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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to Faith Ward Baptist Church. Nice to see you all here for our Sunday night service. Find your seats, please, and take a song book. Go to hymn number 205. We'll begin tonight. Hymn number 205. 205. He keeps me singing. Hymn number 205. Once you find your place, we'll lift our voice together. Hymn number 205. 205. 205. Once you find your place, we'll lift our voice together. Right on that first. 205. There's within my heart a melody. Hymn number 205. Lift up your voice on that first together now. 205. There's within my heart a melody. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. Jesus, whisper sweet and low. This work filled my heart with faith Jesus laughed across the broken strings Stirred the slumbering horns again Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Sweetest name I know Fills my every longing Keeps me singing as I go Fisting all the riches of his grace Resting in the sheltering wing Always looking on his smiling face That is why I shout and sing Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Sweetest name I know Fills my every longing Keeps me singing as I go Though sometimes he leads through waters deep Trials fall across the way Though sometimes the past seems rough and steep See his footprints all the way Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Sweetest name I know Fills my every longing Keeps me singing as I go Soothe's coming back to welcome me Far beyond the starry sky I shall win my flight to worlds unknown I shall reign with him on high Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Sweetest name I know Fills my every longing Keeps me singing as I go Matt, good start to our sing tonight. We want to go before Lord has his blessing on the service So I've asked brother Fidel Gonzalez to lead us in prayer please Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life of the world Jesus Christ We thank you for the beautiful weather Lord We ask you to bless our voices as we lift them up to you in praise Fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit Lord and make his message be edifying to us all It's in Jesus name we pray, Amen Amen, up to hymn number 229, number 229 Since I have been redeemed, hymn number 229 I have a song I love to sing since I have been redeemed, hymn number 229, lift it up now I have a song I love to sing since I have been redeemed I'm my Redeemer, Savior, King since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name I have a price that I satisfy since I have been redeemed To do is will my heart is priced since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name I have a witness bright and clear since I have been redeemed Dispelling every doubt and fear since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name I have a home prepared for me since I have been redeemed Where I shall dwell eternally since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name Alright this time we'll go through our announcements together If you don't have a bulletin slip up your hand nice and high And we'll get to you with one on the inside We have our service time Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service Sunday nights at 6 Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study This week will be in 2 Chronicles chapter 32 We've got the so many times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms We've got the wedding coming up this Saturday for Isabella and Micaiah And that is 4 o'clock right here this Saturday So everyone in the church is invited to that Don't be shy if you don't know them come and get to know them And celebrate with them You're more than welcome to come to that on Saturday at 4 p.m. And then below that we've got the list of expectant ladies Keep praying for them to have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery On the back we've got a baby shower coming up a couple weeks from today And that is on Sunday February 2nd it looks like actually 3 weeks from today And that's from 2 to 4 right here and food will be provided And again if you don't know Lola again show up and get to know her Everyone's always welcome at these ladies and girls that is Teenage girls want the kids to ideally stay home And just for the adult ladies and teenage girls Then below that there was an online soul winning marathon It was a big success 6 soul winners had 42 saved And of course this is like a video chat face to face preaching the gospel So it's really in many ways the same thing as door to door soul winning Or any other kind of like face to face soul winning It's just a 21st century version of that Because you're still talking to people and seeing the whites of their eyes And able to have a dialogue conversation And so it's been an effective way for getting people saved And so thank you to everyone who has participated in that activity Also I myself was down in the Caribbean this last week And my daughter Rebecca and I went down there And we had a total of 43 people saved The Bahamas is so incredibly receptive And I was really inspired by Pastor Shelley getting up and talking about How soul winning is so easy in the Bahamas and everybody's so receptive And he was not exaggerating it was all true And so we had a great time down there And we have a guy down there that just a friend of ours brother Kenton That we've known for a long time like I think I've known him for about 8 years or something And he ended up moving he's originally from there lived in the US for a long time And then he just moved back there like a year and a half ago And so it's nice that he's there he's doing soul winning on a regular basis But he's also there and willing to work with us and other people Who show up even just from other churches He really just wants to go soul winning And is looking forward to working with people who jump on this idea That we're doing in 2025 of the cruise ship missions trips And so anybody who gets on that program and gets on those ideas It's nice to have somebody there in Nassau That can work with you and be a soul winning partner And so it was really good to fellowship with him and get to do soul winning with him He took us straight to you know the breakfast place to get the local breakfast You know I never thought I'd be eating fish soup for breakfast But hey it was really good I just made sure to pop a breath mint afterward Because I didn't want to just be emanating that fishy smell As I'm preaching the rest of the day But you know we had some sheep tongue And we had some fish soup and good fellowship Then we just went out to the university Just went soul winning and it was just white under harvest All kinds of young adults super receptive People really wanted to talk to us and they weren't just wanting to talk to us But they were actually taking an interest in the material The spiritual things they wanted to know the truth They wanted to get saved In some cases I kid you not people were kind of lining up to hear what we had to say And they were really happy to get saved Obviously a lot of people rejected the gospel and scoffed at what we were saying But many people got saved so it was a really good place to go soul winning And I think the population of that general area around Nassau is like around 250,000 And so we have barely even scratched the surface So we could send scores of people out there We plan to send scores of people out there And God willing get a multitude of people saved In such a receptive place You know soul winning week after week in Phoenix obviously yields salvations But it's also really refreshing to get to go somewhere that's more receptive Because let's face it when you're soul winning in the US A lot of people are telling you no And you can sometimes go weeks without a chance to present the gospel One of the things that my daughter commented too Was that she really gained a lot of confidence in her personal soul winning on this trip Simply because she was able to just preach the gospel for so many hours on end That she was able to really get a lot of practice in And just really hone her gospel presentation So it's almost like a soul winning boot camp To just be out there soul winning for like five hours where you're just preaching almost non stop And so it's really good practice It's encouraging And obviously it's you know very important for the people that you're talking to That they find out the truth and get saved So anyway we're super excited about missions in 2025 We're planning on doing a lot of mission strips And we're going to be having a mission strip to the Bahamas in particular From March 23rd to March 28th And so if you need details about that Talk to us and we hopefully can get you out there And you know make it We're making it really economical and easy for people to get out on the mission field for the first time So and there's nothing to be scared about or worried about Because you're in like a really controlled environment Because you're you know the cruise ship is all a controlled environment And then you're only going to be at these foreign countries like in the daytime And you're going to be with other people and everything So you don't feel scared Because let's face it Let's face it when we're going soloing in these places We're not doing it in the really tourist areas We kind of the first thing we want to do is get away from the tourist area And get to where the real people are And so if you're by yourself Or if you don't really know what you're doing That can sometimes be a little bit scary For Americans sometimes to kind of go to a foreign country And then just kind of you know Go out into the scary unknown of some foreign country So you know being a part of a group Or being a part of a trip like this Makes it really easy to experience it Alright enough about that Just wanted to share that though The exciting report about what we accomplished this week By the grace of God And I think that that's about it for announcements So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning From the past few days So going back to Thursday Anything from Thursday Okay Any soul winning from Thursday Yes Okay Got it Okay and then how about Friday Okay Okay and then what about Saturday Gotcha Okay and Oh right We'll put in the number from the online Which was 42 for that Very good And then anything else from Saturday And then how about today Sunday Brother Scott Nine Nine for the main group with Brother Scott Got other groups over here Gotcha Any other teams from today Very good keep up the Yeah I put that on Anything else from today Good day Alright very good Keep up the great work on soul winning It's going to be our greatest year It's already going great And so we're super excited about Continued soul winning Missions Everything Full speed ahead And so thank you for being a part of it Alright let's go ahead and sing our next song Come lead us Alright you should find the insert in front of your hymnal With the hymn entitled Sweeter as the years go by You don't have an insert You can raise your hand and you'll receive one We'll sing it out on that verse together Of Jesus loved that zombie when I was lost in sin Sweeter as the years go by sing it out Of Jesus loved that zombie when I was lost in sin Of wondrous grace that brought me back to this home again Of highs and depths of mercy far deeper than the sea And higher than the heavens my King shall ever be Sweeter as the years go by Sweeter as the years go by Rich or full or deeper Jesus' love is sweeter Sweeter as the years go by Each one and all today A life that went long ago The people talked about him This saving grace to know He healed the broken hearted And caused the blind to see And still his great heart yearned In love for even me Sweeter as the years go by Sweeter as the years go by Rich or full or deeper Jesus' love is sweeter Sweeter as the years go by Twas wondrous love which led him for us To suffer loss to bear Without a murmur the anguish of the cross With saints redeemed in glory Let us our voices raise Till heaven and earth we echo With our bedeepers praise Sweeter as the years go by Sweeter as the years go by Rich or full or deeper Jesus' love is sweeter Sweeter as the years go by Take your hymnals now, turn to hymn number 336 Constantly abiding, hymn number 336 There's a peace in my heart that the world never gave Hymn number 336 Sing those parts if you know them, number 336 There's a peace in my heart that the world never gave A peace they cannot take away Though the trials of life face around like a cloud I'm a peace that has come there to stay Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine Constantly abiding, raptured divine He never leaves me lonely, whispers oh so kind I will never leave thee, Jesus is mine All the world seemed to see Of a Savior and King When peace sweetly came to my heart Troubles all fled away And my night turned to day Blessed Jesus, how glorious thou art Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine Constantly abiding, raptured divine He never leaves me lonely, whispers oh so kind I will never leave thee, Jesus is mine On the last, this treasure I have In a temple of clay While here on this bookstool I've grown But he's coming to take his glorious day Over there to my heavenly home Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine Constantly abiding, raptured divine He never leaves me lonely, whispers oh so kind I will never leave thee, Jesus is mine All right, this time we'll pass our offering plate around. As the plate goes around, let's turn our Bibles to Proverbs chapter 26. Proverbs chapter number 26, as we always do. We'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads. Proverbs chapter 6, starting in verse number 1. Proverbs 26, the Bible reads, As snow in summer and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool. As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet and drinketh damage. The legs of the lame are not equal, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. As he that bindeth a stone and a sling, so is he that giveth honor to a fool. As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. The great God that formed all things, both rewardeth the fool and rewardeth transgressors. As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. Seeth thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets. As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom, it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife not belonging to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. As a madman who cast his firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, Am not I in sport? Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out. So where there is no tail-bearer, the strife ceaseth. As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a tail-bearer are his wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross. He that hateth dissemblest with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him. When he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation. Whoso diggeth the pit shall fall therein, and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. Father, thank you for Faith Ward Baptist Church. Thank you for the opportunity to come and hear your holy and your precious word. I ask that you fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit. Open our hearts and ears to receive your word. I pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Amen. In Proverbs chapter number 26, there's a lot of mention of the fool, his attributes, how to deal with the fool. And this part of the book of Proverbs, starting from chapter 10 all the way up to chapter 29, is a lot of just individual Proverbs. And a lot of these chapters are just sort of an assortment of individual Proverbs. Yet, in certain chapters there will be certain themes that come up over and over again, or certain connecting threads that connect a lot of the Proverbs in that chapter. And so, we're going to spend the entire sermon tonight in Proverbs chapter 26, and we're going to look at some of the attributes of fools and how to deal with fools that we come into contact with in our lives. And, you know, we want to make sure that we're not fools, because, you know, that's one of the big things about the book of Proverbs is it has certain villains, right? The strange woman, the fool, the scorner, the slothful man, right? And then, of course, we want to be wise. We want to be godly, and we want to be the exact opposite of these things. And so, we can apply this by, number one, not being foolish, and number two, dealing with fools properly, staying away from them, etc. So, look if you would, first of all, at verse number one. And the first point that I want to make is that fools should not be lifted up, honored, or celebrated, because fools are an embarrassment. The Bible says in verse one, as snow in summer and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool, right? It isn't appropriate for a fool to be lifted up and honored. They should be shamed because they're an embarrassment, right? And today, in our culture, we have a lot of celebrities and people that are idolized that are just, frankly, stupid people. They're ungodly people. They're unrighteous people. They're foolish people, according to God's word. We should not exalt and celebrate those kind of people. The Bible says in verse number eight, as he that bindeth a stone and a sling, so is he that giveth honor to a fool. So, what the Bible is saying here is that when you do give honor to a fool, you are, in many ways, weaponizing him, right? It's like putting a stone in the sling. You're basically, like, loading his weapon, as it were. And so, when our society lifts up and exalts fools and gives them a platform, puts them on TV, puts them on the radio, platforms them on the internet, and gives them an audience, they're weaponizing them. And, let's face it, if you do stupid things in life, there will always be ungodly people there to cheer lead you as you do wrong, right? If you are going to go against your husband, if you're going to go against your parents, if you're going to go against the church, if you're going to just do all these rebellious, sinful things, there are always going to be those people that are cheer leading you and exalting your foolishness and your folly and basically promoting that lifestyle, whatever you choose, right? And so, they're basically binding the stone and the sling by giving honor to a fool, by saying, you go girl, you drop that zero and get you a hero or whatever, you know, because they want you to leave your husband and whatever. There are always going to be people that want you to just burn it all down and are going to tell you that you're doing the right thing even as you commit all kinds of sins against God and the Bible. And so, we do not want to be lifting up, honoring, or celebrating fools the way this world often does, okay? We want to celebrate and honor those who are wise, righteous, godly people, not ungodly people. Number two, sometimes fools just need to be ignored, okay? The Bible says in verse number four, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him, right? So, therefore, it's tempting sometimes to just argue with idiots on the internet, for example, and just sort of engage with foolish people and argue with them, but the Bible says answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. You don't want to get involved in a stupid conversation that just ends up making you look stupid because you're talking to somebody who's really just that dumb, okay? Now, in the next breath, though, the Bible actually says in verse five, the opposite of what it just said in verse four, right? Because in verse four, it says, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. And so what the Bible is saying here in verse five is that if you don't answer the fool according to his folly, he's going to think that he's smart. He thinks that he won the argument. You know, and I've run into this so many times out soul-winning where I'll knock a door out soul-winning and somebody just wants to argue and they're not really receptive to the gospel. They want to just argue and push their own false religion or whatever. So I usually just want to get out of there. I'm just like friendly, all right, have a great day, see you later. And sometimes they will just want to just follow you down the street and keep arguing or something like that. But a lot of times, as you're walking away, they'll say something along these lines. Yeah, that's right. You don't have an answer, do you? That's what I thought. Yeah, you better walk away. Yeah, because you're wrong or whatever. And sometimes our pride can make us want to just kind of, you know, get back in there and show them that they're wrong and it ends up being a big waste of time. So why are we getting these two contradictory pieces of advice? In verse 4, we've got, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like, you know, because look, if you answer the fool according to his folly, you just get sucked into some stupid conversation. You end up wasting your time and then you end up sounding stupid sometimes just because you're arguing about something stupid. For example, flat earthers, right? The flat earth is so dumb that basically if you try to correct flat earthers, you end up sounding kind of dumb because you're just talking about something that's so obvious to normal people. And I remember the first time I saw someone addressing flat earth from the pulpit, I thought like, that's kind of weird. Like, why are you preaching about that? Like, it's kind of an embarrassment that you're even talking about it. You're kind of dignifying this by even talking about it. But that was because I didn't know that it was like a big thing. And so then, you know, fast forward a few years and I'm preaching a whole sermon against it. You know, and I was that guy answering those fools according to their folly because, you know, but when I first saw it, I was like, is this really necessary? And then a couple years later, I was like, yeah, I guess it is necessary apparently. But that's what I'm talking about, right? You know, you just, you got the one hand answer not a fool according to his folly because you don't want to end up being like him, being stupid, wasting time, getting in a dumb argument. But then answer a fool according to his folly because otherwise he walks away thinking he's right, he's emboldened, maybe other people think he's right. I think that the takeaway here, obviously the Bible is doing this on purpose and there's a point being made by this juxtaposition, this dichotomy, this dissonance between verse four and five. And I think the idea here is you just can't win when you're dealing with idiots. You just, you can't win. It's like if you answer him, it's a pain. If you don't answer him, it's a pain. You just can't win. So it's best to just sort of avoid fools. How about that? Because if you answer him, if you don't answer him, you know, there's pros and cons to both basically. It's kind of a lose-lose situation in some ways, which is why if we go to the New Testament, the Bible says avoid foolish questions. Avoid foolish questions, right? Because, you know, then you're neither answering or not answering. You're just sort of trying to avoid dumb arguments as much as you can. And look, sometimes these things do need to be dealt with, but in general, it's best to just ignore fools, stay away from them, whatever. But sometimes fools do need to be rebuked, don't they? So we said number one, fools should not be lifted up, honored, or celebrated because they're an embarrassment. Number two, sometimes fools just need to be ignored, and that's where verse four would kick in. And number three, sometimes fools need to be rebuked, and that's where verse five comes in. You know, they need to be straightened out, rebuked, corrected, or better yet, sometimes they even need to be physically punished. Okay, look what the Bible says in verse three, a whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back, right? The best thing that would happen for a lot of fools is that they would be whipped, that they would be beaten or caned. Now, unfortunately, we live in a society where that is not really a thing, right? So I'm not suggesting that you go out there and just, you know, start whipping fools and beating fools. Obviously, that's not our place to do that, but in many cases, that's what they need, okay? And ideally, their parents would whip them when they're young, and hopefully whip most of the stupid out of them when they're young, right? Because the Bible says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from it. And so, part of the way that foolishness gets corrected is by parents disciplining their children, okay? Obviously, that's not necessarily going to guarantee all foolishness be gone because, let's face it, even kids who are physically disciplined growing up can still grow up and do and say stupid things. And ultimately, we all occasionally say and do stupid things, right? But we want to have as little foolishness in our life as possible. Why do we want to answer the fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit? Because look at verse 12. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There's more hope of a fool than of him. The only thing worse than the fool is the fool who thinks that he's right. The fool who thinks he's smart, right? At least if someone's dumb and they realize that they're dumb, there's a potential for learning there. And there's a realization, okay, I can grow my knowledge. But what I find is that some of the dumbest people think that they're the smartest. They're wise in their own conceits, right? The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than ten men that can render a reason. And so that's why they need to be corrected and rebuked in many cases. But number four, fools will often misuse parables and other scriptures to their own destruction. Of course, Peter talks about this in his epistle in the New Testament, how people will rest the scriptures. They will twist the scriptures onto their own destruction. And so a lot of stupid people will quote the Bible, but they will quote it wrongly and they will misuse especially the parables of the Bible. Because the parables of the Bible are frankly just the easiest to twist. Clear statements in the Bible are hard to twist. Parables, though, are more open to interpretation and so they can be twisted by fools. Look what the Bible says about this in verse seven. It says the legs of the lame are not equal. So a parable, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. So if you think about a person who one leg is longer than the other, and I think a lot of people have this to an extent, you know, like maybe one leg is like a quarter inch or half inch long and the other. And you end up just kind of adapting and figuring it out and you go to the chiropractor or something and they tell you that you're all goofed up or whatever. So obviously there are minor differences in our body where we're not quite symmetrical. But if you have a really serious discrepancy, it could really cause you problems and cripple you and make it difficult for you to walk or function. And sometimes you'll be out in public and you'll see people that are struggling to walk properly and their legs and feet are not functioning properly. And so when the Bible says the legs of the lame are not equal, the idea here is that they're not the same length. There's a difference in length and this is preventing them from walking correctly. And so the Bible says that a parable in the mouth of fools is like that. So basically one leg is the parable and the other leg is the application where that parable is being applied to a real life situation or a doctrine or whatever. And basically what it's saying is that they don't match. Just like a lame man whose legs don't match, the lengths are different, he can't walk properly, then what the fool is doing is he's taking a parable and applying it to something to which it does not apply. And so it's a wrong use of that parable. And so it says the legs of the lame are not equal, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. Then in verse 9 we have a similar statement, as a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. So the latter half of the verse is identical, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. But this time it's a thorn going up into the hand of a drunkard. Now when you think about a drunk person, you think of them being clumsy, right? Because you think of somebody like stumbling around, staggering around, knocking things over. And so the clumsy drunk man, he ends up taking hold of some kind of a branch or something that has thorns or maybe falling into it or whatever. And he ends up with a thorn going up into his hand, which is obviously painful, harmful, it could get infected, it could cause all kinds of problems. And so the idea here is that if you are a fool and you misuse a parable, right? It's because you're basically being clumsy in your interpretation of that parable. So you're kind of like the drunkard who takes hold of a branch or something and gets a thorn up in his hand. He ends up hurting himself and, you know, he's not accomplishing what he set out to accomplish. And so the idea here is that we need to be careful in our use of parables and not just sloppily or clumsily apply them however we want. And really this could go for all scripture. We need to make sure that we rightly divide the word of truth and not just sloppily grab a verse here, grab a verse here, and just apply in things to situations that are out of their proper context. And look, people will always use the Bible to justify their sin. They'll use the Bible to justify their stupidity. And let me just give an example. You know, one stupid thing that people do is drink alcohol. And it's a folly that a lot of people in our society engage in. It's stupid and wrong, but people, they love to drink, right? You see a lot of drinking in our society. Now you say, well, why do you say that it's stupid? Because the Bible says wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Anybody who is deceived by wine and strong drink is not a wise person. Now what does that mean to be deceived by? It's to somehow think that it's okay. It's not like, oh, I know it's wrong and I'm going to do it anyway. No, no, no, they're deceived by it. They think this is good, this is fun, this is even healthy or whatever. Right? And these lies are out there like, oh, doctors are saying alcohol is good for you. It's not good for you. It's poisonous, it's toxic, it's harmful, and like, oh, a glass of wine is giving you all these vitamins and minerals and antibiotics. Yeah, so does grape juice. All those benefits from the so-called glass of wine are coming from the grape juice, not the alcohol. Okay? And yeah, fermented foods and drinks can have health benefits, but guess what? You can drink and eat plenty of fermented things that are not alcoholic. Like, for example, you can drink kombucha, you can drink vinegar, you can eat yogurt and cheese and other, you know, living foods and cultured foods and sauerkraut and pickles and whatever. You can still get all those same benefits. And, you know, what's funny is that people will then take scripture, twist it, and try to teach that the Bible is promoting the use of alcohol. Like, for example, when the Apostle Paul tells Timothy, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and then often infirmities. Well, first of all, here's the thing. Alcohol is not good for your stomach. Okay? You don't have to be a medical doctor to understand that alcohol is harmful to the stomach. Okay? It's not something that is helping your stomach be better off. Now, look, you know what would be good for your stomach is drinking a little bit of kombucha, you know, or something like that, or just sterilizing water with a little bit of wine. You know, use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, you know, to sterilize something. But at the end of the day, though, you know, telling you to drink the stuff that they're selling down at the grocery store in CVS that's called wine and saying that that's what the Apostle Paul is talking about is not historically accurate. It's foolish and it's just people wanting to engage in drunkenness. Okay? Because, look, if you actually study the ancient world, the history of alcohol, the history of winemaking, the history of these things, you'll find that what we have today in the wine section of the grocery store has a higher alcohol content than anything that would have been available in the ancient world in any situation because it relies on modern technology. Okay? And so modern technology has produced hard liquor. Hard liquor goes back to like the Middle Ages. It's not something that even existed in the Bible times. So in the Bible times, there's no whiskey, cognac, bourbon, vodka, didn't exist in Bible days. That comes from later distillation technology from the medieval period. Okay? What we have in the Bible days is they're making wine not with industrial yeast and all the modern techniques and everything. And sure, they could make an alcoholic beverage that would get you drunk back then. Of course, they made beers and wines and things like that. Hard liquor didn't exist. Okay? That's a modern phenomenon. But they did make beers and wines and the Bible warns you about it and says, look not on the wine when it's red, when it gives its color in the cup, when it moves itself right. It's telling you that there's a certain kind of wine. Don't look at it. Don't drink it. It's red. It gives its color in the cup. It moves itself right. That is a description of fermented wine. Okay? Because it's red because the yeast is on the outside of the grape and so the skin of the grape is what makes the wine red. Because if you actually peel, if you're one of those weird people like me that peels grapes sometimes when you're eating them because you're bored and then eats the skin separately then just pops the naked grape into your mouth, you'll know that the naked grape is green. Right? I mean if you, when you peel a grape it could be purple, red on the outside. It's not red on the inside. It is the skins that give the red color and what happens is if the wine is soaked in the skins then the yeast is there to make red wine and to make alcoholic wine. Now obviously there are white wines because nowadays of course they will, um, you know, squeeze the grape juice and then add yeast and they're using industrial types of yeast and so on and so forth. I'm not going to go into some big lecture about wine making right now but, but, but, oh wait I just did. No I'm just kidding. But anyway, I don't want to go too far off on this subject but at the end of the day, you know, you could even look at ancient texts like the Iliad and the Odyssey where they're talking about diluting their wine 20 to 1. Like 20 parts water to 1 part wine. I mean we're talking about just using a little wine, literally a little wine, just to add a little flavor, to sterilize things, whatever. Not just, and look, even, like I said, even in ancient Greek literature like the Iliad, the Odyssey, other literature, you'll find references to drinking undiluted wine as something that idiots do. And then they're getting drunk and being stupid and stuff like that. So, you know, again, you have to understand that when the Bible says wine, first of all, sometimes it's just a reference to fruit juice because it literally talks about wine being in the cluster of a grape. You know, and so sometimes it's just fruit juice, it could be mildly fermented, it could be very fermented, it could be heavily diluted. You know, you have to read these things in their proper context and I've done whole sermons on wine in the Bible and all these different things and you, you know, feel free to go back and listen to those sermons if you're, if you're confused about the subject or on the fence about the subject. But at the end of the day, though, you know, the fool, he's just going to grab on to, you know, Jesus turned the water into wine, you know, every drunk's favorite Bible story. You know, hey, use a little wine for your stomach's sake. You know, and of course, that's just the parable in the mouth of a fool, right? Just grabbing a hold of some verse that's telling him what he wants to hear and everybody knows at the end of the day that alcohol is not adding value to your life. It's not making you a better Christian. It's not improving your Bible reading. It's not improving your prayer life. It's not making you a better soul winner. It's not helping your marriage. It is not helping your health. You know, of course, oh, doctor said that. First of all, that's been debunked in more recent times. This whole glass of wine with your dinner crap was something from like the 80s and 90s that now they're like, well, actually, you know, there's nothing behind that. Okay. But then, you know, I could also pull out some nice newspaper ads of doctors, you know, promoting Marlboro and saying, hey, this is the healthiest cigarette for you. Marlboro. I could show you a track runner saying, hey, this helps me with my wind. And four out of five doctors, you know, promote camel cigarettes. I mean, those ads, go look it up. But at the end of the day, the word of God, when it's rightly applied, rightly divided, when you actually read the entire Bible and you actually approach it sincerely looking for truth and you're using it properly, you're not going to come away thinking that alcohol is good. Right? You're going to come away thinking that it's bad. Okay. And so, obviously, fools will misuse parables to teach works-based salvation. They'll misuse parables to promote the use of alcohol. They'll misuse parables to teach all kinds of false doctrines and wrong things, which is why we should always base our doctrine on clear statements from the Bible. Every one of our key doctrines should be based on a clear statement from scripture. Parables are there to support the stuff that we already believe because of clear statements. And in fact, parables end up providing more of an emotional connection to a truth or a visceral connection. They help us kind of understand things on a deeper level, but we should already have a clear statement as the foundation for that doctrine. And then the parables are like an icing on the cake to help us have a greater appreciation for the truths that we derive from clear statements. And if the parable is contradicting the clear statement, you're misunderstanding the parable. And you need to go back and revisit the parable in light of the clear statement that we have. And so, fools misuse the Bible. You'll find all kinds of rebellious people. You'll find all kinds of harlots and whoremongers. He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first…right? Just grabbing a Bible verse, throwing it out there, justifying what? Fornication. You can't judge me for being a whore because he that is without sin among…you know. That's a misuse of that story. It's a misuse of scripture to just justify your sin. Right? And you know, that's what people are going to do. Stupid people. And so, you want to make sure that, you know, just because somebody's quoting the Bible at you, first of all, make sure that they're even quoting it right. Because a lot of times people will quote something a little wrong and it'll change the meaning a lot. So, it's always good when somebody is throwing a scripture at you to justify their sin or justify their false doctrine. You know, you should go look it up in the Bible. Make sure it even says that in the first place. Then, number two, you know, actually read the context and make sure that that's even a right application of what is being said. Because the fool is going to apply it to a situation where it doesn't fit, like the legs of the lame that are not equal. And then they will also misuse sloppily, clumsily scripture without actually caring about context or anything like that. So, number four was that fools misuse parables and other scripture. Number five, fools are not trustworthy. You can't trust fools. Look what the Bible says in verse six. He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet and drinketh damage. Okay, so, you know, you rely on someone like, hey, go deliver this message for me. Go do this job for me. Go carry out this task for me. And they're totally unreliable and you end up getting nothing done. Number six, fools do the same stupid things over and over again. Look what the Bible says in verse 11. As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. Right? The fool will just keep doing the same stupid things over and over again. Whereas we, as God's people that are wise, we should be learning from our mistakes. Right? We do something and we make a mistake, we commit a sin, we should learn from our mistakes. It's like, yeah, okay, maybe you used to drink or maybe you used to sleep around or maybe you used to be a gambler. But you've learned from those things. You've learned from your mistakes. You're growing and 2025 you're going to do better than 2024. You're going to do better than you did 10 years ago or 15 years ago. You're learning and growing. But stupid people, they just keep going back and just doing the same stupid things over and over again. We need to learn from our mistakes. Figure out where things went wrong. Correct things that need to be corrected. Use the Word of God to not keep doing the same stupid things. Not, you know, not fall back into the same cycles of whatever. Okay? But number seven, fools are lazy. Okay? And this is part of the reason why they're dumb. And being a fool and being lazy go hand in hand throughout the Book of Proverbs. Why? Because people that are lazy, they don't spend time learning. They're too lazy. Right? They don't want to read. They don't want to study. They don't want to go to school. They don't want to do their home school. Right? What do they want to do? They just want to sit around and rot their brain on TV, comic books, cheap entertainment, sit around and not do anything. Right? Because think about it. It's hard work. Much study is a weariness of the flesh. Reading the Bible is work. Memorizing Scripture is work. And guess what? Reading the Bible and memorizing the Bible is going to give you wisdom. Going to church is going to give you wisdom. If you're too lazy to get your butt down here three times a week, right? Because you're just like rather just lay there on the couch and just do whatever. And then you're too lazy to get your brain tuned in to like a sermon or the word of God or something or at least something intelligent, maybe like an intelligent audio book or a lecture or something you listen to and learn something. You know, it's just so much easier to just turn on some kind of cargo boom kind of, you know, entertainment, just, you know, whatever, like kind of cheap thrills that you can watch. Fools are lazy. And people that are kind of dumb and people that are lazy, like these things go hanging out. They're connected. Right? Because while some people were in school as a kid, like actually reading the textbook, doing the math, doing the work, you know, other kids are just fooling around. You think the intelligence is going to be the same when they walk across that platform in 12th grade? It's not going to be the same. If you're lazy and you're cheating, right, and you're not doing the schoolwork and you're cheating your way through, you know, you're cheating yourself. You're the one who's going to end up being dumb in the long run. Look what the Bible says in verse 13. It says, the slothful man saith, there's a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets. Right? Just always finding an excuse for why he can't go to work, why he can't learn, why he can't study. Got all kinds of excuses. As the door turneth upon his hinges, so does the slothful man upon his bed. Right? So when he wakes up in the morning, instead of getting up and reading his Bible, getting up and exercising, reading a book, going to work, getting a job. Right? He just kind of rolls over and goes back to sleep. Just flops over, or just lays around, just flops around like a door on its hinges. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom. It grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. The idea here is just kind of an exaggeration of laziness that he's so lazy, it kind of wears him out just picking up food and putting it in his own mouth. It's just too much work. You know, it's like a weightlifting to do that. And then it says, the sluggard, right? Sluggard is the slothful man, the lazy man. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. So the lazy man is smarter in his own mind. He thinks he's smarter than seven actual intelligent people. He's seven times smarter than the average man. And you'll find that homeless people, according to them, are some of the smartest people in the world. You know, and I mean, we had this one homeless guy that showed up here. And he had the cure to all the world's diseases. He was going to fix the energy crisis, you know. He was going to bring about world peace if we could just give him like 200 bucks. He was going to be able to fix everything. And I feel kind of bad, because like, we could have fixed everything like 10 years ago if we would have just given the guy the 200 bucks. You think this stuff would be going on with Russia and Ukraine right now? If we would have given this guy 200 bucks, you know, it'd be a totally different story in Palestine and Israel right now. You know, but these people just, they think they're super smart. And you got all these kind of internet warrior, keyboard warrior types that have just got all these wild conspiracies. And I know that some of the conspiracies are real, I get that. But then you got the wild stuff that's just, you know, these people just have it all figured out, you know. And really they're just too lazy to do any real study, real work. And you know what's funny, some of these people with these really wild ideas, sometimes if you take them aside and say, hey look, you know, if you're going to talk about this subject, here's a book you can read that'll actually teach you about this subject. And then, you know, you talk to them six months later and they haven't read the book. They're too lazy. And plus they already know everything, you know, from YouTube. And so, fools are lazy. So what have we learned so far? Let me just do a real quick review. Number one, fools should not be lifted up, honored, or celebrated. They're an embarrassment. Sometimes they just need to be ignored, right? Sometimes they need to be rebuked, or better yet, they need a whipping. But unfortunately our society's not going to whip them. Four, they often will misuse parables and other scripture, twist them for their own benefit, quote unquote, although they're really harming themselves. It's really a thorn going up into their own flesh at the end of the day. I mean, they're the ones that are going to stumble down the stairs and hurt themselves with their stupidity in mishandling scripture. Number five, fools are not trustworthy. They're not reliable. They're not the kind of people that you want working for you as an employee because they're not going to get the job done. You can't rely on them. Number six, they do the same stupid things over and over again. They don't learn from their mistakes. They just keep repeating the same sinful patterns. Number seven, they're lazy, and this is part of the reason why they're dumb. They're too lazy to do any real study or learning. But number eight, fools love harmful pranks, quote unquote. They love pranks and inappropriate humor. Look what the Bible says in verse 17. He that passeth by and meddles with strife, belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. As a madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbor and saith, Am not I in sport? Now, don't miss this, okay? He deceives his neighbor and then says, Hey, man, aren't I just kidding? Am I not in sport? Isn't this funny? Isn't it a joke? And you know what this makes me think of? So-called pranking. Pranks, right? You deceive someone and then you just say, Oh, you know, it's just a joke. I was just kidding. It's just a prank. Am I not in sport? But notice that the Bible compares this person who does that to a madman, a crazy person, who is casting firebrands, arrows, and death, right? So this is like a crazy person who's just throwing molotov cocktails and grenades. I mean, what does that make you think of? He's casting firebrands, arrows, basically he's just shooting a gun indiscriminately, just firing arrows randomly. Random acts of violence is what we're talking about. And so what the Bible says here is that the man who deceives his neighbor and says, Oh, I'm just kidding. Am I not in sport? Is compared to a person who commits random acts of violence. A crazy person who's just throwing grenades and molotov cocktails, firebrands, arrows, death, right? And look, these are some of the most wicked people in the world, people who just kind of perpetrate random acts of violence. You know, what am I talking about random acts of violence? Well, you think about actual random acts of violence. What about sometimes you'll hear about these kids will like, you know, drop a boulder on the freeway or something. And cause some horrible car accident, right? And other maybe less damaging but still just wicked things that people do, like this weird like ice cream challenge. Where young people were going into grocery stores, taking the lid off the ice cream, licking it and then putting the lid back on. And filming it and putting it on social media, ha ha. That's gross and unsanitary. And you know, you could get somebody sick or whatever doing that, I mean that isn't right. And it's just, you know what, it's a mentality of just I don't care who I hurt. It's wicked, right? You know, you think about what some of the people have done to our church where they, you know, they want to punish us or something. So they would list a bunch of items for sale for a really good deal with our address and whatever and phone number. And then people are coming to our house to pick up the aquarium and they're coming to our house to pick up all these items that don't exist. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, that was a little bit annoying for me to have to come to the door and tell these people, no, sorry, I don't have that 60 gallon aquarium that you're here for. But who did they really hurt the most? They actually really hurt the most, the person who drove across town to pick up that item. And it just goes to show that, yeah, we want to harass and annoy Pastor Anderson but we don't mind just hurting random innocent people too in the process and hurting them a hundred times more just to hurt Pastor Anderson. We're going to waste Pastor Anderson's time for 30 seconds. It'll be so funny but we'll waste 30 minutes of this guy's time or an hour of this guy's time and all these people are driving to our house to pick up stuff that doesn't exist. Right? A-ha-ha. Real funny. Or like ordering pizzas and having them delivered to our church. Now here's the thing, you know, when the pizza guy shows up and we didn't order it, you know, at the end of the day, it seems like the person that would get hurt is more the pizza place than us. But we don't want to hurt the pizza place so even though we didn't order it, we just pay for the pizza and eat it. Because we don't want to just hurt some random pizza guy. We don't want him to not, you know, to just waste his time and we're wasting his company's time and all this stuff. But it just goes to show you that these people don't care about just perpetrating random acts of hostility toward strangers. It's wicked. It's ungodly. It shows the lack of empathy for your fellow man, you know, of what it's like to work at a pizza place or to try to buy something on the internet. Look, if somebody's passionate about tropical fish or something, why do we want to punish them? By sending them on a wild goose chase. Do you want somebody to waste an hour of your time? It's annoying. And look, people do this. They list a bunch of fake things for sale. Ha-ha, they're listing motorcycles and cars and aquariums for real cheap. Ha-ha, isn't that funny? No, it isn't. It isn't funny to deceive your neighbor and then say, oh, am I not in sport? You're just hurting people for no reason. Now, there's one guy in particular that I want to bring up and I want to get on. And I was, you know, I knew that this guy was a so-called comedian, you know, Christian comedian. And, you know, I knew that this guy was unfunny. But I did not realize how bad this guy's videos were until he made some videos attacking me and mocking me. Then I started, like, looking at his channel out of just a morbid curiosity. And this guy's videos are super wicked and I just couldn't even believe the wickedness of this guy's videos. I'm not even going to say his name because I'm not even going to promote his crap. I'm not even going to celebrate, lift up, and honor him by even giving him a pulpit mention because he doesn't deserve it. But this idiot, this bozo Christian comedian guy, okay, has this channel where, and by the way, I found videos like this that were, like, a couple months old as well as, like, five years old. So it's like this has been going on for a long time and it's still going on to this day. But one of the, I clicked on just a few of the videos. And keep in mind, this guy's married with children and he's going out and basically just hitting on women as a prank. So bro is married. I mean, how would you ladies like your husband saying, Oh, this is what I do for a living. I'm a Christian comedian. I'm an influencer. I'm a YouTuber. I'm going to go out and hit on women on camera. You think that that is what little girls want to marry when they grow up? I don't care how much he's making. You should have enough dignity as a woman to be totally embarrassed and humiliated by that, no matter how much money he brings in on the ad revenue from all the weird, numb, idiot morons. It's so funny. It's not funny at all. It's stupid. But like, I watched this video. He walks up to some random girl on a college campus, right? And this girl on the college campus, like, she wasn't ugly, but she wasn't beautiful either. She was just kind of just an average whatever. You know, she was just, she just seemed like a nice person, just a nice girl. There's nothing wrong with her, but she was a little overweight, you know, but she looked fine. But she wasn't gorgeous. She's just going, she's just living her life, going about her business, going to school. She's not hurting anybody. Leave her alone. Leave her alone, right? He goes up to her. Oh, man, you're so beautiful. And he's like getting her number and stuff on camera and hitting on her. And then the video just ends. That's it. That's the video. The video is just him hitting on this girl, just telling her how beautiful she is and how into her he is and everything, trying to get her number, whatever. And then I guess the punchline is just, ha ha, this girl's not that pretty and she thought that he was really into her or something. What, like, why would you just put this hurtful video online just making this random girl feel bad where, because, like, she's thinking it's real, right? So, like, think about it. Think about it. You're an average college girl. You're going through your life. Maybe you don't get a lot of attention from guys. And this guy comes up to you. He's giving you all this attention and you think it's real, only to find out later from your friends or something, oh, you were on YouTube. That guy was just making fun of you. That's just super hurtful and wrong and it wasn't funny at all. It was just like, you know, I did not even crack a smile at any of these videos because they're just not funny. I think if a normal person watched that video, because I know I'm normal and I watched it and this is how I reacted, so this is how a normal person reacted, I was just thinking the whole time, man, I feel so bad for this girl. Like, she just seems like a nice girl and why is he just embarrassing and humiliating this girl for no reason? She's just a nice, normal girl, you know, and it's like you're just acting like you love her. You know, some guy probably will someday really think she's beautiful and really love her and actually care about her, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, because favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. And you know what? There's more to life than just your physical appearance. So why do we just have to just act like, oh, this woman isn't that pretty or something? So what? And I'm sure somebody thinks she's pretty and somebody will marry, but I'm just watching this and I'm just thinking, like, this is sad. This is an embarrassment. And then I'm seeing all the likes, all the comments, oh, this is so funny. I'm just thinking, like, is this world just filled with idiots? Is there any hope for the human race? Are we going to make it as humans? You know, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? You're just like, what the heck is wrong with people? And I mean, it's just hundreds of videos like this. I mean, it's like he's hitting on women in the grocery store. Ha ha. And obviously, a lot of them think it's real. So he's hitting on these women in the grocery store, hitting on women in the drive-thru, hitting on women in the park, hitting on, he's just, he's just flirting with women. Videos from five years ago and five minutes ago where he's just flirting with women. You know, and I'm just thinking to myself, is this guy committing adultery? Because he's pretending, he's pretending that he wants to commit adultery every day on video. So if he's just pretending that he wants to commit adultery with all these women, you know, I wonder if this is just a smokescreen from actually going out and committing a bunch of adultery. And then if he gets caught, it's just like, oh, I was just making, I was just practicing for my next video. Right? Say, oh, you know, that's a railing accusation. I'm not saying that he's doing it, but I'm saying abstain from all appearance of evil. If you're a married man and you're going out and hitting on women all day on camera, I'm going to assume you're an adulterer. Just like if you're a man and a woman and you're living together and you're not married, I'm going to assume that you're living in fornication. Right? Oh, we live together, we sleep in the same bed, but it's all platonic, you know. We're waiting until we get married. Right. You see what I'm saying? And you know what, these kind of random acts of violence of just pranking people. And look, here's a good little rule of thumb for your stupid prank videos is if they're hurting people, they're not funny. If they're hurting, look, I understand, look, I can understand a joke just like the next guy. Ha ha, it's a joke, you know. You know what, it's fun if everybody's laughing and everybody's having a good time and nobody gets hurt. But you know, hurting people's feelings, making fun of people, humiliating them, and that's what these videos are. They're not funny, they're stupid, and they're comparable to random acts of violence. When you are deceiving your neighbor and then saying, oh, am I not in sport, I was just kidding, it was just for fun. You know, first of all, it's just a low intellect way to have fun. It's kind of a dumb, idiotic entertainment that maybe I would have thought was funny maybe when I was a fetus, but probably like, I don't know, junior high or something. But it's like, grow up! Grow up! It isn't funny. You know, and I remember, look, when I was a teenager, I participated in pranks because, you know, teenagers are just young and stupid and they do this stuff. And I can remember, like, some harmless pranks that I would do. Like, I used to rig up my brother's bedroom to where my brother would walk into his bedroom and he would flip on the light switch and I would basically connect a record player to that switched outlet and have a song, like, queued up at a weird part or something so that he would just flip his light switch and it would just be like some weird song would come on or something or just a weird part. Or just like a certain, like, I don't know why, but for some reason, I had it rigged up for years. I would just keep doing this as a joke where every time he'd go in his room and flip on the switch, it would say, Exodus movement of the people. You know, I don't know why that song just struck us funny, but I would just always have that little 45 of that song ready to flip on. You know, it's like, haha, that's funny. Like, it was just like, nobody got hurt, right? But then, you know, I remember I'd be at this other friend's house and we'd do this other prank where, like, we'd always be putting stuff on top of the door so that when the babysitter would come in, like, a stuffed animal would fall on her head or something, you know. And that was pretty harmless. But then one time, bro put batteries on the door and then she opens the door and, like, a battery falls on her head. Like, that wasn't funny. It's like a D battery or something landing on somebody's head isn't really, you know, it's like, oh, you know, that's not funny. It's like, because teenagers are sometimes stupid and taking things too far or something. But here's the thing. When, you know, something, when my brother switched the lights, everybody laughed. It was just like, haha, you know, whatever. But when you're hurting people, humiliating people, embarrassing people, or making women who are often already insecure about their appearance or insecure about their bodies or whatever, and then you're just making them feel bad, like, as if this guy would actually be dating you. And I'm thinking, this guy is such a piece of crap that's dating, that's flirting with you. Like, the joke is that you would ever be interested in this worthless piece of crap. Let's just say his name, Cassidy Campbell. This worthless piece of crap, Cassidy Campbell, would be a bane on any woman that's with him. I feel bad for his wife. His wife should be embarrassed and humiliated and ashamed that her husband goes out flirting with other women on camera. Yeah, and thank you. Who said that? And he makes all these videos where he acts like a fag. He makes all these videos where he pretends to be a fag. It's not funny. It's not funny at all. It's just gross. It's just weird. It's just uncomfortable. But look, just pranking people and stuff, you know what, when in doubt, don't do it. You know, occasionally there will be something funny that will happen and you know that the person that you're joking with, and look, you go through life and you find out there's certain people you can joke with and people that don't want you to joke with them. My wife does not like being joked with. She does not want to be pranked at all, ever, for any reason. So she probably is enjoying this part of the sermon because she feels this way. Because my wife does not like that kind of humor at all. You know, other people, maybe you know, hey, if I play this little trick on them, it'll be funny. We'll all laugh or whatever. But you know what, if you're playing tricks on random people, no. Because you don't know what they're going through. You don't know what's going on. And you know what, I've seen this backfire. I've seen somebody joke around or prank somebody. Like one time, you know, a teenager just kind of like knocked a hat off of a stranger as a joke. Like, do you mind if I just do it as a demonstration? Because you're wearing a hat. I'm not being a jerk like that. But you know, just kind of, like, just some teenager just kind of walks up to a random guy and just kind of like, something like that. And I've seen that guy just grab him and just, okay, now grab me and hurt me. No, I'm just kidding. No, no, no. Alright, somebody give him back his hat. But basically, you know, and I saw, because sometime you're going to do this to the wrong person. You know, and I saw a teenager knock a hat off a guy's head. I saw the guy just grab this kid and just slam him. Like, don't ever do it, you know. Or, you know, or you'll see one teen do it to another teen. And then I saw just like a Samaritan. I don't know if I want to call him a good Samaritan. He was this kind of a Samaritan, you know, that basically just grabbed the teenager and started chastising him, you know, for what he did. And because, and the guy did not think it was funny at all. He was screaming, don't pick on this kid and whatever, you know. And you'll, eventually you're going to prank the wrong person. But forget that. What you should really think is whether God is pleased with you out humiliating and embarrassing and shaming your own wife and just random people in the process. Just casting arrows, firebrands, and death. Oh, and then by the way, and then lecturing me on my marriage and my child rearing. Yeah, I'll be listening to you real soon, you worthless piece of crap. Think about it. Somebody like going out doing all those kinds of evil, harmful, hurtful pranks, acting like a faggot for fun. Please tell me how to be a better husband. You're a loser. You're a disgrace. And you know what? The idiots who are clicking thumbs up, share, like, subscribe, you know what they're doing? They're giving honor to a fool. They're binding the stone in his sling. And you know what? If you watch that and laugh at it and think like, oh yeah, I mean it is kind of funny, you know, watching him, you know, flirting with this chubby girl or whatever. You know what? You're also a partaker of his evil deeds when you're hitting like and share and subscribe and haha and oh, this is funny and whatever. It's not funny. Grow up. Quit being a fool. Alright, beloved, let's move on to the next point. But fools, they love these like harmful pranks and inappropriate humor. Fools make a mock at sin. You know, so they're going to upload a 10-minute video or a 2-minute video where they're just acting like a sodomite. Like, why would you want to watch a man? Look, if I wanted to watch a man act like a sodomite, couldn't I just watch all kinds of Hollywood movies that would show me that? You know, and by the way, that's how Hollywood started pushing their homo agenda. All the way back, there's black and white movies where you have guys dressing up like women and all this stuff and it's just like haha. And then they, this is what they did. They started out getting you to make fun of homos and laugh at it and impersonate it and make a joke where they're just eh, you know, whatever and doing all this stuff. Then, after they get you to laugh at it, then they start getting you to feel sorry for them. Like, oh, the poor guy, he's getting made fun of, he's getting laughed at, whatever. You know, it's all just like a psy-op to get you desensitized to it, to get you to enjoy it or look at it or get used to it and then now we have a society that's starting to gradually accept the worst perversion. And so I know how we're going to fix it. Let's get a Christian comedian to pretend to be a homo. That's how we're going to fix it. No, what we need is some leather-lung hellfire and damnation preaching from the Bible. Rebuking sodomy, not, leh, let's pretend to be a sodomite and let's approach people in public and pretend to be a homo and pretend to be a gangster and pretend to flirt with them and pretend to do this. It's not funny. And so, again, as a madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbor and saith, I'm not iron sport. Well, God looks down and you know what God's saying? It ain't funny. You're insane. You're a madman casting firebrands, arrows, and death is what you are. You're not a comedian. You are a fool. And my last point is this, verse 10, the great God that formed all things, both rewarded the fool and rewarded transgressors, ultimately fools will be punished by God. Ultimately fools will be punished by God, right? You go through life just committing all these sins, twisting scripture, harming innocent people, being a slob at your job, being lazy, being unreliable, untrustworthy, because what are fools like? They're untrustworthy, they twist scripture, they do the same things over and over again, they're lazy, and they also love harmful pranks and inappropriate humor. They love dirty jokes and inappropriate humor. Now look, again, none of us is perfect when it comes to wisdom, right? We could talk about just the most extreme examples of folly and stupidity of like the so-called Christian comedian with his harmful prank videos on one end of the spectrum, right? And then, obviously, the godly, spirit-filled, soul-winner on the other side, he the wind of souls, is wise, amen? You know, but there's a whole spectrum, and obviously all of us have our foolish moments. I'm not saying that I'm sinless, and I know that everybody in this room could think of something stupid that they've done in their life. You know, I'm not the one that put the batteries on the door, but I was there, and I, you know, and I was hiding, watching her to walk in, watching the babysitter walk in and get the batteries laying on her head. I didn't do anything to stop it, you know, so I was participating in that stupidity, right? But I was, you know what, but the idea is you should be growing out of those kind of idiotic things, and the younger you can grow out of that kind of stupidity, the better, okay? I'm not saying that I'm perfect, but you know what? We should all be striving for wisdom. We should be in the book of Proverbs, learning how to be wise. We should be educating ourselves every day in the word of God, hanging around with people who elevate us mentally, not people who make us stupider by spending time with them, with their stupid humor. And look, I'm not against humor. I like to have fun as much as the next guy, but you know what? Let's have some intelligent fun. Let's have clean fun. Let's have fun that doesn't hurt people, okay? And let's get around people that elevate us mentally, not drag us down to stupidity where we're dumber every time we talk to them. Okay, rotting our brains on a bunch of just foolish entertainment and things. No, you need to stop being lazy and hit the books, hit the word of God, hit the job site. Be serious. Be a serious person. You know what? I remember, you know, my old pastor in Sacramento, you know, is not a fan of me, of course, unfortunately. But I remember one compliment that he gave me one time that stuck with me is he one time said from the pulpit, life is not a joke to him. He's serious. Like, life is serious to him. That was like one positive pulpit mention that I got from my pastor by name. And I remember thinking like, amen. And somebody told me, they're like, hey, you know, he brought you up in a sermon. This is like right after I'd started the church. And they said, hey, you got, you know, you got brought up in a sermon and, you know, positively as being a person who takes life really seriously and is not messing around and life is not a joke to him. And when somebody told me, I was like, yeah, that's right, man. That's exactly how I am. You know, because look, we need to take life seriously. And look, I like to have fun. I like to joke around. I'm not lifting myself up as the perfect example of being super wise. I've done stupid things. I've been silly at times as well. But you know what? I do want to be known as a serious person. I don't want to be known as a joke. I want to be taken seriously. And you should want to be taken seriously as well. You don't want to be like Lot where he goes to tell his sons-in-law, hey, we got to get out of here. God's going to destroy it. And they just think, oh, he's a Christian comedian. This is another joke. Good old Lot. They thought it was a joke. When Lot's telling them, hey, God's going to destroy the city. Good one, Lot. Why? Because Lot's a person that you couldn't take seriously. He didn't know when there's a time to put joking aside and get serious and be serious so he couldn't be taken seriously. And we need to be serious people. And we want people to take us seriously in life. And especially when we preach the gospel to people. We want them to take us seriously. We want to have a life that says, hey, this is a real person. And you know what? Here's another thing that kind of cracks me up is you got the Babylon Bee. And I think we've all kind of enjoyed some of their humor. I think some of their humor is funny. It was on point and whatever. I'm not saying that everything that they put out is bad. But they've done some stuff attacking me before. And none of it was true. Like they did something attacking me acting like I was a ruckmanite that says that the King James is superior to the Greek and Hebrew and stuff like that. You know what I mean? Like they were totally just twisting everything about me. And they were mocking somebody else but saying that they're mocking Stephen Anderson because I didn't recognize the guy that they're mocking because guess what? I'm not like that. You know, I'm not one of these ruckmanites that believes that the English corrects the Greek or whatever. But they've had maybe, I don't know, two or three things making fun of me over the years. I don't remember. But here's the thing about them though is that like you can say like, okay, yeah, some of the political stuff is funny and yeah, some of it's funny. Just like, you know, harmless or whatever. But at the end of the day though, is that really what you want to spend your life doing? Like, hey, I just want to get millions of followers so that I can just make fun of everything. I'll make fun of church. I'll make fun of preachers. I'll make fun of, you know, false prophets but I'll make fun of good preachers too. Make fun of church. Make fun of the youth group. Make fun of preaching. Make fun of hymns. Let's make fun of this. So it's like, yeah, they're making fun of a lot of bad stuff but then they also just, they're just kind of making fun of church in general sometimes. And just kind of making fun of evangelical Christians in general sometimes. Just kind of making fun of it. And yeah, some of it might be harmless but at the end of the day, really, that's what you spend your life doing? So what do you do? I'm just a full-time idiot. Full-time clown. I'm a full-time jester. Right? You know what? You're like these guys in the middle ages or something. The clown. The court jester. The village idiot that we can all laugh at you. It's like, you know what? I'm sorry but I hope that you want to do a little more with your life than that. So you young people that want to have a career as a Christian comedian, why don't you hang that up and be a Christian preacher of the Word of God? If you're so good at communicating with your mouth, why don't you preach the gospel to every creature? Why don't you preach the unsearchable riches of Christ? Because at the end of the day, there's not going to be a trophy in heaven for the most gags online. The funniest satire of the Republicans or Democrats or the funniest jokes about youth leaders and youth activities. And you know what? Some of their humor maybe gets it right. Some of it gets it wrong. And at the end of the day, I'm sorry but I don't want to live my life as a joke. And look, there was a time when I was a kid when I literally wanted to grow up and be a stand-up comedian. And it's just like, man, I'm so glad that I didn't pursue that path. Even if I was a Christian comedian, a clean comedian, it's like, you know what? I want to do something serious with my life. Because you know, people are dying and going to hell. I'm not just going to sit around with a bunch of buddies laughing about it every day. Let's make fun of church more. No, man. There's a time to laugh. There's a time to mourn. And so, yeah, laughter has its place. Humor has its place. Jokes have their place. And I'm not against humor. I think that God has a sense of humor. I think there are some things in the Bible that are hilarious. I think the Book of Jonah is hilarious. The Book of Jonah has a lot of comedy in it. There's no question about that. I've never seen any theologian or Bible preacher try to claim that there's nothing funny in that book. I mean, it seems like most people agree that there are some humorous elements throughout the Bible. But you know what? We need to know what is appropriate and what is not. And we need to have the wisdom and the discretion to know that when you're making fun of innocent people that you don't even know. It's one thing for Elijah to mock the prophets of Baal, who are false prophets that should be killed, who do get killed like a few minutes later. It's like, oh, Elijah mocked them. They're dead in like an hour anyway. They didn't have to get humiliated for that long because they ended up being killed minutes later. But that's the difference of, hey, let's just go make fun of a random girl on a college campus because she's not that pretty. What is that? Right? And so, all that to say this, do not be a fool. Seek wisdom. Live a serious life. Take life seriously. And don't be lazy. Work. Learn. Study. Improve. Grow. Don't be that fool that just keeps returning to your folly like a dog returns to his vomit. Grow. Change. Improve. Do better this year. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. We thank you so much for the book of Proverbs in particular. Help us all to take its wisdom to heart. And Lord God, help us not to just rot our brains on stupid humor all day. And help us to realize that, yeah, there might be a time when we could joke around and have fun and be merry, but help us also to spend some time in the house of mourning. And help us also to get serious and do something serious with our lives and be people that the world can take seriously as ambassadors for Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen, if you need the hymnal, 133, safe wherever I go. We'll sing it twice and be dismissed. 133, safe wherever I go. Safe wherever I go. Peace the world can not know. Safe wherever I go. Peace the world can not know. Safe wherever I go. Man, good singing tonight. We are dismissed. We are dismissed.