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Part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is beginning there in verse number 6 where the Bible reads, But let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. And the title of the sermon this morning is double-minded and unstable. Now this is a great illustration that the Bible gives here when it says he that wavereth is like a wave. In fact, that's where the word waver comes from. He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. What do waves do? They go back and forth, back and forth. You know the tide comes in, it goes out. And God is using that to illustrate a person who keeps going back and forth on a decision instead of just locking in on something and being stable and steadfast and unmovable. They waver and they go back and forth because they're double-minded. They're halting between two opinions. The Bible says they're like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. You see this type of person is controlled by exterior circumstances. Instead of doing what needs to be done, doing what's right, you know, taking the path that God wants them to take, no matter what the obstacles are, this person is tossed to and fro with circumstances. This person is tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, perhaps, and the cunning craftiness whereby false teachers lie in wait to deceive. They're unstable. And the Bible has a really strong warning in verse number eight when it says, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, but look at verse seven, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. That shows you that God does not have patience for a person who's double-minded and unstable. He's saying, look, you're not going to get anything from me. I'm not going to answer your prayers. You need to get in or get out. You need to make a decision and not be indecisive and go back and forth. Genesis 49.4, you don't have to turn there, but in Genesis 49.4, when Jacob is speaking to his children, he says to his son, Reuben, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. He's unstable as water. Why? Because water just sloshes around. He said, you're as unstable as water and therefore, you'll not excel. You're never going to excel being unstable. You're not going to receive anything of the Lord. You're double-minded. You're like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Go to Hebrews chapter number 11. Hebrews chapter number 11, it's right next to the book of James. Hebrews is then James. Go to Hebrews 11. And while you're turning there, I'll read for you from 1 Kings 18, verse 21, when Elijah is on Mount Carmel and says unto all the people, how long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him, not a word. So they're still not ready to make a decision. Look at Hebrews chapter 11, verse 14. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is in heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. Now the Bible gives great examples in Hebrews chapter 11 of people that were not double-minded. You know, when Abram left Ur of the Chaldees, and when he went to the Promised Land, he never looked back. He was not mindful of the country from whence he came out. If he had been, he might have had opportunity to have returned. But then there's another bad example of the children of Israel who left Egypt, and then they kept vacillating back and forth, saying, hey, let's make us a captain and go back to Egypt. They were mindful of the country from whence they came out of, and then they had many opportunities to think about returning, and saying, well, maybe we should go back. Then when they get to the edge of the Promised Land, and God has already promised them the victory over and over again, Moses is there as a great leader. Caleb and Joshua are there as great leaders. Then they get to the edge of the Promised Land, and ten wicked spies come back and disturb the people by telling them, oh, we can't do this. It's too hard. It's too difficult. The enemy's too strong. And then the people change their mind again and say, okay, let's not go into the Promised Land. Let's just stay in the wilderness. Let's just go back to Egypt instead of just setting their face like a flint at the goal and getting there no matter what. They were double-minded. And then, of course, God punished them by forcing them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until that whole generation died, and then their children were allowed to enter in the Promised Land. But the funniest thing about that story is that when God tells them no, because you've grumbled and complained, because you've changed your mind, and because you would not go into the Promised Land when I told you to, you're cursed with wandering the wilderness for 40 years. Then they changed their mind again and said, no, God, you're right. We want to go to the Promised Land. Then they go up presumptuously and try to get themselves into the Promised Land, and they're defeated in battle. But just the back and forth is unbelievable, from just they're with Moses, they're with the Lord, now they want to go back to Egypt, now they're with Moses, now they don't want to go in the Promised Land, now they do. This back and forth, it irritates God. That's why Joshua chapter 24 says, and if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Make a decision. Look, if you want to worship false gods, do it. If you're going to worship God, do it. But do something, make a decision. Go to Daniel chapter 3, Daniel chapter number 3. I love the song, I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. That's the best line in that song, no turning back. Once you've decided to follow Jesus, there's no turning back. We as Christians need to burn our bridges behind us and decide, look, I'm going the way of the Lord, I'm going to be in church, I'm a fundamental Baptist, I'm a Bible-believing Christian, I'm not a liberal, I'm not soft, I'm not watered down, I'm not half in, half out, I'm not using the NIV, I'm not going to an NIV or New American Standard Preaching Church, I am going to be a King James, Bible-believing, fundamental Baptist, I'm going to be out soul-winning, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to be a man, look, we need to decide who we are and we need to stay with it and not waver. We need to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. In the book of Daniel, we have great examples of steadfast men of God who did not waver, they were not double-minded, they were single-minded, they knew what they believed, they knew where they stood and nothing could move them. Here's a great example in Daniel chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are faced with the fiery furnace and the Bible says in verse 14, Nebuchadnezzar spake and said to them, is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not you serve my gods nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now if you be ready that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sack-butt, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the image which I have made, well, but if you worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace, and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we're not careful to answer thee in this matter. Now what are they saying there? We're not careful. We don't have to sit here and have a conference about it and have a meeting and figure out and decide exactly how we're going to answer you and be real careful how we answer you. They're saying, look, this is a no-brainer. We don't need time to deliberate. We don't need time to think. We already know the answer. All three of us are in one accord. We all agree if it be so, verse 17, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, from the burning fiery furnace. And he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up. This is not a decision that they made on the spot. They didn't just right there on the spot just decide, we're not doing it. They had already premeditated this. They had already thought about it. They had already decided, look, when that image is set up, we're not going to worship it. We're not going to do it. And if it means being burned alive in a fiery furnace, then you know what? Go ahead and throw us in the fiery furnace. And if God chooses to deliver us, great. But if not, we're still not going to because we'd rather burn than bow. And that ought to be our philosophy. We ought to be just steadfast and just solid on what we believe and where we stand and not just toss to and fro. The sad thing is today, and go back to Daniel chapter one. The sad thing today is that people waver for a lot less than a fiery furnace these days. I mean, preachers will waver just because some lady in the church got mad. Some damsel in the church got mad about their sermon and they're wavering and they're nervous and scared. We need some preachers with some backbone that can stand up for what's right. Even when faced with a fiery furnace, they're faced with losing a little money or losing a tithing deacon or you're losing some important church member or losing some fame or popularity or losing some friends or getting a little made fun of. I mean, these guys are faced with a fiery furnace and they say, we're not careful to answer thee in this matter. We're not double minded. We know where we stand. No waves are going to toss us and push us around. You know, Jesus Christ is the master of the sea. He stood in the waves and wind of Galilee when the disciples are scared and saying, Lord, save us. We perish. And he says, why were you fearful? Oh, you have little faith. Jesus commands the waves and the sea, and that's not just the literal waves and sea that Jesus commands. He commands the waves and the seas of our life. Any bad thing that happens to us as far as attacks or persecution, you know what? God allowed that stuff to happen because God can protect us from a lot of that stuff, but he chooses to allow a lot of that stuff through to test us and try us and bring us through trials and tribulations and make us stronger. Okay. The Bible teaches that he will not allow us to be tempted or tested above that we're able. He won't try us above what we can handle. There's always a way of escape that we might be able to endure that temptation. Look at Daniel chapter one, verse eight, the Bible reads, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now why would it be wrong for him to eat the meat and drink the wine? You know, I believe that this is meat sacrificed unto idols because obviously the Bible throughout teaches us that eating meat is fine, but it's just a question of meat sacrificed unto their false gods. There's something about this meat and drink that he's being offered that offended his conscience. And so he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King's meat. Now, thankfully, he didn't really have to be put to the test of a fiery furnace in this chapter because he had such a good rapport and such a good relationship with his supervisor that he was able to work things out to where they were able to eat something different. But I can guarantee you that if that arrangement had not been made, he would have stood by his guns. You know why? He would have stood by his guns in chapter 6. That's why. Because all throughout the book of Daniel, these guys are consistent. The same Daniel, when he's faced with a fiery furnace, I'm sorry, a den of lions in chapter 6, if he prays to the Lord, he opened his window toward Jerusalem and got on his knees and openly prayed with the window open, swing open the window and pray toward Jerusalem. Why? Because nobody's going to stop him. That's why. He didn't go hide somewhere and pray secretly. No, he swung open the window and prayed because he wanted to be a testimony to the people around him. That's why. You know, it's great to take a stand and do what's right in our personal lives, but it's even better when we can shout it from the housetops and be a testimony unto others. Why? Because I guarantee you when others saw Daniel swing open those windows and pray, it emboldened them to pray. It emboldened them to take the stands necessary. Why? Because strength and boldness are infectious. You know, when one person takes a stand and boldly does what's right, others follow, others get on board. But, you know, fear does the exact same thing. When someone is fearful and scared, that also spreads. That's also infectious. In fact, in the law of God, it was stated, if you would go to Luke chapter 14. In the law of God, it was stated that when they went to battle as a nation, the children of Israel at the beginning of every battle were supposed to make an announcement that said, whoever's fearful, we want you to leave right now and go home. No one was being forced to fight. Whoever's fearful, go home right now because we don't want your fear to weaken the hearts and weaken the resolves of your brethren. We don't want people to see you fleeing in battle and then think, oh, let's all flee, we're losing. They only wanted men in the fight who were steadfast and unmovable, who were strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and who had courage and boldness. The fearful were sent home. Now, most of the time, the children of Israel did not obey that commandment because man often thinks that he's smarter than God. You know, God has these commandments that really make a lot of sense and they're always right about everything, but we think we're smarter than God. And so we think, well, come on, we can't send home most of the troops. We're not going to win. But when you do things God's way, you win because God's blessing is more valuable than extra troops. This was powerfully illustrated in the life of Gideon. Gideon has 32,000 men and God tells him specifically to him, you need to follow that law where you tell the fearful people to go home. So he goes out and makes that announcement in the book of Judges. Gideon says, all right, whoever's fearful, go home. 22,000 troops go home. There's 10,000 left. And you know, Gideon's probably thinking to himself, you know, I knew that law. I knew there's a reason why we haven't been doing that. But you know what? God looked at it the exact opposite. God came to him and said, you still have too many people. You still have too many people. We don't need all these bozos. We don't need all these fools. He said, we need another test to weed out even more of them. He whittles them down to 300 guys. But with those 300 guys, they win because God's on their side, because he was obedient. It took a lot of faith for him to send 9,700 people home after already sending 22,000 home and being left with 300 troops and going forward with the battle anyway. It's crazy. It doesn't make any sense. But he was not double minded. He knew that if God be for us, who can be against us? And so he just set on, I'm going to obey the Lord. I'm going to do what he says, whatever you want me to go out there and fight against an innumerable multitude with 300 people, whatever. And it seems impossible, but with God, all things are possible. And of course, you know, they had a special way that they fought the battle where they surrounded them with 300 guys in the middle of the night. And they had lights inside of pitchers. They broke the pitchers, sounded the trumpets to create an illusion. They were surrounded from all sides. And because there were multiple armies there gathered together, they started fighting with each other. They got confused. They fled. And then the rest of the children of Israel who were fearful, once they see which way the thing's going to go, they all get on board. And then thousands of troops pursue the enemy and end up defeating them and bringing freedom to their nation, defeating the enemies of the Lord, et cetera. This is what we have in the world today, a bunch of people waiting to see which way the battle is going to go. And then they want to jump in. They want to, they only want to fight the battle when it's easy. They only want to fight the battle when it's a winning battle. They never, they don't just decide what they believe, decide which side they're on and stick with it. They're more of a fair weather friend or an opportunist or whatever the case may be. We cannot be double-minded. Whenever I think of being double-minded, I think the best illustration for this is when you're breaking a piece of wood over your knee, right? Well, you know, we've all done it, right, man? When you break a piece of wood over your knee, you know, let's say you're making a campfire or whatever the reason, and you're breaking wood over your knee. Well, here's the thing about breaking wood over your knee. If you hit the wood on your knee and it doesn't break, it hurts. The harder you hit that wood against your knee without it breaking, the more it hurts. But it doesn't matter how hard you hit that wood over your knee. If it breaks, it doesn't hurt. If it breaks, there's no pain. So here's the thing. You could put forth a medium effort, and then if you fail, there's going to be less pain, right, because you only put forth a medium effort. So if it doesn't break, there's less pain, but you're also less likely to break the board. So you're also more likely to have pain. It's just going to be less pain, and you're also more likely to be a little maybe embarrassed in front of, you know, whoever's actually going, you know, and not break it. So here's the thing. You know, when you break, you know, here's the thing. When you break wood over your knee, making a campfire, you have to first evaluate that wood. You have to evaluate it and say, look, is this something that I'm capable of breaking or not? And once you decide, yes, I'm capable of breaking this wood over my knee, you must give it everything you've got. You can't come at it halfway or you're going to get hurt. And you're also going to look stupid, right? Think about this. Who knows what I'm talking about? Have you been there? All right. We've all been on both sides of this, where we gave the half effort and where we gave it everything and broke it and it felt great, you know, bust through it. You've got to evaluate, am I able to break it? And then you can't halfway through, I changed my mind, oh, you know, it's the same thing. Let's say you're running and jumping over a creek or something, you know what I'm talking about? And then you kind of just the last minute, I'm not sure this is a good idea. And then you don't give it the full effort and then you land in the creek. Whereas, you know, you're, you know, I'm able to jump that far normally, but it's because you wavered, you faltered, you were fearful, right? Once you decide, you know, I'm jumping over, you've got to run and just, you know, just give it everything you got and leap over the creek. If you're going to break the board over your knee, you got to hit it as hard as you can and break it or else don't do it. If you're not able, don't attempt it. You have to size up the challenge. That's why Joshua encouraged the people to count the cost. He said, look, this is what God's going to expect from you. This is what the Lord's going to expect. In Joshua chapter one, he went over it with them. And in Joshua chapter 24, he went over it with them again. God expects a commitment. You know, God expects you to only worship him. God expects you to do this. And so, and they said, we're ready to do it. We're able, we're going to serve the Lord. He said, choose, look, if you don't want to serve the Lord, fine, but you need to decide as for me and my house, we're serving the Lord. You need to make that decision for yourself. You know, Jesus did the same thing when he's calling disciples to follow after him. He told them the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. He said, you've got to count the cost of following me. You got to count the cost because I don't want you to just start following me and then quit on me. Don't be double minded. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. We need to make some decisions in our life that we stick with. For example, church should be one of those decisions. You know, you should decide, like I didn't decide this morning whether I was going to come to church. I didn't wake up this morning and say, honey, what do you say we go to church? And you say, well, you're the pastor, but even before I was the pastor, I didn't wake up on Sunday mornings and decide every Sunday morning whether I was going to church or not. I didn't decide every Sunday night, I didn't decide every Wednesday night. It was just a decision that I made one time. I'm going to church, I'm going to be there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and then I just stuck with that. I just stayed with that. And I don't just project this unstable view toward my children where they don't know whether we go to church or not. They don't know whether we're going or not. You know, they have the stability of knowing we go to church, instant, in season, out of season. I don't decide every week whether I'm going to go soul winning. You decide I want to go soul winning, I want to be consistent, I want to read my Bible, I'm going to pray, I'm going to go to church. You got to make these decisions that are just a lifelong decision where you make the decision one time and you're not double minded, you don't waver, you stick with it. You know, you also need to decide whether you're going to go to big boy church or whether you're going to go to the fun center, McDonald's Playland Baptist down the street. You know what I'm talking about, the fun center church? The entertainment program? I liked when I was in Sacramento last time, there was signage that Verity Baptist Church had put up. I was just driving down the street in Sacramento and I saw a park bench, or I'm sorry, what's it called? A bus stop bench, right? A bus stop bench that just said, we do not offer shallow entertainment. It said real big. And then I looked on it, it said Verity Baptist Church. I was like, whoa, that's cool. I didn't even know about that. You know, it was just kind of cool to see the advertisement. I since heard that they canceled his ad, you know, because of the whole blow up in the summertime over there. But you know, endured some persecution and they lost the bench. But it was cool while it lasted, all right. But I liked that slogan. It said, we don't offer shallow entertainment. You know, because somebody driving by might think, you know, yeah, actually I'm looking for a church with a little more meat on the bone. You know, rather than the fun center where you go to the, you know, the good God, good devil, cold hell, 20 minute sermon, you know, rock and roll, smoke and purple lighting. You know, the pastor's in a bunch of torn up skinny jeans and a graphic tee. He's sitting on a bar stool and just kind of wraps with you for 20 minutes. You know, laughs all the way to the bank, gets in his Mercedes and drives home. You need to decide what kind of a Christian do you want to be? What kind of a church do you want to be a part of? Is that who you are? If that's who you are, then that's where you belong. If you're fake, if you're a phony, if you're into money, if you're into, you know, putting on a show, if you're into cheap entertainment and cheap thrills, if you just want to go to church and tingle and go home and not make any real change in your life, not do any work for the Lord, then that's where you belong. I'll help you find one. Don't let the door hit you on your way out. You know, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. This church is never going to be that kind of church. This church is never going to change from the King James Bible. This church is never going to become an entertainment center, a fun center, a spiritual playhouse, a spiritual play land, a spiritual bin of plastic balls to roll around in, right, at the McDonald's play land. It's never going to be that way. Why? We've decided who we are. We know who we are and we're not changing. If you're not sure who you are, figure out who you are. Figure out who you're going to serve. God said, I would that thou work cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I'll spew thee out of my mouth, he said. That's pretty strong words. He said, don't let that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. No lukewarm, no half in, half out, no double minded, no unstable. You get all the way in or you get out, he said. He wanted people to be serious about following him. Look at Luke 14. This kind of reminds me of the board breaking or creek jumping illustration. Luke 14, 28, for which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it. That means enough. He counts the cost. Less happily, after he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king goeth to make a war against another king, sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000 or else while the other is yet a great way off. He sendeth an ambisage and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus is saying the same thing I've been saying in the sermon is that you've got to count the cost, you've got to get all the way in, you've got to make a decision and you've got to stick with it. Now, are there times to change a decision? Sure. You know, everybody makes mistakes, does things that are wrong. I mean, if you find out that what you're doing is completely wrong, completely ungodly, then yeah, of course at that point there might be a change necessary. But I'm talking about changing for the sake of changing. I'm talking about changing when you're on the right path and then you deviate from it for whatever reason. Or just changing from A to B when A and B are both the same. One of them is not better than the other. There has to be a compelling reason to get us to change. We shouldn't just change. The Bible says this, meddle not with them that are given to change. People who are given to change, they're prone to change. The Bible says that's a bad attribute. We should be one who is stable, who is steady, who makes a decision and sticks with it and doesn't change unless there's a really compelling reason to do so. Because to change for little things or to change because of external circumstances is to be wavering and like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. That's what it is at that point. Now I wasn't sure whether I should bring this up or not, but I thought a lot about it. The Bible tells us that we should be slow to speak and that we should be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. So I didn't just want to say something about this right away because I wanted to think it through first, you know, and think about it, meditate upon the word of God and to decide. And you know, after thinking upon it and meditating upon it, I have zero doubt that this needs to be brought up publicly and that it needs to be named by name. And that is the situation with Richard Miller, you know, starting a church in Nashville and quitting after only two months. Now some people would be offended that I'm going to bring this up, but honestly the truth of the matter is that in the Bible, if we look at the Bible as our example, when people made public things like that, you know, starting a church is a pretty public open thing. When you go out and start a church, when you're ordained as a pastor, you're opening yourself up now to public scrutiny at that point. You know what? I'm open to public scrutiny. I mean, if I quit the church tomorrow, I'm not going to expect everybody to just pretend it didn't happen and just act like nothing happened. You know, I would expect people to openly talk about and discuss what happened. And the thing about that is that it's always better to get things out in the open because of the fact that otherwise people will assume the worst. People will assume even worse things. I mean, think about it. If I quit pastoring and just didn't say why and nobody knew why and nobody talked about it, you know what people would think like, oh man, he must have been committing adultery, right? I mean, they're going to assume horrible things like that. They're going to say, oh man, he's on drugs. He's got a gambling addiction. You know, who knows what kind of crazy rumors would be out there. It's always better for everybody involved just to, just to get things out in the open and just tell the truth about things and just, you know, not hide things and sweep things under the rug. You know, and the apostle Paul did the same thing because he talked about it openly when he said, you know, Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world. I don't see him coddling Demas and saying, well, let's just not talk about the fact that Demas loved the world and quit, or let's not talk about crescents going to Galatia or whatever. No, no, no. He openly stated, look guys, this is what happened. Here's the situation. And I don't know about you, but I always hated it my whole life when I was in church and you know, these scandals would happen or whatever and nobody will tell you what happened. And everybody's just gossiping and rumors because nobody knows the facts. Nobody knows the true story. You know, it's better to just get things out in the open and you know, here's what happened. You know, we ordained and sent out brother Richard Miller a few months ago to start a church in Nashville, Tennessee. And after about two months, he quit. And not only did he quit, he quit totally without warning, without telling me, without telling anybody. In fact, he still hasn't told me. Even to this minute, he's never told me. I had to hear about it fifth hand. They went through five people. I'm always the last to know, you know what I mean? I heard about this through the grapevine, fifth hand, and it isn't right. And I'm going to rebuke it right now from the pulpit. It isn't right now. Let me just set your mind at ease right now. There was no scandal. There was no adultery. There was no gambling addiction. There was, you know, there was no attack. There was no break through the window. There was no persecution. There was nothing that went wrong. Everything was fine. And he quit because he's a quitter, that's why, okay? Now let me just come out and say that because of the fact that if I tell you that, then at least you can know that there wasn't anything weirder going on than that. So you don't assume that he has some horrible sin in his life or something, you know? So even for his benefit, let's just call it what it is. He did not count the cost. He went out to build the tower. He did not figure out whether he had enough building material to finish it. And now men, you know, mock him and say he began to build and was not able to finish. That's where he's at right now. Now the problem is apparently that he doesn't know how to rule his home. You know, his wife was having issues when she was here years ago. There were issues with his wife where I took them aside and corrected them. And he swore to me up one side and down the other, oh, that's all in the past. That's all fixed. Everything's been great for the last few years, which is why I ordained him and sent him out in confidence that what he was telling me was the truth, that everything with his wife was resolved and that everything was okay and that everything was going to be good to go. And again, there was no scandal or anything. It was just issues of just, you know, I don't even know what the problem was, to be honest. It's just that his wife is just, I don't know. She just basically is too needy or something. Like he has to hold her hand all the time and do everything for her or whatever. Okay. But the bottom line is though, he told me that that was fixed. He told me that everything was fine. He told me that there was nothing to worry about. And I told him, and listen to me, every time I've ever sent anyone out to start a church, because we've sent out other guys and I've trained other guys that have started churches, I always tell them this. I say, and look, I'm just being candid with you. You want me to get up here and just lie to you? Tell you the truth. So I have nothing to hide. And it's better to get it out in the open. That's the way, that's my policy with everything. And you know, one thing I thought about was, well, you know, I'd rather just not talk about it because I like to only talk about positive things, you know? No, because I do. I mean, you know, I like to be winning all the time, right? Amen? Yeah, everything we do turns to gold. We love to win. But here's the thing, that's not reality. And if I project that image from the pulpit, I'm not doing you any favors. Because life's not a bed of roses. Things go wrong. Bad things happen. So it's better that you hear that. It's like these pastors who act like their marriage is perfect all the time. And then everybody's like, well, my marriage isn't perfect, you know, I'm doing something wrong. No, it's life. The good, the bad, and the ugly comes across this pulpit because I don't, you know, I believe in just openly telling the truth. Where was I in the story? Somebody help me. Oh, yeah, what I told him, what I tell everybody that I sent. Thank you, Rob. But I tell everybody when I'm sending somebody out to start a church, this is what I tell them every time. I say, listen to me. And you guys that someday are going to be sent out to start a church two years from now, three years from now, or six months from now, in the case of Brother Baker, he's going to start a church in Jacksonville, Florida this summer. I tell them ad nauseum. I tell them, I say, listen to me. Call me if you have a problem. Call me if there's a problem. Please call me. And I tell them, I won't be offended. I won't get mad at you. I won't judge you. And I even specifically say, if there's a marriage problem, call me. You know, if there's a ministry problem, call me. I've been doing this for 11 years. I've seen and heard worse. Nothing shocks me. Nothing offends me. I'm not going to judge you. Don't try to impress me. Just call me and tell me the truth and I'll help you. I say that to everybody. He never called me and talked to me. Still hasn't even called me, even though this happened six days ago. The point is that, you know, I wanted, I would have been there to help him. And I would have hopped on a plane and done whatever I could to help him. And I told him, call me. Tell, oh, yeah, I will. Oh, yeah, I'll call you. I'll let you know if there's a problem. I said, don't just quit and not tell me. Don't just quit, for crying out loud. But not only that, the problem with this, and the reason I'm bringing this up is because number one, I want everybody to know the truth about what happened and number two, I want this to be a cautionary tale going forward, that you guys, if you guys think that signing up to be a pastor is on some kind of a trial basis, you're wrong and don't come to me telling me that you want to be sent out as a pastor, that you want training, because it's not a trial size. You get in and you're in it to win it and it's do or die. You don't just sit there and try it out. Because there are certain decisions where if we waver and we're double minded, it harms ourselves, but then there are times when we hurt others. For example, when you get married, you better not be double minded. I mean, when you get married, it's till death do us part. You don't just, well, we'll try marriage. See how it goes. You will fail. Don't come at that board with a quarter strength. You go, you give it everything you got. Marriage is, it's important and you know what, there's other people that you're hurting, your spouse, your kids, everything, well, here's the thing. The same goes when you're starting a church. People are counting on you. People are relying on you. People are looking to you and you're going to hurt people when you leave them hanging like that. And there were even people, I think there were even people who'd even moved to Nashville just to go to that church and they get there and then he quits after two months. And you know what, quitting pastoring after two months is like getting divorced after two months. How can you quit when you haven't even started yet? And so we need to count the cost before we jump into these important decisions like marriage or like pastoring or like anything else. We need to be steadfast and unmovable. And you know what, if there's a problem with your, you know, oh, you know, the woman gave unto me and I did eat. You know, if Adam wants to blame Eve, right? And then Eve wants to blame the serpent. But you know what, at the end of the day, the buck stops here. You know, it's the man's responsibility to rule his house and to run his house. And the Bible says if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? You know, if he's going to blame her and then she's blaming the devil literally. She said, well, I'm under spiritual attack. What does that even mean? I don't even know what that means. I've been saved since I was six years old. I've been reading the Bible my entire life. You know, before I even started the church, I'd read the Bible cover to cover 24 times. I don't know how many times I've read it since I started the church 11 years ago, but I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. That doesn't mean anything. There was no persecution. There were no, it all came from within. It imploded. And he should have known that before he went out. And you know what? I was hoodwinked into thinking that everything was fine when everything wasn't fine. And now, of course, everybody's coming out of the woodwork telling me all the red flags. It's like, well, I wish you would have said something before, you know, beforehand when it would have helped. Now, let me just make it real clear. I don't have any ill will toward Richard or Veronica. I love them both. And I want them to succeed. I hope that they can get planted into some independent fundamental Baptist church. I hope that they can stay married and stay happy and raise their children and be a fundamental Baptist and continue to serve God. You know, our life is never over as a Christian, amen? There's always a way forward. There's always a next step. You know, as long as you're breathing air, if you're a saved Christian and you're breathing air, God's not through with you. God's not done with you. God's not going to just, you know, be done with you until you're dead. So I'm not saying that, you know, their life's over, that, you know, God's through with them. But I'm saying this. He should never pastor again, period. Everybody's coming to me like, well, maybe he can come back in six months and try again. No, no, no. Try again. You know, it's a serious undertaking. Starting a church is a big deal. Pastoring a church is a big deal. It's a position of great honor. And it's something that's earned and it's something that is not to be taken lightly. And like I said, I wish him the best. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. And I love his wife, too. And I love him. I love both. But they need to just go to church. He is not a leader because leaders don't quit after two months. And that might hurt people's feelings and offend people, but I'm here to speak the truth to you today. A double-minded man's unstable in all his ways. And I don't want to send a message where people think that that's okay or something where they think, because I don't want to just keep doing this over and over again, folks. That's why this is a cautionary tale where we should all take heed. And look, Paul didn't coddle the people who quit on him. He called it out like it was, and I'm calling it out like it is. Not out of anger or hatred or rancor, but people need to know what happened. I don't want people to just be talking and nobody knows and, well, here's what I heard, you know, and all kinds of crazy stories and things come out of it. Just it is what it is. That's what happened. There's no, they imploded, they quit for no reason. There's nothing more to it than that that I can figure out, you know. Hey, and if I'm getting this wrong, Brother Richard, give me a call and let me know, because that's, you know, based on all the information that I have. And I think everybody has a right to know, because everybody in the church invested their time and money and energy into that undertaking. And you know, I don't want people to think that everybody that we send out to start a church is, you know, we've sent out people in the past that were successful, and we're going to send out people in the future that are going to be successful. Just don't let this shake your faith. My first thought when I heard about this was, man, I hope that the people in that church are going to be okay. My first thought was for them. That was my first thought. And so my first thing was like, okay, where are they going to church now? What church are they? And this is another thing that was wrong about what he did. He broke up with them by phone. He broke up by text. He did not tell them in person at the church service last Sunday, he told everybody on Monday. Quits on Monday, church, act like everything's fine, quits on Monday. You know what's wrong with that is that at least if he would have brought it up in a church service, people could have networked with each other. People could have, you know, talked about, okay, where are we going to go next? What are we going to do next? And come up with a plan. If he would have warned me, if he would have given me a few weeks warning, we could have seen, hey, is there somebody else maybe who can step in and take over the church on a temporary basis, keep it going, keep it alive. Or at least, you know, point everybody to, you know, do the research, figure out what the best soul winning Baptist church in Nashville is. I'm sure there are other good churches in Nashville. And figure out which one's the best one and point everybody to that church. That didn't happen. There's no regard for that. So I've been working over the past few days to try to figure out what the lay of the land is, you know, what churches are over there, where to point people to, and give people that advice. Here's the thing, you know, I knew a guy that was a good friend of mine many years ago. And he started a church. And he was actually several years into it. And he quit. Okay. And look, I get it, people quit. But you know what, when you quit, you got to face the music, you got to look people in the eye, you got to tell people that you quit, not just disappear and make a phone call. But my friend many years ago that quit, he had a more, he actually, not a more compelling reason, he had a reason that was compelling at all. He had a reason. His son got leukemia. You know, so that was a big strain, because he had to deal with like, all these leukemia treatments and everything. So it was like, you know, you could see where he was coming from. I wasn't judging him, you know, I'd never been in that situation, obviously, his five year old son had leukemia. So he had to disband the church, you know, at least in his mind, he ended up quitting. I understand things like that happen. But at least you know what he did, he found the best church in town, and he took everybody over there and he went there himself with them. And he dropped them, you know, he parked them at that church and said, Hey, folks, this is where we're all going to go to church now. He exercised leadership to at least make sure that those people go forward in their Christian life at a different church. You know what I mean? Instead of just all right, you're on your own. You know, that's there's a problem with that. You know, the thing is, it can cause people to be offended, it can cause people to actually get out of church permanently when something like this happens, when you know, when pastors quit and when and when things like this happen, it can cause people to just that's it. If he if he threw in the towel, I'm throwing in the towel too. That's what people I mean, if he's the pastor, and he's quit, you know, how much more am I going to quit? It can cause people to get disgruntled with with the Lord and with the things of God and with church, you know, so look, people said, Well, your first thought should have been, you know, what can we do for Richard, but you know, that wasn't my first thought because he's not the victim here. He's the perpetrator. My first thought was, what do we do for the people that are left? You know, the people that moved out there, the people that are, you know, we're in that church and relying on that church. And like I said, I do love and care about Richard and Veronica, you know, he kind of made his bed and now he's laying in it. But honestly, you know, I do want to see him go on for the Lord. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart that I want to see him and Veronica, you know, be married and have kids and and and go to church, but he is not fit for the ministry. It's that simple. So, you know, that's a great example of what we're talking about this morning, you know, is that you can't be double minded. If you go into marriage with an attitude that says, I'll try it, you'll end up like all the Hollywood marriages end up. If you go into pastoring, look, pastoring is harder than it looks, folk. It's not just getting up and screaming three times a week. You know what I mean? A lot of great preachers that can't do the job. Because it's a lot more to it than that. It's a difficult job. It's a hard job. And I always try to impress this upon people and everybody that I've trained, they always come back to me and say, you know, you kept telling me how hard it was going to be, but it was even harder than you made it sound. That's what they all said. You know, it's true, it's hard. You got to count the cost. And you got to get in and there's no turning back. Look, you got to burn the bridge behind you. If you're keeping, you know, the bridges behind you and you're keeping the back door open, you're going to use that door whether that's marriage, whether that's church, whether that's any other decision. You know, look, when you decide to have a child, you're making a commitment. And by the way, when you get married, you're deciding to have a child, man. When you get in bed with somebody, you're deciding to have a child right there, okay. You know, you need to decide that you're committed to raising that child. You can't just, I mean, can you bail on parenting seven years in? That's it. I'm sick of this. I'm done with this. You can't bail on parenting. You can't bail on marriage. You can't bail on church. Don't bail on God. Look, there is no discharge from this war. That's what the Bible says. There is no discharge from this war, okay. You fight, you race, you run until the bitter end and you never look back. And if you live your life that way, it's going to be less painful for you because you're going to break through the board when you hit it with everything that you got. Don't doubt, don't waver, don't fear, don't be half in, half out. Make a decision and stick with it. Stand by. Look, here's the thing. We're, you know, we're starting up the preaching class on a week from Tuesday night. And I'm sure that lots of guys are going to show up for the preaching class. Lots of guys are going to show up. Whenever we open this thing up like this for the preaching class, lots of guys show up. I mean, I would guess probably 30 or 40 guys are going to show up to preach. And that's great. I hope 30 or 40 guys show up. It's great. Learning how to preach is a great skill. Even if you're not going to pastor, you could still learn how to preach and you could do missions and you could, you know, still have opportunities to preach, you know, opportunities to get up and preach God's word at various times and places. But the thing about it is there'll be 30 or 40 guys that show up to preach. But guess what? Those 30, 40 guys are not all cut out to pastor, not even close. You know how many guys we have right now that are ready to be sent out as a pastor? One. And that's Tyler Baker. One. Okay. The harvest truly is plenty is, but the laborers are few. Now, the preaching class is a great place to start. And like I said, it's not just for people who want to be pastors. It's just to learn how to preach. The preaching class is a great place to start. Obviously, in order to preach and be a pastor, you do have to have that aptitude. You do have to learn how to preach. And Richard Miller is an excellent preacher. Great job at preaching. That's not enough. It's not enough. You also have to have a do or die mentality is what you also have to have. That's one of the ingredients to the formula. And so if you're going to lead people, you know, you got to take that position real seriously. Preaching is one thing. Leading a congregation is another thing. And so I hope a lot of people will come to the preaching class. And I hope that out of that group that shows up at the preaching class, I hope that a lot of those guys will develop the skills and develop the character to go out and start churches someday. Because honestly, we need that desperately in this country. Desperately. There's so many people, every week people, okay, every day people write to me, can you send someone to start a church here? Can you send someone here? Send someone here. Please send someone here. Please send someone here. We need your kind of church. We need your style church. We need a faithful word style church, you know. We need a guy over here. All the churches are watered down. There's no soul winning church, you know. And they're begging for us to send people everywhere. We don't have anybody to send, folks. And we need to develop some leaders. But if you're going to say, well, I'll try it. I'll throw my hat in the ring. No, please don't. You know, because honestly, we need some people that are ready to count the costs and burn the bridge. And be in it, you know, all the way. You know, when we get the sin out of our lives, we need to burn the bridge behind us and not be double minded about it. I remember, you know, the story about a guy who had some records, you know, this is back in the day, CDs, kids. He had a bunch of records. And basically, you know, he realized, hey, this music's bad, you know, it was like Led Zeppelin and stuff from the 70s and everything. And it was all this kind of bad stuff. And you know, he wanted to get it out of his life, you know, clean up his music and clean up his mind. So he got rid of the stuff. So he boxed it up and put it in the closet. Because he said, well, you know, in case I get backslidden, I don't want to have to re-buy all that stuff because that stuff is expensive. So he didn't throw it away, you know, he boxed it up, put it in the closet. You know, that's a mentality where you're mindful of that country from whence you came out of, and you're going to have opportunity to return. So we can't be double-minded, you know, we need to, once we figure out what's right, we need to just go forward and never look back, steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding in the word of the Lord. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the examples of men in the Bible who were steadfast, especially in the book of Daniel, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Lord, help us to be like them. Help us to be like the apostles who followed Christ, and even when, even when great throngs of people were quitting the church, and in John chapter 6, many people stopped following Jesus, and when you looked at the 12 and said, you know, will you also go away, they stayed with him, Lord. Help us to be like them, Lord, and help us not to waver, and help us not to be thrown around by circumstances like a wave on the seashore. Help us to be a rock where the waves crash against us and the waves are broken by us because we're like a rock, and Lord, we know the only way that we can be like a rock is to be founded on the rock. It's not us that has that stability, but it's our stabilities in you, Lord, and so we pray that you would please just help us all to dig down deep and be firmly founded and fastened on the rock, Lord, and help us to not be double-minded. Help us to just make some lifelong decisions today and just stick with them, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.