Hi everybody, this is Pastor Jonathan Shelley from Steadfast Baptist Church and I wanted
to update people on our building situation.
We received recently an adverse ruling against our church saying that we have violated our
lease for what I preached, the sermons that we preached at this church, and that we have
to leave our property.
Now, that's going to happen maybe in a few weeks or something like that depending on
how quickly some of the documents get filed.
The ruling has been delivered, the ruling has been made, and the situation is really
unprecedented.
In fact, even the enemies of our church are gloating and bragging about the fact that
our church is being evicted for what we believe and what we preach.
And they are actually incredulous because they believe that the First Amendment would
protect us, as did everybody that's heard anything about our situation or our case.
Yet today, you're not allowed to preach what the Bible says without receiving a lot of
harassment, a lot of persecution.
And Steadfast Baptist Church is a Bible-believing church.
We believe Genesis all the way through to Revelation.
And it's not a shock to me that we're receiving this type of persecution because frankly speaking,
our church is thriving.
We have hundreds of people that are coming to our church.
We are really succeeding in going out and preaching the Gospel.
In fact, we have a soul-winning marathon that's coming up this Saturday in Waco, Texas where
we have over 100 people signed up to go out and preach the Gospel, to get people saved,
to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, making it clear that it's
a free gift just by faith.
And that's the main goal and purpose of our church.
Our goal is to reach people with the Gospel, to try and get people saved, to get people
baptized.
But the Great Commission goes beyond just simply preaching the Gospel and getting people
baptized to also teaching all things whatsoever Christ commanded.
And because our church does believe very controversial verses in the Bible, it's receiving all kinds
of persecution and attack and we're being looked at as a group that doesn't even believe
the Bible or as a fringe group.
But I know that there is thousands of Baptist churches in America that still believe the
Bible and they need to get up and start preaching the Bible and preaching what the Word of God
says or they may just lose all freedom in this country.
They may lose all the right to their speech and instead of being afraid of losing their
building or losing money or these things that are carnal, they need to be afraid of being
silenced from preaching the truth of God's Word.
There are countries in this world that cannot preach the Bible.
They cannot preach controversial passages like Leviticus 20-13.
And Leviticus 20-13 is not a verse that I made up or invented.
It's in the Word of God.
It clearly says, if a man also lie with mankind, as he lies with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination.
They shall surely be put to death.
Their blood shall be upon them.
That's what the Bible says.
I believe that I've always believed that I always will believe that our church will always
stand on the truth of God's Word.
Not only is that found Leviticus chapter number 20, but also in the New Testament and Romans
chapter number 1, it makes it very clear that men with men are worthy of death.
And so our church has always believed that, it's always preached that, it's always taught
that.
But apparently that is in complete violation of Texas commercial leases.
And if you believe that, if you preach that, or you say that, you will be in complete violation
and you do not have First Amendment protection.
You don't have protection by our local government or by anyone.
And so, you know, this is a really sad day for America.
You know, woe unto Texas, woe unto America, woe unto this area, if they're going to reject
the Word of God, if they're going to reject what the Bible says and literally join in
hand in hand with Satan worshipers.
The people that have been attacking our church are open about the fact that they are satanic,
that they're witches, that they're sodomites.
These are the people that hate God, they hate Jesus.
And you know, some people would say, well, you're not being persecuted for preaching
the Gospel.
But yes, I am.
And here's the truth, though.
It's not just preaching the Gospel that's my job.
And the reason why they hated Jesus was not just for the Gospel.
I want to read a passage for you in the Bible.
It says in John chapter 7, this is Jesus speaking.
He says, the world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the
works thereof are evil.
So according to the Bible, Jesus was hated, not just for the Gospel, not just for saying
that he was the Son of God, but also for testifying to the world that their works were evil.
And let me tell you something, one of the most evil, wicked things on this planet is
men with men that grotesque and disgusting abomination that is being shared throughout
our country, which is obviously leading to all rampant kinds of pedophilia and child
molestation.
And someone needs to stand up to this evil and this wickedness.
And if the whole world disagrees with me, you know what, I'm still going to stand on
the Word of God.
I'm going to stand on the Bible.
But we need Christians to wake up and to realize they need to take a stand here and to stand
on the Word of God, to not be shaken with the wind, to not allow the world to pressure
us into compromising on God's Word.
We're all going to have to stand before Jesus someday.
If you're saved, you will have to stand at the judgment seat of Christ and you have to
give an account of everything that you did.
And you know what?
If you're ashamed of him and his words right now, he's going to be ashamed of you is what
he says.
And so it's time for Christians to believe the Bible.
Christians need to rally around the important truths of God's Word and take a stand now
while there's still even a chance.
You know, I may have to move and leave my building, but if every Christian would just
stand up, if every Christian would believe the Bible, if every Christian would make it
known what they believe, they can't just attack every single person.
Let me make it clear.
This litigation against us is very detrimental to not just me, but anybody.
Nobody could potentially lose their lease, lose their money, lose their building for
just having an unpopular opinion.
Just having an opinion that people don't like, disagree with, don't want anything to associate
with.
And while you may not like my opinions, while you may not like me personally, this is an
extremely unprecedented and dangerous situation our country is falling into.
And I frankly am just horrified, but the reality is, whoa, whoa, unto these people.
You know, I'm in good spirits because the Bible says, rejoice when men persecute you
and shall speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my namesake.
They're going to lie about me.
They're going to lie about our church.
They say that we're violent.
They say that we're advocating violence towards people.
I've never advocated violence towards any singular person.
Now, of course, some of my sermon preaching taken out of context may sound like that or
somebody maybe wants to twist that context, but I've only ever advocated for the legal
sanctioned death penalty for homosexuals.
Now, they want to take quotes of my sermon and try and twist it to suggest that I'm advocating
for violence.
They can lie about me as much as they want, but I don't believe that.
I never have believed that.
But of course they lied about Jesus.
They lied about the apostle Paul.
They lied about Christians throughout the Bible and they will in the future.
And it's time for Christians to rally together and to take a stand and to start preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ unashamedly, believing Genesis through Revelation, not just the popular
parts of the Bible.
Well, I hope that you can at least pray with our church, that you can pray at home.
Pray that the Lord will give us relief that he'll consider, you know, maybe reversing
some of the course of action that's taken place here.
But the precedent has been set that churches are no longer allowed to just preach and believe
the Bible.
That will be silenced.
And who knows what's on the horizon.
But you know, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Well, God bless you.
Have a great day.