm such I'm already qualified. I can't believe I haven't ordained me already Jeroboam
ordain me now
I'll be I'm ready in six months ordain me
Get out of here bozo
Idiot
You know, why do you want to be a pastor for self aggrandizement
Or because you just love the Lord you want to serve him right, you know, I even there was conversations
I had my wife and I said hey, we don't fix this problem in our lives
I'm not gonna be a pastor because I'm not gonna pastor a church when I can't even get my ducks in a row
I'm not gonna be a hypocrite. I'm not gonna get up and preach one thing and then my lifestyle is completely the opposite
Kind of a loser
kind of an infiltrator does that gets up and just preaches one thing and just that's that's horrible and
Obviously this church and you just be honest with you
The a lot of the people that were put in leadership under the leader here were wicked and it doesn't surprise me
Now that does not mean that I can't end up
Selecting someone to do come some kind of leadership or putting someone a position of authority
That doesn't end up turning out bad, of course that could happen
Okay
But I believe that the righteous person is gonna end up drawing a lot of righteous people and a lot of good people and we
Start noticing that ugly self-willed head. We need to smash that down with a with a big hammer and we did not let that creep
Up, we need to find people that seek their heart to seek God. Okay, like Ray of Boem did
here's another one people that
People that
Basically only want to serve God for convenience out of convenience
notice the priest
Left to go and serve the Lord the other ones. Oh, it's so much more convenient here in Dan
You know, we'll just set up a priesthood here. We'll just set up false gods here. Jerry bombs like hey these people
They're gonna go serve God. We got to set up, you know a church right next door
We got to set the Mormon tabernacle right next door for them to come on down, you know
Some people they just only want to go to church if it is within five minutes of their house
Is that the God you serve the five-minute God the convenient God?
The one that you don't want I don't want you to be inconvenienced to serve God
The God of the heaven of the earth the one that gave you life and breath and you know what?
There's nothing wrong with being close to a good church. But at the end of the day that should not be your sniff test for
a church
Well, how close am I?
You know, it should be how close are they to God?
That's that that's the church that I'm gonna go to and when people only want to do things out of convenience
You know when they only want to serve God when it's convenient
Well, I don't want to take that preaching time. That's not convenient for my schedule
It's not convenient for me to drive over there and preach and do this
It's not convenient for me to fulfill these obligations in the ministry. Well, then get out
Because you know what serving in the ministry is not convenient. There's nothing convenient about it. It's not a job of convenience
It's a job of ministry serving doing work things that are not easy go view into 2nd Timothy chapter number 4
2nd Timothy chapter number 4
Now in Zephaniah chapter 3 it talks about wicked prophets
It says her prophets are light and treacherous persons her priests have polluted the sanctuary
They have done violence to the law
So when we talk about wicked priests, they're described as what being vain as being light and being treacherous
What is someone that's light someone who's light means they don't take things seriously
and there's a lot of people they don't take the work of the word seriously and
They'll preach things that are false and you'll point it out to them. That's not a big deal. It is a big deal
We ought to fix that. Well, you're just focusing on that one word pastor Shelley. Yeah, cuz I don't take the Bible lightly
It's serious to me. I don't care if there's one word standing in my way of doing something
You know what? Let God be true in every man a liar
I'm not gonna sit here and well, I don't like that word. I don't like that sentence. I don't like that verse
You know, let's just change it. Let's ignore it
Let's get a weird interpretation that doesn't even make sense just so that I can fulfill it
You know, I don't like the fact that it seems like elders are being appointed by other elders. Let's just change that
Let's just ignore that let's get a new interpretation. Let's just change our doctrine, you know to fit the circumstances
How can I possibly be a pastor? Well, I guess we just have to get all the different interpretations that just
Intermingled and now I can be a pastor not just like what does the Bible say and then let's do that
It's like how can we just kind of twist the Bible and just to avert it and turn it around?
Oh now all of a sudden it works. Look that's not the type of Christianity I want
Someone who's vain someone that doesn't really care about the things of God. They're just consumed
They just want the position. They want the power the authority, but how about someone that's just treacherous?
Someone that actually shows treachery. Okay second Timothy chapter number four verse 14. He warns against Alexander
He says in verse number 14
Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil the Lord reward him according to his works
So who did Alexander the coppersmith do evil to?
Paul
Is there anybody else mentioned him doing evil to though? Not necessarily only Paul
But Paul's bringing it up, isn't he? He's saying hey, this guy did some wicked stuff to me did some evil stuff to me
He's a treacherous person
Yet it's interesting how there's people they'll say yeah, I know this guy stabbed my pastor in the back
I know this guy's lying and railing against my pastor and I know he's actively texting people in my church to poison them against
The pastor but he didn't do anything to me
So let's go hang out. Let's go be buds. Let's just be best pals
You know what that is? That's a slap in the face to your pastor. That's a slate slap in the face to your church
People that are doing that kind of stuff are not your friend and they shouldn't be your friend
And you know, I had people do this to me
When I went to faith-ward Baptist Church
There's people that left the church for being a railing idiot and they text me. Hey, you want to be buddies?
Hey want to be friends?
You know, I said to them I will never be friends with someone that's talking crap on my pastor. I
Said you need to fix it with my pastor before I'll be your friend
I said, you know what? I don't have to I don't have to have someone go to my church to be friends with them
Okay, it's not a cold
But at the end of the day
I'm not gonna join up and be buddies with someone that's actively attacking my church and actively attacking my pastor
That's just a slap in the face to the leadership and to the church shame on you
You know, there's a there's a thing called church discipline. It's not pastor discipline. Okay, it's not like I don't hang out with them only
It's the church doesn't hang out with them so they feel ashamed for their actions and they get it, right
If I don't hang out with them that usually doesn't change anything. They probably didn't like me anyways, okay?
Imagine someone in the church is lying against you and railing against you and
I say oh that sucks for you, but they're coming over to my house for a barbecue next Saturday
isn't that kind of a slap in your face and
Look there's been people in our church have been thrown out for railing against other church members
Not me personally and I defend them just as much as I defend myself
We should have been every single person in the church. And you know what? I'm not gonna then invite them over for a barbecue
I'm not gonna then go gal pal with them on the town
I'm gonna say get right you need to go fix it with that person
Before I'm gonna hang out with you because you're actively attacking our church, you know church discipline only works if people actually exercise it
But
You know, you know, I'm not gonna police people personal life
If you want to go hang out with heretic losers, then you know, you can jump in the trash can with them
But I'm not gonna do it
Go to judges chapter 9 judges chapter 9
What what's the sermon empowering the righteous and
exposing the wicked
Empowering the righteous we want to do this with the gospel
We want to do this with ministry and when we start seeing these ugly heads of being someone's being
Self-willed someone that only wants to serve God out of convenience someone that's a light person someone that's a treacherous person
We want to get them out. We want to expose them. We want to make it sure
Hey, this person's not a fit for the ministry and you know Adam fan
I didn't know where he was whenever I realized his problems. Okay, he could have just been kind of a prideful idiot or something
But I knew he wasn't cut out for the ministry
You know, I wasn't even throwing him out of the church
I just said he's not gonna be preaching buying the pulpit anymore
You know if he had said hey, I'm sorry pastor Shelley. I shouldn't have said those things. You're right
You know, please don't split my church. I would have said you know what? Okay, no problem
I'll take down the video and he'll just be a member of our church and
Then if he shows himself faithful after a long period of time
Maybe it'll be allowed to preach again or do something, you know
But probably a long time and I even said that in my video
Maybe if he shows himself to be faithful and actually loving the Lord and not his own self-interest
But at the end of the day once you see that ugly head you say I can't have that person in position of leadership
You don't want someone that's railing and backbiting and a treacherous person once someone shows himself to be treacherous get them out immediately
Judges chapter 9 verse 1
And Abimelech the son of Jerusalem went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren to commune with them
And with all the family of the house of his mother's father saying speak
I pray you in the ears of all the men of Shechem
Weather is better for you
Either that all the sons of Jerusalem which are three score and ten persons reign over you or that one reign over you
Remember also that I am your bone your flesh now Abimelech is very wicked
He ends up killing all of his own physical brethren
Why because he wants the position of power he's power hungry and he's willing to sacrifice
Anyone and everyone to get on that hill
But notice there's something else that I want to point out about this. He's not
Okay sharing his authority
He doesn't like it that there's multiple people in charge. I have to be in charge. And you know, I see this sometimes creep up
You have these church plants and they have a smorgasbord of preachers. They have three or four guys doing the preaching
I think I should be getting all the preaching time. I
Don't like all this multiplicity of preachers. You sound like Abimelech is what you sound like
Why can't you just share the
Authority right now. Why can't you just share the responsibility right now? Why do you have to be in charge?
What's the purpose? Well, I'm such a great person. Did you realize it's like no, I didn't realize that
You really think that huh? You think you're great, huh? What tell me more tell me more about how great you are
You know how wonderful you are like when someone starts exposing who they are unto you
You need to deal with them and Abimelech a power hungry wicked person
Willing to step over any dead body that he can and
Look, we need to expose that wicked person. We want to empower people. Hey, let's get all these guys in charge
Well, this guy wants to take over everything. We'll slay him
Get rid of him, right?
We like the guy I like it when I come up to guy and I say this
Hey, I feel like this other brother is doing a little bit better. I'm gonna put him in charge. He's like great. That's wonderful
And then I'm thinking like well, maybe I should put you in charge now
Yeah, I've asked people I've you know to maybe take a different step in some of their leadership or their authority and you know
Based on how they handle that tells me a lot about that type of a person
And you know, sometimes you can just even realize you're like he is better preacher, you know
Or he's he is leading this area better. He is doing this better. I'm glad you're giving him that opportunity
You know
We should just want the best people to be in charge
The best leaders and the best preachers and the best so like everything we just want to always be the best people
But we still want to empower others and we want to be celebrated. We want to celebrate each other when we do good things
It's exciting when we have lots of great options to choose from not the opposite
The Bible says when the righteous are an authority the people rejoice, you know, if you're a good person
You just want another good person in charge
You're not you shouldn't be respect or persons. You just want a good person in charge
You get upset when you can tell that a wicked person's getting elevated
You say well, it's not that I have to be in position
But I don't like that guy being in position because he's lazy because he's a jerk because he's only in it for himself
Because he doesn't seem to care about the people because he's not doing things right then all of a sudden that's a righteous indignation
That's a righteous anger. And that's something that we need to use to expose people
Second Corinthians chapter number 10. I'll just read for you go if you would to Psalms 19. We're almost finished
Second point was a good one. All right
The Bible says for though I should boast somewhat more of our authority which the Lord had given us for edification and not for your
destruction I should not be ashamed when you have someone in a position of leadership and
Basically, they're not being edifying. They're not edifying the body. They're not building up the body
Then you just want to get rid of them, you know
The position of someone that's preaching or leading or doing anything if they're not edifying
Other people then you need to get rid of them
You need to expose that we want to empower the righteous to do what to edify
We want as much building up as possible
We want as many people to have a hammer and a screwdriver and a toolkit
But once you notice someone's just taking boards down, it's like we'll get him out
You know, we don't want him working here. And so when I evaluate people's preaching, this is my number one evaluation. Is it edifying? I
Don't care if they're the best speaker. I
Don't care if they stumble through their sermon I
Just think like did that help the people did that encourage the people is that biblical is did they learn something?
Did they grow are they challenged are they you know, wanting to be more godly like what was the goal of that of that preaching?
What was the goal of that sermon and that should be the question every preacher asked? What's the goal of my sermon?
You know and if it's not edifying people in some way
Then that's a bad sermon
It's bad preaching if it's not helping people in any way my third point and now it's it's a quick point. All right
We want to empower people in life
And we want to expose the wicked in life, okay, you know, it does this hard preaching hard preaching will
Empower the righteous and it will expose the wicked. Okay, look at Psalms 19 verse 7
The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the Testament the Lord is sure making wise the simple if you preach the Bible
Consistently and you teach the people well, you will empower them to be successful in life. You will help them in their life
Okay, and we want to empower the righteous to live the best lives that they can possibly live
Okay
What are we talking about being a hard worker being someone that's skilled being someone that is a successful marriage
Someone that raises godly children. We want to empower the righteous to have the best marriage
They possibly can we want to empower righteous people to be a hard worker
We want to empower the righteous people to do the right kind of work
To not be busy doing things that are vain and have no value
We want to take the righteous and help them live the best possible life that they possibly can I've seen bad
Pastors take a good group of people and he's not helping them empowering them in their lives
He's causing them to doubt their lives and make bad decisions and is ruining them
Look we need to take good people and
Empower them in their lives so they can have a great marriage and look the Bible is gonna make wise the simple
It's gonna take simple-minded folk and make them extremely wise
Now I'm not gonna go through these points because I'm just saying I'm talking in generalities here
But go to Proverbs chapter 19 Proverbs chapter 19
The Bible says thy word is a lamp on my feet and a light in my path
The Bible teaches the way to go and we want to teach others this is how you should live your life
Not based on my opinion based on God's Word based on what the Bible's teaching
The Bible says the righteous is more excellent than his neighbor, but the way of the wicked seduce at them
Now here's the thing. Why is hard preaching so important?
Because without hard preaching even the righteous are going to be constantly seduced by the wicked
How are they seduced? They're seduced by fornication
People that try to live a chaste life and try to abstain from fornication
It's easy to look at the world having all their fun with all their well
Just be so much more fun
If I was just like that guy look at all the women he's dated look at all the you know
Look at all the celebrities that he's dated. Look at all the women that he has. I bet that life's way better than my life
It's not
It's a lie
Well, look at that guy he has all that money and look at his nice house and look at his nice cars
I mean if I had his life
It's a lie
You're being deceived
Well, if I didn't have as many kids my life would just be so much easier would but it wouldn't be better
Necessarily and look you can't control some of these things but at the end of the day you look at the wicked
Forsaking God's Commandments breaking God's Commandments. Oh, look at all the fun. They have they get to go to the bar every night
They look at all the drugs that they're having so much fun, but drugs are not fun
In fact, you usually don't get to enjoy it because you're like you lose your mind when you take them. Okay, I
Mean they're just altered
Then they just all they want is to have them again and they get addicted and then they become a meth head and then they're
just the most disgusting people on the planet and
They hate themselves and they want to kill themselves and it's just a horrible existence
Look, you're gonna be constantly seduced by the wicked. That's why you need hard preaching to be reminded
You know what? That's a bad way. The way of transgressors is hard. I don't need that
We want to empower the righteous to follow God's Commandments
look at Proverbs 19 verse 25 smite a scorner and
The simple will beware and reprove one that hath understanding and he will understand
Knowledge another thing that hard preaching is gonna do though
Is it can expose bad people and sometimes you have to smite a scorner in front of people?
You know what? That'll cause the righteous to say, you know, I don't do that. I don't wanna make that mistake
I don't want to be like that person. You know what hard preaching is gonna do. It's gonna expose all the bad husbands
It's
Hard to preach the Word of God and it not expose the bad husbands and the bad wives and the bad
relationships and the bad fathers and the bad mothers and the lazy people and
You know the non soul winners, you know, it's not hard to expose all the wicked people when you start preaching hard the Bible
It's gonna expose the wicked. They're not gonna want to come and hear God's preaching whenever it's constantly rebuking their lifestyle
Yes, it's interesting that there isn't just a bunch of dykes sitting in the you know audience today
They don't want to hear that, you know
John chapter 3 tells us
That light has come in the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil
For everyone that doeth evil hated the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds to be approved
look the wicked doesn't want to walk into a building where they're gonna constantly expose as being wicked as
Being obnoxious as being a jerk as being an infiltrator and an idiot and a loser and a railer and a drunk
Look the more you preach the Word of God, it's gonna expose that wicked element and they're gonna want to get out
when the man of God's not preaching the Bible though and
not shining the light wicked people just keep creeping in and more cockroaches and
More disgusting pests and termites and all kinds of stuff creep in and so we got to keep shining that light bright
And you know what?
There's still gonna be that Judas bug who just keeps his eyes shut and he can just handle that light for some reason
He's just so hardened in his heart or whatever. I don't know
But at the end of the day, we want to keep empowering the righteous and exposing the wicked
My last verse I want you to turn to is in Proverbs 18 Proverbs 18
the Bible says in
2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 that if any would not work neither should he eat
Know that does it exposes the lazy
It exposes the wicked and it says hey this part
We don't want to empower this guy to keep being a lazy jerk. We want to empower him to get a job
We want to teach him. Hey, you're a
Detriment to society you're a detriment to the church and the work of God
You need to go out with quietness and work and eat your own bread
Okay, quit trying to just be a lazy jerk and just bumming off of people and stealing people and ripping them off
You know, if you don't preach against that people will do that
I've seen it happens. They just they they go around and you find out every single person's loan to my couple thousand bucks
It's just like what in the world, you know
It's like get out of here you leech get out of here you jerk
I'll publicly preach against you if you do that second Thessalonians 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 9
But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was another thing
He's just wicked people their folly will eventually be manifest in all men and it's the job of a pastor of a preacher to expose
wickedness
So we want to empower the righteous. Yes, we want to expose the wicked. We want to empower people with the gospel
We want to expose false Gospels. We want to empower people to serve in the ministry. We want to expose bad ministers
We want to empower people in their lives, but we want to expose the backslidden in the wicked, okay
What we do is important when we come and serve God and the preaching of God's Word is extremely important
Look at Proverbs 18 verse 21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit of it
The preaching of God's Word is so important and we need to take it as a very serious and sober matter
Why because there's power in it and
The bad people are gonna affect people badly the good people what they need to do is empower that righteous and expose the wicked
Let's close in prayer. Thank you father so much for your word. Thank you for giving us great instruction
I pray that we would all take the preaching God's Word very seriously and
that we would have obedient ears under your your instructions into your word and
That we'd also have a sharp in tuned ear that when we see wickedness we hear bad
Preaching and bad things that we would be willing to expose that and not try to cover it up and
That we would just accept the fact that sometimes some tears are gonna be sown amongst the wheat
And we just thank you so much that you give us the opportunity to be empowered to do the greatest job on the planet
Which is preach the gospel