Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
It's great to see everybody here this morning.
If we can find our seats, we will get started.
Once we're all able to find a seat, let's go ahead and grab a hymnal.
And this morning's first song will be song number 83.
I'm going higher someday.
Often my soul has been lifted above,
lost in the notion of God's mighty love.
Though I am higher than once I was saying,
I'm going higher this higher someday.
I'm going higher to stay
Over the clouds and beyond the blue sky
Following her not ever sick in or die
Love was to me in the spring I invite
I'm going higher someday
Soon will the Savior up here bless His name
I'm going higher beyond the blue sky, I'm going higher is higher some day, I'm going higher to stay.
Over the thousand beyond the blue sky, Nothing can ever sing it or die, Love wants to meet in the sweet by and by.
I'm going higher someday.
Are you singing, everybody?
Let's open up the service now with a word of prayer.
Lord, we love you so much.
We just thank you for the opportunity to gather here,
just to be privileged, to be in your house, Lord.
We just ask that you bless the service.
Fill this room with your spirit as we sing unto you,
and it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 98.
Song number 98, I think this is a newer song to us.
If you know it well, sing it out loudly.
Song number 98, The Name of Jesus.
Let's all sing that out together.
Song number 98.
coming to Steadfast Baptist Church, and if you didn't get a bulletin already, you can lift your
hand nice and high. It's great to know that when we die, we're going to go higher and not lower
like those people outside, so it's pretty lame that they have to start like the last week of June,
you know, but whatever. If you look on the front, we have our Bible and Repassage,
Jude 1, and we're on verse 11 for the week. On the inside, we have our service and soul winning
Uh, you're expecting ladies in prayer, um, three port soul winning results.
We had 42 soul winners go out there and we had 61 salvation.
So praise the Lord for that.
And you'll notice, uh, our salvations is, uh, really close to 3000 for our halfway
mark of the year.
So we've got today and tomorrow.
So we need to get.
26 salvations, all right? So we need to go hard on that, but that's a great total.
We've never had 3,000 as a church even for a whole year, and so we've done really good work this
last six months, and we want to finish strong, and then we want to finish the rest of the year
strong, and we've got plenty of other soul-winning marathons, soul-winning events that are planned.
So just keep up the great work on our soul-winning. On the right, we have a soul-winning marathon in
Brother Sam is helping lead this July 4th weekend.
So if you have any questions, you can ask him.
There's also a sign-up sheet out here,
so you can indicate to us your interest in that.
We have a couple teen events that we've been doing.
You have teen summer, so we've had one last month.
This month is gonna be July 29th.
It's gonna be a bowling night.
There is a sign-up sheet out there.
We have a semiannual business meeting July 13th.
Then the soul winning marathon on Jant Lancaster, Texas July 19th. We have another teen summer event
It's gonna be there in August 9th our men's retreat August 14th through the 16th
then the fbbf conference is gonna be August 27th through the 31st and
I guess there's a rumor we've been talking about doing a pickleball tournament in the late evenings and some people lost their mind
You know, I don't know
It's, it's pickleball folks. No, I'm just kidding. It's just kind of funny to me because it's like
the most like inclusive sport that's like ever been invented in my mind. It's kind of crazy. Like
it's just, it's just something that almost anybody can kind of participate in and play
whether you're athletic or not. And so because it's so inclusive, don't act like you're,
you know, bad stuff because you play pickleball or whatever. But at the end of the day, like
Hey, we might as well embrace it and allow as many people
to participate and have fun.
It's a great way to get some exercise.
And then if you're a man, you need to do real exercise later.
OK, so I'm not against pickleball.
Some people have the wrong idea.
It's like when I say, don't put beans and chili.
and people think I hate beans, I love beans, okay?
And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with pickleball,
but I'm saying, like, if men, if that's the highest level of activity,
you need to go harder, all right?
So, that's just, that should be the walk in the park, right?
But it should be a lot of fun. We have a lot of other activities. We're having mince football for FBBF conference
We have a couple other family activities. We have a singles event
We have preaching every single night and I'm really excited about our conference. I think it's gonna be lit
But we're just trying to get an idea and we never really know about
Spacing and just like how much room we're gonna try and need to accommodate for so there is a sign-up sheet
of just the FBB of conference itself.
If you can just indicate, you know, what nights you're going to be participating,
that way we just have some kind of a general idea of how many people we kind of need to expect for.
We kind of even just helped you and just printed like most of our church membership's names out
there so you can just find your name and put checks next to it. If for some reason you're not
finding your name, please just add it or let us know and we'll get that updated as well.
apologize if we missed your name or something,
but we just try to have just kind of a little bit
of help there so that way people aren't spending forever
spelling their name.
And then also down below, we have the missions trip to Mexico City, September 8th to the 12th,
Brother Diego's going to be help leading this, and so we're excited about that work down there in Mexico.
On the back is a list of our prayer list. Please be in prayer for our church family.
There is a special handout that was in there as well.
Congratulations to Tyler and Megan Gore on the birth of their son, Walker Norman.
And he was born on the 24th, eight pounds, 12 ounces,
20 and a half inches long.
So we got a Walker, Texas Ranger there, you know?
And then on the other side, we have congratulations
to the weathers on the birth of Hannah Ruth.
And she was born on the 25th, eight pounds,
eight and a half ounces, 19 and a quarter inches long.
Congratulations to both of those families.
Definitely be in prayer for them and that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements
For our church if you'd like to turn in your special Psalm
Binders we have Psalm 15 that we're gonna sing so our special hymns and Psalm binder Psalm 15
All right that was Psalm 15 those that know well sing it out
That's where
Go ahead and open your Bibles to Galatians chapter 6.
That's the book of Galatians chapter number 6.
Galatians chapter 6, the Bible says,
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault,
ye which are spiritual, restore such an one
in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted.
Bear ye one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ.
For if a man think himself to be something
when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another,
for every man shall bear his own burden.
Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.
But he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
And let us not be weary in well-doing.
For in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who
are of the household of faith.
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised.
Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ, for neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory
in your flesh.
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature."
And as many as walk according to this rule,
peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God.
From henceforth let no man trouble me,
for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
be with your spirit, amen.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for steadfast Baptist Church.
I thank you for the souls saved yesterday and all the salvation we've had.
Please bestow our upcoming soul-winning events and our upcoming conference.
Please bless Pastor Shelley now as he delivers your word.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
I want to look back at verse 3.
The Bible says, for a man think himself to be something when he is nothing.
He deceivered himself, but every man proved his own work and then shall he have rejoicing
in himself alone and not in another.
For every man shall bear his own burden.
And the title of my sermon this morning is this, Take Responsibility.
Take Responsibility.
and for your own things, the word responsibility is not found in the Bible directly, but this
concept and this idea is obviously expressed in this passage as well as in many places
in the Bible. When you look at the word responsibility, another word synonym that's used in the Bible
is the word power, so the Bible talks about having power to do certain things. Another
And we kind of see that here in verse four,
prove his own work.
That's talking about your own responsibility.
And the Bible makes it clear in verse number five
that you're gonna have your own burden.
That's the responsibility,
the consequences of your actions that you see.
Responsibility in the dictionary says,
the state or fact of being accountable
or to blame for something so I think we have an epidemic in our society and in our culture where
people don't want to take accountability they don't want to take responsibility they don't want to
take the blame for anything in their life.
Everything is someone else's fault.
Everything is because of circumstances,
or because of their environment,
or it's somebody else that did something to them,
rather than just taking responsibility for themselves.
We have to understand the Bible teaches
that every man shall bear his own burden.
That we are all responsible for our own actions, our own thoughts, what we do, and we need
to take responsibility for those things.
Another definition of responsibility is the opportunity or ability to act independently
and make decisions without authorization.
And it's essentially saying you have control.
God has given us control over ourselves.
I can never be demon-possessed because I'm saved.
Someone that's unsaved could potentially be demon-possessed and so someone else is controlling them
Someone else is in the driver's seat in a sense, but if you're saved you cannot be
Taken out of the driver's seat in a sense. You are in control
Obviously, it's possible with old age or maybe a specific disease
You you could possibly lose a little bit of control there, but those are exceptions
I'm mostly focused in on the fact that when we're healthy
We're in control, we're in the driver's seat and we need to take responsibility for ourselves and for our actions.
And even if you are limited in the amount of control you have, you should still take responsibility for the control that you do have for yourself and your actions.
The Bible says in verse 7,
The Bible makes it clear that what we do we're going to reap it's going to be reciprocated unto us
And we're going to receive of our own works our own burdens our own rewards whether that's good or bad
We're going to receive of what we do and God has given us the free will to make decisions
But there's also a responsibility and a consequence and a reward to our behavior and what we choose to do
Go go into 1 Peter chapter 4.
I have a lot of different ways that I want to look at our responsibilities, but number
one, and this is the most important, especially children, is that you are responsible for
your own salvation.
You are responsible for your own salvation.
No one can get you saved.
They can't force you to get saved.
You have to choose yourself to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and to get saved.
You have that free will choice
of accepting the salvation that God is offering to every single person.
No one can make that decision for you.
God does not force you
to be saved, and God does not stop you from getting saved.
Salvation is being freely offered to every man,
and it is every man's responsibility to choose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and to get saved. And if you choose not to get saved, if you choose
not to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, well then you're going to be held
accountable for your sins and for your actions.
God is going to judge. The Bible says in verse 4,
not with them to the same excess of riot,
speaking evil of you,
who shall give an account to him that is ready,
notice this, to judge the quick and the dead.
For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them
that are dead, that they might be judged
according to men in the flesh,
but live according to God in the spirit.
The Bible is saying that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is preached to every single person
and offered freely to every single person, and when God judges you, you'll be judged for not believing the gospel.
You'll be judged for having not accepted the free gift of salvation if you chose to believe in a false religion
Or not seek the Lord or not seek God
You'll be judged by that and then God will bring all of your works in a judgment and you'll be judged according to all your works
Go to Matthew 12. Go to Matthew 12. The Bible says this
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and
another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books according to their works.
The Bible says in the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them, and they were judged.
Every man according to their works.
will be judged according to their works.
Every single person will be judged according to their works.
The only way to get out of this judgment
is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to be saved
so that you do not have to give an account
of all of the sins that you've committed.
That alone should cause you to want to get saved.
Who would want to stand before God and everyone?
and have every single sin that you've ever committed
just exposed to the whole world.
Every lie, every foolish thought,
every time you committed fornication,
every adultery, every time you got drunk,
every time you stole,
every time you disobeyed your parents,
every time you had some kind of
evil corrupt communication,
everything you did that was wrong
just exposed for the whole world,
for all the world to see,
all the times you flattered,
all the times you were deceitful,
all the times you lied to someone's face and said,
hey, I like your dress, it's so pretty,
but you're lying about it.
Every single time you said something awful about somebody,
every time you told somebody you were gonna do something
and you didn't do it, every little,
just nuance of your life.
In fact, this is what the Bible says,
look at Matthew 12 verse 36.
But I say to you that every idle word
that men shall speak, they shall give an account there
Every stupid thing you've ever said will be judged in the day of judgment if you're not saved.
I mean every one of their stupid ideas about the earth being flat,
every one of their stupid ideas about this world,
every dumb rant, every railing accusation,
I mean we've seen some people they post like a hundred times a day on Facebook.
railing on men of God, railing on pastors,
railing on good people, the Bible says
every idol word, every
idol word, just the laziest comment, just the most subtle thing that was
mentioned
will be judged according to the Bible. Now
here's the thing, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you accept this
free salvation
the Bible says your sins are separated from you as far as the eases from the west.
Boy, I'm so glad that every stupid thing I've ever said
is not gonna be brought up to me in the day of judgment.
Because I'll just be honest with you right now,
I've said a lot of dumb things.
When I was in school, I was kind of a class clown and I said a bunch of really dumb things,
a lot of foolish things, a lot of weird things, hey, that's just life.
That's being a teenager, that's being in college, that's just being immature, yeah, I've said
a lot of dumb things and I've thought a lot of dumb things and I've done a lot of dumb
things and boy, even if it just was like, the sins I committed in the last week or so,
Because, you know, every sin is embarrassing, every bad thing that we do is embarrassing,
and the Bible is saying you will have to give an account thereof.
But here's the good news, is if you believe in Jesus Christ, you don't have to give an
account for your sins.
He already took that for you.
He took all that shame and embarrassment by being hung naked on the cross, bearing all
of our shame, all of our embarrassment, so we don't have to do that.
Isn't that nice?
Gov'u to Romans 1, the Bible says this in Deuteronomy 30,
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing.
Therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live.
God offers to every single person life,
and you have to choose it.
You have to choose it.
Your parents can't choose it for you.
Your spouse can't choose it for you.
Those who love you, your friends can't choose it for you, your pastor can't choose it for you.
If I could, I would choose for all of you to be saved, because I want all of you to be saved.
If God could choose it, He would, because He's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come under repentance.
But God has ordained it to only save those who believe in Jesus Christ.
He doesn't save everybody.
He only saves those who believe in the free gift of salvation that was offered to us by Jesus Christ.
He made it as easy as possible.
As long as we still have free will intact obviously God could have created robots
But God didn't want robots so God gave us free will but then he made it as easy as possible
In fact think about it a lot of people live to be 60 70 80 years old
I mean in 60 years of life all you have to do is one time
for one moment
had the clarity of mind to say you know what Jesus already paid all my sins and I'm gonna call upon his name and faith and then you're saved
That's all you had to do
Just one time just take the cup of salvation and drink it for free one time and you're saved forever
He couldn't have made it easier folks
He already bear all the work on the cross. He already died. He already went through all the shame
He went through all the embarrassment. He descended into hell. He rose again. He conquered death in hell and then he
You know what gave us the most popular book in human history?
The King James Bible.
He put it everywhere on the earth.
He put Baptist churches literally everywhere.
I mean, the gospel light is shining somewhere.
All you have to do is just hear it one time
and by faith call in the name of the Lord
and you're saved forever.
You know what, you have to do it.
That's the reality.
And you know what, wherever you live in this world,
it's not gonna be fair.
Not everybody gets the same type of chances
in this world to be saved.
But everybody gets a chance.
You know, you live in a really rich,
you live in America, you live in a rich and prosperous area.
Your temptation not getting saved is the pride of your heart,
the false religion that exists in our society,
and of course the plethora of just options, right?
There's a lot of different random churches here.
And because of wealth and prosperity, it's easy to kind of ignore God and choose not to get saved.
That's your difficulty.
Maybe you live in the jungles of Africa and your difficulty is the accessibility.
But I guarantee you an evangelist or preacher will eventually come your way
and you have that responsibility to choose to believe in them.
and maybe because through your poverty you're a little bit more receptive.
So it's like, hey, would you rather be really receptive and get one really good
chance
or be in an area where it's not very receptive or you're prideful
and you get a lot of chances. You know, God just kind of puts us all in a
different scenario. We all have different
avenues but at the end of the day we all get a chance
and you have to choose life. And no one
No one can stand in heaven before God and he's going to send them to hell and have a legitimate excuse.
There's no excuse.
So the Bible says in verse 20,
for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power and God had.
So they are without excuse.
Look when you're in this world and once you come to just basic knowledge of life
I think this is around five six seven years old you pretty much can understand look you have the basic ideas of life
Around that age. It's obvious. There's a God
It's obvious that we're created. It's obvious that there's something more to life than just eat drink be merry and dying
And you have that responsibility to ask that question in your heart, in your mind,
and to seek after your Creator, and seek after the God that's put the law of God into your heart.
And you know what? If you seek Him, you should find Him, is what the Bible says.
And so, yes, is it possible that someone in this world
has never heard the clearest presentation of the gospel, and they die and go to hell?
Yeah. I believe that happens all the time.
You say like, well, how is that fair?
That sounds like an excuse.
There's this guy that didn't, you know, seek the light.
Well, here's the reality though.
The reality is that they were given light
and they chose not to come to it.
You know, if you're in a dark room,
if we're in this room and it's just dark everywhere,
but then there's light over here,
we're expected to walk towards that light.
And here's the reality.
If you reject that God even exists,
what's the point in even hearing a gospel presentation?
Like if you don't even believe God exists,
what's the point in me explaining all the details of the gospel?
You're not going to get saved until you at least acknowledge that God exists.
So if you just are going to never believe that God exists,
you're just staying in that darkness.
Well, you know what? You had your chance.
You should have walked towards the fact that God exists.
And because you didn't, there's no point in giving you any extra.
And you know it, you don't have an excuse because you rejected the truth that God had already given you.
And then once you walk a little bit further, hey, God exists.
You have to then believe a second thing.
You have to believe that the King James Bible, this book I hold in my hand, is the Word of God.
And if you don't believe that, well then there's no point in hearing the gospel either.
Because until you can believe this is the Word of God,
like what's the point, you're not gonna get it.
And look, a lot of people that I talk to
that have this viewpoint, and it's not very often,
but sometimes it's usually a white person.
Okay, let's just be honest.
Atheism is a white man's religion.
I virtually have never ran into a black guy
or a Hispanic person or Asian person.
You know, maybe some Asian places have some atheism,
but for the most part, it's usually a white guy
that believes in atheism or something.
But I just say, look, the Bible teaches God's real, it's evident, you know it, the Bible's true.
If I could show you that from the Bible, if I could show you what the Bible says about this, would you change your mind?
And if they say yes, then I'll show them the Gospel.
But if they're just like, no, I'm not going to believe it, I don't care what you show me,
then I'm just like, okay, well here's the card, watch it later.
Because what's what's the point in me wasting my time trying to explain these things further when you're not interested, right?
Like what's the point if you go to the heart surgeon and you say I don't like doctors
I don't believe in doctors and I'll never get heart surgery. What's the point of me explaining the procedure to you of
The heart surgery when you don't even you've already said you're never gonna get heart surgery and you don't like doctors
In the same way, what's the point in me explaining to you how to get saved
when you don't even believe God exists and you don't even believe the word of God is the Bible?
Well, then guess what? You don't need the gospel.
So people have this little journey. I mean, it's not too hard.
You have to believe first God is real.
God exists then you have to believe the Bible is the word of God and then now we got the gospel and we're gonna get sick
Yeah, is it possible? There's people in this world that didn't get to third step sure
But you know what they have no excuse because they had some light
They had some truth given to them and they rejected that
So as a result they will be punished and they will die and go to hell
It didn't matter that they didn't hear the most clear presentation of the gospel.
They go to a Catholic church, they didn't hear a clear presentation of the gospel, but
they just didn't even like God anyways.
They didn't like the ideas of God and they walked away.
Well, you know what?
They're damned and they're going to go to hell.
And people say like, how dare you say that these people are going to go to hell?
How dare you not say it?
It's the truth.
And I just love how everybody brings up the guy in the jungle to me.
Why are we so concerned with the guy in the jungle?
And it's so funny to me, like, if you're so concerned about the guy in the jungle,
why do you do nothing in your life to help that person?
Like, you're so afraid.
You know, we're talking about taking responsibility.
You know what? Take responsibility for yourself.
Hey, if you're so concerned with the guy in the jungle,
okay, you get saved and then you go talk to him.
Don't tell me about, well, it doesn't seem fair for him, okay?
Well, then make it fair for him, right?
At the end of the day, plus, you know,
I had someone bring this argument up to me this week,
and I said, oh, are you talking about Africa?
And he's like, yeah, I said, there's more missionaries
to Africa than anywhere else.
And he was like, well, that's true.
I'm like, well, then what's the point?
And he's like, well, yeah, everybody's heard about Jesus,
but you know, we have different views of Jesus.
Okay, well, that's your fault for believing in a pedophile.
of Islam. Yeah, I was talking to a Muslim and he's trying to tell me like, oh no, you know,
Ayesha was 18. That's convenient. She just happened to be 18. Based on what? In fact,
somebody shared this with me. I don't know if it's true or not, but it was like a hadith,
or you know, it's like an extra writing about Muhammad or whatever. And it was all about how
and how he performed just endless amounts
of just sodomite acts and all kinds of stuff
and just like the worst things imaginable.
And I'm like, I have no idea, but probably true.
I mean, if the writings are legitimate,
like I would think it's probably true
because look, when you're a reprobate,
that's where God takes you.
And that's where God shames you.
And we already know from Aisha, he's a pedophile.
She was six years old when he married her.
And supposedly nine, he waited three years.
Who gives a rip?
Pedophile.
And look, a lot of Muslims will just admit it.
Like, I've had some, some would say like,
she wasn't nine, she was 11.
And I'm like, have you ever met an 11 year old girl?
Like, you're disgusting.
You're a filthy pervert, stay away from me.
Why in the world in DFW are we trying
to build these people a city?
Why in the world do we want to give these people a city?
But you know what, this guy that's a Muslim,
he's trying to say like, oh, so I would go to hell
if I haven't heard the gospel.
And I'm like, well, you've already heard it.
I just told you.
And he's like, yeah, but people get away with sin
all the time in this world.
That doesn't make sense.
I don't get this stuff.
And I said, yeah, you know, God is really long suffering
because he's waiting for you to hear the gospel
because he didn't want to just,
you've caused you to just die and go to hell.
So I'm trying to tell you hey, it's important for you to realize that you need to get saved you need to believe the
Believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
I tried to tell them like look what you told me is the exact same thing as Mormons believe I
Have had long conversations with Mormons and long conversations with Muslims and it'll it'll be insane to you
how they say the exact same thing exact same beliefs
I mean, just swap the names, and it was just like, same religion.
And, you know, every time I talk to one of these people, I say,
hey, let me tell you about a religion.
And I start describing the religion, and they're like,
oh, that's my religion. I'm like, no, it's Mormonism.
And they're like, whoa, that's weird that it's the exact same.
Why? Because it's the same devil that taught them the same lies.
And they say, oh, and the judgment, you know, you're good,
gotta outweigh your bad.
And if you're good, outweighs your bad,
you get to go into paradise or up for heaven.
And here's what all of them believe.
They believe everybody goes to heaven.
Well, then what's the motivation in converting anybody?
What's the motivation in trying?
In fact, they basically say the only way to go to hell
is if they expose you to the truth and you reject that.
Well, then it's like, why would you ever want to tell somebody
It's like, no, hey, we need to give the truth to people and get them saved.
Oh, yeah, I'm sure the devil's not behind a false religion telling people you don't
need to worry about heaven, everybody's going, everybody's good.
That's not the Bible.
The Bible says everyone's bad and everyone's destined for hell.
And you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved from your sins.
Why?
Because you need to take responsibility for your sin.
Number one is that you take responsibility for your salvation.
Number two, you need to take responsibility for your own sin.
Go over to Ezekiel chapter 3, go to Ezekiel chapter 3.
Most people don't want to take responsibility for their sin.
They blame other people for their sin or they justify their sin.
Everybody thinks that their sin is justified.
You catch someone lying and they'll explain to you how they weren't really lying.
You catch someone railing and they'll explain to you how they're not really railing.
You catch someone stealing and they're not really stealing.
Well, I'm not really stealing because the government's stealing from me
Well, I'm not really stealing because my my boss, you know, he made me work a few extra hours and didn't pay me
So yeah, just because I took money out of the cash register. I'm not stealing
They always excuse literally everything that happens. I know I failed, but it was someone else's fault
I know I ran everybody off, but it was their fault, or it's this person's fault, or it's my spouse's fault, or it's my boss' fault, or it's my parents' fault, or it's my kids' fault, or it's someone else's fault, it's always someone else's fault, or it's God's fault.
Plenty of people just blame God. They say like, oh, well, if I was born different, if I was born taller, if I was born more attractive, if I was born with more money or whatever, nobody can just take accountability for themselves.
Well, let me tell you something, the Bible teaches that you have to take accountability for yourself.
And I can get up here and scream and yell, and I will.
I am going to continue screaming and yelling.
But I cannot do anything to help you beyond warning you.
And the people in your life that are godly, all they can do is warn you.
You, though, will take responsibility for your sin.
And here's the thing that's scary.
This is what I was reading in my Bible this week.
And I said, this is a scary verse.
Because people get mad about my preaching or getting mad at the church.
Obviously they stand outside and yell.
But this is what I was realizing the Bible is saying.
It's like even if I never yelled at you, even if I never told you,
you're going to get the exact same punishment.
So by me screaming and yelling at you, I can only help you.
It can only help you.
Look what it says in verse 17.
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel, therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
When I say unto the wicked thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life.
The same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand."
This is what the scary part is. Did you read verse 18?
He's saying, when you don't warn him, when you don't tell him, notice what it says.
It says the same wicked man shall die
Hey, if I don't warn you if I don't tell you God's mad at you God is still mad at you
If I tell you hey, you're on a path of destruction
If even if you are or you're not it doesn't matter what I say it just matters. What's real God will punish you
People think like, oh, well, you don't want to warn people
about their situation because if they reject it,
well, then God will hold them responsible for their knowledge.
Look, God's going to hold you responsible for your sin period.
Even if you didn't realize it.
It's like, oh, well, I'm committing fornication,
but I don't think fornication's bad.
No one's ever told me.
You're still going to be punished.
You're going to be punished for stealing, lying,
cheating, killing, anything, even if you don't realize
And the person screaming and yelling about what God's word says and warning you about it can only help you.
He can only help you. He cannot stop it or prevent it from happening.
Only he can just warn you, you have to choose, hey, I'm going to change.
Hey, I'm going to turn. You've got to take responsibility for your sin.
Let's keep reading, he says in verse 19,
yet if thou warned the wicked and he turned not from his wickedness,
nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity,
but thou hast delivered thyself.
You know, there's a responsibility on preachers and on Christians
to warn people from sin,
because then they can be held responsible for your issues,
which I can't be responsible for your issues though,
if I say, hey, that's an issue.
Hey, if I warn you, if I tell you what's right and you don't do it, it's not my fault, it's your fault.
And this would give some preachers and some pastors and some people,
give you a little bit of comfort that, hey, I did my job, I told you it was wrong.
Hey, as parents, you've got to tell your kids this is wrong,
but if they make the bad decision, it's not your fault, it's their fault.
But it is your fault if you didn't tell them.
It is your fault if you didn't warn him.
It is your fault if you didn't do anything.
Here's something.
You know what?
Paul said that he's pure from the blood of all men.
Why?
Because he went out and preached the gospel to everybody and told them how to go to heaven.
You know what?
You're not pure from the blood of all men when you never preach the gospel to anyone.
You know what?
You are not pure of the blood of your family and your friends and your neighbors and your
state and your country in this world when you never preach the gospel to anybody.
You know what? You're free when you gave them an opportunity and they rejected it.
Well, that's your problem now, buddy, because I already told you and if you don't like it, now it's your fault.
But let me tell you something. God's gonna hold you responsible when you're not warning people.
We should be soul-warning, not just soul-winning. Soul-warning.
Yeah, I want to get people saved, but you know what? I also need to preach the gospel to people that won't get saved.
because the Bible literally says
that he will hold me responsible
for not having warned people.
So everybody needs to hear about the gospel,
whether they want to receive it or not,
whether they like it or not, doesn't matter to me.
It says in verse 20 again,
when a righteous man to turn from his righteousness
and commit iniquity.
And notice this phrase,
and I lay a stumbling block before him.
He shall die.
Yeah, God put stumbling blocks in the way of people.
Did you realize that?
God, you know what God will do?
God will literally send you problems in your life
just to see what you're like.
God will just allow a family member to come into your life
and just try to wreck your life.
And he's just gonna see,
do you love father and mother more than me?
Do you love son or daughter more than me?
Do you love yourself more than me?
He may send a false prophet. He may send a bad friend. He may send a traitor
He's gonna send someone in your life and see like how how do you respond to this?
Do you harken to lies? Do you harken to the truth? Do you fall for flattery?
Do you fall for deception? Do you harken to the Word of God?
Hey when someone tells you something and you start getting concerned, where do you run to?
Do you run to the Bible or do you run to some troll online YouTube video?
What do you run to?
What do you listen to? God could put all kinds of little stumbling blocks in your way. Oh
What are you listening to? What are you harkening to? What do you consider?
What are you really following? God wants to see where you're at and sometimes God will put a literal stumbling block in your way
And see if you're gonna step over it or if you're just gonna lie yourself the trip and fall and destroy yourself
Now obviously God's not gonna offer you the apple from the tree in the midst of the garden like the devil did God doesn't do that
God's not gonna try and get you to sin on purpose, but you know what he may put
Opposition and difficulty in your way to test you and see where your faith is and see how strong you really are
And then you know what you have to take responsibility for your sin
How did you handle it? What did you do go through to Proverbs 13?
You know, the Bible says in Leviticus 21,
and the daughter of any priest,
if she profane herself by playing the whore,
she profaneth her father, she shall be burnt with fire.
The Bible says that the daughter of a priest,
if she went out and played the whore,
they were supposed to put her to death
by burning her alive, burning her with fire,
death by execution of fire.
I wonder how many people like that verse in this world.
You know and again, I'm not saying that everybody commits fornication is supposed to be put to death because the Bible's not saying that exactly
But you know in the Bible we believe in the priest of the believer
I believe that we are kings and priests in the New Testament and you know what?
It's extremely shameful for any
Christian any
Daughter of a Christian man to go out and play the whore. She is profanning her father
And, you know, the Bible doesn't say punish the priest.
It doesn't say take the priest out of his office.
It doesn't say do anything bad to the priest.
It says, you know what, she's a whore
and she should be burnt with fire.
Because you know what, she should take accountability
for her actions.
And look, I believe as a man, as a husband,
as a father, as a pastor, I want to do my best
to protect my daughters.
And I want to do my best to prevent them
from going down a bad path.
But at the end of the day, you know what,
It is still their iniquity if they do something wrong if they do something bad
And you know what sometimes especially when they elevate an age it gets to a point where you know what?
They might have opportunity to make bad decisions if they want you can't just literally lock them in a cage and
As a result of that you know what it's their fault
Girls should be pure, and they should stay away from fornication,
and they should not go down that path.
And you know what? I believe that the Bible is teaching that even if man fails,
God will sometimes come and destroy you.
Don't go out and play the whore.
Don't go prostitute yourself online.
It's never been easier to prostitute yourself than 2025 America.
2025 America is so easy to whore yourself out, there's so much demand, there's more
demand than ever, there's more opportunity than ever, there's more lies and deception
than ever, and you know what, God is saying, hey, if you do this though, I will punish
you.
There will be a punishment.
You know, the Bible says the father should not be put to death for the children, neither
shall the children be put to death for the fathers.
Every man should be put to death for his own sin.
Take responsibility for your own sin.
You need to take responsibility for your own salvation, but once you're saved, you can't
lose it.
But here's the reality.
Even though you can't lose your salvation, when you sin, you can still be punished.
Yeah, if you're a young girl in this church and you get saved you're gonna go to heaven period
But if you grow up and then you start playing the whore God can destroy your life and God may ruin your life for being a whore
Don't be a whore
You know people like oh you're teaching you know people should just live whatever they want and have a license of sin
And I'm thinking like have your visit our church
Like, it's so funny that we're teaching that.
It's like, let's compare us to the other churches.
It's like, are the other churches,
are they dressed, they have higher dress standards?
Are they going to church more?
Are they reading the Bible more?
Are they going out and evangelizing more?
It's like, wow, it's kind of funny
since I'm preaching a license of sin,
yet no one's doing that.
And the people that do that get kicked out of our church.
That's funny how I'm teaching that.
No, no, just because salvation's free
doesn't mean we're not motivated to serve God.
We are and it doesn't mean there's not a consequence of sin. There is and you need to take responsibility for your own sin
And people blame everyone else
Here's one that is a scenario that I see people just blaming
Society they blame culture and I'll tell you this I'm not saying that
Culture isn't a problem.
I'm not saying that there isn't people
that are also responsible for these problems.
But let me say something, you need to take accountability
and responsibility for your own sin.
And it's when women are being, quote,
raped or taken advantage of in our society.
We have this, you know, rape culture is what a lot of people want to say and there's all these women complaining about quote
rape culture and all those different stuff
But at the reality is if you're dressed like a whore and you're going to shady men's places
And you're hanging out with shady men and then something bad happens
I'm not saying that you deserve that.
I'm not saying that it was right for them to do that.
I'm not saying that those people shouldn't be held accountable for their actions.
But you know what? You should be held accountable for your actions.
For dressing like a whore and hanging out with bad people.
And what does the Bible say? Look at verse 20.
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.
But a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Hey, you hang out with bad people you need to take accountability for hanging out with bad people
You know women they go into a profession where they're literally
prostituting their body online or they're prostituting their body body for men for money
And then afterwards they leave their little business and something bad happens to them and then they're shocked
And it's just like, why are you shocked when you're doing these type of things, when you're
putting yourselves in these situations?
You know, young girls going to fraternity houses, hanging out with a bunch of men that
are just, have no morals, not godly.
Men offering them all kinds of alcohol drinks, and it's like, oh, they spiked the drink.
Well, here's the thing, if you don't drink alcohol, they're not going to be able to spike
your drink.
Oh, are you saying that you're victim blaming?
I'm not trying to victim blame here,
but you know what, at the end of the day,
what does victim mean when you dress like a whore
and put yourself around dangerous men?
I mean, you're kind of being stupid.
You should still take responsibility for your sin.
And look, does that mean like,
hey, this person was good for slipping something
in this person's drink and taking advantage of people?
No, that person's wicked.
Let's deal with that person too, but let's also take accountability for your actions as well
and I think a lot of women are being quote raped in our society not because they're just you know
Walking down the street with Bible in hand giving out the gospel and then they're just raped
It's like they're hanging out in shady places with shady people and then bad things are happening
The Bible says in verse 21 evil pursuers sinners did you see that?
Hey, you do out bad things evil pursues you
Don't put yourself in a situation where evil is literally pursuing you and evil is giving you money
But to the righteous good shall be repaid
Go to Proverbs 7 look. I'm not saying that there hasn't been a woman out there. That's you know
Relatively innocent not trying to make bad decisions and a bad person attacked them
I'm sure it does happen and occasionally it can happen
But let's just be honest, most of the time these women have a lot of issues
that they need to take accountability for as well.
They have a lot of sins and problems that they need to take accountability for as well.
The Bible says in Proverbs 7 verse 7 of talking about the men
and be held among the simple ones,
I discerned among the youth a young man void of understanding
passing through the street near her corner
and he went the way to her house in the twilight in the evening in the black and dark night.
And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart.
Hey, men, take responsibility for yourself.
If you're putting yourself in bad situations around bad women dressed like whores,
you might make bad decisions.
Hey, you drink alcohol.
The Bible says you're going to utter perverse things.
And you know what, you're going to have eyes full of adultery.
You're going to have eyes seeing perverse things.
You're going to make bad decisions.
How many men go to the bar and drink alcohol and then they make a really bad decision afterwards?
Take responsibility for your actions.
Take responsibility for your decisions.
Don't just say like, oh it came out of nowhere or I wasn't expecting it.
You know, well then don't go to the bar.
Don't go to the shady places notice in the twilight in the he's going out where it's dark
He's going to her corner. He knows what he's doing. He knows what situation he's putting himself in young men
Don't go to the bar
Don't go to the college party. Don't go hang out with loose women
Don't go to the bachelor party with your brother where you know they're gonna invite girls over
Don't go to Vegas. Don't go to the strip club. Don't go to some gentlemen's club
Don't go under the shady places and you know what you actually prevent yourself from committing serious sin
A lot of men maybe they don't realize, hey, I'm going to go out and commit adultery or
I'm going to go out and commit some infidelity or some crazy weird fornication, but you know
what, they put themselves where it could happen.
They put themselves near the corner.
They put themselves in that dangerous environment.
And again, usually when you're going soul winning during the day, adultery is not falling
But you know what you go to the gentleman's club you go to the bar you're hanging out with bad guys
You're hanging out the bachelor pad. You're going to Vegas. You're going to the strip club. Whatever bad things are gonna happen
Just stay away from those places. Don't do any of those things and you know what take responsibility for your actions
They'll say oh well my wife has been nagging me that doesn't mean go seek loose women
Oh, my wife isn't being as good a wife as she should be.
Well, you know what?
It's not your wife's fault when you do that.
Don't go around bad places, try, you know, at night, you know what?
Just try to have eyes on your wife and your Bible.
And maybe you'll just go to sleep.
You know, if you have your eyes on screens and whatever, it can keep you awake.
You know, reading Leviticus puts people to sleep.
I'll tell you what.
You know, I've never had someone come to me and say, like,
Pastor Shelley, like, I've been trying to go to sleep
at night, and I've been trying to read Leviticus,
and I just can't fall asleep.
It's just like so engaging.
Like, I just start reading Leviticus,
and I'm like, man, it's just, I'm just so excited.
And they're like, I just can't fall asleep.
I can't, I'm just turning the page.
It's like, you can't even hardly get yourself
to read Leviticus.
You know it you guys that struggle with sleep. Hey, do you struggle with sleep? Let me let me ask you some questions
Do you look at your phone after it gets dark?
Did you work hard that did you work out that day?
Did you do any kind of exercise did you do any kind of physical activity the Bible says the sleep of a laboring man is sweet
You know, hey, if you work really hard and you don't even have to work hard physically if you just work hard mentally
If you're just like working really hard mentally all day boy, man when you get to the bed
It's just like out. Hey, if you if your kids have a hard time sleeping make them play outside
Dude, if you play outside in the Texas heat
Boy when you finally get the bed, it's just like out
You're just you're just done
Hey, go go go take a jog go take a walk lift some weights
Don't look at a screen read the viticus and then come tell me you struggle sleeping
It's like man. I'm just watching just tick tock just tick
I'm eating food and I'm just eating food. It's just like yeah, I can see why you're not sleeping
You know hey
There's a reason why God turns out all the lights
But then you turn them all on
I have all the lights on my house on,
and then I have a screen here,
and I'm just eating food.
Yet you eat food to get energy.
Hey, I ate all this food and all this sugar,
and now I'm having a hard time going to sleep.
Do you know what food is?
It's energy, and sugar's instant energy,
and it's supposed to really build up your system.
It's like, hey, avoid those things.
Drink water.
drink water, you know, like I had five coffees
and I'm having a hard time going to sleep.
Okay, don't drink coffee at night, you know what?
Take care of yourself and you know what?
As a man, hey, just hang out with your wife,
read your Bible, don't do these bad things,
take responsibility for your own sin.
Go to 2nd Corinthians chapter five.
Nothing good happens at night.
David of course goes out on the balcony at night
to go see if he can spot a woman.
think he knew what he was doing. It's like, David, don't you have enough wives
to hang out with? Just hang out with your wife, okay? She's not gonna let you go
look at other chicks or something, all right? Here's another thing you need to
take responsibility for is your own judgment day.
And I already kind of talked about the judgment for the unsaved.
There's also a judgment for the saved.
The judgment for the saved is different in the sense that none of our sins will be brought up.
When you're at the judgment seat of Christ, he's not going to bring up all your sins,
but he is going to bring up your works and you get rewards or you lose rewards
based on how you lived your life.
And you have to take responsibility for that because at the end of the day,
God's not going to bring up anything that anybody else did with you.
He's going to bring up what you did with you.
He's dealing with you. What did you do?
2nd Corinthians chapter 5, look at verse 8.
We are confident, I say, in willing rather to be absent from the body and be present with the Lord,
wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him.
You know, I don't want to like undermine the fact that Heaven's good, period,
and I don't want to undermine the fact that we're all going to enjoy Heaven,
but the Bible gives this concept that you could be not accepted of Jesus.
even when you're with him in that judgment scene, okay?
And so you don't want to have that shame
of having not done anything for Christ
and of being kind of embarrassed
of what life you lived on this earth.
He says for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body
According to that he had done notice this whether it be good or bad now getting the bad here is not about our sin
It's about our bad works that didn't have any benefit. I can prove this go to 1st Corinthians 3
1st Corinthians 3
But Ecclesiastes 12 says this for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing
Whether it be good or whether it be evil
And, you know, one thing that I think is important to think about
is some people do, quote, good works, but with a bad motivation, a bad heart,
and God will see through that and you don't get that reward.
It's like, oh, I gave all this money to this person to be seen of men
so then it ends up being a rotten work. It ends up being fool's gold.
Fool's gold works. There's a lot of people that have a lot of fool's gold today.
where it looks like, oh man, look how rich this person is,
but it's all fake, it's not real, it's not sincere.
And boy, if you look at a Christian minister today
and all you're bringing up, look,
they do all these long prayers
and they're giving all this money away,
they must be really godly, that's all fake.
All the money that people give away that you know about,
they're not gonna get rewarded for that.
We don't know.
So you can't know if someone's gonna be greatly rewarded
for that because if you knew, then they're not.
If you don't know, then they might be.
But we still have to check their heart.
And God's the one that knows our heart.
God knows the motivations that we had.
God knows what you're really doing.
And you know what?
Having a right heart with God is important
because I don't want all my works to be in vain.
You know, we should actually love people when we do things for them,
not just doing it so that we can get attention or praise
or people can think of us as some great person or something like that.
You know, when you help somebody, it should be because you just like the person and love the person and want to do good under them.
That should be why you help people.
First Grand Theans 3, look at verse 13.
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?
Notice this, sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so haths by fire."
So again, we're finding what sort is it? Is it good or bad?
Good is the works that were actually out of charity and godly works the ungodly works are basically out of vanity
Carnality things that didn't really have any value
They're the wood hay and stubble that just burn up and in the judgment
You know and only those things that survived the fire end up bringing us a
Reward and it would be embarrassing to put your all of your works on the scale
Put them all on the on the on the fire on the altar to be burned
And when it's done burning, there was nothing left.
You want to see that thing burning
and it's just like, it didn't even change much.
It's just basically very little is being burned off
and there was actually a lot of weight there.
There was a lot of gold there.
Not a bunch of fool's gold.
Gov'ywood, I'm gonna skip a few things for takes of time.
Go to first steps, Williams chapter four.
These these concepts are brought up in the Bible a lot and I think we need to really take responsibility for our actions
Most people in here are saved if you're not saved get saved
Number two realize even if you are saved God's still gonna hold you accountable for all your sins
You need to repent of your sin and get right with God not to be saved, but so you aren't destroyed physically
We don't repent of our sins for spiritual salvation. We repent of our sins for physical salvation
because you don't have to repent of any sin to go to heaven.
But you need to repent of your sins if you don't want to go to heaven early, all right?
So in the end of the day, I'm for repenting of your sins just not for salvation.
We don't mix that. We don't put beans in our chili, folks.
And I'm saying like, hey, I'm for works just not when you add it into salvation.
Okay, we want to keep these things separate and put them in their places and look whether you some people are like
I love beans my chili. I don't get this point. It's okay. You know, we're welcome to Texas
It's the promised land or whatever
But just take my analogy for what it is whether you agree with it or not that some things shouldn't be combined
You know, we need to get better fries for in and out, you know, in and out has great burgers
If someone could give them some good fries somebody loves their fries, too
I'm just trying to offend as many people as possible. Okay, I
Figured out food is the most offensive topic for some reason
It's real sensitive and we'll talk about that later. You get excited for the rest of the sermon
But at the end of the day, we need to take responsibility for our own actions
And you know what? You will be judged the Bible says he that is faithful and that which is least is also faithful and that which is much and
If you can't be faithful with God has given you now
If you can't be faithful on the unrighteous mammon who will commit under your trust the true riches is what the Bible says
And so we need to be faithful now.
The Bible says that we're all running in a race,
but only one receives the prize.
You need to take responsibility for your own judgment.
Here's another one.
You need to take responsibility for your own business.
The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 11,
and that you study to be quiet
and to do your own business
and to work with your own hands
as we commanded you.
You know what?
Men are supposed to do their own work and their own business and take responsibility for
providing for themselves.
That's part of being a man.
Becoming a man is that mommy and daddy aren't taking care of you, you're taking care of
you.
You know, animals, especially birds, when you get to a certain age, they push you out
of the nest.
And here's the thing.
If you don't fly, you die.
And it's like, they have to do that.
And at some point, the parents have to push you out of the nest.
And if you don't fly, you die.
Because you know what, it's your business, it's your responsibility, and men are to provide for their house.
Go forward to 2 Thessalonians 3.
The Bible says, but if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house,
he hath denied the faith and is worse than Nippadel.
The Bible says that the men are to pay the bills, and when they don't, they've denied the faith.
They're like an unbeliever.
Men are to work and they're to work hard.
Why did God make you so strong?
He made you so strong to bear the burden of your family
and to bear the heat in the summer
and to bear whatever work you have to do.
And you know what, men need to work hard.
And look, in some countries, in some situations,
you can work really hard and really struggle to provide.
I mean, and even in America,
I believe that you will struggle and it will be very hard at the early parts of your career.
Even if you're smart and hard-working, it can be very hard.
But when you get later in your career, if it's just really hard and you're really struggling,
it's usually because you're lazy.
Now, you could be lazy in a couple of ways.
You can be lazy just that you just don't work hard.
You just physically just are lazy.
Another way is you could be lazy mentally and that you're not learning anything
And, frankly speaking, America is so lazy
that if you're just good at at least one category,
you usually are okay.
But a lot of times people are lazy in both categories.
They show up late to work, they work minimal hours,
they put in minimal physical effort, and so they struggle to provide,
or they also are mentally lazy, they literally don't use their brain,
they want a job where they can turn off their brain
and then they can just listen to conspiracy theory videos on YouTube all day.
Look, if you can listen to YouTube all day at your job,
it's not using your brain.
I don't know if you realize this or not.
And look, I'm not against, if you can do that,
then go for it.
Because you know what, I mean there's some jobs
like maybe a truck driver.
Like a lot of jobs revolving around driving.
You're kind of afforded the opportunity
to be able to just listen to stuff while you work
and I'm not fighting you, I'm not against you.
But let's be honest, you know it may not get as high,
you might have to just work hard to make money.
It's not as much, you know, getting the skills
or using your brain.
There's other jobs where you can literally work almost nothing physically
and you make a ton of money just because you're just exercising your brain.
And look, if you use both, if you use your brain as hard as you can
and you work really hard, you'll probably make a lot of money in America.
Honestly, like when I meet people that are well off
or do well financially, it's because they're using both part of their brains
and they're doing it well.
And the Bible says, hey, if you are a Christian,
you have to provide for a family.
And you have to take responsibility for yourself.
And look, I really, really struggle to meet this person.
I'm not saying he doesn't exist,
but I can't think of one.
I know zero people in my life that say, you know what?
I'm working super hard with my brain
and super hard with my hands and I can't provide.
I don't know that person.
In fact, the people that I know that are like that are doing great.
It's usually, you look at this person, you're like, well, you seem kind of lazy.
It seems like you're not actually putting in a lot of effort.
It seems like you're not putting in a lot of energy.
And you know what?
You need to take responsibility for yourself.
What does it say in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse,
let's start in verse 6.
Now, we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh this orderly and not after the tradition which he received of us.
For yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you.
Neither did we eat any men's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you.
Boy, he's taking double shifts.
He's working night and day.
Notice this, not because we have not power,
but to make ourselves an example on you to follow us,
for even when we were with you, this we commanded you,
that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
You know, people are like, where's your soup kitchen?
Well, my soup kitchen is show up
and I'll yell at you to get a job.
Talk soup, you know, spiritual soup.
It's like, hey, where's your handouts?
They're over here.
We have a sodomite deception ticket.
We have a preserved Bible ticket.
We'll give you a water bottle when you go soul-winning.
Are you thirsty?
There's our handout.
Hey, where's the free food?
We'll go to the soul-winning event.
I mean, look, as long as you just showed up at church,
we drove you to the soul-winning event
and fed you the whole day.
Because the workman's worthy of his meat,
but you know what? You had to work a little.
You had to, like, physically show up.
and you had to walk around a little bit and hold a Bible.
You know, it wasn't that hard.
But you know, at the end of the day, our work program,
we have a work program here.
We don't have a free handout program here.
We're not just helping.
The Bible is telling us not to do it.
It says, hey, withdraw ourselves from these people.
So many, I've been criticized.
People are like, where is your homeless ministry?
And it's like, I don't have that.
The Bible tells me to withdraw from these people.
The Bible tells me to not give handouts to these type of people.
The Bible is commanding me not to do this.
Verse 12,
Now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ
that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.
Eat your own bread.
Get your own job.
Take responsibility for yourself.
Do your own business.
Work hard.
That's what the Bible says.
Here's one point. I'm just gonna bring up quickly is you need to take
responsibility for your own kids
Everybody seems to be so worried about everybody else's kids. Why don't you take responsibility of your own kids?
Well, I'll tell you in a church. I mean, you know, I I never hear people coming up to me and being like, hey
I'm sorry. My kids are bad. You know what I hear. Hey, have you noticed these other kids are bad?
And it's kind of funny to me how a lot of people that complain about other people's kids
I'm kind of thinking like yeah, your kids have problems too, buddy
You know when we talk about Samuel the book of Samuel Eli was rebuked by God
He says bribe told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity
Which you know it because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not you cannot
Force your kids to do anything, but you know what you can do is you can restrain them
You can tell them no and you know what if your kids make bad decisions, that's their problem
But at the end of the day you're gonna be held responsible
If you don't tell them no and if you don't punish them and if you don't spank them
And you know what if you don't spank your kids, it's cuz you hate them
That's what the Bible says he that love of this son is chasing of him
You know what? You're not going to spare the rod.
He that spared the rod hated the son,
but he that loved with them,
chastened with them, and scourged with them.
You know what? The Bible is really clear that,
hey, if you don't love your kids,
then don't restrain them, don't punish them,
don't tell them what to do.
But you know what? At church,
you should tell them what to do.
Don't let your kids run a muck in here.
Don't let your kids run and yell and do whatever.
And you know, when my kids come to me and they say,
So and so said something mean you know what the first thing I say I said what did you do?
That's what I say
Well, let's take let's take responsibility for whatever you did and then it's usually like well. I hit them first
Well, I said something mean to that. I called them a doo-doo head or whatever
And in fact because they go to our church they call each other nasty things
You know, and I'm not I'm not saying that's good. They're like he called me a rapper bait was just like come on
Like don't be like that
You know our kids know how to insult people around here, you know, like you probably believe there's flat, you know
It's like oh, man
It's like they say mean nasty things sometimes they hit each other whatever and you know what I'm more I'm more concerned
With what my kids did than what your kids did
Why don't you be a little bit more concerned with what your kids did and not what my kids are doing and
What other people's kids are doing
You know what? Hey, what did you do wrong? Okay. Well, then go apologize them
That's not what my kids want here. So then my kids don't want to tattle
You know what? Maybe your kids love tattling because you're not concerned with what they're doing
You're always concerned with what everybody else is doing
Maybe the tattling is your fault
Maybe you should be a little bit more thinking about what you're doing
Here's another I could preach on that for a long longer. I will later some other sermon
Y'all need it
Second Timothy chapter two, look at verse 15,
study to show thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
You know what?
You need to take responsibility for your own study.
I am not responsible for your knowledge of the Bible,
you're responsible for your knowledge of the Bible.
And God, remember what we read earlier where God says,
hey, when this person's not warned,
they're still gonna be destroyed.
You're still responsible for everything in the Bible whether you know it or not
You're still responsible for understanding every doctrine whether I teach it to you or not now at the end of the day
I'm gonna be held responsible if I don't teach you the doctrines of the Bible
You know what if you want to just sit in here and and you know shut your ears go to sleep not pay attention
Think about everybody else's kids. Well, you know what that's dumb and if you don't go home and read the Bible yourself
That's dumb
You don't try to memorize scripture and and and sing Psalms yourself. I mean your your problem
The Bible says, if thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself,
but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.
I'm not responsible for you being dumb,
you're responsible for you being dumb.
You're responsible for being a scornor.
I'm only responsible for not teaching you.
But you know what?
I'm not going to say I've taught everything in the Bible,
but I'm going to say I've taught a lot of things in this book.
And I've taught a lot of the basic doctrines and core principles.
I mean, it'd be hard to find something that I haven't covered,
maybe like nuances and stuff.
And so, you know what? It's not going to be my fault.
It's going to be your fault.
So you need to be careful.
You need to take responsibility for your own study.
You study the Bible yourself.
You know what the Bible says.
You teach your family. You teach yourself.
Gov. Wood to 1 Corinthians 7.
The Bible says you should also take responsibility for your own friends.
The Bible says a man that has friends must show himself friendly.
This is a crazy point to me, but I'll just be honest with you,
it is a common theme that people get mad at our church
and people get mad at me for not having enough friends.
I'm not joking.
I've had people come to me and criticize me
and say that I'm not putting on enough events at the church
so that they can have friends
or so that their spouse can have friends.
Let me say let me explain something if you don't have friends. It is your fault. It is not my fault a
man that our friends must show himself
Friendly and you know what? I don't think there is a place in DFW where you can make easier friends than here
This is probably one of the easiest place to make friends
But don't expect like I showed up and I expect that everyone to be my friend automatically
Now you have to first show yourself friendly
You have to find people that seem like a likely friend.
You have to do things for them.
You have to invite them to do stuff.
You have to help them, whatever.
If you want friends, you have to make friends.
You cannot expect friends.
If you expect friends, pretty soon you'll have none.
And then you'll keep complaining
and it's everybody else's fault while you don't have friends.
Look, I know why people have friends.
It's because they're friendly.
And you know what?
There's people in this room that I'm like,
everybody wants to be this person's friend.
And you know why I think that?
It's because they're a really friendly person.
I'm like, I can see why everybody wants to be this person's friend
because they're such a friendly person.
You know, they come into church, they smile,
they compliment them, they look them at the eye,
they do stuff for people,
they have fun parties at their house,
they go out to dinner, they're nice.
It's like, yeah, everybody wants to be that person's friend.
The person that comes to church and complains
and just expects you to be their friend
and just wants you to buy them stuff,
nobody wants to be that person's friend.
And it's like, bro, you're the problem.
You don't have friends because you're not friendly.
And then you get into conversation
and everything you want to talk about is yourself.
And your ideas and your opinions,
and now everybody else is wrong
and then everybody walks away.
And you're like, oh, I guess nobody want to be my friend.
It's because nobody wants to hear you talk.
Here's a tip.
If you want friends, listen to what other people have to say.
If you don't want to listen, people won't want to be your friends.
And look, it's not just like waiting, like taking breaths in between you talking, is listening.
It's you responding to the things that they're saying.
It's you thinking about the things they're saying and adding to the conversation.
It's you sometimes coming up to them and asking them about their life based on previous conversations
you had with them because you stored some of their information in your brain because
you actually care about the person, you actually like the person.
When you just come up and you just want to express all your opinions and your thoughts
and tell them why they're dumb, pretty soon nobody will want to be your friend.
Take responsibility for your own friends.
Why don't you have any friends?
Well, do you talk to anybody?
When you talk to people, do you only talk about yourself?
Yes.
Do you do anything for other people?
No.
That's why you don't have friends.
Here's another one you need to do is take responsibility for your own duty, and especially
in marriage.
1 Corinthians chapter number seven, look what it says in verse number three, and...
You know, this has got a particular context,
but I'm just trying to go beyond just the direct context,
just expand a little bit, because the Bible says,
let the husband render to the wife due benevolence,
and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
You know, obviously this is in context of marital duty,
of the bedroom that's expected in marriage,
but you know what, I believe you should just show
due benevolence, period.
You should just show generosity and love and kindness to your spouse.
That's your duty.
And people will complain about their marriage and say, my marriage is bad, but then they're
not doing their duty.
They're not doing their responsibility.
They're not showing benevolence to their spouse.
You talk to them and you say, okay, how many times did you compliment your spouse?
Well, I haven't been complimenting them.
How many times are you nagging and arguing with them?
Well, I'm doing that every day.
I'm waiting for them to start doing better.
Well, it's like, you know what?
Hey, if you feel like you're in a bad marriage, do your duty.
Start working on your part.
Or a lot of people complain about the idea of a bad relationship when they're not even
in one.
I want to go to a couple more places, so just buckle in.
It's like on the airplane, it's like wait until we get to the terminal to unbuckle, okay?
Go to 1st Peter 3 in Proverbs 31.
I want to go to two more places here.
Here's the thing.
I picked on the men a little bit, so we can pick on the women for a second, but here's the reality.
If you're worried about your marriage or being in a bad relationship, I'm just going to say this,
but this is kind of my opinion, this is my opinion, is that the Prover's 31 woman isn't struggling with her husband being a bad husband.
And the Proverbs 31 woman is not being abused.
And the Proverbs 31 woman is not having
this horrible situation.
And usually it's like women are so afraid of like,
hey, if I'm submissive and do all these things
with my husband, like what happens
if he takes advantage of me?
But the reality is, I don't know
that that's gonna ever exist.
You know, it's like people are worried like,
well, what if my husband B's last me?
What's like, okay, well, have you ever understood
He didn't say the Proverbs 31 slap, is that B slap?
Yeah.
How are you acting?
And it's like, oh, you're justifying that.
I'm not justifying that, but I'm just saying like,
what were you acting like?
What were you being like?
What were you doing?
You know?
It's like, hey, maybe you should take some responsibility
for your part in the marriage.
Proverbs 31, look at what it says in verse 26.
She opened her mouth with wisdom and her tongue is the law of kindness.
She looked at well the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseeth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excelest them all.
Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her, notice this, own works, praise her in the gates.
You know, if you feel like, hey, I'm not being appreciated,
here's my question, what are you doing?
And I'll just be honest, a lot of women just expect
praise for doing nothing.
It's like, what did you do?
Well, I exist.
That should be enough.
Just look at me, you know?
And it's just like, okay, but wait a minute.
Let's read the Bible again.
Verse 30, favors the people and beauty
is notice this thing.
What is that meaningless?
Meaningless, meaningless.
I wanna go to another verse, go to first Peter chapter three.
This is important.
And it's funny because I've seen this thing online
where people are asking about all those questions.
They say like, when men come home from work,
what would they want?
And they get like these options or whatever.
It's like, would they want like a meal on the table?
Would they want, you know, a tidy house?
Or would they want their wife dolled up
or something like this?
They bring up all these scenarios or whatever.
Forgive me if I'm getting it wrong.
But like one of the examples is like,
would you want your wife dolled up or something?
And I'm like, okay, well, what does the Bible say?
The Bible said in Proverbs 31 that beauty is vain,
it says meaningless, okay?
And it said, let her own workspraiser.
What does the Bible say in 1 Peter 3, look at verse 1,
likewise he wise be in subjection to your own husbands
that if any obey not the word,
they also may without the word be won
by the conversation of the wise,
while the beholder chased conversation,
coupled with fear, whose adorning,
let it not be that outward adorning of plating the hair
and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel.
But let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.
You know, the Bible is saying, is it saying, hey, don't adorn yourself physically, adorn yourself in your heart and in your spirit and in your mind.
with godliness, with good works, and here's the reality.
No man wants to come home to some beautiful-looking woman
that's going to boss him around and nag him
and complain about him and yell at him.
He's like, man, I wish you hadn't spent all day
putting on makeup and a dress and pearls and whatever
to just nag me to death.
I'd rather you be in pajamas with no makeup on and your hair looks frumpy and you're
just so happy to see me and you got a meal at the table and you just like me.
I mean who are you getting dolled up for anyways when you're just going to complain
and nag me anyways?
And you know what, our society, it's just women, they just doll themselves up and they
just put themselves out there for social media all day.
It's all about the pictures of social media and their Instagram and their following and that's who they're trying to get attention from
But it's vain
Put the stupid phone away
Don't spend three hours doing makeup. What if you put three hours into a meal?
Boy, it's gonna be hard to make a bad meal if you say I'm gonna put a minimum three hours in
You know why meals aren't good because you put about three minutes in
It's like man, what do I want to come home to? I want to come home to a meek and quiet woman
I don't want to come home to some boss babe
That's gonna tell me why I'm not such a good husband or why I'm late and coming home from work or why I didn't clean up
Some area or why I left some clothes out or why I didn't take the trash out yet
Or why I haven't fixed the outside yet or why there's some kind of an issue over here
You know what? I don't want to come home to that nobody wants to come home to that
You know what they want to come home to? To the meek and quiet woman.
It doesn't matter how much you dolled yourself up.
The Bible says, don't do that.
It says, literally, doll yourself up in your heart.
And you say, well, how am I going to do that?
How about read your Bible?
I don't know.
It's like, why do you always bring up things about women?
What's like, have you read the Bible?
Maybe you read the Bible more.
You wouldn't be questioning why I bring it up so much.
Maybe I don't bring it up that much.
Maybe I bring it up less than the Bible brings it up.
The Bible says,
for after this manner in the old time,
the holy women also trusted and God ordained themselves
being in subjection to own husbands,
even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord,
whose daughters he are as long as you do well
and are not afraid of any amazement.
Let me tell you something,
take responsibility for your own duty of marriage.
Men would rather have their wives be in subjection.
Here's the thing, how about having the house in order?
You know, women will say like,
oh, my husband doesn't ever want to give me attention.
My husband doesn't want to give me any time my husband doesn't want to do anything with me
But you know what he shows up and it's like nag nag and you put him to work and you give him chores
And you yourself didn't get your chores done for the day
So then you're spending all your time just running around doing whatever it's like look what if he came home and all the chores are done
What if he comes home and all the food is ready?
What if he comes home and you're happy to see him boy? I'm gonna tell you something. He'll be ready to come home on time
You might enjoy your conversation a little bit more
than it's just, he comes home and it looks like that meme
where everything's on fire and it's a train wreck
and it's just like, it's just like, ahhh.
And look, when you have a lot of kids,
there's gonna be days like that.
You know, when there's oxen, the crib's not clean.
I get it, okay?
But the one thing you can at least control
is just the attitude about it, can't you?
And if you're really struggling,
if you're really struggling in your relationship,
you feel like you're not getting a lot of time
with your husband, carve out time with your husband.
Once you get up early and get stuff done
so that when he comes home from work, you're ready to go.
You're ready to hang out, you're ready to do stuff.
And you say, ready, oh, I don't have time to do my hair,
do all my makeup, I didn't say that.
He doesn't, and look, if your husband says do that
then do it, but I'm just saying generally speaking,
most of us probably don't even care about that.
Most of us just want, hey, you'd have a right attitude.
In fact, I don't even care about dinner as much.
I just, it's like, the only thing we really care about
is that she just likes us and just wants to be kind
and respectful.
Out of her mouth, this is gonna precede kindness
and she's just happy to see us
and we can just enjoy fellowship.
That's what we really care about.
Go to Proverbs 23 and I'll just give you one more verse
to chew on, literally.
Proverbs 23, hey, take responsibility for yourself.
Oh man, my marriage isn't very good, well what are you doing?
Hey as a man, I'll tell you, if you're providing super well, the marriage gets easier.
And I'll tell you women, if you're just in submission and doing what your husband says
and you just have a pleasant attitude, things are going to go well.
You know, when you're not providing and she's nagging, boy it's rough, boy it's brutal.
You don't have friends, be friendlier.
You know, hey, you don't make good money
or you struggle in that area,
use your brain a little bit, work harder,
take responsibility of yourself.
Here's another one that's just so important
that we all need to do is,
we need to take responsibility for our own health.
Nobody has bad health because of another person.
And you know, a lot of people even just blame genetics.
Well, you don't understand a big bone.
They scan to everybody and all our bones are the same.
Okay, you know why people don't have a good health?
It's because food tastes good.
And look, I get it.
And when you get older, for some reason,
it's just like, you just smell french fries and get fat.
It's just like, I don't even get it.
This is how I...
And it's almost like our society is just like built on making us just fat and overweight
and food being addictive on purpose and just all kinds of just, there's a lot of attacks.
But what does the Bible say?
What does it say in verse two?
And put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite.
That's what the Bible says.
I didn't make this up.
That's what it says.
There's a lot of verses that are on this.
Hey, we should be careful and take responsibility for our own health.
And look, when you don't take care of your health, it runs all these other areas.
You know when you're spending money on medical bills when you can't walk or run or do things and look getting older
Is they're gonna attack us too, but you know at least try to stay in health to maximize your results
You know eating healthy not overeating taking responsibility for your life taking responsibility for relationship
You know what when people let themselves go in their health they start letting themselves go in every area
then the house gets messy, then their job gets lazy,
then their relationship gets lazy,
then their Christianity gets lazy.
You know what, don't let these things go.
And the hardest thing about health is
if you were lazy in the past,
sometimes you're suffering from that now.
You're not even necessarily doing anything wrong right now.
You're just suffering from past consequences
and it's really hard to roll the clock back.
But at the end of the day, you know what?
We should take responsibility for our own health
and say, hey, I'm responsible for what I did,
and I need to work hard, and I need to get healthy again.
I need to get strong.
And look, take baby steps.
If you're not doing anything, try pickleball.
I mean, that's like baby step number one.
You should at least be able to just kind of be like,
mm, you know, start walking if you can't jog.
And then when you can walk, jog.
And then when you can run, run.
You know hey pick up your exercise level as a man
I mean you should probably get in a lifting routine period
Get some strength get some agility, and if you don't use it you lose it
You know what? I love about my dad my dad's like 82 years old, and he still plays golf like almost every day
You know why because he plays golf almost every single day, and he lists weights
Have you seen RFK?
RFK Jr., I think it is, he's like,
he's like not even just doing pull-ups.
He's like doing reverse pull-ups where like pulls
himself up and does like an upside down like,
you know, pull-up or something.
At like, I don't know, 70s or something?
I don't know how old, does anybody know
how old he is exactly?
Look it up, the guy's old and he's sitting over here
doing pull-ups and chin-ups like none of us could do.
And I'm sitting here thinking like,
man, I need to get in better shape.
I need to take responsibility for myself and I become a stronger man, you know, for as a man is, so is his strength, is what the Bible says.
And you know what? We played a sport recently against a church, first Baptist church with Taga.
And I was thinking about this verse, and when we were done, we had to shake all their hands, and it was all...
And they were all weak and puny, and I was just thinking like, yeah, that's why you go to that church.
That's what that church yields isn't it. You know you go to first first works LA and they're all jacked
You know what I mean, because they're sitting there listening to Pastor Mejia
You know what I mean? Hey, you know what we at Steph S Baptist Church. We need to be mighty men
We need to be strong men
We need to be strong physically and mentally. Hey, we can be offended. We can take long sermons
It's a conference sermon every week. You know what I mean
It's packed in here every single time we should be able to take a few protesters for five minutes
And as they do they quit quit blaming everybody else for the problems of your life
You know what? Be a man, man up, become an adult, become mature, take responsibility for yourself.
If you're a teenager, you know what you're going to struggle with the most?
It's beginning to start taking responsibility for yourself.
As a teenager and as a young adult, as a single guy, as a single woman, take responsibility for yourself.
Stop blaming other people, stop blaming society, stop blaming Democrats,
stop blaming the Jews for literally everything.
Because you know what? The Jews aren't the reason why you don't have a wife.
You're the reason why you don't have a wife.
The Jews are not the reason why you struggle financially.
You're the reason why you struggle financially.
The Jews are not holding you back from lifting weights.
You're holding yourself back from holding weights.
The Jews aren't preventing you from coming to this church.
You're preventing yourself from coming to a church like this.
They're not stopping you from reading the Bible.
You're stopping yourself from reading the Bible.
They're not stopping you from having friends.
It's your awkward weirdness that's stopping you from having friends.
You know what? We need to take responsibility for ourselves.
Your relationships are bad because you're bad.
Be a better person, improve ourselves, take responsibility.
And you know what? If we're all taking responsibility for ourselves,
we'll see a lot of improvement.
If we keep blaming everybody else, we're just going to deteriorate
and wax worse and worse.
Let us stop complaining and excusing everybody else.
Let us just take responsibility and start making changes.
After this sermon, don't tell someone else
that they needed this sermon.
You needed this sermon.
Hey Pastor Shelley, was this sermon about me?
Yes it was.
All of it.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for the word of God.
Thank you for giving us correction
and thank you for giving us free will.
Thank you that not only do we suffer consequences,
we also get the rewards or actions.
I pray that we would take those responsibilities seriously.
I pray that you'd help our church take the gospel seriously,
that we would take the souls of men seriously,
that we try to warn them and get them saved from hell.
I pray that you would help men to take responsibility
for providing for their family and working hard.
I pray that you would help wives to be submissive
under their husbands and to take care of the things at home
and to do their duty and marriage.
and to show benevolence to their husband.
I pray that children and young adults
will start taking responsibility for their actions.
I pray that you would help us all to be more friendly
and to just take just general responsibility in our lives.
I pray that you would help bless us
and help encourage us as we go through these changes.
I pray that all of us would work to make changes this week
in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right for our last song let's grab our binders and we'll go to this world is not my home
Should be in your song binder your song booklet this world is not my home
Should be found towards the back of the binder if you sung this before let's sing it out if not follow along
This world is not my home.
I'm just a passing through.
Sing it out again.
This world is not my home.
I'm just a passing through.
You're all expecting me, and that's one thing I don't know, my savior parted me.
from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Just a new boy that will live eternally.
The saints on every hand are shally victory.
There's all the sweetest praises back from heaven's door, and I can't feel at home.
That can be the next