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

Anyways, just give me one second. I tried to find the longest chapter for Oliver to read. Fifty verses. I want to make this a really interesting night. So, all right. Anyways, we're in Numbers chapter 16, and I want you to look at the first three verses here. And the Bible reads in Numbers chapter 16. Now Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab and An, the son of Peleth, the sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. This is obviously a very famous chapter in the word of God with Korah and Dathan and Abiram. And this sort of situation is always going to pop up in churches that are godly churches. The devil always wants to try to cause an uprising within a church. And we've seen that in our church in the past. Other godly, like-minded churches, it's going to happen. And basically Korah, Dathan and Abiram, they accuse Moses of being arrogant and lifted up. Now when you read the Bible, is there any part of that that makes it look like Moses is arrogant? I mean, he's such a humble person. And even in the story it blows your mind because he saves the situation and then the people still blame him afterwards when God clearly killed them for their wickedness. And so in this story we see that this uprising comes. Moses and Aaron never lifted themselves up. But I want you to notice what he says, what they say. He says all the congregation are holy, every one of them. That's what you're always going to notice with false prophets, they're flatterers. They say well everybody's holy. I mean that tickles our ears, doesn't it, when everyone says man you're a really holy person. You're very godly. And that was the strategy they used. Every single person is holy, every single one. So why are you lifting yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? Now we know from the Bible that Moses, most specifically, and Aaron were put in charge of everybody. They didn't lift themselves up to that position of leadership. God put them in that position of leadership. God determined that Moses was the guy to get the job done. God determined that Moses would be the guy that could lead them into the promised land. It wasn't Moses that lifted himself up. It wasn't Aaron that lifted himself up. God lifted Moses and Aaron up to that position. And basically Korah says you know what, you're not capable of getting the job done on your own. Basically when they're criticizing Moses and Aaron it's not really a criticism of Moses or Aaron, it's a criticism of God. Because God put them in a position of leadership. And so basically they're saying well God was wrong because they're not capable of getting the job done. Even though God gave them the authority to make the decisions and to be the leader, they basically said no, that they couldn't get the job done. Now here's the thing, Moses was just a man. Moses was not perfect. Moses made mistakes. Moses sinned sometimes. But it doesn't change the fact no matter what the situation, even if he made a mistake, he was still the one in authority of making that decision. That's what we need to understand. If God put somebody in a position of authority, it doesn't mean they're going to be perfect, but what it does mean is they get to make the decisions. They have the authority. And Moses was the one in charge. Now in 1996 there was a famous book written by Hillary Clinton. The book was called It Takes a Village. And it was this sort of philosophy that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had. And if anybody knows anything about that book, it was an attack on families. Basically she says that a mom and dad are not capable of raising their kids, and it takes a village to raise those kids. We need everybody in society. We need all these governmental programs. Parents are not capable of getting the job done on their own. Now in the book she says this is not an attack on the family, but anybody who can read with a clear mind knows that she's attacking the family and saying we need the government to step in, we need to get both men and women out there working, and we need the government to help because we're holding women back. So it was a complete attack on the family and a complete attack on God because obviously Hillary Clinton is a very godless, wicked person. Honestly, I think if you don't think she's a reprobate, you're going out on a limb, my friend, because she's a very, very wicked person, even for politician standards. But I'm going to read some quotes to you from her, one quote to start out before we get into the sermon. But she says, anti-government rhetoric argues against the basic protections government extends to the well-being of individuals, families and communities without offering an alternative way of safeguarding them. So basically she's saying people that criticize the government, they don't have any alternative. It's like, well, you criticize the public school, you don't have an alternative. Actually, you know, there's homeschooling. You criticize, you know, maybe vaccinations and all these, you know, mandatory shots you're trying to give people and you don't have an alternative. How about not getting the shots at all? You know, there is an alternative. But all these things she says that the government gives us, you know, the government gives us nothing. You know, the government basically just takes and takes. They don't help us at all. And she goes on and said, in fact, its extreme case against government, often including intense personal attacks on government officials and political leaders, is designed not just to restrain government but to advance narrow religious, political and economic agendas. When she says narrow religious agendas, she's talking about pretty much every single person in here because I guarantee you Hillary Clinton would not be sitting through the preaching here. I guarantee you that if she knew about her church, she wouldn't be happy about it. You know, basically she says us that are religious, us that say the Bible is the word of God, we're narrow minded is what she's saying. And so basically I want to look at this philosophy. That is the name of the sermon, It Takes a Village. But I want to look at this philosophy in four different ways. And what I mean by this is basically God gave the authority to a person or a group of persons. And when God gives somebody the authority, he's saying that they can get the job done, they're capable of doing it. And the worldly philosophy says, no they're not capable of doing it. Even though God said they're capable of doing it, they're not capable and it's going to take a village to get the job done. Now the first area I want to focus on is with raising children. Turn to Ephesians chapter six. And this book by Hillary Clinton was specifically referring to the idea of raising children and saying that as parents we're not capable of getting the job done. Even though for thousands of years throughout the book of Genesis, you know, parents were fine and got the job done. But they said it's going to take a village. We need a government in today's day and age. But I want you to notice Ephesians chapter six. And I know we read these verses this morning. I think Pastor Min has stole a lot of my sermon because there's a lot of verses, a lot of crossover with my sermon tonight. But in Ephesians chapter six, look at verse number one, the Bible reads, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is a first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There's a lot of guys in this room, including myself, that are new fathers. And I'll be honest with you, this is a very, very encouraging verse to me, when you really understand what's being said. You know, he says, provoke not your children to wrath. And he basically gives you a template on how not to provoke them to wrath. He says, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Basically what he's saying is, if you don't bring them up in the nurture of the Lord, guess what? You're going to provoke your children to wrath. So God tells you, you need to bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. What does this word nurture mean? It basically means that you show that you're caring. You spend time. It means you get home from a hard day's work, and you don't just sit around and listen to three hours of preaching on YouTube and ignore your family. It means you come home and actually spend time with your family, and care about your family. Spend time with your wife. Spend time with your kids. You know, if you're going to nurture them, you have to spend time and show them that you care, and your actions are going to show what you really care about. And that's what God says. As fathers, and the same would apply to mothers, but we need to bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. The first thing I want to look at in terms of raising children is nurture versus daycare. Because here's the thing, you really can't have it both ways. If both husband and wife are working, they're not going to be able to spend the amount of time with kids as they need to. And let me just say this, because I don't want to offend anyone. I understand people are in various situations for various reasons. Maybe decisions were made in the past, or maybe for whatever reason that's your lot in life. But God's will, especially when there's a lot of young people here, we need to know this, God's will is for the husband to provide, and the wife to stay home and raise the children. And honestly, since my son was born, I really don't know how people go the other way, and spend any time with their kids. I mean, if both the husband and wife are working, I really don't know how you get to spend much time at all with your kids. But the Bible says, bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. This is what Hillary Clinton said in her book, we need to understand that there is no formula for how women should lead their lives. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves a chance to realize her God-given potential. Basically what she's saying is every woman deserves a right to try to work her way as far up the ladder as she possibly can, and to make it as big as she can in business, and make as much money as she can, and that's her God-given potential. Now, I kind of agree with Hillary, because I agree women have the right to realize their God-given potential. But see, there is a formula, because the Bible says women are to marry, bear children, and guide the house. And I think women should try to become the best moms they possibly can. It's a big responsibility. It's not like a secondary thing, like, oh man, I don't get to work, I've got to raise kids. It's like, are you kidding me? That's great. That is God's plan for your life. And it's not a secondary thing. It's really important. Now, I can't think of anything that's more important to me than how my son's going to end up in life. And a lot of that's going to depend on my wife. And if she's out there working and those kids are being shoved in daycare, do you really think that the workers at daycare are going to provide inertia to those children? Do you really think they care about those children that much? They don't. And that's what we have throughout America and throughout most of the world now. We're basically husband and wife, they both work, and families don't spend any time at all with each other. That's the way it is. But most specifically in Ephesians 6, 4, it says, in ye fathers. And so us as men, we need to realize that when we come home we must find time for our spouses. We must find time for our kids. We must find time to spend with them throughout the week. And life is busy, but we must make time for them. Look at Ephesians chapter 6, not just nurture versus daycare, but look at verse 4 as well, where it says, bring them up in the admonition of the Lord. So there's two things mentioned, and I love that about this verse because it's really not that complicated. God says nurture and admonition. That's great because it's not easy, but it's not complicated. We know what we need to do as men. We need to spend time with our families and care about them. We also need to provide admonition. If we do these two things, we've done a good job. And obviously when we raise kids, we want our kids to be intelligent. We want them to learn trades and things like that. But honestly the most important thing, more important than being able to pass a calculus exam, is the fact that we actually spend time with them. Because you could ship off your kid to a private school where they'll get a great education and they're going to grow up and they're going to hate you. And I have a story about that from someone I know growing up that I'm going to provide you with in a couple minutes. But it says bring them up in the admonition of the Lord. Turn to Proverbs chapter 29. And so basically we have admonition according to the Bible versus the worldly philosophy would be kind of like governmental training. And I'll show you what I mean by that here in a second. But in Proverbs chapter 29, look at verse number 15, the Bible reads, the wrong reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. You see, a child that grows up that has no discipline, that mom's going to be embarrassed about how their child turned out when they end up being some wicked kid because they had no admonition in life. They didn't know anything from the Bible. They were never instructed when they screwed up. And it says in verse 16, when the wicked are multiplied transgression increases, but the righteous shall see their fall. Correct thy son and he shall give thee rest. Yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul. And so in verse 16, it talks about the wicked are multiplied. Why? Because discipline is not being provided. And kids that don't get any discipline are going to end up being wicked. You know, it's obvious. It's embarrassing sometimes you're in public and you see parents just telling their kids, no, no, no. And it's like, do you want us to spank your child for you? I mean, do you need help? I mean, because obviously that's not going to get the job done. And those kids are going to grow up and become wicked kids and hate their parents. The Bible says, correct thy son. But it's interesting, it says, and he shall give thee rest. And this is interesting to me because, I'll be honest, since my son was born, I don't think I've had a ton of rest. But the Bible says your son's going to provide you rest. So I was trying to think, and this is not the only place in the Bible. There's also in Psalms 127, and I was just like, I don't get it. I'm missing something from the Bible. But this is what I think God's trying to tell us. See, there's people that are in their 50s and 60s and didn't do a very good job raising their kids. And you know what? I think they have a lot of sleepless nights right now trying to figure out what could I have done differently when my child was young so he didn't end up in prison and become a drug addict. And they don't have any rest. But if we raise our kids right, we do have the promise from God. He's not going to depart from the things of God. So you can have a lot of good night's sleep knowing, you know what? My child, he loves the Lord. Maybe he's not rich. Maybe he's not famous, which is good. But he loves the Lord. He goes soul winning. Man, that's great. If you can have that. But when you have parents whose kids are wicked, they're probably going to have a lot of sleepless nights just wondering what could I have done differently? And they have no rest. Because I'll tell you this, you certainly don't get the rest now raising kids. But you got your choice. Do you want the rest now or later? So you can have the rest now and just shove them in daycare and have somebody else raise your kids for you. But you're not going to have much rest when you're older and they become wicked people. And here's what's interesting about this. The government, it's interesting because Hillary Clinton says only the government can provide these things. The government doesn't provide any training to kids until they turn 18 and they get shoved in prison. And you can look this up. You can look this up on Wikipedia. But Charles Manson before he became a serial killer, he was arrested for sodomy many times. That's a fact. You can look it up on Wikipedia. He was a wicked person and we know what the Bible says about that. But he wasn't thrown in prison because he was too young. There was nothing that they could do because he wasn't 18 years old. So he got off over and, look it up, over and over and over again. Then all of a sudden becomes this crazed killer. And it's like, well you know what, if you had followed what the Bible said you wouldn't have had that situation. The government does not provide any training or any admonition. Only God's word and parents that love their kids can provide the proper admonition. Turn to Proverbs chapter 22. And I know we know this verse, but this is what it says in Proverbs 22 verse 6. It says, Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. This is a great promise from the word of God because this is something we have to take by faith as we're raising kids. This is something I have to take by faith with my son Zephaniah. That if I raise him in the ways of God, when he's old he's not going to depart from it. He's going to be a godly Christian when he gets older. And considering how much work this goes into it, we need to have faith in what the word of God says. But this is God's promise. Now let me give you a quote from Hillary Clinton in this book. Now I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but can anyone believe that someone bought a book from Hillary Clinton about how to raise kids? I mean that blows my mind that that was number one on the best sellers list. I mean Hillary Clinton? I mean even when I was a kid everybody knew she was just like a wicked person. People knew that in 1996. I mean it was just a fact. You know whether you're a Republican or a Democrat it's like yeah she's pretty evil. But it says in her quote is this, let us admit that some government programs and personnel are efficient and effective and others are not. Let us acknowledge that when it comes to the treatment of children some individuals are evil, neglectful or incompetent, but others are trying to do the best they can against daunting odds and deserve not our contempt but the help only we through our government can provide. Let us stop stereotyping government and individuals as absolute villains or absolute savers and recognize that each must be part of the solution. Let us use government as we have in the past to further the common good. You can see from these quotes this is an attack on the family. You can tell she's trying to take authority away from the parents and give it to the government. I don't trust the government making the right decisions with my children or with my son. You know I want to tell you a story from someone I knew growing up and this kid was probably the smartest person at my school growing up in Bridgeport, West Virginia and everybody knew that. And when he was in elementary school he got into a good amount of trouble you know he would always kind of do stupid practical jokes and as a kid I thought it was funny. You know if I had been smarter I would have known this kid's probably going to turn out to be wicked. Now his dad was a surgeon and his mom was a lawyer. They were probably raking in four hundred five hundred thousand dollars a year and in West Virginia twenty years ago that was a lot of money. They were probably the richest family in town and he was the smartest kid and he knew that. And he was a rebellious kid so they shipped him off to private school a couple years and he got in trouble there, got kicked out and everything but he got all the best training and everything like that and you know he got accepted. I can't remember what school it was because he was a genius kid. He got accepted into Stanford or one of those schools like that and everything. He ended up you know failing out of college and become he's a loser. He lives off the government and or his parents pay him tons of money I'm not really sure. But you know I didn't know much about this kid for the last several years I didn't think about it but I was home visiting my family one time and I was being lazy so I was just kind of curious on Bridgeport news. You know they have like a forum on there and I'm not friends with anybody I knew from from high school because I wasn't even saving high school. I was a completely different person I have no interest but I was just kind of curious and I was going on this forum and this guy's name popped up like every single post. You know apparently he's kind of famous as the town loser in that area and he's been in and out of jail, domestic abuse and drug addiction and things like that. He actually put a post where basically he said he was thinking about committing suicide he had a really long post. Now I hadn't talked to this kid in like 10-12 years I felt like you know kind of like guilty about that man I should try to just send him and I sent him a long message about the Bible and because I'm kind of known as the weirdo that converted to religion you know what I mean and so I sent him this long message and he was curious so he messaged me back and we messaged for a while you know I was trying to get him to think about the things in the Bible he listened to the plan of salvation by Pastor Menes and things like that but honestly he's probably a reprobate and eventually he became blasphemous so I kind of just you know quit wasting my time but my point in this story is this this kid had the best schooling you could possibly have. I mean he was a genius he had his parents bought him like a hundred thousand dollar car when he was in high school just brand new they bought it for him he had everything that the world could offer but you know what he didn't have he didn't have nurture from his parents he didn't have admonition from his parents and everybody knew that about these about this kid you know his parents had no time for them it was work work work and just send him off to to these private school and he was going to all these lessons for you know advanced classes and things like that his parents never spent any time with him and I'll tell you what you know I know I'm going to make a lot of mistakes as a parent but God gave me the authority to make the decisions and if I can provide nurture and admonition I'm not doing that bad of a job I might not be the perfect parent but if I provide nurture and admonition then I'm doing a good job and yes I'm a new father but honestly I think I know a lot more about parenting than Hillary Clinton does because when you have the Bible to guide you you already know this is what I need to do I already knew that you know years ago what the Bible said about it what I'm going to need to do when I become a parent and if we allow the Bible to guide us not the government providing something but the Bible is going to show us you know what we need to do. Let's turn to 1 Timothy 3. Now this sermon was inspired from a hospital pediatrician that I had a bit of an argument with about three or four weeks ago. You know my wife and I we had our baby at a birthing center you know all midwives all ladies but we went to a hospital and for the most part we didn't have any problems but you know we were very specific you know way ahead of time we told every nurse every midwife that you know what we wanted we said we don't want any vaccinations we don't want the vitamin K shot we don't want this or that and I understand there's a lot of people here you might have a different opinion on that and that's fine because I'm not I'm not going to be a hypocrite God gave you the authority to make decisions with your kids I'm just saying you know what we decided to do with our son Zephaniah and so you know we had filled all this out didn't have any problems but this one pediatrician said oh we need to talk about this she's like I'm here to help you to you know help you understand this vitamin K shot about why it's important and help you get through your concerns about the vitamin K shot you know really condescending basically saying that I'm making the wrong choice I don't know what I'm doing and I tried to be respectful and you know she asked me you know why we don't want to get the vitamin K shot and she I told her she could explain real briefly and she did and then I told her you know well I said the Bible says they that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick you know that's what I told her I said every single one of you has said my son for being premature looks great and he's really healthy and I said he's whole he doesn't need a physician I said we don't need the shot because you all said he's doing great and of course she looked at me like I'm crazy and and wanted to argue about vaccinations and stuff like that but you know when you have the Bible to guide you you can make the right decisions in life and here's the thing though whether or not you agree or not with our decision it's still the authority of the parents to make that decision but this woman had this philosophy of Hillary Clinton that it takes a village basically as a trained pediatrician she gets to help make the right choices for us and for our family but that's not what the Bible teaches the Bible teaches the parents get to decide what to do with their kids not a pediatrician not the hospital but the parents get to make those decisions God gave them the authority and you know this is not a new philosophy you know one of the the wisest men who ever lived Socrates he took this it takes a village philosophy to a whole nother level here are some of the brilliant things that Socrates came up with he believed that when a child was born the first thing you do is take it away from the mom and dad and they never get to recognize who their child is because if they recognize who their child is they'll be emotionally attached to that child and instead of serving the government or society they're going to care more about that child so you take away the child immediately after the child's born and there's certain people in society who their job is to raise kids parents don't get to raise their kids that's what Socrates said and not only that this next thing is just just the weirdest thing ever and so with a baby you know what does a baby do to eat he believed in an assembly line style of nursing system for babies and basically each baby would be passed along every five minutes just moms just in a huge line I mean that's the weirdest thing and you say how in the world you say brother Stuckey that wouldn't have even come into my mind something as innocent as a as a baby like why in the world would he come up with that you know you're right that doesn't come into the mind of a normal person but see the Bible says that there are people that are rejected by God in their mind and conscious is defiled and I think it's proof right here based on the weirdest thing you've ever heard that his mind was completely defiled he was a child of the devil a child of Belial he had no hope of being saved he was an evil person and I don't for the life me understand why independent Baptists can pick up this book and see verse after verse after verse in the book of John where it says they cannot believe I mean what don't you understand about that you either become a Calvinist or you believe that there are people that are rejected there's no alternative the Bible says there are people that are children of the devil and when you look at the Jeffrey Dahmer's you look at these pedophiles and perverts and serial killers I do not understand how anyone anybody could think they're a normal person and it's really interesting to me that Socrates by the world standards was one of the wisest men who ever lived but in our eyes and from the Bible standards he's like the biggest fool who's ever lived I can't for the life and you understand how anyone would want to learn anything from someone who had such a warped mind like that but the world's wisdom is always gonna be in contrary with God's wisdom we're in First Timothy chapter 3 and the first thing we saw in this idea of it takes a village is in the idea of raising children we're basically God gave the authority to parents but the government Hillary Clinton and worldly wisdom says no they can't get the job done we need society to step in and help them out but in the second area I want to look at is in the idea of running a church running a church see the Bible teaches that the pastor or the bishop or the elder is in charge of that church you know it's the same thing but it's different characteristics of the same position and the Bible says that they are in charge says in verse 1 this is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop he desires a good work a bishop then must be blameless the husband of one life vigilant sober of good behavior given to hospitality apt to teach not given to wine no striker not greedy a filthy lucre but patient not a brawler not covetous one that ruleth well his own house having his children in subjection with all gravity for a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the church of God so the Bible says that a bishop or pastor he must rule his house well and he must rule his house well because otherwise how shall he take care of the church of God and so basically his his spouse his wife and his children they need to be in subjection they need to be godly and he says that if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the church of God so what the Bible is saying in verse 5 is the same way he rules his own house is the same way he takes care of the church of God and so here's the thing about this at a home the husband is the head of the home we know that so in the same way the example he's giving the pastor is going to take care of the church of God he's the authority of that church now when you think about being a husband God commands us to lay down our lives for our wives and our children and to love them and care more about them than ourselves so we're not talking about being a jerk here but we are saying the final authority comes down to the husband's decision the man of the house and the Bible says in the same way a man rules his own house is the same way takes care of the church of God so we're not talking about being a jerk but we are saying the final decision maker is the pastor so at this church the final decision decision maker is Pastor Jimenez you say brother sucky what if there were like 20 deacons and they all said this way and Pastor Menes says this way it's not 20 to 1 vote it's one to nothing vote do you understand what I'm saying and you say well brother second I don't always agree with how Pastor Menes make some decisions like the first point parents will not always make the right decisions but they have the authority to make the decisions and it's the same way with the church nobody's perfect every pastor is going to make mistakes but they still have the authority to make those decisions whether you agree or whether or not you disagree look down to verse number 12 and quite honestly most churches are not really run like this in the IFB realm you have a lot of deacon run churches and basically in the Bible when you look up the word deacon a deacon is a man of God who is is basically full-time in ministry you know he's working he's soul winning he's taking a lot of stuff in modern-day IFB churches a deacon is a guy who has a six-figure salary that makes decisions at church is that not right for people that have been to IFB churches they're not necessarily godly people they just put in a big tithe so they get to make a lot of the decisions at that church that is a modern-day deacon in most IFB churches and basically the deacons get to vote on things so they can out vote the pastor I want you to notice verse number 12 it says let the deacons be the husbands of one wife ruling their children and their own house as well you say well there you go brother stocky see the deacons have to rule their house as well but remember with the bishop they had to rule their house well because in the same way they would take care of the Church of God in the same way they rule their house is the same way they take care of the Church of God but notice with deacons in verse 13 for they that have used the office of a deacon well purchased themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus it doesn't say anything about them running the church see with the bishop or the pastor they must rule their house as well and in the same way they take care of the Church of God it's not like that with the deacon deacons must rule their house well but not because they're going to take care of the Church of God in the same way now here's the thing at a church a deacon is going to have some authority at a church a deacon is going to be someone who's very godly and it's going to make some decisions but that's all going to be an in submission to the pastor so yes they should rule their house well because if they have some authority at church they need to make sure that they know what they're doing but it's not because they're going to take care of the Church of God in the same way you don't see that it's very obvious from here that the Bible says that the bishop in the same way he rules his house is the same way he takes care of the Church of God you know I heard this this story a long time ago about Jack Hiles and Jack Hiles he started pastoring a church you know he had moved from another church and it was just like a few weeks in and basically a lot of people weren't too happy with the preaching and there's a lot of deacons that kind of like the lame guy that was before and one of the deacons came up to him and he said you know he's like we need to have a meeting you know about your preaching you know you're in a new situation different church you know this is a this is different you kind of know the customs here and things like that and and we're gonna be having a meeting this week you know all the deacons are gonna be there so we can discuss you know and help you out and Jack Hiles is like oh that's great great and so the meeting comes around that week and Jack Hiles doesn't show up to the meeting and so the deacon is and all the deacons are really ticked off and then the deacon comes up to him says hey we had a meeting he's like hey that's great you can sit around talk about my preaching all you want but it's not gonna change and see that's the way it is the deacons don't run the church and it doesn't matter if everybody's upset with the preaching we don't make the decision the pastor is the one who makes the decisions of how the church runs and this is something we know but it's easy for us to kind of stop thinking about as we go about through life at this church you know new situations come up in our minds when I think man we have the right solution pastors wrong but the Bible says the authority to make the decision is by the pastor whether or not they're right or wrong it doesn't matter and I'll just be honest with you that you know I've had sometimes write a different opinion from Pastor Menes and I was positive I was right and your months later you know I realized well there's a reason why he's a pastor of the church and he has experience cuz I realized man my way would not have worked out it seemed like it would work out it but honestly most of the time when we have an idea it might seem great but there's a reason why he's the pastor and there's a reason why God put him in charge to make the decisions and he probably is usually right even if you think you're wrong or even if you think he's wrong I know it's been that way with myself when I thought you know maybe I had a different way to do something I usually realize you know what I was wrong about that now at IFB churches you run into these deacon run churches but when you look at some of these other churches that are out there there's this big elder run movement by the Calvinists and the home church movement and I want to give you a couple quotes and it's the same sort of thing but this is from John Piper's website it says we believe the New Testament teaches that there is to be a plurality of elders this means that a church is not to have unitary leadership where only one man has ultimate authority instead of churches is to have shared leadership same philosophy that people use about the home that the husband's not the head same philosophy that does not work shared leadership so you got one pastor who believes alcohol is a sin another guy who doesn't and then one preaches one way the other one gets offended it's not gonna work I mean it just doesn't logically make sense here's from John MacArthur a quote from him biblically the focal point of all church leadership is the elder an elder is one of a plurality of biblically qualified men who jointly shepherd and oversee a local body of believers the word translated elder is used nearly 20 times in Acts and the epistles in reference to this unique group of leaders who have responsibility for overseeing the people of God turned to Acts 15 let's see what the Bible says because John MacArthur is saying well the book of Acts shows that we need to have plurality of elders so let's see if that's what we see in James in not James but Acts chapter 15 what you notice in verse number 12 the Bible reads then all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them and after they held their peace James answered saying men and brethren harken on to me James is saying okay everyone's had their opinion but I'm the pastor I make the final decision he says harken on to me drop down to verse number 19 notice what he says he says wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood for Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day so he says in verse 19 my sentence is it would be like for example if a judge says hey this is the sentence you can't argue with the judge they made the decision because they have the authority to make that decision and James had the authority and he heard people's opinions he says my sentence is why because the Bible teaches that the pastor is the head of the church and he has the authority to make the decisions turn to Deuteronomy 17 and so the first point we had tonight with this it takes a village philosophy was with raising children the second thing we saw was with running a church a lot of people think well the pastor is not capable of getting the job done we need to buy this village philosophy of everybody's holy everybody can make the decisions but the third thing we want to look at is with this idea of reading the Bible a lot of people take this it takes a village philosophy notice verse 18 it says and it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests of Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren that he turned not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom he and his children in the midst of Israel and so the Bible says that he's supposed to read the words of this law every day we're supposed to read God's Word and it says it will help him not to be lifted up it will help him to fear the Lord I didn't notice anything in this verse about needing a commentary I didn't notice anything about needing the Schofield reference Bible or somebody else to teach you all I see is you're supposed to read and that's going to teach you the the words of God are going to teach you it says turn to Joshua chapter 1 and honestly this is the truth that if we don't read this book we will end up getting lifted up it's a it's not a possibility it's a guarantee because the Bible talks about the pride of life and if you're around the world you will end up being filled full of that pride if you're not in this book this is the book that's going to help us to fear God and keep us humble we need to read this book as much as possible Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make that way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success so the Bible shows that all of us we need to read God's Word all of us that nine chapters a day that shouldn't be the end of our Bible reading for the year we need to keep up the Bible reading keep setting aside time to read God's Word that's what the Bible teaches but you know denominations across so-called Christianity they take this it takes a village philosophy they don't really believe that you can read the Bible on your own they don't trust you to read the Bible on your own you know I went to an Orthodox website this week and you know a stories I've heard the Orthodox Church they don't want you to read the Bible at all or have a Bible but there's different types of Orthodox I guess but they put up a Bible reading chart and this is the weirdest thing I've ever seen these are the verses you're supposed to read Isaiah chapter 19 verse 1 verses 3 through 5 verse 12 verse 16 and verses 19 through 21 I mean who comes up with something like that so we don't want you to read verse 2 or verses 6 through 11 or verses 13 through 15 or verses 17 through 18 because they just all contradict what we believe we don't trust you to read those verses I mean that that is the weirdest thing I've ever seen I mean your bet I want to give a tip to the Orthodox leaders this will help you out don't even put a Bible reading chart up on your website that might help your church grow a little bit more than having the weirdest thing like this and we put up a video this week where this Orthodox priest was talking about how we cannot understand the Bible on our own they said in the Orthodox Church we believe you need to be inside the church and learn in the whole church system will help teach you now we do believe that the preaching of God's Word we can learn from it but everything that's preached you can learn in your free time and honestly you should be learning more in your free time than from the sermons that are preached up here because it's only three hours a week of preaching that's not that much considering how much we're in the world you need to be in this book a lot you should learn more from reading the Bible than from the preaching now we learn from both and we go to a great church where we don't have to just you know pretend like we're paying attention and be reading the Bible underneath while the pastor's preaching you don't have to do that at this church like you know I've done at other IFB churches but you should be learning more in your free time we had a missionary come in at my old independent fundamental Baptist Church and he wanted to be a missionary to Georgia now Georgia in case you don't know is both a state and a country okay and so Georgia was part of the Soviet Union and Georgia is a completely Orthodox country and I don't know 90 whatever percent and you know typically most of them don't speak English and he was telling us a story about how they were handing out invitations and he had a translator and he ended up handing out an invitation to someone who was really curious and he ended up getting this guy saved it took like four hours through the translator because their church is really warped and using the translators gonna take time but this guy said that when he was younger he had found a portion of Scripture because they weren't allowed to have the Word of God and he read something and he said you know what this is not what we do at the Orthodox Church and so he asked his Orthodox priest about it and the Orthodox priest said if you ever try to read the Word of God on your own again you're damned to hell you have no hope of going to heaven unless you just listen to what we say and so you're in a tough position because you grow up in that society you might be scared to death to listen to this missionary you know praise the Lord that guy did listen to the missionary and it ended up getting saved but it's like it's just like the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages it's the exact same thing we do not want you to read the Word of God because we don't trust you with it we want you to believe what we believe and we'll teach you what you're supposed to believe that's exactly like the Catholic Church that's the reason why Guy Fawkes tried to kill King James because they was putting the Bible into the English language with the Catholic Church did not want the Amish are the same way though here's a quote from study someone who has has done written a lot of books on the Amish I don't believe they're Amish but you know they know a lot about it but this what it says the Amish are allowed to read the Bible for themselves well it's like praise the Lord they're allowed to read the Bible that's good but studying it deeply is discouraged they believe studying it too much will make you arrogant and even confuse you that's funny because the Bible said you read the Word of God it will make you humble the Amish Church says you read the the Bible is gonna make you arrogant they often point out in they often point out different people who studied the Bible too much and ended up leaving the Amish Church it's like well imagine that you read the Word of God for yourself and it's like whoa it turns out nothing that we teach is right in the Orthodox the Catholics the Amish we know the culture like this Jehovah's Witness Mormons and honestly people have different definitions of call but when you have a church or denomination that basically forbids you from reading the Word of God to me that's a cult and all of these churches to me fit that when they do not allow you and do not want you to read the Word of God why they want you to be in darkness and have to listen to what they're saying and just automatically believe it well how does this apply to us because we're Baptist you know we're a little bit different but you know IFP churches are the same way not to this extreme but a lot of IFP churches they almost force that Schofield reference Bible on you they almost force all these certain things they want you to read these certain sermons they want you to hear but they're scared for you to read Matthew 24 on your own they don't want you to read that they're scared for you to read the book of Revelation on your own it's like well that's in time stuff that's too deep for us you know we need to rely on people that have been saved 30 years you know I've been teaching and studying that topic and that's the truth if you've been in IFP churches they are literally afraid of you reading the Bible on your own most IFP churches would never have a nine chapters a day thing reading the Bible because they honestly do not want you to read certain parts of the Bible because they can't answer it and they don't want you coming to ask questions because they will not have a valid answer turn to first John chapter two and I mean ask anybody who goes to Bible college how much Bible reading they actually do you think that's what you're doing full-time just studying the Word of God wouldn't you think you'd be reading the Bible for four hours a day memorizing spending tons of time in prayer when people go to Bible college guess what they're too busy to read the Bible they're reading all these other books about the Bible and learning all these false things they don't actually read the Bible it's the truth first John chapter 2 this is what it says in verse 27 but the anointing which he have received him abideth in you and you need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things in his truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught ye shall abide in him see the Bible says you need not that any man teach you you know if you're saved and you have the King James Bible and the Holy Ghost that's all you need you don't need a village to teach you the Word of God you can wake up in the morning and just open the Bible and you can understand the Word of God and honestly you know if you read the Bible like you learn a lot of things that you know a right that it's obvious you're like wow I never noticed that before you don't need some guru to teach you now we need Church for the fellowship we need Church to send us out to preach the gospel as it says in Romans 10 and we do learn from the preaching and I think most of us we love Church obviously we're here on a Sunday night so obviously we love the Word of God but you can learn everything on your own Bible reading is so important if you're gonna stay in the fight you need not that any man teach you the Bible says turn to Matthew 28 and so the first thing we saw was raising children where the worldly philosophy says it takes a village we saw with what was the second point we saw the second point was running a church where the worldly philosophy says a pastor can't get the job done even though God says he can the third thing we saw was reading the Bible and honestly this was only meant to be a three-point sermon but in honor of Billy Graham I decided to make it a four-point sermon because the fourth point is reaching the lost this Billy Graham philosophy look at Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20 the Bible reads in verse 18 and Jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given onto me in heaven and in earth go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever have commanded you and lo I'm with you always even on the end of the world amen these are very important verses the Word of God because God tells them Jesus tells them to go out and preach the gospel he tells them how to baptize in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost and basically the church has the authority to do the baptisms that's what he's showing us the church has the authority to the baptisms and the church is how we're gonna get great soul wing going on honestly you know this this big soul wing event we have on March 31st a bunch of people are gathering it together but when you talk about the great soul wing that's coming through America in the world it's gonna come because churches are sending people out to preach the gospel how shall they preach except they be sent people that go to dead churches they don't do much so winning but when you go to a church that sends you out you're gonna get the soul winning done but here's my point on this of reaching the lost God says a church has the ability to get the job done just sending them out two by two on Saturday you went out with the soul winning partner you had the ability to get somebody saved you didn't need this giant production but see you know the the non-denom crowd and the Pentecostals they don't really believe this they believe you need to get together and yoke together with all the denominations to have these big ecumenical services you know we need to hold hands with the Lutherans and Presbyterians and the Pentecostals and non-denominational and you look at Billy Graham and Billy Graham was a complete charlatan if you know anything about this you could look at his interview on Larry King live where he says there's multiple ways to heaven you can see quotes where he says hell is not a literal place of fire he was not a safe guy he's in hell now he realizes now it is a literal place of fire but you know Billy Graham and his Crusades he had Johnny Cash playing the music now why did he need Johnny Cash playing the music is it because Johnny Cash was really godly does anybody think that Johnny Cash also I'm just being honest because I used to be a Johnny Cash fan I'm just being honest with you Johnny Cash was a Repentance of Sins guy and when he died he did fall into a burning ring of fire forever but why do they have Johnny Cash because it can attract more people that's the only reason why we don't need somebody godly we need some special speaker special music person you know special guitar player and then they have you know sappy music to try to get them to come down and you get down to the bottom and you get there and you say well you know you know I was really touched for that message I want to be saved they say oh what denomination are you I'm a Presbyterian oh well here's a Presbyterian you can talk to you talk to anybody who's been to those Crusades that's how it works you get down there you say I'm Catholic guess what Billy Graham accepted the Catholics look at all the pictures of Billy Graham with the Pope's online you can see him on Google he was good friends with the Pope it's like are you kidding me Billy Graham was good friends with the Pope you get down there it's like well here's a Catholic priest that can help you out I mean how in the world you have to get together with all these denominations that's the worldly philosophy that's not what we see in Matthew 28 that's not what we see throughout the entire Gospels or the book of Acts they're going out and preaching the gospel churches are getting started in those churches are sending people out that's how you get people safe you don't see these giant productions we have this great musician and this really you know every sermons on salvation let me show you a couple quotes here as we're wrapping up here are some famous people who had quotes about Billy Graham after he died here's TD Jakes the famous Pentecostal today we lost a general in the kingdom of God you have earned your rest sir well done good and faithful servant does anybody think that TD Jakes would say that about Pastor Menes if he died does anybody think that probably not gonna happen here's Joyce Meyer here's another great ringing endorsement while I was sad to hear the news of Billy Graham passing I am rejoicing that he is now home in heaven Billy was a great man of God who made a tremendous impact all over the globe his love for people in integrity had a great impact on my life and so many others I saw other quotes from people that said Billy Graham did so much for the Christian people and faiths all over the world why because Billy Graham accepted people outside the Christian realm too you didn't even have to be Christian according to him you go to heaven so what does this have to do with us because Billy Graham was a Baptist by the way a Southern Baptist but you know IFB's have something kind of similar called the altar call where every single sermon is about salvation pretty much and you have they're playing at the very end either just as I am or is you're all on the altar or song like that because that's the songs that will motivate you to come to the front and talk to someone and anyone who's been at IFB churches knows those people come to the altar two minutes later the person prays a prayer with them it's like do people get saved in two-minute conversations at the door what do you have time to explain they say hey would you like to pray to accept Jesus like sure I mean I worked at a junior church where you know I was helping the boys that need to hear the gospel and this woman was helping the the young younger girls who need to hear the gospel and I mean she was popping them off like candy is like just one right after another she got like 11 people saving like 15 minutes and I'm still on the first kid you know I said well he doesn't understand I said pastor he doesn't understand what can I do I mean he doesn't understand the gospel he wants to be saved but he just doesn't get it you know but IFB churches they have this altar call which is never found in the Bible when I mean you don't see at the end of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus has this big fancy altar call you've never seen it at this church and you're not gonna see it you know why because it's not in the Bible and it's like why would we have it when it's not in the Bible and here's the big problem with altar calls in my opinion because when you when you see altar calls it makes you feel like you can't get people saved on your own it makes you feel like we need to bring a bunch of lost people in and get them to come down the altar and then the pastor will preach this sermon and certain people are designed to get them say that is what you think when you go to a church that has this big fancy altar call it's not going to motivate you to go out and preach the gospel for yourself but the Bible says the church has the ability going out two by two you have the ability to get people saved we're gonna end with this one quote from Hillary Clinton it says the simple message of it takes a village is as relevant as ever we are all in this together you know no we're not in this together Hillary you're not helping me raise my son you're not helping run this church you're not helping with you're certainly not helping reaching the lost or reading the Bible you're not helping with any of this let's not take this philosophy let's just see what the Bible says about this let's close in a word of prayer dear Heavenly Father thanks for allowing us be in your house this evening and I ask you to just help us to think about these words that were preached and help us to apply these things in our life God and and realize we have the ability to reach the lost we we have the ability in the authority we have the ability to read the Bible on our own and we also to raise our kids God help us to remember these things God we pray all these things in Jesus name Amen