(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And I do appreciate the special two and a half hour time slot that I was given, personally, with nobody to be behind me, no pressure to finish quickly or anything like that. So I promise to use every second and not waste any time at all. So what, lunch is at 1230, I guess. So if you feel like you need to get up and take a break and just stand up or just go to the bathroom anytime during this sermon, it will not offend me whatsoever. So and I just want to say happy birthday to Miss Sheila. She's a member of our church. She's somewhere. Put your hand up, Miss Sheila. Where are you at? Oh, she's right there. She's 29 today. And again, and then we also have Kohath's birthday today. Is Kohath here? Where's he at? There he is, all right. It's Kohath's birthday today. He's from our church up in Vancouver, both from our church in Vancouver. So they share a birthday. I just want to say happy birthday to you. Everybody give him a round of applause there. And I also want to say thanks to all of our church members that have traveled to the Red Hot Preaching Conference. So if you're from Shur Foundation Baptist Church, any of our locations, which are many, would you just stand up real quick if you're from any of our locations at Shur Foundation? All right. We travel good. And that's Bible Believers Baptist Church also and former members of mine that were at Stronghold Baptist. Is there any Stronghold Baptist in here? Not Stronghold, Strong Tower, good night. All right, Strong Tower Baptist Church. Stronghold is never mine, all right. And then how about Fortress Baptist? We got any Fortress Baptists? All right, amen. Thanks guys for coming, I appreciate it. All right, this morning I want to preach to you on the subject of worshiping and serving the creature more than the creator. Of course, we had to get Romans 1 in there somehow. So I had to do that. But it is actually the text I'm preaching from this morning. So I'm preaching on the subject of worshiping and serving the creature more than the creator. And specifically, I'm gonna be talking about animals. Not bowing down and worshiping statues of animals, but literally worshiping animals. In this country specifically, we have a real problem with people worshiping animals in their hearts, in their minds, serving them to the point where they're putting them over mankind, over God, and sometimes even Christians can fall into this trap to a certain degree. So that's what I'm preaching about this morning. Let's go ahead and look at Romans 1, verse 18. And so my first point is the Romans road of reprobation. And this is where we find the reprobate doctrine, which people say doesn't exist. It's made up by the new IFBB. But I mean, here it is right here in the Bible. So look at verse number one. This is how it happens. This is how people become reprobates. It says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. And it says, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. So nobody has an excuse. God showed his self to people in creation. That's what it says in verse 20. It says, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. So they are without excuse. Nobody has an excuse not to get saved. The fact that God exists is just proven by the fact that we're here and things are made, right? Even his power and Godhead. So it says, verse 21, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful it became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. So people know of God and then they pervert the things of God and they start to not glorify him as God. And then they become not thankful. They become vain in their imaginations. They have these just empty imaginations. They start making up things and they don't want God to be glorified. It says in verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And this is kind of what you see in modern times also is that you see a lot of people that think they're really smart. They're smarter than God. They're smarter than Christians. But in reality, they're what the Bible calls fools. Now, we're called wise because we get saved. But these atheists and God haters, they become fools, right? It says, and change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image. See, this is the downward spiral of mankind. Then they change God into an image. And this is literally talking about a statue or something that they would bow down to worship. Made like to corruptible man. So does mankind get worshiped? Yes, you see statues of men being worshiped even today. Pastor Mahiel was talking about in his sermon last night. And then it says, to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Do we see idols made of these things today? Yes, we do. Do we find them in the dirt, people that have worshiped these things in times past? Yes, we do. And it says in verse 24, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts. So this is where God begins to give up on them. When it says God also gave them up, that means he gave up on them. And this is what people don't understand. They're like, oh no, but he can bring them back again. No, he gave up on them. To uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. And this is talking about what Pastor Mahiel was talking about last night, faggotry. OK, what was the word, Pastor Mahiel? Faggotry. Yeah. That's the word. I'll have to work on that one. In English, that's faggotry, OK? Who changed the truth of God into a lie. And it says, and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever, amen. See, there's the problem, is that they take an idol and they change God into that idol. And they say, this is my God. This is what I'm going to worship. And they serve that idol. And then it says they serve the creature more than the creator. So what that idol represents is their God. But they take, a lot of times they'll take animals and man and combine them. Or it'll just be an animal by itself. And they start to worship those things, but they serve them more than they would God. They serve that creature more than God. And I'm talking this morning about literal serving an animal over serving God, who's blessed forever. It says in verse 26, for this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And of course, this is talking about homosexuals, right? This is talking about women that are lesbians, bull dykes, sows, whatever you want to call them. This is what it's talking about. So what happens right before God changes them into these things, basically, or allows them to change into this from their own foolish emotions, their own vile affections, their own darkened hearts? Well, they start to worship and serve idols and creatures more than they serve God, right? And so this is the downward spiral. And it says, verse 27, and likewise also the men. So the men do this also, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another. Men with men. These are the sodomites. These are the dogs. These are the homos, queers, baguettes, fanooks, if you're from Chicago, or Italian, I guess. Motecones, poofs, gulliboys, if you're Russian. There's lots of different names for them, OK? And so working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was mean. And what is that talking about? Well, they're going to receive disease. They're going to receive early death, AIDS, HIV, monkey pox, syphilis, herpes, whatever it is. They're going to receive in their body the thing that's fitting for them, early death and disease. So this all comes to pass, though, from this whole road to reprobation. And part of that is where they're serving the creature more than the creator. It's as even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. So before they turn into homos, they get this weird affection for wanting to worship other things. And again, specifically, I'm going to be talking about animals, all right? So have you ever noticed how much fags like animals? How much they like to walk dogs? You always see those lesbians at the park throwing their dog stuff. I mean, other people do it, too. I'm not saying that you're automatically a fag because you like dogs or something. I'm not saying that. But they have an unnatural affection, it seems like, towards them. But if you remember the children, go ahead and turn to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter number 12. When the children of Israel left Egypt, God had completely destroyed them. He destroyed all their food sources, pretty much, almost left them with nothing. And he destroyed even their first born of all their animals and their children, right? And they worshipped all these different types of gods. And the Bible specifically tells us that God judged their gods. It says in verse 12 in Exodus 12, it says, for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and I will smite all the first born of the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Who's the Lord? God is the Lord. Not their beasts that they worship, not their false gods that they worship. But when God was judging them with those 10 plagues, he's also judging their gods, which are what we know to be as devils. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 20, it says, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And it would not that you should have fellowship with devils. And then it says, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? God doesn't want us to have anything to do with anything that would be provoking him to jealousy by things that the Gentiles will be doing to serve these other gods. And God destroyed the gods of Egypt. Of course, they're devils, right? He said he executed judgment against their gods. And what did they worship? They worship these weird animal, half-animal, half-human things. You can see the hieroglyphics still to this day of the weird gods that they chose to serve. So when God's smiting them with frogs, and there's frogs in their cupboards, and there's frogs in their beds, and all these things, that's because they worship some kind of frog god. I was looking up an article this morning, and of course, everything on the internet's true. But I was just seeing if they possibly worshiped cats. And in fact, they did worship cats. And in some instances, they would save them from the fire before they would save humans. And they did worship cats to a certain extent. So pretty strange thing to worship, right? But you see a lot of people worshipping cats today, too. They're called crazy cat ladies, right? And I'll get to that later on in the sermon. Turn to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. So Exodus chapter 20, the very first commandment in the Bible is to have no other gods before us. Look at verse number 1. The Bible says, and God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shall have no other gods before me. And so this is literal idolatry. He does not want people to worship these graven images. But it says, thou shall not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shall not bow down myself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So in Romans 1, what was the problem? What was the thing that caused him to give people up? That they worshipped and served the creature more than the creator. That was kind of the last straw where God starts to just say, OK, I'm done with you now. But see, this is the first commandment in Exodus chapter 21 to have no other gods before me. And you're like, well, Pastor Thompson, just because someone has an animal doesn't mean they're worshipping them. No, but if they're attending, their affection is more on that animal than it is to other human beings. And to God himself, that is putting your affection and serving a creature, an animal, more than God and more than man. You're holding them in higher regard than what they should be in life, in reality. So I'm going to caveat a couple of things before I continue on this sermon, because I'm probably going to offend some people. And all you crazy cat ladies in here, you might get offended. I don't know if there's any crazy cat ladies in here. I don't know for sure. There could be crazy cat dudes in here, I don't know. It's a thing now. It is a thing, OK? So let me caveat some things. Before you get all upset and write Pastor Jimenez emails or come up to me to defend your doggy or kitty idolatry. Don't get all mad, OK? I believe in conservation and being responsible with the stewards of animals and the environment. Yes, I do believe that, but not to the insanity that we see today where you can't have a construction site because the salmon might get hurt or something. You can't put these places that have a lot of snow that don't want to put salt, use salt to salt the roads or whatever, because the salmon might get hurt. They live in salt water like most of their lives. I didn't know if people realize that, and what they use to salt the roads is actual salt. So I don't know why that would hurt salmon. But anyway, I don't believe in being cruel to animals. That doesn't mean that I don't think an animal could catch a beating sometimes, all right? So I'm kind of balanced, I want to be balanced here. So I have zero issues with legitimate service dogs or service animals as long as they're well-trained and behave around people and in church, OK? So I'm not against service animals, all right? I'm against the fake service animal people, though. The ones that have the chihuahuas that are like their service animal or whatever. I'm not against Christians having pets. So before you start getting all mad about that, I'm not against that. We have Christian liberty. We've owned multiple dogs. Me and my family have had dogs, and we fed them old roi their whole lives. That's why they live to be an ungodly amount of age. We didn't feed them this special science dog food or whatever. It was just old roi, and somehow they live to be like 19, 16, whatever. Way older than they need to live, but. So if you want to keep your dogs alive, old roi. If you don't, feed them the best kind of dog food you can. So and then some of this stuff might sting or be a little bit offensive, but just know this, that I am trying to be offensive. I am. So turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4, though. I'm trying to be offensive, but not. I want to step on some toes this morning, but not just for the sake of being mean. I just want to get my point across this morning. 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1. The Bible says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Paul the Apostle charged Timothy with certain things in his epistle as a pastor. What's he say here? Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. So let me ask you this. Who's he supposed to be preaching that to? He's preaching that to the people, right? This isn't going soul-winding and you rebuke people at the door necessarily. He's talking about preach the word. Who do you preach the word to? Your congregation, the people of God. And so when it says rebuke, sometimes people got to get rebuked. Sometimes people got to be reproved. And you shouldn't take that as a bad thing because Paul the Apostle is telling Timothy to do that. God wants us to rebuke, and he wants us to receive rebuke. So if you're a wise man or you're a wise woman in the Lord, if this rebukes you, this sermon, well, then just take it because we need, you know, and if it doesn't, then whatever. If you don't even have animals and you don't even care what I'm talking about, just say amen to my sermon because you'll just be on my side, right? I need someone on my side today. All right, number two this morning is animals in relation to the Christian view. So a lot of the prophets of God used the Bible, or excuse me, were using the Bible and they took care of animals. Their job was to be a shepherd. They kept sheep. Abel was the keeper of the sheep. Abraham had flocks. Isaac, Jacob, his sons, I mean, when Joseph came along to find them, what were they doing? They're supposed to be keeping the flocks. Moses was keeping the flocks of Jethro for 40 years. David tended to sheep. This is a common theme through the Bible. And so they were supposed to take care of the sheep. That's the picture of also taking care of the people of God. It was good training for them to do so. Turn to Proverbs chapter 12, verse 10. Proverbs chapter 12, verse 10. I think we should have a balanced view about animals and about pets in the Bible as Christians. It says, a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. So what does that mean to regard? It means to give attention or concern for something. So this idea that animals are just to be, you can do whatever you want to them or whatever, and it doesn't matter. Well, the Bible says that we're supposed to regard the life of your beast. So if you have one that you've agreed to take care of, then you should take care of them. Isn't that what it's saying? What's a righteous man? It's someone that's saved, right? So a saved person is going to regard the life of the beast that they have, right? Now, I wouldn't say that most people in the last 6,000 years of history were having these little Pomeranians that they walked around with a Starbucks cup in their hand or whatever, right? But whatever beast you take care of, I mean, a righteous man is going to regard the life. They're not going to starve them to death or just over abuse them or whatever. But it says, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. So what do we know about reprobates or people that turn out to be psychopath reprobates? They torture animals before they start torturing people and things like that. It's the first thing they do. So they're known, these serial killers and things like that, even false prophets, are known for being cruel to their animals. Look at Numbers chapter 22, Numbers chapter 22, verse 32. I was just kind of trying to think of a, for instance, where a reprobate abuses an animal in the Bible, and he does it for no reason. The animal's trying to help him, and it's the story of Balaam. Balaam, you know, Balaam's ass, Balaam's donkey, whatever you want to call it, but the Bible says ass, right? Not a bad word. It's not anything to laugh about, kids. But anyway, verse 32 says, and the angel of the Lord said unto him, wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? So Balaam's ass knocked him into the wall and hurt his leg and all these things, and he's smiting this donkey, this ass that he has, and he smites it three times. And it says, behold, I went out to withstand thee because thy way is perverse before me. So the angel's telling him this, why are you beating your donkey, dude? Why are you beating this ass? He's your animal, right? And it says, and the ass saw me and turned from me these three times, unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee and saved her alive. So what's the angel of the Lord's attitude towards Balaam? Is that I would have saved the donkey over you. I would have killed you and saved your donkey, so that tells you how much worth the life of Balaam actually was. But the donkey's doing something nice, and the donkey actually speaks to him, and he says, if I had a sword in my hand, I would slay thee right now. He's just ready to kill this animal that's only doing right towards him. And so there's the time you can see where you have a reprobate abusing an animal here. So we should have the attitude, though, that animals are not to be abused, and harmed just for no reason. But compared to human life, or a saved person's life, or someone that still can be saved, an animal's life means nothing in comparison to that, though. So that's the kind of attitude that we have to have. So turn to Jonah chapter four, verse nine, Jonah chapter four, verse nine. They're not even close to the same level. An animal's life is nothing in those same, it's not even the same realm as the worth of a human soul, or a human life. But it doesn't mean that God doesn't care for animals, he does care for them. It's just, it's not close in comparison to humans. Because humans have souls that can go to heaven or hell. Animals, when they die, they don't go to heaven or hell. So, but when you see someone that's just arbitrarily hurting animals for no reason, it's just kind of a sign that there's some dark weirdness about them. It's bizarre to see people do stuff like that. But anyway, Jonah chapter four, verse nine says, and God said to Jonah, doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. Why is Jonah upset? Well, because he's sitting outside the city of Nineveh, he's got the popcorn, he's got the soda, he's waiting for Nineveh to be destroyed by God. For whatever weird reason, I don't know why he believes this, because he's upset, he thinks maybe God's gonna give a second chance to blow them up or something. He's just sitting outside of the city, this gourd grows up, God allows him to be covered because it's really hot outside, and then God allows it to be killed. And so, then Jonah's angry over this vegetable that grows over the top of him and dies. Then it says, then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not labored, neither mayest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, where there are more than 64,000 persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left and also much cattle? What's the problem here? Jonah's attitude is that he cares more about a plant than he does about 120,000 people's souls. That's a weird attitude to have. Now, Jonah was a man of God, but he did have a really bad attitude. He hated people that lived in that city. He hated the Ninevites, and there's probably reasons why he didn't like the Assyrians. I understand why he probably didn't like them in some ways, but God told him to go preach to them. God said to go preach to them, and he did do it, finally, but he cared more about a vegetable than he did about people. And it also, what's it mention there? It says, and also much cattle. So does God care more about cattle than he does about vegetables? Of course he does. So what's the pecking order of life? Well, mankind is much more important than animals. I would say that. But animals are much more important than plants. But you wouldn't know that sometimes by the way that people in this world react to things. There's like a big heat wave going on right now, and the news is already spinning that to the, it's because of climate change. It's 120 degrees in some place in Saudi Arabia. It's like you think it doesn't ever get that hot in Saudi Arabia. It is a desert, you know, I mean. But this is where the world is spinning things now is that you gotta stop eating animals because it's putting out too much methane gas. We need to start eating bugs, everybody. Start eating bugs. It's like, hey, I've seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I'm not eating bugs. It's not happening. But people are turning animals into idols today, making them their god of their heart and mind. People are worshiping them and serving them. They might not be bowing down to them. I mean, except for when they're picking up their poop in the park or whatever. But I mean, they'd bow down to them then. But a Christian's responsibility is to have a balance, keep their pets within the confines of what the Bible teaches, and not allow themselves to get sucked into the worldview of how they care for pets and other animals in the world. So we should have a healthy balance, basically, is what I'm saying. So here's a question that Pastor, here's a question Pastor Jones asked somebody a long time ago when he was still going to our church. And I'm paraphrasing, I don't know exactly what he said, but it was something along the lines of this. Ma'am, do you wanna hear what the Bible says it takes to go to heaven? No, my cat is stuck behind the microwave. He's new here. Isn't that basically what? I mean, don't you get a lot of weird excuses to people when it comes to animals when you're out soloing? This is an excuse that he got as to why a woman did not want to hear the gospel. My cat is stuck behind the microwave and he's new here. Like, how many cats do you have? Is this like a cat hotel or what's going on here? We have all these like conservation and animal rights groups out today. We have people adopting dogs and we have these no kill shelters till infinity and beyond. And people, I heard a radio, it seems like when I knew I was gonna preach this term, like all these animal commercials and all these weird animal scenarios started happening to me, so I was like, maybe I should preach about this. But I heard a commercial like on a radio or maybe it was on some video or something, but it was like, how would you like to be part of the legacy of this no kill shelter for all types of animals? We never kill them no matter what. And it's just like, how does that work? Like if they get injured, you're telling me that you never euthanize animals at this no kill shelter? But this is like what people, people would jump all over that. They'll give their money to that instead of giving their money to the house of God. They'll give their money to that instead of leaving it to their children because people are just nuts over all this animal rights and animal activist stuff. When I was a kid in the 80s, it was all about save the whales. Who's old enough to remember the save the whales? Okay, how about don't club baby seals? Remember that one? And you know, baby seals are pretty cute. I have to admit that. So when you see like this sweet little innocent seal and it's just like, you know what I mean? I admit that's pretty troubling to watch that. But how else are you gonna get your makeup ladies? I mean, where do you think it comes from? Where do you think the expensive perfume comes from? It comes from Wales. So the vegan movement is all about not eating anything that comes from an animal. And then of course we also have, now they're again, they're pushing this fake meat, the impossible burger. Who's heard of that? What is the other one? I was trying to think of the other ones. Do they have beyond meat? Yeah. So they have all, I mean, it's plant-based meat. I mean, why though? Really, why? Like if you want stuff to be planty, then make it taste like a plant. Like why would you want it to taste like something that you don't agree with being eaten? Here, make this taste like a hamburger. I mean, how do they do that? I don't know. Who's ever eaten one on accident? Nobody wants to admit it, like. It's okay, we can talk about it after church. But you know, PETA kind of came out in the 1980s too. It's like, that was like a big spark of environmentalism and all this stuff. The save the owl. Like they stopped doing all forestry stuff in Oregon and Washington, I think in California, because of the spotted owl. It was endangered, you know? So we're gonna just stop building houses and all this other stuff and lay all these people off of work because of an owl. So I mean, just going crazy with environmental stuff. I'm a member of PETA, by the way, people eating tasty animals. That's not, that's a different group, I guess. But it's people for ethical treatment of animals. So anyway, turn to First Timothy chapter four. First Timothy chapter four. The Bible does kind of give us a little bit of insight about in the last days, these types of things being pushed upon us. And a lot of this, you could read into the Catholic church a lot what Pastor Mejia was talking about last night with these verses here, because they forbid to marry. The popes can't get married, right? Even though the Bible says a bishop should be the husband of one wife. And then they also command to abstain from meats on certain times. But look at verse one in First Timothy four. It says, now the Spirit expressed, speaketh expressly, excuse me, that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. So who's the one teaching this stuff? Devils, right? It's doctrine of devils and seducing spirits. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. What kind of animals are we supposed to abstain from? They're created to be received with thanksgiving. From them which believe and know the truth, that's us, right? For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. So I mean, these people, these Judaizers, these Seventh-day Adventists, these vegans, they're wrong and the Bible is right. We can receive, shrimp, yum, yum, yum. Scallops, good for me. I like lobster. I mean, do you guys like that kind of food? I mean, some people don't. You're allergic to it or whatever, I'm sorry for you. But you know, the Bible says we can have pork. Hey, I had some pork this morning, it was good. There's nothing wrong with that. These Judaizers are full of it. These PETA people are full of it. What does the Bible say it is though? Doctrines of devils. This is the type of stuff that's being pushed upon us. No, it's wrong to hurt animals. It's wrong to slaughter animals. It's not wrong to do that. God said to receive them with thanksgiving, right? For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Who's ever seen those memes during hunting season? This is one of my favorites and I don't have a picture of it with me, but it says if you're cold, then they're cold and it like has a deer or something in the snow. And then underneath it says, bring them inside and warm them up and it's like a plate of food with like, yeah. I love that one. Dogs are eaten in some countries. Did you know that? And I know that people are just like, no, not fluffy. We're over. One of our church leaders has eaten dogs before. When he came and visited us in Yakima, he kept commenting, there's a lot of dogs in Yakima. And he was just like thinking of all these dog recipes he could have while he was there. He sends me pictures of like dogs in like a baking pan, but it's not really dead. It's just, it's a Photoshop of a dog with like all this, the garnishing stuff around it with the dogs like in a pan or something. Just like, it's not my thing. Okay, it's his, all right. But some people, if it was culturally appropriate, I'm sure that he would still eat dogs. But there was one like one yard that had like a sticker on it of a dog and he's like, oh, yum. But I'll never understand that. But you know, hey, if I was starving and or if I was mildly hungry and the only thing to eat was dogs, I would eat one. I would try dog, would you try dog? You guys try balut, I mean, that's disgusting. So anyway, I'm sorry I'm getting the Filipinos mad at me now. All right, but instead of just being in awe of God's creation, people have simply just taken God out of the equation. They say animals are not even created. In fact, we're one of them. We just come from animals. You know, that's what science so-called, falsely so-called says today, that we're just higher evolved forms of apes. In fact, we came from plants, we came from bananas, we came and then, you know, all this garbage that's supposedly science. And you know, people now just revere animals as if they're like our distant ancestors or something and they're better than us. In fact, people treat them better than their own family members. In some cases, they'll even say, you know, that they're called their fur babies. Who's ever heard that before? I mean, doesn't it just make you sick? You're talking about your kids or your grandkids and they're like, oh yeah, my kids are the same way. It's just like, my dogs, you know, it's just like. What? Bro, what? Pastor Reyes told me that one of his family members bought a $1,000 stroller for their dog. They got a better stroller than their kids. A $1,000 stroller to carry your little dog around with. What does it have, like, Dayton's on the, is Dayton's a thing anymore? I thought you guys were like, what are Dayton's? Like, rims, really nice rims. Who knows what Dayton's are? Anybody? Okay. I don't know, maybe that's old, yeah. But, you know, that's pretty crazy. I know people that built air conditioned dog houses for their dogs. And there's countries where air conditioning doesn't even exist and they got air conditioned dog houses. That's getting kind of ridiculous, right? I mean, they pant for a reason. That helps them. Give water. An air conditioner, I guess if you're in Phoenix, or maybe here, it might be, or Texas, but I mean, yeah, Oregon, no, I don't think so. So, animals are not to be worshiped, they're not a replacement for children, they're not to be held in higher regard than human life, and they're not to be served or loved more than God. Here's some bumper stickers that I've seen that really upset me. If my dog doesn't like you, then I don't either. It's just like, how many dogs like anybody, really? I mean, some dogs are really nice, but some dogs hate everybody. If you judge every person by how much your dog likes them, likes that person, you'd be hating a lot of people, right? Some people, their dog barks at everybody and hates everybody, so it is a weird way to live your life. If my dog doesn't like you, then I don't either. You don't even give them a chance because their dog doesn't like you? That's kind of weird. Here's another one. The greater than dogs, greater than humans. It's just like, okay. And when we knock these doors, we often see, you know, when you knock on doors, so many, and I see these signs more now than ever, the firefighters, please save these things in the house, and it's always their dog, their bird, or their cat, right? Do you ever see them say, save our children? No, it's just always save my animals. So that's when you know that there's some real kooks in that house, right? I mean, I never see save the children. I always see save animals, though. So number three, you have animals and soul winning. So when we go soul winning, soul winning is the number one deterrent and danger when we go out. Would you agree with that? I mean, just think about how many times you've knocked on a door, and you're like, I don't even want them to answer the door. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, hoo, hoo, hoo, and it's just like, please don't let the dogs out. Oof, oof, you know, it's like, I don't want them to let the dogs out. Please don't answer, please don't answer, you know? Or when they open the door like a crack, and it's like, you know, these scratches at the door, behind the door, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't control my dogs, ah! And then they close the door, right? You know what I'm saying? I mean, who's ever had a dog deter them at a door? Everybody better raise their hand right now, it's true. I mean, if you think about it, I don't know, I mean, here, are there a lot of dogs here? Maybe in the, yeah. In Yakima, like, I think there's more dogs than there are human beings, because you really gotta keep your head on a swivel there, like, sometimes dogs will just be hiding in the, in the covert, in the reeds, in the shade, and like, you walk up, it's like, rah! You're like, ah! But I believe that it is the biggest danger that we face out sullenning, dogs, isn't it? It's the biggest deterrent for sullenning, I think, out of anything else that we face. I mean, obviously, fags, you know, they'll follow you around and mess with you and take your invitations off the door and stuff like that, the care and apartment managers, you know, that's kind of, when it's involving humans, that's the worst thing we kind of deal with in terms of deterrence and sullenning, but dogs is the number one. The yappers that won't shut up, you can't give them the gospel, I mean, they're used as excuses, sorry, my dogs won't quit barking, all these different things, right? So, you know, and in America, there's more dogs owned by people in America than any other country in the world. There's 500 million dogs in the world, by some count, I don't know where they, how they got that count, I don't know if they just went all over the world and Google pictured all of them or something, but that's the estimate. But I don't know what the estimate of how many million dogs are in America, but most dogs are owned by Americans. And we spend on the average of $800 a year on dog food, which doesn't seem like a lot, a lot of people are probably buying the Old Roy, but the crazy people in Portland are probably buying like the most expensive kind, so it probably balances out. Japan by far spends the most money on dog food every year, that's like $2,000, I think a year or something like that. And then there's other, some African country that we've gotten sold in, not Malawi, but what's the other one? Botswana, $163 a month. So, but it's a billion dollar industry to feed dogs and give them toys and all this other stuff. You don't even have to go to the store and buy it anymore, it can be delivered to your house. We just run into dogs on a massive scale. The Bible says in Philippians 3, 2, beware of dogs. It's literally a Bible verse that we see. I mean, what Bible verse do you see posted more than any other Bible verse? Beware of dogs. It's literally a Bible verse, isn't it? I mean, it comes straight from the Bible, straight from Paul, beware of dogs. So not only do they bark, but they also attack. I mean, who's been attacked by a dog outsole-wining? Raise your hand high, I wanna see. You've been attacked. How many have had a near miss? Yeah, I mean, it happens a lot. Who's been punched outsole-wining before? Okay, one. Who's been attacked outsole-wining before, like someone grabbed you or pushed you around or anything? Yeah, see, so what's the number one thing you get assaulted by? Literal dogs, right? It's just, it gets ridiculous. Pastor Jones, when he first moved here, got attacked by a pit bull. I just gave him a brand new knife, but he put, like, what'd you put your keys over the top of it? So this pit bull latches onto his hip, and he's trying to get the knife out that I just got him, but he put the keys on top. You can't do that. You gotta have that pocket clear. That's a rookie mistake on his part. But fortunately, fortunately, he had his Bible in his hand, and he just went, you know, the word of God, pow! And just, like, knocked the dog loose, and he got his knife out, and he's just, like, trying to back this dog off, but, you know, those land sharks, they'll come after you. But I've had dogs sicced on me before, and they got really close to attacking me. I've had near misses on the reservation when I was out preaching. Not too long ago, my wife was preaching with a little girl that she was with, and she went and knocked on their door, and they had one of those little camera bells, so she knew that they could see her. And when she was about to get to the gate walking out of the yard, they opened up the door and let their dog out on her. And my wife barely got the gate closed in time to close the gate before she got attacked. So, I mean, there's some pretty weird people out there too that use their dogs to try to, you know, go out. So dogs can be super annoying when you're out soloing. They're probably the most annoying thing that we deal with. In Indianapolis, we have a brother named Landon that works, that, he goes to our church, and he's kind of nicknamed the dog Killa. But one day he was soloing, and a kid opened the door, and their chihuahua ran out, and he left the gate open. So don't leave the gate, don't leave the gate open when you're out soloing. But it ran out, and he's like, oh man, I'm sorry your dog got out. And then the dog got hit by a car and killed or something. So now like when they say like three presentations, three salvations, zero dogs killed, it's like one of the stats on their stat line. So we actually buy tasers every once in a while for people in our church so that you can try to keep these dogs back. But, you know, animals escaping when we go soloing can be an annoying thing too, because like their cats get out, all right. No, my cat's never seen the light of day. It's like, sorry, you know. That was my $10,000 cat. What are you doing? What do you want? Do you wanna get saved? No! So I mean, there are real big deterrent animals to soloing, but so number four, keeping pets as Christians. So, you know, we have all eternity to homestead. I mean, there are a lot of people who are like interested in homesteading and things like that. And I get it, I understand it, and people can do it. But you also have all eternity to raise puppies and breed kittens. You have all eternity to do that. I'm sure that we're gonna have animals in heaven someday. And I'm not your daddy, so you can do it now too. I'm not trying to tell you what to do or how to live your life. But after becoming a church leader and a pastor, I've seen people stop serving God because they got animals and I've seen people stop serving God as much or using animals as excuses why they can't serve the Lord as much. Oh, sorry I can't go on a missions trip because my dogs. Oh, I can't stay for fellowship because my dogs. Oh, I can't go soloing because my dogs. Can't go to church training my dogs. But, but, but, but my dogs. That should not be an excuse in the Christian vocabulary to use your animals as an excuse to not do something. You're like, Pastor Thompson, do you hate dogs? No, I don't hate dogs. I've had dogs, I like dogs. But I'll tell you what, I like them less now than I did before I became a pastor. Because I don't like to see people fall out of church for any reason or fall out of service to God for any reason. And then when it's over an animal, it really makes it worse. So people are like, well, but what about a dog for a watchdog? Like, okay, pow, pow. Is it a watchdog anymore? Oh, here's a poison steak watchdog anymore? No, it's dead. How about, I mean, watch dog, no. Dog whistle. I don't know. What good is a dog gonna do you really? I mean, they do bark and wake people up, but sometimes they bark over anything and you can't stop them from barking. So then you got to get a bark collar. It's like, well, what do you got them for anyway? Like, you know, it's just like, I don't know. They're a lot more trouble than they're worth when you're trying to serve God is all I'm saying. So I got some pretty funny emails I wanted to share, but I'll just kind of sum them up. So it's funny because leading up to the sermon, I told you there's a lot of weird things that happened, but this one door got knocked on by a group in Yakima and they called me up before the service and they're like, yeah, we have a service dog. We just want to make sure we'll be able to come to the services that they were saying probably not. And I was like, oh, really? It's like, we accept service dogs, you know, as long as they're legit. You know, they have the papers and they have the little service dog outfit or whatever. And they're like, well, we don't have that. And I was like, well, you know, we can make exceptions for that. And it's like, they sent me a picture of it. It's like a little Chihuahua dog or whatever. And I didn't know this, but the dog the whole time they were at their house barked and would not stop barking the whole entire time. But they wanted to say that the dog would not bark if they were in church. It's like, oh, so when you're at home, it barks the whole time you're there, but at church it would just stop automatically barking somehow. But they were told, I didn't tell them though, but the person that went and visited them said, yeah, I don't think he's gonna be able to make it to our church because he just won't stop barking. And then they're like, they text me and they're like, we're never coming to your church. We're not gonna be judged. You know, first we think we found the perfect church and then we get judged over our dog. It's like, what kind of person decides not to go to church because their dog can't go to church with them? This is the mentality that's just so weird that it's unbelievable. These are the types of people that put their dogs in a little basket and walk around the store with them and stuff. And then they have like a little thing that says service dog on them. Like exactly what service is it providing? Well, it pees on something when I have a seizure. Like, what does it do? I'm just trying to figure out what does this dog actually do? It's not gonna drag you to safety. I mean, at least if you had like a big dog, it could drag you to the hospital or something, you know? But what's a Chihuahua gonna do? Bark? Well, it does that already, right? All the time. And then this other, I got this, they're not emails, but they're like, Google calls for our church phone. And one of them was like, yeah, you need to send your guys back to training because I answered the door. This guy, they're like, hey, what church do you go to? And she goes, I am the church. And then she goes, then I introduced them to my dog, Hallelujah. I'm like, your dog, Hallelujah? What is this? It's a training, it's a tandem ministry. Me and my dog, Hallelujah, we're the church. It's just like, what kind of bizarre thing is that to say? But what I thought was funny is that, and I train people to be nice at the door, but maybe it was just so ridiculous, they couldn't help it, but it says, and then he just turned on his heel, walked up the stairs, rolled his eyes, like all in one motion. And I could hear them laughing as they walked up the stairs. I was like, dang. Sounds like Brother Steven. Anyway, so it was funny, but, you know, and here's where I'm gonna be a little bit offensive. If I had a button, I could push. And every dog on planet earth would die, or one person would get saved, every dog would go extinct immediately. And you're like, that's a horrible thing to say, pastor. Well, I don't want every dog to go extinct. But you know, the choice between every dog dying and one person getting saved, which I know is kind of a ridiculous concept, but it's still, I would choose the person getting saved. But how many people would actually not choose that? A lot of people would not choose that. But I would push that button till my fingers, all 10 digits broke. And if I had a button, I could hit to choose, and then all Christian's pets would die that make excuses not to serve God because of them, that they would die this instant. And you're like, oh, yeah, that is offensive, Pastor Thompson. It is kind of offensive, but it's still, it's true, though, because, you know, if you're making excuses, like, think about it. If you're serving a creature more than you're serving the creator, if you're actually like, no, I gotta serve my doggy instead of serving your savior, what are you doing? Like, what exactly are you doing? That doesn't make sense. The Bible says, who knoweth the spirit of man goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth. What's more important? Your dog that's not gonna go to heaven, or a soul that's actually going to go to heaven? And I'm not, like, I'm not trying to be sanctimonious up here and say, like, I go soul winning 40 hours a week or something like that. I'm not saying that. But there should be some kind of balance that you should have where you can, or something you can figure out, where your dog can be taken care of at the same time as you're serving the Lord. And if you can't do that, then try to find some balance, try to find some way for it to happen. Because there's people in our church that have animals, and I know for a fact that they find ways to allow those dogs to be taken care of when they're off on trips or anything like that. And, you know, of course they have doggy hotels, which get really expensive, I get it. But, you know, I just cringe when someone says, I'm getting a new puppy, Pastor. I'm just like, because I know what comes with that. You don't really know what you're getting into. You don't really realize how long it takes to train them. You don't realize how much it's going to invest, your family's going to be invested into that. And they're so invested in that dog that they're not going to be invested in the things of God. So it is kind of a danger. And Fluffy's not going to heaven, okay? I'm sorry. You know, it's just like when you learn Santa Claus isn't real. All dogs don't go to heaven either. So, and you're like, well, you shouldn't be saying that in front of our kids. Well, listen, it's just the truth, okay? And look, love your animals, care for your animals. I'm not saying don't do that. I'm just saying don't serve them more than you serve God. So if you harden your, like, what was it Pastor Pizarnsky was saying last night? He's like, I tell my church, I hope God blesses you. I want God to bless you. But if those blessings are going to pull you away from God, isn't that basically what you said? Or that they were going to cause you to not serve anymore? Like, oh, I want that new job. And then that job causes you to stop serving the Lord. It's like, here's my prayer request. I want to get this new job. And then they get out of church and that does happen. But if you're like, hey, pray that I get this new puppy or you get a new puppy. And it's like, pray that my new puppy, this happens or this happens. Pray that my new puppy's surgery goes well or whatever. It's like, first of all, I'd never do a puppy surgery ever. It'd be, you know, the 38th special surgery. But I wouldn't do it myself. I would hire an assassin. But, his name's Dylan. But anyway. I mean, I lost my train of thought, what was I saying? I'm sorry. Anybody know? Yeah, huh? What'd you say? Oh, anyway, yeah. So if it takes you, yeah, if it's going to keep me from serving God, I would say that I hope your dog dies. Amen. I hope that dog gets parvo and dies. Like, that's terrible, Pastor Thompson. No, because how does God feel about it though? When he sees you, oh, I get a train, my puppy. And then like soul-willing's going on. Or I gotta take care of Mittens, my little kitty. And soul-willing's going on. Or church is going on. Okay, I gotta change the litter box. You know, it's just like, look, your pets, if you're serving your pets more than you're serving God, that's crazy. And I hope your dog and cat die. A horrible death. I told you it was gonna get offensive. And why though? It's not because I'm mean, it's because God is a jealous God. That's why. And he doesn't want anything served or worshiped more than him, including Fluffy. Turn to Matthew chapter 22, Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22 verse 36 says, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. What's the first and great commandment? To love God above everything else, right? And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So those two commandments are the most important commandments to keep. And what are the most important things that we push in church? Loving God and loving our neighbor as ourself, going out and winning the loss to Christ. So when we fail to love God more than anything else, we fail to love our neighbor, we're breaking those two greatest commandments in the Bible. And you say, how are you breaking them? Well, in the context of this sermon, if your pet or animal are more important than church, fellowship, church activities, your Bible reading, your personal devotions to God, then you're kind of like Jonah. Like Jonah loved that plant more than he loved the people and the beasts of that city. And you're like, well, I love my puppy more than I love everybody else in this city. I love my puppy more than I love God. I love my dog, you know, I'm saying puppy because again, it's the biggest thing that people own. People do own other animals, though, what do they own? They own snakes and all kinds of reptiles and cats. Cat guys, these cat guys. I'm getting to there, I'm getting there, pastor. So, but if, you know, look, God, that's the downward spiral and God gives people over to the reprobate mind. So how wicked is it for a saved person to choose to serve an animal over God? We're not, we can't be reprobates, we can't have a reprobate mind, but we can still do some of those things that people that are reprobates would do. Not saying being a fag, I'm not saying that, anyway, number five is the last point here. The sanctity of human life versus animal life. Sanctity of human life versus animal life. Look at Mark chapter five, Mark chapter five. So I've already kind of said that it's, that human life is way more important than animal life, way more. Since I've already offended a lot of you by wishing death upon your animals, figured I'll finish it off with the most highly offensive point of all here, but it says, now there was an eye into the mountains, a great herd of swine feeding, and all the devils besought him, saying, send us into the swine that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were about 2,000 and were choked in the sea. So in comparison to one man's soul, they were, that one man's soul was worth way more than 2,000 pigs. They were, they wrote, you know, do you think Jesus knew they were gonna go and choke themselves into the sea? He did, he knew that. But that one man that got saved was way more important than 2,000 pigs. Well, what do you think PETA would say about that? What do you think a lot of the animal lovers today would say about that? They'd probably say that's not true. They'd probably say that they're equal, if not better. That's 2,000 pigs. Bunch of weirdos that we have in our world today. Look at Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, verse 29. What about birds? Are birds worth more than us? Not according to Jesus. It says, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Now, when the Bible says many there, it's not just saying, well, you know, it's like 20 or 30 or something, right? It's not saying that. Because sometimes many means all in the Bible. I'll give you a couple examples. I won't have you turn there, but Matthew 20, verse 28 says, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Now, did Jesus die for all or just some? He died for all. But when it says many, it's talking about all, right? Matthew 26, verse 28. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Again, he died, his blood was shed for all, wasn't it? So when it says you're of more value than many sparrows, I would say this, that one soul is probably worth more than all the sparrows in the world. Amen. So turn to, well, let's see. Yeah, I'll turn to 1 Corinthians 9, 9. 1 Corinthians 9, 9. The Bible says, for it is written, in the law of Moses, thou should not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn, doth take care for oxen. Or sayeth he it all together for our sakes, for our sakes no doubt, this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. So the Bible here is teaching that God cares more for man than he does for beast. And he's saying, hey, this isn't necessarily talked, this is given to us so that we would know that God is actually talking about, like a pastor or a full-time worker that he's saying that you should not muzzle that person that's doing work, doing that church work or whatever. But I wanna read real quickly a little article that I clipped out a few months ago. And I'm probably gonna need my glasses for this one. Yes, I'm getting old. Back off. All right. It is pro-life news and views from the sword of the Lord. I just clipped this out. It was probably like four or five months ago. But when I read this article, it really upset me. It says, by law, unborn babies have less protection than animals. An argument frequently made by abortion extremists is that human life only becomes alive after arbitrary time periods, after 15 weeks, after 24 weeks, after viability, after birth, and so forth. What if preborn human life also had considerably less protection than preborn sea turtles, bald eagles, and giant condors? Believe it or not, that's the case. Sea turtles, according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, sea turtles are given legal protection in the United States and its waters under the Endangered Species Act, ESA, which lists the hawksbill, leatherback, and Kemp's ridley, and green turtle as endangered. The loggerhead is listed as threatened. This designation makes it illegal to harm, harass, or kill any sea turtles, hatchlings, or their eggs. Bald eagles, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the act provides criminal penalties for persons who take possession, or excuse me, take, possess, sell, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase, or barter, barter, transport, export, or import at any time or any manner, any bald eagle, or any golden eagle, alive or dead, or any part including feathers, nest, or egg thereof. Similar laws exist for migratory birds in general. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Services, no person may take, kill, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale any migratory bird or the parts, nest, or eggs of such bird except as may be permitted under the terms of a valid permit. Under the MBTA, it is illegal to destroy a nest that has eggs or chicks in it. What all of this proves collectively is that any abortion laws in this nation that don't reflect that the humanity of life in the womb from about as early as 10 weeks at minimum are utterly incompatible with the laws we have for turtles, birds, or violent acts against pregnant women if we're willing to protect animal eggs and their nests, why aren't we willing to recognize human life at its earliest moment? And that's really upsetting because it's true. It's true that they protect animals' eggs and animals that can produce eggs more than they do actually women and children in the womb. It's wicked. It's super wicked. You know, they've banned straws. I think that they kind of go off of it and then they come back. Like last night I had a plastic straw when I had dinner. Plastic straws aren't banned here right now or something. But you know when they were given those like little cardboard ones or whatever? They like melt while they're in your drink or whatever. Man, disgusting. But you know why they did that? Because like some sea turtle got one stuck up its nose or something. And like then all these memes got made where the sea turtle's like doing drugs or something. You know what I'm talking about? It's illegal to catch lobsters and keep them. To catch lobsters and keep them, it's a federal violation to keep lobsters that are a certain size that are able to produce eggs. I mean it's illegal to do a lot of like to harpoon whales unless you're Native American now. I mean there's so many laws on conservation. Look, I don't want everything to be killed. I understand conservation. But what about conserving human life? I think it's a lot more important than conserving animal life, way more important. I'll tell you what, I'd stick a plastic straw in every sea turtle's nose on the planet to save one onboard human child. Every animal would instantly go extinct, any animal, over one human child. I wouldn't do it gleefully. It'd suck to put straws in every turtle's nose, I know. I wouldn't like it. But I care more about human beings than I do about animals, that's the point. I would smash the eggs of every eagle on the planet and make the Guinness Book of World's biggest eagle omelet tomorrow to save one unborn child. I would kick every squirrel off the Grand Canyon to save a human child. Many years ago there was like this person, this guy kicked a squirrel, or it was a chipmunk or something off the Grand Canyon. And people were like, we should kick him off the Grand Canyon and all. The people freaked out about it. I mean it's kind of messed up, I agree, but like, they're not as important, chipmunk is not as important as a human, not even close. But when unborn animals and eagle, I mean you can't even touch an eagle feather, really. It's the sacred bald eagle, eagle feather, you cannot touch it. It's weird. They got more protection than an unborn child. That is worshiping and serving the creature more than the creator, that's what it is. Call it what it is. You got all these people in Portland, Oregon, there's no place to let their dog go to the bathroom, but every single person in any apartment complex has dogs, multiple dogs. And in Seattle it's the same way, on our anniversary we went soul winning in this place across the street from the church building, and like there's dog food just stacked all over the premises. The apartment complexes should be nice, but everybody there with their dogs just ruins it. Like you couldn't step anywhere without accidentally almost stepping. Like the whole time I was like, watch where you're stepping, watch where you're stepping, watch where you're stepping. It's disgusting. It's filthy. Like nobody should have to avoid your dogs. It's like the people that just let their dogs just walk up and sniff you. It's like how do you know if that dog's gonna bite or not? Oh, he would never bite. That's the last thing that's said right before a dog bites you, right? It's like get your dog away from me. I'll just stand there. Like can you just, what are you doing? What are you, do I gotta kill your dog right now? But I want to end this on an unpositive note. So again, I'm not saying don't have a pet. I'm not saying, you know, anything about that. You can do whatever you want, but just, you know, do a priority check if you're serving your creatures more than your creator. But to the crazy cat ladies, here's how you know you're a crazy cat lady. You talk to your cats. You always stop to pet other cats. You buy your cat's presents. You can only date fellow cat lovers. Your cats eat better than you. Your cats are insured. You won't move when cats sit on you. You wear cat-related clothing. I would never be caught dead wearing cat-related clothing, ever. But you're like, well, is crazy cat lady a thing? Yeah, it is. It's an actual thing, and crazy cat men, I guess. So what is that? Well, it's a compulsory, it's a compulsive, excuse me, hoarding of cats. A symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder has long been associated with crazy cat ladies. Crazy cat lady syndrome is a term coined by news organizations to describe scientific findings that link toxoplasma gondii to several mental disorders and behavior problems. So I actually, before I wrote this sermon, I kinda thought there was a connection with this toxoplasma gondii, and I'll explain what it is right now. It's toxoplasmosis is an affection from a parasite that causes rats and mice to not fear cats as predators, and not to have an aversion to their urine, but it acts now as a pheromone to lure them to the cats and to take risks that they would not normally take. This is true. And you know, I gotta give Pastor Mahia credit for this because he's the one that told me about it. He came and preached at my church and he told me about it, and I was like, no way, this is actually true. And I looked it up, and sure enough, it's true, okay? So it is, who's that, what did somebody say? Did they say no way? Oh, are you a crazy cat guy? No? Okay, I'm just kidding. Yes. It's usually spread by eating poorly cooked food that contains cysts, you guys are about to eat lunch, by exposure to infected cat feces, or from an infected woman to her baby during pregnancy, rarely the disease may be spread by blood transfusion or other organ transplant, it is not otherwise spread between people. So how do you get it? You give it to your baby during pregnancy, or you get it from what? Cat feces from uncooked food, right? The researchers found the connection between toxoplasmosis and intermittent explosive disorder. That's why crazy cat ladies go crazy, right? A psychotic disorder, or excuse me, not psychotic, psychiatric disorder. Pronunciation matters, I guess, here. With symptoms such as impulsive verbal and physical aggression, like road rage, the study involved 358 adults and suggested the parasite may change brain chemistry. Toxoplasmosis is an infection with a parasite called toxoplasma gondii. People often get the infection from eating undercooked meat, you can also get it from contact with cat feces, so I'm just reading another article though. It says the parasite can pass to baby during pregnancy. And it's especially dangerous within the first three months of a woman's pregnancy. So, and it can cause a bunch of different, really serious health problems for unborn children. If you pass it within the first three months of pregnancy to, excuse me, your unborn child, it can cause blindness, mental retardation, anemia, epilepsy, intracranial calcifications, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I didn't really have time to look up, but bad stuff, right? Toxoplasma gondii has two life cycles. The cycles occur exclusively in small intestines of cats, whereas the asexual cycle takes place in affected animals and humans. In humans, infection is usually acquired by consumption and manipulation of raw or undercooked meat. Infection can also be acquired through eating unwashed vegetables and fruit, so you gardeners out there. Drinking water containing oocytes excreted in the feces of infected cats, or contact with cat litter or soil. So, I'm telling you this to warn you when it comes to cats, all right? You gotta be a little bit careful, and you're like, Pastor Thompson, I don't have cats. Well, there's your cure for getting them. But if you get this, you can't get this toxoplasma gondii, and it does affect humans. It affects humans and makes them more, with rats, it makes them more risk-taking when it comes to, they actually are able to be caught easier because of this worm that passes on to the rat. So, it also affects human minds, likewise. So, that's why people are called crazy cat ladies, or crazy, so it's like something that actually affects them. So, and the good news though, is that if you have this, or you're worried about passing it on, you can take medication to kill it and get rid of it. So, but if you don't believe me, just look up the studies for yourself. You can check into it yourself. It is actually something that's real. But if you look it up and still don't believe me, then you probably just have the worm, and you just, you just, your family needs to do an intervention on you. But if you come up to me and complain to me about how offended you are about my sermon, I will just assume you have the worm at that point. And God probably just made that worm to destroy cat idolaters. I mean, I don't know what, it's like God, he comes up with AIDS and all these different things for homos, but if someone worships and serves animals more than God, I mean, don't you think he's gonna come up with stuff like that for people that just serve animals over that? So just to close it off, serve God now, don't let pets hold you back from serving the Lord. Find ways to make it work. If you're pet trapped, you know, like they have that toddler trapped saying, but if you're pet trapped, then just find a way to make it work and serve the Lord also. Don't get pets if you can't take care of them. And go to church and still serve God. Serving pets more than God and your fellow man is something that is actually sinful, I believe. And God could bring his fury down upon you for it. So use your time to help free people that are overcome with sin, not to join them in it. All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this great church here, Verity Baptist Church. Pray that you would just bless all the following pastors tonight. Pastor Shelley, Pastor Anderson tonight, pray that you just bless all things that are done here. Keep everybody safe in the activities, Lord, and pray that you bless the food that everybody's gonna eat tonight or after the pastor's lunch today. Pray that you would just, Lord, make this a special, special red hot preaching conference, Lord, and that everything would go according to plans, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.