Let's turn in our hymnals to page number two.
Glory to his name.
Find our seeds, open your hymn books to page two.
Glory to his name.
the winners who went out this afternoon,
and thank you for all the salvations that we saw.
I pray, Lord, that you bless the service this evening
and that we can worship you in spirit and in truth.
Fill Pastor Shelley up with your Holy Spirit
and help us to apply the message to our lives
and help us grow by your word.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Our second song, page 176.
Jesus loves the little children.
Children, you'll have to sing it out.
On this one, page 176.
Jesus loves the little children.
Thanks for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you didn't already get a bulletin
and you would like one, just lift up your hand nice and high.
One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin.
Jude verse 14 for the Bible memory passage of the week.
Inside is our service so many times church stats.
Make sure you're submitting all that in our church groups.
If you're not in one or if you need to be added,
just let us know and we'll get you in there.
Please be in prayer for all of our expecting ladies.
Soul Winning Marathon and Lancaster went really well.
66 soul winners and 50 salvation.
So thanks to everybody who participated in that.
Our teen summer event, July 26th,
there is a sign up sheet.
If for some reason you haven't signed up,
we'd love for you to do so.
We have about 20 or so teens signed up for that.
So we're looking forward to that event.
Then we also have the baby shower on the ninth.
The other teen event is gonna be on August 9th.
Our men's retreat, August 14th through the 16th.
And it'll probably be a hot one, but you know, that's how it is
FBBF is August 27th through the 31st, and we're looking forward to that
missions trip
Brother Diego is helping lead that so if you have any questions you can see him
and we still have some spots on the back we have the list of our baby shower
details if you'd like to participate and then there's our prayer list it's
pretty much all I have I don't really have much announcements we'll go ahead
and sing our Psalm of the week it's 117 Psalm 117
Psalm 117.
as the offering plates are being passed around, we can turn our Bibles to, let's see, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
1 Corinthians chapter number three, the Bible says,
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk and not with meat.
For hither, too, ye were not able to bear it.
Neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal.
For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions,
are ye not carnal and walk as men?
For while one sayeth, I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos. Are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man.
I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth anything,
neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Now, he that planteth, and he that watereth are one,
and every man shall receive his reward
according to his own labor.
For we are laborers together with God.
Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me.
As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed
by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved,
yet so hath by fire.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy,
Let no man deceive himself if any man among you seem it to be wise in this world
Let him become a fool that he may be wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God
For it is written he take it the wise in their own craftiness and again
The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain
Therefore let no man glory in men for all things are yours
Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come
All are yours and you're Christ and Christ is God's. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day
I want to thank you for the success of our soul winning marathon yesterday. Thank you for the success out soul winning today
Thank you for the blessings that you've given of steadfast Badgers Church
Please help us to remain humble and remember where our blessings come from
Please bless Pastor Shelley now as he preaches your word in Jesus name. Amen
Amen. I want to look back at verse 13.
The Bible says every man's work shall be made manifest
for the day shall declare it
because it shall be revealed by fire
and the fire shall try every man's work
of what sort it is.
Now, the Bible tells us
that there's going to be a coming judgment.
We're going to be at the judgment seat of Christ.
Those of us that are saved.
and all of our works will be essentially in some way
revealed by fires, what the Bible's describing.
And it says in verse 14,
if any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved,
yet so has by fire.
And I wanna preach a sermon this evening
on being revealed by fire, or just revealed by fire.
Now, when we're trying our works, it kind of gives these analogies here of gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble.
And gold, silver, precious stones can abide in the fire and they come out of the fire.
And in fact, they're purified by the fire.
Whereas, would-a and stubble burn up in a complete disaster,
a total loss, there's nothing of eternal value in this essence.
And this chapter is really just emphasizing our works
and the works that we do and how they're going to eventually be judged.
But I just when I was thinking about this passage and I was thinking about this I said, you know
This isn't just about works because people also
Often are revealed by fire like what kind of a person you are not just your works
but just kind of what a person you are and
You never really know what someone's like, but through fire you end up realizing what kind of a person someone is
And this concept is actually taught in the latter portion of the New Testament as well.
Go to 1 Peter chapter number one.
And we're going to see this same concept.
But I just really like that phrasing of being revealed by fire.
And when you get plugged into a church that's doing a lot of things for God
and there's a lot of fire, there's a lot of heat,
you end up seeing what people are like really quickly.
If there's not a lot of work or there's not a lot of fire,
sometimes people can kind of go under the radar for a while
and you don't really know,
but eventually everything will be revealed.
But in our lives, we are going to see what people are like
and God is using this opportunity of us living here
to see what we're like.
God is constantly trying to figure out who are you?
What kind of person are you?
What are you really like?
And so he gives us fires in our lives
to try and figure out what kind of a person we are.
And are we gold where when we get under pressure,
under heat, under the fire, we come out better?
Or do we just allow the fire to destroy us
and end up doing nothing, not really accomplishing anything?
What kind of a person are you?
Well, first Peter chapter number one,
I wanna start in verse number four.
To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you,
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time,
wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season it need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations,
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, through it, be tried with fire.
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having
not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation."
of your soul. So the Bible says here in 1 Peter that God is going to try our faith. He's going to
test us. He's going to prove us. He's going to reveal what we're really like in this life,
the things that we go through. And notice I love this in verse number eight, whom having not seen
ye love.
We haven't seen Jesus.
You know, anybody that says, like,
I've seen Jesus, we should show them this verse.
Whom we have not seen.
You haven't seen Jesus, okay?
And yet, we love them.
And of course, what does it take
to love someone whom you've never seen?
Faith.
Faith, exactly.
That's the whole essence of what's being eluded here,
is your faith.
Your faith is being tried.
How much do you really love Jesus
even though you've never seen Him?
We've never seen Jesus.
We don't know what he looks like, we don't have that direct physical relationship,
but we can have a relationship through the Bible and through the Holy Spirit,
but it's more of a faith type relationship.
It says in whom though now you see him not, yet believing he rejoiced with joy and speakable
and full of glory.
Isn't that great?
You can come to church, we can sing about when we all get to heaven, but we've never
seen heaven, we've never seen Jesus.
When we see Jesus, I mean we're singing about seeing him and all this stuff, but we're doing
it by faith and we have joy and we're excited and that's our faith.
And through life, we're gonna be constantly tried.
And how much do you really believe that?
How much are you living for the things of God,
for heaven, for Jesus Christ?
And God will bring fires onto us to see,
hey, what does this person really actually like?
We don't know exactly what they're like.
We need to stress test him.
We need to prove what he is really like.
Go to 1 Peter chapter number four.
Peter thought at one point in his life
that he would die for Christ.
Then, when push comes to shove, and the Romans take Jesus, well he flees away, he runs away.
So he's not willing then.
Later, a damsel asks him if he even knows Jesus, and he's unwilling to even admit that
he knows Jesus Christ.
Then a couple times later he has a few other people question if he knows Jesus
He denies Christ three times in a short period of time and we see this guy who thought he was willing to die for Christ
This guy who thought he was so loyal to Jesus Christ when the fires came when the pressures came
We realized that he wasn't there yet. He wasn't he didn't have that heart yet
He wasn't that type of a person yet now the Bible does say that Peter was eventually converted
and yes
I do believe Peter was willing to die for Christ and of course
Sometimes we can fail, and that's okay
if we decide to get back up,
and we just get back in the fight,
and we take those defeats, those failures,
and we learn from them.
God often wants us to learn from them,
and we aren't necessarily defined only by our failures,
we're also defined by our successes.
And Peter is still known as one of the greatest Christians
to ever live.
He was the rock and the pillar of that first early church.
He went out and did a lot of great evangelism.
epistles in the Bible about Peter, so Peter is known for being a great person, a great Christian,
a great saint, yet he did have his low spot. He had his failure spot. But when we evaluate Peter
at the end of his life, he's revealed by fire as to come out like gold. He came out. But in that
moment, we showed some weakness. How many other people show that weakness and then never get back
start serving God or get back on the same trajectory or end up being willing to die for Christ.
And so we see that people are going to be tested.
1 Peter 4 says in verse 12,
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial,
which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you.
But rejoice, and as much as your partakers of Christ's sufferings,
that when his glory shall be revealed,
So, I just show these few verses to kind of give you this idea and then I want to kind
of talk about some fires that I think God gives us in our lives.
Now in some contexts, I don't think that everybody will necessarily experience all of these fires
because in some ways, you know, especially if you're a jeweler or you're very well versed
in precious metals, if someone comes in with a forgery or something that's fake, they don't
even need to throw it in the fire to figure out what it is.
And so in some ways, I think God doesn't even necessarily need to put everybody through every single trial
because they already failed the first inspection.
They're already not legit.
They're already not on the right path.
So there's no reason to even put them in the fire.
They're already not even worth trying.
They're not even worth revealing yet.
Those that truly want to serve God,
those that are really going to try and want to be proved by Him,
He will put you through fire.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were put through literal fire.
and they came out like gold.
They came out with their fate even stronger.
And so God isn't necessarily going to put us all through a literal fire.
God's not going to put us all of the lines then.
God's not going to ask us all to be faithful in the death.
But you know what? He will give us different trials and different fires in our lives.
So as I go through some of these lists of different fires that I see in the Bible
to test and to try Christians, you may not experience all of these.
You may experience all of them. We don't know.
But if you don't experience any...
then you should feel sad because what is the Bible saying?
It's saying verse 13,
but rejoice in as much as your partakers of Christ's sufferings.
You should actually be pleased and happy and joyful
that you do experience fires because you know what it does?
It proves that God thinks you're worthy of being persecuted,
worthy of suffering, worthy of going into the fire.
It's like if the Christians that just bowed down
the Nebuchadnezzar statute just compromised,
they're like, well, I'm so glad I've never been
through the fire.
That wasn't something to rejoice in.
You weren't counted worthy to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to go through but to be Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
You should rejoice that God thought you were worthy enough to go through a fire to go through a temptation to go through a trial to go
Through a difficulty we have the wrong mindset in many ways
You know Peter and John when they had been beaten they went away rejoicing
praising God that they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus Christ's name.
And so when you go through trials, don't look at it as a negative thing, it's
actually a positive thing. Just like if you were to play any sport or some
activity, and let's say I use football for this one because it's pretty easy, but
if you were to play football and you go out, you're a wide receiver, and they say,
Because they're like that guy can't even catch with no one guarding him you rejoice when they say hey
Let's put the best guys to cover him. Let's double cover him because it's like they're recognizing this guy's good
In the same way, if God's just like never giving you any kind of coverage,
He's never trying you, He's never putting anybody on you.
It kind of just shows, well, you weren't even worth covering anyways.
You weren't even worth persecuting anyways, because you're already a failure, in a sense.
So, when we get tried, when we go through difficulties, don't look at it as,
I don't know why this is happening, because isn't that the point?
Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial,
which is to try you as some strange thing happened to you.
If you are serving God, you should be tried.
You are going to have these things happen to you.
If they're not happening to you, that's strange.
It would be strange to think, I'm not being persecuted,
people are not hating me, bad things are not happening to me,
and yet I'm serving God greatly.
That's not compatible what is compatible is that you're great and you're having a lot of opposition
You're having a lot of fires or having a lot of difficulty go to 1st to me the chapter number three
We go to 1st to me the chapter number three
So these churches that have five-star reviews everybody loves them. They've never been protested. They have no problems
They're just not serving God
Just just like I would just know instantly if I'm watching a football game and I'm like no one ever covers this guy
It's not because he's the best wide receiver. It's because he sucks, okay?
Because he's not doing anything because he can't produce anything, okay?
So in the same way if there's a church out there that's just really doing great things for God, there will be opposition.
There will be difficulty. There will be fires. There will be trials.
God will try them and see what they're like, but you know what?
They can come out looking like gold, can't they? Or they can just burn up with the fire and look like the trash that they really were.
But I really want to focus this on on personal too, not just church.
We're not talking about the church necessarily.
I want to talk about you.
What are you like?
Not your wife, not your husband, not your brother,
not some other person in this room.
You, what are you like?
What are you like when the fires of this world come and here's the first fire that I want to talk about and
I think it's kind of a I could preach on all these for forever. You know me
But this one's a really important one and that's why I put it first is the trial or the fire of time
What are you gonna be like under the pressure of time and look at first Timothy chapter number three look at verse number 10
The Bible is this and let these also first be proved
Then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless now in the qualification of a deacon
The Bible says you have to do something before you can even ordain a deacon
You would have to first do something they have to be proved and what is that? It's time
We're not just gonna bring this guy in and ordain him. He has this there's a period of time
Where we have to test this guy and see what he's like. We have to make sure he can last for a while
you know and
Time is something that's just gonna really just weigh on every single person
We can all do something for a little bit of time
You know, I was thinking about this from a marathon perspective a marathon. I think is someone can correct me
It's like 26 point something miles.
That's pretty accurate, right?
26 point what?
26.2, okay.
It's approximately 26.2 miles.
Now who in here thinks they could just
dead sprint for that entire distance?
Yeah, no one, right?
But here's the thing, all of us,
all of us could sprint for some period of time,
whether that's like a second,
or five seconds, or a minute.
Like, right? We could all just, we could all be on the first, we could be on the starting line,
it's a marathon, it's 26.2 and they kicked the gun and we could all just sprint at the beginning,
but then what's going to happen? Time.
Time's gonna happen after five seconds in okay. This is you know for some of us. It'll be like oh wow
I was already too difficult
10 seconds 20 seconds a minute two minutes an hour
Right eventually time is gonna do its thing and we're gonna see who's the real who can really handle
Sprinting for a really long period of time and the same way the Christian life people are gonna come in here
And they can start sprinting as soon as they walk in here.
But then, where are they next week?
Where are they the week after that?
Where are they the year after that?
Where are they the decade after that?
And time will do its thing.
And so in the same way, we don't want to put ministers
into positions of authority that we haven't even proved
with at least a little bit of time.
Because time will eventually tell who is gold and who's hay.
Who's wood because look if I put some some piece of wood into fire
Like if there's a fire raging fire and I take a piece of wood and I just kind of just kind of skim through it
It'll be fine. I could just I could just take some wood and just a real short little time
Hey, it's that's fine. I can take gold just really fine
You know, I just but if you just put the you just put the wood right in there
Eventually it'll start to darken, eventually it'll start to change, eventually it'll combust and eventually it'll road and then be completely ash, right?
So it can't abide the time, it doesn't abide the time. Gold will just sit there and just sit there and just sit there and just sit there and just sit there and just sit there and it's like hey, gold ain't going nowhere, gold's just steadfast, you know what I mean?
Gold's just sitting there, it's just like hey, turn up the heat buddy. In fact, if you make it hotter, I'll get better.
because it'll refine and it'll get rid of some of the impurities in the gold itself.
So actually fire doesn't hurt gold, fire makes gold better, but fire hurts wood.
But fire hurts straw.
And in some cases, people that come to this church,
and I'm not saying this church, every church, it doesn't matter.
Some people when they come to this church or a church, as time goes on, they're like wood.
They start to turn different color and they start to combust and erode and eventually they're gone
Whereas other people come to this church and they're like gold
They ain't going nowhere and in fact they just keep getting better
They just keep getting better over time because time reveals what kind of person they really were and
God why does God give us 80 years in this world?
Because he wants to see if you're wood. He wants to see if you're gold. He wants to see hey
I want to just keep I want to give you lots of time in the fire because I just want to see what you're gonna really do
What are you gonna really be like? Are you just gonna keep getting better and better?
Until I take you home or are you just going to eventually erode and turn into ash and you weren't really worth it?
You weren't really what we thought you were. Now again, obviously when it comes to salvation
Salvation is an absolute free gift.
We believe in Jesus Christ.
We're saved.
And even if you're the most tiny little piece of straw
that lights on fire instantly,
you're still saved, yet so is by fire.
Isn't that what the Bible said?
1 Corinthians 3, you can't lose your salvation.
We're not talking about going to heaven.
We're not talking about any of that stuff.
We're talking about people that are already saved.
We're all destined to heaven.
We're trying to figure out what kind of a Christian are you like?
What kind of child of God are you?
Who are you in the family?
Are you the ones that are at the upper echelon,
those that are going to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven,
or are you going to be those which are the least
in the Kingdom of Heaven,
which didn't even keep God's commandments
and you told people to break God's commandments?
Hey, there's Christians out there
that break God's commandments
and tell you to break God's commandments.
They do it and tell you to do it,
and they're the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Does that mean they're not saved?
No, they're of course saved.
If you believe in Jesus Christ you're saved, but there's some bad Christians out there.
There's some bad apples.
There's people that are encouraging you to do bad things, and what I've noticed is
a lot of times when people leave a church or leave a church like ours, they usually
don't go in the right direction, they go in the bad direction, don't they?
Stop soul winning, stop reading the Bible, stop having the same standards, stop living
godly.
You know, I'm not seeing all these people just turning into gold.
But when they leave, they seem to be turning into ash and just refuse.
And we see what they were really, really like.
Go to first Timothy chapter 5.
First Timothy chapter 5 where, oh, you mean you might not even have to turn the page.
Time will, I mean here's the thing, we will see what you're like.
And look, you come to our church, people come and go like crazy.
People come and go like crazy.
And it's not really our church, it's every church.
Every church is a revolving door.
People are coming and going to all churches,
every church, all the time.
And of course, ours is cycles, just maybe a little bit.
We just speed things up a little bit, okay?
But at the end of the day, we'll figure out
what's going on pretty quick.
And people think that they're gonna be real,
They're gonna have a lot of endurance.
They're standing there at that starting line.
They're like, man, I'm gonna run this 26, 22 miles
and then about a quarter mile in, they're just,
they're gone.
They're in the ditch throwing up or whatever, you know?
And they're tired and they're like, this is a cult.
You are a running cult, you know?
It's like, okay, you guys are just, you just keep running.
Yeah, well, you know, it's a Christian life.
It's a race, we're supposed to keep running.
But here's another one that I've seen that God does that he tries a lot of people. It's not just time
but building a family
Building a family will really see what kind of person you are because being single is easy
It's so easy
It's like it's not even it's not even close
Like it's so and in fact, it's enjoyable
It's enjoyable because you only have to take care of yourself. You don't have to take care of me any else. You can be selfish
It's fun. I'm just telling you being single and as far as difficulty is very very easy
Building a family is very very hard
Just being married is a layer of difficulty in it of itself then having a child is
Extremely difficult. You know just having a wife that's pregnant even if you have no kids just being pregnant
is difficult, okay?
I got an amen over there, I know.
Then having a kid, then it's like two,
whoa, three, wow, four, it's over, it's insane.
You know, it's just, you already maxed out,
it's very, very difficult, it will test you.
It will try you.
And look, our economy is expensive.
People always, this is what the number one complaint is
about having lots of kids, is how much it costs.
What does the Bible say in 1st Timothy chapter 5 verse 8?
But if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house
He denied the faith and is worse than an infantile. The Bible tells us as men that we have to provide for our family
We have to take care of our family and of course, this is financial
I believe this is like very literal
But we could even expand this that you just need to be taking care of your family in all areas, right?
spiritually mentally
Emotionally all these different areas and look there's so many people that when they get down this road they crack
They fail, they walk away, they give up,
they're just not present.
And you know what, we really see
what kind of a person you are.
You tell us you're so strong as a man,
well, let's see how strong you really are.
You know, being a Marine sounds extremely difficult.
But let me tell you something,
being married with a wife and kids
and leading them spiritually is very difficult too.
It's a different kind of difficult, but there's also a lot of difficulty to it.
And there's a lot of men that could take being a Marine because all they have to do is worry
about themselves, but they couldn't necessarily do this raising a family.
They can't necessarily do all the other complexities.
They can go through physical torture and pain.
They can push themselves, but they don't necessarily know how to inspire others and
care for others and be empathetic and laying down and sacrificing their life in a lot of
You know, it's hard to build family.
There's been many people that say,
I wanna be a pastor or I wanna be in ministry.
It's like, okay, get a wife, have a couple kids,
then talk to me.
And it's like, by the time they get there,
they're just trying to survive.
They don't wanna, you know.
Look, if you can't even manage your wife and kids,
how are you gonna do something even more?
You know, managing a church is more work, not less work.
Like, I think some people, I don't know why people have this idea, like being a pastor is like easy street.
or it's like the easy life.
Like man, if I could just finally make it to being a pastor,
then my life would be smooth and easy and whatever.
It's like, no, it's just,
it's basically like drowning
and then a hundred people are drowning with you
and you have to rescue all of them or something.
It's just like, it doesn't make anything easier.
It makes everything worse and much harder
and much more frustrating because, you know,
my kids, when they disobey,
I can yell at them and spank them and get them in line.
When y'all do that, I can't spank you.
Now I can yell at you.
But I can't get people in line the same way as I can get my own family.
You know, like I go on a trip with my family.
I can get my kids like on time, lined up, we're good to go.
They get in the car.
I say shut up and they just shut up.
But it's like you get all these young single guys
and they're lazy and late and won't listen.
And I'm thinking like, man, my kids are easier to manage than these other people.
and even grown men, even adult men, even married men.
I mean, look, wrangling people is difficult.
Ask anybody that actually owns a business
and manages people.
You know what they'll all say?
People suck and it's so hard to find good people.
In fact, I was talking to a boss recently
and he was dumbfounded that I had worked with somebody
that I thought was a good worker
and wanted to work with again.
He says, I've never worked with a single person
that I ever wanted to work with ever again.
I was just like, wow, that's pretty black-pilled.
I mean, he was being honest.
He was just saying, like, the workforce is just so bad out there.
And I'm just saying, managing people,
being a manager, being a leader, being a husband,
being a father is difficult.
It is very, very, very difficult.
We'll see what kind of results you really have and of course at the end of the day
Everybody has free will you can only manage people so much, but obviously we'll see what?
Results come out of you. Can you stay in the game? Can you stay having a good attitude?
Can you keep just being a good example under them?
Or are you gonna crack and fail and walk away and just wash up and just shut the doors and whatever?
Go to Matthew chapter 10 how many pastors have just
Failed their congregation and then just shut the doors
And you know that's that's a lame attitude
Because you know if I'm preaching the truth and I'm right with God and I'm going zoning and you guys just all suck and walk away
Well, I'm just gonna go find some more people
You know like
I'm not gonna sit here and be like, oh man, you know poor me. It's like hey
Just go find some more sheep to shepherd or something
Right at least if you do if you're doing it, right? Obviously if you you're not good
I'm for all pastors that are terrible quitting right now
Because they shouldn't be they shouldn't be shepherding God's flock if they're not gonna do a good job with it
But I'm just saying if you are doing what's right go find you some of God's sheep to go help and love and
Help serve God and do something right with their life
It's a shame when you just give up when you quit and we see what people are like
Matthew chapter 10
Look at verse number 36. So, you know building a family is a fire in and of itself
But you know the Bible brings up family in another context and and I kind of look at this as more as like your extended family
So, like, the previous passage is more like your immediate family when we kind of go a
little bit more expanded.
The Bible brings up this also as being a problem.
It says in verse number 34,
Think not that I'm coming to send peace on earth,
I came not to send peace but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father
and the daughter against her mother
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father and mother more than me
is not worthy of me,
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me.
He that taketh not his cross and followed after me
is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it,
and he that loveth his life for my sake shall find it.
For many of us, God will bring a fire in our lives of a personal relationship where that
personal relationship may be altered as a result of you serving God.
And the question is, what are you going to be like when that heat comes?
What are you going to be like when that fire comes?
Who are you going to choose?
Are you going to choose father and mother, or are you going to choose serving God?
or sister, or brother, or whoever,
or are you gonna choose serving God?
And then we see what kind of person you really are like.
And look, Jesus is not asking you to do things
that he didn't do himself.
Jesus Christ had his own mother and brother
in standing without, and we're asking to see him.
And he said, no.
Whosoever does the word of God, whoever hears the word of God and does it, hey, that's my mother,
that's my brother. I'm not going to give them time. I'm not going to give them preeminence over God's people.
I'm going to go to church. Now does that mean that Jesus never interacted with his mom? No, of course he did.
Does that mean that Jesus didn't love his mom? No, of course he did. He said unto John the disciple. He said behold thy mother.
And he said to her, be old my son, he cared for his mom,
he made sure his mom was taken care of.
But you know what, he didn't give her as much time
as he gave to the people of God and the things of God
because he said, you know what, I must be about
my father's business and his father's business
was his heavenly father, God the father.
And you know what, we need to be about
our heavenly father's business,
not about our earthly father's business,
the heavenly father's business trumps
the earthly father's business.
And we have to love God more than we love our family.
This doesn't mean we necessarily have to actively do negative things to them.
I don't think you should ever do negative things to them.
This doesn't mean we should be disrespectful or dishonor them.
But at the end of the day, choosing whom we love, we choose God over them.
We say, I'm going to prioritize God.
I'm going to make him what's important in my life.
I've had it personally and I've seen it in a lot of people's lives
where they say, hey, it's wrong to not live near your parents or something.
It's like, okay, where's that in the Bible?
You know I'm gonna live where God wants me to live not necessarily where my parents want to live and if my parents want
Me to live and a place that's not gonna have me serving God
Well, then I might I might choose to move for my family or what's best for our spiritual growth
And for a lot of people they have to make the decisions really difficult. It's it can be not as desirable
But at the end of the day, I'm gonna prioritize
the work of God and serving God over just some family relationship over just some
personal relationship. Hey, if there's a family member of mine that's a drunkard, or an alcoholic,
or a railer, or an extortioner doing one of these evil wicked things, and they claim to be a Christian,
then I'm going to say, hey, that's not what Christ would have us do. You have to fix this. You have
to alter this. I want to have a relationship with you, but if you're going to be like this as a
Christian, I can't have a relationship with you. And try to hold them to a standard that's reasonable.
It's reasonable to not be a drunkard.
These aren't just like extremely difficult tasks
to perform, plenty of people do it.
We're doing it right now.
And of course, it's a standard that God wants us to have
to separate ourselves from among the world
and to love them.
And here's the question, who do you really love?
Do you love your father and mother more
or do you love God more?
Go back to chapter six, you're gonna be tried with this fire.
Many people in this room could testify right now I've had to go through this personally and you know if you haven't praise God
You know, I've noticed some people in here get to serve God with their brothers and sisters and moms and dads and whatever
and if you're in that situation you should be very thankful, but you know, I also know this that
even if you do have a brother and the ministry with you, even if you have a mom in the ministry with you,
even if you have a dad in the ministry with you, even if you have a son in the ministry with you,
if you have a family member in the ministry with you,
do not though allow them to drag you down from wherever zeal you have.
So it's very difficult to find perfectly matched zeal
even in siblings, even in family.
And what you don't want to do is allow them to drag you down.
You want to keep your zeal as red hot.
You want to stay whatever gold or silver precious stone that you are.
And hopefully by you being steadfast,
you can encourage them to be like suit and follow you and be like you.
But at the end of the day, you know what?
That's still a foe in your life.
Don't allow them to stop you from serving God
just because they're close to you.
You know, Lot and Abraham are hanging out.
But eventually, there had to be that separation.
He goes to Sodom.
Obviously, James and John.
Brothers, but John's just a little bit more zealous, isn't he?
John just does a little bit more works.
And of course we don't want to let our brother necessarily keep us down.
Peter and Andrew are brothers, but obviously Peter is a little bit more zealous, Peter
does a little bit more, and we don't want to let Andrew necessarily hold us back or
anything like that or prevent us from accomplishing the works that God has for us in our lives
because a man's foes are they of his own household.
May have a sibling that's like hey, I'm gonna go to church and read my Bible
But I'm just not gonna I don't want to be in a hard-breaching church
I don't want to go soul-winning or I don't want to do these things and they're like come to my church
And we can hang out and you know our kids hang out and it's like no no I want to go to the best church for my family
I know that you're saved and you might be right, but I want to go to the best church.
I want to go to the church where we're going to serve God the most, and I'm going to be
encouraged to do the most.
I want to go out there and do those great works.
We need to see what kind of a person you really are.
Now Matthew 6, verse 24, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold the one and despise the other.
God and
Mammon now, of course, Mammon is a representation of something it's a representation of what we would commonly think of as money
Mammon is just the concept of like food in the Old Testament
That's kind of alluding to the idea of serving your belly
Serving your own selfish desires and and money and the Bible is basically saying you can't really serve both
We have a limited time in this life if you want to
We all have a hypothetical number, probably.
There's a hypothetical number in our future.
If you only pursued God, there's like a hypothetical number
of like your spiritual net worth that you would acquire.
And then if you only pursued money, there's like a hypothetical,
literal financial number that you could probably assign to your head.
And the Bible is just basically saying you can't have both though.
And I don't know what those numbers are,
we'll just make up numbers.
Maybe in your lifetime of just serving money.
If you just spent all your time and effort and energy
in just maximizing the amount of money
you could earn in a lifetime.
Maybe that number is $100 million.
I'm just throwing out a number.
But over here, if you maximize serving God,
it's like $100 million in spiritual money
that's gonna be applied into the kingdom of heaven.
It's basically saying you can't have
100 million carnally and 100 million spiritually.
Because you can't serve both so you kind of have to pick which one you're gonna want and often a lot of times when you try
To say I'll have 50 of both you end up getting zero
But at the end of the day, you know, you can't serve God and mammon eventually
Eventually we'll all see which one you served
Which one did you serve?
And again, in the marathon, you can run a little bit,
but we'll eventually see if you finish the marathon or not.
And in the same way, we'll eventually say,
okay, did this guy spend the last 30 years over here
with a huge 401K and all this money
and all the stuff that he wants,
his retirement and all this money,
or did he spend all of his time over here serving God?
Now here's the thing, sometimes, not always,
sometimes you just say,
I'm gonna only serve God over here,
and then he still gives you a bunch of money anyways.
Sometimes you go over here and serve God
and He gives you literally nothing.
You lose it all, okay?
There's no guarantee over here.
But you know, there's also people over here
that spend their entire life trying to get all their money
and then they go to jail, get bankrupt, get divorced
and they lose it all anyways.
And then they had no spiritual award.
Sometimes they come over here and they get it.
They get the hundred million dollars.
They get all the money, they have all the riches.
at when that goes through the fire?
No, it's just that wood hay and stubble
that just burns up and it doesn't matter.
But you cannot serve both.
Where are you at?
What are you gonna be like?
What is your life gonna look like
when we evaluate your life?
When we look at the 70, 80, 90 years
that you get to live here,
what are they gonna say?
Man, this guy spent all of his time
just trying to make money.
Or this guy spent all of his time trying to serve God.
And we'll see what kind of a person
that you really were, you'll be revealed by fire, the fire of who do you serve?
The Bible tells us to love not, to not have the love of money.
And we shouldn't love money.
We shouldn't be pursuing money.
That shouldn't be the main focus.
Look at this chapter at verse 33,
but Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Now, obviously as a man, I have to provide for my family.
So I can't just forsake making money.
I can't forsake work.
I have to go out there.
But at the end of the day, I need to put God first.
And of course, God asked us to put him first.
You know, hey, I'm gonna go to church
on the first day of the week.
And I'm going to read my Bible, and I'm going to go soul winning, and I'm going to do these things.
And as long as I'm doing those things, then, yeah, over here, now in second place,
then I can maximize whatever extra time God's given me to go out and make money.
And some people even think like, oh, well, I have less time now, and less energy because I put a lot of energy over there.
But you know what? Sometimes God will maximize your results with, you know, less is more when you have God's blessing.
Whereas you have more over here without God's blessing. You might end up not achieving what you really wanted and what does he say?
He says he seek he first the kingdom of God and his righteousness knows this and all these things should be added in you
So it's not like God's over here saying like hey if you serve me you're gonna be dirt poor and not have anything
And I'm not gonna take care of you. In fact, he's actually saying if you do it. I'll give it all the two anyways
It's like America our nation sought God and was trying to have religious liberty and freedom
And then guess what we end up being the most prosperous nation and blessed by God in the top of it
Jerusalem and Israel went to serve God and then up becoming the most blessed and prosperous
nation all in the process.
You know Job sought God and was righteous and then ended up being a greatly wealthy blessed
man.
Abraham went out to seek the Lord and left all those possessions and had to completely
move away and then he ended up being a great prosperity and great wealth.
So God can bless you if he wants to, if he deems that's necessary.
But at the end of the day, you know what that shouldn't be our pursuit
That shouldn't be where our heart is and God will try you and see what you're like
In fact, he might give you a bunch of money to see what will you be like when you get a bunch of money?
How many of us would show up at church tomorrow or not tomorrow, but next week, sorry no one's showing up tomorrow, please
How many of us would be here Sunday morning if we won a hundred million dollars in the lottery this week?
How many people would be here two years from now if we won a billion dollars in the lottery?
How many people would keep serving God if he got a lot of money?
How many of us would show up at church on Sunday morning if we lost all of our money?
If we lost our job, we lost our business if bad things happen to us
You know what would happen if you were coming to our church and you go in Monday morning and they say hey
We're firing you because you go to steadfast
Would you come to church on Wednesday night?
Would you come to church on Sunday morning?
And you know what? There's been people that have gone through that and they came out like gold and
Then there's been other people that it didn't happen and they were just afraid of it and then they're gone
They're afraid that that could happen even though it never did and then they're just where are they?
Well, we see that they're not trying to be like gold silver and precious stone. They're just like that
flax that just
It just immediately burns up.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 13.
What kind of Christian are you?
Are you gold, silver, precious stone?
Are you wood, hay, and stubble?
What is going to happen when these fires come upon you?
The fire of time.
How long will you last?
Are you able of building a family?
Are you capable of saying no to certain personal relationships
and close, familiar relationships?
What happens when we decide, where is your heart at
when it comes to money?
Are you going to prioritize God, or are you going to prioritize money?
And if God gives you money, what would you do with it?
If God takes away money, what would you do with it?
What are you going to be like?
There's all this religion out there.
There's all these churches out there.
God literally, sometimes you wonder like,
why are there so many churches?
Why are there so many weirdos and false prophets?
But then the Bible tells us this, look at Deuteronomy 13 verse 1.
If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams
and give it thee a sign or a wonder,
and the sign or the wonder come to pass
wherever he spake unto thee, saying,
let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known,
and let us serve them, thou shalt not harken
unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams,
for the Lord your God proved with you
to know whether you love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul.
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and
Ye shall serve him and cleave unto him
So the Bible saying God may raise up a false prophet a false brother a false teacher whoever and
They might come to you and they may try to take you away from the serving God
And here's the question will you go with them or are you gonna stay with God?
And look there have been people that have been in churches like ours
Where they're here for years and then all of a sudden now they're in the Orthodox Church
now they're in the Catholic Church and
Personally, this is my opinion
The Bible says in 1st John chapter number two they went up from us because they were not of us for they'd been of us
They would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest
They were not all of us, but here's my thought. I do believe that
And I think that's probably true for these people.
But what I do think could happen is that person,
when they leave, say, hey,
that your church is wrong,
and they could drag other people out of church with them.
They could drag some people.
I mean, why would this even be brought up?
If it's only addressing bad people, influencing bad people.
I think it's also in context of good people being influenced by bad people and being drugged
out of good churches and good institutions by wicked, evil people.
And God will sometimes test you and try you and see what are you really like.
When grandma says, no, come to the Roman Catholic Church with us.
When your dad says no go with me to this building of this church or this religion or they became New Age spiritualism
Or they say hey try this peyote drug with me
This is the real version of God
Look there are people that are tempted by false religion that are tempted by idolatry that are tempted by these type of things
And the question is what will you be like? Are you gonna be someone that goes to Aaron and says here's my gold make me a golden calf?
Or are you going to be the type of person
that avoids all kinds of false religion idolatry?
What will you be like when you're tried with this?
Go to Proverbs 29, go to Proverbs 29.
You know, hopefully, God willing,
this is something that you won't necessarily
have to worry about.
But we should always keep that in the forefront.
There are going to be people that come to our churches
that have family members and friends
that try to get them to go to false religion,
bad religion, and maybe it's not as extreme.
But a sublayer, what if they just try to get you to some kind of a weird version of Christianity?
Maybe a Calvinist church, become Presbyterian, become Reformed, or become Methodist, or become Pentecostal,
or some other weird variation, and they're trying to draw you away under false religion and false teachers.
That's God saying, hey, what are you really like?
Or maybe just as the Southern Baptist Convention,
with their beautiful building and all their little kids programs
and their little pastor and, you know, a polo shirt
and jeans and it's only meeting once a week
and it's right where you live in your little bedroom community
and he's just trying to get you to just go to your
repent of your sins Southern Baptist Church and let your kids get saved
every single week and the Sunday school
and go to the kids camp.
And do whatever, I mean, how many people are just tempted to just get sucked into that?
Sucked into some non-denominational church, some Bible church that's going to just drown with them.
God's constantly testing you and saying, what are you really like?
You know, you come to a church like ours and we're kind of notorious and we embrace it.
We like hard preaching.
What is was hard preaching is the concept of the idea of being corrected often being told that you're wrong or you need to improve
Or we need to do better and who would who would not like that? Well?
Someone that's already arrived, but who's arrived only the prideful in their mind
because no one's actually ever arrived and we need the word of God and we need constant correction.
What does the Bible say in Proverbs 29 verse 1?
He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy.
How do you handle correction?
You know, people say this, oh, that sermon was about me.
But this is what I never hear. And I never hear like whether it was true or not.
It's kind of like they're like, oh, these people are against Jews or whatever or they're anti-Semitic. It's like, but but are they lying oh?
This person said this thing that I don't like okay, but is it true and
You know, let's say a sermon was about you
Okay, let's think about a few things. Is it true? Is it biblical and then how did you respond?
Because isn't the more important aspect is how did you respond to that?
Because if you're being constantly reproved, if the sermon is constantly about you and you're not listening and you're not paying attention
and you're not making the change, what does the Bible say? Well, it says he being often reproved,
harden at this neck. And again, you know, God uses physical things to understand spiritual truths.
What is the hardening of your neck? You know, it's kind of like the, you get the stiff neck and it's this like prideful thing.
This is this prideful look where you just kind of like harden your knees. It's like stiff in your neck. You're just like
I don't need this
What in theory what is a hump? What is a humble look?
It's kind of like lowering looking down being sad
So when someone's correcting you and you're you're just kind of like yeah, I'm sorry
Yeah, I screwed up that seems like the person's sorry and humble when the person's just like
Yeah, so yeah
What is the Bible saying? The person that's hardening their neck shall suddenly be destroyed
When you're being corrected when you're being reproved, you know
And this is the danger coming to a church like ours and not making changes when you should
Because what is the Bible warning the Bible's warning that when you're constantly being reproofed don't show up
We're constantly being reproofed and not making the change you need to make the change
You should embrace the change not hardening your net not stiffening your neck not hardening your forehead getting right with God
We need hard preaching go to Proverbs 29 verse 19
A servant will not be corrected by words
for though we understand, he will not answer.
And this is a difficult proverb.
I think it's kind of a harder one.
This is my insight to what it's kind of,
could be alluding to.
This is kind of my perspective on this proverb.
And because these Proverbs are so such dark sayings, you know, we may never know exactly but one thought I have is that for a lot of people and most people, especially employees and other things, they won't make changes if there's not some kind of a punitive aspect.
I think what it's trying to allude to is like they won't make the change even though they hear and even they recognize
This is true many times and again
There's always exceptions obviously good workers will but he's just basically saying like they're not going to change
But the threat of being fired or some kind of punitive action or whatever
Often will sometimes get people to respond, but this is the sad reality. We need punitive
Response that we need a punitive system in many cases to get people to actually obey
Because if if we just took away all punitive things we go to this full like what the world calls servant leadership
So like servant leadership by the world's definition is this idea where you just lead by example and
You never punish anyone you never exert authority over anyone you never really there's no real consequences anything you just lead by
Example that's the only thing you never do. Well, it's a total disaster
reality because the reality is even though the servant hears the words and
even though he understands he's still not going to sneak and change but when
it's like hey do this or you're fired do this or there's some kind of a
punishment or whatever then often many times people will just like okay fine
I'm gonna do it not because he said it but because I don't want to be punished
because I don't want the consequences because I want to lose my job because I
need to feed my family because of some reason just like children
Children are much different in this if we never said, if you said, hey, I'm never going to spank you. No punishment
You're you're going to get everything that you want, but please obey me
It's like they don't even do that when I threaten them
Let if I took away punishment, how much more would they just do whatever they want?
I mean think about this mankind is punished with hell
Hell is on the table and how many people don't believe in Jesus Christ
The God's wrath is on the table for breaking his commandments and how much do we how much more if we just said doesn't matter
No punishments note anything. It's just people just don't want to obey
people don't want to do what's right and
It's often the threat of force or some kind of a punishment that God's people to do right
But here's the problem when it comes to Christianity
is that God is so long-suffering and gracious to us
that often when we disobey or we do wrong, there's not an immediate consequence
or it's not always apparent that there's a consequence tied to it. So then you know what it takes?
It takes faith to just do right because most people just won't just decide to do
what the Bible says.
Most people won't just read the Bible and just say, you know what,
that's right and I'm gonna do it.
And we all need fear a little bit, which, hey, the fear of God is in the Bible.
The Bible tells us that he should, he's going to punish us and stuff.
But at the end of the day, we get to see what kind of person are you?
Are you the exception to this proverb that if you just saw the Bible, you would just do it?
Are you the kind of person that you need some incentive?
You need some carrot and stick?
Are you the person that even with it, you won't even do it?
And at the end of the day, when you come to a hard preaching church, you know what?
A lot of people have different opinions.
Some people love it because they want to get better.
Some people hate it because they don't want to make the change.
You know, the person that's a great person is the person that hears the preaching and
wants the preaching and wants the correction.
They say, I hope the sermon's about me.
I hope it's something that I can apply.
I hope it's something that I can change.
I hope it's something that I can fix.
Whereas the other person that's not having a good heart will say, I hope the sermon's
I hope the sermon doesn't address the sin that I'm dealing with.
I hope the sermon doesn't confront me.
I hope the sermon doesn't make me uncomfortable.
And of course, the Bible warns about these kind of people that they can't really handle it.
Go to Matthew 13 if you would, go to Matthew 13.
You know, the Bible says when Jesus was preaching about divorce and remarriage,
He says that all men cannot receive this same.
Not everybody can hear hard preaching.
especially because it's always personal.
People don't typically come into church
and get offended about things
that have nothing to do with them.
Like when people get mad about divorce and remarriage,
they're not like, I've never been divorced,
I've never been remarried.
I just could not stand what you said
about divorced people though.
You know what? It's people that have been divorced that get really pissed about divorce sermons.
It's people that have tattoos that get really mad about tattoo sermons.
It's people that like to drink alcohol that get really mad about sermons against alcohol.
It's people that are getting mad about the thing that's being brought up about them.
That's why they're getting so frustrated they don't like the hard preaching.
And Jesus is saying, oh men cannot receive this saying.
Not everybody wants to hear what the Bible says about divorce and marriage.
Not everybody wants to hear what is actually applying to them.
And when they hear the sermon, when they hear something applying to them,
when they realize that they've been lied to, foolish, simple-minded,
don't like hard preaching, whatever it is, then they just get offended.
Look at Matthew 13, verse 21.
It says, Yet, hath he no root in himself, but dureth for a while, for when tribulation
or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended."
Now,
I'm bringing this up for a seventh point, but it also applies here in the sense that,
hey, as soon as there's any kind of heat, this person is just immediately offended and leaves,
and the same applies to the Word of God, that many times when the Bible is confronting you,
people just immediately get offended and they just leave.
They hear about something that they're guilty of, they have a problem, and they get offended.
They also, it's kind of in the same vein.
It may not even necessarily directly apply, but it directly applies to them in a persecution way.
Right? Like, if I preach against Sodomites, there's plenty of people that are not Sodomites
that are going to be offended by the preaching.
Because they don't like the persecution that's coming towards them as a result of that particular doctrine.
They don't want to go to a church as being protested because they don't want to have to walk through the protestors.
They don't want the uncomfortable conversations with family and with friends and with other people in society about their views,
what they believe, being a part of an organization that stands for that.
They don't want to wear this sodomite deception t-shirt. They're immediately offended by this. They don't like it.
Are you homosexual? No. Do you like homosexuals? No.
Do you believe the Bible? Yes. Okay.
But I just don't like that you said that. I don't like that you brought that up.
And it's just like, they don't want the persecution that comes
from having to believe that. They don't want the persecution of
of saying, going to a church where they say Catholics aren't saved
because now they can't bring their Catholic family to Easter service or
whatever and they're afraid of what's going to happen.
I mean look, there are people that are genuinely afraid to bring their family to a service here.
I'm not gonna ask a reason, hands, okay.
But I'm just saying, people are like,
I don't know if I can bring,
and you know, I try to be an equal opportunist
to Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night
that you're equally afraid.
Like you don't even know necessarily.
So I'm not like trying to pander to like,
hey, this is the type of service you can bring family to.
You just genuinely have no idea.
And I've had a few times, I mean, there's been times
where people have visited or family or friends
and I kind of have, I know a little bit about the situation.
Like someone told me or I know or whatever it is.
And sometimes I'm thinking like,
oh, the sermon is, you know, it's gonna be great for them.
Like, you know, they don't...
It's going to be nice, it doesn't offend them,
like they're going to, you know,
it probably is going to be uplifting, encouraging.
And then there's other times I'm like,
wow, that's probably the worst possible sermon
that they could probably hear
as far as just like being offended, you know, in a context.
But then at the same time,
it's like maybe that's the right sermon for them.
Maybe that's the best sermon for them
because they need to hear that.
But at the end of the day,
okay, you hear the sermon, you hear this.
Persecution is going to rise.
Who is going to stick with the things of God
even when persecution comes for the word's sake?
You know, you serve God, family is going to turn on you,
people are going to get mad at you,
relationships are going to change.
I mean, the Bible says,
Yeeing all that will live godly in Christ Jesus,
shall suffer persecution.
And we see some people immediately.
That's what it means by buy and buy here.
In the passage by and by just means immediately it says it in the other parables immediately just immediately they're offended immediately
They leave and look how many people have come to a church like ours and then just immediately leave
We've had people get out in the middle of the service. Yeah, I had I had a service where a guy got out and the announcements
He showed up and by the middle of the announcements. He'd already left
Okay, so yeah, people can just immediately be offended,
immediately not like the things of God.
Go through to John chapter six
and we'll kind of finish here on this last thought,
but you know, I'm just kind of giving you
a few different fires.
There's probably more fires than I've covered.
But look.
If you serve God and you're on the right track, what's going to happen?
Well, time is going to happen.
We will see over time who you really are.
What are you really like?
When you have to start building your own family and providing for them
and paying for them and feeding them and dragging them around with you,
we'll figure out what you're really like.
Whenever you have to make a tough decision between a mom or a dad
or a brother or sister to serve God,
When it comes to who are you gonna serve for the rest of your life money or God will eventually see which one you preferred
Which one you liked more when it comes to false religion coming in and trying to tempt you and try you and drag you out to a bad
Church or a bad religion. We'll see who gets drug out
When it comes to hard preaching
That's the one that I'm saying we have a quick cycle on because the hard preaching starts about as soon as the sermon starts
And it covers all kinds of topics and it gets spicy quick if you preach the Bible if you preach the word of God
It's not about I don't think that I'm a spicy preacher. I think the Bible's spicy. Look, I said this to somebody this morning
I said look, you know what the most spicy part of the morning sermon was?
The Bible reading that was way harsher than anything. I think I said personally in fact
I'm constantly reading the Bible. I'm just thinking like dang
I don't know if I can say that like I don't even know if I don't know if I can be that you know extreme or whatever because God's the hard breacher
The word of God's the hard breach. That's what cuts us
That's the the two-edged sword that's so sharp and it cuts us and dices is up and makes us just feel awkward
You know if I say something that's my personal opinion and you don't really agree and it's not the Bible
You're not really doesn't really if it doesn't really affect you that much
You're just like well pastor. So he's stupid, you know on that point or he's wrong on that point or something
But like when it's when I'm saying it's the Bible and you're wrong it hurts
It really cuts. It really makes a big difference.
And we're going to see who can handle that. Who wants to hear what the Bible...
Who's ready for the truth? Who can handle the truth, right?
Who can handle the persecution that comes with believing the truth and serving God?
And look, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
If you're doing it right, you will have trials, you will have temptations, you will have persecutions,
you will have afflictions.
But lastly, and this is kind of brought up at the very beginning of the sermon, is your
faith itself.
What is your faith going to be like when God tries you?
And think about this, faith is not an abstract idea.
Faith is something that we can think about.
Faith is when you believe something that has been told you that you can't see, right?
Faith comeeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God. God promises us. God tells us something.
God just wants us to do something and we can't see it as the evidence of things that are not seen.
Okay, but we believe it. We choose to believe it. Where we brought up, hey, whom we love having not seen.
We haven't seen Jesus, but we're believing it.
We have faith.
We haven't seen our rewards, we believe in by faith.
We haven't seen our house in heaven,
we believe it by faith.
We haven't seen our spiritual bank account,
we're believing it by faith.
And we're trusting that God's word is right
when it comes to all areas of our life.
That's what it means to have faith.
And we're gonna be tried in our faith.
Hey, I can't see this, it doesn't make sense.
I don't know how that could work,
but God's telling me to do this.
So I need to just step out in faith.
Hey, I'm going to put my feet in the Jordan River.
I have no idea how in the world I'm going to cross this thing.
But I just do, I just put my foot in the river because he told me to.
And then all of a sudden it just opens up and I walk through.
God says, hey, here's a couple fish and some loaves.
Let's pray and have a meal.
All of this would be like, this guy's crazy.
I mean who would sit here and think like you're just looking to see a 5,000 people and he's praying over two fish
You're like we're doomed
like, what in the world is gonna happen?
But they're like, let's go, you know?
And they start passing it out.
I mean, I almost wonder if the disciples
are really stingy at first.
Cause you know, they're thinking like,
man, I don't know, like,
you took a little too much there, buddy, you know?
And then they keep going.
But then it just keeps working.
And then all of a sudden it's just like, dang,
like, what in the world is happening?
How did I give out this much food?
But God, God is constantly gonna try us and look I bring up that story because that's the context here in John chapter 6
And usually when we think about the parable of 5,000 the feeding of 5,000 4,000
I'm always thinking like Matthew and those stories because they give great detail
But in John it brings it up to but it's kind of like a subtle
It's a subtle mention here, but but it's important look at John 6 verse 5
When Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip,
Wince, shall we buy bread that these may eat?
Now again, I don't think that question, you could correct me if I'm wrong,
but I don't remember that question from the other Gospels,
but it's kind of funny because he's like, he's like saying,
hey, how are we going to buy bread for all these people?
And it would be like, we can't.
But what does the Bible say?
Why would God ask, why would Jesus ask them a question that's impossible?
Because he's saying, like, how are we going to buy bread for all these people?
Verse 6, and this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do.
You know, how many times does God ask you to do something that can't, doesn't even make sense?
Hey, have a bunch of kids, how are you going to pay for that?
I have no idea.
Hey, don't have your wife work. You just pay all the bills. How are you gonna pay for that?
I have no idea
Hey, what if you put God first? How are you gonna take care of yourself? How are you gonna make the money? I
Have no idea
But God knows how he's gonna do it and isn't he asking us take
Be fruitful multiply seek he verse the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added
He's asking you to do these things and he's trying your faith
Because your faith is not something you can see. It's something you can't see
Hey, Philip, where are we gonna buy bread for all these people? I?
Have no idea
Doesn't even make sense
You know and I I just be honest with you. I'm really challenged by this verse
I mean, look at Philip's response.
Philip answered him, 200 penny worth of bread
is not sufficient for them that every one of them
may take a little.
He knows the money amount.
He knows, like, hey, we need this amount of money.
He can kind of just look and scan and be like,
okay, 5,000 people, five bucks a person, $40,000.
How are we gonna get $40,000, Jesus?
I mean, these guys have like nothing, no money.
How are we gonna do this?
But Jesus knew what he would do, wouldn't he?
And you know, here's a thought I had.
It's like I look at us and we're growing
and we're packed in here and everybody's like,
have you ever thought about buying a building?
Yeah, great idea.
And it's like, yeah, I could sit here
and tell Jesus, hey, 200 Pennyworth
won't even buy us a building or whatever.
And I don't even know how these things are gonna work.
But at the same time this is what I think hey
I'm just gonna serve God and if God wants to just feed the 5,000 then God can do it
And maybe I just need to have more faith and just just commit and and you know
Here's here's what I'm meaning by this because you say what do you mean in the decision process?
We keep spending like all of our money on soul winning
Like we're not being that conservative we're not like over here just trying to like save all this extra money or whatever
We try to save a little bit, but I'm just saying we're just spending stupid money on
Sewing and events and it's like someone comes up to me, and they're like hey
I want to spend thousands of dollars to go so many over here, and I'm just like okay
That doesn't make any sense that doesn't work, but you know what hey
You're like how in the world are you gonna raise money to buy another building or do all this other stuff?
If you're doing these things, I don't know.
But God wants me to go soul-winning.
But God wants me to get people saved.
But God wants me to walk by faith and not by sight.
And yeah, I don't know how these things work.
I don't know how to plan for the future,
but you know what?
I'm just gonna try and walk by faith
and just let God take us where he wants us
because God is trying to test us, improve us,
and see what's really in your heart.
Are you walking by sight, Pastor Shelley?
Or are you walking by faith?
And he's gonna ask you that same question.
Are you walking by sight in your life?
Are you walking by faith?
And of course, money is often a thing that...
We'll challenge us go to John 15
What I've noticed too is
Will you stay in the fight? Will you stay serving God? You know, there's been a lot of people that
Don't want to be our friend anymore
and
Don't want to keep serving God and it's it can be frustrating be disappointing
But at the end of the day God's gonna purge people the Bible says in John 15
I'm sorry. Yeah, John 15 look at it says in verse 4
A bite in me and I knew as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except a bite in the vine
No more can ye accept ye a bite in me
I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth me and I and him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me
You can do nothing if a man abide not of me is cast forth as a branch and is withered and then gather them and cast them into the fire
And they are burned
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,
you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you."
So here's the thing.
God is gonna constantly try us,
and I didn't read this verse, but look at verse two again.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit,
he takeeth away, and every branch that beareth fruit,
he purgeeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Hey, the people that are just the wood-hate and stubble,
he just throwin' in the fire,
cause he's like, you're just not worth anything.
You're good for nothing.
You know, the Bible says that the salt has lost its savor.
it is good for nothing.
And look, how many pastors,
how many preachers, how many Christians
have lost their, they're not salty anymore.
And then God says, well,
I guess you're just good for nothing.
Look, we need to stay salty.
We need to, you know, I don't want to be like,
steadfast used to be red hot.
Steadfast used to stand against the sodomites.
How many churches could say that today?
How many churches could we say yeah at first Baptist Church Ham and Indiana they used to get up and rip on
Sodomites and pre-charge against Sodomites, and now they're a wet noodle
How many other churches could you see I mean I've noticed this common threat
Leave the new if be never preach against fags hard ever again
Who's noticed that thread? I've noticed that
Also, not calling out false prophets, not ripping on repent of your sins, not ripping
on the things that really matter, not riling up a bunch of people on Zionism issues, not
getting the Jews all riled up, not causing problems, not getting protestors, not getting
persecuted, not having soul-winning marathons, not having missions trips, not preaching the
spicy things.
Where are they?
They're just good for nothing because if the salt has lost its saver, it's good for nothing
And we need some people that when they're tried by fire they come out like gold. They don't just burn up like the branch here
That's not bringing forth fruit
You know what it makes sense because God in his wisdom and his Mike is saying hey if this shepherd isn't gonna constantly bring forth
More fruit why in the world would I want to keep using it?
I'll just let it wither and I'll just let it just dry up and then I'll just throw it in the fire and burn it because I have
No use for it anymore
We need to be gold silver and precious stone so that God wants to keep using us
We don't want to be the people that just vanish
They're just gone and
Now they don't matter anymore when you want to fade into non-existence God will help you along that path
You know the Bible says in the first John 2 love not the world neither the things in the world
We're not supposed to love things with the lust of the eyes and the the pride of life
The lust of the flesh the the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These are the things that we're not supposed to love
We're supposed to love the things of God. We're supposed to walk by faith and not by sight
Demis hath forsaken me having loved
this present world
How many people today they just love the world a little too much and
Then what's gonna happen that fire will reveal what they really love
Because, you know, if you're of that heavenly character,
the heavenly quality, you love the heavenly world,
you can abide by the fire.
If you love the earthly world, you will burn up,
like the world will burn up.
And we will see exactly who you are.
What kind of person are you?
Of course, we could apply this to all kinds of carnal means.
You know, it's like, hey, in the sprinting, in the marathon,
you say you're a sprinter, you think you're a sprinter,
you have a sprinting outfit on, but can you keep running?
Can you keep going the distance? What kind of a sprinter are you really like?
What kind of an employee are you really like? What kind of a spouse are you really like?
What kind of a child are you really like? What kind of a person are you really like?
You will be tried. All of us will be tried. At the end of the day, you know, why don't you do a little bit of self?
Introspection. Think about yourself a little bit. Ask yourself two questions. Here's the first question you need to ask yourself.
Where are you right now?
If you were to just burn right now, if God just crisp you right now, what would you look like?
Would you be gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, or stubble?
And here's the second question you ask yourself.
Where do you want to be when you die?
And maybe you need to make a change.
Maybe you need to say, hey, you know what?
I don't want to be like Peter in his low moment, where if I burned up at that point, I didn't look out that great.
And of course, isn't it fitting that Peter's the one that gave us that epistle that's telling us,
hey, you're going to be tried by fire?
It's Peter that's saying, hey, this is going to happen.
What are you really, really like inside?
Who are you going to be like?
Are you going to bide the fire?
Are you going to keep going?
Because you will be revealed by fire just like your works will.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for your instruction and your wisdom that you give us.
And we realize that these fires are only brought in to make us better.
to try us and test us and prove us and see what we really like and we understand that
you want us to be proved and tried so that we can give you more honor and more glory
that we through our example of faith can show the world that you're worthy of being served
and praised and followed.
You know we have a special church named steadfast I pray that you would help motivate us and
And to, you know, abide these fires of time and persecution and family and struggle and the choice of who we're going to serve, money or God.
I pray that you would help us with our faith, you would help us with our zeal, I pray that you would help all of us to have the right opinion
and understand who we really are, take a really good look at ourselves, and if we don't like it that we would make some changes.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Hey man, let's go ahead and sing our last song this evening.
Page 218 in your hymn books, hallelujah, tis done.
This might be a new song to those who haven't heard it yet,
so try to fall along as best you can.
Page 218, hallelujah, tis done.
you are dismissed.