That thing's angels.
Go to song number 83.
Song number 83.
I'm going higher.
Song number 83.
Everybody sing it out on the pitch.
or so through the sky
turns to the natural
I meet him up there
some sequel thing
which so soon will...
Mountain
God's mighty love, though I am higher than once till I say I'm going higher, yes, higher some day, I'm going higher.
the sweet by and by. I'm going higher someday. Soon will the Saviour appear less his name.
Someday this earth will be all wrapped in flame. Then as I see the fire mounting so high,
I'm going higher beyond the blue sky.
great singing everybody now let's open a service with a word of
Lord, we love you.
Just thank you again for steadfast baptism to this church.
We thank you for the soul-winning marathon in Houston
and all the souls saved there, Lord,
and the effort we put in,
and just seeing your harvest be reaped, Lord.
We love you, and we just thank you
for everything you're doing in this church and through us,
and we're just honored and privileged, Lord.
We love you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray.
All right, for our next song,
let's go to song number 40.
Song number 40.
There's no disappointment in heaven.
Song number 40, everybody sing it out on the first.
There's no disappointment.
in the sky.
In the glory site there shall be hope, What a joy that will be with my Savior I see.
In that beautiful city of hope, Will never there and for our mention,
prepare, but always be faithless and new. We'll never be hungry nor thirsty, nor
anguish and poverty there. For all the rich bounties of heaven is
Sing glory around the white throne,
Sometime I grow homesick more.
Sing, Gloria, around the white throne, Sometimes I go home, sing for heaven,
And the glories I dare shall behold.
a few announcements. If you need a bulletin, just raise your hands nice and high, and one
of the ushers would be happy to accommodate you. As I mentioned in the morning, Pastor
Shelley is in Houston today preaching for Springcrest Baptist Church. And if you want
to check out his sermons, you can just search for Springcrest Baptist Church on YouTube,
and his morning sermon is up there right now. He preached a sermon called Misplaced Loyalty,
On the inside of the bulletin, we have our service times, our church-wide soul-winning,
and regional times as well.
We have our stats for soul-winning, our prayer list, and the list of expecting ladies on
the back.
Just some church reminders for us to be aware of regarding the children, and you can read
just be sure to keep those kids in line. On the table there in the hallway, just a
reminder that we have some sign-up sheets there for upcoming events. If you plan
on participating in those events, just put your name on the sign-up sheets that
are out there in the hallway. But that's pretty much all I've got for now. It's
Winst-Pastor Shelley. Lord willing, we'll be back this upcoming Wednesday night to
Until then, we'll be listening to Brother Milstead for this service.
Brother Dustin is going to come back up and continue with our singing.
All right, for our third song this evening, we're going to go to Psalm 146, our Psalm of the week.
Psalm chapter 146 in your laminated handout, preferably, but if not, you have a King James
Psalm 146 everybody's singing out together on the first
Crazy the road
Oh my soul, but the way of the
wicked, he turned his upside down.
The Lord shall ring forever.
plates are being passed around. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Jonah chapter
number one. That's the book of Jonah chapter number...
Jonah, the son of Amitai, saying,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,
and cry against it, for their wickedness
is come up before me.
But Jonah rose up to flee under Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Japa.
And he found a ship going to Tarshish,
so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it
to go with them under Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord.
But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them.
But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay, and was fast asleep.
So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him what meanest thou oh sleeper arise call upon thy God
If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not and
They said everyone to his fellow come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us
So they cast lots and the Lord fell upon Jonah
Then said they unto him tell us we pray thee for whose cause this evil is upon us
What is thine occupation and whence come as thou what is thy country and of what people art thou?
And he said unto them I'm in Hebrew and I fear the Lord the God of heaven
Which hath made the sea and the dry land then were the men exceedingly afraid and said unto him
Why has thou done this for the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them
Then said they unto him what shall we do unto they that the sea may be common to us for the sea wrought and was
Tempestuous and he said unto them take me up and cast me forth into the sea
So shall the sea be common to you for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you
Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea
erought and was tempestuous against them.
Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee,
let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou, O
Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.
So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging.
then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice under the Lord and made vows.
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah,
and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. We'll pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for our church.
Thank you, Lord, for the souls that were won this weekend.
Lord, please bless Brother Philip Milstead
with your spirit, Lord.
Fill him with your spirit and allow us to be edified, Lord.
I pray these things for your honor and glory
that he may edify us, that we may better honor
and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in his name, amen.
Amen. Thank you for returning for evening service today and I just want to thank Pastor Shelley for the opportunity to preach.
It's always a blessing to preach a steadfast Baptist church. This is my home. I love this church. I will always love this church.
So we're in a familiar passage tonight. We're in Jonah chapter one and really everybody should be familiar with the story.
It's one of the most famous stories of Jonah being swallowed up by the whale.
You know Jonah gets this commandment from God to go to Nineveh and to preach to them for them to
turn from their wicked ways. Now Jonah here is displaying disobedient behavior, right?
Instead of doing what God wants him to do and going to Nineveh and preaching,
Jonah decides to retreat and take a ship to Tarshish, right? He decides to disobey God and
preaching to them and getting them to turn from their wicked way Jonah just
turns on to a wicked way which is rebellion and disobeys God and ends up
being swallowed by a whale. Now I want to focus the attention tonight on the
boat that Jonah took and the boat that he didn't take okay. Now there were
surely many boats that Jonah could take but really it's only two. It's the boat
Right, so I want to focus on really those two types of boats the one that God wants you to take and
The ones that God doesn't want you to take and the title of my sermon tonight is what boat are you on?
As a Christian, what boat are you on?
And I want this sermon tonight to be a self-reflection.
I want to kick off 2025 as a self-reflection
for you to look in the mirror of the Bible
and ask yourself, what boat are you on in 2025?
What boat were you on in 2024?
Right?
Go into your Bible, let's do Proverbs chapter 17.
Proverbs chapter 17.
Now, we have to examine ourselves as Christians
and ask ourselves, what boat am I on?
So, let's just do some self-reflection tonight.
All of us can learn from the Bible, look into this mirror, and really think about this.
Proverbs chapter 17, but first we need to understand, how does God feel about rebellion?
Right?
How does God feel about rebellion?
We'll look at Proverbs 17, verse 11, it says, an evil man seeketh only rebellion, therefore
a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.
Rebellion is for wicked people.
This is what bad people do.
Bad people rebel.
Good people do what they're supposed to do.
If you have kids, you're pleased with your kid when they obey you.
They're a good kid.
They obey what you're telling them to do.
And so God is very displeased with people when they rebel against them.
It's a wicked behavior.
and not be willing to turn our ears from the Word of God
and end up like Proverbs 17 and 11,
where you're a wicked person, you're evil, right?
Go to your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 57, Isaiah chapter 57.
You know, the way of rebellion can end up being a very hard
and difficult trip.
You know, this trip for Jonah wasn't an easy trip.
I mean, everybody was mad at him on the boat.
There's a raging sea around him.
And this is what happens.
Rebellion always ends up a very difficult road for people.
It's not an easy road.
So ask yourself, am I on this boat of rebellion tonight?
Am I on this boat?
The problem is the 13 verse 15 says,
good understanding, give us favor,
but the way of transgressors is hard.
This boat of rebellion is a hard boat.
No one wants to be on this boat.
No one's gonna like you
and things are gonna wind up very difficult in your life.
And I'm warning you, if you're on this boat,
get off the boat and don't get on that boat, right?
Our life is already difficult as it is.
We make it hard on ourselves when we shouldn't,
so don't get on that boat of rebellion.
Don't run it from God's will, Isaiah 57 verse 20 says,
but the wicked are like the troubled sea.
What are the wicked like?
A troubled sea, the Bible says,
when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
Verse 21, there is no peace, sayeth my God.
to the wicked.
Think about this.
This is Jonah here.
He's the wicked man that's
rebelling against God's Word
and not going to Nineveh like he should
and said he's the rebellious man.
He's the wicked man.
And what happens?
He's dragging other people down with him.
The Bible says,
but the wicked are like the troubled sea
and rebellious people end up
taking other people down with them.
And every man on that boat
was going to drown with
Jonah, he was taking them down with him.
It does nobody any good when you're rebellious,
especially if a father of a house.
If you're a father and you're being rebellious,
you can drag down your entire family with you,
right down the gutter.
And we shouldn't do that.
The same with wives.
Right they can drag their family down. They can drag their children down with them
I mean wives or mothers are spending most of the time with the children right more than I
But my wife spends more time with the children than I do if she's this rebellious person
That's not doing what God wants her to do. She can drag the children down with her
So ask yourself am I on this boat?
Am I on this boat of rebellion where I could end up dragging people down with me getting them out of the will of God
Go into your Bible to 1 Samuel, chapter 15.
Ben talked about this story this morning,
but we're gonna go there again.
There might be some overlap here this evening.
That's what happens when you're knit
with the same spirit, amen, right?
We'll get more in that too, okay?
Look, life is gonna be difficult at times.
We don't wanna make it worse on us
and other people by being rebellious.
Proverbs 14 verse 12 says,
there is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Right? Proverbs 19 verse 6 says,
Look, the Bible is trying to give us a very serious warning that rebellion can lead to destruction.
It could lead to your destruction and it could lead to other people's destruction. Right?
Now somebody who ended up destroying his life was a king called Saul.
In 1 Samuel 15, as we heard this morning, God gave him the commandment
to destroy all of the Amalekites, every single one of them, right?
Look down in verse one and say,
Samuel also said unto Saul,
the Lord has sent me to anoint thee
to be king over his people, over Israel.
Now therefore, hearken thou unto the voice
of the words of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts.
I remember that which Amalekite did to Israel,
how he laid weight for him in the way
when he came up from Egypt.
Now go in verse three and smite Amalek
and utterly destroy all that they have
and spare them not.
infant, suckling ox, sheep, camel, and ass.
God is telling Saul to destroy everything of the Amalekites,
every single person, every single animal, everything, right?
But Saul's rebellious.
Saul does not do this.
In fact, look down at verse 9,
even though God gave Saul a very clear commandment
to destroy everything of the Amalekites,
he didn't do that.
He rebelled against God.
And Samuel comes and shows up.
And, but God's talking to Samuel here in verse 9, but Saul and the people spared Agag,
not here, sorry, and the best of the sheep and of the oxen, the fatlings and the lambs
and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile
and refused that they destroyed utterly.
You see Saul decided that his way was better than God's way.
That's what happens with the belliest people.
They don't want to harken to the word of God.
They don't want to harken to what God says
because they think their way is the best way, right?
We don't need to kill everything.
Look at all these wonderful sheep
that we can keep is what Saul was thinking.
We don't need to destroy Agag.
Maybe he could help me somehow.
Maybe he can help me take over all the nations.
I don't know why he kept Agag, but he didn't.
killed him the way God wanted him to, right?
And he's being rebellious against God.
And in verse 11 it says here,
God talking to Samuel,
it repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king,
for he has turned back from following me
and hath not performed my commandments,
and it grieves Samuel,
and he cried unto the Lord all night.
You know, Samuel was very distraught at the fact that Saul ended up just being rebellious
to God when he started out so well in his Christian life, right?
So much zeal in his Christian life to following God that Saul just ends up throwing it all
down the drain.
For what?
For some sheep and a wicked king called Agag?
Is it really worth it to Saul to do that?
It wasn't.
And I'm sure when he looks back, he says,
that was stupid.
It wasn't worth it.
And oftentimes, the things that re-rebellion against God,
the things that return to, it's not worth it.
It's not worth it at all.
See, the Bible is teaching us that rebellion is bad.
very very bad. In fact the Bible says it as the sin is witchcraft. You look down
in verse 23 Samuel says to Saul for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
How bad is it? It is as the sin of witchcraft which if you don't know the
Bible says is punishable by death.
You see rebellion is very very wicked. It displeases God very much
And I want to pound this into your brain because I want you to be very afraid to rebel against God
I want you to be afraid to rebel against God against what he wants from you in your life
It says this because thou has rejected
the sin of which craft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry,
because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord. He hath also rejected thee from being king.
God was so displeased with what Saul did, he just basically rejected him, said,
you're done. I'm going to take this from you. I'm going to take this position from you.
You don't deserve this. You rebelled against me all because, what, for Agag and some sheep.
But see, Saul didn't stop there because Saul ended up just making a sacrifice and compounding his
It's just compounding his problems, and this is what happens with rebellious people.
They just keep going down this path and destroying everything in their wake.
There's lots of different ways that people can rebel against God.
God has very clear commandments like drinking alcohol.
God says, look not upon the wine when it is red.
The Bible says that we should be sober people,
but people just rebel against God and just drink anyways.
Alcohol can destroy your life.
Fornication can destroy your life.
You know, God tells us not to fornicate.
It's unclean to do that, but people just disobey God
and they don't care and they just do it anyways.
Why? Because it's what they want.
It's what they think is right.
Hey, it's not that bad to drink.
It's just one sip of alcohol.
Well, that's rebellion against God.
God says none, zero, no alcohol.
Lying and railing against people.
Everybody knows lying is wrong
and nobody lies by accident.
But just people just end up lying about other people and making up these false accusations about people and being rebellious against God
How about this one getting tattoos?
I have tattoos and I did it ignorantly, but the Bible says that we should not make markings upon our skin
We should not cut our skin, but people they know this they see the Bible
They hear it preach them and they still get these tattoos on their skin and we should not do that
We should not rebel against God and just do what we want to do
How about men dressing effeminate good night whatever happened to baggy clothes, right?
Now, I don't like too baggy. I like it in the middle
But give me a break it's going way out of control with men dressing with these in fact we went
I went with somebody we went to go paintballing
I brought my kids and you have to play with other people
when they show up, you know, other people that pay to play.
And these high school kids, the high school boys show up
and they're like in these light blue, pinkish shorts.
And they're so short that their underwear
is longer than their shorts.
Like they're a little sports band-ex underwear.
And you're just like, this is the opposite.
The underwear is supposed to be shorter than the shorts
and the shorts are supposed to be longer.
And it's like,
In my day, we just call you a fag.
Like, if your pants were too tight,
we would think you're a fag.
We would make fun of you if your pants were too tight.
I'm not kidding.
Like, if they weren't baggy,
we'd think something was wrong with you.
If your hair was all done up really nice and clean,
someone would probably think you're a fag.
I'm just being honest with you.
Like, it was natural to look baggy and grungy.
But me, I had a problem with wrinkled clothes, I always had to iron it, but just like every
other teenager, I was just ironing dirty clothes, right?
You know, I'd just pick it up out of the closet and iron it and put it on.
But still, you know what I mean, just like a faggot, there's no way.
But people will just rebel against God, they'll go against what God says, they'll go against
clear commandments that God has for them.
Why?
It's called pride, and pride is doing what you want to do
instead of what someone else wants to do.
Hey, I'm going to do what I want to do
instead of what God wants to do.
Go in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 16.
Actually, go to James chapter 4, James chapter 4.
This is the main reason why people rebel
because they think their way is the best way.
Oh, God, I hear what you're saying, God, but this is a better way.
Hey, pastor, hey, I know the Bible says that, pastor,
I prefer to do it this way.
This is a better way to do this.
Hey, pastor, I hear you saying I should move out
and get married or move out or, you know,
stop living with my girlfriend, you know,
because we might fornicate and get married.
But, you know, I really like this girl
and it's not really a big deal that I move out, you know?
And why do I bring up fornication?
Because fornication is a very common thing amongst people.
It's even Christians, it's very common.
But, you know, we should take sins like this very serious, like fornication, and I think
like drinking too.
Like, I think drinking is really wicked and you should never touch it at all.
Never let it touch your lips.
But James chapter 4 says, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift
you up.
What do you mean by humble?
We do what God wants to do.
Hey, when God tells Jonah, Jonah, go to Nineveh.
Jonah should say, okay, I'm going to humble myself and go to Nineveh,
even though I don't like Nineveh,
even though I would rather see Nineveh destroyed, it's what God wants.
I'm going to humble myself to what God wants,
and I'm going to go to Nineveh, and I'm going to preach to them.
It's what God wants, and God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh,
but he said, no, I'm going to Tarshish, because I don't like that way.
I like my way better.
Proverbs, go to 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 5 says God resisted the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.
You don't have to go there.
Go to Proverbs chapter 16.
I'm going to flip there too.
Proverbs chapter 16, and this is what happened to Nineveh.
God resisted Jonah.
God resisted him, and he cast him into the sea.
He got thrown into the sea, and then he got swallowed by the whale, which is frankly just...
unbelievable you know that that would actually happen and I would be like
kill me now if I was stuck in the belly of a whale but that's what God does when
you're rebellious God doesn't want anything to do with you I mean if I have
a rebellious kid in my house I can't use that kid he's not going to do what I
want him to do I'm not even going to ask him to do important things because I
don't have any faith that he's actually going to do it perform it right
I'm gonna prefer somebody else.
I'm gonna exalt somebody else.
I'm gonna exalt a child that's humble and says,
hey, dad, whatever you want, I'll do.
And I'll do it right now.
That's the kid that I'm gonna bless.
That's the kid that I'm gonna raise up.
That's the kid that's gonna get all the blessings
and all my attention.
The rebellious kid, he's gonna be cast out of my sight.
I don't wanna talk to you.
I don't wanna bless you.
I don't wanna hang out with you, right?
So what boat are you on?
Do you wanna be on this boat of rebellion
or do you wanna be on this boat of obedience?
Because rebellion is not fellowship with God, not in the least.
You're not going to fellowship with God on this boat of rebellion.
You're going to be cast out of the ship,
cast into the sea into a whale's mouth.
Look at Proverbs 16 verse 18.
Proverbs 16 verse 18 says this,
pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before the fall.
Jonah was prideful and he got destroyed.
He got swallowed up by the whale and destroyed.
But you know, it leads me to point number two,
which is when we figure out this,
hey, I don't want to be on this boat of rebellion.
I want to be on this boat of obedience.
You know, we should battle.
We should fight, right?
We should fight we should fight and battle for the things that God wants us to fight to now this trip that
Jonah was supposed to go on to Tarshish. I mean at Nineveh this is gonna be a little bit of a fight
It's gonna be a little bit of a battle right to go there to a place
We're obviously Satan that sowed a lot of seed
He's tempted Nineveh to you know to perform all you know to have idolatry and to worship, you know
false statues and false gods
You know, it's not easy to break down
these walls of lies that Satan has.
But that's what God wanted to do for Jonah,
for him to go to Nineveh and fight and battle.
And for us as Christians, you know,
point number two is, are you on this boat,
this battle boat, or are you on this boat of retreat?
Right?
So once you figure out, hey, I'm on this boat of obedience,
I want to do what God wants me to do,
I want to be in the will of God.
Okay, what's the next step?
Well, the next step is to get in the fight,
to get in the battle, right?
And point number two is, are you on the boat to battle,
or are you on the boat to retreat?
Go in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter five.
2 Corinthians chapter five.
I would for you, Jew chapter 1, verse 3, it says,
Beloved, I gave all diligence to write unto you
of the common salvation.
It was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend
for the faith which is once delivered unto the saints.
Now there's many battles that we can fight as a church, right?
We fight for the King James Bible, right?
We fight for, you know, things like the Trinity.
We fight for other types of doctrine, the divinity of Jesus Christ, right?
We fight for these things, but as a church, our main mission, our main battle, our main
fight is the gospel.
This is something that we need to be contending with as a church and my question is are you on that boat to battle for the gospel?
Are you on that boat? Or you're retreating and heading the other way, right?
It's just not for us to lay back and take vacation
and watch other people do the work.
It's us to be on that battle boat too, right?
And I understand preaching the gospel
is not the easiest thing to do, right?
It doesn't come natural for everybody.
Some people make it look really easy
and they're really good at it,
but most people have to work at preaching the gospel, right?
And this is something you should be pairing to do
and teaching yourself how to do
because this is a battle that God wants us in.
He wants us in this fight.
He wants us on this battle boat, you know?
And preaching the gospel is a warranted battle for us to fight.
Go into your Bibles to go to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
I looked down at the Bible and it says,
In all things of God hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ and given to us
the ministry of reconciliation to it
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them
and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now that we are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you by us,
we pray you in Christ dead, be ye reconciled to God.
You see, this is our mission.
To reconcile unsaved people
unto God. That's what God wants us to do. That is our main mission as a church and that is the
main mission you have as a Christian. And if for 2025, are you ready to get on that boat?
Or are you on that boat? I mean, what did 2024 look like for you? Were you off that boat? Were you
not so wanting? Were you retreating? You know, you have to take some self-reflection here.
This is our duty to be in this fight.
And we want everybody in the fight.
We want everybody to be continuing for the faith.
We want everybody to be ministers of reconciliation, to be ambassadors for Christ.
You should embrace this job, this vocation that God has for you, and be a sole winner.
We can't just assume everybody's a soul winner.
Not everybody's a soul winner instead of fast Baptist church.
And that's why I'm saying this,
because not everybody is a soul winner.
You may be a soul winner,
but there are many people who are not.
There are many people who are literally afraid
to stand in front of the door, knock on it,
and then preach the gospel to somebody.
There are people who are literally terrified to do that.
But we need to motivate them to get out there, get on that battle boat, and fight the good fight, right?
Fight the good fight.
Go into your Bibles 2.
Go into your Bibles 2, Psalm 73.
Psalm chapter 73 look yeah, it's difficult so when it can be difficult sometimes it's too hot sometimes it's too cold
Sometimes you're tired sometimes you're disinterested, and you don't want to go right?
Sometimes you're just not in a really good mood
Maybe just a little depressed
But there are lost souls who don't care how you feel
They don't care that it's too hot
They're not going to care that it's too cold.
When you're up in heaven, they're going to be thankful that you came on the hot day,
that you came on the cold day, that you came when you were disinterested,
that you came when you were depressed.
They're going to thank you because they don't care, right?
And the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2 verse 3 that we should endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ.
right? Endure this hardness. Endure this battle boat. Endure going to battle, right? And frankly,
speaking, this battle boat is like an armada because there's so many different battles we're
fighting as Christians. This is just the main battle, right? I mean, we're heading in like the
British armada to destroy all types of things, all types of false doctrine, all types of lies
that's been laid upon the world. We're out there on this armada, right?
Second Corinthians chapter 11 actually go to second Corinthians chapter 11. I want to I want to actually point this out
But some people are just scared to death and you just need to get over it
You need to get over it and do some hardness, right?
Endure the embarrassed feeling that it is to give the gospel
Sometimes you're gonna fumble up and make mistakes. It's okay. You know, we're not perfect
but endure that hardness.
You know who endured some hardness for the gospel?
It was Paul.
The apostle Paul was somebody that endured
probably more hardness than anybody did
besides Jesus preaching the gospel.
It says in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 23,
it says,
Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool.
I am more, and labor is more abundant,
and stripes above measure, and prisons more frequent,
and deaths oft.
Off means often.
Oftentimes, he was close to dying, right?
People were constantly chasing Paul
and wanting to kill him.
Heck, even when he was in prison for two years
at the end of Acts,
they were waiting for him to get out to destroy him.
Verse 24 of the Jews five times received that forty stripes saved one thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice
I suffered shipwrecked a night and a day and I've been in the deep and
Journeys often in perils of waters and perils of robbers and perils of mine own
Countrymen and perils by the heathen and perils in the city and perils in the wilderness and perils in the sea and perils among false brethren
in weariness and painfulness and watchings often,
and hunger and thirst and fastings often,
and cold and nakedness.
I don't think any of us have been
through all of these things, right?
So we can endure some hardness.
And I don't think anybody's really gonna go
through any of these things anyways.
So we should be able to endure the hardness
that's set before us, right?
Because I don't think none of us are gonna go this,
but Paul endured.
But you know why?
You know why he did this?
He did this for, you said in Philippians 1-12.
He says, but I would, you should understand, brethren,
that the things which happened under me
have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel.
The reason why Paul was willing to be beaten, stoned,
been chased around, right?
People threatened to kill him, right?
Being shipwrecked.
His own family and brethren hating him.
We just tell people what gets saved, which is the further the gospel.
Can you do that?
Can you get on that battle boat to further the gospel,
to get that gospel out there?
I mean, this is Steadfast Baptist Church's main mission.
Have you not figured that out yet since being here?
That we're on a mission to soul win.
We're on a mission to go into all these places
and to preach the gospel.
We are on a mission.
We are on a battle to fight for all these lost souls
all around the world.
We're not just here in Dowsford Worth.
We're making fish and soul winning trips
all over the place.
I mean, yeah, we're on a boat, we're fishing for a lot of fish, right?
But anyways, so are you on this battle boat or not?
Are you on this battle boat to preach the gospel?
Psalm 73 verse 1 says, Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well and I slipped, for I was envious
at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
What I want to point out is one of the things that gets people off this boat is the fact
that they're looking back at the world.
They're looking back at all the things they gave up, they're looking at all the prosperity
of the world and they're saying, you know, maybe I don't want to be in this fight anymore.
Maybe I don't want to be anymore. It's hard. I lost, you know, hey, I'm not making as much money
I had to leave a job. My family's giving me a hard time. I hate Texas
It's too hot and then it gets icy and everybody doesn't know how to drive and I don't know these people
I hardly know anybody. No one hardly shakes my hand. I feel like I don't have any friends. I just want to go back
Just want to go back to the prosperity that I had of whatever city that I lived in because that just seems so much better than being on the battle boat
But that's what ASAP was talking about
He's like I looked at the wicked and I saw the
Prosperity and I wanted that and I almost slipped
I almost made that mistake and that can happen to anybody
Okay, so you need to take heed less you fall
You need to watch out for you and understand that one of the biggest things that'll get you off this ship
is what was behind you is all the things that you left behind to come to be on this ship.
Forget those things. Leave it behind.
Jesus said in Luke 9 verse 62 and Jesus said unto him,
No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.
Look, if you're looking back, if you're standing on the end of that boat and you're looking back at where you left,
look, you're not fit to be on that battle boat.
You're not fit to be a soldier.
Your liability, right? You need to be looking the other direction. You need to be looking. Can I get some water?
You need to be looking at the battle that's in front of you and where you're headed and not where you're coming from.
Set your affection on that battle. Set your affection on what needs to be done and what God wants you to do, right?
Don't be too worried about losing your job. Don't be too worried about losing money.
They'll be too worried about losing friends.
They'll be too worried about losing family members.
The gospel is worth it.
Is it not?
Is it not worth it to go out and preach the gospel, right?
For the very person that purchased yourself from hell?
Is it not worth it?
Is it not warranted, right?
Think about when David went to fight Goliath.
He said, is there not a cause?
Was it not warranted for David to go fight Goliath by himself?
Yeah, it was warranted because it was for God.
And you know what?
Is it not warranted for us to go out there and battle for the gospel?
It is, because we're doing it for God and we're doing it for the lost.
We're doing it because that's our duty of what we have to do.
So get on that battle boat if you're not there.
Stay on that battle boat if you have to.
Don't worry about the things that you left behind.
Look, we are called to fight.
We are called to fight. Don't get on that party boat.
Don't get on that boat that, hey, I just want to have fun.
The Bible says sorrow is better than laughter in Ecclesiastes, right?
We shouldn't be worried about having fun and watching football, right?
Hey, I'm a football fan as much as anybody else, right?
I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
You know, you were raised up to love football, right?
And I like sports.
I like boxing, too.
But it's never going to take me away from the Bible, right?
It's never going to take me.
You know, hey, I'm not, I'm gonna go to the game
instead of going to church.
It's like, no, I'm gonna go to church,
even though I like football,
but they're probably gonna lose anyways,
like the Cowboys, so.
At least I'm not a Cowboys fan.
At least there's hope for my team, you know?
But look, God doesn't want us to look back.
He says you're not fit.
If you're just constantly looking back
and looking back and saying, I don't wanna be here,
then you're really not fit to be a soldier, are you?
Like if I'm on a battlefield with somebody
and we're going to battle and this guy's like.
lagging behind, looking back, and I'm like,
look, either you get on or get off.
Either you're with it or you're not,
because you're a liability.
Look, get on the battle boat, stay on the battle boat,
and fight that fight.
But this fight is gonna take the whole armor of God,
it says in Ephesians 6, 11, verse 12,
which is put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil, right?
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
You see, this battle that we're fighting is going to take
a whole armor of God, right?
It's going to take the whole armor of God.
We're going to need all these things with us
to fight the battle.
But, you know, we not only fight the battle
for the gospel, there are other truths, of course,
that we fight these battles.
For instance, the King James Bible.
We should always fight that battle.
We should always be on that boat.
And don't ever get off that boat
for the King James Bible, right?
If I were you, I've done a little bit,
but if I would just read up on the history
of the King James Bible, just read up a little bit
and you'll realize how much people went through
just to have this Bible here.
People's lives were lost.
In fact, people died while writing
or translating the King James Bible.
It'll make you appreciate it more.
Go in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5.
But look, there's another battle though that we need to be fighting, right?
Yes, we're fighting a spiritual battle.
Yes, we're fighting against the lies of the devil, right?
To send people to hell.
We're fighting against this army of work salvation, which we can win and we will win.
But there's a carnal battle that we have to fight.
There is a carnal battle, right?
and the battle is against yourself, right?
And I wanna ask you,
are you on this battle boat to fight against yourself?
Are you on this battle boat to go to war against you,
against that old man?
The Bible says in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, verse 2, through 2,
I beseech you therefore, brethren,
that by the mercies of God that you present your bodies,
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service,
and be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.
God's will is that you make yourself a living sacrifice.
God's will is that you be transformed
and to him instead of under the world.
That's God's will.
And are you on this boat to transform yourself?
Are you on this boat to fight the battle against the old man,
to transform yourself from that old man onto the new man?
And look, this is a battle.
If you don't think it's a battle,
I don't know what sin you're turning from
because turning from sin isn't the easiest thing, right?
That's why we're doing it every single day.
You're in Galatians chapter five.
But you got to ask yourself, are you on this boat?
Are you actively trying to change?
Are you actively trying to become the new man?
Are you actively trying to transform yourself
as a layman sacrifice for God?
Galatians 5 or 17 says, for the lust, for the flesh,
lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
These are contrary, the one to the other.
So you cannot do the things that you would.
The Bible says that spirit,
and the flesh are against each other.
Do you not understand that?
When you're trying to like wake up
and do the right thing and be the new man,
do you not feel that resistance of the old man?
He's there.
He's always there.
In fact, go to Romans chapter seven.
That old man is always there.
Just waiting for you to quit.
Waiting for you to jump off that boat.
Waiting for you to say, you know what?
I'm done fighting. I can't do this anymore.
I want to go back to where I came from.
I want to go back to the bottle.
I want to go back to, you know, out of church.
I just don't want to do this anymore.
I don't want to fight against that old man, right?
I want to go back to listening to that music.
I want to go back to watching those things.
I want to go back to how it was before I came to Steadfast Baptist Church.
Right? But you need to be battling against the old man.
Proverbs 6 verse 27 says,
Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes be not burned?
Can one go upon hot coals and his feet be not burned?
Look, take sin seriously, take this transformation seriously because if you don't, there could
be heavy consequences, right?
You can't mess around with sin.
You can't mess around with these things of the old man, right?
Whatever sins you're trying to get rid of, hey, they're unique to you.
Most aren't.
because they're going to end up destroying you.
They're going to end up getting you out of the will of God.
And you're not going to be on that battle boat anymore,
fighting against the lies, fighting for the gospel,
or fighting against the old man.
You're just going to end up quitting.
You know?
Resist the flesh.
Resist the conformities of this world.
It's not worth it.
It's not worth it for the person that quickened our spirit
and saved us from hell, right?
Colossians 3, 5 says,
mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth.
Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate infection, evil,
concupiscence, and covetousness,
which is idolatry. What does mortify mean?
Mortify means to subdue,
to take control of.
The Bible says that we need to take control of,
we need to subdue
the members of our body.
We need to subdue ourselves,
is what the body is saying.
Are you trying to do that?
Are you just giving in to whatever sin there is out there?
Are you just an open book?
Are you just opening the door to sin in your life, right?
Or are you trying to mortify your body?
Are you trying to mortify your members?
Are you trying to subdue it and bring it
under subjection to what Paul had said,
lest he be a cast away?
Paul dealt with sin.
He dealt with this struggle in Romans chapter seven,
Let's read it together. I'm gonna actually need to go there
Paul dealt with this fighting against the old man
This is not just unique to you every single Christian has to fight this battle
Every single Christian has this problem of the old man, and it doesn't just go away magically
You know, you don't get saved and all of a sudden just like no sin. No, you're not gonna desire sin anymore
That's not true. That's a false doctrine. Sin is always there. The old man is always there
Look down at verse 14, we'll start in verse 14, it says this,
for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal,
sold under sin. For that which I do, for that which I do, I allow not.
For what I would, that I do not. But what I hate, that I do. Paul's saying the
things that I do not, the things that I would do, I allow not.
Right? What is he saying in his verse? The things that I want to do, I don't do.
And we all struggle with this.
No one can say they never sinned.
No one can say, hey, I wanted to do right today,
but I didn't do it.
That happens to all of us, right?
But we have to recognize that that's something
that we need to battle.
We need to fight that battle.
Verse 15, for that which I do allow not for what I.
Sorry, verse 16, if then I do that, which I would not,
I can sit unto the law that it is good.
Now then, it is no more I that do it,
but sin that dwelleth in me,
for I know that in me that is in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me."
Right?
He's saying, I want to do this, the will is there,
but how to perform it, that which is good,
I find now, and he says, even though I want to do it,
and the desire is there, I still don't do it.
I still don't do it.
For the good that I would do not,
but the evil which I would do not, that I do.
I find then a law that I would,
I find then a law that when I would do good,
evil is present with me.
Look, evil, he says evil is present with me.
What's he saying?
The old man never goes away.
He's always there.
That that's you should always be battling because that old man is always there waiting for you in that closet
He's waiting for you behind the door. He's waiting for you in the car on the way to work. He's waiting for he's everywhere
He's just waiting for you to mess up
He's waiting for you to turn back
He can't wait for you to put on that old man so we can desire so we can do all those wonderful things that he used to do
We should be battling against our flesh
We should be battling against the things in our life.
And look, when people don't do this,
when people just give in, they end up falling out of church.
They end up just falling out of church.
And it could be for a 1 Corinthians 5 type reason,
where they just end up doing some wicked sin
that'll get them kicked out.
But usually it just becomes an overwhelming thing.
It's just, they just give in, they're just, I'm done.
I don't wanna be here anymore.
They become ashamed and then they end up leaving.
It happens and don't think that it can't happen to you that you're some special person that you don't have to fight this fight
You have to recognize that this is a real battle
Are you on this boat to fight against the old you? Are you trying to fight this battle? I mean, how was 2024 for you?
Look back at 2024 did you fight this battle against the old man at 2024 were you battling this man or you just let him
Just take over and run your life
I mean, what does 2025 hold for you?
Are you gonna fight this battle in 2025?
Are you gonna be, try to be more transformed this year?
Or are you gonna be like last year?
We should always be trying to work better,
always trying to keep moving in the right direction.
That's what we should be doing.
Go in your Bibles to,
I'm gonna move ahead.
Go in your Bibles to John chapter 17, John chapter 17.
Look, point number one was that are you on the boat of obedience or are you on the boat of rebellion?
You know, are you on this boat where you're doing what God wants you to do in his will or are you like Jonah just rebelling and saying
I don't want to do that. I want to do my own thing and this is just some self-reflection, right, for you yourself and
the secondly, which is kind of a two-part point is are you on the battle boat? Are you on this boat to contend for the faith?
committed to preaching the gospel,
committed to being a soul winner.
And are you on this boat to battle against you,
against that old man who's always there,
the evil that's lurking in the shadow to take you down?
My third point, my last point is this,
is are you on the boat of unity
or are you on the boat of division?
Are you on the boat of unity
or are you on the boat of division?
You see, when you want to fight a battle, you want to make sure that you got some help with you.
We can't fight every single battle by ourselves, can we?
I mean, what did Gideon do? He took 300 men with him. Strongest 300 men, right?
You think about Joshua, you think about all the wonderful men in the Bible, the strong men.
I mean, aside from David...
Right they had people there to fight they were in unison they had people there to fight these battles with them
And the thing is are you on this boat of unity or are you on this boat of division?
You're in John chapter 17.
Look at verse 20, Jesus taught unity.
Unity in the New Testament is a repetitive thing
that's always mentioned in the Bible, in the New Testament.
He said in verse 17, verse 20,
all may be one as Thou, Father, art in me,
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us,
that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me,
and the glory which Thou hast gavest me,
I have given them, that they may be one,
even as we are one."
You see, Jesus wants us as Christians to be unified.
He wants us to resemble the relationship that He has with the Father, the unified relationship that He has with the Father, okay?
And as Christians, we need to mirror this also, that we be unified together also.
We're supposed to mirror this unity that Jesus has with the Father.
John 519 says the Son can do nothing of Himself,
but what He seeeth the Father do,
or what thingssoever He doeth,
these things also doeth the Son likewise.
Look, their wills are the same, and they match.
That's how they are in unity.
And us as Christians, our will needs to match too.
We need to have the same will as a church.
How can there be unity if we all don't want the same thing?
How can there be unity when we all want to go
a different direction?
That's not unity.
We should be in unity. We should all be on that boat of unity and not on the boat of division
We should have the same mission, which is soul winning, right?
I mean we think about the gospel the gospel is like a binding agent that binds should be binding all Christians together
I want to get ahead of myself. I am a little bit as Philippians one chapter to Philippians 1 27 says
That with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel
With one mind, together and unity, striving for the faith of the Gospel.
When we go out there and we fight these battles, we do them together.
We fight battles together.
We fight for the truth together.
We're in unison together.
We're unified together.
Now, there are many differences between us.
We come from all places all over the world
and the United States.
And guess what?
It's really easy to not be united
when you're all from different places around the world.
Different backgrounds, cultures, right?
Personalities, preferences.
We're all different.
And that will make it a little bit difficult
to be unified, right?
It should be really easy to be unified on doctrine.
We all have the same Bible, right?
But what happens is is the reason why people don't become unified is before petty little reasons, right?
It's always something just really petty and really stupid that causes division in a church.
I've never seen like really serious doctrine ever come in
and try to shake up steadfast.
It's always just some petty, stupid little thing
that's always getting in the way and getting people out,
getting people out of the fight,
getting people out of the battle,
and getting people to cause problems inside the church.
But the thing is, is that we need to be unified.
And this unification that we have is a really good example
because it shows the world that,
that we have a similar relationship as Jesus has with the Father and he said that when he said here what he's
Okay, let's move on let's go to Galatians chapter 3 go to Galatians chapter 3
We all have our quirks we all have our preferences, but the gospel is supposed to destroy all that and knock down the barriers that happen to be there
The gospel is that binding agent
is supposed to hold us together.
I understand you're not like me.
I like chili in my beans, right?
You're probably not gonna like that.
I do.
I grew up in Wisconsin.
I can still love you if you prefer not to have chili
in your beans, which I don't know why someone would do that.
It's just glorified spaghetti sauce, okay?
I can fix spaghetti sauce.
I can make chili, spaghetti sauce into chili really easily.
Just some salt and some...
and some chili powder, and you have chili.
Nothing special, but chili's supposed to have beans.
Sorry, Pastor.
Forgive me.
Anyways, Liga Galatians chapter three verse 26,
for you all.
For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus for as many as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
That put on Christ neither is there neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither bond or free
There's neither male or female for you're all
One in Christ. This is what the gospel does. It creates one it creates unity
Right. It's supposed to bring us together as a unit so that we can get a lot of work done
Go to your bibles to John, actually Mark. Go to your bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 4.
1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10 says now I beseech your brethren by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
That you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you
See in the in the church in Corinth people were divided in this church
Well, I'm baptized the Paul and I'm baptized to this guy and there was just divisions
And it was really bothering Paul and they wrote under them that there'd be no divisions among you
But that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment
for it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren,
by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you.
Now this I say that every one of you sayeth,
I am of Paul, and I have of Paul,
and I have Cephas, and I have Christ.
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you,
or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Look, we don't want to be divided.
We don't want to be fighting and be contentious
with each other, like the Church of Corinth was.
And frankly, who cares who baptized you, right?
That sounds like something really foolish.
But like I said, people always end up finding stupid things
to argue and fight about, and to cause division.
Like, who cares who baptized you?
Doesn't that sound really foolish?
But it's always something so petty and so small
that ends up driving a wedge between Christians.
always driving a wedge and you know Jesus said in Mark 3 verse 25 that if a house be divided against itself
it cannot stand. You know this is exactly what the devil wants. He wants us to be fighting.
He wants us to be bickering. Why? So we can come up here and break things up and have less work done.
The whole point of the devil is for us to just stop working for less work to be done at St.
We can get a lot of work done,
and there are strength in numbers.
There's strength in numbers, right?
Aaron Cleese asked you, chapter four, look at verse nine,
it says two are better than one, right?
What's better than one soul winner?
Two, right?
Two, because they have a good reward of their labor.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow,
but woe to him that is alone when he falls free
hath not another to help him up.
Look, battle's not easy.
We're all gonna slip up, but you know, thank God we have that if we're unified I have a brother in Christ that can say get up
Let's go so wanting. Hey, come on. Are you coming to church? Hey, come on. Let's go hang out
Hey, come on. Let's let's go to the mighty men's, you know retreat or hey
Come on, let's go do this together and they're exhorting me to do good things like I'm glad that I'm unified with my church
Because I have people to look out for me and what a blessing that is
You know if you're not unified you're alone and when you're alone you're vulnerable
You're vulnerable the devil can come right at you. You can slip and then no one's there
No one's there and who wants to be alone as a Christian?
No one wants to be alone
Again if two lie together
Then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone if one prevail against him to withstand him
If one prevailed against him, two shall withstand him,
and the three-fold cord is not quickly broken.
How about a 200 cord?
How about 200 people?
That's a pretty hard cord to break, wouldn't you think?
If we take all these strands of all of us together
and we wind each other together into this strong bond,
you can't break that.
But you start separating that rope, what do you have?
You don't really eventually you don't have one rope. You have all these different ropes and they're smaller and they're much easier to break
You are a piece of that rope of steadfast Baptist Church be wrapped up in it
Get in the battle
Be unified with other Christians
There's strength in numbers
Strength and think about the Emiah Nehemiah couldn't build the wall by himself
Right? He had to have help, right?
We mentioned Gideon, getting to 300 men.
Look, there's strength in numbers, right?
How about Jericho? All the help that was there to bring down Jericho.
Obviously, it was God, but many people were there,
blowing the horns.
But, you know, this is what division looks like.
It looks like pride and bitterness.
It looks like people who just say, you know what, it's me first and you second.
It's what I want and not what you want.
And we shouldn't have that attitude about me first and you second.
The Bible tells us to prefer one another.
That's humbleness.
That's saying, hey, it's not what I want, but it's what you want.
Hey, I know you want this, but instead, you know, I mean, I know that I want it, but I'm
We should have this attitude of humbleness inside the church.
Why? Because it'll cause people to be more unified.
And there's so many, look, think of this.
Types of bitterness that people could fall into in a church.
How about just gossip, right?
People hearing gossip about them, they get mad and then they end up leaving, right?
That's bitterness.
How about just people being presumptuous and just presuming things they shouldn't presume,
jumping to conclusions.
Right? I don't know why, but people just always get upset about the dumbest things inside of a church.
And it's like, they look at a situation and then they just judge it off no facts whatsoever.
And they just end up just angry at people for no reason.
Like, how about this? How about just being angry at Pastor Shelley recently with all these things that happened?
Like, I don't even know why people were mad at him.
He didn't even do anything wrong.
And they're like, I'm not coming to church anymore.
Why? There really wasn't a good reason.
What was it? Pride? What was it? Bitterness?
Look, I'm going to do things. The Bible talks about James.
I think it's James, about how the fire can kindle it.
The fire is like a fire, right?
It just takes a little bit.
And look, the Bible says that if you fend out
and word you're a perfect person, okay?
I'm gonna say things that are gonna hurt your feelings
and I've done it, okay?
You're gonna say things that are gonna hurt my feelings.
It's gonna happen.
I'm gonna see you do things that I don't like.
I'm gonna see you maybe mistreat a person.
I'm gonna see you maybe do something stupid.
Maybe you see me do something stupid, right?
But there's no reason to be bitter and to be mad at people and say did you see what so-and-so did?
Did you see what so-and-so said? I can't believe that. You're like, well, I do know for sure.
Do you know for sure this happened? Do you know for sure that they took it? Do you know for sure that they did it?
You know, how about this? How about people get bitter and mad at other people's kids and then blame the parents?
That's really common. Oh, look at these kids. They're so bad. Now. I don't like the parents like the parent didn't really do anything.
If you come to my house at the wrong time,
my kids are gonna be at each other's throats.
Kids, fight.
Kids are mean to each other.
My kids are mean to each other.
I'm constantly fighting this battle in my own house
with my own kids, and I teach them,
you'll be good to each other,
and you'll be good to people outside the church.
But it starts inside the home first,
is where you start loving each other,
and being forgiving, and being graceful, right?
And that being bitter.
Because then you take that outside the church.
Why?
Because if you're just out here acting all spiritual,
then you come home like a fool.
That's just hypocrisy.
So it starts in the home, getting it right inside the house.
I don't want to get off a tangent.
But I mean, that's what I teach my kids.
But I'm just telling you, kids fight.
So if you hear something like, oh, these kids
were really bad kids, OK, kids are bad.
Felunce is bound in the heart of a child.
But I'm telling you, people have left church,
got out of church for really stupid reasons like stuff like that, right?
And it's really disappointing that people just don't want to be unified in the gospel.
They just don't want to be unified together to fight the battle.
They'd rather just petty little things get in the way.
I'm telling you, you don't have to like me to come to Steadfast Baptist Church,
and I don't have to like you. I don't care.
I'm not here for you, and you shouldn't be here for me.
Can you just come to serve God and who cares what personalities are are in the crowd?
I mean who cares?
Look, I'm telling you the by the gospel is a binding agent
Why get in the way of that?
God is breaking down these walls between the Jews and the Gentiles and he's breaking down the walls between me and you
Don't get in the way of that
Don't get in the way
So ask yourself, are you on the boat of obedience or on that boat of rebellion?
Are you on that boat to battle? Are you on that boat to retreat? I think of this
I didn't bring this up, but it just came to mind think about Peter
Right
John 21 sorry, I
Got thing on the fly here. So forgive me. Okay. Let's go to John chapter 21
It's just on the fly so but this is important why because this is somebody that retreated from the will of a God
This is somebody that retreated and didn't fight the battle. This is somebody that just decided. You know what? I quit
I'm done and here's the thing. I'm gonna bring this up too another reason why people end up quitting the battle and fighting is
Because of mistakes is because they end up making mistakes in their life and they feel too sorrowful for that
Well, the Bible says that godly sorrow
work is sorrow under repentance, right?
But godly sorrow work is sorrow under death.
Look, we ought to get things right in our lives
so we don't quit the battle.
We're all gonna make mistakes.
We understand we're warring against the flesh, right?
But the thing is, is don't let your mistakes
get you down.
And I really wanna emphasize that
before we end the sermon.
We're all going to sin.
We're all gonna make mistakes.
But don't let that get you down
and get you out of the fight.
You stay in the battle, you stay a soul winner, you stay reading your Bible, you stay, you don't even have to do it at Steadfast Baptist Church.
Let me tell you something, it doesn't matter what church you go to, Steadfast, you know, I wasn't gonna say pure words, goodnight.
Steadfast Anchor Baptist Church.
Any church it doesn't matter the mission stays the same and God has requires the same thing out of you
No matter your location the children of Israel were traveling all around
Location the location but guess what never changed what God wanted them to do
The rules never change the rules just don't apply because you don't go to steadfast Baptist church
They're gonna still gonna apply to you
So doesn't they then don't go here. Okay, fine, whatever
Good luck to you, but can you still stay in the world of God?
Can you still stay on these boats even though you don't come to steadfast and don't use this as a reason why oh, you're not on the boat?
No, no, no God requires you to be on the boat whatever church you're at
Don't make excuses. You have to look in the mirror and judge yourself. Are you on this boat? I?
Didn't even go there. I was talking too much
John Trapper 21
John chapter 21, Jesus is going to come and he's going to find Peter because Peter got
what?
He got discouraged that he ended up denying Christ.
He got discouraged by his mistake and he got out of the battle.
This can happen to anybody.
Discouragement can bring you down, right?
He shows himself in verse 5 and Jesus says,
children have you any meat.
So Jesus comes on the shore.
And he says, and they answered him,
no, and he said unto them cast the net
on the right side of the ship,
and ye shall find it.
And they cast there for it,
and now they were not able to draw it
for the multitude of fishes.
Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved,
saith unto Peter, it is the Lord.
Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he girded his fishes coat unto him,
for he was naked, and casted himself into the sea.
And the other disciples came in a little ship.
Remember when we talked about rebellion?
You dragged other people down with you?
Yeah, he had other people with him, by the way.
Dragging the net with fishes, as soon as they come to land, they saw fire coals there and fish lay there on and bred.
And Jesus said, then bring fish, which you have now caught.
So Jesus shows up while Peter is on this boat of retreat.
He's just retreated under the old man.
He's just retreated.
Why?
Because he got discouraged.
But Jesus motivated him.
He said, Feed my sheep.
Do you love me?
Love us thou and me?
Yeah, Lord, I love thee.
Well, feed my sheep.
What did Jesus want from Peter?
Get on that boat to battle.
Get on the right boat.
Right, let's go Peter. Hey, what happened happened? What happened is the past? Hey, 2024 is over folks
You can't fix it, but we have a whole year ahead of ourselves
We have a whole year to fix things. We have a whole year to battle. We have a whole year
Right to be in unison together. Are you on that boat?
of obedience. Are you on that boat to battle? Hey, are you on that boat of unity instead
of division, right? It's really painful to see people fighting for the really wrong
things, like Christians fighting other Christians. Like, wow, I don't see that in the Bible
anywhere where it says go to battle against other men of God and fight them. I thought
our battle was the gospel. People, they get off track. Why? Because pride and bitterness,
There's no reason for any church.
I wouldn't necessarily say that, but there are some exceptions, but generally speaking,
we should be in unison together with other churches too.
So just take the Bible, use it as a mirror, and ask yourself these questions.
With power and spirit.
Thank you, Lord God, for your wonderful Word.
Though we want to have a wonderful 2025, we want to be on these boats, Lord, in your
will, the will of obedience, Lord.
battling for the gospel.
And Lord, just doing this in unison together
so we can get more work done together, Lord.
We pray that you bless this church.
You help us stay strong.
You help us to love each other.
You help us to forgive each other
so we can have a wonderful 2025
and do more works than we did the previous year.
Did you just say we pray, amen?
All right, in closing, let's go to song number 65.
Song number 65 just over in the glory land
Song number 65