answer back to heaven by thy grace we will see the glorious banner waving hear
the trumpet blow in our leader's name will triumph over every foe hold the
fort for I am coming Jesus signal still wave the answer back to heaven by thy
grace we will fierce and long the battle rages but our help is near
onward comes our great commander cheer my comrades cheer hold the fort for I am
coming Jesus signal still wave the answer back to heaven by thy grace we
will great singing let's open up in a word of prayer Heavenly Father thank you
for this great morning and thank you for the opportunity to be gathered together
freely as a church I pray that you would bless us all this morning help us to sing
out to you with understanding and love in our hearts for you and pray that you
just fill us with the Holy Spirit we love you in Jesus name amen all right
for our second song we're go to 229 since I have been redeemed 229 since I
have been redeemed
I have a song I love to sing since I have been redeemed of my Redeemer Savior
King since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed since I have been
redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my
Savior's name I have a Christ that satisfies since I have been redeemed to
do his will my highest prize since I have been redeemed since I have been
redeemed since I have been redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been
redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name I have a witness bright and clear
since I have been redeemed dispelling every doubt and fear since I have been
redeemed since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed I will glory
in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name I have a
home prepared for me since I have been redeemed where I shall dwell eternally
since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed
I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's
name good morning thank you so much for coming to steadfast Baptist Church if you
need a bulletin lift up your hand nice and high one of our ushers can come by
and get you guys a bulletin on the front we have the Bible memory passage
Revelation chapter 1 verse 3 anyone that can quote the entire passage will
receive a prize as well as we also have a midweek challenge for all the kiddos
so for 18 or under and you can quote the verse in the midweek service you can
also get a treat we have on the inside our service so winning times also pay
attention we have we have regional so many times that meet virtually every
single day is in coordination with our churchwide soul winning you got a soul
winning opportunity there just pretty much every day in the DFW area if you're
interested in any of the regional sewing times just contact one of the respective
leaders and they would love to get you that information also please turn in
your soul winning numbers to our soul winning captains so that way they can
make sure to capture all of your data we also have our list of expecting ladies
we have our prayer list if you have any prayer requests that you'd like the
church to be in prayer for please email those in we'll send them we'll put them
in the bulletin the best we can and we do try to update it weekly so if you
have continuing things or updates please just give those to us so that way we can
make sure to have an accurate bulletin upcoming events March 15th is gonna be
the Old West Wednesday we had an email sent out asking people to kind of give
us an RSVP on that just so we can kind of plan it is gonna be a dinner and a
service and just a lot of fellowship activities and so I'm very excited once
we kind of have this officially everything kind of designated I'll send
another email out just giving people an anticipation of what all things to
expect but we will have like a photo booth area so you know cowboy hats are
definitely encouraged and you can dress up and we'll have a we'll have a fun
night and we'll celebrate and I'm really excited about it April 1st it's gonna be
a Dallas Texas so many marathon April 24th of the 29th is the Bahamas missions
trip and I think that's really all I have as far as announcements are we can
go ahead and go to our third song for the morning 315 in your hymnal song 315
take my life and let it be song 315 we're going on a third song if our song
leader will join us we'll sing our third song for this morning all right
right 315 take my life and let it be 315 take my life and let it be song 315 take
my life and let it be
take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee take my hands and let them
move at the impulse of thy love at the impulse of thy love take my feet and
let them be swift and beautiful for thee take my voice and let me see always all
me for my king always only for my king take my silver and my gold not a mite
would I withhold take my moments and my days let them flow in ceaseless praise
let them flow in ceaseless praise take my will and make it thine it shall be no
longer mine take my heart it is thy know it shall be thy royal throne it shall be
thy royal throne good singing as the offering plates are being passed around
please turn your Bibles to axed chapter number eight ax chapter number five I'm
sorry ax chapter number five
you
acts chapter five the Bible reads but a certain man named Ananias with Sephira
his wife sold a possession and kept back part of the price his wife also being
privy to it and brought a certain part and laid it at the Apostles feet but
Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and
to keep back part of the price of the land while as it remained was it not
thine own and after it was sold was it not in thine own power why has thou
conceived this thing in thine heart thou hast not lied unto men but unto God and
Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost and great
fear came on all them that heard these things and the young men arose wound him
up and carried him out and buried him and it was about the space of three
hours after when his wife not knowing what was done came in and Peter answered
unto her tell me whether he sold the land for so much and she said yea for so
much then Peter said unto her how is it that ye have agreed together to tempt
the Spirit of the Lord behold the feet of them which have buried thy husband
are at the door and shall carry thee out then fell she down straightway at his
feet and yielded up the ghost and the young men came in and found her dead and
carrying her forth buried her by her husband and great fear came upon all the
church and upon as many as heard these things and by the hands of the Apostles
were many signs and wonders wrought among the people and they were all with
one accord in Solomon's porch and of the rest durst no man joined himself to them
but the people magnified them and believers were the more added to the
Lord multitudes both of men and women insomuch that they brought forth the
sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at the least the
shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them there came also
a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem bringing sick folks
and them which were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed every one
then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him which is the
sect of the Sadducees and were filled with indignation and laid their hands on
the Apostles and put them in the common prison but the angel of the Lord by
night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said go stand and
speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life and when they
heard that they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught but the
high priest came and they that were with him and called the council together and
all the Senate of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them
brought but when the officers came and found them not in the prison they
returned and told saying the prison truly found we shut with all safety and
the keeper standing without before the doors but when we had opened we found no
man within now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief
priests heard these things they doubted of them were unto this would grow then
came one and told them saying behold the men whom he put in prisoner standing in
the temple and teaching the people then went the captain with the officers and
brought them without violence for they feared the people lest they should have
been stoned and when they had brought them they set them before the council
and the high priest asked them saying did not we straightly command you that
you should not teach in this name and behold he have filled Jerusalem with
your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us then Peter and the
other apostles answered and said we ought to obey God rather than men the
God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom he slew and hanged on a tree him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give
repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins and we are his witnesses of these
things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey
him when they heard that they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay
them then stood there up one in the council a Pharisee named Gamaliel a
doctor of the law had in reputation among all the people and commanded to
put the Apostles forth a little space and said unto them ye men of Israel take
heed to yourselves what you intend to do as touching these men for before these
days rose up Thetis boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men
about 400 joined themselves who was slain and all as many as obeyed him were
scattered and brought to naught after this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the
days of the taxing and drew away much people after him he also perished and
all even as many as obeyed him were dispersed and now I say unto you refrain
from these men and let them alone for if this council or this work be of men
it will come to naught but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily
ye be found even to fight against God and to him they agreed and when they
had called the Apostles and beaten them they commanded that they should not
speak in the name of Jesus and let them go and they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his
name and daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and
preach Jesus Christ let's pray father in heaven I pray Lord that you would bless
we're in Acts chapter 5 let's look at verse 28 again the Bible says saying did
we not straightly command you that you should not teach in this name and behold
you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's
blood upon us then Peter and the other apostles answered
to me saloon hanged on a tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a
prince and a Savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins and we are his witnesses of these things and so also is the Holy Ghost
whom God have given to them that obey him when they heard that they were cut
to the heart and took counsel to slay them then stood there up one in the
council a Pharisee named Gamaliel a doctor of the law had a reputation among
the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space now in Acts
chapter number five we have the story of the Apostle Peter and John they're being
rebuked by the council for essentially preaching the gospel and they're going
through Jerusalem and they're preaching under the crowd and of course the Jews
that are in charge don't like this because they just killed Jesus and so it
makes them look bad they've done miracles and everybody there's really a
lot of momentum behind the Lord Jesus Christ and they're really struggling
with that particular movement with this we these men now they really just want
to destroy them they want to kill them but they're afraid that if they kill
these men the multitude will revolt riot they might even cause the chief priests
to be killed so they basically just fear the people that's the only reason
they're not killing them or destroying them but for some reason a man named
Gamaliel he stands up and he basically tries to give them some kind of advice
here now Gamaliel is according to the Bible especially at this point probably
not saved I mean I don't see any reason why we could indicate that he's a saved
man he was according the scripture the instructor of the Apostle Paul so we
understand that he would have been of the sect of the Pharisees the Bible
describes him as a doctor of the law and had in reputation so he's one that knows
the Bible really well even though arguably he's just not really safe and
we don't want to run too far with this guy's doctrine per se but I do like the
advice that he's about to give in the scripture here and I believe that God
put it in the Bible for a reason and it says here in verse 35 and he said of
them you men of Israel take heed to yourselves what you intend to do as
touching these men now if you think about the circumstance that a lot of the
chief priests and a lot of the Pharisees they genuinely think that Peter John and
Jesus are just bad some of them are wicked of course and we understand that
but a lot of them are really just wrong they're sincerely wrong about their
intentions they have the wrong view of worshipping the God of the Bible and
Gamaliel is trying to point out hey anytime there's a controversy like this
and we don't really know you know for sure who's right in this particular
circumstance and we've seen them perform this amazing miracle well let's let's
consider our options here and he says in verse 36 for before these days rose up
thudus boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men about 400 joined
themselves who was slain and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought
to naught so he says hey remember there was this other bozo thudus and he rose
up and I mean he garnered a pretty big crowd 400 men is a lot I mean that's
probably about double what we have here today that's a lot of people to rise up
after a particular leader but they said hey we didn't really do anything we just
let it go and then what happened it ended up just basically panning out
because the guy was a bozo and it wasn't really a work of God it was meaningless
says a verse 37 after this man rose up Judas of Galilee and the days of the
taxing and drew away much people after him he also perished and all even as
many as obeyed him were dispersed so this guy's a tax protester it sounds
like and basically gets a big rebellion gets a bunch of people to follow after
him the Bible doesn't record the exact number but it does say according to the
scripture do a much people so a lot of people followed after this guy and they
said well we just let him alone nothing ended up happening from that guy as well
says in verse 38 and now I say and you refrain from these men and let them
alone for if this council or this work be of men it will come to not but if it
be of God you cannot overthrow it less happily you be found even a fight
against God so he says look if this is just a random guy drawing away disciples
after himself it's just a man-made doctrine it's just a man-made thing
let's just leave him alone because it eventually just pan out and just burn
out and nobody will really care and he says but what if we're wrong what if
these guys are actually of God and this is a really important movement of God
then you're really just fighting against God you're not even fighting against
these people and of course who wants to fight against God you know while the
Jews you know are not necessarily the best people on the planet they do all
have a fear of God they do all claim to believe the Bible and they seem to you
know at least have some kind of recognition of God and they realize this
doesn't make sense to fight against God and I like his vice here he said in
verse 38 let them alone just let them alone and you know that's one title of
the sermon but the title of my sermon this morning that I'm gonna come up with
is really the points that I'm gonna bring up it's called frenemies fools and
fakes frenemies fools and fakes and and really what I think is important for us
to realize is that we don't always have to get involved with every single person
every single situation shut everything down on our own sometimes there's a
point to just let them alone sometimes there's just a you know the damage is
done the the disagreement is never going to be resolved so let's just leave them
alone anyways because if they're of God why would I want to fight God and if
they're a bozo let God destroy them or let God take care of them I don't really
have to necessarily worry about this particular issue so what I want you to
go to is Luke chapter 17 for a moment go to Luke chapter 17 in the New Testament
I want to prove a few things before I get into my points now number one I'm
not saying here that we should just ignore the world around us not saying
that we shouldn't call people out I'm not saying that we shouldn't fight
against false doctrine of course the Bible tells us to earnestly contend for
the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints right of course the Bible
tells us to fight the good fight of faith of course the Bible has plenty
of examples of people being called out of false doctrine being called out and
we want to do those type of things but think about the context here they
weren't just going to preach against them they were going to lay hands on
them and possibly physically destroy them and the Bible is saying no no no
let's not just kill these men let's not just throw them in prison and lock away
the key let's just leave them alone and see what happens and of course you know
we don't wage a physical battle so of course we don't want to ever engage in
some kind of a physical battle where we're trying to force people to become
Christian you know it's not the holy crusades not the holy wars we're not
gonna go around and say believe in Jesus or we're gonna hurt you you know that
would not be the right way to approach Christianity that's not gonna even get
true converts I mean there's plenty of people that are Muslim but they're not
Muslim because they really believe in the book of the Quran it's because
they've been forced to or they live in a society or a culture where if they're
not Muslim they're gonna be killed their family could be taken advantage of hurt
they're not gonna have any business relationships and so a lot of times
people are a religion based on coercion and you know Christianity while the
Catholic Church has coerced a lot of people Christianity by and large has
never forced people to be Christian you know we're not trying to shove our
doctrine down other people's throats you know we go out and we knock on doors
we're allowing the gospel to be the power to draw someone into salvation
we're allowing the gospel message to draw people to church we're not forcing
anybody we don't want to force our doctrine on anyone we want people to
genuinely believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to be saved but of course
there's going to be disagreements and you know just because it's a work of man
and I like Amelia's advice here doesn't mean that's always gonna happen either
though that they're gonna pan out or they're gonna just basically burn out I
mean think about the Mormons they didn't really burn out yet did they or think
about the Catholic Church that hasn't burned out yet has it you know there's a
lot of different false religions that can still gain a lot of steam and they
can grow sometimes you could even expose somebody as being a bad person and and
showing how they're really wrong and you would think like well their church is
gonna be destroyed but you know sometimes they go really liberal and
their church grows you know a person I could think of is like Greg Locke you
know Greg Locke had an independent fundamental Baptist Church I don't know
exactly how many was running but you know I'm not gonna put a number on it
because I'd be wrong but I think it was a medium-sized church and he ended up
running away with the secretary and starting like a whole nother church
situation well now his church is exploding and and for sure it's got to
be more people than he had before they're having big tent meetings and
revivals quote-unquote where they have thousands and thousands of people coming
and they sing these big long songs and everybody gets all emotional everything
like that so you would think like well I guess that's a move of God not
necessarily but at the same time you know when it comes to a particular
person being bad while it's good to expose that individual it's good to
expose their doctrine we don't want to necessarily be like the Pharisees though
or we're trying to round them up and throw them in prison or harass them or
troll them or just be kind of a general nuisance to these people sometimes you
just have to let them alone and eventually you know let God deal with it
and of course we live in a time in an age where apostasy is
probably going to abound so we can't necessarily defeat apostasy by physical
force we just have to let those things go but even within the realm of saved
people you could have a saved pastor and another saved pastor that are generally
just not going to agree and have problems with each other and I think a
lot of times it's still the right advice is to say hey let's just let this guy
along now if someone does something wrong what does the Bible teach you
should do correct them you know someone does you wrong trespasses against you
reprove them tell them they did wrong now what happens if they say you know
what you're right I'm sorry what is the Bible say well the Bible commands you
to forgive them look at Luke 17 verse 3 take heed to yourselves if thy brother
trespass against thee rebuke him and if you repent forgive him and if you
trespass against these seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again
to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him now does this sound like a
suggestion or a commandment it's commandment thou shalt forgive him so
the Bible actually teaches if someone trespasses against you ask for
forgiveness you have to forgive them it's not even an option it's not like
using discretion according to the scripture you must forgive them you have
to just decide you know what I'm gonna forgive and forget and just move on and
just like God did that for you you're supposed to do that for your brethren
just like you being a wicked sinner and then when you called upon the name of
the Lord and you believe in Jesus Christ you got all your sins forgiven we're
supposed to treat our brethren in the same manner in the same way whenever
they're sincere now of course if someone was obviously being fake or lying about
their apology I'm not saying you have to forgive them you know obviously we could
decide whether or not they're just lying to you or something but if if you can
give them the end of the doubt seems like they're genuine you should just
always forgive there's not really another option there some people would
say this well if you were really sorry would you do it again according to the
Bible it doesn't matter because if they do it to you again seven times in the
same day you still have to forgive them I'm just saying sometimes people will
just lie to you obviously in that case we wouldn't necessarily have to forgive
that person as a commandment but if someone seems sincere is making a
genuine step towards repentance of saying I'm sorry I shouldn't have done
that I changed my mind then we are to forgive them but that does not mean and
and I want to make this clear that does not mean that in order for you to
forgive someone or in order for you to let something go they have to apologize
because you know we live in a world where many people are going to do you
wrong trespass against you make mistakes and they're not going to get it right
they're not going to ask for forgiveness and you basically have one of two
options harbor bitterness towards that individual or forgive them and as a
godly Christian it's better to just usually just let it go you've already
dealt with the situation you said hey you did it wrong here's where you're
wrong I rebuked you I corrected you you have the balls in your court and you
know you gave them space to repent but what happens when they still didn't well
a lot of times it's still better to just say you know what I'm just gonna ignore
it I'm just gonna let it go because there's no point me just constantly
holding this over your head and just constantly dragging you through the
ringer on this now let me prove this in another place go to Matthew chapter 5
Matthew chapter 5 I want to make sure that everything you hear me saying this
morning you're seeing from the Bible but the Bible gives clear examples of
forgiving people when they don't deserve it there's plenty examples where people
do wrong and people let it go despite the fact that they never apologize they
never got it right and I'm not saying this is always the case you know if
someone is an axe murderer I'm not gonna just let that go right if someone's a
pedophile that's not something you just say like well let's just let it go not a
big deal you know I'm gonna hold a grudge against people that have those
serious of a sin I mean in fact according to the scripture if someone
commits a sin unto death the Bible says you're not even supposed to pray for
them so then how could you let it go I mean you're not gonna let that go okay
so there's gonna be certain sins that are just too grievous too extreme for
you to let it go typically that's in a reprobate category okay but even very
bad it's bad sins like adultery the Bible talks about people getting over
adultery letting that go in a sense or forgiving someone I mean think about
Hosea we've been going through this in our midweek service when did Hosea's
wife say I'm really sorry for committing adultery I'm never gonna do it again but
didn't he stay married her didn't he stay committed unto her so you can even
let a very extreme sin go potentially regardless of the other person's
attitude towards you but let's go to a more realistic example okay Matthew 5
verse 38 you have heard that has been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth but I say unto you that you resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee
on the right cheek turn to him the other also think about this verse does this
verse say if someone smites you on the right cheek wait until they ask for
forgiveness and then give them the other cheek no it just says hey they smack you
on one side of the face just turn and say like here now of course what is what
is the meaning of this verse is it really just saying let people smack you
around that's not exactly what it's saying but it's basically just talking
about someone does you damage someone disrespects you someone causes you harm
unjustly unjustified this is not someone physically assaulting you or attacking
you if someone's trying to hurt you you need to deal with that situation
immediately I am NOT a Christian that would say like please just beat me up
you know that's stupid you know I'm not for that I believe you should defend
yourself you should defend your family but you know someone's slapping you
around that's not really them trying to physically hurt you as much as just hurt
your your feelings or hurt your pride or disrespect you in some kind of a way so
according to the scripture what Jesus said someone smacks you turn them the
other cheek did Jesus do this yes even physically because when he is confronted
by Caiaphas and the chief priests he's standing there and he answers the high
priest and then one of the guys there just smites him and he's like why
smite us thou me he's like hey testify of the evil that I did but why'd you
smite me and you know what he essentially turns me of the cheek
because throughout that whole process they just keep beating him and beating
him and beating him he just takes it and takes it and takes it so you can take
some slaps around the face you can take evil according to the Bible it says
resist not evil now it also says in verse 41 and I'm sorry let's read verse
let's let's read verse 40 and if any man will sue thee at the law and take away
thy coat let him have thy cloak also and his search of compelling to go a mile go
with him twain give them that asketh thee and from him that would borrow of thee
turn not thou away you have heard that has been said thou shalt love thy
neighbor and hate thine enemy but I stand you love your enemies bless them
that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father which is
in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth
rain on the just and on the unjust for if you love them which love you what
reward of you do not even the public is the same and if you salute your brother
and only what do you more than others do not even the public and so be
therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect so
according to Jesus Christ we're supposed to love our enemies now to me this has
to be in every case a saved brother if you have someone that is saved and
they're your enemy they're causing you harm they smack you on the cheek they've
taken your coat they've taken your cloak they've asked you to go further with
them and do more than they originally agreed they broke their agreement
whatever the situation is you're still supposed to love that person according
to the Bible we are to love those that are saved period there's not an
exception there's not a situation King Saul has tried to kill David over and
over and David still loves him you know Saul was a terrible friend to King King
David at the time just a servant and yet David continually loved Saul to the
bitter end that doesn't mean that Saul it was his best friend and I'm sorry
that doesn't mean that David was Saul's best friend they hung out with each
other he's he's doing his bidding for him anymore he had to separate from him
but at the end of the day we're supposed to love the Saul's in her life go go to
1st John chapter 4 go to 1st John and I want to look at a lot of Bible today
because I think this is a teaching that is not something that we typically hear
as much it's also not the most enjoyable sermon because we typically our flesh
our flesh wants to fight like our flesh wants to hear like every time I'm wrong
we're gonna get him back twice and you're just like yeah we're gonna get
him you know he smacked me around well we're gonna we're gonna top on his head
you know we're gonna we're gonna drum him you know I mean the thing about
sports this is every time in sports it's like someone dunks on you it's like well
I'm gonna dunk on you with both hands you know or I'm gonna step on your head
while I you know do a triple dunk or you know it's like it's always this it's
like trying to get even or do more or get them back you know they punched me
in the head but now I'm gonna break their arm or it's like always an
escalation you know that's the flesh speaking the spirit says you know what I
can just let it go the spirit says I don't have to get even with every
single person the spirit says we're supposed to love our neighbor and we're
supposed to love our enemy first John chapter 4 verse 20 if a man say I love
God and hated his brother he is a liar free that love is not his brother whom
he has seen how can he love God whom he have not seen so we cannot love a
brother or sister in Christ we do not love God now of course love sounds cool
because the world tries to make love into something that it's not go to go to
Mark chapter 9 go to Mark chapter 9 the world love is returning good for good
that's what love is love is really liking someone that's doing something
awesome right love what is love to the world I really like pizza therefore I
love it what is love to the world I love Tom Brady because he won the Super Bowl
for my team oh I love this person who gave me money oh I love this person who
is dating me and doing nice things to me oh I love this person I mean that is not
love love is doing good to someone that did evil unto you love is liking your
football team even though they lose that means the Cowboys must really have
a lot of loving fans okay because they never do them good and people still like
them I don't get it right that's what love is apparently you know all these
bandwagon NFL fans they don't love anyone someone that says they love
everyone does not love anyone you know love is when someone does your own you
know love is when your spouse does something bad and you still love them
and you you know what love is staying married to someone for 50 years because
I guarantee in those 50 years they did a lot of terrible things to you because
it's called marriage it's called life you know but that was love love is not
just getting divorced every two years and marrying another person that's
someone that doesn't love anyone but themselves there's a lover of themselves
and they're a selfish person and you know when it comes to Christianity we
cannot say that we have this great love for God when we can't love anybody that
doesn't like us if you only like people that like you you don't love anyone in
order to really love someone you have to love someone that doesn't always do you
good isn't always reciprocal in their actions towards you mark chapter 9 look
at verse 38 and John answered him saying master we saw one casting out devils in
thy name and he followeth not us and we forbade him because he followeth not us
I mean this guy's not in the new IFB he shouldn't be allowed to preach the
gospel right no no that's not what it says what is it what is he and Jesus
said forbid him not so there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that
can lightly speak evil of me where he that is not against us is on our part so
according to the Bible someone that's doing a good thing for God but has
nothing to do with you leave him alone leave him alone now I went through this
foundation because this is not what we're talking about today I wanted to
give you all the examples of what we're not talking about and then we're gonna
get into where we're talking about what I'm not talking about this morning is
this someone that did you wrong and asked for forgiveness automatic
forgiving I'm not talking about people that do you good because we don't you
know who cares we already love those people automatically people that do you
good it's easy like them here's another category I'm not talking about people
that are not attacking you have nothing to do with you you know churches that
are going out and preaching the gospel and they have nothing to do with you
they don't talk to you you don't know them why would you ever be against that
person notice what he said in verse number 40 for he that is not against us
so did these people get attacked did they have something happen against them
no no it's not that person so we have a few categories the repentant people that
are doing good people that are just leaving you alone of course we would
never want to attack those people leave them alone to bless them do good under
them but when we think about Matthew chapter 5 when it's talking about loving
your enemies and blessing them let's curse you this is a completely different
category this is people who are actually doing you wrong these are people that
are attacking you these are people that are against you that have done something
against you that's that's bad go to Acts chapter 13 go to Acts chapter number 30
they disappointed you they left you out to dry they lied to you they took
advantage of you they aren't a good person I mean there's there's so many
scenarios that fit this particular category okay and in Acts chapter 13 we
have a story about the Apostle Paul he's going out to do a great missionary work
with Barnabas there's no question that Paul and Barnabas are of God that they
their mission is arguably the most important mission in the world and they
have someone that's supposed to serve them now how do you how important of a
job do you think it is to be the servant of the Apostle Paul I mean you could
almost argue this is the second most important job in the world because
number one is the Apostle Paul number two would be helping the Apostle Paul do
his job right I mean this is not of low importance this is not like it's a minor
thing this is someone that was plugged into a powerhouse ministry doing great
works for God it was the Apostle Paul Barnabas and their servant John John
Mark now it says in verse number two and they ministered to the Lord and fasted
in the Holy Ghost and separate me Barnabas and solve for the work wherein
to I've called them and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands
on them they sent them away so they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost
departed on Seleucia and from thence they sailed to Cyprus and when they were
at Salamis they preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews and they
had also John to their minister so notice the Bible says that John was
their minister specifically was John sent out by the Holy Ghost directly no
it was Paul and Barnabas were separated they're sent out but you know they can't
just do everything on their own they need other people to help them John
marks there to be their minister now if John marks their minister what does that
mean it means that the Apostle Paul and Barnabas can focus on the ministry they
don't have to worry about food as much or accommodations he's like a personal
assistant you know just doing all the carnal things so they can focus more and
more on the spiritual things doesn't mean John Mark wasn't spiritual but why
is he there he's there to assist them and to help them so that the work of God
can go forth more successful you know I have an employee that helps me and you
say what's his job title yes
it's actually yes sir you know what is his job duty yes sir you know it's just
like but you say why do you have one of those so that the church can run more
successfully so you can focus on things that I don't have to you know so I can
just be like hey here you go and if I didn't have someone to help me you know
what that would be making my life harder it would make it where I couldn't focus
on things as much it'd be disappointing if I didn't have you know the size of
work that we're doing as a church it would be really really hard if I didn't
have at least one person dedicated to help me you know when we were having
pure words and Oklahoma City where I was going there preaching almost every
Thursday that's hard it's hard with the schedule it's hard to make that
commitment 52 weeks out of the year and so having another person on staff that I
can say like hey just go on go this Thursday for me because I got to go to
this other one or I got a I got a switch or whatever and you know most of the
time it wasn't even I'm taking a day off I'm just switching I'm just like you go
here so I can go there and you'll be really hard on a church where you guys
have full-time jobs how are you gonna take off a whole Thursday or whatever
and go so it was a big blessing for me to have this kind of individual so you
know if if brother Dylan just like quit out of nowhere or if I had a servant
that just quit out of nowhere it would really be awful it would really suck you
know one of the main reasons I've been hired doing is I was like I need to find
someone that won't quit me because you know you know someone just drops me like
a bad habit you know that's gonna be hard on me and it's harder place that
person with someone that's gonna be trustworthy and so you know that's what
I liked about Dylan now did he have other skills I don't think so but you
know he was loyal so and we can work on that you know we can build him up and we
can train him and we can get him better you know what I liked about Dylan is he
loves the Bible and he was really loyal and you know that's that's hard to build
into someone that's hard to get out of someone and you know why would you want
someone loyal well I don't want them to be a John Mark because even if it's the
greatest person with lots of skills but they drop me like a bad habit well that
doesn't that doesn't do anything for me okay even a guy can't do anything but
it's there is at least some benefit okay you can least carry water or whatever
but look what it says here in verse 13 now when Paul and his company loose from
pathos they came to Perga and Pamphylia and John departing from them returned to
Jerusalem so just you know they get started they're ready to go they got
John it looks good and then he just quits immediately it's like what now is
this a good thing no it was a horrible thing it was a really bad thing okay
folks there wasn't anything good about it go to Acts chapter 15 now good acts
chapter 15 the Apostle Paul has to do all of their journey they don't have
this minister and look when you're on the road good luck replacing good luck
getting another guy you know and even if you were gonna get another guy John
Mark could have still been there and you could have got that other guy too and
it just kind of multiplied a lot faster losing this person's really a detriment
to the situation and it caused a lot of problems who knows we don't even know
all the fallout resulting from this but it's it's definitely frustrating to lose
people on this type of a situation acts 15 look at verse 36 and some days after
Paul said unto Barnabas let us go again and visit our brethren in every city
where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they do so the Apostle
Paul did a whole missionary journey he came back and he's like all right
Barnabas round two let's go and Barnabas determined to take with them John whose
surname was Mark it's like wait a minute but Paul thought it not good to take him
with them who departed from them from Pamphylia and went not with them to the
work so he's like all right let's go around too and he's like yeah let's
grab John Mark it's like what am I what what the guy that dropped us like a bad
habit on the first trip yeah that guy well now wait a minute
wait when does Barnabas say yeah John Mark's really sorry apologize to
everyone Oh John Mark got it right John Mark
asked Paul for forgiveness John Mark's a really great guy we don't know any of
that now I can't say that he did or didn't a hundred percent but we have no
indication of that all we know is that Mark just dropped him like a bad habit
and now the sudden Barnabas is like let's bring him again and what did the
Apostle Paul said hey it is not good now in his mind why is he saying that he's
saying there's a problem with John Mark John Mark has caused serious problems
this is not good does the Apostle Paul trust John Mark no now wait a minute is
John Mark saved yeah no one's doubting a salvation we're not talking about just
a bad person but you know this first category that I have I want to talk
about is people that I would call frenemies frenemies now sometimes that's
a really negative word but the reason why I'm using it is because it's like
you can't really tell if this person's a friend or an enemy you can't really tell
if they're just a bad friend or if they're just really a bad person okay
and so that's why I'm using this category of frenemies when someone does
you wrong it doesn't get it right sometimes it's hard to tell is this
person just a bad friend or is this person just a bad person okay and of
course a bad friend could end up getting redeemed a bad person's never gonna end
up getting it right and we understand that but we don't necessarily know where
this person's at but that's what I would put John Mark in this category he's kind
of frenemy because if they take John Mark again and he bails on them again
Wow it's almost like an enemy it's almost like sabotage it's almost it's
like a really bad situation and he almost goes from just being a just kind
of a bad friend just being like really bad and we don't even know what his
intentions I mean this is just it's kind of a dicey situation and the Apostle Paul
doesn't necessarily want to go down this road with him again and according to the
Bible there's a great contention between them it says in verse number 39 and the
contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the
other and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed into Cyprus the Apostle Paul did
not like John Mark so much that he was willing to lose other friends over it
think about this he's like this guy is so bad that if you want to be friends
with him we're not gonna be friends we're not gonna work together I mean
that's an extreme contention to have and an opinion to have but you know what I
believe that it's right and it's good for sometimes you to look at someone and
say like I refuse to work with that person because he did bail on them last
time and it ends up working out great now that's hindsight but you know what
the Apostle Paul then takes Silas and then they go off what happens in the
Bible do we follow Barnabas and Mark or do we follow Paul and Silas we follow
Paul and Silas so how could I argue that what Paul's decision-making here is
wrong it's great and you know what John Mark just fades into it fades into
non-relevance non-existence does that mean that the Barnabas and John Mark
didn't get anybody saved no I'm sure they got people say but you know if it
wasn't even for the one tiny mention of the Apostle Paul later in the books of
Timothy where he mentions that Mark was profitable in them we would just assume
they did nothing for God because we don't even really know I mean maybe they
got some people say but it wasn't really that impactful nobody really knows what
happened arguably that's kind of the case because we don't even we don't read
about them doing some great thing or getting a bunch of people saved later or
a bunch of disciples of John Mark and Barnabas we don't know but you know what
there's no real point in the Apostle Paul going around and every town he
comes into he's like hey let me tell you about this guy named John Mark he sucks
hey did you hear about John Mark let me tell John Mark sucks did you know that
hey did you did you hear about John Mark let me tell you about John Mark hey I
want do you know about John Mark let me tell you how bad John Mark is is that
really the Apostle Paul's ministry for the next several chapters of the Bible
no that is anybody have any doubt as to how the Apostle Paul feels about John
Mark no we all know exactly how it feels about him but you know it's not very
profitable to just go on a campaign against somebody just for the rest of
your ministry just because they're a bad person or just because they're a bad
friend or just because they screwed up and look frankly speaking it's not like
the that John didn't screw up it's not that Mark didn't have serious problems
it's not that Mark isn't you know someone to stay away from even it's just
is it really profitable to just constantly harass somebody that's done
wrong or is it maybe profitable just let it go say hey I don't like you I don't
want to work with you bye but you know what you do bye you know you say not
gonna talk to you not gonna talk about you not interested in you see you later
sucker and isn't it so annoying that when people leave our church they never
seem to say this bye it's like they'll stock you forever and they harass you
and they troll you and they watch every sermon it's like I think that people
that leave our church watch more sermons than when they were here it's like
they're more interested in the preaching after they leave when they were even
here it's like what is wrong with you and you know none of us sit here and
think like oh that's normal it's not normal it's not normal to go around and
follow and harass people that you supposedly don't like that you've
decided you want to separate from how did you separate from them when you're
just trolling around and falling around and doing all these things now I want to
get really really specific here for a moment okay and I've kind of built up a
context here but there are some people out there that I think fall in this
category of where they're saved and they've done wrong and let's make it
clear they didn't get it right they didn't apologize they weren't repenting
about it they've done wrong they've been called out but see at the same time it's
not necessarily beneficial for me to just go on an endless campaign trail
attacking that particular individual because it's just not going to benefit
Christianity in general you know is it gonna really benefit me to just
constantly attack say people for just being a crappy person and never letting
anything go because what will happen is then if I make a mistake or someone else
makes a mistake then they'll hold it against them for forever and then them
forever and there's just this like it just seems like everybody that's in
Christianity just holds grudges and is bitter and can't let anything go it has
no grace it's like we have a whole religion based on grace and we can never
extend grace to any person now these are the people that want to bring up pastor
Tommy McMurtry pastor Grayson Fritz pastor Patrick Boyle and pastor Joe
major now the reason why I bring up these names is they're people that I've
mentioned publicly before and I've called out for various issues different
problems that I have with them all in their varying degrees and everything
like that but you know at the end of the day is it really gonna benefit me to
just sit on an endless campaign trail against these particular individuals if
I believe that they're saved no that's not gonna benefit Christianity and
frankly speaking people don't go to our church or go to one of their churches
something just the general populace looking at this stuff it just makes
everyone look bad usually it just makes everyone look you know it's off-putting
to everyone when you're just constantly nagging people and holding people you
know accountable for every little grievance now again we're not talking
about people that believe you know the earth is flat okay if they if I find out
that I might re-reenter the conversation we're not talking about
people that are preaching that they're Jesus Christ okay like Tyler Doka we're
not we're not talking about people that have gone into extreme heresy we're not
talking about people that commit just like really grievous awful sins like
divorcing their wife and running off with the secretary okay but does that
mean that they didn't have serious problems no I believe they have serious
problems did I call them out for some of their serious issues yeah have they said
some things that I would say are just clear railing and slander yes
absolutely are those serious would I want to work with these individuals no
but at the end of the day could God use one of these people to go out and get
someone saved yes I think that he can and why would I want to sit here and
just have a constant beef with these individuals just forever just basically
just making Christianity look worse and worse I mean if you've ever noticed
anything about our world it seems like America is descending into literal
Satanism every second and it's like are these people really the biggest enemy
out there are they really the biggest problem out there I mean they're capable
of getting people saved right now so it sounds like they're almost on my team
from a big picture does that mean that I like them not necessarily does that mean
I agree with everything they do absolutely not does that mean the things
that I've said about them in the past I've changed my mind no but wait a
minute can I just let mark and Barnabas just go and do their thing or do I have
to sit here and just every chapter of acts just be like hey reminder mark is a
really crappy guy mark is a quitter mark breaks your trust mark does all these
bad things I don't think that benefits you know and all these men have preached
for me all these men at one point I considered a friend and all these men
at one point I liked them but they they cause problems and you know what I
offered a correction I offered hey this is wrong you need to fix this but
instead of just getting it right they didn't now I have two options or my two
options get bitter or just let it go get bitter hold on to that grudge forever or
just let it go you know what are the biblical principles we've seen here so
far turn the other cheek love your enemies maybe just give them some grace
just let them you know we're not talking about wicked evil reprobate people or
something like that we're talking about people that made mistakes cause problems
well they said something mean well you know what in Ecclesiastes the Bible makes
it clear that you're not supposed to harken to every word that's spoken
because you've also in your life cursed others no one's perfect I guarantee you
said terrible things about people and you know what I necessarily be held
accountable for all of those things now when it came to Pastor McMurtry you know
I called him out and he didn't receive it and honestly I don't think that we're gonna
ever agree you know we're just not gonna agree on these things so basically we
could we could just sit here and just constantly attack each other forever on
it how I think I'm right and he and his mind thinks he's right or whatever but
you know how is that gonna get more people saved how is that gonna reach
more people the gospel how's it gonna stop America descending into literal
Satanism I don't think it is and it doesn't make any sense now I've made it
clear how I feel about these situations and I had videos that I made about it
but I just thought you know what it's just better for me to take these things
down and to just try to reduce the amount of just constant holding people's
feet to the fire on these issues because if I don't every time he says something
that I disagree with like in life if I consider you lying about me I'm gonna
want to defend myself and then he's gonna defend himself and then I'm gonna
defend myself and then he's gonna defend him and it's just gonna be this
like never-ending battle and it's like that just doesn't make sense to me what
makes sense to me is not waste all my time effort and energy on frenemies just
be like let them alone hey I've identified you I've called you out but
let's just move on you know if someone's really bad that's different we'll have a
different you know way to handle that but from an outsider's perspective it
doesn't make sense to air all of your dirty laundry you know when you have a
when you have company over they know and I know you have dirty laundry somewhere
in your house like there is a place in your house where dirty laundry exists
and maybe if you have children soiled laundry okay who has children I have
children I mean some of the clothing almost all the time some clothing has
some interesting substances on them okay somewhere in the house you know
wouldn't be cool to invite people over for dinner and just put all of our dirty
laundry on the table is that people are gonna be like do we
have to eat you know with this on the table you know it just doesn't really
make that much sense now does that mean that the dirty laundry doesn't need to
get addressed or fixed or clean isn't something that you're gonna do yeah of
course it is does it exist yeah it does exist but you know what not all things
are expedient and when it comes to someone doing you wrong sometimes you
have to decide is this worthy of telling everybody or not and then even if it is
do I need to hold on to this forever sometimes you can just let things go and
what I've noticed is that especially in our movement it seems like especially
online a lot of people don't let things go as soon as they identify someone
doing anything wrong it's like I can just attack this person relentlessly
forever and I think that is wrong not only that people love to make memes and
look I like memes but that doesn't mean that every meme is good number one and
it also a lot of people don't know how to make a meme they make a mean it'll
make a meme they make a mean or basically they're not funny at all
they're just being mean they're just being insulting they're just being rude
they're just basically showing like they're just going over the top they're
just being over you're just insulting someone and going out to someone you
know I don't appreciate that I don't like that that doesn't make Christianity
look good how can you say that you love your enemies when you just post all
these mean things online all the time about people again I'm not saying that
we don't correct people I'm not saying that we can't have a good time I'm not
saying that you can't post something that's fun or funny online and you know
I love to make fun of stupidity stupidity in general you know what
what's the purpose is the purpose just to have fun and to expose some stupid
idea or is it just to be mean and if you're just being mean you should just
stop doing it there's no benefit to it there's no purpose and what I've seen
for these four people instead of being called out for some of the things that
they did that's legitimate people go way over the top and just are mean to these
people and you know what that does not make us look good if someone does
something wrong and then you just go over the top and are mean to that
individual it makes you look worse in many cases
hey am I for holding people accountable and calling people out you know that I
am there's no question here but you know what I don't like is this just mentality
of just constantly harassing people and attacking people you know it also would
not be beneficial if the Apostle Paul instead of going on his journey with
Silas secretly followed Barnabas and and John Mark around every corner just to
see if John Mark ever did anything wrong again and be like oh there's John
Mark again oh let's tell everybody the new bad thing he did and you know just
like it's weird to us the people who leave our church and watch all of our
sermons it's the same bizarreness when you decide this pastor's bad but I'm
gonna listen all of his sermons anyway I don't like this guy but I'm gonna listen
to all the sermons anyway to try and find anything that he could possibly say
that I don't like and then I'm gonna talk about it too you're just as weird
you're just as gross you know what we should just stop following people we
don't like look I do limited research into people I don't like and it's
usually not hard if you find someone that's bad you just watch one video
drop the hammer and just like instant heresy you're just like wow that wasn't
hard you know what if you're having to do 10 20 hours of research to find out
how bad someone is you sound like the Pharisees trying to scope out Jesus
trying to catch him in his words or something and I even what I seen on a
group it was like a Facebook group or something like that someone posting some
clip of Pastor McMurtry preaching and they said look at this horrible
preaching against people and I clicked and watched the video and I agreed with
everything that he said and I was thinking like you're dumb you know it's
like it's like people get this hammer in their hand just like someone is bad and
it's just like everything they do is bad everything they say is wrong everything
you know that's stupid you know or they look at someone that has a mistake and
it gets called out publicly and they think they can just lambast this person
forever you know or they'll get mad they'll get me they'll be mean to him
and I've heard this to their wives to their children and it's like how would
you like if every time your wife did something wrong everybody got to bash
them forever and make memes and attack them for it's just stupid it's childish
it's pedantic it's carnal it's not of God I don't like it I'm not interested
in it and let me tell you something I don't police people online you know what
I will preach about it and you know what you're not loving your neighbor you
don't love God when you're just being mean to people like that why don't you
just let them alone why can't you just let them win someone to Christ it's not
like oh well you're a bad person you won them to Christ who cares did a lot of
bad people win people to Christ in the Bible oh this woman she's been with five
husbands let's just make endless memes about her you know what she got someone
saved and if she can get someone saved I know these guys could probably you know
so it's just silly to sit here and just go over the top and hold their feet in
the fire for every little grievance and every little problem now look if they
get up and just lie about me publicly and they're causing a lot of issues I'll
probably address that you better believe it you know what I don't want is like I
think that they might have subtly mentioned something about you okay who
cares even if they even if they did mention about me who cares you know I've
had people publicly named me and say weird things about me but I didn't feel
the need to just attack them back or something or hold them accountable for
every word that they said because it's just like just give them grace just let
them do their thing who cares you know I hate this idea that we always have to
respond to everything we need to get to a place where we don't respond to
everything and look sometimes there's that temptation I I've experienced it as
well everybody experiences it to always want to right every wrong always defend
yourself always go after other people but you know what we need to be careful
and be balanced here and take some advice here and say you know what maybe
we could just let this one go go to Proverbs 29 go to Proverbs 29 so you
know look these men I'm just not interested in just constantly harassing
them falling around criticizing everything that they do you know if they
want to go and publicly attack me and whatever I might respond but for the
most part let's just leave them alone and not just me you and everybody else
and you know just why don't we focus on the real enemies of I mean do we not
have enough real enemies do we not have enough real problems do we not have
enough real heresies and at the end of the day I'm trying to bring in as many
new people as possible you know I'm trying to make documentaries like the
preserved Bible and trying to drag in somebody that's like a Pentecostal to
the King James Bible and get them saved and then start realizing like hey you
should be a fundamental Baptist you know if I'm holding another fundamental
Baptist accountable for every little minor grievance he's ever had in his
life how is that going to make the Pentecostal feel welcome to even mention
anything about us you know I've heard this and I think it's probably true
there's a lot of pastors out there that like us or like things about us or like
our documentaries but they're so afraid to even say something positive about us
because they think they'll get attacked you say what do you mean they'll get
attacked well they'll say hey I really liked the preserved Bible and then what
will happen is everybody will go look up their website this guy does altar calls
let's start making memes against him this guy is pre-trib what an idiot this
guy's what are you know they'll just constantly go after that person for
everything that they're not exactly like me or another preacher or something and
it's like you and I know that that has some reality to it and you know what
that's that's a bad rep when our movement is known as being the least
gracious the least merciful we should be willing to take people that are not like
us and say you know what I know that we strongly disagree on a lot of issues and
I know you have a lot of issues but I'm not gonna hold all that against you why
don't you start coming more towards my side why don't you start realizing like
you know why don't we try to be a little more welcoming people and you know I've
had tons of people that I've reached out to I've even had pastors booked and then
it finds out like you know what I don't really want to be associated with that
people I'm afraid of all the fallback and it's like that's frustrating that I
can't even go a little bit outside my circle and I'll be honest with you I
haven't announced it yet but I have a guest preacher that's gonna come preach
for us great guy but he is not exactly like us and you know the worst thing you
could do is try to try to force him to be exactly like us it's like why can't
we just agree on the things that we agree on you know my test of fellowship
has always been King James only and salvation by faith it's like well what
about all the other stuff it's not like I don't think it's important folks you
know that you know I preach everything in the Bible you know that I think is
super important but am I gonna really just sit here and hold people to the
grinder on these issues and look even people that are not like that aren't
even King James only your salvation by faith we want to still give them some
grace to try and win them over to where they could even come into our influence
come into our circle of friends get to a point where we could actually associate
with those individuals you know one of the people that I'm talking about was
not even King James only for a long portion of his life and then he became
King James only and you know you're gonna win more you're gonna catch more
flies with honey then you are just trying to set a trap necessarily because
the best traps have honey in them okay you know if you just if you just
basically just try to put a trap out a squirrel trap with no cheese or peanut
butter it's not gonna work you got to put some peanut butter in that trap okay
and we're not trapping people but you get the analogy right now here's my
second category my second category is different so the first category is a
friend of me it's like I can't tell this person's a bad friend or a bad person
but I'm just gonna let them I'm just gonna let them do their thing anyways
the second category is not that person the second category is completely
different it's a fool now sometimes these people can you know start out as
a friend of me and then go to a fool and then go to my last one fakes and you
never really know where they're at always but if you identify someone as a
fool it's even more the reason to have nothing to do with them look what the
Bible says in Proverbs 29 verse 9 if a wise man contented the foolish man
whether you rage or laugh there is no rest why would I want to engage with a
fool so if we think about our scenario someone does wrong correct them right
but then based on their response is how I'm going to reassociate with this
person and if they ask for forgiveness restored fellowship if they're just
refusing to get it right I could just let it go and just leave them alone if
it's a fool I also want to leave them alone because if I constantly badger
back and forth with a fool it's just gonna cause me all kinds of problems
look at Proverbs 26 let's go backwards in Proverbs a little bit Proverbs 26
look at verse 6 sorry 26 verse 6 he that sent of the message by the hand of a
fool cut off the feet and drink of damage the legs of the lame are not
equal so as a parable in the mouth of fools so according to Proverbs 26 6
through 7 the Bible is making it clear like hey fools don't even understand the
Bible and anything you try if you try to argue with a fool you're never going to
get them to agree I'm not gonna agree with them it's just gonna go nowhere
there's no point in trying to engage with this particular individual because
they're just simply never going to get it right go if you would to Proverbs 18
I want to read another place Proverbs 26 also said answer not a fool according to
his folly lest thou also be like unto him even though you're right if you
constantly go back and forth with a fool everybody will think you're a fool
everything and look I think this all the time I see all kinds of people put a
troll comment on one of my videos and then someone that I even like will go
and respond to them and I'm like you just look like an idiot for even
responding that person because because their question is so stupid you trying
to answer it makes you look stupid you know Matt Wallace's documentary trying
to prove that a woman is a woman a lot of you like it's so amazing it's like
you look like an idiot for trying to prove a woman's a woman oh you know two
plus two equals five no no no two plus two equals four to want me to help you
with that it's like you look like an idiot for even trying to explain that to
someone it's like the person was it was an idiot on purpose and you look like an
idiot for not realizing they're an idiot okay so it's there's no real benefit in
engaging with fools and trolls and and these kind of insane people Proverbs 18
look at verse 2 a fool have no delight and understanding but that his heart may
discover itself notice that this guy is not interested in education he will not
learn he only wants to do one thing hear himself talk and look I've talked
to people like this sometimes you call someone up and you spend about 5% of the
conversation talking it's like that's not a good conversation I'm not
interested in calling people up for them to just preach at me and again what is a
fool like a fool is not interested in listening or hearing a fool will just
talk your ear off he doesn't want to hear what you have to say he's not
interested in what you have to say why would you want to keep engaging with
that individual look at verse number six in this passage a fool's lips enter
into contention and his mouth call for strokes a fool's mouth is his
destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul so notice that a fool is
going to always cause problems so if you think about it many times and you know
the Bible says only by pride cometh contention if there's a spat between
two people know for a fact someone's being prideful
if there is contention someone is being prideful it could be both but it's at
least one secondly if there's a contention there's a good chance
there's a fool in the situation too not always many times there's a fool in the
situation this is never going to really resolve very well and of course if
someone sticks to being prideful well then essentially there's never going to
be any resolution if someone cannot humble themselves think about it you do
wrong and I confront you if you just say okay there was no contention but if
you say no I disagree that's contention why because that person is being
prideful not to get the correction if you are corrected incorrectly that
person's being prideful or having brought up some problem and you're like
no no you're actually wrong on this issue you know you don't know you don't
understand why you're wrong and they're being private but prides always a part
of every confrontation could be both are being prideful okay this is sports
teams they both I'm the best no I'm the best not the best it's just like they're
both being prideful at that point right but just mark it down only by pride
cometh contention let me tell you something every marital spat pride
exists pride exists and you say well where does the pride exist unfortunately
a woman's supposed to always agree so we already know oh how dare you say that
it's you know it isn't it a joke that in every fight the man's always wrong that's
like kind of the joke that's what the society says you know the Bible says the
woman's always wrong because in every spat you know what she's just supposed
to agree so of course only by pride cometh contention and of course you know
a guy could be a jerk and be prideful too I'm not saying he can't be but I'm
just telling you when there's problem if you're in an argument with your boss at
work you know is being prideful you are
whenever you're mad at God you know is being prideful you are okay every
confrontation every argument every strife and of course if I identify this
person as being a fool why would I want to keep going down that road I don't
look at chapter 17 verse 10 over a proof enter with more into wise men than
a hundred stripes under full does this sound like someone that's gonna ever fix
their problem the Bible says he could get publicly beaten and he wouldn't
change his mind he won't change his doctrine I can think of people like that
go to chapter 14 and look at verse number 7 chapter 14 look at verse number
7 what is the remedy according to the scripture for this individual verse 7 go
from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of
knowledge does this say follow him around talk about him all the time
harass him troll him no it says go from him it says look once I've identified
this person's a fool get away from them let them alone just like we learned
about the frenemy let him alone what do we do with the fool we let him alone
again look at chapter 12 verse 15 you're right there the way of a fool is right
in his own eyes but he that hearkened unto the council's wife you know a fool
this is what this is what's difficult for you to understand just because
someone's wrong doesn't mean they can ever recognize it according the Bible
this fool thinks he's right he justifies himself and people will always justify
their sin people will always tell you they were right if they lie about you
they were right in the lie they said about you if people rail on you they
were right for railing on you if they steal from you well it was right for me
to steal from you well if I hit you it was right for me to hit you yes it's
just justification you talk to your little children about this why did your
brother he was mean first what is that what does that mean I'm justified why
did you steal this he stole it from me it's an instant justification why because
it's human nature to justify every sin and every wrongdoing that you do but you
know what the problem is for the fool he'll never get corrected you say no you
were wrong and you're like you're right that's not a fool a fool just say like
nope I was right nope yep white white supremacy is the problem you know it's
the patriarchy yeah it's just that's always the problem yeah you know it's
just capitalism capitalism is a problem it's just like that's not the right
attitude that's a fool and this person's never gonna get corrected they're never
gonna have any hope Proverbs 9 look at verse 8 reprove not a scorn or lest he
hate thee rebuke a wise man he will love thee so let's say I I've corrected
someone but now I realize they're a fool if I keep correcting them what's gonna
happen they're gonna hate me more and more and more and more it causes me way
more problems so if I've identified hey this person's kind of actually just a
fool the last thing I want to do is keep correcting them is keep going after them
keep showing them how stupid they are because it's not going to really benefit
me he's gonna hate me more and more and more and more and more and it's gonna
cause serious issues go to Matthew 15 so point one of my sermon or at least the
first group that we're talking about is frenemies we should just let them alone
give them grace you know King Saul was lying and attacking David but David just
let it go moved on tried to stay away from him people that are fools in the
Bible you just go from the presence of them you don't want to talk to them you
don't want to keep enraging them you don't want to constantly contend with
this particular individual because they're never gonna get anywhere you
know a person that I think of a fool is an atheist and it was so funny I saw a
video clip the other day it was Jordan Peterson I think and Neil deGrasse Tyson
or no no it was Joe Rogan it was Joe Rogan and Neil deGrasse Tyson and Neil
deGrasse Tyson is like a popular scientist that talks a lot about the Big
Bang Theory and what's so funny is his video he was criticizing how dumb the
human population is because they constantly buy lottery tickets and go to
casinos and they don't understand probability they don't understand
statistics and I was I was like okay I agree but isn't that so ironic from the
guy that believes in the Big Bang Theory that wants to tell you about statistics
and probability he's like you should understand that the chances of winning
the water are like basically zero what are the chances of your beliefs buddy
talk about a fool talk about someone that's willingly ignorant I mean and he
has no excuse of saying he's stupid I mean this guy's very smart in an
intellectual way he's very learned he knows a lot of things he understands
math and science but then he just totally just is has a blind spot when it
comes to the God of the Bible this is not the person that you want to
constantly contend with and argue yet isn't that what a lot of Christians do
they try to do all these debates with atheists and it's like look I'm not
saying that just doing a particular public forum discussion with an atheist
one time is a sin or something like that but it's like when that's your life
mission and you actually are trying to win over like if the crowd is just a
bunch of atheists and people that are already saved what's the point then you
know it's like I'm not gonna win over the atheist he's an idiot on purpose
he's the fool on purpose and all I'm gonna do is draw more ire from those
people those people are gonna hate me even more I'll just rebuke them from
afar okay Matthew chapter 15 look at verse 12 this is our third group here
and this is the fakes Matthew 15 look at verse 12 then came his disciples and
said unto them knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard
this saying but he answered and said every plant which my Heavenly Father
hath not planted shall be rooted up let them alone they be like blind leaders of
the blind and the blindly the blind bow shall fall in the ditch now if there's
any a group to potentially attack it's the Pharisees but you have to think
about what Jesus is actually saying okay is Jesus saying don't preach
against Pharisees no he preaches against the Pharisees all the time that's like
his most common target I mean if you basically just let the Bible fall open
in the Gospels it's Jesus rebuking the Pharisee somehow but wait a minute is
Jesus trolling the Pharisees is Jesus going around trying to find Pharisees
and try to attack them and try to get in discussions with them or is it the
other way around Pharisees are constantly following him around and
trolling him but what is his attitude let them alone let them just go do
there let them just destroy their part of the world let them go and be false
religion because they're gonna fall in a ditch they're gonna destroy themselves
but you know what let them alone now we've already looked at these categories
we have frenemies we have fools and we have the fakes there's no one else to
talk about this is every single person was there ever a time where the Bible
says follow these of people around constantly harass them pay attention to
them give them free publicity or does it just say let them alone it's a
consistent theme isn't it go from the presence of a foolish man let them alone
let them I mean these are the red letters of Jesus here folks go to Matthew
21 let me prove to you that Jesus was not trolling the Pharisees but they
were trolling him Matthew 21 look at verse 23
and when he was coming to the temple the chief priests and the elders of the
people came unto him as he was teaching so what happens Jesus is just preaching
and then all these people come unto him right chief priests now it gives a
little bit more clear depiction of who's there look at verse 45 and when the
chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables they perceived that he
spake of them so notice the Pharisees are in this group of people that came
unto Jesus to hear him preach not the other way around look at chapter 22
verse 15 then with the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle
them in his talk notice their goal is just to try and find something they can
use against him this is not again a very good method to me it makes more sense
when you hear about things and things are obvious to preach against them but
to not just go and try and find every dirty secret and every little thing that
you can go and use against someone you know that's kind of the attitude of a
Pharisee look at verse 23 the same day came to him the Sadducees which say that
there's no resurrection notice the Sadducees come to him the chief priests
come to him the Pharisees come unto him look what it says in verse 34 but when
the Pharisees had heard that they had put the Sadducees of silence they were
gathered together then one of them which was a lawyer asked him a question why is
it that they're coming to Jesus not because they want to learn they're a
fool the way the way that they believe is just right in their mind they're
already right so they're just there just a trap attack try to do harm and you
know I think sometimes people in our movement can have the same mentality
where they think someone's bad and they're just like so so my goal is to
just try and get find even worse dirt on them or something it's like just
leave them alone and they'll even do this to people and I'm like this guy's
probably saved or definitely saved why are you attacking this part leave them
alone you know I don't even let you know you know how many Joel Osteen sermons
full sermons I've listened to in my life zero you know how many full sermons of
TD Jakes I've listened to my life zero Kenneth Copeland zero because I'm not
interested in trolling these individuals now of course if some video
goes viral of their preaching and some wicked false teaching I might go listen
to that and listen to a little more context so that I can expose the
stupidity of it you know what I'm not gonna do is just go on their webs let's
just see everything the cook hope and preach this week yeah it's like that's
like what the Pharisees are doing or hey this guy did something wrong let's go
try and attack him and so it's like look don't you have enough to do that's
positive can't you do something positive why don't you say like hey maybe I'll
just go get someone saved or maybe I'll go out and read the Bible or maybe I'll
go to church or maybe I'll actually you know look take my wife on a date
maybe you should stop listening to preaching you don't like and take your
wife on dates he's like why is my marriage not as good as it is because
you're constantly trolling people you know what your wife is not interested in
you trolling weirdos she likes it 0% you young single guys you see I'm trying to
get a girl to date me or a wife stop trolling people online you will not
attract anyone with this and if you do it might be a weirdo too okay because I
really being honest I don't think women struggle this that much it's probably
more of a man thing I doubt very many women in the world are constantly
trolling weirdos videos okay and then that's probably not a good thing anyways
what is what is the Bible saying they're coming unto him they're coming
unto him look at Matthew 23 now verse 1 then Jesus spake to the multitude and to
his disciples so who is the who is the message for in Matthew 23 is it for the
Pharisees no it says Jesus spoke to the multitude and his life is he speaking
for the Sadducees for the devil and no no no he's speaking for his people he's
speaking to his people so again you also have to think about this when I'm
correcting a bad person what is the goal of it is the goal just to try and
attack that person or is it because I genuinely care about the people in my
life my the multitude the people that just need to be aware of this
information and you know what Jesus was doing it for their sake because if Jesus
was surrounded with scribes and Pharisees you know what he wouldn't have
done preached Matthew 23 say what do you mean he wouldn't preach
Matthew 23 well because he is taken captive by all of them and you know what
he says virtually nothing they ask him question after question after question
he doesn't answer them and then they're just like you know art thou the the son
of the blessed he's like I am that wasn't a really big speech just I am
like you've heard the blasphemy or he says thou sayest it you know the least
amount of red letters you have is what he's surrounded by a bunch of enemies
okay when's the when does it just get like red red red red red when he's with
his disciples and with his with his multitude and the people that he's
preaching to so again Matthew 23 is not to just where can I find some Pharisees
a rebuke I don't know he's preaching for the people's benefit now of course does
he rebuke anybody you better believe it look at it says verse 2 saying the
scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses so he starts out with them look at verse
13 but whoa undo scribes and Pharisees hypocrites look at verse 14 whoa undo
scribes and Pharisees hypocrites verse 15 whoa undo scribes and Pharisees
hypocrites verse 16 whoa undo you blind guides look at verse 23 whoa undo
scribes and Pharisees hypocrites verse 25 whoa undo scribes and Pharisees
hypocrites look at verse 26 thou blind Pharisee look at verse 27 whoa undo
scribes and Pharisees hypocrites look at verse 29 whoa undo scribes and Pharisees
hypocrite do you think Jesus named any names this is one sermon and he named
the Pharisees like eight or nine times in a row just BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM and
then he says in verse 33 he serpents you generation of vipers how can you escape
the damnation of hell Jesus came to preach love and just peace not to the
Pharisees I mean that's pretty clear I mean he wasn't very nice to those
individuals was he so here's the thing I'm not saying hey Pastor Shelley's not
gonna preach against people I'm not saying don't call people out I'm not
saying don't hold people accountable for their wicked false doctrine what I am
saying is let's not troll the enemy and whether that's a frenemy a fool or fake
you know what there's not really a lot of benefit and just following them
around harassing them making all kinds of means about them you know it let's
just focus on who the real enemies are in this world and the right doctrine and
of course you know the purpose of the sermon is really because a lot of people
attacking frenemies are just people that are just probably bad friends you
know what you probably can't attack a literal Pharisee or a reprobate enough
for me to ever get mad at you okay so I'm just being I'm just being honest
like if it was a sodomite I will never criticize you for anything negative you
say about them ever okay you can't you can't criticize them harshly enough to
ever offend me okay so don't worry about that but but look not everybody's
that person now that's one really specific category
people that are not that person I get highly offended when you're really mean
to them even if they're my enemy because it just doesn't make sense and you know
what there's there's godly Chris I mean some of these men that are being
attacked some of our frenemies they didn't even they were a pastor before
the new IP was even real was even a thing and they've been serving God with
their wife and their children and trying to get people saved and trying to
minister unto people for decades and then you just come along because you're
more righteous than them and just attack them it just makes you look like an
idiot and a fool and you have no grace you're not mature and let's be real a
lot of people in our movement are not really that mature they haven't been
saved that long you know this is a bad attitude we should look at other
Baptist and other say people with this high of you and give them as much
benefit of the doubt as possible and you know when they prove us wrong we'll call
them out when they go to an extreme we'll deal with it you know what let's
just leave them alone as much as two that weren't necessarily always the
nicest person to me or whatever you know I'd rather stumble into a bad Christian