Baptist Church, if you could please find your seats and grab your song books.
We're going to be turning to 419.
Sound the battle cry. 419, sound
the battle cry. Song 419,
sound the battle cry. Sing it out nice and loud.
Sound the battle cry, see the foe
is nigh. Praise the standard high for the
Lord. Gird your armor on, stand
firm everyone. Pause upon his
holy word, rouse then soldiers
rally round the banner. Ready, steady
pass the word along. Onward, forward
shout aloud Hosanna, Christ is
captain of the mighty throng. 419 on the
second strong to meet the foe. Marching
on we go while our cause we know must
prevail. Shield and banner bright
gleaming in the light battling for the right
that ne'er can fail. Rouse then soldiers
rally round the banner. Ready, steady
pass the word along. Onward, forward
shout aloud Hosanna, Christ is
captain of the mighty throng.
O thou God of all, hear us when we call.
Help us one and all by thy grace.
When the battle's done and the
victory's won, may we wear the crown before
thy face. Rouse then soldiers rally
round the banner. Ready, steady
pass the word along. Onward, forward
shout aloud Hosanna, Christ is
captain of the mighty throng.
Great singing. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this great morning.
Thank you for our church, for the opportunity to gather together and to freely
sing praises to you and preach the word of God. I pray that you'd please bless this service, that
you'd fill our pastor with the Holy Spirit, and I pray that you'd be with all of our members that are home
sick and help them feel better. We love you in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, let's go to 261. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus. 261
turn your eyes upon Jesus. Song 261
turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Oh soul
are you weary
and troubled
no light in the darkness you see
there's light
for a look at the Savior
and life more
abundant and free
turn your eyes
upon Jesus
look full in His wonderful
face and the
things of earth will grow strangely
dim in the light
of His glory and grace
through death into
life everlasting
He passed and we follow
Him there
over us and no more hath
dominion for more
than conquerors we are
turn your
eyes upon Jesus
look full in His wonderful
face and
the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in
the light of His glory and
grace His word
shall not fail you He promised
believe Him
and all will be well
then go to a world
that is dying
His perfect salvation to
tell turn
your eyes upon Jesus
look full in His
wonderful face
and the things of earth will
grow strangely dim
in the light of His glory
and grace
Good morning thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church if you don't already have a bulletin
just lift your hand nice and high one of our ushers can come by and get you guys a
bulletin we do have donuts this morning on that back table and
if you want to while it's announcements you want to go grab one don't be shy alright I'm not
going to call you out or anything get some donuts if you'd like on the front we have our Bible memory passage
Psalm 146 we're on verse number 9 any child that's able to
quote the verse of the week can get some treat on
the Wednesday service we have our service times our soul winning times
and then our church stats also we have the list of our expecting
ladies continue to pray for all of our expecting ladies
we have a prayer list if you would continue to pray
for our church family also if you'd be in prayer my family's been sick too
and it's been a while James has been sick for like 7-8 days and so
we're just hoping that he'll recover soon and so if you'd just be in prayer
for our family as well also in the back we have the list
of upcoming events January 30th we are going to
have our premiere of the preserved Bible
and if you are planning on coming you need to
email us an RSVP so that way we know how to anticipate
for the theater showings and we're really excited
to debut the film it's been a lot of work
and Ben better get it done soon no I'm just kidding so actually we're
going to wrap up pretty soon we've got it pretty much good to go
and it's actually going to be airing in several different parts of the country
there's going to be a showing in Vancouver Washington theaters
there's going to be on the 28th so that's a Saturday
they actually get to see the film before anybody else just because I like
Pastor Thompson I guess I don't know he's like hey can I do it on Saturday
and I was like if it wasn't you
probably not but he's going to get to do it there on the 28th
we're going to be having it the 30th here we're going to have it Phoenix
it's also going to be in theaters in Oklahoma City on the 30th
and then in Houston Texas is going to be there
I believe Tucson Arizona is also having a showing
of it and so we've got a lot of different places it's going to
also we'll be releasing it online and we're really excited
about it it's definitely kind of geared to be a little bit more of an
educational film so it's going to have a lot of facts and a lot of just history
and things like that but the goal of the film is just to be a really
useful tool in explaining
where we got the Bible and why would you use a King James Bible
or what's the difference between a King James Bible and other Bibles aren't they all
the same and a lot of people are kind of confused on those things also
it just really explains the doctrine of preservation in
practical terms meaning what does that really look like how would God have
preserved the word of God and how did he use men to preserve
the Bible and the scriptures that we have today and so I'm really excited
for the project and I hope it's going to be a blessing to a lot of people also
we'll make a lot of DVDs and we'll put it online and things like that
we have a lot of other information we're going to try and share about it too
we're going to release a lot of our full interviews and deleted scenes
apparently our deleted scenes movie is longer than the original so
Ben had full creative control it would be like an 8 hour film
but we kept it to about 2 hours so we're going to be
a lot of fun and I'm really excited about our project
and being done with it so that we can share it with everybody
if you'd please just promote the film and watch it
it may even be something you watch a couple times because there's a lot of information
and it's a lot of cool things to learn about
and I really encourage people learning about it just so that way they can
increase their faith also February 4th is going to be a small town soul winning
marathon that we're going to have in Cleburne, Texas and so we've been
going to all kinds of different areas sometimes we go north, south, east
west, all over it doesn't really matter. Cleburne is actually south
of the Dallas-Fort Worth area but it's not far it's maybe within about an hour
no matter where you're coming from and so we're going to be having a soul winning marathon there
March 15th we're going to be having a special event
it's called Old West Wednesday and it's not about
Jason so, no I'm just kidding, it's basically
we're going to have a Wednesday night service and we'll all dress up
like the Old West and we'll have a dinner and it'll just be kind of like a
fun night of events, we'll have all kinds of activities
and things like that and so we're already planning
it and it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun and so
I hope you can participate, we'll have photo booth of course so if you dress
up nice and western we can
accommodate you with some cool pics and of course cowboy hats are more than welcome
and so April 1st we're going to have a Dallas, Texas
soul winning marathon and then April 24th to the 29th
long time coming but we have rescheduled our Bahamas
missions trip and I know there's actually a decent number of people that are going to be
visiting and coming with us, not from our church, from other churches
all over the area and we've already got several people
that have already confirmed and sent us itineraries but if you do plan on
participating we need you to send us your flight itinerary
now of course you can always just travel there whenever you want on your own
that's fine but if you want us to help you with lodging
and any kind of accommodations you've got to send us your flight itinerary
so in that way we understand like when you're coming and going and we can kind of
organize everything appropriately and even if you tell me I will for sure forget
so that's why you have to email it to me so that way I can reference it
but I'm really looking forward to this trip the Bahamas is something you do need
a passport for but you know they speak English
very well there's no like I don't even know if they speak
any other language really virtually probably none it's probably similar to the United States in that regard
their accents are very minimal in comparison to other Caribbean
islands it's not like Jamaica where you're kind of like what?
they're more proper in their English
and so it's actually pretty easy to understand them and honestly
it's a really fruitful area I know that there was a small group from Faith a Word
that went and they went soloing for a couple weeks and they got like maybe 400
salvation or something like that and I know that brother Conley
and I when we went we only went soloing for a few hours every day but
we had like 32 salvations I think in just a period of a few days
just me and him by ourselves and I know that we've had other groups
we had a group from our church like a couple soul winners go
down there and they had several dozen salvations when they
went so every time people have gone it's been very receptive we actually
know some people on the island like locals and they're going to try and help us
God willing set up maybe some school appointments where we could preach in some schools
and things like that and those are some awesome opportunities because schools
across the pond I mean that's England but
schools you know in the Caribbean or in other parts of the world are way different
than the public schools here so the schools here they're putting men in dresses
and reading books to them there they have to read the Bible and do
devotional every morning so like the schools are just way different
and like talking about the Bible or Christianity is like
mainly their focus it's not like taboo or an issue or anything
like that so they love the Bible being preached in their schools
it's emphasized of course they're King James only whether they like
whether they understand it or not they are and so of course you have a lot of great
opportunities and so not only is the Bahamas a destination
spot and a cool travel area and one of the most beautiful places I've ever been
it's honestly a great evangelistic opportunity and so
it's kind of a double win you know when you go to Mexico you kind of like
but the soul winning is great okay
the Bahamas is like every check mark you could ever want so
it's a really great trip I'm trying to promote it okay obviously alright
but you know God willing he's going to let us get down
there and I think that if we can get down there we're going to have a big success
and we're going to be able to pass out lots of our church information
and DVDs and preach the gospel to a lot of people
and hopefully just evangelize that area that area needs the gospel just as much
as any area and so that's pretty much all I have
as far as events we do have the congratulations to the Cooley family
on the birth of Victoria Estelle Cooley she was born
on the 8th at 1059 p.m. weighing 7 pounds 14 ounces
and was 20 and a half inches long so congratulations to them
there is a
sign up sheet for meal train I believe if you want to talk with Miss Milstead
she's usually your best point of contact on meal trains and everything like that so
congratulations to them it's very exciting that's pretty
much all that I had for announcements
let's go ahead and go to our third song 409
the fight is on
409 the fight is on 409 the fight is on
The fight is on
The trumpet sound is ringing out The cry to arms
Is heard afar and near The Lord of hosts
Is marching on to victory The triumph of
above The Christ will soon appear
The fight is on O Christian soldier
And face to face in stern array
With armor gleaming and colors streaming
The right and wrong engage today
The fight is on but be not
bearing His might hold fast
If God before us is better
or us we'll sing the victor song
at last The fight is on
A rousey soldier's brave and true Jehovah
leads and victory will assure
Come on, come on The armor gun has given you an
in history Forever we'll endure
The fight is on O Christian soldier
And face to face in stern array
With armor gleaming and colors streaming
The right and wrong engage today
The fight is on but be not
bearing His might hold fast
If God before us is
better or us we'll sing the victor song
at last The fight is
leading on to certain victory The blow
of promise bears the eastern sky
His glorious name in every land shall honor
be the morn will break The dawn of peace is
nigh The fight is on O Christian
soldier And face to face in stern array
With armor gleaming
and colors streaming The right and wrong engage
today The fight is on but
be not bearing Be strong and in
His might hold fast If God before
us is better or us We'll sing the victor
song at last
Great singing as the offering plates are being passed around please turn your Bibles to Matthew 14
Matthew chapter 14
The Bible reads
At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus
and said unto his disciples, This is John the Baptist. He has risen
from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves
in him. For as he saw the dead, he saw the dead, and he saw the dead.
He saw the dead, and he saw the dead.
They will show forth themselves in him. For Herod had laid hold on John and bound
him and put him in prison for Herodias sake, his brother Philip's wife.
For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude because
they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birthday
was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased
Herod, whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever
she would ask. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said,
Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.
And the king was sorry, nevertheless for the oath's sake, and
them which sat with him at meet, he commanded it to be given her.
And he sent and beheaded John in the prison.
And his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel, and she
brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took up the body
and buried it and went and told Jesus. When Jesus heard of
it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart.
And when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.
And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with
compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. And when it was
evening, his disciples came to him saying, This is a desert place
and the time has now passed. Send the multitude away that they
may go into the villages and buy themselves vittles.
But Jesus said unto them, They need not to part, give ye them to eat.
And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves
and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me.
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and took the
five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed
and break and gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the
multitude. And they did all eat and were filled, and
they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
And they that had eaten were about five thousand men beside
women and children. And straightway Jesus constrained his
disciples to get into a ship and to go before him unto the other side
while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes
away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray.
And when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship
was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was
contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto
them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit.
And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them,
saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid.
And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come
unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was
come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and
beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And
immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto
him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.
Then they that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying, Of a truth,
thou art the Son of God. And when they were gone over, they came
into the land of Jannasser. And when the men of that place had knowledge
of him, they sent out into all that country round about and
brought unto him all that were diseased and besought him that they might
only touch the hem of his garment. And as many as touched
were made perfectly whole. Let's bow our heads for a word
of prayer. Father in heaven, we ask now,
Lord, for your blessings upon the fullness of the Holy Ghost,
upon Pastor Shelley. Lord, I pray that you give him clarity of mind as he preaches his sermon
to us, enabling him to preach it with boldness. And Lord, help us
as we listen to apply this sermon to our lives
and be a doer of the word rather than a hearer only.
We love you. We ask for your protection over this church.
And I pray this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
So I want to look back at verse 25 again. Let's just read this. The Bible says
In the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea.
And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a
spirit, and they cried out for fear. But straight away
Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer. It is
I. Be not afraid. And Peter answered him
and said, Lord, if it be thou bid me come unto thee
on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was
come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to
Jesus. And the Bible tells us that the apostle
Peter at this point in time, the disciple Peter, walked
on water. And that's really where I'm drawing the title of my sermon this morning.
He walked on water. He walked on water.
This is an incredible miracle, an incredible feat
upon which the disciple Peter performed. And of course
this is an obvious miracle of the Bible. A lot of
people that don't have faith in God, they don't believe in the
Christian Bible, they'll mock at stories like this and say,
Oh, Peter was actually standing on a high place.
It looked like he was walking on water or it was a trick
or people were confused. But the Bible is clear, this is
a real miracle where the apostle Paul, he didn't walk on rock.
He didn't walk on ground. He walked on the water just as
the Lord Jesus Christ walked on water. And of course
this is something that's impossible. Humanly speaking
you can't walk on water. It doesn't matter how fast you are.
It doesn't matter how light you are as a man. You can't walk on water.
There are certain animals and amphibians that have
an ability to kind of skip across water very quickly
and it's kind of unique to their exoskeleton in the sense that they're so light
and they can travel quickly enough. Then there's enough water tension
for them to be able to kind of gracefully skip across. But for us
as humans, we're too dense. We have too much weight. Gravity is pulling
at us and the surface tension of water is not enough for us to stand
unless it was ice. Therefore, it's very obvious that this is
a miracle. And that's an important point because what you have
to realize is that God enables man
to do things that are not possible humanly speaking.
God allows us to do things that are not possible
but are really impossible humanly speaking.
And of course what I like about this story is it shows that
God wants man to do things that are impossible on their own
but possible through God. They're possible through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And while I never, you know, unless God really wants
me to, I'm never going to walk on water. I don't believe that I probably ever
will. There's no obvious reason why I ever would.
I don't see anywhere in the Bible that's going to tempt me to even try it.
So of course if God wants me to, I'll do it, but I don't believe
that I'll ever walk on water and I don't believe that you will ever walk on water.
I don't believe this is suggesting to try and walk on water.
If you're in the sea, don't start just trying to walk on water.
Peter did not just try to walk on water. Look what the
Bible says again in verse 28, and Peter answered
and said, Lord, if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water.
He didn't say, hey, I'm just going to start walking on water. What did he say? He said, if you
ask me to walk on the water, I'll do it. Now why
would he even think that? Why would Peter even ask this? You know,
did Jesus say, hey, Peter, do you want to walk on water today?
Did Jesus say, hey, Peter, have you ever thought about walking on water?
Let me ask you this question. Why would Peter even have such a thought
since he's never seen anybody walk on water in his entire life?
And Peter is a fisherman. So, of course, Peter has seen people on the
water, been around people on the water. If anybody had ever walked on water, Peter would have
heard of it. Peter would have seen it. Peter would have known about it.
No one's ever walked on water. There's no story of people walking on water. This is an inconceivable
idea. Why would Peter think, can I walk on
water? Because Jesus was walking on water. That's why.
And you know what I like about this is there's so many people, they will criticize you
when you look at something in the New Testament and you start
doing it and they say, oh, well, that's not for you to do. Only Jesus
can do that. That's a small faith. That's someone that
doesn't believe in the Bible. Because you know what? Christ is our example and we
can look at things that Christ did that, albeit are impossible,
but if he did it, why can't I do it if
God bid me? Of course, there are certain things Christ did that I can't do. Christ forgave
sin. I can't forgive your sin. Christ did certain things that I can't do.
He died for the sins of the world on the cross. I can't die for anybody's sin.
Right? But let me say this. God's never going to ask me to do those things.
But it could be, I could look at an example that Jesus did,
I could look at something in the Bible that one of the men of God did that might seem
impossible, humanly speaking, but I see that God's telling me to
try and do that and I can follow the word of God. I can follow
God's commandments and I could do something that's impossible. I could do something
that I can't accomplish on my own, physically speaking.
I can only do it if God bid me. If God is with me.
If God enables me to do the impossible. And so point one
of this morning's sermon is this. Do something
that is not possible. Do something that is not possible.
The apostle Peter does something that's not possible, humanly
speaking. And you have to wonder, like, how did he do this?
Well, I'm going to give you a way to do this,
but we're going to come back to this story, so keep your finger here because we're going to come
back later, all right? But go to Mark chapter nine. Go to Mark chapter number nine.
And Christ had told him, be of good cheer, be not afraid. You know, when Jesus walked on the water, it was kind of a scary
sight, because no one's ever walked on water. They're thinking, like, what kind of ghost or
what is this? A spirit or some, you know, demon or what is this?
But then they're like, oh, this is Jesus. And they were, they were like, wow.
And of course, Peter's reaction is to walk on the water with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, you say, well, this sounds, this sounds too good to be true,
Pastor Shelley. How do I do something that's not possible? How do I do something that
humanly speaking I'm incapable of doing? But I'm going to say this. Every person
that's saved can do something that's not possible, humanly speaking.
Let me show you this. Mark chapter nine, verse seventeen.
And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son,
which hath a dumb spirit, and whithersoever he taketh him, he tareth
them, and he fometh, and nasheth with his teeth, and pined the way, and I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not. And he answered
them, and sayeth, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long
shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him,
and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him, and he fell on the ground, and
wallowed foaming, and he asked his father, How long is it ago since
this came unto him? And he said of a child, and oftentimes
he hath cast him into the fire, and of the waters to destroy
him, but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help
us. So there's a man who wants his child
to be healed of a demonic spirit, and this demonic spirit is often
trying to kill this child. Notice what the attributes are of
someone that's demon possessed, they're trying to kill themselves. And notice that it's
also happening to a child. You know, it's interesting, we have in America today
an epidemic of suicide in young people and in children, and they always
want to blame things like video games. They want to blame things like
drugs, or they want to blame violence, or a bad home
life, and of course all those things can contribute, but notice in the scripture
it's actually people that are demon possessed. Notice that it's actually a spiritual issue
in the scripture, and I believe today it's actually no different
that the reason why many children are killing themselves, it's a spiritual issue
and that they need someone to give them the gospel of Jesus Christ
and to get them saved, and to get that demon out of their body, because
you know, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, and you know what, whenever you're
saved, there is no spirit that can take over your body, there is no
demon that can destroy you from within, and therefore the actual
solution to demon possession is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And to get children saved, to go out and to
give the youth the gospel. And what does Jesus say?
Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth. They say, hey, the disciples can't get this guy
saved. They can't rescue him from his infirmity. They can't
rescue him from this demon possession, but you know what, Christ said, hey, if you believe
you can. And I'll tell you this, there are certain people in your life that might be
really hard to get saved, spiritually speaking, but you know what,
it's possible. It's possible if you believe. It's possible
if you are willing to be a vessel to pray
and to seek the Lord and to minister to this person's life, you could
change someone, you could change someone's destiny to go to Heaven.
And we're talking about children here. Of course, every child, I believe, has a chance to go to Heaven.
You know, every child is loved by God. Red, yellow, black, and white.
They're all precious in his sight. And of course, we need to get them saved while they're young
and there's still hope. Because it could come a point where someone's no longer
a child, they're no longer a youth, they've gotten to a point where they're no longer going to have that chance
to be saved. And so it's important for us to minister to the youth,
to minister to the young, and to try to get them saved despite what
evils they're going into. You know, with society
going so downhill so quickly, and with a reprobate culture
that we live in, I believe that there's a lot of children that are being
drug into a reprobate lifestyle that are not reprobate. That don't
want to be that way, that don't like what's going on, they're not, they're confused,
they're being taken advantage of, they're being hurt. And so, you know, as
a church that does believe in the reprobate doctrine, we should be careful not to
just write off young people that may be in a really
confused position, or confused state, and we don't know.
You know, it's so funny to me, I get criticized a lot
of basically turning people away from Christ. People will say,
oh, your preaching turns people away from Christ, and, you know, your movie is like
the Sodomite deception, it turns people away from Christ. And I'm thinking, well, there's
one of me and there's like 10,000 of the other guy. So, I mean,
numerically speaking, I don't know why it's that big a deal. Secondly,
as I say, I guarantee that
99% of these pastors that disagree with me on the reprobate doctrine,
I personally minister to more reprobates and try to get them saved than they do.
And I kid you not, I've given the full gospel
to tons of reprobates, because I didn't know any better, or I gave them benefit
of the doubt, or whatever the issue is, and, you know, one thing that's
common is reprobates don't get saved. But, I'll tell you what,
is it any coincidence that the guy you're so mad at and you criticize
so much as being so hateful seems to minister to more reprobates
than you do? I don't even believe they can be saved and I'm trying to give them
the gospel. You think they can be saved and you're not giving them the gospel.
You're not even ministering to them. You're not going out there and trying to preach them the gospel.
So which one's worse? Is it worse for me to think in my mind you probably couldn't
get saved and give you the gospel and give you a chance anyways, or to think you could and then never
help you or to help you try to get there. Never minister to you and give you an opportunity.
I mean, I know it's one I'd rather be. The one that believes the Bible and
gives everybody a chance. And of course the Bible says, a man that is
an heretic after the first and second ammunition, reject. But you know, let's give
him the first and second ammunition. Go to
Matthew chapter 19, Matthew chapter 19. Now of course, you know, this is talking about a demon
possession and I don't believe that as New Testament Christians
since we're not apostles that we have some special gifting to
just cast out demons or cast out devils. You know, I can't walk up to
somebody and just, shakalalalala! And they're just going to like,
the demon's going to be like, ah! You know, it's not Ghostbusters.
You know, I'm not going to get there and have like some kind of exorcism
and they're just like, ah! You know, I would be nervous
if I was around somebody and they're exhibiting these attributes, okay?
They're called the Pentecostal Church is what it really is. That's where most people are probably demon
possessed. But, you know, they're barking like a dog in
church folks. I've seen the videos, okay? They do some
weird junk. And even if they did that, you know, I don't
I don't think I have any special capability
to do anything. I'm not going to do a seance. I'm not going to say a special, you know,
wording, prayer or something like that. But you know what I do believe
that you can do? I do believe you can still rescue someone from
demon possession, but the way you do that is by preaching them the gospel.
Because if you preach them the gospel and they get saved, the Holy Ghost can kick
that sucker out. I can't do it, but the Holy Ghost can.
And you know what? If I'm going to exorcise someone, I'm going to exorcise
them with the truth. I'm going to exorcise them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I'm going to minister unto them the truth of God's word and that
is going to help them get saved. You know, Jesus Christ did confront many
people, if you think about it, that were demon possessed. What did
Jesus really do to heal these people? He didn't do some kind of a special thing
or like dance on the floor. He basically
just preached to them and then the demon left. I mean, if you think
about what he did. And so if you ever talk to somebody that seems
troubled or seems to have issues, you know, I don't have like a special
way to minister to that person. It's the same. Give them the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And look what it says in Matthew chapter 19 verse 23.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter
in the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed
saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them
and said unto them, With men this is impossible.
Notice what the Bible said. I didn't say this. The Bible says
that it is impossible for men to be saved
by men. Men cannot
get men saved. But what does it say? But with God all things are possible.
Meaning this, if I go and I minister to somebody
without the Spirit, without the
power of the Holy Ghost, I could not get them saved. Judas
did not get anybody saved, folks. I don't even care if he repeated
the right gospel. It didn't get him saved because a man can't get a man saved.
Now a saved man could get someone saved. Why? Because
of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us. And with God all things
are possible. But is it any coincidence that men
go out and try to save souls all the time but they never save themselves?
You know the Mormons go out and they minister to people. The Jehovah's Witnesses
go out and they minister to people. And you know I'll tell you another thing. They go out
and they fail is what they do. They fail and fail and fail.
I've done all kinds of business transactions and sales in my life
and let me tell you something. Selling things to people is one of the hardest jobs
you'll have. You know I never envy someone that's in sales
because sales is a very stressful job. There's a lot of problems
and a very stressful job. There's a lot of pressure. It takes a lot of effort.
It takes a lot of energy to sell something to people. And especially
if you have a product that they don't already believe in. And think about
this way. Everyone that's not saved doesn't believe the gospel yet.
So you're having to try and get someone to change their mind and get
a quote unquote product that they didn't already believe in.
They didn't even know they wanted it in many cases. You have to try and convince them.
And look getting someone a product or a service or something that they don't already
feel like they need or want is a very difficult task. And I would
say this. I do not believe I could get anybody saved or have
any success without God's Spirit. Because if you
told me, hey Pastor Shelley. You're going to have to go out and talk to
these people that have been Catholic their whole life. They've
been taught something completely different their whole life. And in 15 minutes
you have to get them to reject their entire religion.
Their entire church. Their entire church history.
Basically what their whole family believes. Everything
in 15 minutes. I would say that's impossible.
Because it is. That is impossible folks.
I mean what if you said, hey I'm going to go to someone's house and in 15 minutes
I'm going to convince them their parents are not their parents. They didn't even
grow up where they were. They're living in the matrix or something.
I mean that's not going to happen quickly. You probably
couldn't even do it. Frankly speaking. No one's going to convince. You know go around and convince
people that Santa Claus is real. How much success
do you think you would have? Going to grown adults knocking on their door and saying
hey I want to convince you to believe in Santa today.
But that's because that's a fairy tale. That's because that's fake.
That's because there's nothing. What if you went around and said hey I'm going to convince you to believe in Thor today.
How about non-Muslims?
How about convincing anybody to believe in Allah without the threat
of death. Without the threat of harassment and persecution.
See how many people would believe in the Muslim religion if it wasn't forced down their
throats. You know we don't go around forcing Christianity
on anyone. In fact I'm so easy
to get off your property. I mean if you just even start closing the door I'm like
bye. I mean go around
and try and convince people of all kinds of these stupid religions.
I mean actually just tell people what the Mormons really believe in trying to get someone to be a Mormon.
They can't even get people to believe in Mormonism when they lie to them.
Let alone if they told them the truth about it.
Let alone if they told. I mean how many people have watched the banned Mormon cartoon on YouTube
and then became a Mormon?
No one's like oh that's what they believe? Kolob here I come.
You know no one's going to believe in that junk
after they actually know what they believe. Actually read their books that says
hey if you don't repent of your sins then you're going to basically be a black person.
I mean that's what Mormonism teaches. Why do you think that they're
all snow white and look like Dylan?
There was a reason because they repented of their sins folks.
You guys got some work. We all got to strive to be like
Dylan. Yeah exactly they're racist.
But just think about it logically folks. If Christianity was not real.
If the Gospel wasn't true. If the Bible is a story
of fairy tales written by a bunch of misogynists.
From the patriarchy. Why is it that people will change their
mind on a dime like this thing? It's because we're walking on water folks.
It's because we're able to do something that's impossible
because we have the Spirit of God in our hearts. Because we have the power
of the Holy Ghost. Because the scripture is true. Because it's
compelling. And you know what we should go out there and do the impossible and
get people saved by preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
You know there's so many people today. There's so many children that say I'm not special. But let me tell you something
you can walk on water. Hey why don't you go soloing with me and we'll preach the Gospel
and we'll do the impossible. We'll do the impossible together
we'll go out and preach together. Oh well I want to actually walk on water. Why that's vain.
I mean think about it. Oh I'd rather walk on
water than get someone saved. That's vain and you have a bad heart.
Because who cares about walking on water. The point of the story is not to see who
can walk on water. The point is to show you that if God bids you to do the impossible
you can do it. And you know what Jesus told us we can get people saved and you know what
you can. People do it every single day in this world
there are Christians going out and ministering the Gospel and you know what even if it's
the hard case you can do the impossible. You've got to open mouth boldly and preach
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know what there's plenty of people in this room I know
you're praying for a hard case. You're wanting a hard case. But you know what
you need to have the faith that you can do the impossible. You need to have the faith that if you open
your mouth boldly and you make known the mystery of the Gospel their heart can change.
But let me tell you something if you never step out of the boat you will never walk on water.
You know how many people are going to fall
down and say hey I know you've never given the Gospel will you please give it to me
right now and you weren't. You didn't even ask me if I care. I mean people
are not going to just beg you to get saved. How many people have had someone
beg you to get saved. Okay well I haven't either. No one.
Isn't that strange. Let me ask you this. Did Jesus ask
Peter to come on the water or did Peter first ask?
Peter first asked. And let me say this you know
people are probably not going to go around. Jesus isn't going to come down from heaven and say hey
will you go soul winning. You know you've got to say you look at the Bible and you say hey Lord
if thou bid me. And then you just look at John 17 and he's like hey he's sending you out in the world.
And you're like okay let's go. Let's go out into the world
and preach the Gospel to every creature. Let's do the impossible
and you know when we read the Bible instead of thinking like well I wish I
could you know do the miracles. You know John the Baptist was the
greatest man to ever live and he did no miracle. But you know
what he did do. He preached the Gospel. And you know he went out into the wilderness
and he preached the Gospel and tons of people got saved and you know what makes him great
he was a Baptist. And you know what us as Baptist we preach the Gospel
I don't do any miracle. You know what I can do the impossible with Jesus Christ.
And you know what it's still a miracle. It's just God
is doing it. I can't do it. God does the miracle of the spiritual birth and getting
people saved and transforming them from the inside out
and making them a son of God. I mean a great birth
and anybody that's watched physical birth knows it's a miracle. Have you ever
seen a child being born. It is the most incredible thing.
It's amazing the miracle of a physical birth. But let me tell you spiritual is better.
Spiritual birth is better. It's more
important. It's what we should be focused on. It's why we're here.
You say why am I in America in 2023. Why is
it that there's so much pressure and so much you know attack
on a church like this. It's because we are here to preach the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. You think that a church like ours is going to go out and evangelize
with dozens and dozens of soul winners and go to the most receptive places
on the world preaching the Gospel and try to make documentaries changing
people's mind and getting them on the Word of God and there'll be no attack.
What planet are you living on? What kind of Bible are you reading? Because
everywhere I read that Christians are doing a big work for God there's resistance.
Every time someone tries to stand up and do a public work for Jesus Christ
let me tell you what the devil sees it and the devil comes after them
with all he's got. But you know what the gates of hell shall not prevail.
We're going to go out and preach the Gospel of the day and we're going to get people saved
and you can't stop me. You can't stop us.
Oh you can't walk on water. Well I can't but you know what Jesus can help me.
And you know what I can't get people saved on my own but you know what
with the Gospel with the King James Bible I can't get people saved.
Going to Exodus. Actually go back to Matthew for a second
and let's go to a second point here. Point one, do something impossible.
Do something impossible. And you know
this applies to so many areas of our life.
I think that Steadfast Baptist Church
also has an impossible history.
Because you know when you think about a few years ago
the church going through some pretty ridiculous turmoil.
Having a pastor commit the sins that he did
for this church is very detrimental to a
church. It's not like that's common you know that a church
is going to go through that event and then continue.
And it doesn't even matter the size of the church. You think well it was a smaller one
so you know it's even harder for a smaller one. If it was a bigger one it would be easier.
Well let me tell you about another church. It was a church called Harvest
Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas.
Harvest Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas had over 3,800
members. That's a few more than we have.
By about 3,800. No I'm just kidding.
I mean that's a lot of people. They have one of the biggest
they have a 2,000, I'm sorry 200,000 square foot facility.
That's a pretty big space.
They have football fields and baseball fields and all kinds of stuff. Well it turns out
the pastor was you know with the secretary
and women and just all kinds of weird stuff going on right? It comes out
multiple adulteraries you know public.
Well their Sunday morning attendance would be 1,800 people.
And the next Sunday after this scandal was like
going public 600 people. So they literally cut their
attendance down by you know 2 thirds
in just one week. Just one week just like that.
And I mean this was one of the biggest churches in the area. In fact it was the largest employer
in the entire city of Watauga. So the number one employer
of all of Watauga was Harvest Baptist Church.
Just like that 2 thirds gone.
And you say well where's Harvest Baptist Church today? Gone.
3,800 people, 200,000 square foot
facility eviscerated like that.
And you say like wow.
If that could happen to them, couldn't happen to others. And look you look at other ministries
happens all the time. Tons of false prophets, false teachers, weirdos,
creeps. They get into pulpits or in fact probably some good men
just commit really bad sin. I mean David committed adultery.
So if David can commit adultery there's going to be other saved men that maybe they're
just not being very spiritual. Maybe they're not walking with the Lord. They become really
carnal. They've got a love of money in their heart. Just some kind of issue.
Maybe they're a novice and they're lifted up with pride and they fall
into the condemnation of the devil. You know you can't say that just every pastor
that goes bad was a false prophet. Some of them are just bad people.
Have you ever read the Bible? I mean a lot of good men go bad.
And even if they go bad though
a lot of times the ministry goes down with them just because
of their mistake. You know one sinner destroyeth much good.
Is unfortunately the truth and the reality.
And I'll tell you what coming up here to take on a church that you know I was a young pastor
I mean I've only been pastoring for a handful of months at that point
and to try and take on a church that had a lot of turmoil and think about
just think about some of the resistance that happened and the transition of taking
on staff. Some of the people that were not on board making public
videos trying to split churches all kinds of issues happening
and yet all of the churches
that were in existence are still in existence today.
Not only are they all in existence in fact many of them are thriving
beyond what they were. I mean it wasn't like we went from
3800 members down to like 600
we went from like 120 to like 220
and you say like how did that happen? I mean did y'all have
a good reputation after that? No.
Well what if you Google you? Don't.
I mean if you Google us I think the top 30 results are all bad. It's just like
there's not a good result. You know it's just like whatever. Now of course
that's humanly speaking someone that actually loves the Bible every result's good.
Because you're just like oh yeah I agree with that that's the Bible yep. Hey I like
this Dylan Oz preacher he's a good guy you know. He should preach
more right? So it depends on your perspective
here but what I'm telling you is for a church think about this
a false prophet let's just say Christianity is not real and you have a false prophet
and he gets caught in a scandal. How does their church then thrive
after that? How does the church grow after that? And with
a young leader you know that probably could make mistakes and has made
mistakes it's like that's impossible but no no no
he walked on water why? Because God helped him because it was
possible and you know we walked on water because God was
with us and God is still with us and our church is still walking
on water and we're still doing the impossible and no matter what foe comes
our way you know what our church can thrive and serve the Lord Jesus
Christ because it's not about us it's about him and Jesus
Christ wants this church to thrive not for our glory but for his glory.
And let me tell you something our church's continuing existence
has not been for our glory. I mean
if you think that we're getting glory out of this you're deceived read the
actually Google us okay? We're not getting any glory
out of this. It's an embarrassment it's an approach
right to be a part of our church but you know what on God's behalf he's glorified
you know what God's getting glory and you know what God's people
look at our church and say wow there's a church that God must be
blessing because how is it that more people just keep coming and more people just
keep getting saved and it just keeps growing and you can't shut it down
and God is with us it's because we're serving God
we're serving God and you know point two
of my sermon is this why did he walk on water? To serve God
he did it to serve God. Look at what it says in
verse number 29 again and he said come when Peter was come down out of the ship
he walked on the water why? To go to
Jesus. Notice folks it doesn't say just for fun
to seem cool to show off to the other disciples he didn't get
on the water and was like doing a tap dance he wasn't doing it
for any kind of thing he did it to go to Jesus
he did it to serve God he did it because he wanted to be
with Jesus Christ and of course that's why God wants us to do the
impossible and so that we can be with him. Go to Exodus chapter 3
go to Exodus chapter 3 you say hey why is it so important to have
church so that we can serve God. You know church
it's not about a building it's not about you
getting friendships it's not about you feeling fun inside
it's not about me just being a hospital to minister
to your needs you know what you're here to serve God and if you're not
here to serve God go anywhere else because I don't care
you say but wait a minute Pastor Sally what about
the other stuff I don't care but wait a minute what about my feelings
I don't care you know me serving
God is more important than your feelings me and my family doing
right and doing what God wants us to do is more important than all the other junk
you know what if God blesses us with a great building and look
we're in a great building today then praise God
God will bless us with all kinds of different things God will put us where we need to be
people love us everyone loves us they just hate reprobates
okay and so of course you know reprobates are always going to be a detriment to
everyone but you know what everybody likes us no one likes the reprobate why do you think
there's a propaganda campaign constantly to tell
everyone to hate us and love them it's because everybody loves us
and they hate them that's why everybody loves the ministers
of truth you know even Herod he liked John the Baptist he was
a subscriber to his YouTube channel he watched all the
sermons you know it's like why does everybody
listen to our sermons it's because they like it
it's because it's cool it's because it's interesting why did everybody go out into the
wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach because he was preaching the Bible
and it wasn't because John the Baptist was cool it's because the Bible's cool
it's because the Holy Ghost is cool and you know one of the
coolest things about church is I'll preach a sermon about topic A
and the Holy Ghost will hit you all over the side of the head with topic B
I didn't even bring it up the Holy Ghost will start just
ministering to you and explaining all kinds of things to you you'll see things in the Bible
and you know what when a congregation is gathered together you know you're going to be
edified by God and we're here to serve God and we're here to give
God a smile on his face this morning God gets a smile on his face by seeing you
in church God gets a smile on his face by hearing you sing this morning
God gets a smile on his face by your heart changing inside
by hearing the word of God being preached you know that's why you go to church folks
why would you why what ask all the other stuff about church
is a dumb reason to go to church it's dumb to go for friends it's dumb to go
for you know coffee
coffee's not worth it anyways okay folks it's dumb to go
for it's close to my house you know there's a lot of reasons people go to church
it's dumb to do it just for a social network
you know the right reason is for serving God and the children of Israel
had a similar situation throughout the Bible here in Exodus
they're you know in captivity to Egypt and of course they're going through a great
suffering in Egypt and God wants to deliver them out of that suffering you know God
in heaven will allow his people to suffer but don't
take that as God doesn't care don't take that as God's
don't take that as God's not noticing don't think well where is God
or why is God allowing that to happen you know God will allow us to go through
tribulation and affliction for his glory to test our character
to test and see what our spirit is like and of course the children of Israel
crying unto the Lord he hears those prayers and he wants to answer those prayers
he wants to rescue them from their affliction now it says in Exodus chapter 3 verse 15
and God said moreover unto Moses thus shalt thou say unto the children
of Israel the Lord God of your fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob
hath sent me unto you this is my name forever
and this is my memorial unto all generations go and gather the elders of
Israel together and say unto them the Lord God of your fathers
the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob appeared unto me saying
I have surely visited you and seen that which is done
to you in Egypt and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction
of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites
and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the
Watogites I'm sorry Jebusites I wrote that word
unto a land flowing with milk and honey and they shall hearken
to thy voice and thou shalt come thou and the elders of Israel
unto the king of Egypt and ye shall say unto him the Lord
God of the Hebrews hath met with us and now let us go
we beseech thee three days journey into the wilderness that we may
sacrifice to the Lord our God notice how they
interpret church sacrifice to the Lord our God
you know going to church well I want it to be convenient that's not a sacrifice
I want it to be fun that's not a sacrifice
I want it to be short that's not a sacrifice
I want it to be pleasant to the ears that's not a sacrifice you know church
to them was a sacrifice church to them
was a journey Pastor Shelley it takes me 30 minutes well it takes them three days
through the wilderness no air conditioning
nothing in fact you don't think that their kids and wives
complained at all you wives know that that's not true
okay you might complain in the car ride let alone a three day journey
through the wilderness carrying your child carrying the babies
I mean walking through dust and dirt and just
all kinds of weird things going on all the animals
you don't think the animals smelt and you know maybe they were good at leading
animals but what if the animals got a little ahead of you you know you're going to be stepping in
I mean you think that this was a cool
journey it was a brutal journey it was rough
but you know what God wanted to do it so that they could serve him
now it says in verse number 19 and I am sure that the king
of Egypt will not let you go no not by a mighty hand you know when you
want to serve God what is the world going to say oh no problem
is the world going to say hey that's no issue with us
go have fun go serve God we don't you can do your own thing
no in fact I guaranteed Egypt you could probably worship any false
God you wanted I mean you could be a Jehovah's Witness you could be a Mormon
you could be a Methodist you could be a Presbyterian you could be a Catholic you could be whatever you want
but you know if you're a Baptist that's a problem
the shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians according to the scripture
and they even said if you know the Bible well
they said hey if we do our sacrifice in the sight of the Egyptians they'll stone us
saying hey if we just have open church service they're
going to just kill us because they just can't handle it they can't handle the preaching
they can't handle the word of God they can't handle what the Bible says
that's why they had to go out that's why they had to get away from them a little bit
verse 20 and I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof
and after that he will let you go you know God had to perform a miracle to get them out of there
God had to perform a miracle to deliver them and what's interesting is
before God performed the miracle what did he do he made it harder
do you remember that even the king of Egypt
Pharaoh is putting all kinds of requirements
on them that is impossible to gather straw at night and to try and make
more bricks and their burdens were increased
they had to work a double shift to provide for their family sounds like American
inflation you know you have to work a double shift just to provide sometimes it seems like
and there's all these different pressures there's all these different things going on
that make it very difficult a lot of political pressure
people were being beaten for wanting to serve God
you know it's interesting how a church could struggle when you're not even
being beaten physically I mean these people are getting beaten
physically I mean they're going under all kinds of stress their babies
have been thrown in the river I mean all kinds of evil has happened under these people
yet God is going to deliver them eventually and you have to keep the
faith despite all adversity despite any circumstance
and just say hey I'm going to walk on the water and of course what happens
they are led to the Red Sea and they have to cross the Red Sea but that's impossible
isn't it unless you can walk on water
you know what God did is he parted the Red Sea and let them walk through didn't he
and they did the impossible but why did they do the impossible
how did God enable them to do the impossible because they were there to serve God
the journey on the water was to walk to Jesus
the journey to the Red Sea was to cross the Red Sea
to serve God and let me tell you something God will enable you to do
impossible things when your journey is towards him when your journey is to
get to God he'll make a way he'll let you walk on the water
he'll let you walk through the water but whatever the obstacle there is
he can just make the impossible possible for you and you can get there
if your journey is for him if your journey is to serve
God and you know what that's what our lives should be you know why is our church thriving
I believe it's only one reason because we continually try to serve God because we've been in a journey
walking towards him are we perfect of course not
is everything about our church great there's probably room for improvement I'm sure
I'm sure of it yet I know this I know that we
have a heart and a desire to walk towards Jesus and that's why God's been
blessing us the moment we stop having a desire to walk to Jesus
and to serve Jesus then we're going to have problems go to Hebrews chapter 11
go to Hebrews chapter 11 in fact what happened to Peter as soon as Peter heard the wind
and the waves what happened
what's the first thing that happens he was afraid
the first thing that happened is he became afraid
what's the second thing that happened then he sank
so what's the problem the problem is you're not allowed
to be afraid the Bible makes it clear we are
not allowed to be afraid God doesn't want us to just walk towards him
he doesn't want us to just serve him he wants us to walk and not even be
afraid at the same time because when you start to become afraid
you start to sink why is it that when you're afraid you sink because when you're
afraid you start worrying about everything and you start worrying about things that aren't even real
things that aren't going to happen well what happens if the Egyptians get down here
well they didn't did they so why worry about that well what happens
it doesn't matter because it didn't happen it's not happening
don't worry about things that are not happening the worst thing you can do as a Christian
is worry about things that are not happening sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof
the Bible tells us not to worry for tomorrow you might not even live
you might die tonight why are you worried about tomorrow
you might die this afternoon and you're so worried about tomorrow
why don't you start worrying about now why don't you start worrying about if you're right with God
right now why don't you worry about where you're headed right now and let
tomorrow worry about itself and let the problems worry about
itself tomorrow because you know I'll tell you this if God was
able to reveal to me all the problems I was going to have in the last three years
three years ago I would have probably not walked
the same direction I'd have been like wait a minute and that and
that wait a minute and that it's like but you know when I take it
one day at a time okay alright well that sucked but tomorrow I'll probably be better okay it sucked too
but tomorrow I'll probably be better and I just have to keep hoping you know
I can just keep hoping like okay it can't get worse oh wait alright
okay and you just keep going on this step but you know
after it's over you're like well that wasn't as bad as I thought though well God
still made it work out well I learned a lot from that anyways
so you know what someone got saved as a result of that you know there's always something you look back
and you say you know what that was kind of cool anyways that was
that was a great experience anyways I'm a better person anyways
that made me a better person and you know if you just stack up all the negative and you worry
about the future you're going to end up accomplishing nothing
you know that's a big detriment to being an entrepreneur if you ever
want to be an entrepreneur you cannot worry about everything that can go wrong
because of course things will go wrong but you know what an entrepreneur does is he
solves those problems he says yeah we'll have problems but you know what I'll fix them
yeah there'll be issues but I'll take care of that
you know having children having a marriage starting a business going to
church getting a career you will have problems things
will break sometimes you're going to have really bad days sometimes everything's going to
break you know I had a week in my life where my fence blew down
just like the wind just blew the whole fence down and then my AC unit just
went out the same week and then the same week my garage
door broke and the garage door opener broke and I was just like
wow that was frustrating I had saved five thousand dollars
and that was like the most money I'd ever had like in savings I was like saving money
and I had saved all this money and then just like
that it was gone it was just like bye and I was like I need to save another
five thousand dollars quick you know because that stuff could happen overnight
but at the same time you know I eventually
ended up selling that house and I made a big profit on the house and I got all that money
back and yeah day one sucked but
then when I get down the road I'm like well you know what it worked out and I obviously had saved up that
money God had allowed me to have saved up that money maybe God was holding all that stuff
together just until I got the money he was like holding the fence up and he's like man
hurry up and get this money and then as soon as I got
the money I was like okay fine and just like you know just
eviscerated and of course even I you know to build an entire
fence I built an entire fence for like a half
acre I mean maybe a little less than a half acre this is a big lot an entire
fence a new garage door and a new garage door opener and fixed the AC unit for like
four thousand dollars which is like unheard of why I had a good friend
that was like hey I'll help you do it for free and I'll rent an excavator
and like he helped me just like completely build an entire fence and
I got a really good deal on the other two the other two you know
appliances or whatever you want to call them the AC unit the garage door and so
it all worked out it all went fine but you know what it
happened and I'm not going to tell you that you won't have problems because you will
you will have problems if you get married you will fight unless you don't like each other
it's guaranteed if you like each other you will fight where there is
passion and where there is fire there will be friction
of course I always say the people that don't fight they're going to get divorced
because they don't care enough about each other you know I don't care if someone at my job
I don't like I'm not going to fight with them you fight with the people you like
you say why do you always fight with your family and your friends and your wife and stuff it's because you like those people
you know it's always funny in middle school and and younger when
there's like a tiff or you say like hey this boy is being mean to me or this girl is being mean to me
it's because they like each other we all know that because there's that conflict
there's that there's that rough but you know what when you get married it's not like all tension goes away
that passion is still there folks and you say
well we're fighting a lot well it sounds like you both like each other still that's a good sign
now obviously you don't want to fight all the time and you want to have good times too
but I'm telling you when you stop fighting that's a danger zone
that's a danger zone because it tells me that y'all don't care anymore
and you need to start fighting again okay make couples fight no I'm just kidding
obviously why should just be perfectly obedient folks we all get it yep
and they're going to certainly do that I know all the women in here do and so there's no
problems whatsoever that's a pipe dream folks
just like you you're perfect with God men is like how your wife's going to be with you
if you actually measured how many sins you have a day
then you would go easier on your wives probably I had you turn to
Hebrews 11 right are y'all there okay look at verse 23 by faith
Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper
child and they were not afraid of the king's
commandment notice that whenever his parents were
commanded or maybe against their will at least to deliver
their children to the government the government to kill their children they didn't do it and
they weren't afraid of the king's commandment that's that's a different
extremity there's one extremity of saying I'm not going to deliver my child
and then there's another level that says I'm not even afraid to not give you my child
the Bible says that his parents weren't even afraid not to give
their children now all the children that didn't die
is pretty much Moses wasn't it I mean I don't remember any other children that survived
in this horrible you know tragedy of the government slaughtering
children and you know why I think that Moses was
delivered because his parents weren't afraid
all of the parents I'm sure a lot of parents maybe have tried or didn't want their kids
to be discovered but you know the reason why he was spared because his parents
weren't afraid and let me tell you something you need to get married
and not be afraid of your wife like there's so many men that think like
I'm afraid to marry a woman because she could rake me over the coals
she's weaker than you what
don't be afraid of marriage I'm afraid to have children don't be afraid
of having children I'm afraid to go to steadfast Baptist church
don't be afraid you weakling you
that's weak I'm afraid
that's weak you should be afraid of going to Joel Osteen's church that's what you should be afraid of
you should be afraid of going to T.D.'s Jake
church or something Kenneth Copeland that a demon possessed person might attack you while you're in there
that some tranny might sit next to you and your family
during the service and you have to look at it that's what you should be afraid of
you know I'm afraid to serve God I'm afraid to be a Christian
you know stop being afraid we have the God of the universe on our
team why are you afraid just pass him the ball
you know it's like I can't score but he can every time
but we just get so terrified in our minds you know it really shows
that you almost have no confidence in the Lord
I mean think about it think if you're losing and it's the fourth quarter and you gotta
score to win and you don't pass Jesus the ball
that's because you have no confidence in him every sane person would just
be like have it you know we know you got it
right and it's like in our lives and you know how afraid I would be
of losing that game zero I mean imagine you're like hey
we're gonna play in the Super Bowl and it's me and like
eight children but Jesus is our ninth player it's like we're gonna win
we're gonna win it doesn't matter
and of course you know we sit here and we get so nervous about everything but it's like Jesus
is on my team I'm gonna win 1 Peter chapter
3 look what it says in verse 14 but if you suffer for righteousness sake
happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror neither be trouble
you know the Bible is saying be not afraid stop being afraid
of the enemy we shouldn't be afraid of anything you know
God is for me who can be against me
go to Hebrews chapter 13 go to Hebrews chapter 13
I can show you verse after verse let me just read a few in God have I put
my trust I will not be afraid what man can do unto me
Psalm 118 verse 6 the Lord is on my side I will
not fear what can man do unto me
what can man do unto me kill me oh I'll just go to heaven
torture me more rewards in heaven
afflict me well you know what we'll grow
you want our church to shut down stop afflicting us
because the more they afflicted them the more they grew what can you do to me
well we'll say mean things online oh okay I care
join the club good luck even
getting out there with more attention than it's already been had
I'm gonna make a video telling everybody about you good luck
done it's already been done well I just want everybody to know
it's like everybody knows and frankly speaking probably all the
people that are already bad already know the only thing you're gonna do
is get good people to hear about us by doing that there's a lot of good people
that would love to hear about us that don't know about us the worst thing that they can do is share our
information share our content talk more about our church and they think they think it's
funny they're like oh man we're gonna go up to people and say they hate homos
and inside they're gonna be thinking like I do too
they think that that's like bad or something like
they think everybody's gonna have their mindset or something like they love the
Jesus of the Bible so do we you know it's called you know
the Bible Belt it's like they believe
in Jesus everyone does here have you ever gone door knocking
everyone even the reprobates claim to believe in Jesus here it's not like California or
something it's the Bible Belt everyone loves Jesus here right
of course they don't truly but why
are we so afraid there's nothing you live in one of the greatest places
to live I mean can you imagine if we actually lived in like North Korea
and you're afraid of being a Christian here
you're afraid of being a Christian when there's people in China being a Christian there's people in Muslim
countries being a Christian there are people everywhere in this world that could possibly
die for being a Christian and you're afraid of being a Christian here
well I don't want to go to that church when the people see me look if they see you in China
you're dead and some countries they'll murder your whole family
just for being a Christian just for having a Bible you know the Roman Catholic Church in history
they would execute you if you just quoted Scripture
quoting Scripture
we're not talking you don't just get the Bible you can't just have a Bible
you can't even just in your daily conversation you're at work and you just
say well in all things you know I can do all things through Christ with strength with me
dead I mean that is how extreme
the persecution was and you think that it's hard to be a Christian today
when you could go out in public with a sodomite deception t-shirt and people would be like cool shirt
I get compliments on my
Bible search all the time
it's just like it's crazy but you know no matter what evil you're going through right now folks
look at verse 5 let your conversation be without covetousness
and be content with such things as you have for he has said I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may
boldly say the Lord is my helper
and I will not fear what man shall do unto me
let me tell you something if you came to church this morning and you committed the
worst sin you did yesterday Christ is still with you
if you are backslidden this morning Christ is still
with you if you are saved Christ will
never leave thee he will never forsake thee if you know what
everything's been crashing around you if you've lost your job if you've lost
your housing if your marriage is on the rocks if your children don't like you right
now if you have all kinds of all these evils you have all these pressures
bad things are happening to you health problems let me tell you something
Christ is still with you Christ is still on your side Christ has not
departed from you no matter what evil happens no matter what
befalls you if you get thrown in prison if you lose family members
if you get beaten you know what Christ will not leave thee nor forsake thee
the Lord is still your helper the Lord is still by your side the Lord
is still near and willing for you to call upon
and just like Peter what happened Peter was afraid and he began to sink but he
said Lord save me and what happened he saved him instantly
saved him instantly because the Lord is always there the Lord
is always willing to save the Lord is always willing to help the Lord is always willing to
comfort the Lord is always willing to do everything no matter what you go through
say I'm going through a hard time well you know what the Lord is with you
he will comfort you he will give you strength you know the Apostle Paul said
notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me and that was after every
single person in the world had forsaken him talk about a lonely time in Christianity
having every person being in a foreign country thrown in jail
no one wants to even claim your name or say they know you
but the Lord is with them and let me tell you something
about Step Fast Baptist Church no matter what happens to us the Lord is with us
and the Lord is our helper and you know what he said I am with you always
even unto the end of the world amen and I know
that Jesus Christ is in this room this morning and I know that Jesus Christ is going to be
with me and my soul winning partner this afternoon and I know that Jesus is coming back here
to have church with us tonight and I know that Jesus is going to be with me every day
of my life until I see him in heaven
and you know what we need to get on that water and walk to Jesus Christ
because we're here to serve God folks
we are here to do the impossible and we're here to serve God
that is the point of our lives and the last point I have
is this that we're here to draw nigh to him why did he walk to Jesus
not just to serve him but to draw nigh
you know go to James chapter number 4
go to James chapter number 4
God wants us to draw close to him
who needs water? James chapter 4 look at verse 8
draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you, cleanse your hands
ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double minded
according to the scripture we're supposed to try to draw nigh to God
but you know what sometimes Jesus is standing on the water away from the boat
sometimes you have to do something to get to him
you have to start walking towards him and you know what Jesus wants us to walk
by faith
let me ask you this question how many people
in the boat could get closer to Jesus
without faith? Zero
you couldn't get closer the only way to get closer to
Jesus was to step out of the boat and
to walk to him by faith and let me tell you something the only way
for you to get closer to Jesus is to take steps of faith
in your life you have to take steps of faith the Bible says
in Hebrews go into Hebrews anyways but the Bible
tells us without faith it is impossible to please
him without faith and the Bible says for he that
cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him hey I want to get close to Jesus Christ
well you know what the only path is a path of faith
you have to walk through the Red Sea believing that he's going to uphold the sides of the water
that had to be a scary walk you know it sounds cool but I guarantee
it's an intimidating walk because you don't know when that water is going to close in and it's
instant death they're basically walking I mean you don't know as Peter
walking on the water when you're going to sink in instant death
you don't know when you're thrown in the lion's den that the lion decides he's hungry all of a sudden
instant death you don't know when you're going to be thrown in the fiery
furnace how that's going to work out it could be instant death folks
you don't know when you're in the belly of a whale how that's going to work out
it probably feels like death
but you know what you can draw close to God
if you take steps of faith and let me tell you something going to steadfast Baptist church
might seem like a scary feat but you know what that's a way to walk close to God
you got to walk it by faith you know going out soul winning might be in your mind
a daunting task but you know what if you take a step of faith and you actually go out and preach the
gospel you'll draw closer to God
there's probably I guarantee there's people in this room that have heard preaching
from this pulpit they don't agree with but they see it's in the Bible and they
don't want to make that change but let me tell you something if you took a step of faith and made that change
you would draw closer to God and how you dress
and how you groom yourself and how you live your life and how you raise your
family and what you do with your children there's a lot of things out there
there's a lot of pressures out there and the walking the Christian life is not
walking on a sound bridge it's walking on water folks
it's walking through the red sea it's walking through the fire it's walking on a path
that doesn't make sense in the natural it doesn't go with the world
the world can't do it the world is impossible to the world but you know what it's possible
for me because I have faith in Jesus Christ
because I'm here to serve God and because I want to draw nigh to him and you know what the only path
to Jesus is a spiritual walk the only way to get saved is through faith
and the only way to serve God is through faith and the only way to draw nigh to God is through faith
Hebrews chapter number 10 look at verse 22
let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water
let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering for he is faithful that promised
you know what the Bible wants us to do it wants us to hold our profession of faith
without wavering we can't be afraid
God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love
but of power and of love and of a sound mind
there is you know fear is
going to cripple you fear is going to cause you to sink fear is going to destroy
you in this life and God
wants someone that wants to draw nigh to him despite the obstacles
despite the wind blowing you know you start serving God and your
family is going to start blowing wind like ah you're in a cult
it's like that's so stupid you know cults
cults try to keep you we've done
everything possible to get you to leave
like this is probably the hardest I mean you can't even figure out where we're going sometimes
I mean now you can
it's like you know if I haven't preached something that you didn't
get offended by yet I don't know what to do
I'm sure I offended somebody in here maybe ten times today
I don't know by words that I use or by the sound of my
voice or just anything I mean I'm sure I've done something
you know you and I know that's ridiculous
there's nothing cult like about our church we're the furthest thing from a cult of any
church because it's actually difficult to
stay it's not difficult to leave plenty of people leave
they come and go I mean we've had hundreds of people come and go like that it's easy
you know what's difficult is choosing
to serve God and yet you're going to have people blow the wind oh y'all are
weird oh you believe the Bible oh how dare you
you hate child molesters it's like yes
oh your Google reviews
that doesn't blow me over at all
there will be people that get blown over you know you'll have the waves crashing
that could be just problems you know you're going to have problems in your life and we all have problems
you're going to have marriage problems potentially you're going to have children problems you're going to get sick
you're going to have work issues you're going to have property issues
your location may change I mean there's going to be all these stresses of life
there's going to be the stresses of life that are naturally happening and of course the devil tries
to increase the stresses of your life just to cause you to stop serving God
you say well that's never happened okay well how about Joe losing all his money
you know losing his finances losing his houses losing his children
losing you know all kinds of things he kept his wife and she's nagging him all the time
hey a nagging wife
you know if there's anything the devil can do to try and get you down
that'll work
think about it that was the last test basically
I mean he lost everything and then it's like alright we're bringing the heavy guns
ring of the misses curse God and die
and he's like you foolish woman get out of here
you know sometimes your wife could be foolish even
your husband could make a mistake you could be a great woman of God
and your husband's trying to drag you down you could be a child
that loves the Lord and your parents are dragging you down your uncle's dragging you down
maybe you're dragging yourself down and you know you're not crucifying the flesh
very good say how do I crucify the flesh Leviticus
open up the Bible in the morning to Leviticus that'll start crucifying your flesh quick
you say well how does that mean your flesh will hate that
what do you think crucifixion is? it hurts
reading the Bible can hurt physically because you don't want to do it
and of course when you become spiritual you're gonna have opposition
you're gonna have difficulty but you know what our journey is to walk on water
and let me tell you something there's only one group of people that can walk on water it's Christians
the unsaved will sink straight down into the bottom
of the depths and that's where they're gonna go hell the saved are the only
people that can walk on water but let me tell you something it's not just the saved it's the saved
with faith that can walk on water but let me take it a step further it's not
just the saved with faith that are gonna walk on water it's the saved with faith that are afraid
that are gonna walk on water so you have to be saved you have to have the faith
to walk on the water you can't be afraid and you know what it's in a journey to serve
God and if you in your heart say you know what I want to see Jesus
I want to draw close to him I want to walk with him I want to do the
impossible you know what you need to do is not be afraid to walk
on water let us all walk on water
for the rest of our lives by having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ without fear
let's close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father so much for this
church and giving us this great group of people this morning and giving us this space
to meet in and I pray that we would just continue to take steps
of faith that we wouldn't look down at the waters crashing below
us we wouldn't listen to all the wind blowing and trying to knock us down
we'd realize that our journey is drawing closer to Jesus Christ
and I pray that you would continue to increase our faith that you would strengthen
our hearts that we wouldn't become afraid that we wouldn't allow the temptations
and the trials of this earth and this world
to stop us from putting all of our faith and
trust in you not just for our salvation but also for our daily
lives and I pray that you would help our church that you would bless our church that you would deliver
us out of the hands of the Egyptians you would put us into a land
flowing with milk and honey and you'd allow our church to just keep preaching the gospel
but no matter what it is Lord if you bid us let us walk on water to you
in Jesus name we pray Amen
Alright for our final song 56 when we all get to heaven
song 56 when we all get to heaven
song 5-6 when we all get to heaven
Sing the wondrous love
of Jesus, sing his mercy
and his grace in the
mansions bright and blessed
he'll prepare for us a place
when we all get to heaven
what a day of rejoicing that will be
when we all see Jesus
we'll sing and shout the victory
on the second while we walk the
pilgrim pathway clouds will over
spread the sky but when
traveling days are over not a
shadow not a sigh when we all
get to heaven what a day
of rejoicing that will be when
we all see Jesus
we'll sing and shout the victory
let us then be true
and faithful trusting serving
every day just one glimpse of
him in glory will the toils
of life repay when we all
get to heaven what a day
of rejoicing that will be when we
all see Jesus we'll
sing and shout the victory on the last
onward to the prize before
us soon his beauty will behold
soon the pearly gates
will open we shall tread the streets of
old when we all get to
heaven what a day of rejoicing
that will be when we all
see Jesus we'll sing and
shout the victory