Heavenly Father, thank you for this beautiful morning.
Thank you for the local New Testament church and for the Word of God and for all the blessings
you've given us.
I just pray that we would worship you in spirit and in truth this morning.
We love you in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
For our second song, let's go to 245, "The Old Account Was Settled."
245, "The Old Account Was Settled."
245.
Thank you so much for coming to Set Fast Baptist Church.
If you did not already get a bulletin, please lift your hand up nice and high real quick.
We have our Bible memory passage, Proverbs 31 verse 25.
And then on the inside, service and soul-wanting times, church stats.
We have a list of several ladies who are expecting, so please be in prayer for all of them.
And then as well, on the events section, we have the upcoming baby shower for Mariah Jackson.
And then we have a soul-wanting marathon that's the day before Easter, March 30th.
It's going to be here meeting at the building at 9 a.m.
On our Easter services, we're actually going to do communion Sunday night.
And so if you would like to participate in that, that's when we're going to be having
services immediately following the evening service on that March 31st.
April 9th through 10th is a one of our friends is having a youth conference for teenagers.
And there's a signup sheet as well as a poster with all the details about that.
And so if you'd like to go, that information should be out there.
We have a Shreveport Louisiana Soul Winning Marathon, April 13th.
This is something that everybody's always asking about and really excited about.
And so I think it's our third or fourth year.
I can't remember exactly, but we've been going there very consistently and it's really,
it's just a great place to go considering how receptive it is for soul winning.
And so, you know, if you feel like, man, I, I feel like I haven't been able to give the
gospel in a while or I'd like to, you know, get some more opportunities to preach.
This is a great opportunity to go and it's very likely that you'll be able to present
the gospel and even get a lot of people saved because in times past it's been very receptive.
And so I highly encourage you to participate if you can.
I'm sure we'll have a small group carpooling, also using the church van that meets here
at the building first in the goes, or you can just pretty much just drive yourself.
It's about three hours, kind of depends on what side of the DFW you live in, but it's
around three hour drive, so just FYI.
Down below is the note about the baby shower that's gonna be on the 16th from 1230 to 230.
If you would like to get them a gift, they're registered on BabyList, it's for their baby
boy.
You can RSVP to Mrs. Milstead, and we also ask that you'd please do nursing only, and
if you'd like to bring a dessert or dish, you can.
On the back, we have a note of several people you can be in prayer for.
I did want to have Brother Oz actually come up here for just a moment, and I know that
we've had a lot of people visit the Philippines.
I highly encourage you to talk to all of them and ask them about soul wedding because it
was really receptive, but Brother Oz recently, about a week ago, went to Germany and was
there encouraging a church plant of Faithful Word Baptist Church, and so he went out there,
they went soul wedding, he preached a couple times for them as well, and I just wanted
him to share just a few minutes on his experience over there, so we're going to just have him
come up here and give us a few minutes of his testimony from there.
Yeah, so last week I had the opportunity to preach at Faithful Word Baptist Church Germany,
and first of all thank you Pastor Anderson and Pastor Shelley for allowing me to go to
that.
You know, I work for Pastor Shelley, it's kind of cool when you have a boss that lets
you go preach in Germany for work, so that's pretty awesome.
But I had a great time.
I left last Wednesday evening and then from the time change I arrived Thursday evening
in Germany and I get off the plane and right away the church there was just super hospitable
to me.
I get off the plane and this German brother there, he hands me some pretzels, some German
pretzels and some German water from the Black Forest and they just, they were very hospitable
and nice people and the city that we went to, it's a very historical city, it has kind
of a dark history believe it or not, it's called Pforzheim and in February of 1945 it
was bombed by the British with phosphorous bombs and 17,500 civilians died in that bombing
there.
Very, just kind of a dark history of a place, because of the phosphorous bombs it actually
caught the river on fire, so like people were trying to escape the fire and went into the
river and like drown and die, just terrible history, so it's kind of amazing that this
place even exists to this day, but all over the city you just see kind of like the scars
of World War II there, so it's very interesting, but we went soul winning and the soul winning
kind of surprised me that it was a lot more receptive than I anticipated it to be.
We had I think about 13 talkers and maybe over the course of you know four to six hours
of soul winning throughout the week, those 13 to 14 talkers had about 14 salvations,
so it was more than I expected, it was good and it's pretty hilarious because here in
the United States the most receptive demographics are black people and Hispanic people and that's
kind of the neighborhoods that we like to go to because they're the most receptive to
the gospel.
Well in Germany it's just overrun with Muslims, just Muslims have just gone all throughout
Europe and so it was kind of funny that we had the reverse strategy in Germany, we're
like looking for the white people.
Like we don't do that in the United States, we're like finding the young white Germans
and they just were the most receptive in that area, which is kind of funny, it's not like
how it is here, but that church honestly is a huge inspiration to me and the Christians
there are a huge inspiration.
They are going through serious persecution a lot more than we have ever been through.
So you know, for example, I believe that four of their church members now are under criminal
investigation for preaching the word of God, for basically just believing the doctrines
of the Bible. Many of them have lost their jobs. You know, for example, they went out
soul winning and they got a young lady saved and she came to church for the first time.
And when she went home, the police were waiting for her at her home and interrogated her for
going to church. The police have gone into their homes and stole their electronics, their
phones, their USB drives, just random church members, not even people that have preached.
So honestly, I think that Europe right now is like on the brink of doing a great work
for the Lord. You have a church in England, you have a church in Germany, you have a church
in Poland, and it seems like right now the devil is really trying to stop the gospel
from going out in Germany. So, you know, definitely be praying for these people. I think that's
the biggest thing that we could do for them, pray for them. If you have the means of visiting
them, they said that they really want people to visit them, they want more people to preach
for them, so just please be praying for them. Their church is really great. It's a beautiful
area, really nice people, and when you visit people from all the way across the world and
you just immediately feel like family with them, it's because we all have the spirit
of Christ, right? Those are our brothers and sisters, and just because you've never met
them, just because they live on the other side of the world doesn't mean we shouldn't
think about them or pray for them, so just please be praying for that church, Faithward
Baptist Church in Germany. Thanks.
Yeah, Brother, I was just telling me some of these people actually travel like eight
hours and they're excited to have a church. It's like people won't drive five minutes
here. And we take for granted a lot of times the freedoms that we have to believe the Bible
and to preach it. And so we need to be very thankful for what the Lord has given us and
take advantage of what the Lord has given us. Also, we have Avengers or Bannock with
us here this morning and his family, and they're going to be heading out to Manila very soon.
And so this might be the last time to see them in the flesh for a while. And so I highly
recommend all of you, you know, say hi and shake their hand and bless them before they head out.
We have a couple of baptisms this morning, and Avengers or Bannock is going to help me with one
of those today as well. So definitely a lot of exciting things. I do also though want to
make one more private in-house. It's a Psalm of the week, Psalm 150. It's in our special handouts.
Psalm 150. Psalm 150. Sing it out. Psalm 150. Corinthians chapter five.
Corinthians chapter number five. This is our custom. Verse one, the Bible reads,
"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much
as named among the Gentiles should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, ye that
have might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body but present in spirit,
have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together in my spirit with the power of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good.
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven
that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an
epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world,
or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters. For then must ye needs go out of the
world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a
fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with
such an one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye
judge them that are within, but them that are without God judgeth, therefore put away from among
yourselves that wicked person." Fire heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, I pray that you
bless Pastor Shelley with the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches to us, and I pray
also Lord that this message would sink down into the hearts and minds of all of us in this room,
and that we identify areas in our life that can be improved, that can change. We love you,
and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. So we're here in verse Corinthians chapter number five.
I want to look back at verse number 11. The Bible says, "But now I have written unto you
not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an
idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such in one know not to eat.
For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within,
but them that are without God judgeth, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked
person. Now in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 it's dealing with a very specific church discipline
issue where an individual is with his father's wife and they're committing a certain type of
fornication. According to the Bible it's even a weirder type of fornication than the world was
engaging in and the apostle Paul is saying this is an shame and embarrassment to the cause of
Christ and to the church and you need to tell this person that they're no longer welcome at this
church while they're engaging in such conduct and I think unfortunately because so many churches a
day don't care what the Bible says that people are confused and think that church is for anybody for
any reason no one should ever be turned away there's no reason someone's not welcome at church
you know that's just not biblical also church is not geared towards the unsaved church is geared
towards the safe what's geared towards the unsaved is us going out and preaching the gospel and
reaching the loss and evangelizing but church is for us to be discipled to learn the Bible to be
encouraged and also sometimes to be reproved and also sometimes even to be rebuked and so we don't
come to church expecting to always get a pat on the back in fact the apostle paul is saying in this
passage in verse number two and you're puffed up and if not rather mourned he's saying the attitude
of your church should actually be a negative attitude it should be one of sorrow and of grief
and sadness because of the fact that this person's engaging in such conduct because it's a reproach
unto christ and so we want to make sure that when we you know are here for church that we don't just
take the good passages of the bible and apply them but we also apply the negative or difficult
passages of the bible and i think that that's one of the reasons why people do like our church
is because we want to do everything that the bible says whether it's good bad fun comfortable
uncomfortable and the reality is church discipline while in the moment is grievous
it's actually a positive thing in the long run it's a positive thing for that person is a positive
thing for a church just as the bible is describing us being similar to a type of bread and how when
you have a little leaven it can cause the whole lump to be leavened and so it's telling you get
the leaven out so that you can be an unleavened loaf and that's to represent sin and i believe
that the reason why these sins are being brought up in first corinthians chapter number five is
because they have a high likelihood of infecting another person you know obviously the bible's not
saying we can't have sinners in church because then it would be empty okay no one's perfect
no one does right all the time we all sin we all make mistakes but there's some sins that are very
grievous and specifically can cause others to get involved in their sin when you look at this list
in verse number 11 it's saying fornication is one of the first ones well if someone's committing
fornication and there's no discipline there's no reprimand against such behavior it could really
encourage other people in the church to think well i want to commit fornication or i guess
fornication is not a big deal and then pretty soon what you'll notice is a lot of people are
engaging in fornication in the church and if you go to a non-denom church today one of these big
mega center churches today i guarantee there are dozens and dozens of people in open fornication
in that church and they're not being dealt with because it's not looked down upon it's not
preached against and it's not being enforced that those type of people need to get married
or stop committing fornication and so it's important to preach against these things and
even enforce that behavior you know idolatry that can encourage other people to use idols
being a drunkard obviously this is a very infectious sin if people are getting drunk
and drinking a lot it really encourages a lot of other people to drink and become drunkards
people that are covetous and always focused on just getting rich and making a lot of money
that could really infect the church and sometimes what will happen is individuals get into a church
not to come to worship not to read the bible not to get better simply to make money through their
mlm scheme or something or they're just trying to get clients or they're just trying to take
advantage of certain church members or they're just trying to get rich literally and they're
infecting other people with their mindset and with their attitude and they don't approach church as
a place to worship god but rather a means by which they can make more money or enrich themselves and
you know that kind of attitude could be very infectious it could it could cause a lot of
problems in the church so you have to get it out extortioners this is just you know where people
are constantly taking advantage of each other because they have a lot of private or intimate
knowledge i mean you know i look at our church as a family and in many ways and we share a lot of
details with each other we know where each other live we know sometimes people you know they they
share information about their family or their situation and what would be bad is if we all
have this attitude of trying to use private information or details or whatever against
people and extort them you know that's a very dangerous attitude and a behavior and it could
cause other people to start applying the same measures the same tactics and we're all very
cutthroat we don't want that and then you know another one that's mentioned you're kind of the
last one in this list is being a railer a railer is someone who is spreading false information or
making false accusations against individuals and the reality is we don't want to live in an
environment where everybody's just saying stuff about us it's not true or they're just exaggerating
or making claims about us and just kind of poisoning people against us and this is very
easy to infect the church because naturally especially in a church when it has hundreds of
people in it you can't be friends with everyone like it's literally impossible and what happens is
small groups form and a lot of times you can notice this in school like cliques or you know
groups or whatever and that's just natural you can't really avoid it some people are going to
gel with other people more and other but what can happen is one clique kind of doesn't like another
clique and so everybody in this one clique is just making all these random false accusations
against the other side and then in retaliation they're all saying a bunch of stuff about the
other side and then pretty soon you just have a church filled where everybody's confused
about everyone everybody believes a lot of weird rumors and heresy and just kind of crazy things
about other individuals and it just it doesn't unify the church you know to have a unified church
we have to be very careful and very diligent to not spread false information not poison the minds
of other individuals against one another we want to rather hold our tongue and this is something
that's very difficult because naturally the human condition our flesh wants to just run its mouth
about people we don't like and we need to avoid this because this sin is a very dangerous sin so
i really want to focus in on that sin this morning and the title of my sermon is this
railers gossips and jerks okay railers gossips and jerks all three of these people are different
and and i i want people to really understand the differences this morning but there's really only
one application that you need to walk away with this morning here's your one application and you
just just get this locked into your heart don't talk bad about other people you say i don't want
to be a railer i don't want to be a gossip and i don't want to be a jerk here's how you accomplish
that don't talk bad about other people it's that simple but it's not simple it's simple and and
theory it's very difficult in practice why because you get emotional you get mad and and this is what
happens in the sermon you're like you hear the sermon you're thinking all right i'm not going
to talk bad about people all right and then as soon as the service is over someone comes up and
you're like man your kid's a little jerk and then you're just like you're a jerk you know he's just
like all of a sudden now it just comes out right someone does something mad as rude to you or as a
jerk to you or like hey you know that sermon that pastor preached about jerks he was talking about
you literally and then now all of a sudden you're being tested on how you're going to handle that
you're like this person's a reprobate obviously you know it's like that's that's how people are
okay but you know what you just have to really really work on getting it settled in your heart
i'm not going to talk bad about other people when they're bad when i don't like them when i'm
frustrated you know it's easy to not talk bad about people that you like and have no problem with
it's like check mark yeah it's it's not talking bad about people when you're mad at them frustrated
don't like them they did something maybe they hurt you or harmed you i mean think about what
jesus christ literally said if someone slaps you on the side of the face if they hit you on the
cheek what are you supposed to do turn to them the other cheek it didn't say then mouth off about
them it didn't say then do evil into them it said literally to turn the other cheek and you know
what if we're going to be christians what's a christian someone that's like christ then we
have to learn how to turn the other cheek and not blow off our mouths and run our mouths about
other people now go to mark chapter 15 go to mark chapter 15 a lot of people railed on the lord
jesus christ specifically now the word rail or some variation of that is found 10 times in the
bible in nine different verses i'm not going to cover all the verses it's but this is what i want
to say if god expects me as the pastor and us as a church to enforce church discipline on certain
sin issues then they have to be clear otherwise there would be no way to actually do such a thing
unfortunately many people have a bad idea of what the word rail means and they'll simply say railing
is just saying anything negative that's not what the word rail means railing is making false
accusation okay and that's where the clear boundary is for a church no one's going to be
thrown out of church for saying something negative or bad they're going to be thrown out of church
for making false statements and false accusations things that are not true okay because everybody's
entitled to an opinion if you just say i don't like joe biden you're not going to be thrown out
of the church okay that's your opinion right but but if you say like i think joe biden's a
10 foot tall green reptilian you know alien you know obviously we're going to think you're weird
but it's kind of crossing into a boundary of like now you're railing because that's not that's not
a true statement okay and so we want to make sure even against people who don't like you know michael
dark angel is not bringing a railing accusation against the devil that means we shouldn't even
say things that aren't true about hillary clinton or biden or zhi zhi ping or any of these individuals
there's plenty of facts about them that we can bring up we don't need to invent things that
aren't even true about them you know stick to the facts about these individuals because there's
plenty there to talk about them there's plenty on the devil we don't need to accuse him of every
negative thing that happened as being his fault sometimes if people are bad it's not even the
devil's fault in fact sometimes i'm wondering if the devil's embarrassed about the democrats actions
lately he's just thinking like man you guys are making me look bad you know everybody kinds to
think that i keep doing all this stuff i don't even know you guys you know i'm joking of course
all right they're obviously his minions but here's here's one proof text about kind of what railing
means in context and it's about the lord jesus christ look at verse 29 and this is when jesus
being crucified it says and they passed by and they that passed by railed on him wagging their
heads and saying ah thou that destroy us the temple and build us it in three days save thyself
and come down from the cross likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with
the scribes he saved others himself he cannot save now the bible kind of couples these two things
because they are mocking for sure but they're not just mocking they're mocking with railing
statements because they're mocking the idea that he said destroy this temple in three days i'll
raise it up well let's look at that quote because i want to see what jesus really said about this
go to john two for a second go to john two why is this railing because they're trying to
accuse jesus of being a liar that's what they're trying to do they're trying to accuse jesus of
being a liar because jesus did say that he was going to destroy the temple and raise it up in
three days again but you know here's the thing they didn't quite even quote him exactly right
because when they're saying destroys the temple it's like they're kind of alluding to him like
he's the one destroying the temple okay but if you actually pay attention to what jesus really
said you can tell he wasn't talking about him destroying himself look what it says in john
chapter 2 verse 18 then answer the jews and said and what signs show us thou unto us seeing that
thou doest these things jesus answered and said unto them destroy this temple and in three days
i will raise it up so jesus wasn't saying that he was going to destroy the temple he was saying to
them hey destroy this temple and in three days i'll rise it up again what is he saying well if
we keep reading we would know verse 20 then said the jews 40 and six years was this temple in
building and wilt thou rear it up in three days notice they didn't even misunderstand they didn't
say how are you going to destroy this how are you going to knock this down they're only responding
to the thing that he said he would do what is the one thing that he said he would do he would say
that he would raise it up he's saying it took us 46 years to build this thing how are you going to
build it in that short amount of time and it says in verse 21 but he's speaking the temple of his
body so they didn't know they didn't understand and i think this is important a reason why i think a
lot of people make a railing accusation or a false accusation is because they don't know what they're
talking about because they're confused about something or they misinterpret something or they
they heard something and they didn't quite get it and then they run with it and then when they run
with it it's actually completely false it's not even what the person really said it's not even
what the really person meant and because you didn't take the time to actually understand
what was really happening you didn't have all the information you end up making a false accusation
this is almost always exactly how it happens someone runs with something they misinterpret
something they go with some kind of a gossip and or they just have malicious intent and they just
start making a false accusation because they are trying to use Jesus's words and and use them
against him problem is they didn't understand his words and so when they apply it they end up making
a false accusation saying that Jesus isn't going to be capable of what raising up the building but
here's the thing the building was his body and yes he did raise it up and you know they are liars
because they're making a false accusation saying you're not capable of destroying the building and
raising up but again they misunderstood they made this false accusation and the bible says that they
railed on him that's what railing is making false accusations about someone lying about someone
misrepresenting them and so you know that cannot be tolerated now i want you to go in your bible to
proverbs chapter 11 here's something the bible says in proverbs as well lying lips are abomination
to the lord hey children lying lips are abomination to the lord lying lips do not lie children do not
lie to your parents children do not lie to your brother and sister children do not lie to anybody
the bible says that god hates lying and we need to make sure that we are not lying to anybody
the bible says this but they that deal truly are his delight god loves honest people god loves
people that deal with the truth and want to be a truthful and honest person and you know what
if you want god to be pleased with you children don't lie always tell the truth you know there's
no there's no reward to lying lying will cause you to want to lie even more you tell one lie
and it almost always turns into another lie and then another lie and then you've webbed this
weave or you've weaved this web sorry that you basically now can't even get out of and it's so
complicated and you need you need to literally own every media station radio station and the
internet to try and cover up her lie now okay and so you know you just just don't lie just don't
go down that road just try to be honest take ownership for what you said and in fact let me
tell you this children often you would get punished less from your parents if you just
told the truth than when you lie about it many times we ask our kids if they did something wrong
they're not even getting to get in trouble we might tell them not to do that but then
because they lie about it now they're going to get disciplined now they're going to get in much
worse trouble than if they'd just been honest you know hey kids if your mom asks you something
just tell her the truth okay don't go around lying and and trying to say things that aren't true
because you know we don't want our kids practicing lying and getting better at it because you know
here's the reality when people lie for the first time or or as a young child they often are not
very good at it okay and you know why people are very good at lying because they've lied a lot in
their lives and they've gotten very practiced in it and so you know it's really good it's a really
good habit to just not lie so that you don't become deadened and you just feel like lying's
just easy and just you're ready to do it at the drop of a hat in fact some people are so good at
lying they could pass a lie detector test they can pass all kinds of psychological evaluations
from police officers they don't even necessarily exhibit signs of lying from their physical
behavior because they're just so good at lying and you know we don't want to be those kind of
people there's even games like this how would you say this be careful playing games like this on a
regular basis you know i play games like that i'm just thinking like i don't like this game you know
it's this kind of a weird game to practice lying and just being really good at being deceptive so
you know i would just encourage you you know to avoid those type of behaviors but what is the
second group i want to talk about it was gossips okay first is railers it's very clear the clear
line false statements okay gossip is essentially a broader category gossip is where someone
is making a statement that's unconfirmed they're spreading rumors or information that's
unconfirmed it could be true it could be false but it's for sure gossip okay if you look it up in a
dictionary gossip is this rumor or talk of a personal sensational or intimate nature here's
another definition of a gossip spreads private rumors or facts so here's the thing just because
it's a fact doesn't mean it's not even gossip now the word gossip is not found in your bible
but there is a word that means the exact same thing it's called a tail bearer okay if you
look up a tail bearer in the dictionary this is what it says about a tail bearer one who
spreads gossip okay so you want to know what a gossip is it's a tail bearer what's a tail bearer
it's a gossip okay and this is what some people think like oh what i said was true okay that's
still gossip well what i said it happened okay that's still tail bearing it's the it doesn't
mean just because it's true that you should say it why is it saying you shouldn't say it why would
be the thought process well because it's personal it's sensational it's intimate it's private what
would cause someone to not share something like that called discretion people who are constantly
gossiping lack discretion discretion is the ability of a person to recognize hey this is
information i should not be sharing so i'm not going to share it if you share every fact you
know about people all the time you're probably a gossip like there should be lots of things that
you're just not sharing not bringing up letting go for you to recognize the fact that hey i'm
not a gossip because there's all this information i know i'm not saying i'm not telling people you
know by constantly telling everybody everything you know about everyone you're basically a gossip
i mean that's just what it really is okay and you also destroy friendships because if i'm telling
you something if i tell you something personal if i tell you something intimate if i tell you
something that's you know important to me or private to me and then you just tell a bunch of
other people you're going to betray my trust you're going to make me feel differently about you
you know we don't we don't want to have that kind of a relationship with everyone
where we have no confidence in having any kind of private relationship that's that's what causes
people to actually draw close is by being able to share private personal information i mean that
should be you know why you feel close to your spouse is because between husband and wife there
should be just an incredible amount of private information like there should just be so much
stuff that you know about your spouse that no one on the planet knows and that's what makes your
relationship special you know unfortunately the internet is ruining this so many people are
literally putting all of their private information on the internet all the time in blogs and video
you know reality tv which is not real but again they're trying to bring people into their home
and talk about all the things they're doing and showing everything people are showing off their
bodies and showing off everything they could think of and it's like they just want their whole life
to be on display you know that's someone that lacks discretion and the person that has discretion
is going to have a lot of privacy between husband and wife you're going to have privacy in your
own family you're going to have privacy in your close friends you have privacy as a church you
know think about us as a church we also are going to have some things that are a little bit private
and intimate you know we don't necessarily need to go out into the world and tell them every single
thing we believe on day one right let's focus on the gospel right it's it's using discretion
to not necessarily have to explain every doctrine of the bible day one or right off the bat you know
let people get saved learn the bible and of course we have nothing to hide we literally put every
sermon online anybody could access everything we believe right away but i'm saying when you're
approaching new people sometimes it's better to not tell them literally everything i mean think
about think about this just on a personal level you know what if you walk up and you shake someone's
hand and be like yeah i literally just used the bathroom with that hand bro it's like it was true
but it was like that's not going to be a cool thing to share like that's that's a private thing
between you and you okay you don't need to share like when you go into the bathroom no one needs
to know what happened in there you know you came out all right we got it okay like we don't need to
know that's why the bible uses euphemisms even in certain areas of life because it's trying to say
like here's a hint hint a place where we don't talk about it hint hint here's something that
we don't bring up you don't like the bedroom things in marriage things in the bathroom you
know there's lots of things that we're just not bringing up and you know if the bible seems pretty
silent in an area of life it's probably because you're supposed to be exercising discretion in
that area of life okay it's not that the bible doesn't know about that area it's not like god
is ignorant of that thing he's saying like why would we talk about that that's not something we
should be bringing up okay and so gossips they lack discretion and they literally blurt out and
bring up anything and everything and we need to be careful and in controlling our tongues
and i'll say this everyone in this room has a tendency to gossip it's not you know like i don't
want people to think like only women struggle in this area no no no everyone struggles in this area
so if you think that you don't struggle with gossip you're lying to yourself every person struggles
with the temptation to share things that they shouldn't and even more so hear things that
they shouldn't many many people don't really necessarily want to tell you a lot of private
stuff but they would love to hear it they would love to be like hey what's going on with this
thing or what's you know what you know what's happened here what did they say or how do you
feel like everybody would love to hear but very few people are sharers okay and then the people
that love to hear think that they're somehow not guilty of gossip look if you want to not be guilty
of gossip when someone starts gossiping to them to you you have to shut it off you have to you
have to just say like hey i don't want to i don't think we should be talking about that or you know
i don't want to bring i don't really want to discuss that or i'm not really interested in
that or just changing the subject you don't even have to necessarily even directly uh address it
sometimes you have to but you have to be careful because someone that's going to gossip is going
to use a lot of manipulation tactics to gain your trust and trick you into thinking that you're not
gossiping somehow like they'll be like hey i'm you know i'm a doctor so you know you should tell me
about this it's like that doesn't just because someone is in the medical profession doesn't mean
like oh i i can just trust this person with any information or you know i'm a police officer or
i'm a lawyer or you know but you don't understand i deal with these kind of matters or you know i'm
their friend or they just they just appeal to some level authority or they'll say hey i'm the soul
winning captain you know the soul winning captain gets reported soul winning numbers they don't need
gossip the ushers are ushering the staff is doing staff things you know some people it's like oh
well you know someone's on staff i might as well just tell them every dirty secret i know it's like
no even me i don't want to know necessarily okay now again i have to deal with church matters so
obviously there's going to be some certain amount of information that's brought to my attention
but i don't want a lot of the details either i don't want to know a lot of private things
and if it's not dealing with something that you are an eyewitness of i really don't want to hear
it you know it just doesn't really matter at all it's literally if you want to tell me something
that you did not see or hear i could i could not care less and i will treat it like literally
that you didn't say anything that's how i will always treat it so you know the bible makes it
clear that we should be only hearing information from eyewitnesses or people that really experience
things but here's the most common one i think this is the most common way people gossip i'm
really concerned about brother dylan i'm i'm just really worried about him have you noticed anything
off about him i mean this is how everybody works and operate and almost everybody will fall victim
to that i mean i guarantee if i tried this on you after the service you might literally fall victim
of this hey i've been kind of feeling off about dylan what do you what do you think and they're
just like yeah you know he did this this one time and it's like everybody has a story about brother
dylan and he's just like oh man you know this is you know just be like hey i don't know no i like
dylan you don't have you don't have to necessarily go down there people are going to be like oh i'm
just really worried about the service i'm praying for this person i feel like you've had problems
with them will you tell me about your problems with them no because they're between you and
that person no one else gets to be involved in that situation they shouldn't be like it doesn't
matter what dylan did to me i shouldn't be telling you about it i'm not going to tell you every
single negative thing that dylan and i have between each other like that doesn't make sense
just like i wouldn't want to do that to you or me or anything like we're just not going to go
around and just tail bear and just tell everybody everything also here's another tactic that people
use with gossip and it leads to railing is what i call vague booking and they'll say i have this
problem with someone in church and i think they're kind of a bad person and they're on staff and
they're not the pastor and i don't want to say their name because i don't want to be guilty of
gossiping but you know their their name rhymes with rillin and uh you know it's like it's like
they basically want to tell you all this gossip and they know you know who they're talking about
but they're just not going to say the name because they don't want to be guilty of gossiping
look it's still gossip don't let people vague book you on these kind of issues or or pretend like
they're they're being so godly i need counsel about this specific person they're giving all
these details you're like i know exactly you're talking about you know as soon as you know who
they're talking about just be like hey i don't want to talk about dylan right i don't want to
you know i don't know i'm not i'm not involved in that right if someone's going to be like hey
i have this person blah blah it's like you know even as the pastor to me it's like someone comes
to me and they have a problem with someone it's like okay well did they rail no are they a drunkard
no okay did you witness it no it's like okay bye i mean i this is how i want to treat church and
this is how i want you to have the mentality like the police okay if i call the police and i say i
don't like dylan like we agree no i'm just kidding it's like i think dylan's bad i think dylan's
dangerous this is what they say did he commit a crime no did you witness a crime no click you know
it's like hey at church it's like you know what the past is going to deal with spiritual crimes okay
not your personal feelings or whatever or making friends or like i'm just not that kind of police
i'm going to deal with real issues okay and we want to make sure that we also are are having
the right mentality about things now i i have a couple tests for you on how to figure out if
something's you know gossip because you know apparently people need help in this area but
you know the bible literally says in the old testament thou shalt not go up and down as a
tail bearer among thy people so the bible doesn't even say like tailbearing is okay sometimes
it's just a strict straightforward commandment don't do it don't do it don't be a tail bearer
don't be someone that acts like this okay let's get some more definition proverbs 11 look at verse
13 a tail bearer revealeth secrets but he that is of a faithful spirit can seal the matter notice
again the righteous person has private information that they don't share the tail bearer shares
everything go flip the page of the right to chapter 20 for a second proverbs chapter 20 look at verse
19 he that goes about as a tail bearer notice this revealeth secrets notice a pretty common theme
isn't it it's telling people private information therefore metal knot with him that flattereth with
his lips notice who's trying to get the secrets the flatterer oh i'm so concerned brother oh i
just love this person i just love dylan so much tell me all the negative things you know about him
it's like just don't just don't engage in that behavior just don't fall for the trap and you
know this is what i don't want you to think i don't want you to think reprobates are enticing me to
gossip no no everyone's enticing you to gossip literally everyone you need to be aware of like
be like thinking is this something i should be engaging in you know and go through to Proverbs
26 i want to read a little bit more here but here's here's your three-fold test and i'm not
saying this is perfect but i think it's a pretty good one would you say this information in front
of the person you're talking about because it's like hey did you hear so-and-so had a baby it's
like you wouldn't have a problem telling that person that they had a baby because it's exciting
news and you're just sharing information about another person but if it's like i hear so-and-so's
having a baby that's different or like i wonder what they were doing you know or you're just
sharing information you're just thinking like i wouldn't necessarily say this about did you see
what she was wearing like you wouldn't say that in front of her don't say it right you want to be
careful did you see that girl that he went on a date with oh now i might actually say that in
front of you but i'm just saying you know a good test is would this person say this in front of
that person here's the second way and it's pretty similar how would you feel if the person you told
tells the person you just talked about immediately you say if you're sharing this information they
just immediately said hey so-and-so did you hear that they said this how would you feel about that
that's another good way to test is this gossip and here's the third one would you want the pastor to
hear what you said would you want the pastor of to heard what you said if you fail any of those
don't engage in the conduct it's not like i have to fail all three fail any of them any of them
it's just like you know what i shouldn't say that because i don't i wouldn't say that in front of
the person number one number two i wouldn't want this person now share what i just said
and number three i really wouldn't want pastor to hear what i just said okay and when you're
failing those you need to make sure that you're just keeping your mouth shut now proverbs 26
i want you to look at verse 20 let's read a little bit of bible here again where no wood is
there the fire goeth out anybody that smokes brisket knows this for sure okay boy it's annoying
when you aren't paying attention and the wood burns up because the fire goes out and you have
to start all over again it's really it's really frustrating but you know it's saying this in a
positive way in this verse notice what it says in the next part so where there is no tail bear the
strife ceases oh that's good so notice no tail bearer no strife so this is what i know when our
church has a lot of strife and a lot of people are mad at each other and there's a lot of problems
there's a lot of tail bearers in the room the way that a church is really unified and and then people
and things are going well it's when people are very mature and there's no one tail bearing okay
tail bearing is causing problems in a church notice what it also says as coals are to burning coals
and wood to wood so is a contentious man to kindle strife the words of a tail bearer are as wounds
and they go down in the innermost parts of the belly you know gossip is not a victimless crime
how would you feel if people are saying things about you that are not true or even true but just
embarrassing i mean if you if you just make a mistake you sin because we all sin and then
someone has to go tell everybody about what you did you know it's just embarrassing i mean what if
what if literally i had written down on a piece of paper all the sins you've committed this week
and i was going to read it out loud who would be excited about that who's ready for that no one
would be a church okay literally i wouldn't want that that's that's just not you know this is not
appropriate but you know people love to share about other people's problems and other people's
issues and you know i'm just telling you we need to do the opposite says verse 23 burning lips in
a wicked heart, or like a pot shard covered with silver dross. He that hateth, dissembleth
with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him. When he speaketh fair, believe him not,
for there are seven abominations in his heart, whose hatred is covered by deceit. His wickedness
shall be shewed before the whole congregation." You know the Bible is saying, is the person
that wants to gossip and tale bearer, "I just love this person. Oh, I'm just so concerned.
Oh, I'm just praying for this person. Oh, I just, I don't want anything bad to happen."
But what does it say? "When he speaketh fair, believe him not." Don't share negative information.
Don't share bad information that's private, of an intimate nature. You know, it's leading
down a bad path. And what happens is this person, they end up getting swallowed up in
their own sin. Verse 27, "Who so diggeth a pit shall fall therein, and he that rolleth
a stone it will turn upon him. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and
a flattering mouth worketh ruin." People will flatter and do all kinds of evil. You know,
here's a verse that's really important. In the Bible it says that a whisper separateth
chief friends. And it's just sad. You know what can destroy really good friendships in
this room? Whispers. And I think that us as a group are great friends. And I think even
in this room a lot of people are really good friends. And you know what will destroy friendships?
Tail bearing and gossip and railing. And you know what? I don't want that to be destroyed.
I don't want things to get ruined. I don't want things to go bad. That's why we take
this seriously. That's why we should exercise control. You know when people don't have control
what do they start doing? They start littering on the streets. And things start deteriorating.
And then this whole, pretty soon, the whole city is destroyed. Why? Because people are
being negligent, not cleaning things up, not taking care of stuff, not maintenance things.
This is how it works spiritually. That people just start littering and getting lazy and
just causing all kinds of problems and they deteriorate relationships and institutions
spiritually. And we have to constantly be cleaning ourselves up, exercising self-control,
exercising discipline, enforcing rules, and making sure that we're not letting things
deteriorate and be destroyed. Okay? I don't want it, no one wants it. Go to Proverbs
14. Now here's the last group that I want to talk about, and it's jerks. Okay? So we've
talked about railers, spreading false information. Then there's gossips. Gossips are just spreading
information. Now here's the thing, I've focused a lot on the gossips telling things that
are true. Many times when people are gossiping, it's false. And then they shift, they had
no intention to be a railer, they're not even trying to. But because they're just running
with information they don't know about, they're misinterpreting information, and whatever,
they end up falling in this category and now they're making false accusations. Now they're
railing on people and you could literally be thrown out of church for that if you don't
repent, if you don't take it seriously. Here's the third category. This is someone that's
just a jerk. What's a jerk? Well, according to the dictionary, it's an annoyingly stupid
or foolish person. Here's another definition, an unlikable person. Now, contrary to popular
belief, you will not be thrown out of church for being a jerk. What does that mean? I
can't throw people out that are unlikable. You would think, like, there's a couple people
in here, you know, it's like, no, it's okay. I can't throw someone out for being annoying.
I can't throw someone out for being a fool, for being foolish, for being stupid. Like,
I can't, you know? And so we have to make sure that we as spiritually mature Christians
recognize these differences, okay? Look at Proverbs chapter 14, verse number seven. Now,
here's my advice, though. If you recognize a jerk in church, if you recognize a jerk
in your professional career, if you notice a jerk in your neighborhood, if you notice
a jerk anywhere, how do you handle this person? Well, what does the Bible say in Proverbs
14, verse seven? "Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in
him the lips of knowledge." Don't be their friend. If you don't like someone, don't
be their friend. You know what's a big red flag to me is when I know because someone's
told me literally they don't like someone and then they pretend to be their friend in
my presence and they hang out with them and they go around and I'm thinking like, "What's
wrong with you? Why in the world are you going to go to lunch and dinner and hang out with
this person and be around all this person?" Well, all the while you're telling me you
don't like them. That's deceitful. That's weird. If you just don't like someone, just
don't like them. But don't pretend like you like them. Don't act like you're their best
friend. You know what? If someone doesn't like me, I would way rather than just tell
me that they don't like me than to pretend to like me. And you know what? If you don't
like me, please never invite me to have a meal with you. Ever. Like, because I'll think
you like me. Like I'll think that we're friends or something. But I didn't know that you're
like, you know, the person that invites you over and then like secretly records you or
is like waiting to catch something out of your mouth. This is like the Pharisees and
the Sadducees did to Jesus. But they weren't his friends. Don't be that person. You know,
it's okay to not like someone too. All right? I'll put it back on record. It's okay to not
like someone. I will never hold anything against you because you just don't like someone. Here's
the question, how do you handle that? If you're being fake to that person, if you're being
rude back, if you're gossiping about them, if you're railing on them, now I will have
to deal with that situation. Okay? And it's not for me to be like, you know what, I don't
like them too, so let's all talk bad about them. It's like there could be someone I don't
like and you don't like, but I'm going to defend them. And there could be someone I
like and you don't like and I'm going to defend them. Because it's my job to defend everyone,
the likable or the unlikable, even defend the jerks. Okay? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter
13. And what's an example of a jerk? Okay? Because I don't want you all to get confused
about this. It's when Pastor Shelley gets up and preaches a sermon about, hey, if you're
sick, stay home. And then immediately after the sermon, you walk up to someone and say,
you and your kids are the reason why he preached that sermon. You're a jerk. I mean, that's
just rude. Okay? But you know what? Don't talk bad about that person. Don't render evil
for evil. Right? Hey, this sermon on jerks? Pastor was talking about you. You're like,
this week you're like, hey, I'm going to respond. Hey, remember that sermon last week? Well,
this one was about you, buddy. You know, you like that. You're the jerk pastor's preaching
about. Now you're the jerk. Okay? Right? Don't be annoying. Don't be rude. The Bible's really
clear on this. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 4. Charity suffereth long. Notice
this. And is kind. You know why someone's a jerk? Because they're not mature and they
don't, they're lacking in charity. They might have charity in some areas of their life,
but they're lacking in charity in all the areas of their life. And a spiritually mature
person is kind regardless of who they're talking to or who they're around. We want to make
sure that we are kind. Verse 5. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not our own, is not
easily provoked. Here's a good one. Thinketh no evil. They're not interpreting everyone's
actions as bad. They're giving people the benefit of the doubt, folks. And you know,
as a pastor, that's my attitude. That's how I'm going to operate. I'm going to try and
always give someone the benefit of the doubt. And I'm going to always try and interpret
everyone's behavior in a positive light until they prove me wrong. And when they prove me
wrong, all right, I'll deal with it. But we should give people the benefit of the doubt
until the bitter end. Okay. I mean, you could almost argue Jesus did this with Judas because
he already knew all of it and it's already happened. And he's still kind of like asking
Judas like betray us down with a kiss. He's like, you know, what, like what's going on
here? You know, and we should try to give people the benefit of the doubt until they
proved us wrong. Okay. Verse seven, bear with all things, believe with all things, hope
with all things, endure with all things. Well, you just believe everything about that person.
Well, that's what charity is. You just always seem to believe good about them. Oh, that's
what charity is. You endure all kinds of stuff. Well, that's what charity is. That's how we're
supposed to behave. That's how we're supposed to act. Go to 2 Corinthians 13. Now, I want
to do something to help us remember. And I want to give a really big caveat. Everything
we're about to say is not true. But I'm going to make up a scenario, and I want the scenario
to help us recognize these differences. And I want some volunteers, but I'm going to try
and handpick some of these, okay? I want Brent to come up on stage, alright? Alright, now
here's the thing. Like I said, everything I'm about to say about Brent is not true,
okay? This is just, this is just, this is just for example. I love Brent, Brent's a
great guy. And that's why I picked him, okay? Now, let's say I came up to Brent, and I asked
him how it was going. He's like, "Hey, I got a new car." And I'm like, "That's cool. What
color is it?" And he says, "It's white." And then I think, you know, "I wonder why you
bought a white car?" You know, I like that car. It's a nice car. Maybe I'm a little envious
of that white car. And I'm kind of just envious of Brent. And I'm thinking, you know, he probably
bought a white car because he doesn't like black things. I don't even think he likes
black people, you know? And then, you know, I need another volunteer. Ben, you want to
come down? Come on down, all right? So I run into Ben, and we're just chatting. And I'm
trying to talk to Ben about Brent. And I'm like, "Hey, Brent got a new car." You know?
You got a cool white car. Come over here on this side, all right? We're not hanging out
with Brent. You know, we're just hanging out, all right? We're going to the baseball game
or whatever, okay? They have baseball in the Middle East? What do they have? They just
stare at the sand or something? Sandcastle building. I don't know. All right. This is
where rumors start, okay? I'm talking with Ben, and I say, "You know, Brent got a new
white car. I think it's because he doesn't like black people." And then Ben hangs out
with another person. "Dylan, why don't you come on down, all right?" And Ben and, you
know, Dylan, they like to hang out each other. Ben takes them to McDonald's, okay? This seems
very realistic, all right? And so Dylan's already kind of in a bad mood, all right?
And Ben starts talking with Dylan. He's sharing, "Hey, did you hear Brent got a new car?" He's
like, "Yeah, and you know what I also heard? That Brent hates black people." And then Dylan
hangs out with Marcel. Come on down to Marcel, okay? And, you know, they're playing baseball
or something, all right? And they're just hanging out, and they're just playing. And
for some reason, you know, Marcel was hanging out with Brent the other day, and he brings
him up. He's like, "Hey, you see, you got a new white car." And Dylan goes, "Hey, brother,
I'm really concerned, because I have to tell you something. Brent hates you." And so all
that happened is Brent told me he got a new car, and it was white. I just kind of was
mad about that, and I just decided to blow off my mouth and say, "I think he doesn't
like black people." He interpreted that as that he hates black people. Then he interpreted
that he hates Marcel. And now all of a sudden Marcel is like, "What's up with Brent?" Okay?
And so you know what happened? Now all of these people are actually guilty of even railing
because they've just harkened a weird gossip and through the game of telephone and life
circumstances, this is how it always happened. Things get misinterpreted, misunderstood,
and usually it started with some little bit of mistake. And you know, my mistake wasn't
worthy of me getting thrown out of church. Did you notice that? I said, "I don't think
that Brent likes black people." I can't throw that person out of church for making that
statement. I could never do that because that's not something that could be thrown out of
church. What happens is this person by spreading information and it growing and growing, now
it's gotten to a point where he just hates all black people and of course we're applying
that to Marcel. It gets really weird. Then all of a sudden Marcel gets mad at Brent.
They're no longer friends and they were friends. Brent likes Marcel. He doesn't hate any black
person in reality. You guys can go back. We're sitting here with Ben.
He still likes black people. Let's say we start over and I talk with Brent and he tells
me his white car. I'm thinking, "You know what? I kind of like that white car. I wonder
why he got a white one. I don't think he likes black people." I come to Ben and I say, "You
know what? Did you see that Brent got a new white car? It's nice, isn't it? I think it's
because he doesn't like black people." This is what Ben should say. "Where'd you hear
that?" "I don't know. Well, why don't we ask Brent? Why don't we ask Brent if he doesn't
like black people or not?" And then Ben says, "Hey, Brent, I heard that you don't like black
people. Is that true?" And he's like, "No, of course I love them. I hang out with Marcel
and he's Dominican, okay? Whatever. So I like Hispanic and black people mixed together,
okay? I like them all. He's my token everything friend. He's my immigrant friend. He's my
Hispanic friend. He's my black friend." All of it, right? And then you know what happened?
We didn't have Dylan and Marcel getting involved in railing and all these kinds of issues.
And then I kind of get embarrassed for even saying that and maybe the next time I won't
do that again. Maybe the next time I won't come to Ben and think he's my outlet to tell
him all kinds of weird stuff or junk or whatever kind of an issue. Now, that was a scenario.
I want to kind of play one other scenario. I'm hanging out with Brent. Remember, everything
I'm saying is not true, okay? I'm hanging out with Brent. Brent's like, "Hey, I got
a white car." And I'm like, "That's cool." He's like, "Notice I didn't get a black one."
And I'm like, "Okay." And he's like, "I don't like black people." And I'm like, "All right."
You know what? That's kind of a jerky thing to say. You know what? I'm not going to throw
Brent out for not liking black people. If Brent says, "I don't like Marcel," he's not
going to get thrown out for that. But the person that's making a false accusation against
Brent for saying that he said that when he didn't will get thrown out. Isn't that interesting?
Why? Because I won't throw out a jerk. I won't throw out this person. But I will throw out
the person throwing or making railing accusations against somebody. Now, of course, that's not
true. He wished he'd bought a black car. Okay. Y'all can go sit down. All right. Thank you.
You can sit down. I just want people to recognize there's a difference between these categories.
And again, I'm not going to throw someone out for being a jerk. Now, I want to make
something clear though. That doesn't mean I won't preach against you. And I won't make
it specific like he's calling your name. But again, I'm going to preach about not being
a jerk, right? And so here's the thing. If you rail, you get thrown out. If you gossip,
you're on thin ice. And you, you know, better hope that you didn't say stuff that was not
true because then you're going to be moved to that other category. And then thirdly,
if you're a jerk, you're going to be preached against. Okay. So it's not like there's not
consequences to all these actions. It's just different. We're going to handle them a little
bit differently. And when it comes to church, some people get confused. I am not going to
police certain things. I'm going to police crimes. So if someone has a bad view on health
and does not take health advice that I give as my personal opinion, I am not going to
do anything to that person. I'm not going to call and be like, why did you take that
medication? Why are you doing this? You know, if someone listens to bad music, I'm not going
to call them up and be like, what were you listening to? If someone is manipulative,
I'm not going to go and be like, stop being manipulative. If someone's a bad friend, I'm
not going to be like, hey, stop being a bad friend to this person. If someone eats Indian
food, I'm not going to do anything about it, but I'm not going to eat with them either,
okay? If someone's friends with bad people, I'm not going to do anything about it. If
someone visits bad churches, I'm not going to do anything to that person necessarily.
Now, I want to make it clear. As I talk about this list, if someone's in a position of leadership,
they could be removed from leadership for making bad decisions. You could have a loss
of privileges in the church and you could lose friends by doing all the things that
I'm saying. You could be removed from leadership, lose privileges, lose friends by doing these
things. But I'm not going to throw you out of church and get directly involved, okay?
If you make dumb videos, I'm not going to get directly involved with that. If you're
watching smut, I'm not going to deal with that. If you're a flat earther, contrary
to popular belief, I'm not going to throw you out for being a flat earther. Now, I will
mock you relentlessly from behind the pulpit. I will not get in your car. You're not driving
me anywhere because you'll drive off the edge, all right? But I'm not going to throw that
person out of church. You know, if women decide to just get a job and go work and put their
kids in childcare and daycare and the public fool system and don't care anything that I
say or what the Bible says about, you know, teaching their children or staying home, I'm
not going to call them up and be like, "What are you doing?" I'm not going to do it. If
your kids are in public school, I'm going to love them and treat them nice. If you hire
babysitters from Care.com, I am not going to call you and be like, "Why are you hiring
that babysitter? But why would you ever hire that babysitter?" You know, I'm going to get
up and preach about it and say, "Look, pedophiles are literally scouring these sites trying
to prey on people and it's happening all the time. Please never do this." But I'm not going
to call and be like, "Did you do it?" People can make mistakes. People can make dumb decisions
and I'm not going to be there or care. You could be vegan and I'm not going to do anything about
it. You could vote for Joe Biden and I'm not going to do anything about it. What do you want? I mean,
you can deny the moon landing, still not going to do anything about it. Look, if you want to be dumb,
be dumb. If you want to think stupid things, think stupid things. If people act bad, okay,
we're all sinners. I am not the sin police. I never want to be the sin police. I'm not going
to sin police myself, okay? Folks, you know what? When we see someone sinning, you know what we're
supposed to do? Pray to God that they'll get right and he'll be merciful to them. That's what we're
supposed to do. Now again, in the context of major sins, huge big crossing the line issues like 1st
Corinthians 5 or capital crimes or committing literal crimes, you know what? Yeah, we need to
tell the authorities and the proper channels. If you report crimes to me, I will tell the police.
I'm the last person to tell the like of all the people you're going to tell committed a crime.
Don't tell me because I will tell the police. You're like, hey, I killed this person. Hey,
please. This person killed this person. I might even start recording. Okay, like I'm not going
to cover that up. I'm not interested in those kind of things. This person was mean. I don't care.
Revisit my sermon about jerks. Okay, you can technically be a jerk and come to my church.
Now, you'll probably feel really uncomfortable on lots of sermons because I'm going to preach
against being a jerk. I'm going to compel people to be kind. I'm going to compel people to be
sweet and have charity and to be nice. And look, this is not a sermon to say like,
oh, it's cool to do all those things. Never do those things. Never be that person. You know,
my job as a pastor is to rule the church. This situation that's happening right now,
not your personal life, not your home, not your family, not your friendships. I rule this zone.
What's happening here right now. As soon as this is over, I'm done, okay? I'm just brother so-and-so.
Just brother Shelley, okay? In a lot of contexts, all right? Now again, I also am supposed to preach
the truth. So I'm going to preach whatever the Bible says on every issue. And I'm going to make
it seem really important, but I'm not going to go around and, you know, enforce all that. And I'm
going to try to be a good example of how to behave and what the Bible says. And sometimes I'll even
provide my personal opinion about specifics, because I think that God wants me as a pastor to
make things plain and try to give really specific scenarios and make things clear. And sometimes
that even verges into me giving a little bit of opinion here and there. But you know what? My
opinion is never more important than the Bible and never triumphs that. And when people don't
do what my personal opinion is, you know what? Who cares? I could be wrong even. I don't think so,
because I wouldn't say it if I thought I was wrong, obviously. But at the end of the day,
you know what? I, as the pastor, want to make sure I'm doing what this says. No more and no less. No
more and no less. And you know, as a church, we want to have unity. We want to be having a safe
environment. You know what's going to make our church feel safe? When they feel like everybody's
not cutthroat. When they feel like even if they make a mistake, someone is going to go share that
with everybody. Do they feel like even if someone doesn't like you, you don't have to worry about
them saying all kinds of negative things about you. That you can actually feel safe coming to
church. You can be safe being friends with people. And you know, again, this is not in,
this is not in contrast or contradiction to other things that I've said. Obviously, if you recognize,
hey, I think this person at church is toxic. I think that this person's a bad person. I have
issues with this person. Those are all fine to think. Those are all fine to share with your spouse.
They're all fine to share with Jesus. But other than that, don't talk bad about other people.
You know, if you, if you just like, man, I just, I'm just bursting to gossip. Well, tell your spouse,
like you get, you guys get to share whatever you want with each other. Okay. Have fun. You know,
just talk about all your personal feelings and let it all out. You guys are one flesh and you guys
get to have whatever personal opinion you want and to have, but you know what? Don't go around
telling other people, you know, these kinds of information. And I'll say this,
if your spouse really struggles in this area, sometimes you should just even keep information
from them just so they aren't tempted to share. It's like, if you feel like, Hey, I don't even
know if I should be sharing this negative thing I know about this person because my spouse really
struggles in this area, then don't even tell them because frankly speaking, we should try to protect
each other from sinning and not helping each other. No salacious details, but I'm just trying to be
honest with you, you know, keep your mouth, people shouldn't know. You guys don't know who I like and
don't like necessarily because I don't want to go around telling everybody my personal feelings about
stuff. You know, I want everybody to think that I'm their friend and generally I am. There's not
really like, I hate everybody in here or something like that. Okay. I love everybody in this room
and I, I like everybody virtually. Okay. But if there was someone I didn't like, you know what
I'm not going to do? Hey, Ben, I don't like this person. Hey, Brent, I don't like this person.
Hey, so-and-so, I don't like this person. I don't want to go around and spread that. How would you
feel if that's what you heard? Pastor's been going around telling everybody that they don't,
that he doesn't like you. Wouldn't that, wouldn't that suck? Wouldn't that be like a really
disappointing thing to hear is if you heard that and about anybody. If you say, hey, I heard that
Ben doesn't like me or I heard that brother Dylan doesn't like me or I heard even this, I heard a
five-year-old child didn't like me. Some people get offended by that. Okay. Don't go around just
spreading negative information. If you don't like someone, keep it to yourself. And you know, the
reason why this is important because sometimes you change your mind and you don't want to have
burnt that bridge when there was a possibility of you all actually being friends in the future.
There's been people that I kind of didn't like at first and then like later they grew on me and then
I kind of like liked them later. And you know, it would have been sad if I kind of burnt that
relationship, destroyed that relationship before even giving it an opportunity. Because you can
change your mind, you can feel differently about people, people can surprise you, maybe you
misinterpreted events. And you know, we want to exhibit a lot of charity in this church. Please,
please, please do not engage in gossip, tail bearing, railing, and don't be a jerk. And don't
get confused. If I handle these three people differently, because I will, I'm going to handle
all these three different people very differently. Okay. And I want people to be clear on that. All
right. Let's close in prayer. Thank you heavenly father so much for giving us the word of God,
and giving us an opportunity to have church. We have such a great group of people and we have such
a great spirit. I pray that we wouldn't let ourselves fall victim to tail bearing and gossiping
and railing and spreading negative information. I pray that you would help us all to have more
discretion. You'd help us all to have more charity. I pray that you would just help us to deal with
negative situations better. And when someone's a jerk or mean or rude, that instead of retaliating
or rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, rather we would just turn the other cheek. We
would love that person. We would pray for that person. We'd be kind to that person. And I pray
if there's anybody in this room or any of us that are harboring ill will or negativity towards each
other, that we just let it go. That we'd give it up. That we'd stop focusing on the negative
and rather we just focus on the positive things in our life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All
right, let's sing our last song. Then it looks like we're going to have a baptism or two this
morning so let's stick around for that. Let's turn to 449 dwelling in Beulah land. 449 dwelling in
Beulah land. Let's sing it out nice and loud. 449. I thought it'd be very special if evangelists are
bannocked. Baptizer today so baptism and trust of Christ as your savior. Baptized in the name of the
father, son, and holy ghost. To his death. He's to walk in unison. Congratulate our baptisms. You guys
- I've heard of this.