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

Brethren, we have met to worship. Why we came here this morning, right? Worship God? Four hundred and forty-eight? Four hundred and forty-eight? Let's sing it all together on the first. Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power while we try to preach the word? All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round you slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming. Hell is moving. Can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and our mothers and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help us? Moses' sister hated him. Will you help the trembling mourners who are struggling hard with sin? Tell them all about the Savior. Tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray and holy manna will be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners till our God makes all things new. Then He'll call us home to heaven. At His table we'll sit down. Christ will gird himself and serve us with sweet manna all around. Amen. Great singing. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Dear Father, we just thank you that we could be here this Sunday morning, sing praises unto your name, and to come worship before you with your people. And I just pray you would fill Brother Dylan Owens with your Holy Spirit and prepare his heart as he preaches to us your word and help us, Lord, our ears to be open and just ready to apply these teachings to our lives that we could walk out of here. Better Christians, and just please be with us as we go out preaching the gospel this afternoon that we could just be very fruitful. In Jesus' name, amen. Next is going to be 203, The Windows of Heaven Are Open. 203. This song is pretty quick so we're gonna sing it two times, all right? Song 203, The Windows of Heaven. The windows of heaven are open. The blessings are falling tonight. There's joy, joy, joy in my heart since Jesus made everything right. I gave him my old tattered garment. He gave me a robe of pure white. I'm feasting on manna from heaven, and that's why I'm happy tonight. The windows of heaven are open. The blessings are falling tonight. There's joy, joy, joy in my heart since Jesus made everything right. I gave him my old tattered garment. He gave me a robe of pure white. I'm feasting on manna from heaven, and that's why I'm happy tonight. Amen. All right, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. This time we'll go through our bulletin. If you don't have one, please raise your hand and Usher will bring you one. First of the week is John 1-33. We've got a great picture of the state of Idaho right there. Beautiful, beautiful place. I don't know why I like that place so much. Let's see. If we open up our bulletins, on the right side, we've got our service times. You're here for Sunday morning, 10.30 a.m. We have a Spanish service every Sunday evening at 4.30 p.m., our Sunday evening English service at 5.30 p.m., and our Wednesday evening Bible study, 7 p.m. We have there our church-wide sowing times listed there. If it's church-wide, that means that the sowing time meets here at the building. Just this week, Brother Jason's time is switching from a church-wide time. It used to meet here at the building. Now it's going to meet somewhere in Arlington. I'll send out an email every Friday night or post on Facebook as to where that's going to be meeting. Arlington was pretty receptive. We went there a couple of weeks ago. But we want to just keep going to places that are really receptive. Also, there's many other soul-winning regional times there. Brother Jeff Goodwin leads one, Brother Moulton leads two, Brother Marcel leads one. And then the last Saturday of every month, there's like a joint soul-winning time where it's kind of like a little small-town soul-winning. Hopefully there's donuts and coffee in the morning, and usually they go out to eat somewhere afterwards. It's a lot of fun. So if you love soul-winning, lots of opportunities for you here at this church. Make sure when you're done with your maps that you turn it back into the bin. If it's completed, put it in the completed folder. If not, it either goes in the single maps or the van maps. Real easy to remember. If you went by yourself, it goes in the single maps. If you went with the van, it goes in the van maps. We have our prayer list on the right, our expecting ladies. Make sure to keep them in prayer, as well as the weekly needs of our church. If you have any prayer requests, make sure to send them in to the email address listed there. And if there's anything that you want us to be praying for on an ongoing basis, just send that in once every week so we can keep that in the bulletin. On the back here, we have our upcoming events. July 6th, this Wednesday, Pastor Steven Anderson is going to be preaching for us. It's going to be a great time. I think he's already driven over, like, 4,000 miles across America or something like that. I mean, I don't know how he's writing his sermons during this time. He's probably not writing them. It's all in his mind. That's going to be pretty cool to see him preach. I don't know which son of Jacob he's going to be preaching here. Does anyone know? Benjamin or Joseph? Oh, okay. Hopefully, it's Benjamin. I can think of some good sermons regarding Benjamin right now. July 10th, we have an ordination service for our own Brother Duncan Urbanic here, being ordained as an evangelist towards Baptist Church. Looking forward to that. It'll be a great celebration. July 10th, 24th, and 31st, Lord willing, we're going to continue our song-leading music class. This morning, we just went over the introduction of song-leading. Next Sunday morning, Pastor Shelley said that he's going to be leading that class, and I think he's going to go over more, like, music theory and, like, reading music and stuff like that. Then the last two classes will be more practice. Instruments can play along. Song leaders can get practice. Hand motions and time signatures, all that. This morning was a lot of fun. I'd like to make it. It's not too late to sign up. You can sign up for any of the dates, and everyone's welcome to come to that. And then also, our Mighty Men's Retreat, August 18th through the 20th, we have a sign-up fee at the front for that as well. And at this time, we have a couple other things that we're going to cover here. So, thank you very much for joining us, and we'll see you next time. you you you you you you you you all right, 471. Maybe a newer song for some of you. We've sung it a few times here. More of a slow song. 471. Cleanse me. On the first. Search me, O God. And know my heart today. Try me, O Savior. Know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be. Some wicked way in me. Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. I praise the Lord for cleansing me from sin. Fulfill thy word and make me pure within. Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame. Tread my desire to magnify thy name. Lord, take my life and make it holy thine. Fill my poor heart with thy great love divine. Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride. I now surrender, Lord, in me abide. Oh, holy ghost, revival comes from thee. Send a revival. Start the work in me. Thy word declares thou wilt supply our need. For blessing now, O Lord, I humbly plead. Amen. Good singing. While the offering plates go around, if you would please turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Ecclesiastes chapter number 7, we're going to read the whole chapter, as always, before the sermon. You can follow along silently, starting in verse number 1. In Ecclesiastes chapter 7, where the Bible reads, a good name is better than precious ointment, the day of death and the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, but that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so was the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. Surely oppression maketh the wise man mad, and a gift destroyeth the heart. Better is the end of a thing to the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these, for thou does not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. For wisdom is a defense, and money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider. God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him. All things have I seen in the days of my vanity. There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness. Be not righteous over much, neither make thyself over wise. Why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish. Why shouldest thou die before thy time? It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this, yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand, for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all. Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city, for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not. Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee, for oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others. All this have I proved by wisdom. I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. That which is far off and exceeding deep, who can find it out? I applied mine heart to know and to search and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands is bands, who so pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her. Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one to find out the account, which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not. One man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found. This only have I found that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. Let's pray. Father, God, just pray now, Lord, that you would fill Brother Dylan Oz with your spirit, and also that you would be the Pastor Shelley at Faithful Word Baptist Church, and just bring it back to us safely. And Lord, give us ears to hear and soften hearts in the room so that we can apply the message to our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen, well first of all, thank you all for coming, and thank you Pastor Shelley for allowing me to preach again. I do appreciate it, and I always love the opportunity, blessing to preach the word of God. And today we're here in Ecclesiastes chapter number seven. Ecclesiastes chapter number seven, and let's read in verse number 10. The Bible says, say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. And the title of my sermon this morning is Stop Living in the Past. Stop Living in the Past. Let's read that verse again, verse number 10, it says, say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. The Bible says it's not a wise thing to do to look back at the old days and ask yourself, why were those days so much better than they are now? The Bible's condemning this type of thought, but let's be honest, this is a very, very common temptation, probably especially for our church, probably especially right now to be looking back at the good old days, quote unquote, and longing for those days and thinking about those days and kind of having a bad attitude about our situation right now and the time and day that we live in right now. But look at verse number nine. I think these verses are connected, it says this, be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. So right before this verse, the Bible's talking about someone who's angry and someone who has anger resting in their heart and that person is a fool, and then right after that, it's giving you the instruction to not say, well, why were the old days so much better? The reason why these things are connected is because if you're constantly looking back at the old days, you're constantly longing for the quote good old days, you're gonna be an angry person because there's a lot of things to be angry about today. And it's not a sin to be angry, it's not a sin to get angry, but it is a sin to just continuously be in a state of anger. That is a sin, right? Bible says, be ye angry and sin not, meaning there is a way to be angry and it not be sinful. But if you're just constantly an angry person, you're constantly upset about everything, that is a sin and that's not an attitude that God wants us to have. I'll read for you 1 Thessalonians 5 18, the Bible says, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Bible says that in everything we should give thanks. That includes where we live, that includes the day and time in which we live, that includes the circumstances that we have in our lives. We're supposed to be thankful for every single thing. Now that is a hard attitude to have, that takes a mature Christian to have that attitude, but that is God's desire for us as Christians, is to have that attitude. And so I have three points this morning, and number one, we need to stop living in the past as a Christian movement. We have to stop living in the past as a Christian movement. This week, I was listening to a bunch of sermons, I was listening to Don R. Rice's sermons, I was listening to Pastor Jack Heil's sermons, I was listening to these old preachers, and I love these guys, I love listening to them, but I had this foolish thought. This sermon's for me this morning, you guys can listen if you want, but this sermon's for me. I had this foolish thought when I was listening to these great men of God preach. I'm like, man, these guys are preaching so hard. In some cases, these guys are preaching harder than this, and they have a nice building. How does this work? How is it that these guys are ripping face, these guys are preaching hard, and they have a church full of thousands and thousands of independent, fundamental, soul-winning, King James Bible reading, dress-wearing women, suit and tie-wearing men, chicken-eating Baptists in their church. How is it that they have this when they're preaching the same way we are, and we're preaching those same things, and look at our circumstances? I'm just telling you my foolish thought. This isn't a good attitude to have. I'm just telling you this is the attitude that I kind of had this week, and I had to have the Bible kind of wake me up here in Ecclesiastes 7 and saying that this is not the right attitude that we should have, but can we say that it is a common temptation to look at the old days and long for those days, and think highly of them, and wish that we kind of had that, right? But that's not necessarily how God wants us to live. I had this thought, wow, it must have been nice to be a Christian in the 1950s and the 1960s and 1970s. These are kind of like the thoughts that I was having in my mind, right? But I'm gonna tell you that previous generations had lots of problems too. We kind of look back at those days through rose-colored glasses as we're watching a 35-minute sermon, 35 minutes into the glimpse of history, and we just put rose-colored glasses on that, and we just think that it was so good back then, but every single generation has had their problems. You say, well, oh man, I really wish that I was around during the days of Jesus Christ. Okay, well, John the Baptist was beheaded. And it would have been so cool to be around when the apostles were doing their great works for the Lord in the Book of Acts. Okay, but they were beaten up and thrown in jail, and many of them were killed later in their life. Oh, it would have been so nice to be a Christian back in the 1700s. It's like, okay, no electricity, no running water. I mean, is it really that great, right? Every single generation has had their problems, and every single generation, there's been people that were thriving while other people that were having problems. I wanna tell you a story about a man named Dean Miller. Has anyone heard of this guy, Dean Miller, before? Life story of Dean Miller on YouTube. You should really listen to it, it's excellent. But he started a church in the 1970s. He was pastoring the same time Dr. John R. Rice, Jack Hyles, all these great guys were pastoring. But while Pastor Hyles and Pastor Rice, while their churches were thriving and flourishing, Dean Miller was being persecuted severely. This guy had a lot of problems. This guy had worse problems than us. He literally had Satanists get construction equipment and put giant boulders on the windows and doors of his house and barricaded them in his house. I have some similar things, but not even close, not even close to that kind of stuff going on. They literally just like hurt his property, spray painted his vehicle, spray painted, what is it? Joe Jones, Joseph Jones, whatever that false prophet, cult leader is, what is it? Jim Jones, sorry, Pastor Joe Jones is great. I'm thinking of that guy, good night. It's the last name, okay, sorry Pastor Jones. You know, writing Jim Jones on his stuff, persecuting him, Satanists literally burned his entire church building to the ground, beautiful big church. They burned the entire thing to the ground. This guy, Dean Miller, he had pictures of his wife and kids in his office, and Satanists broke the pictures and put knives through the hearts of the pictures of his family members. I mean, this guy had lawsuits. This guy had persecution like crazy, all at the same time that Brother Heil's churches was doing great, and while John R. Rice was doing great, this guy was suffering persecution. So yeah, you could look back, oh, I wish I was born at that time, yeah, but if you were born at that time, you would be going to Dean Miller's church, and you'd be dealing with worse problems. So it doesn't make any sense to be thinking about that. You know, I wanna read this article, and you know, our church has been in the news, so when I read this article, take it with a grain of salt, because we know how much the news likes to tell the truth, right, it's a joke. So this article was written long after Dean Miller retired, but you know, this church still has a lot of hatred from the world for how much Dean Miller did for the Lord when he was the pastor. So this was written in 2009, and it says, "'Cornerstone Baptist Church' reportedly proselytizing D11 students." So notice, breaking news, a Baptist church is preaching the gospel. I mean, that is newsworthy stuff right there. That's scary, right? We need to have a whole news article about a church preaching the gospel. Sounds like things weren't that different in 2009. You know, sounds like they still hated God in 2009. It says this, "'A Colorado Springs church with a history of controversy,' that's a good thing, "'over its attempts to bring children into its fold by saving and baptizing them, has been evangelizing recently outside at least one middle school and two elementary schools. Cornerstone Baptist Church fell into the spotlight again after an incident Thursday near Russell Middle School. According to Colorado Springs School District 11 officials, a church group tried to lure a seventh grader into a church van." You gotta love the language used in this, right? Like, every old IFB church has a bus ministry where they pick up kids and bring them to church, but yet the article wants to say they were trying to lure children into a van. I'm surprised they didn't try to, like, throw candy into this description too, right? Ridiculous. And a girl went home and told her parents. Now, of course, we don't do a bus ministry, and it's partly because the optics of it do look really bad, and we don't wanna, you know, make the appearance that we're even doing anything wrong, even though I don't think these people are doing anything wrong. I think their heart's sincere. I think they just wanna see kids saved. There is a reason that we don't do this at this church, but I'm not gonna sit here and think the worst of Cornerstone Baptist Church because they're trying to have a bus ministry, because they're trying to bring kids to church. I'm not gonna overly criticize them for that, like this news article wants to do. The incident was reported to the Colorado Springs Police Department, but spokesman Lieutenant David Whitlock said he hadn't been able to track down a report to confirm details. Why is the news reporting this? They're saying, oh, there was supposedly some incident that was reported to the police, but the lieutenant just can't find a report on it. Like, did this even happen then? It's like, why would you report this? The lieutenant doesn't even know if it happened, yet you're reporting that supposedly someone tried to lure a kid into a van? That's not honest reporting. And don't we see stuff like that about our church in the news all the time? You know, it's ridiculous. The 11 spokeswoman Elaine Nileski declined to name the church, but a source said it was Cornerstone Baptist Church. So notice, the school isn't even alleging that it was this church, but they're like, well, you know, another source said it might be some. Assistant pastor Ford Glover did not deny the allegations, but declined to comment. Nileski said proselytizing near Russell has been an issue for more than a week. After Thursday's incident was reported, children from two nearby elementary schools, Keller and Fremont, also reported that people from a church approached them in recent weeks as they walked to and from school. Still, she said, the district was surprised by the apparent attempt to get a child to go in a van with strangers. We've never had a problem like this before, Nileski said. We are shocked by their actions. Principals at Russell and Keller sent home letters encouraging parents to talk to their children about not talking to strangers. The district also is stepping up security protocols around the school. Cornerstone is 2.5 miles from Russell and has created public uproar in the past for baptizing children without their parents' permission. The church was sued by eight children in the mid-1990s, but a jury decided the church was guilty only of deception. Like I said, take this article with a grain of salt because I wanna give these people the benefit of the doubt. When it says that this church supposedly baptized kids without their permission, does that mean that mom and dad said, yeah, you can come pick up Johnny for the bus ministry and you can bring him to church, and the parents totally gave their permission for the kids to come to church, but maybe they just didn't specifically know that he was getting baptized. It's not like these kids were just snatched up and their parents have no idea where they are, right? But the news wants to totally just twist things and make it look really bad. Because even back in 2009, they still hated real Christians, they hated soul winners, they wanted to lie and deceive about them. It says this, Russell officials recently met with the church's leader to complain about members coming onto school property to preach the Bible. But rather than stop, church members started proselytizing from public sidewalks outside the school. You see, there's an effort to shut up Christians from even preaching the gospel. They want them to stop preaching on private property, and then instead of stopping, they did it on public property. See, their goal is that you just stop preaching the gospel at all, that's their goal. The school will seek a no trespassing order if church members resume harassing children on school property, Nileski said, but it will be up to parents to take legal action against the church if their children are approached in public areas outside of the school. So, and then it just goes on and lists like a bunch of controversies that this church has had throughout the years. But it sounds to me like this church, I mean, if they're getting persecution, if they're getting articles in the news about them, it seems to me that they're actually preaching the gospel. Seems to me like they're doing great things for God. And when I look at the testimony of the life story of Dean Miller, and there's Satanists blocking in his home and burning down his church and persecuting him, makes me think that Dean Miller's a really godly man. Makes me think that this church was doing a really great thing for God. But the reason why I'm telling you that is because Dean Miller started his ministry at the same time as Pastor Jack Hiles did. So we wanna look back, oh man, so nice. Look at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. Look at the movement of fundamentalism in those decades. How great it flourished. Not in Colorado Springs. Not under Pastor Dean Miller. Now, of course, the work of God flourished. I bet you that church was blessed spiritually. I'm just saying when you're looking back from a physical perspective, you don't wanna think that that generation just didn't have any problems because I just proved to you that they did. They had serious problems. Every single generation has had serious problems. And so even now in this generation, our church has a lot of persecution. Our church is going through a lot of problems and issues and fightings, but praise God, there's other churches right now in 2022 America that are doing great physically and spiritually. I believe our church is doing great spiritually. I believe our church, people are getting saved here. People are getting baptized. People are growing in the Lord. People are becoming soul winners. People are learning how to serve in the ministry. Our church is doing great from a spiritual perspective. But hey, there's other churches that are doing great from a spiritual perspective and they have 50,000 subscribers on YouTube. I'm not gonna say who that is so that people don't go to attack him, right? But hey, that's great. And so maybe we have to be the Dean Millers of this world. Maybe we have to be harassed by the Sodomites and harassed by the Satanists and have persecution against our church and have us our name in the media and lie about us and all those things. But guess what? Even if that happens, our church, the message of our church is getting out to hundreds of millions of people. Did you hear what I just said? Hundreds of millions of people. You know that on TikTok, the tag Steadfast Baptist Church, just that tag, not Pastor Shelley's name, not my name, just the tag Steadfast Baptist Church has over 230 million views. That's not including YouTube. That's not including CNN television. That's not including CBS. That's not including all the YouTube videos that people have made about our church. I'm talking one platform, TikTok, one hashtag, 230 million views. The message of our church has gone out to the entire world. What is that worth? Is that worth suffering some persecution? Absolutely. So yeah, we have some tough times. We have some hard issues that we're dealing with, but the gospel and the word of God, all of the word of God, even Leviticus, is getting out to hundreds of millions of people. Can every church say that today? No, they cannot. So if we have to suffer a little bit, if others can prosper, but if we have to suffer, if that's God's will, we should take that. We should not look back at the old days and be like, man, it must have been so much better back then. No, that's a foolish thought. Rather, we should realize the blessings that we have living in the time that we do and appreciate that. You know, you think about, oh, I wish I was around during the time of the Reformation when Christianity was hitting things right and breaking away from the Catholic Church. Like, okay, well, William Tyndale was burned on the stake. Is that who you want to be, right? I mean, I have a pretty great life. You know, it's pretty chill, right? I think it's the same for most people here living in America in the state of Texas. Compared to the things that previous generations went through, it's really nothing that we're dealing with. So keep your place in Ecclesiastes and go to Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four, let's start reading in verse number 11. It says, not that I speak in respect of want, meaning he's not desiring or in need of anything, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Paul said, hey, when it came to my physical location, I was content. When it came to my circumstances of life, I was content. When it came to the possessions that I owned or did not own, I was content. That's the attitude that we should have. Look at verse number 12. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. And we as Christians, we as a Christian movement need to learn to be content with the time that we are living in. We need to learn to be content with living in 2022 America as our nation is falling apart. We need to learn to be content serving God in that time because this is the time that God has placed us. God has chosen for us to be born in the time that we were born in. God has chosen where we were born, all these things, and we are here for a reason. We are here to please God and it is not doing anything beneficial for the kingdom of God or for you to sit here and complain about the time that you live in. It does nothing good whatsoever. It actually harms the cause of Christ because it discourages other people and it makes other people wanna quit serving God. Go back to Ecclesiastes. What is, in Ecclesiastes chapter number 12, what is our mission in life? Why is it that God put us on this earth? Look at Ecclesiastes chapter number 12 verse 13. Ecclesiastes 12, 13 says this. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. The one reason why you exist on this earth is to fear God and keep his commandments. You were created for God's pleasure. You were not created for you to have a pleasureful life, for you to get all the things that you want in your life, for you to have a real easy, cush Christian life. No, God created you for his pleasure to fear him and to keep his commandments. And if that has to be in 2022, then it has to be in 2022. You should have a good attitude about that. You know, why else should our Christian movement not be one that lives in the past? Well, because honestly, we can do even greater works now than they could have done in the 70s and 80s and 90s. We actually have more resources and more ability now, today in 2022, to do a greater work for God than those guys did. Like I just said, hundreds of millions of people heard our message, hundreds of millions of people. We didn't have hundreds of millions of subscribers on YouTube, okay? Our enemies literally did all the work for us, but we're able to accomplish more because of the time that we live in. I'll read for you John 14, 12, Jesus said this, "'Verily, verily, I say unto you, "'He that believeth on me, the works that I do "'shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, "'because I go unto my Father.'" Jesus said that we're gonna be able to do greater works, not in quality, but in quantity. Think about this. How long would it have taken for the apostle Paul to get the word of God out to hundreds of millions of people? How much work would that have taken? I mean, he went on three long missionary journeys, he's going by boat, he's having to deal with all these issues, and he's doing everything on foot or by boat, like I said. We just had one church service, one church service, and the word of God went out to hundreds of millions of people. Praise God for that, Jesus is right. Greater works can we do because of the time that we live in, because of the advantages we have, because of cars, right? Because that we can go anywhere, we can go soul winning anywhere in this DFW metro, any single day of the week, at ease, and we can drive there in air conditioning, and you can drink an iced coffee on the way, and you can listen to hymns on the radio on the way. I mean, it's so easy to get more work done for God. We have airplanes where me and Pastor Shelley can just hop on a plane, go to Washington, D.C., get some footage, and come home the same day. That's amazing, right? We can have soul winning marathons where, because of the internet, we can organize, we can mobilize thousands of soul winners across America to go out and preach the gospel all over this country. We can organize that because of the internet. You know how hard it would be to mobilize thousands of soul winners in the Apostle Paul's day? It wouldn't be done unless a miracle of God, right? We have a huge, huge advantage. We have invitations. What a blessing, we knock on a door, we have an icebreaker. I mean, that's nice, right? And we have little QR codes where people can scan them with their smartphone and watch the Bible way to heaven, right, and we have YouTube. Well, actually, we don't have YouTube, but other people have YouTube, and they could have live streams and all these great things like that. There's a lot of blessings that we have in our time that allow us to do more for God that previous generations did not have. And so, yeah, you can look back at the old times and long for those days, but we actually have the opportunity to do more for God in our day. Would you want to trade that? Absolutely not. Do not want to trade that. You know, think about all these old IFB pastors that subscribe to this Laodicean church age. If you've ever been in old IFB church, you've probably heard preachers say, well, you know, we're in the Laodicean church age, brother, and people just don't want to serve God anymore, and people just don't want to go soul winning anymore. Hey, speak for yourself. Here we are at Steadfast Baptist Church in the Laodicean church age, going soul winning every week, preaching hard every week. Our women still wear skirts and dresses every day of their life. We could still preach the word of God. We could still believe the fundamentals of the faith, even in 2022. There's no such thing as the Laodicean church age. You know, there's revival happening right now in our country and so many old IFB pastors have just been praying for a revival for so long, and then here's revival, and you know what they do? They attack us. They fight against us. They go stand with God haters. They go give God haters Subway sandwiches. You reject revival. Here's revival. You reject it. You're not worthy of it. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever, the Bible says. The same Lord Jesus Christ that Pastor Jack Hyles served is the same Lord Jesus Christ that the Apostle Peter served and the Apostle Paul served. The same one that Pastor Anderson was serving back in 2007 and Pastor Shelley's been serving since he got saved and that I've been serving since I've got saved. The same Jesus. The same Jesus has nothing to do about the time that you live in. That does not matter. And think about this. Because we do live in a darker time, because we do live in a more wicked time, our light actually gets to shine brighter than previous generations did. Go to Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter number five. Matthew chapter number five. Look at verse number 13. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted. It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and they give it light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Jesus taught that our good works should be broadcasted, should be proclaimed before the eyes of the world, so that they will see those good works, recognize those good works, and glorify God on our behalf. That is our mission. That is our goal, is to let our light, the light of the King James Bible, the light of God's commandments, shine through us unto the world. Now, if you think about it, you have a candle, you have a flashlight, and you're outside in the Texas summer day, and you turn on that flashlight, you're not really gonna be able to see that light very brightly, are you? But if you go into a cave, and you light up the smallest little match, I mean, you can see that thing from a long, long ways away. And so, now that we're living in a very dark time, it does not take that much righteousness to light up this world. It does not even take that much righteousness to really get the devil mad, to really get the world mad. Our light shines so much brighter in this dark time. Let me give you an example. I saw this old ad, and it looked like the ad was maybe in the 1960s, maybe 1950s. It didn't have a time on it, but I just saw this ad, this clipping from a newspaper. And it was an ad for a home. It said this, three bedroom, one bath. Here's the total price of the home, $7,900, $7,900. The monthly payment was $49.74. Look, if you have a single income family, and the wife stays home and raises the kids, in 1950, it really doesn't give that much glory to God when you're able to provide for your family, because guess what? It was easy back then. It was really easy, right? But here in 2022, under Joe Biden's America, when inflation is skyrocketing, and everything's expensive, if you are a single income family, and the wife stays home and raises the kids, and the man goes out and work, you know, people, they don't understand that. They say, wow, that must be the blessing of God on that person's life. Because it doesn't make sense from a human perspective how in the world men are out there working and having large families too, and the wife isn't bringing on any income, but yet they're making it work. It's through the power of God. It's through the blessing of God. That's an example of how you can let your light shine before men, that people could see your good works and glorify God on your behalf. Having a single income family in a dark time like this. What about your parents? You know, my grandfather, he used to work in a grocery store, and in the 40s and 50s, it doesn't matter if you were the owner of the grocery store, a manager, a clerk, if you were the guy mopping the floors, you were the guy stocking the shelves, every single man was wearing a suit and tie. You know that back at that time, you look at footage of New York City, and every single man is wearing a shirt and tie, and every single man has short hair, and every single man is looking sharp. Now, in 2022, if you go to Walmart, I mean, you're gonna see people wearing their Batman pajamas and their BB crop tops with their blue hair, and men look like they haven't shaved in 500 years on one side of their face, but they tried on another side of their face, and they've never showered before in their life. I mean, what is the world gonna think about you when you just walk into Walmart after church and you're wearing your suit and tie, and your wife's wearing your dress, and your kids all look good? They're gonna know something about you immediately. I love coffee, and so sometimes I like to go work on a Saturday at a coffee shop or whatever. Here's the thing about coffee shops. I love coffee, but coffee shops are usually pretty weird. They're pretty liberal and pretty strange, and I notice that I get really, really bad service when I go on a Saturday and I'm working at a coffee shop, and you wanna know why I think it is? I think it's because I'm wearing a shirt and tie, and I think that they know this person's a Christian. This person actually walks like a man. This person doesn't have his wrist like this everywhere he goes, right? And they know something about me. They know something about you just by looking at you. Would you have been able to shine like that in 1940? No. No, you would not. How about when it comes to your hair? Men are supposed to have short hair. I'll read for you 1 Corinthians 11. It says this, Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him, but if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. You know, it's never been easier to let your light shine before men when it comes to your hair. Because, you know, like I said, in the 40s and 50s, all men had short hair, all women had long hair, right? Now there's a pastor down the street with Todd White who has white dreadlocks. It's horrific, right? It's real easy now to let your light shine before men where it used to be everyone had short hair. Now you go to a church and some people are wearing pajamas and men have long hair and women have short hair, right? Female pastors with their short hair in cuts looking horrific, making videos about our church, telling us why we're wrong about the Bible, right? Hey, it's pretty easy in 2022 to let your light shine before men. To just look like a man if you're a man, to just look like a woman if you're a woman, it's never been easier before. Deuteronomy 22 five says, the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. Used to be in America that it was literally illegal for women to wear pants. Guess what? You're not gonna let your light shine before men in 1920, 1910 when it's literally illegal for a woman to wear pants, but now it's like the majority of women wear pants. And so if you're wearing a skirt as a woman, people are gonna think, oh, that's a Christian. That's a Christian right there just by the way you look. And you're able to literally glorify God just by simply existing. Never been easier before to do that, right? That's amazing. How about having lots of kids? Go to Psalm 127, Psalm 127. Psalm 127 three says this, low children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. You know, in our culture, in our world, people either wanna literally murder their children through abortion, or they wanna prevent having kids with birth control, and some of those methods even kill children as well by the way. Or they just wanna have one and a half kids, the average, you know, one and a half, two, maybe three children per family, right? That's what America's wisdom is today. That's what our culture says. But when they see a family that they just allow God to bless them, they realize that God opens and closes the womb, and they're just gonna trust the Lord, and have as many kids as God will give them, and they see, you know, a young couple with lots of kids, they're gonna know that you believe differently. They're gonna know that there's something different about you, because that is not the world's conventional wisdom. That is not what worldly, unsaved people do or believe. That is something that is specific to Christians. They see you with a big family, and they're gonna know something about you immediately that you're a Christian. When I see big families out and about, I'm thinking, okay, are you Mormon, are you Pentecostal, or are you a fundamental Baptist? That's pretty much it, right? So people can know that about you. Go to John chapter number 17, John chapter number 17. John 17. Look at verse number 14. "'I have given them thy word,' is Jesus praying to the Father, "'and the world hath hated them, "'because they are not of the world, "'even as I am not of the world. "'I pray not that thou shouldest take them "'out of the world, but that thou shouldest "'keep them from the evil. "'They are not of the world, "'even as I am not of the world. "'Sanctify them through thy truth. "'Thy word is truth.'" So God, Jesus' desire for us is that we would live in the world. He doesn't want us to go on some compound anywhere. He doesn't want us to go live out in the woods, away from society. He wants us to live in society, but he doesn't want us to be of the world. He doesn't want us to be like the world. We could look back at the 70s and 80s and 90s and look at Pastor Hiles and look at these other great fundamentalist Baptist movements, but guess what? In 2022, you can still be an independent fundamental Baptist in 2022. And guess what? When you do it, you shine like never before. It wasn't as odd to see people soul-winning in the 1970s. It wasn't as odd to see a woman wearing a dress in the 1970s. But guess what? You can still raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord in 2022. Wives can still obey their husbands like the Bible teaches in 2022, regardless of what the world says about it. Husbands can still go out and work hard in 2022. Preachers can still preach the entire word of God in 2022, even if it's not happening as often as it was happening in the 70s and 80s. Hey, do you know that you could still go out and knock doors and preach people the gospel of Jesus Christ in 2022? You know that you could still wake up every morning and open your 1611 King James Bible and read it every single day in 2022? You know you can still pray to the Lord every single day in 2022? We can still be fundamentalists in 2022, I'm trying to tell you. So why look back and long for those days when you can have it right now? We could be the exception. And guess what? When we're the exception, we get to shine even brighter than they did. That's a blessing. So be the exception, be different than this world. We can still do it in 2022. Now, for sake of time, I'm gonna skip some of this, but go to Mark chapter number one. Mark chapter number one. I said, stop living in the past as a Christian movement. Stop living in the past as a Christian movement. Number two, stop living in your past successes. Stop living in your past successes. Let's start reading in Mark chapter number one verse 21. And as we're reading, I want you to count and pay attention to all the different works that the Lord Jesus Christ is accomplishing. Pay attention to what he's doing, okay? Mark 1 21, and they went into Capernaum and straightway on the Sabbath day, he entered into the synagogue and taught. Notice he's teaching. And they were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority and not as the scribes. And there was in their synagogue, a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out saying, let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him saying, hold thy peace and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed and so much that they questioned among themselves saying, what thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he, even the unclean spirits and they do obey him. So notice he's teaching. What else is he doing? He's casting out devils. Let's keep reading. 28, and immediately his fame spread abroad throughout the region, about Galilee. And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever and anon they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and immediately the fever left her and she ministered unto them. Notice he's healing people. Verse 32, and that even when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door and he healed many that were sick of diverse diseases and cast out many devils and suffered not the devils to speak because they knew him. Now he's casting out more devils, healing more people. Sounds like he's working really hard, right? He's getting a lot done. Verse 35, and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. So even though he's working hard, he's still not missing his daily devotion time with the Lord. He's still waking up early and praying despite doing all these works. Verse 36, and Simon and they that were with him followed after him. When they had found him, they said unto him, all men seek for thee. And he said unto them, did he say, well, you know, we've done enough work now. We could retire now. We've done enough. I think we've already accomplished a lot. I mean, haven't you seen how much I've been doing? I've been healing people. I've been casting out devils. I've been healing people. I've been casting out devils. I've been healing people. I've been casting out devils. I've been preaching, I've been praying. All these things that he's doing. Jesus didn't just, he wasn't just content with all the works that he'd already done, all the success that he'd already done. Notice what he says. Verse 38, and he said unto them, let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, for therefore came I forth. And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee and cast out devils. Notice, he was not content, even though this 48 hour period that the Bible's talking about, he worked super hard. I mean, he was preaching and healing, casting out devils and praying and preaching and healing, casting out devils and praying, right? He's just doing all these things. He's working super, super hard. Wakes up real early, prays to the Lord, and his disciples come up to him, and he's saying, hey, let's go to the next town. Let's keep working. Let's keep going. He wasn't just satisfied with the success that he had had in his past, yet how many people do you hear? Well, back in my day, we preached hard. Back in my day, the church house was full. I've literally heard these things out soul winning, talking to old timers, and they'll say, oh, it's so cool that you guys are doing this. We used to go soul winning. Oh, my church used to go door to door and preach the gospel. Hey, our pastor used to preach hard, right? Haven't you heard people talk like this before? What's their problem? They're living in the past. They're living in the past in their past successes. But Jesus did not have this mentality. He didn't say, well, I've done enough. I've worked hard enough. All those successes, they're good enough. He said, no, why don't we just go to the next town and keep doing the same exact thing? And so we need to have the same mentality where it's like, hey, hey, we had a great soul winning marathon. Who cares? Where's the next one? Oh, we had a great time in church last week. Who cares? Are you here right now? Are you paying attention right now? Hey, who cares about this service? Where are you gonna be tonight? You gonna be back? Oh, well, you know, I used to go soul winning. Why'd you stop? Let's go to the next town. You know, I don't say this to shame anyone because I don't know everyone's situation. But you know, the Saturday soul winning time used to sometimes have 30, almost to 40 people. And I hope the reason for that, I hope the reason for that is you just decided to go to a different soul winning time. That's fine, that's great. But I hope it's not because you used to go soul winning. Well, I used to preach the gospel. I used to go soul winning. I hope that's not the reason why those numbers have decreased. I hope it's just because you found a different soul winning time. But hey, you don't ever wanna get to the point in your life where you're like, well, I used to go to a fundamental Baptist church. Now I go to the fun center. Now my kids are, you know, eating candy during the service in the kids' church, not learning the word of God. Well, you know, I used to have a family devotion time. Why'd you stop? Keep going. Don't just look at your past and say, well, I've had a lot of successes. I can be content with that. No, no, you wanna go to the next town. You wanna keep preaching the word of God. And yeah, we may have had great successes. Last year, I believe we had 2,111 salvation. How about this year? How are we doing soul winning this year? Are we going out as much? You know, you've ever read the Bible through cover to cover? Are you gonna get that done again this year? Or are you gonna say, well, I used to read my Bible cover to cover in a year. I used to pick up my Bible and read it. Now I don't anymore. You know, you can say, well, I used to have a lot of scripture memorized. Well, you don't wanna get to the point where it's a used to. Just keep working at it. Never be content with the amount of success that you have in your life. And that goes for any area. You know, if you're succeeding in your job, is it, well, last year I had a really good year. You know, I had good reviews, everything like that. Well, that doesn't mean you stop working. Who cares about last year, go to the next one. You run a business, say, oh, we had really great numbers last year. No, you just forget about that year. You go to the next one. You know, when I grew up playing baseball, I was a pitcher, and this is something every coach always just drilled into your head. They called it flushing, meaning, last pitch, forget about it. You know, pitcher, you ever wonder how pitchers, you know, they're pitching and they give up a home run and they seem unfazed by it. They're just going to the next pitch. Because that pitch is gone. You can't do anything about that pitch. You just go to the next one. You focus on the next pitch. Get the ball in the strike zone next time, right? And even if you had a really great inning, let's say you had three strikeouts last inning. Who cares about that last inning? Go into the next one and throw strikes, right? You don't ever want to just be content with the level of success that you had as a Christian or in work or in anything. I'll read for you Titus 3.8 says this. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. Bible teaches that we're supposed to be continuously preaching hard against sin, reinforcing the doctrines and telling people that they need to maintain good works. Because if you're not maintaining as a Christian, if you're not applying the things that you hear, you are dying and you are going backwards. And so it does not matter how successful of a year you had last year. It doesn't matter how great of a sowing experience you had the last time. Forget about it and look forward to the next one. And say, hey, let's go preach at the next house like Jesus did. I mean, what Jesus accomplished in those 48 hours is more than most Christian ministries ever get accomplished in their entire existence, right? I mean, he's getting people saved, he's healing them, he's praying, he's doing all these works. But he was not content with that. A lot of Baptists today would be content with that. A lot of Baptists today are content with door-to-door visitation, not actually preaching them the gospel. It's like, oh yeah, last year was so great. We had 500 people knock on doors and we had one person come to church and get saved at the altar, right? It's like, don't be content with that. Why don't you actually start preaching the gospel, start getting people saved at their door and start racking up salvations and then even when you do that, don't be content with that either. Go to the next town, go to the next zip code, go to the next apartment complex and keep preaching the word of God. Never be content with the level of success. This even goes for people in the ministry. Titus 3.14, you can say where you are, it says, and let ours also, Paul's referring to his helpers in the ministry, let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful. You know, it's important that you don't get so busy in the work that you skip things like your daily prayer time and your daily Bible reading, like you saw Jesus do. He was working really hard, but he also got up and prayed to the Lord and had to spend time with God. It's important not to let that stuff slip, to maintain your Christian walk. And I guarantee you, every single person in here, including myself, can think of an area in their life that they were doing better in before and are doing worse in now. And so you don't wanna ride on your past successes. If there's something that you thought you used to be doing better, you know what? That's something that you need to give your attention to and focus your attention on, is that aspect of your life. Say, well, last year, you know, I did really good, I had 30 salvations, and then this year, you've just dropped the ball on soul winning, you just haven't been going out. Don't just look back at the 30, start again today, keep going, that goes for anything. Where are you at in your Bible reading? Are you reading more Bible than you did last year or less? Are you preaching the gospel more? Is your church attendance more this year or less? You know, now in our time, as the world gets more and more dark, you should be taking your walk with God even more seriously than you did before. You should be wanting to get in church even more than you ever have before, getting in your Bible more than you ever have before, preaching people the word of God, handing out sodomite deceptions more than you ever have before. Man, make that your personal mission. Give those to everyone you can, please. Our country needs it. Don't live in your past successes. Number one, don't live in the past as a Christian movement. Number two, don't live in your past successes. And number three, don't live in your past failures as well. Don't live in your past failures. Go to Galatians chapter number one. When I think of someone who had, their past was a complete failure, I think the person that all of us think of is the apostle Paul, right? And this has been preached ad nauseam in churches, but there's a reason why is because it's a powerful story. It's the word of God, it's powerful truths, and it's in the Bible for a reason. Galatians chapter number one, look at verse 13. This is Paul talking about himself. He says, For ye have heard of my conversion in times past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. So Paul, when he's describing his former life, he was saying, I didn't just persecute Christians, I didn't just persecute the church of God, I did it beyond measure. That's a serious sin, right? This guy was a seriously bad guy, persecuting Christians. Let's keep reading about that. Go to Acts chapter number eight, we'll read more about his past. Acts chapter number eight, look at verse one. And Saul, that was Paul's name before he got converted, and Saul was consenting unto his death, speaking of Stephen, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which is at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, inhaling men and women, committed them to prison. So what was Paul doing before he got saved? He was witnessing the stoning of Stephen, who was a man of God, preaching powerful sermons and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he was consenting to his death, and he was literally entering into every house, hailing men and women. What does that mean? It means he was going door to door, finding out who was Christians, and arresting them, dragging them out of their house and arresting them. Can you imagine living in a time like that? It's gonna be very similar to what the time of the Great Tribulation is gonna be like, where you literally have a man that's going door to door, trying to find Christians. This guy sounds like he has a really, really bad past, right, and this is extremely wicked. Look at Acts chapter number nine, flip one page over, Acts chapter nine, verse nine. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, and if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto prison. Not only that, Paul's just threatening them, and just breathing out threats and slaughter against Christians. He's consenting unto their death, he's pulling them out of houses, persecuting the church of God. You know, I don't think that there's a single person, actually I know, there's no one in this room that has a past that bad. We would know about you, you'd be on the news or something, you know, we would know. No one in here has a past that bad. No one in here has literally persecuted Christians, consenting unto their state-sanctioned execution, and dragging them out of houses to be imprisoned. No one in here has a past that bad, yet there's a common attitude out there, and you know it's out there where people say, well, I'm just too sinful to serve God. You know, the apostle Peter even had this attitude, where he said that he's too sinful to even receive the Lord Jesus Christ into his house. And there are many people that are discouraged from serving God because they think that they have too sinful of a past, it's a lie. It is a lie. Because let's think about some of the accomplishments that the apostle Paul had in his life after he got saved. We know what he was like before, but think about this. The apostle Paul wrote 28% of the New Testament, if you include the book of Hebrews, which I believe is written by the apostle Paul. So like, that's including the gospels, which those are a huge chunk of the New Testament. 28% of the New Testament. 14 books of the New Testament. The apostle Paul had three long missionary journeys. The apostle Paul planted churches. The apostle Paul got tons of people saved. He remained steadfast through persecution, and he laid the foundation for Christianity in the first century. Every single New Testament church in this world hardly owes their existence to the work of the apostle Paul. A man who was attacking the church of God. A man who was breathing out threats and slaughtering against God's people. A man who was consenting unto the execution of Christians. A man who was going door to door persecuting God's people. That's the accomplishments of that guy. You know, if we didn't have this in the Bible, it'd be hard to believe, right? But I think God is giving us this extreme of an example that we can look at the apostle Paul and say, okay, well if God can use the apostle Paul, he can use me. If God can use the apostle Paul, he can use you. He can use Steadfast Baptist Church. He can use any church. Because none of us have a past this bad. Philippians chapter number three, go to Philippians chapter number three. I'm glad that the apostle Paul did not live in his past when it came to his failures. Because if he would have lived in his past, we probably wouldn't be here as a movement today. It's crazy to think about. Philippians chapter number three, verse four. So the context of this, he's basically telling this church to beware of the Jews, okay? Now look at verse number four, it says, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. So you got these Judaizers and they're trying to get these Christians to trust in the flesh and have circumcision, all these things. They're saying, if you guys wanna have confidence in the flesh, I'm really someone that could have confidence in the flesh. Look at verse five, circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless. He's saying, I always kept the Sabbath, I didn't eat any bacon, I was just a perfect little Jew, I was a perfect little Pharisee, right? Verse seven, for what things were gained to me, I counted those lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done, that I may win Christ. Why was the Apostle Paul able to be so successful? Because he looked at everything in his past, his accomplishments, his successes, and his failures, and he counted it all done. He said, it's all trash, it's all worthless, none of it matters, the only thing that matters is what's before me, the excellency of Christ, the knowledge of Christ. And he's saying that he's even suffering things for Christ, and he's fine with that because he's counted all of those things done. All of his mistakes, all of his failures, he's letting all of those things go, and he's serving God. Look at verse nine, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Then this important verse, pay attention to this verse. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. He's saying I haven't reached, I haven't attained, I haven't gotten there yet, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Notice the singularity mindset that the Apostle Paul had. He had one thing that he was focused on, which was forgetting all of those things in the past. He made it his mission, he made a cognizant decision in his mind, saying I am going to let this stuff go. The wicked stuff that I did, the good stuff that I thought I was doing, I'm letting all of it go. I'm not paying attention to it, I'm flushing it like I was taught in baseball. He's forgetting about that last pitch, and he's looking towards the batter, and he's throwing the new pitch. What is he looking to now? And reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. See, the Apostle Paul, he forgot about the last inning, where he did horribly. He forgot about how he just gave up six home runs, and now he's looking towards the new inning, and he's focused on that. That's what we have to do. As a church, as Christians, we have to 100% let go of your successes, let go of your failures. Don't think about them, don't care about them, but press forward to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That is what we must do. That is a mindset that all of us have to learn to have. I'll read for you 1 John 1.9, it says this. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It does not matter how sinful of a past you have, even as simple of a past as the Apostle Paul, if you confess and ask God for forgiveness for those sins, the Bible says it's a guarantee, promise, 100% he will forgive you. You have as much of a chance of losing your salvation as you have of God not forgiving you, because this is a promise of God. Chance is zero. God absolutely will forgive you when you confess your sins to him. It does not matter what kind of a past you have. So don't use any excuses, oh, before I was saved, I drank a lot, and I partied a lot, and I did this, and I did that, or I was a gang member. There's no excuse. There's no excuse whatsoever. Let go of your past. And even if, think about this, even if, let's say, like the Apostle Paul, his whole entire past was a failure. Everything about his life was a failure. But maybe your entire past wasn't a failure, but maybe just you have a big failure. Maybe you live a pretty good life, but maybe you really screwed up in a big way one time. Maybe you do go to church. Maybe you are reading your Bible, but maybe recently you did drink alcohol again recently. That is a big failure. But my question is, because you failed, so did you just throw up your hands and say, well, I better just start drinking now. I better just become an alcoholic now because I messed up one time. Absolutely not. The same principle applies. Let go of your past. Ask God to forgive you. Move on, God will forgive you. He can renew you 100%. There's people in every single church that have sin in their past, because guess what? We all have sin in our present. We're all sinners. You say, well, you know, I grew up in church, and I screwed up and I committed fornication. Confess it to God and forsake it and forget about it. Don't sit there living your whole life with this weird guilt trip on yourself that God can't use you because you committed fornication. Hey, let's say you screwed up really bad. Let's say you committed adultery. Should you just give up on God? Should you just completely give up and throw in the towel and just continue living in that wicked sin? No, because guess what? There's a man named David in your Bible who literally committed adultery and murder, and did he just give up? No, he confessed his sin, though. He said, I am the man. I am the man, and he asked God to forgive him. He asked God to renew the joy of his salvation, and guess what? God did it for David. God did it for David. He forgave him of his sin, and David went on to do great things for him, writing a large portion of the book of Psalms. You know, you don't wanna be that person that because you mess up, you just throw in the towel. You know, if you had a bad week, if you had a bad day, if you committed even a really large sin, you know, you're gonna have consequences for those sins. Don't get me wrong, you do reap what you sow, but I'm telling you, no matter what, God can still use you, and one of the things that I love that Pastor Shelley always says is that it's never a bad time to serve God. Oh, okay, King David, you completely screwed up. You committed adultery, and you literally murdered her husband. There's still never a bad time to serve God. There's still never a bad time to get things right. There's still never a bad time to ask God to forgive you and to get things right. It's way better for you to have screwed up in a major way and then get things right and then serve God rather than to screw up in a major way and then just quit. Would any of us have had the respect for King David that we all have for him now if that would have been the end of King David's story? Well, yeah, he did slay, you know, Goliath, but then he committed adultery and murdered someone. The end. No, that's not how David's story went, right? So don't allow yourself to discourage yourself by your mistakes. Do not do it. Ask God to forgive you, and he will forgive you. I'll read for you Proverbs 28, 13. It says this. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Bible says that it is a 100% promise that when you confess and forsake your sins, God will give you mercy. You know that under the Old Testament, the sin that King David committed was a capital offense worthy of death, but God showed him mercy, didn't he? God showed him mercy, and it is a testament to how that could be the exact same for us. You know, our church has had some really bad things in the past, have we not? We've had a pastor that's screwed up majorly, but should we as a church live in the past for the past failures that our church has had? Should we just throw in the towel because there was someone that was in major sin and just say, well, it's done versus that past Baptist church. No, we're not gonna look at our past successes or our past failures. We're just gonna go to the next town, like Jesus said, and just keep preaching the word of God. And if you mess up in your life, confess and forsake, but don't quit. And us as Christians, just to recap, you know, we live in a crazy time. We live in a time where a country's very dark and wicked, and it can be very tempting to look at the good old days and long for those days, but it's not wise. They had their problems too. We don't want as a church to be looking back at the old days of our movement. No, we wanna be focused right now on our movement right now and the great things we can do for God right now. And when we have successes, flush it. And when we have failures, flush it, and just keep going and keep preaching to the next town. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the encouragement of your word. I pray that you please bless this church. I pray that we wouldn't be dwelling in the past as a church and comparing ourselves to other churches and comparing their situation to our situation. Lord, I pray that we could be content in whatever state that we're in. I pray that we also wouldn't sit and dwell on our past successes for too long and just be content with the great works by your mercy and grace that we have been able to accomplish at this church, Lord. Pray also that we wouldn't get discouraged by the failures that our church has had and that because we're all humans, we probably will have in the future, Lord, in some way. All of us are sinners, and in our own lives, we'll have successes and failures. I pray that we wouldn't allow those things to discourage us, that we'd go on and continue to serve you. We love you so much, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, thank you for the message, Brother Dylan. Let's go ahead and sing one more song before we head home. If you'll take out your hymnal again, to 472. This is my Father's world. We're all in His kingdom, it's a good reminder for that. 472, this is my Father's world. This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears, O nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father's world, I rest me in the thought. Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas, His hand the wonders wrought. This is my Father's world, the birds their carols raise. The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker's praise. This is my Father's world, He shines in all that's fair. In the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father's world, O let me ne'er forget, O let me ne'er forget, That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is a ruler yet. This is my Father's world, the battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven be one. Amen. Thank you all for coming. You are dismissed, God bless.