I have been redeemed, I will glory in His name.
Since I was raised in His name, I will glory in my Savior's name.
Come we them of the Lord and let our joys be known.
Join in a song with sweet accord, join in a song with sweet accord.
And thus around the throne, and thus around the throne,
We're marching to Zion, biblical, biblical Zion.
We're marching apart to Zion, the biblical city of God.
Let those real music sing, who never knew our God.
The children of the heavenly King, the children of the heavenly King,
We speak their joys abroad, we speak their joys abroad.
We're marching to Zion, biblical, biblical Zion.
We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.
Then let our songs about let every tear be tried.
We're marching good in heaven's ground, we're marching good in heaven's ground.
Where her worlds all guide, where her worlds all guide,
We're marching to Zion, biblical, biblical Zion.
We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.
I'll fly away, may I die, Hallelujah, by and by.
I'll fly away, with the shadows of this life that grow.
I'll fly away, like the bird from prison passes by.
I'll fly away, I'll fly away, oh, Gloria, I'll fly away.
May I die, Hallelujah, by and by.
I'll fly away, just a few more weary ages.
May I fly away, to a land where joys shall never end.
I'll fly away, I'll fly away, oh, Gloria, I'll fly away.
May I die, Hallelujah, by and by.
I'll fly away.
Not ever God's end, but God I receive.
Praise have you so great, since I have believed.
Oh, since many a pride I have raised.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
Only a sinner, saved by grace.
This is my story, to guide me with glory.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
Once I was foolish and sinful by heart,
Causing my footsteps from God to depart.
Jesus have found me, have me my faith.
I now am a sinner, saved by grace.
Only a sinner, saved by grace.
This is my story, to guide me with glory.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
Tears unavailing, no merit an eye.
Mercy had saved me, or else I must die.
Sin held on me, fearing your face.
But now I'm a sinner, saved by grace.
Only a sinner, saved by grace.
This is my story, to guide me with glory.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
There is coming a day when the heartache shall come.
No more clouds in the sky, no more tears in the eye.
All is peace forevermore on that happy, golden shore.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be, when my Jesus, I shall see.
When I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace.
When He takes me by that hand, and leads me through the promised land.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
There'll be no sorrow there, no more burdens to share.
No more sickness, no pain, no more fighting over Him.
And forever I will be, with the One who died for me.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be, when my Jesus, I shall see.
When I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace.
When He takes me by that hand, and leads me through the promised land.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
Half faith in God, the new pathway is calling.
He sees and knows all the way He has brought.
Never alone are the least of His children.
Half faith in God, half faith in God.
Half faith in God, He's on His throne.
Half faith in God, He watches on His own.
He cannot fail, He must prevail.
Half faith in God, half faith in God.
Half faith in God, and your prayers are unanswered.
Your word is clear, He will never forget.
Wait on the Lord, trust His word, and be patient.
Half faith in God, He'll answer yet.
Half faith in God, He's on His throne.
Half faith in God, He watches on His own.
He cannot fail.
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started.
And once you find a seat, grab a hymnal.
We will all go together to song number 310.
Song number 310, Footprints of Jesus.
Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling.
Song number 310, let's all sing it out together on the verse.
Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling.
Come unto me.
And we see where Thy good praise is calling.
Lead us to Thee.
Footprints of Jesus that make the path way forward.
We will follow the steps of Jesus where they go.
Though they lead o'er the cold, dark mountain sea,
King is she.
Lord of our hearts, Lord of our hearts,
We will follow the steps of Jesus where they go.
If they lead o'er the gentle holy,
Reaching the world,
We will follow the steps of Jesus where they go.
Reaching the world,
For in hopes of the poor and lowly,
Serving the poor.
Footprints of Jesus that make the path way forward.
We will follow the steps of Jesus where they go.
Then at last, when on high, He sees us on journey done.
We will rest where the steps of Jesus stand at His throne.
Footprints of Jesus that make the path way forward.
We will follow the steps of Jesus where they go.
And we just ask that you fill this church with your spirit and bless it in everything they do.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 35.
Song number 35, When I See My Savior, song number 35.
Song number 35.
Let's all sing it out loudly together on the first.
When I see my Savior hanging on Calvary
Haring there for sinless, bitterest agony.
Then to the world's beat makes my life forget.
Oh, my land so big that could live to live.
I can see the flood drops break this moving ground.
From the blue and pale woods, now they are falling down.
Lord, when I was wondering, come back of the way.
Let me see those mud clouds shed for me that day.
Why has that forsaken place to that sad, sad boy?
Oh, this heart was broken, suffering there alone.
Broken in that portal, getting high in pain.
Lord, I love him from where he fell out of pain.
Great singing, everybody.
Good evening. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you need one of our bulletins, you can lift up your hand
and one of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin.
On the front we have our Bible memory passage.
And we're on verse 12 of Matthew 28.
On the inside we have our service and soul winning times.
On the right is a list of our expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for them.
Upcoming events, there's going to be a cruise missions trip
that our evangelist is going to be going on
and some of our church members next week.
And so please be in prayer that their missions trip will go smoothly.
Also, a couple of reminders down below.
On the back we have our prayer list.
We'll go through this, kind of update a few things.
The Naims, we continue to pray for their grandmother.
We're praying for Miss Charlotte.
We've also been praying for the Carlson's mother.
Also we've been praying for Miss Faith's friend, her mom's cancer.
We've been praying for the Scotts, brother Horace and Miss Grace.
We've been continuing to pray for their health
and also just pray for Elijah and Miss Olivia.
If you'd pray for Miss Garcia.
And it's a praise report because her daughter ended up giving birth
just not that long ago.
And it's Victoria Elma, so congratulations to them.
She's up there visiting with them right now.
Continue to pray for brother Tony's health.
And then we're praying for brother Foley and his fiancé,
which they got some good news recently.
So hopefully we'll just keep praying
and hopefully everything goes smoothly with that.
And then also we're praying for the Goodwin's friend Miss Sarah.
We've been praying for brother Nick's mother.
And then continue to pray for the Afzels,
who unfortunately had lost a loved one, their father-in-law.
And so just continue to pray for them.
Also if you'd pray for brother Billy's friend Blake Cook
and if you'd pray for his coworker Corey.
And then down below if you'd pray for the Furrs,
brother Trevor and Miss Hadley.
And then also if you can bring prayer for Miss Ginger's brother.
So a lot of people here on our prayer list,
continue to pray for them throughout the week.
But we'll say a quick word of prayer as a church family as well.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church.
Thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting.
I pray that you could please just bless them
and continue to help them during their pregnancy.
I pray that you'd help them with their delivery.
Thank you so much for those blessings.
I pray that you'd also be with our church family
that's struggling with illness or sickness.
I pray that especially these chronic issues, if possible,
if you could just give them a miracle.
If you could just comfort them during their difficulty.
Also several church members are struggling with flu and other sicknesses.
I pray that you'd just please give them a speedy recovery.
Help them to also get back into church.
And I pray that you would also just help our church family
that needs favor with their travel or with their job or their work
or anything that's related.
I pray that you would just please give them favor right now.
Please just bless their upcoming missions, trips, and keep everyone safe.
Please give them opportunities to find people and to get many people saved.
And I pray that you continue to use this church as a bright and shining light.
And so in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
So go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week.
It's Psalm 150.
So if you have your binders, it's Psalm 150.
All right, that was Psalm 150.
Psalm 150 in your binder or in your King James Bible.
Let's all sing it out together on the first.
Praise ye the Lord, praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament of His power.
Praise Him for His mighty acts.
Praise Him according to His counsel and greatness.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.
Praise Him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise Him with the timbrel against.
Praise Him with string instruments and organs.
Praise Him upon the loud cymbals.
Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let everything that have breath praise the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord.
Praise God the Father.
Praise God the Son.
Praise God the Holy Ghost.
Praise God in every person.
Great singing everybody.
As the offering plates are being passed around,
let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 11.
That's the book of Matthew chapter number 11.
Matthew chapter 11.
Matthew chapter number 11.
The Bible reads, and it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding His 12 disciples,
He departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.
Now when John had heard in the prison lot,
and he had heard in the prison lot,
Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ,
he sent two of his disciples,
and said unto him,
Art thou he that should come,
or do he look for another?
Jesus answered and said unto them,
Go and show John again those things which ye do here and see.
The blind receive their sight in the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear,
the dead are raised up,
and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.
And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John,
What went ye out into the wilderness to see,
a reed shaken with the wind?
But what went ye out for to see,
a man clothed in soft raiment?
Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in the king's houses.
But what went ye out for to see, a prophet?
Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
For this is he of whom it is written,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Verily I say unto you,
Among them that are born of women,
there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist,
notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now,
the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force.
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
And if ye will receive it, this is Elias which was to come,
he that hath ears to hear let him hear.
But whereunto shall I liken this generation?
It is like unto the children sitting in the markets,
and calling unto their fellows,
and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced,
we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.
For John came neither eating nor drinking,
and they say, He hath a devil.
The son of man came eating and drinking,
and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber,
a friend of publicans and sinners.
But wisdom is justified of her children.
Then began he to abrade the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done,
because they repented not.
Woe unto thee, Chorazin, woe unto thee, Bethsaida.
For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at that day of judgment than for you.
And thou, Capernaum, which are exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
in the day of judgment than for thee.
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father.
Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for the chapter of the Bible, Lord.
Thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church.
I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley, fill him with your Holy Spirit,
as he preaches unto us, and help us to receive your word,
and I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.
So we've been going through the book of Matthew.
We're here in chapter 11. The Bible says,
And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples,
he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.
So we notice the Lord Jesus Christ not only commanded his disciples
to go out and preach the Gospel and do the works,
but he himself also did the works.
Now keep your finger and go to 1 Peter 5 for just a second.
Go to 1 Peter 5, and I want to show you a verse in here
that is kind of talking about some instructions that Peter gave to other leaders,
especially the elders and those that were in positions of power and authority.
Now you'll notice in verse number 1 of 1 Peter chapter 5,
he's addressing a certain audience that says,
The elders which are among you I exhort.
So he's exhorting the elders, which is the leaders or the pastors.
He says, Who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ
and also partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God which is among you,
taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly,
not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind,
neither as being lords over God's heritage but being in samples to the flock.
And so the Bible tells us that leaders, pastors, elders,
they're not to be a lord over the flock.
What does that mean?
Well, there's a lot of applications we could take from this passage.
I think there's multiple ways to look at this passage.
One would be often in the idea of just a pastor essentially kind of being overbearing
or overstepping his boundaries.
You know, I've heard, I've never really seen this,
but I've just heard that sometimes pastors might say things like,
You need to ask me before you buy a house,
or you need to ask me permission before you get married,
or you need, you know, just kind of like ruling over people's personal lives.
I think that that's bizarre.
I think that that's wrong.
I think that's overstepping their boundary.
But I still don't even think that that's what this passage is bringing up.
That maybe you could draw from the text,
but what it's really trying to bring up is the idea that as a leader,
you're not to just simply boss people around and lord over people,
but rather you're supposed to be in a sample under the flock.
And we notice that the Lord Jesus Christ did not just simply order
or boss around his disciples and tell them to go preach
and tell them to go teach in the cities,
but he himself also went out teaching and preaching,
and he was an ensemble unto his own disciples.
And so as a leader, no matter what position you're found in,
you should always be an ensemble to those that are under your authority,
whether that's you as the husband in the home,
or even let's just say the wife.
As the wife, you have authority over your children.
You should not just boss your children around.
You should not just only tell them what to do,
but you should be an ensemble unto them, right?
You should also be an example as a Christian
and doing things and working hard.
As a husband, you shouldn't just boss your wife and your children around,
but rather you should be an ensemble unto them
and serving and working alongside of them.
If you have a job, if you're in the workplace,
often employees will resent their boss
if their boss doesn't actually do much work.
If he's just simply bossing and ordering people around,
and many times what will help you in the sight of your employees
is when you come alongside them and you work with them
and you're actually laboring and you're an example,
you're an ensemble unto them.
And the same is going to be in the church setting
as a great soul winning captain.
You know, if you're a soul winning captain,
you should be an example of soul winning.
You shouldn't be going around bossing everybody else around.
If you are in a position of leadership where you're an evangelist
or a deacon or a pastor,
you should be an example unto the flock.
You should be showing people how to go soul winning
and showing people how to do missions trips.
You shouldn't just simply pawn it off on everybody else
and just boss everybody else out.
You know, it would be kind of embarrassing to me
if I always just got up and preached about the importance of missions trips
and evangelism and going out and preaching the gospel in the whole world,
and then I myself never did it.
Then I myself never went out and just simply actually did
what the Bible is commissioning us to do,
but I'm just bossing everybody else around
and telling everybody else to do it.
It would be one thing if I'm sitting here saying,
hey, you should tithe, and then I don't tithe.
It would be one thing if I'm telling people to go to church
and I don't go to church.
You know, so as a leader, we should be an example
and not just simply a Lord bossing everybody around
and telling everybody else what to do,
but rather we should be an example unto the flock.
Now, what this does not mean
is it doesn't mean that there isn't rules, okay?
Obviously in a church, you're always going to have rules, right?
If you say, hey, we're not going to let women get up and preach behind the pulpit.
That's not someone lording over the flock.
That's just abiding by the rules of the Bible.
Now, there's some rules that we obviously follow
that are strictly in the Bible.
Some rules are also just my personal opinion.
So like my personal, I have personal standards for our church.
Like men that come and preach behind our pulpit,
they have to wear a button-up shirt and tie.
That's just a rule that I have
that if you're going to preach behind my pulpit,
that's not me quote, lording over the flock,
because guess what?
I follow the same rule.
You know, I'm not getting up here in a T-shirt
and then bossing all everybody else around like,
well, you have to have this type of clothing,
but I'm not going to do it.
No, no, no, I'm going to be an example unto the flock.
I'm going to dress how I want the flock to dress.
And so we have rules as a church,
but I should follow the same rules and go by the same guidelines,
and a Lord would be someone that doesn't abide by their own rules,
that isn't willing to do the same things
and basically come alongside of his employees or subordinates
or disciples or whatever scenario we have.
And the Lord Jesus Christ,
he condescended the men of the estate,
he came down from heaven,
and he did not come to be ministered unto,
but rather to minister and to give his life a ransom,
is what the Bible says.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ, in fact,
was often accused of being beside himself
because he worked too much,
because he was constantly preaching and reaching people.
And so if you want to be a good leader,
if you want to be a good boss,
if you want to have a position of spiritual leadership,
you should be ready to do work.
He that desires the office of a bishop desires a good work.
It's not a good position, it's a good work.
And so when people are in a position of authority
and they start showing pride
or they start showing they care so much more about the position than the work,
that seems dangerous.
That seems like maybe they have a heart issue that needs to be corrected,
because a position of leadership in the church
should be there only for the person that wants to work,
not the person that wants the attention
or wants to lord over people or boss people around,
but rather is willing to sacrifice,
lead by example, and do things for others.
You know, I always say that a great pastor,
a great leader is one who's helping others serve Christ better.
That is the position, I believe, of a pastor,
is one who's helping others serve Christ better.
It's not for you to help me serve Christ better,
it's for me to help you serve Christ better.
And if I'm making decisions or a church is making decisions
that are hurting the congregation in their walk with the Lord or serving God,
then we have to ask ourselves, are we making the right decision?
We have to kind of reflect and make sure that our decision-making
is empowering and emboldening other Christians
to serve Christ better.
Now, in Matthew chapter 11, let's keep going through.
I just wanted to talk about that for a second in this verse.
It says,
Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ
he sent two of his disciples and said unto them,
Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
Now, this is very interesting,
because when Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist
earlier in the book of Matthew,
he said, Behold, the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world.
The Bible also told us that when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist
that John had seen the Holy Ghost descend upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible says he saw the Holy Ghost in bodily shape,
descending like as a dove.
And so, obvious ending, he had a voice come from heaven.
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
The Bible says that God had already told John
that the one to whom you see, the Spirit descending,
that is the Son of God.
That is the Christ. This is the one.
So he's already had this confirmed.
He's already stated publicly,
Behold, the Lamb of God has taken away the sins of the world.
He even told Jesus Christ, he said,
I have need to be baptized of thee.
So it's very clear that John the Baptist
understood who Jesus was, had recognized him already,
and yet now he's having arguably doubts.
We could say that he's obviously having some level of doubt
or insecurity because specifically he says,
Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
Why would you look for another if he's Christ?
If you've already identified that this is the Son of God,
then you don't need to look for another, you've already identified it.
I'm guessing it's just John is in a low point.
And look, prison is a horrific punishment.
Prison is not even a biblical concept
because prison is a worse punishment than the biblical punishments.
Prison, locking someone in a cage is an evil, evil thing to do.
It's a cruel and unusual punishment.
I think it's unconstitutional.
We should get rid of prisons.
Prisons should not even exist whatsoever.
And when people are locked in a cage,
especially when they're put in solitary confinement,
that can cause a person to go literally insane.
I mean, you just take any of us right now
and you lock us in a cage for long periods of time
with no literature, with no communication with other people,
you will go, in many cases, just literally insane.
And it doesn't matter.
It's not like, oh, I can just overcome this automatically
because I'm a Christian or I'm spiritual or I'm strong.
No, no, no.
It is a mental toil that people will go through being locked in a prison.
We don't even know the circumstances.
He may have even been tortured in prison.
He may have been being beaten.
He may be starving.
And look, if you know anything about marriage,
if your wife is hungry, she's a different person, okay?
And the reality is, just think about some guy being in prison
for a long period of time, not eating, being beaten, in a dark place.
I mean, look, it's very, very easy for someone to start having doubts
or be confused or be upset or not acting like themselves
when they're in a low point like this.
And so it's real easy for us to sit here and say, like,
what's happening, John? What's going on?
But you know what? You're not in prison right now.
When you're in prison in a really horrible situation
and then you're standing strong, then maybe you can say, like,
oh, I don't know what the big deal is, John.
But you know what? You're not in his circumstance.
You're not in his life situation.
You're not currently being tortured.
You're not currently starving.
You're not currently in potentially solitary confinement.
In some cases, they were literal shackles.
You know, in American prisons, often you're not necessarily just shackled all the time.
You may be from a transporting perspective.
But in many cases, you're still at least liberated in your cell.
I guarantee the prison beds in America are way better than whatever they were sleeping on.
I guarantee the bathroom situation was better.
I even guarantee the slop that you eat in America prisons
are probably better than the slop that they were eating in these prisons.
Now, I can't verify. I don't know what it was like.
I'm just guessing it's not a five-star hotel, okay?
But it's real easy for us to just sit here and criticize John.
But you know what? You haven't been in that situation,
so maybe you shouldn't necessarily think that you're going to be Mr. Tough
if you were put in the exact same scenario as John,
because John the Baptist is a tough dude.
John the Baptist was a guy out in the wilderness.
John the Baptist is preaching hard against the Pharisees.
John the Baptist is eating wild locusts and honey.
I'm sorry, locusts and wild honey. I got to get that mixed up.
Locusts and wild honey. He wears a rough garment.
I mean, this is a bad dude.
This is a guy that can take some heat.
And obviously, if he's questioning,
it must be some intense persecution that he's going through.
And let that just be a reminder that if you have doubts, that's normal.
It's normal sometimes when you're going through a difficult spot in your life
to occasionally have doubts.
There's going to be times in your life where you kind of wonder like,
am I on the right path or what is God doing with me?
Maybe you have the loss of a loved one.
I've seen people at a church that I grew up with
where they lost their very young baby.
I mean, they just lost their baby, and that's got to be incredibly sad.
I just can't imagine losing a baby.
But you know what? Don't give up on church
just because you had that horrible loss of a child.
Sometimes people might lose their loved one
or they might have marriage issues or they may lose their job
or they may have health issues or they may have whatever kind of tribulations
and difficulties, they may face persecution.
People have lost their jobs just for coming to this church,
just for being associated with us.
And that's an intense persecution.
It could cause you to say, am I on the right path?
Am I doing the right thing?
But in those moments of trial and temptation,
that's where you get to show yourself strong on God's behalf
and say, hey, I am steadfast.
Hey, I do have faith in the Lord. Hey, I'm going to trust him.
And you know what? When you do that, God will show himself strong on your behalf
and he'll often put you in a better place than you were prior to.
And even if he doesn't, you know, like John doesn't really get in a better place.
Let's just be honest.
But hey, he's going to be greatly rewarded in heaven.
And we all know that John the Baptist isn't going to regret his life in hindsight.
Obviously in the moment it may be pretty tough.
And you know what? Sometimes we have to go through tough things.
But we shouldn't question the Lord.
I mean, I'm trying to make it clear, like, we may face the same opposition.
We may have the same failure.
But it was still wrong.
Obviously John shouldn't have questioned the Lord.
He obviously shouldn't have had a lapse of faith.
But it's very realistic.
It's something that many of us will face.
Now, I will appreciate this about John, though.
Even when he does have a lapse of faith,
notice he goes back to Jesus to ask him to have that confidence again.
And so we say here in verse 4,
You know, obviously John the Baptist dying is kind of crazy.
You kind of think, like, why would God allow this to happen?
But I think in some ways, you know, you can just argue that God's allowing this to happen
so that none of John's disciples waste any more time with John
and they just all start following Jesus.
He's kind of like a picture of replacement.
And so, you know, okay, we had the old John,
but now we're on the new program with the Lord Jesus Christ,
just like you had the Old Testament.
Now we're on to the New Testament program.
And so sometimes God just allows these things to perish,
just like the Old Testament vanished away, was waxed old,
and is ready to perish so that we can get on with the new program,
and now that they're all the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus obviously tries to comfort John with a spiritual answer.
He doesn't just outright say it.
He just simply kind of gives him a spiritual answer.
And of course that's how Jesus is.
Jesus oftentimes won't necessarily just tell you, like, yes or no,
but he gives you an answer in the Scripture.
And, you know, there's going to be times in your life where you have questions like,
Am I on the right path? Am I doing the right thing?
Is this scriptural?
And it's not going to just be necessarily black and white, just a plain yes,
but there will be a clear answer in the Bible if you have spiritual ears.
Hey, I have spiritual ears.
Hey, the poor people here in the gospel preach to them.
Then obviously this is a fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures.
You know, there's Old Testament Scriptures that talk about the blind receiving their sight,
the lame walking, the leopard's cleanse, and the deaf hearing.
But, you know, I guess you could say, like, I don't really like that message, right?
Because verse six, and blessed is he who so shall not be offended me.
Notice that the true Christianity is not something that's always popular.
Not everybody wants to be associated with Jesus when this is what's going to happen.
They want it, like, hey, I'm going to go to prison.
Well, what's the benefit of me being in prison?
Well, poor people are here in the gospel.
It's like, yeah, I kind of was hoping for, like, a kingdom or a chariot, a new Ferrari.
Like, what is this that you're talking about?
But, you know, isn't that really, when you think about church today, isn't that a pretty similar parallel?
It's like, oh, why do I have to go through all this persecution and stress and problems of going to church,
and all we ever do is go into ghetto areas and preach the gospel to people?
Well, blessed is he who so shall not be offended me.
Oh, but where are they?
You know, I want to have all the nice things in life, and I don't want to face any opposition,
and I don't want any difficulty.
Okay, well, blessed is he who shall not be offended in me.
You know, you want this good message.
You know, it wouldn't be hard to serve Christ if only good things ever happened to you.
It wouldn't be hard to serve Christ if all of a sudden you're just going to get a brand new car.
It's not Oprah Winfrey's TV show, okay?
It's not like you come to church and Jesus is like, and you get a car, and you get a car, and you get a car.
Everybody would come to church.
It's like you go to prison, and your head's going to be cut off,
and everybody's going to desert you, and no one's going to like you.
It's like, oh, man.
You're like, what do I get out of this?
Well, some poor people are going to hear the gospel.
But you know what?
If you actually love people, and you actually don't want people to burn in hell for all of eternity,
you're like, okay, that's good enough.
Because you know what? Nuts to all the carnal things of this life.
Nuts to cars and houses and money and all the vain things of this life.
You know what? I'd rather have more souls with me in heaven than to have all the material possessions,
and so it doesn't even matter.
John the Baptist didn't even have the material possessions to start with anyways,
so don't get offended that poor people are hearing the gospel and the rejects of society.
I mean, this isn't a popular message.
This isn't the things that people in this world want.
They don't like the blind.
They don't want to hang out the lame.
They don't want to hang out with the sick.
They don't want to hang out with the poor.
They put them away from them in society.
They want to hide them in society and have nothing to do with them,
and Jesus is going out and ministering to those who are poor, sick, blind, lame,
and blessed are those who are not offended in Jesus Christ.
They're not offended by the gospel.
They're not offended about what the real service of God is like.
You know, pure religion is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction.
That's what real religion is.
It's not a hocus pocus.
It's not putting on a black hood and doing smoke
and worshipping little Mary statues in some big palace somewhere called the Catholic Church.
No, no, that's satanic.
That's of the devil, literally.
No, it's preaching the gospel to the poor.
That is the true religion.
It's going out and visiting people when they're in their affliction
and trying to get them saved when they're down on their luck.
That's what the Bible is bringing up.
You could argue that this is not what John expected.
And I'll just say this.
You know, serving God, over the years, there's been a lot of things that I just did not expect.
A lot of problems that I did not expect.
A lot of issues, a lot of opposition, a lot of things that I was kind of...
I never dreamed of, just frankly speaking.
But sometimes we just have to say,
Well, I didn't really expect to be here.
I didn't really have to expect to deal with this problem.
But it is what it is, and I'm just going to keep going.
Hey, I didn't want to be in this situation necessarily, but I am.
And I don't want to quit.
You know, I just don't want to be a quitter.
I want to be steadfast, right?
I want to just keep pressing forward and dealing with hard problems.
Because, you know, if I don't deal with the hard problems,
it's not like the problems just magically go away.
Someone's got to deal with hard problems.
Someone's got to deal with this stuff.
So why don't we just deal with it?
Someone's got to go through opposition.
Why not us?
This is what some people don't understand.
They think like, Oh, you know, if you'd stop preaching so hard against faggots or something,
they would just go away.
No, no, look.
They're going to protest somewhere.
They will attack someone.
The left will attack someone.
It's not a question of if they will attack.
It's who they will attack.
So here's the thing.
Someone's got to go through it.
Why don't we just take the heat, right?
I mean, why don't we go through the opposition?
Why don't we go through the difficulty?
Hey, someone's going to get their head cut off by Herod.
You know, John the Baptist is like, might as well be me.
You know, might as well be me that has to stand up to him.
I mean, someone's going to die.
Someone's got to be a martyr.
Someone's got to stand up for Christ.
Someone's got to face the opposition.
Someone's got to take this giant down that's defying the armies of the God of Israel.
I mean, someone's got to do something.
And he's like, why not me?
And the reality is we shouldn't be offended in Jesus Christ when he calls for us to do something difficult.
And even if it is a personal sacrifice.
Do you think John the Baptist wanted to end his life like this?
No.
But someone has to do it.
Someone had to be John the Baptist.
Someone had to prepare the way before the Lord.
Someone had to live this austere lifestyle, a separated lifestyle, to end in a martyrdom.
Someone had to do it.
And you know what?
John the Baptist, hey, he's going to finish the job.
And you know what?
I don't know what the Lord has prepared for me.
I don't know what the future holds before me.
But we should be willing to just walk through whatever door he has for us.
Even if it's a difficult door.
And not be offended and not give up and not quit.
And not just be someone that had the opportunity to serve God and we decided not to.
We don't get to choose how we get used by Jesus.
But in many cases we can choose if he will use us.
And so what we should do is just say, hey, here am I, Lord.
Send me.
Do I have a positive message?
Great.
Do I have a negative message?
Great.
I'll still preach it.
Hey, do I have a good future?
Great.
Do I have a negative future?
Great.
I'm just going to do whatever it is.
I'm just going to go down that path.
And you know, for John the Baptist, it wasn't necessarily a great future.
But you know what?
He's Baptist and we're Baptist and that's what's better.
You know?
Being Baptist, right?
It's not John the Methodist.
It's not John the Catholic.
It's John the Baptist.
And you know what?
Baptists are going to suffer tribulation because they're the real guys.
John the Methodist, we don't even hear about him because nobody cares.
John the United Methodist, he doesn't even exist because there's a dyke at their church
leading the church, okay?
John the Catholic, nobody even knows who that is.
So it's John the Baptist that's the one getting the heat, preaching the hard sermons,
getting thrown in prison.
And you know, of course, it's Baptist today that are making the difference in this world.
When's the last time you heard like some church of Christ, you know,
reaches lots of people at the gospel, church of Christ being protested.
You know, it's just like, you never heard about these other denominations.
It's always the Baptist, isn't it?
That's why I like being a Baptist.
Now, as we keep reading, it says,
And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John,
What went ye out into the wilderness to see?
A reed shaken with the wind?
So I like Jesus.
He's saying, hey, when you went to go see John the Baptist, what were you looking for?
Are you looking for someone that you could push around?
What's a reed shaken with the wind?
A reed is essentially just the most flimsy little thing that just the wind will just blow wherever direction.
It's not it's not like a tree.
It's not like a rock.
It's not something that is very sturdy.
It's just something that's real flimsy.
And it's just the wind can just drive it in whatever direction it wants, whenever it wants.
Really, you could just call this a politician.
OK, every politician is just a reed shaken in the wind.
Just whatever whatever direction is being blown, it's just going to blow in that direction.
And he's saying, hey, John the Baptist was not like that.
When the Pharisees came out to him, he didn't change the message.
When the publicans and the harlots came out, he didn't change the message.
When Jesus showed up, he didn't change the message.
He was steadfast.
Now, I like this because it's kind of the opposite.
If you think about it, to the encounter that Jesus just had.
John the Baptist is kind of questioning Jesus a little bit.
He's kind of like having some uncertainty.
And you can see him as almost wavering a little bit.
Whereas then Jesus is kind of talking to them like, hey, John the Baptist wasn't this reed shaken in the wind.
He wasn't easily wavering or off course.
And one of the ways that I look at this is it almost seems like Jesus is kind of defending John the Baptist.
He's kind of defending John the Baptist and he's speaking up for him.
And he's trying to essentially keep his reputation.
He's like, hey, I know that this has happened, but Jesus doesn't start like, hey, guys, John the Baptist is really weak.
Hey, guys, John the Baptist has gone soft, guys.
No, no, he kind of sticks up for John the Baptist, doesn't he?
He's kind of like making it clear like, hey, John the Baptist is good, right?
Verse 8, but what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment.
Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses.
But what went ye out for to see? A prophet, yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
For this is he of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Verily, I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there is not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
So you kind of get this little diatribe from the Lord Jesus Christ where he's kind of like sticking up for John the Baptist.
He's saying, look, this guy wasn't easily, he's not a pushover, he's not easily just led by the winds of this world.
Additionally, he's saying he's not like living it up.
He wasn't wearing soft clothes.
He wore a rough garment because he didn't really care about the things of this world.
He wasn't going around just living it up.
Not only that, he is not just a prophet.
Jesus just flat out tells us he's the greatest man to ever be born.
I mean, that's what he says.
He says in verse 11, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
So especially at this point, I would argue just for all time, John the Baptist is the greatest man born among women.
Obviously, Jesus is an exception.
We obviously understand Jesus is an exception here.
But he's just talking about, hey, of other people, John is literally the greatest.
And it's kind of funny because it's just happening right after kind of only John's mistake.
I mean, if you're going to argue like John the Baptist doesn't really have mistakes in the Bible,
I can't find where he's done anything wrong.
I can't find any sin issues.
I mean, he just seems to be so rock solid.
But you could argue like in this one moment, in this one passage, he showed a little bit of uncertainty, didn't he?
He showed a little bit of a lack of confidence.
But then immediately afterwards, what is the Lord Jesus Christ's attitude?
He defends his friend and he sticks up for him.
And he even praises him publicly by saying this guy is the greatest man born among women.
And, you know, I think that there's something been lost in society where people don't seem to just like stick up for their friends anymore.
You have to go to Proverbs 27, Proverbs 27, especially when their friends may make a mistake or be down on their luck or be having some kind of an issue.
And it's kind of a dishonorable thing.
And I think the Lord Jesus Christ is showing us an example here.
There's other examples of this where King David, after Saul and Jonathan are slain in battle,
that David ends up having a great funeral for them and makes this great proclamation about them.
And David just spends his whole time just praising Saul.
And it's kind of crazy because for years and years, Saul has just been chasing David, trying to kill him, attacking him, doing nothing good unto David.
But then in the end of his life, now that he's dead, David only just praises Saul and just talks positively about Saul
and focuses on all the good that Saul did and likes Saul.
And that's why you can see that David was always Saul's friend.
David never stopped being Saul's friend.
He did have to remove himself for physical safety.
He did have to separate from him.
He did try to correct him in his personal exchanges with Saul.
But he never stopped liking Saul.
He never stopped wanting good for Saul.
But at the end of the day, Saul was David's enemy continually, according to the Bible.
And, you know, in our lives, this is how we should be.
We should be like David and we should be like the Lord Jesus Christ, where we never stop being friends to our friends.
We never stop being friends to our friends.
Now, they may stop being our friend, but that doesn't mean that we have to stop being their friend.
And it doesn't mean that we should stop wishing well for those people.
The Bible says in Proverbs 27, look at verse 6,
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Now, as a friend, sometimes you have to tell them things that they don't want to hear.
So being a friend doesn't mean that you're always nice to somebody.
Being a friend sometimes is telling them, like, hey, you're wrong.
Hey, you shouldn't do this.
But, you know, the reason why you say that is because you actually care about the person.
You don't want them to be hurt. You don't want them to be harmed.
You don't want something negative to happen to them.
But it's faithful because you love that person.
You're not saying it to criticize them.
You're having a private encounter.
You're trying to encourage them. You're trying to correct them.
But what you shouldn't do is give up on them.
Look what it says in verse 10.
Thine own friend, so this is your personal friend, and thy father's friend.
So this is a friend of somebody that was your father's friend.
Forsake not, neither go into thy brother's house on the day of thy calamity,
for better is a neighbor that is nearer than a brother far off.
So the Bible just says, like, point blank, you should never forsake your friends.
You should not be the person that's forsaking your friends, giving up on your friends,
turning your back on your friends.
You know what? If they do that to you, that's their problem.
But you know what? We should not be people that forsake friends
and give up on friendships and turn against people.
Now, look, I might have to say, hey, friend, you're a drunkard.
You need to stop drinking.
And as long as you're a drunkard, I'm going to have to keep some distance.
But I'm still your friend. I'm not going to forsake you. I still love you.
If you need something, I'm there, but you need to change this in your life.
Just like King Saul, it's like, hey, you need to stop trying to kill me.
As long as you want to stop killing me and you want to just hang out and it's cordial, let's hang out.
But while you're trying to literally kill me, yeah, I have to kind of stay away.
So it's not saying that there couldn't be a separation.
It doesn't mean you don't keep them at distance when there's an extreme scenario.
But what it is saying, you shouldn't forsake them.
You shouldn't just say, like, nuts to you, I don't want anything to do with you,
attack them, be evil, be mean, wish them poorly.
We should always be a friend to these people.
Look what it says in Proverbs 25, just to the left, in verse 19.
Confidence in an unfaithful man and time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot at a joint.
You know, we shouldn't be that unfaithful man that if a friend came to us in need,
or if a friend had an issue, that we would just forsake them, not help them, not be with them.
You know, whenever the apostle Paul went through a lot of difficulty, a lot of people forsook him.
I mean, the Bible even says that in my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.
That's a pretty sad day.
That's a pretty sad day when all your friends just, like, give up on you.
He talks about Asia.
All of Asia be turned away from me.
He talks about Onesimus, and he praises Onesimus because he says he's not ashamed of my chain,
but he sought me out very diligently.
And according to the Bible, Onesimus is kind of like one of the few peoples that didn't forsake the apostle Paul, that stuck with him.
You know, the Bible talks about all the disciples at one point kind of forsaking the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we kind of see John, at least at some point, returning, or John kind of being there.
John's there when Jesus is being accused of the Pharisees.
We see John there at the crucifixion because he tells him, you know, he's like basically passing off his mother.
Behold thy mother, behold thy son.
And so John is kind of just a little bit more faithful than some of the other disciples,
is not so easily there to forsake the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know, that's the type of attitude, that's the type of person that we should be,
is that we're not going to give up on our friends.
And even when they're down on their luck, even if they have mistakes, even if they pull a John the Baptist
and they lose a little bit of faith, that we're still there.
And when we talk to other people about them, we're talking positively about them.
Right? We're building them up, we're encouraging them.
Look in the ministry, there's been a lot of people that I've encountered,
go to Proverbs 11, go to Proverbs chapter 11, that have had low points.
Or they've just kind of like made some mistakes, or they've wavered.
And I just kind of tried to encourage them in the moment.
And then when I talked to other people, I just tried to talk really positive about that person.
And you know, I've seen a lot, I've seen many people do both.
I've seen people where they struggled, and I tried to encourage them,
and then they just ultimately just kind of faded away and left,
and now aren't serving God, and kind of ruined their entire life, honestly.
Ruined their entire life.
And then I've seen people who kind of were wavering, had problems,
and I tried to talk to them, help them.
They took that advice, or they got encouraged, and then now they're great.
And look, people don't even know.
No one even knows that this person had like a wavering moment,
or nobody knows that this person might have had an issue or whatever.
And you know, that should be our desire.
Our desire should be to encourage people, and help them when they're down on their luck,
and not sit here and try to kick people while they're down, forsake people when they're down,
when they're not popular, or when they're going through some kind of evil.
You know, that's a bad attribute as a friend.
That means you're not really a friend.
A friend is not one that's just there when it's a party, and they're handing out money,
and gifts, and brisket, and whatever.
No, a friend's there when it's actually a burden to them.
It's not popular for them.
It's not comfortable for them. They don't like it.
It hurts them, or costs them something.
You know, Proverbs 11 says in verse 13,
A tale-bearer revealeth secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit conceal the matter.
You don't see the Lord Jesus Christ going around, blabbing about John the Baptist,
and trying to be like, hey, remember when John screwed up?
Remember when John got a little confused?
Remember when John was struggling in prison?
No, no, no. He's like, hey, of the men born among women,
there's not a greater reason than John the Baptist.
Hey, John the Baptist, he's our guy.
He's not a reed shaken with the wind.
He's not clothed in soft clothing.
I mean, this guy is the real deal, and he prays him.
Go to Judges chapter 7. Go to Judges chapter 7.
You know, sometimes we are going to have low spots.
Sometimes we need people to encourage us.
And, you know, I'm not excluded from this list.
There are people in this room, and there's people outside this room,
that have helped me when I've been discouraged, or I've had problems,
or I've been upset, or I've been kind of down.
And, you know, one of the greatest people to do this should be your spouse.
You know, as a spouse, you should be like Jesus was with John the Baptist.
Where you're not going to ever criticize your spouse to other people.
You're not going to talk about their failures.
You're not going to bring up their low spots,
but rather you're going to talk positively about them.
And then when you're in the moment with them, you're going to encourage them.
When they go through low spots, or difficulties, or frustrations,
you're there to encourage them, and to build them up,
and to talk positively about them.
And we're all going to have moments of fear.
We're going to have moments where we lack faith.
We're going to have moments where we aren't certain.
And sometimes it's just better to have that other person.
You know, the Bible says two are better than one.
We're going to celebrate Valentine's Day as a country here on Friday.
And honestly, Valentine's Day is kind of a positive thing.
It's kind of a fun thing.
But, you know, marriage is more than a day.
Marriage is more than just a date night.
And, you know, if it was just for the date night,
that's not really the better part of marriage.
The better part of marriage is when you're down on your luck,
and your spouse is there.
The better part of marriage is when you stumble,
and there's one there to lift you up and to pick you up.
And, you know, we shouldn't just celebrate our marriage on Valentine's Day.
That's the one day of the year we celebrate.
No, we should celebrate marriage every day.
And oftentimes you'll draw closer to each other
in the difficult times in marriage, not the positive times.
I'm all for the positive times.
I like them as much as the next guy.
And you know what? We're going to celebrate Valentine's Day,
and we're going to have a great day.
But let me tell you something.
The reason why me and my wife are so close is from some of the bad days.
It's from some of the dark times.
And, yes, we've fought before.
I know there's other pastors out there that have never fought with their spouse.
Sorry. That's happened, okay?
Yeah, we're not perfect. No one's perfect, okay?
I'm not going to get up here and pretend like we've never had low spots.
I'm not going to pretend like we're perfect.
She is. I have a lot of mistakes, okay?
And so I have to work on that, right?
But one day I'll get a little better.
But at the end of the day, hey, we have problems too.
And, you know, it's great when I'm in a low spot, she encourages me.
And it's great when she's in a low spot, I can encourage her.
And two are better than one is what the Bible says.
Look at Judges 7.
It's talking about Gideon.
And he's supposed to go down, and he's supposed to fight the Midianites,
and he's kind of nervous about it, and God's been whittling down his army.
But notice what he says in verse 10.
But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Thura thy servant down to the host.
Now, this is what's interesting is he's telling them, like, sneak down there and spy on the enemy.
And, you know, sometimes men of God, they just have to spy on people a little bit, all right?
They have to just go down there to the enemy, and they have to just see what's really going on, okay?
And he's like, but if you're nervous, you know, if you're kind of nervous about spying on what's going on, take Thura.
Now, this is what's funny, is it says in verse 11, just in the middle of the verse, it says,
then he went down with Thura his servant.
He says, hey, if you're afraid, take Thura.
And then the Bible just says he took Thura.
You know, if you can just read between the lines, you know what that means?
He was a little nervous.
And sometimes it's a little bit nerve-wracking to do things by yourself.
Sometimes it's not as easy to have the courage or the bravery when you have to do it by yourself.
But when you just have another person there, it just somehow makes it a little bit more comfortable,
makes it a little bit easier.
It's less fearful.
There's strength in numbers.
And so we should be a good friend like Thura.
We should be there alongside Gideon and helping him.
We should be like Jesus encouraging John the Baptist and talking positively about John the Baptist.
We should be the guy that's concealing the matter.
We should be the person that's not forsaking our own friend.
We should not be forsaking our Father's friend.
We should be the person that is a faithful friend.
Loyalty. Loyalty.
Loyalty is something that's dying in our society, and it's just so frustrating.
You know, I can't, I was trying to really think like really, really hard about this.
Go back to Matthew chapter 11.
Like, has there been a friend in my life or has there been someone like this that's needed me or wanted me to help them?
And I didn't.
And I really just can't think of one.
I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but for the most part, I don't think that that's ever happened.
But I can think about the opposite.
And boy, a lot of people have stopped wanting to be my friend.
A lot of people have walked away from me and stabbed me in the back and said evil about me.
And, you know, it's frustrating. It's hard to deal with. It's not fun.
So I do know what it's like to be forsaken.
But at the end of the day, we should not be the person forsaking people.
We should be the person that's there no matter what.
And saying, hey, I am your friend.
I am going to be there through thick or through thin.
You know, obviously, I mean, if I had a friend and he ended up turning out to be like a literal reprobate or something,
yeah, obviously I'm just going to tell him to go jump in the lake of fire.
Okay, I get that.
But apart from him just being a complete raging heretic psychopath sodomite or something,
like, I'm not going to forsake people.
I don't want to give up on people. And we shouldn't be like that.
We should be people that say, hey, I'm going to be your friend to the bitter end.
I'm going to stick with you.
And, you know, that means maybe sometimes I'm going to have a hard conversation with you.
Maybe sometimes I'm going to tell you things you don't want to hear.
Maybe sometimes we might have an issue.
But I'm not going to give up on you.
I'm still going to be your friend.
I'm still there to help you. I'm still there to encourage you.
And, you know, just like Jesus is there for us, I mean, he never leaves us nor forsakes us.
And that's the example that he shows for us to have the same attitude and saying,
hey, even if John the Baptist ends up kind of struggling, stumbling, doing whatever,
let us not criticize him, kick him when he's down and forsake him.
Let us encourage him and then talk positively about him and try to help him.
Probably one of the most dishonorable things I could think of is just kicking somebody when they're down,
especially when they've done only good to you.
I mean, John the Baptist has done a lot of good things for Jesus.
He's older than him. He baptized him. He prepared the way for him.
He's giving his disciples unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's been preaching. He's basically just done all this good unto Jesus.
How would it be if Jesus is now going to just turn around and bite the hand that feeds?
I mean, John the Baptist is spoon feeding disciples unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they even ask him, they're saying like, hey, your disciples are forsaking you and going to Jesus.
And he's thinking like, great, he must increase, but I must decrease.
That's what he says. That's what his attitude was.
But he's literally just spoon feeding disciples unto people, helping the Lord Jesus Christ,
preaching for the Lord Jesus Christ, doing good unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then how dishonorable would it be if when John the Baptist has an issue or makes a mistake or does whatever,
for this guy to then turn around and then just kick John the Baptist when he's down,
talk negatively about him, try to hurt him, try to attack him.
You know, that's so dishonorable.
And, you know, I've seen that, I've seen that recently where people have just bitten the hand that feeds,
attacked people, and I think it was very dishonorable what they did.
You know, specifically my sending pastor, Pastor Steven Anderson,
I've seen a lot of people kick him when he was down.
And what was so dishonorable about it to me is just even if everything that,
all these wild, crazy accusations that people thought were true,
even if they thought they were all true, they still act dishonorably about it.
You could still be more respectful and just not kick someone when they're down
and still be friendly towards them and still not try to attack somebody.
You know, that's just the dishonorable thing to do.
Sometimes you have to tell people uncomfortable things.
Sometimes you have to say, hey.
But, you know, this is what's so funny to me.
It's like all these people had to make a public announcement, do like public announcements
and these public videos and public statements about how they broke fellowship with him.
And this is what's so funny to me is these people have broken fellowship with lots of people.
And they've only made a public announcement one time about one person.
Why would you do that?
If you're going to break fellowship, in fact, I'm sure a lot of these people broke fellowship with me.
I don't know, because they didn't say it, but I'm sure that they did.
But you know what would be the normal way to break fellowship with people?
Just don't invite them to your church anymore.
You know what's a weird way to break fellowship with people is to make a 20- and 30-minute-long announcement
and just sit there and kick them and bash them when they've only done good unto you.
Why can't you be like Jesus and actually talk positively about John the Baptist
and sing his praises and just let the issues just be concealed?
Because we don't need to necessarily kick somebody while they're down.
That's a dishonorable thing to do.
And it's not being a very good friend.
It's just not being a very good friend.
Let me make a four-part series of every negative thing I can think about John the Baptist.
Let me make a ten-part video series on every negative thing I can possibly do.
Even though this guy's only done me good and tried to help me, I just want to kick him when he's down.
That's a dishonorable thing to do.
And it shows that you're a bad friend, and it shows that you lack character.
And then I don't want to have confidence in someone like that.
Confidence in an unfaithful man is like having a broken tooth.
That's terrible.
And it just kind of goes to show, I mean, I'm thinking there's some people
where I've seen they were really good friends with somebody.
I mean, there was somebody that was just hanging out with Pastor Anderson all the time,
hanging out with his family all the time, trying to get as close to him as humanly possible,
constantly inviting them to do stuff, going out and doing events and traveling with them,
doing all this stuff for years and years and years.
And now they're just on a campaign to attack him endlessly, saying every negative thing.
I'm thinking like why would anybody ever want to be your friend ever again?
Because if you ever turn on them, you're just going to attack them forever for the rest of your life.
You know, people that have done me wrong or I don't like anymore or made mistakes,
I'm just like leaving them alone.
I can just leave people alone.
It's just weird.
It's just so weird to forsake someone that you claimed that was your friend,
to claim that you actually love this person.
I mean, it's just bizarre.
David is just running away from Saul, but Saul is just constantly attacking and vicious and evil.
Why? Because Saul is of the wrong spirit.
David, as soon as Saul dies, he just praises Saul.
Jesus, hey, John the Baptist screwed up.
You know what? Let's just talk positively about John the Baptist.
And you know what? This is how we should be as Christians,
is we shouldn't go around attacking people that attack us or we think negatively of or go get...
Hey, let's talk positively about people.
Hey, we'll correct sin when we need to correct sin.
I'm not saying we don't correct sin.
Obviously, John the Baptist corrected people.
But you know, he corrected them out of love, not to destroy them, not to hurt them.
And you know, we should do the same, and we should not be bad friends.
Bad friends. Don't be a bad friend.
There's already enough bad friends in this world.
Be a good friend.
And your friendship is not tested when things are good.
Your friendship is tested when things are not good, or when they need you, or when they're down on their luck.
That would be when we see who is a real good friend.
Now, look what it says in verse 12. It says,
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffered violence and the violent taken by force.
Now, this is a very difficult verse. A lot of people with different ideas.
I have just a simple explanation for this.
I would just say simply, you could think about how John the Baptist is thrown in prison.
Isn't he suffering violence?
And I think that the Bible is just trying to prepare us that are in the kingdom of God.
Those of us that are going to preach the gospel and do these things,
many times we're going to have to actually suffer violence.
You know, we see in the book of Revelation that some are going to be thrown into prison,
some are going to be even put to death.
We see this is a consistent theme in the Bible,
where the people of God are constantly attacked for being very peaceful and just loving.
But the apostle Paul is stoned, the apostle Stephen is stoned, and they have to suffer a bunch of violence.
And the violence here is literal physical violence for them.
You know, that's frustrating. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood.
We're fighting a spiritual battle, but they're not fighting a spiritual battle because they're not spiritual.
So they fight the only way they know how? Dirty.
They fight mean.
That's often how you can even tell who's of God and who's of not.
The people that are of God, they fight spiritually.
You know how they fight? Preaching the word of God.
When we fight, this is how we fight.
We get up and we just say what the Bible says.
You know how people that are not of God fight?
They lie about you. They sow discord.
They try to get the law involved.
They try to sue you. They try to attack you.
They try to harass you. They try to get you canceled.
They try to get your YouTube videos taken down.
That's how they fight because they're not spiritual, they're carnal.
And they don't know how to fight the right way.
The right way to fight is with the word of God.
Now, it also said, I don't want to skip over this.
It said, notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
There's probably a lot of applications to that too.
I just simply think it's referring to the fact that everyone who's saved is in a more glorified state than even the greatest man.
That's the way I would explain that.
Is that John the Baptist, the greatest man, is still in a lesser state than someone who's saved and in heaven.
But it's not that they're necessarily better than him because obviously that wouldn't make any sense.
Obviously John the Baptist is going to be great in the kingdom of heaven himself.
I don't think this is saying John the Baptist is the worst guy in the kingdom of heaven or something.
I don't think it's saying he's going to be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
No, that's the guy that breaks the commandments and teaches men to do so.
He's going to be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
I think he's just saying, even if you're the least in the kingdom of heaven, it's still better than the greatest guy on the earth.
That's kind of what it's saying.
Verse 13, for all the prophets and law prophesied until John, and if you will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Some people get confused about the Old Testament prophecy of Elijah coming.
Elijah didn't literally come.
John the Baptist is not literally Elijah, but he has the spirit of Elijah.
And he's kind of getting this title from Jesus.
He's saying, hey, this is Elias.
This is who the Bible was referring to in the Old Testament when it called him Elijah.
And I think it's just the Bible is trying to help us understand that sometimes people go by other names or they're in reference in this way.
Obviously, when you see in the book of Acts, the Ethiopian eunuch is kind of talking to Philip the evangelist.
He's saying like, is the prophet speaking of himself or of another man?
And he's like trying to, then Philip picks up where he was and explains to him Jesus.
He doesn't say Jesus there, but they were talking about Jesus.
So in the Old Testament when it says Elijah's coming, it's not Elijah.
It was John the Baptist that was coming. So that's what he means by he says this is Elias.
When you look at the Old Testament mention of Elijah, that is John the Baptist.
It's not literally Elijah.
Just like many of the Old Testament pictures in the Bible are not those people, it's actually Jesus.
Like when the Bible says out of the belly of hell cried I, that wasn't Jonah.
That was Jesus.
Jesus descended down into the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
And Jesus was literally in hell and out of the belly of hell literally cried Jesus.
But Jonah pictures Jesus so we can say hey this was Jonah, but it was really Jesus, right?
And this is Elias, but it's really John the Baptist.
And of course John the Baptist I think has a special anointing, has a special spirit where he has a spirit of Elijah while he's preaching.
Not only does John the Baptist have this, Elisha has this.
Because Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah's spirit and then it comes upon Elisha.
And so Elisha benefits from Elijah's spirit.
And then John the Baptist can have Elijah's spirit.
And you know what? I believe today there could be a man on this earth that gets the same spirit of Elijah that comes upon him
and it's the same Holy Ghost from the Old Testament that's in the New Testament
and we could have a man of God actually get up and preach in the power and the might of Elijah.
And you know what? We need men today to preach with power and might.
We need people to go out there and preach the gospel of power and do great works for the Lord Jesus Christ
and not be lame and say oh well if I was in the days of the prophets or if I was in the Old Testament then I'd do something great for the Lord.
No, do something great for the Lord now.
Hey, preach in the power and the spirit of Elijah now.
And don't be lame and don't act like there's excuses.
No, you have the whole word of God. You should do great works right now.
Hey, we're Baptists. We can be like John the Baptist, right?
It says in verse 16,
But whereon shall I liken this generation is like unto children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellows,
and saying, We have piped unto you, and you have not danced.
We have mourned unto you, and you have not lamented.
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a man gluttonous in a wine-bubber, a friend of publicans and sinners.
But wisdom is justified of her children.
Now I would say, you know, where shall I liken our generation?
It is like reading YouTube comments, okay?
With trolls.
Because these children in the markets are the same people.
You cannot satisfy them.
It doesn't matter who you are and what you do. They will criticize you.
There are people out there, it does not matter who you are, you will only be criticized.
You either make too little money, or you make too much money.
But you cannot win.
You'll either have too poor of clothes, or you'll have too nice of clothes.
You'll have too poor of a car, or too nice of a car.
You'll have too small of a house, or you'll have too nice of a house.
And look, I've seen these same people make these type of accusations towards two different people.
You know, like me and my sitting pastor, Pastor Anderson, were kind of different in some ways.
Like, he, when he was preaching in his house, he had this tiny like 1300 square foot house for like 11 people to live in.
And I've seen so many people criticize him saying his house was too small.
And it was like too unbearable for all his children to live there.
And then there's been people that criticize me for having too big of a house.
And I'm thinking like, well which one is it?
Because I guarantee if he had a big house, they'd criticize him.
If he has a small house, they'd criticize him.
If you live in a van down by the river, they'd criticize you.
If you live in a mansion, they'd criticize you.
Because you know, for some people, they're just not going to be satisfied.
And he's saying, hey, this generation is the type of generation that always has something negative to say,
that's always critical, that doesn't really care what the truth is.
They just don't want to believe the message.
And it doesn't matter what the reality is.
And you know what? You don't get sucked into the trolls and the haters and the people that say like,
oh, but you know, he's a wine bibber, he's a glutton, or he doesn't eat good enough, or whatever it is.
Because they're going to always have an excuse of why they don't serve God.
I mean, when you think about John the Baptist, he's being criticized for being too austere.
Obviously he ate and drank. It's talking about he wasn't eating super nice meals,
he wasn't drinking really great food, he was eating locusts and wild honey.
And they're like, this guy's insane. This guy is a devil, this guy's a weirdo.
They thought he was a freak, okay?
Then Jesus is eating the best food and the best meals,
and they're basically criticizing him, saying like, oh, he's a wine bibber and a glutton.
But what you have to understand is John the Baptist does not have a devil.
I mean, who's going to say John the Baptist has a devil? No one, right?
So then you have to understand that the accusations made against the Lord Jesus Christ are also not true.
They're false accusations. He's not a glutton, he's not a wine bibber.
I've literally seen people use this passage to prove that Jesus was a wine bibber.
And I'm thinking like, you're totally missing the point of this passage.
This is a false accusation hurled against him. He's clearly not a wine bibber.
A friend of publicans and sinners. I've also seen them use that to prove this.
He's like, oh, he was best friends with the worst people in town. False.
There were some publicans, there were some harlots that decided to follow Jesus,
and he was friendly towards those people. He even went to Zacchaeus' household.
But at the end of the day, these are not people where he's going to the bar to hang out with them.
I've heard people say Jesus went to bars to hang out with people.
I've even heard people say Jesus went to the gentleman's club to hang out with people.
That is a wicked and blasphemous false statement.
There may have been a woman of the night, there may have been a harlot that decided to put on normal clothes
and go and seek Jesus and ask for salvation and hang out with him,
but that wasn't him going to these shady establishments and trying to sin with other people to reach them.
No, no, no. They were coming away from their sinfulness and approaching Jesus,
and he didn't turn anybody away that came unto him. That's what is really being mentioned here.
But then they accused him of being a friend of publicans and sinners, being a friend of evil people.
Also, sinners here is not just what we think of as sinners. We think of sinners as like you sin.
Often this is just meaning Gentiles, because we know the Roman centurion came unto Jesus,
and he went and healed and helped other people. He has Simon the Canaanite.
He's willing to interact with Gentiles. He deals with the Samaritan woman.
And so in many cases they would think like, oh man, how come you're hanging out with people that are not Jewish
or people that are not Pharisees and everything like that. He was hanging out with these quote sinners.
But you know, he wasn't necessarily friends of these people. I mean, when he's talking to the woman of the well,
he wasn't even that friendly. He's like, you know not what you worship.
He's just like, you know, salvation's of the Jews. But he was willing to interact with her, wasn't he?
He was willing to give her salvation. He was willing to preach unto her.
But that doesn't mean he was like their best friend or something like that.
No, and wisdom is justified of her children in the sense that no matter what doctrine you have,
or no matter what belief you have, the fruit will inevitably justify that doctrine.
If you have a good doctrine, if you have a good belief, inevitably then you'll see the fruit of that,
and you'll say, oh wow, that was obviously true. Whereas if you have a bad idea, a bad doctrine,
we'll end up seeing the fruit of that, and we'll end up realizing, oh wow, that didn't turn out the way you thought it was,
because it was a bad idea. And then wisdom has ended up being justified by its children.
Why are proverbs so great? Because they're true, and because they come true.
If the proverbs never came true, we would think like this stuff is junk, we don't want to listen to this.
The reason why the proverbs is so great is because we're like, oh wow, that is so true,
and we constantly see that happening in people's lives, and so that the wisdom is justified of her children.
That's what the message is meaning there.
It says in verse number 20,
I saw a dictionary claim that a synonym for upbraid is rail, and that's just a misunderstanding of these two words.
And I don't have time to spend on a sermon on that, I would love to, but the word rail in the Bible,
in the King James Bible, is referring to false accusations.
Whereas upbraiding is a scolding or a rebuking, and it is criticizing very harshly,
but they needed to be criticized harshly because they had the Lord Jesus Christ come unto them,
preach the gospel, do miracles, and they didn't believe in him.
And why would you not scold them harshly? Because if they don't repent, they're going to go to hell.
He's saying, if you don't believe in me, boy, in the judgment, it's going to be worse than you,
worse for you than some of the worst cities to ever exist.
I mean, he's going to bring this up.
He says in verse 21,
Now, Tyre and Sidon means nothing to us, but to the Jews, they really look down upon Tyre and Sidon.
They think that they're the most evil, wicked type of people, just of the devil.
They're just scum.
And so for him to say like Tyre and Sidon, they're just thinking like, what are you talking about?
The king of Tyrus is compared to as the devil in the Old Testament.
So when it was like bringing up a parallel of the devil, it brings up the king of Tyrus, literally.
And so from their perspective, this is like one of the most wicked, evil, satanic places.
And it was, but he's saying, it's going to be worse for you guys than Tyre and Sidon.
Not only that, he brings up, it gets worse.
He says in verse 22,
That is about the worst thing you'd ever hear.
I mean, he is saying that somehow Sodom is not going to be as punished, as bad as Capernaum.
Like in our mind, we're thinking like a judgment day, like the Sodom is going to be the worst.
Capernaum is going to be worse.
Isn't that crazy?
But, you know, this is a passage that honestly confused me because I believe in the reprobate doctrine.
Sodom might deception, watch the movie, you'll get, you'll find out how I feel real quick.
Okay. I believe that.
And I read this passage, I thought like, well, why in the world would Jesus say that if the works have been done in Sodom, they would have repented.
And I didn't really have an explanation for this.
And so for the longest time, I kind of struggled with this.
But then someone pointed out to me that one way to explain this is just simply that this is before Sodom became reprobate.
So it's just a time issue that if they had come and done works to Sodom way prior to its destruction,
many of them would have gotten saved and repented and the city would have been preserved.
But it didn't happen.
It's similar to Jerusalem because Jerusalem at this time, this is like 30 to 33 AD.
They don't get destroyed until when?
70 AD.
So their impending doom was 70 AD.
That's when it was like imminent.
Right. That's what is about to happen.
No one was going to come and rescue Jerusalem at that moment.
Right.
But now is their moment of rescue.
Now is their moment to repent.
And if they had repented, they would have lasted forever.
I mean, Jesus said, as a mother hen like gathers its chicks, so would I have gathered you like he would have preserved them forever.
So there must have been a period of time, 30 years or 40 years or something prior to Sodom's destruction that he's referring to in general.
He's saying, hey, if people had come to you, if you had seen his mighty works, whatever, you would have repented and this would have stayed.
But it's not like the moment that the two angels go down to see Lot and his family, that those people are going to get right with God.
No, no, no. They were all reprobate at that point.
It was already done. It was already over. There wasn't a chance for them at that point.
So it's just a timing issue here.
But just generally speaking, that whole city and that group of people, they're not going to be judged as harshly still as Capernaum.
Capernaum is going to be judged even more harshly.
And we should be careful because we as Americans have had the King James Bible.
We've had fundamental Baptist churches.
We've had a great opportunity to receive the Lord and do great works for him.
And if we as a group of people, as Texans, as Americans, do not follow the word of God, if we do not do what's right, God is going to judge us very harshly.
And we have to be careful what's been given unto us.
And the Bible says thou should not follow a multitude to do evil.
Just because your whole city rejects the things of God doesn't mean you should.
Just because your whole city and your whole town doesn't dress right, doesn't act right, doesn't use the right Bible, doesn't care about the things of God,
you don't join hand in hand because though they join hand in hand, they shall not go unpunished.
The wicked shall not go unpunished.
And yes, you can have a whole multitude do evil.
You can have a whole city go bad.
You can have a whole area go bad.
You know what? We judge our lives based on this book, not what the vast majority of people are doing.
And God can judge a whole area very harshly.
So we want to make sure that we're right with God personally, not what the world is doing, not what they're like.
If that's to them, this is true.
The Bible says in verse 25,
Number one, Jesus is revealing things, the spiritual things, unto those who are saved.
And often times it's those who are not necessarily wise and prudent in the world's sight.
First Corinthians chapter number two makes it clear that the vast majority of Christians and people that get saved are not the smartest and the most wise in this world.
It's often those who are simple, those who are poor, those who are modest, those who are humble.
Many of those people. But here's the thing. It doesn't mean you have to stay that way.
The Bible says that the Bible will make wise the simple.
But many times it's the simple that initially received the things of God and understand the things of God.
It's not all these NASA scientists and engineers.
It's not a bunch of people that have studied in college and have higher levels of education necessarily.
It's not necessarily the guys that have the most physical strength.
You know, we're not just filled with a bunch of NFL stars and athletes and Hollywood's actresses.
And we're not filled with a bunch of scientists and engineers.
You know, we're filled with just humble people that have normal jobs, that live simple lives.
And yet you possess so much more wisdom than the rest of this world because you have the wisdom that's coming from this book.
And that's why Jesus is saying, like, thank you, God, that you didn't just give all the wisdom to the people that already just had the carnal wisdom in this world.
You gave it unto babes. You gave it unto people that were just meek and lowly and humble.
And, you know, that's often the attitude that gets someone saved as being meek and humble and lowly.
I mean, with pride, I don't think someone can get saved.
You have to first humble yourself and accept the free gift of salvation.
Now, the good thing is, he says here, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
You know, if salvation were not by faith, it would be a lot of work.
It would be a lot of toil. And yet salvation is not work.
If you're a Catholic, boy, you've been working hard for your salvation.
But if the Catholic would just come under the Lord Jesus Christ, he would say, hey, I'm going to give you rest because salvation is rest.
The picture of salvation is the Sabbath. We enter into his rest.
I cease from my own works and I've entered into his rest because salvation is me resting from my works and just accepting his free gift of salvation.
The Bible says in Romans chapter five, three times, it's a free gift, free gift, free gift.
Romans chapter six tells us that the gift of God is eternal life to Jesus Christ our Lord.
Salvation is easy. It is simple. It is rest.
Praise God, I don't have to work for it.
It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us.
And when you come under the Lord Jesus Christ, you can enter into rest for salvation.
You're eternally secure. You're in his hand and you're in the Father's hand and no man is able to pluck you out of either of their hand.
The reason why I can't lose my salvation is because I didn't do anything to get it.
I just simply received it. I'm just in his hand.
I just trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm saved because it's rest.
You know how easy it is to do nothing? It's real easy.
Say like, what are you doing to be saved? I didn't do anything. I just trusted in Jesus and I'm saved.
That's why I seized from my own works. I entered into rest. Isn't that great?
Now, of course, serving the Lord Jesus Christ, there's still a cost.
Notice he says, for my yoke is easy and my burden is life.
It's not that the Christian life doesn't have its burden.
It's not that the Christian life doesn't have its yoke.
Yoke is the rules.
Hey, there's still rules to Christianity, but these rules are so much better than if you don't serve God.
Because when you don't serve God, if you just serve God with your marriage, the rules in marriage are really nice.
You know what's not nice? Alimony.
You know what's not nice? Divorce proceedings.
You know what's not nice? Your spouse being with someone else.
What's not nice is sharing custody of your children.
Those are not an easy yoke.
That is not a fun yoke to bear.
You know, these ladies in here that think staying home with kids is hard, have the opposite.
Go into the workforce.
Having a job, having a career, having all these other things.
That is a different yoke and it will tear you up.
It will be so much worse than the yoke of being a mother and being at home.
You know, going to church is an easy yoke.
Being in prison is not an easy yoke.
Being on drugs is not an easy yoke.
Having bad friends is not an easy yoke.
And look, when you don't serve God and you're not in church and you're not reading your Bible,
look, your life is going to be hard.
The way of transgressors is hard.
But when you serve God, yeah, there's going to be some burdens to Christian life, but it's way easier.
You know what's way easier?
Is coming to church and having a bunch of sodomites yell at you,
than not believing the reprobate doctrine and letting your faggot uncle molest your child.
Because you didn't believe the reprobate doctrine.
That is way harder than having to deal with these people, these dogs.
They're gone anyways.
And that's to these people, you know, without our dogs anyways.
You know, you think that this is a hard life.
Look, I'm telling you, the people that don't go to church,
I know tons of people that don't go to church.
I have tons of family and friends and all kinds of people that aren't serving God.
And I never look at their lives and think like, can we please trade?
I'm never thinking like, oh man, your life just looks so easy.
You don't have problems.
No, I'm thinking like, wow, Jerry Springer was going light.
Jerry Springer is a light affliction for you guys.
Man, what's going on with you guys is rough.
It's sick.
It's perverted.
It's weird.
It's damaging.
It's harmful.
It's horrible.
I don't want that.
Come and serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
His yoke is easy and his burden is light.
The reason why you think it's so hard is because you just aren't faced with an alternative reality.
But if you could just play Scrooge with yourself for a moment,
if that angel could come and take you to your alternative reality,
you would be running back.
You would be running back.
Because I'm just telling you, serving God is so much better than the alternative.
Don't let the devil lie to you about it.
All right, let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for all these scriptures.
Thank you for this great wisdom that the Lord Jesus Christ gave us here in Matthew chapter 11.
Thank you for making our yoke easy and our burden light.
Thank you for giving us free salvation.
Thank you for being such a good friend unto us.
I pray that you would help us to also be a good example,
that we could be good friends to others,
that we would be willing to bear that light burden and that easy yoke,
and we would be appreciative of what you've given us.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, in closing, let's go to song number 296.
Song number 296, follow on.
Song number 296 is all singing out together on the first.
Down in the valley with my Savior I will flow,
Where the flowers are blooming and the sweet forests flow.
Everywhere He leads me I will follow, follow God.
Walking in His footsteps to the crown He brought me.
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus.
Anywhere, everywhere I will follow Him.
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus.
Everywhere He leads me I will follow Him.
Down in the valley with my Savior I will flow,
Where the storms are streaming and the dark waters flow.
With His hand to feed me I will never, ever fear.
Danger cannot guide me if my glory is near.
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus.
Anywhere, everywhere I will follow God.
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus.
Everywhere He leads me I will follow Him.
Down in the valley or up on the mountain stream,
Most beside my Savior, where my soul will ever be,
He will lead me safely in the fact that He is God.
Up to any banner of the hills of God.
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus.
Anywhere, everywhere I will follow God.
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus.
Anywhere He leads me I will follow God.
Great singing everybody, you are all dismissed.