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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. We'll start on that first verse together. Him number 198. Lift up your voice on that first now. Lift up your voice on that first now. Lift up your voice on that first now. Lift up your voice on that first now. Lift up your voice on that first now. Lift up your voice on that first now. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Him 147. 147. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Him number 147. We'll sing it out on that first verse. What a fellowship. What a joy divine. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Number 147. Lift it up now. What a fellowship. What a joy divine. What a blessing this one of peace is mine. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning. Safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh how sweet to walk in the air. Oh Oh Thanks It's together if you don't have a bullet then slip up your hand nice and high 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 2nd Chronicles chapter 19 We've got the soul winning times listed below as well as salvation and baptisms Birthdays and anniversaries for the month of September or on the right on the back of the bulletin We've got the note about the don't go back to school party tomorrow at Sval Park 4 p.m. This is for all families that have a child from k5 to 12th grade So if you have a kid that's in that category, then the whole family is invited to come to this thing This is at Sval Park. It is very close to here. It's 1-half mile Directly south of where we are So just south on 48th Street a half a mile and then just left at that light and boom there it is right there Again it's right next to hairland wig land smoke shop. It's all right there So the Sval Park is where that'll be four o'clock tomorrow Below that we've got the trip to the Navajo Reservation for soul winning. It's very exciting there 21 Indian reservations in the state of Arizona. We've knocked every door on 20 of them we have one Reservation left which is the Navajo Reservation the big one, but we've already put a huge dent in it from a population perspective We've done more than half of it. And so we're just still finishing off that last reservation That's in a goal that we've been working on for many many years. I want to say that we started maybe in 2016 or something. So we're like eight years into this goal and we're Really close and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel So very exciting and so appreciate everybody who over the years has participated in traveling to these Indian reservations with us and doing so Why Indian reservations well one reason is because they've been usually pretty receptive Okay, and so they're usually a little bit more receptive than soul winning in Phoenix But sometimes they're even super receptive like the Apache Reservation for example was super receptive And so it's it's really been a great ministry also because of the fact that these are some far-flung places So they're probably doors that are not necessarily being knocked by other people who are bringing the gospel And so we go to all these far-flung places and Do the best we can to get as many people saved as we can preach the gospel to every creature In addition to that we do a small town soul winning thing and our goal is to eventually knock every door in the whole state Of Arizona, which is a crazy goal But we've already finished one full County out of the 15 counties in Arizona Other counties are 60 70 percent done. And so we're really knocking a lot of doors. Thanks to your hard work And so if you're interested in going on one of these trips There's a good one coming up that involves a trip to Canyon to Shay as well Friday and Saturday September 20th 21st It's a overnight thing. We leave Friday morning come back Saturday evening there's zero cost as always any of our church activities are always free of charge and so Just you just sign up you show up and you just participate in the soul winning and that is it if you have any questions Talk to brother Raymond Cooper tonight. He's the tall blonde guy back there and You better talk to him tonight because when are you flying out? He's flying out tomorrow morning and he's gonna be gone for about a week and a half doing missions on the other side of the world literally and So be praying for him and if you have any questions about the trip tonight, it'd be a good night Otherwise talk to him when he gets back And don't ask me man because I only work here. No, I'm just kidding But anyway at the bottom other upcoming events, we got the missions conference We're excited about that November 6th or 10th, and then the Jamaica mission strip in December. That is about it for announcements Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning totals from the week going back to Thursday the 29th Okay Okay All right, yep, gotcha Okay, and then how about Friday anything from Friday Okay Gotcha Gotcha Okay, anything else for Friday, how about Saturday got it Okay, is that a four okay and then one okay Okay, boom boom boom Okay All right Very good. And then how about today? But Scott For for the main team with brother Scott, okay For the North Phoenix crew gotcha. All right. Gotcha Anything else from today very good. Keep up the great work From So this is one week from today, is it gonna be two o'clock in the afternoon Okay, so two o'clock in the afternoon Right here one week from today. So I guess that'd be September the 8th 8th September 8th, I think Two o'clock put it on the calendar All ladies and girls are invited to attend basically the same drill as the last couple of baby showers that we've had But Gabriella Jeffrey, this is Charlie Jeffrey's wife Many of you I'm sure know her but if you don't know her well then show up and get to know her right don't ever be Shy about coming to these things You know because you just show up and have a good time You don't you don't have to be a close buddy to show up to these things. And so Everybody's invited. All right, ladies and girls that is That's about it for announcements anything else. All right, very good. Let's sing our next song. Come leave All right, you should find the answer in the front of your hymnal with the song. We've a story to tell to the nation's If you don't have an insert you can raise your hand and we'll sing it on that first verse together We have a story to tell to the nation's a Story of truth and sweetness Morning We've a song to be sung to the nation Oh We Oh And That all of the world's great My come to the truth Morning Good thing everybody. Let's go your hymnals now to him 196 him number 196. I will sing the wonder story him number 196 will lift it up on that first verse together. I will sing the wonder story of the Christ who died for me 196 lift it up on that first Yes The saints and glory Gathered by the Crystal Sea I was lost Jesus found me found the sheep that went astray Around me Yes Tonight for me Sing it with the saints in glory Gathered by The Crystal Sea I was bruised But Jesus healed me Fate was I For many a fall Sight was gone And tears possessed me But he freed me From them all Yes I'll sing The wonder story Of the Christ Who died for me Sing it with The saints in glory Gathered by The Crystal Sea Days of darkness Still come or be Sorrows past I often dread But the saints But the saints Still is with me By his hand I think we plan Yes I'll sing The wonder story Of the Christ Who died for me Sing it with The saints in glory Gathered by The Crystal Sea He will keep Until the river Rolls its waters At my feet Then he'll bear Me safely over Where the Long one's last Shall be Yes I'll sing The wonder story Of the Christ Who died for me Sing it with Sing it with The saints in glory Gathered by The Crystal Sea And that good thing's nice Alright this time we'll pass our offering plates around As the plates go around Let's turn our Bibles to Acts chapter 28 Acts chapter number 28 As we always do We'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1 Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Acts chapter 28 Beginning in verse number 1 They said among themselves And of a bloody flux To whom Paul entered in and prayed And laid his hands on him and healed him So when this was done others also Which had diseases in the island came And were healed Who also honored us with many honors And when we departed they laid at us with such things As were necessary And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria Which had wintered in the isle Whose sign was Castor and Pollux And landing at Syracuse we tarried there three days And from thence we fetched A compass and came to Regium And after one day the south wind blew And we came the next day to Puteoli Where we found brethren And were desired to tarry with them seven days And so we went toward Rome And from thence when the brethren heard of us They came to meet us as far as Api Forum And the three taverns Whom when Paul saw he thanked God And took courage And when we came to Rome the centurion Delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard But Paul was suffered to dwell by himself With the soldier that kept him And it came to pass that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together And when they were come together He said unto them men and brethren Though I have committed nothing against the people Or customs of our fathers Yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem Into the hands of the Romans Who when they had examined me Would have let me go Because there was no cause of death in me But when the Jews spake against it I was constrained to appeal unto Kaiser Because therefore have I called you To see you and to speak with you Because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain And they said unto him we neither receive letters Out of Judea concerning thee Neither any of the brethren that came showed Or spake any harm of thee But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest For as concerning this sect We know that everywhere it is spoken against And when they had appointed him a day There came many to him into his lodging To whom he expounded and testified Persuading them concerning Jesus Both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets From morning till evening And some believed the things which were spoken And some believed not And when they agreed not among themselves They departed After that Paul had spoken one word Well spake the Holy Ghost by his eyes the prophet Unto our fathers saying Go unto this people and say Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand And seeing ye shall see and not perceive For the heart of this people is waxed gross And their ears are dull of hearing And their eyes have they closed Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears And understand with their heart And should be converted and I should heal them Be it known therefore unto you That the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles And that they will hear it And when he had said these words The Jews departed and had great reasoning Among themselves And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house And received all that came in unto him Preaching the kingdom of God And those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ With all confidence no man forbidding him David and the father of the Lord please fill Pastor Anderson with the Holy Spirit So that he may preach boldly from the King James Bible So that we may receive the message and the teachings And apply to our lives And glorify you Lord In Jesus name I pray, Amen Amen, the title of my sermon this evening is Shake off the beast and feel no harm Shake off the beast and feel no harm Of course from verse 5 of the chapter that we just read But before I get into some of the applications of this principle Tonight I'm going to give you three applications But the first thing I want to do is just kind of give you the gist of this story So that you can understand the context of this passage The Apostle Paul has of course been arrested in Jerusalem And he was forced to appeal unto Caesar Because of the fact that even though he was totally innocent And hadn't done anything wrong legally The Jews were actually trying to kill him And so they were actually going to kill him If he were extradited to Jerusalem and judged there Whether he would have been declared guilty or not guilty Wasn't really the point because they were going to murder him on his way there So he knew about that He ended up appealing to Caesar And so he's on his way to being transported to Rome to be judged For his supposed crimes, whatever they are Preaching the word of God basically And on the way there They are shipwrecked And they end up crash landing into this island that's called Mileta And when they get there They've actually had to swim to shore Or come to shore on boards and pieces of material from the ship and everything like that So it's cold, they're wet It's bad weather And they show up on the island And it says in verse 1 when they were escaped They knew that the island was called Mileta Meaning they didn't even know where they were Until they got there and asked someone Hey what island are we on? Where are we? Because they'd gotten so turned around in the storm And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness For they kindled a fire and received us everyone Because of the present rain And because of the cold And of course the word barbarous In this context it's really just referring to anyone who doesn't speak Greek So it's some kind of a tribe of people that live on this island That are not part of the Greek speaking world And so it says they kindled a fire Received us everyone Because of the present rain And because of the cold So it's cold, it's raining, bunch of castaways Up on the shore, hundreds actually And so the barbarous people They start a fire for them, try to help them out Show them some hospitality And then verse number three And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks And laid them on the fire There came a viper Out of the heat and fastened On his hand So here you've got a bundle of sticks You know the King James Bible translators kind of missed an opportunity here Okay With the way they translated this Anyway He's got a bundle of sticks and when he grabs it There was a snake living in that bundle of sticks Unbeknownst to Paul Because obviously if you have wood piles You know there's all kinds of little creatures And critters that will live there And so when the Apostle Paul Is just trying to help out and make himself useful Throw a bundle of sticks into the fire Then this viper You know who's living In this bundle of sticks When it hits the fire It's like ah my house is on fire And it jumps out angrily And just kind of lashes out at Paul And bites Paul on the hand And it says that it fastened on his hand So this thing bites Paul on the hand And just latches on And it's just presumably Pumping its venom Into Paul as it's fastened To his hand It says in verse 4 When the barbarians saw the venomous beast Hang on his hand They said among themselves No doubt this man is a murderer Whom though he hath escaped the sea Yet vengeance suffereth not to live And he shook off the beast Into the fire And felt no harm How be it they looked when he should have Swollen or fallen down dead suddenly But after that they had looked A great while and saw no harm Come to him they changed their minds And said that he was a god right So these people are just really superstitious First they think he's a murderer Then they think he's a god Whatever they're heathens okay But that's not really the point of the sermon tonight The literal interpretation of the story Is simply that God performed a miracle here Because the Apostle Paul Was bitten by a snake That should have killed him But God miraculously protected him from the venom And he ended up being just fine And then of course Paul goes on To have an influence on the island, etc. But what I want to do this evening Is just to take a more metaphorical View of this passage And to use it as a springboard Just to talk about some things That we need to shake off in our life You know the things that fasten on to us Whatever venomous beasts Fasten on to us Metaphorically speaking That we need to shake those things off And then allow God To allow us to feel no harm As a result Now if you would flip over to Colossians chapter 3 I'm going to give three points on this tonight Of shaking off the beast In our life Look if you would at Colossians chapter 3 And say well why use the story in this way Because what you have to understand is that These stories in the Bible aren't just told Because they're fun stories They're not just fun anecdotes like Luke is just kind of sitting us down around the campfire And just telling us fun stories About what it was like to hang out with the Apostle Paul These stories all have Meaning and significance And the meaning and significance Of what the Bible teaches goes beyond What's just right there on the surface There are all kinds of other metaphorical Meaning, symbolic Allegorical meanings The Bible is so deep You'll spend your whole life reading the Bible And you'll constantly be seeing new things Learning new things And you're never going to run out of Things to learn from the Bible Because the Bible is just that deep Now if you would look at Colossians chapter 3 Verse 4 Because the first beast that we need to shake off In our lives is The beast of a sinful past Right? Look what the Bible says In Colossians chapter 3 verse 4 When Christ who is our life shall appear Then shall ye also Appear with him in glory Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth Fornication, uncleanness Inordinate affection Evil concupiscence And covetousness which is idolatry For which things sake the wrath of God Cometh on the children of disobedience And look at verse 7 In the witch you also walked Some time when you lived in them But now ye also Put off all these Anger, wrath, malice Blasphemy, filthy communication Out of your mouth Lying out one to another seeing that you've put off the old man With his deeds and have put on the new man Which is renewed in knowledge After the image of him that created him So the apostle Paul is preaching To the Colossians of course That they should be living a righteous life And this is something that Paul is often doing In epistles he's admonishing people To get the sin out of their life To live a good Christian life To be clean and so forth And as he's preaching this to them he says Look these are some things That you did in the past Maybe before you were saved Back in an earlier time in your life When you weren't following Christ You had lived this sinful lifestyle But now you've put off these things And you've put on the new man And so the Bible here Is talking about people who've had A sinful past Actually now getting right with God And living a good godly life And getting rid of those things Not just saying oh well you know I have this sinful past So that you know this is just something I struggle with Something that I just am just gonna do For the rest of my life You know a lot of people use a sinful past As an excuse for why they're not serving God right now Okay and we need to realize That just because we've done Something sinful in the past Doesn't mean that we need to do it again We can change Okay now Some people might think oh people don't change But here's where they're wrong Is that through the power Of the Holy Spirit Right people can be A totally different person By walking in the spirit By putting on the new man I mean when we were saved God regenerated Our spirit so there's not just the Old Stephen Anderson There's also the new Stephen Anderson And every day I can either walk In the old man Or I can walk in the new man I can either live a life of the flesh Or I can live a life of the spirit And so those who are saved Have the potential They have the ability To actually live A better way of life And actually put off Shake off some of these old sinful They do have that ability By becoming A brand new person because you say well you know People don't change yeah but what if you just become A whole new person you know how about you just put on the New man right Because there's the old man and you're right The old sinful flesh he doesn't change Right we're stuck with him But you know what we can do we can put on the new man And the new man can have victory Over sin can live a Godly life can live a life That is free of these things okay So what kind of things fornication Right that's sex outside of marriage Uncleanness Inordinate affection Evil concupiscence those three things are in many ways Synonymous with fornication It's really just four ways of describing That whole kind of family Of sins there and he's saying Put off these things And covetousness Which is idolatry what's covetousness Desiring that which is not rightfully Yours right It's not wishing that you had money that you don't have Wishing that you had a wife that you don't have Or kids that you don't have Or a vehicle that you don't have Or a house that you don't have It's when you're not content with what you have But you start to go after money And go after possessions And that becomes your God Then that can become idolatry In your life or really just desiring anything That doesn't belong to you It's one of the ten commandments right Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife Or his box or his ass or his servant Or anything that belongs to your neighbor If you're desiring what belongs to someone else That is covetousness Put off those things In the which you also walked sometime Verse seven when you lived in them But now you also put off all these Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy Filthy communication out of your mouth And look Many of us have never committed fornication You know we don't necessarily put off fornication But here's the thing You know we've all Done something on one of these lists here You know we've all maybe been Angry with our brother without a cause Or malicious in some way Or said or done something blasphemous Or told a filthy joke at one time Or something like that You know whatever it is We've all been Covetous at some point in our lives I guarantee that much And we need to put off these things And put on the new man You know what I'm mainly getting at here Is that just because you have a sinful past Don't let that hold you back From serving God There were people in the Bible who had a sinful past And they still did great things for God And you can't just hide behind that And say oh well it's easy for you Pastor Anderson Cause you grew up in a Christian home And so you know you didn't grow up the way I grew up But you know what Any of us starting today Can live for God We can if we're saved And we all have the Holy Spirit living inside of us And I can do all things through Christ Which strengthens me So don't let that sinful past hold you back And don't use it as an excuse To hold you back Don't let that sinful past just fasten onto you Shake off that beast Of a sinful past And feel no harm Look if you would at Philippians Right just right before Colossians So just a couple pages to the left in your Bible Philippians it says in Philippians chapter 3 verse 13 Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended But this one thing I do We're halfway through Philippians 3 13 Forgetting those things which are behind And reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Right so he's saying look Forget the things that are behind And reach forth unto those things that are before And press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God Don't say well I'm going to settle for a low calling Because of my sinful past I'm just going to just kind of barely be okay as a Christian Because hey what do you expect from a guy like me You know where I came from No Press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus What is he saying? Aim high Set your sights high And don't use a sinful past There's a reason why you can't achieve great things for God Because frankly you can Achieve great things for God Don't let a sinful past Hinder you You don't have to turn there But Proverbs 28 13 says He that covereth his sins shall not prosper But who so confesseth and forsaketh them Shall have mercy Right so you know Yeah if you cover up your sin And won't admit it Then yeah you're not going to prosper But if you just confess and forsake it You'll have mercy And part of the reason why sometimes people Really struggle with guilt Is because of the fact that they're struggling To realize that they've even done anything wrong And they don't want to admit that They're constantly trying to cover their sin Instead of just saying you know what I did this, it was wrong I'm not going to do it again Sorry God And just moving on with their lives and just forgetting about it Take it to the cross and leave it there You don't have to beat yourself up About mistakes you've made in the past We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God Don't beat yourself up About the things you've done in the past Just confess them one time to God And just move on Just don't do it again Forsake those things 1 John 1 9 says If we confess our sins He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness And you know there's the feel no harm part Shake off the beast Confess and forsake it And then have mercy That's the feel no harm part God will do that because if you stop and think about the story And if you would flip over to Genesis chapter 50 The last chapter of Genesis, Genesis 50 If you stop and think about the story God supernaturally prevented The Apostle Paul from feeling Any harm from that snake bite right He should have swollen up And died suddenly, that's what everybody Expected to happen But because of divine intervention Something that should have hurt him Something that should have harmed him Something that should have even killed him Ends up not harming him Because God helped him Okay, well the idea here is That you know a sinful past Maybe humanly speaking Is really going to prevent you or hinder you But if we shake off the beast God does the part where we feel no harm Our part is to shake off the beast And the last part is the feel no harm part Okay, of moving forward And being able to be used by God Look at Genesis chapter 50 And the second point I want to make Number one point was Shake off your sinful past Give yourself a fresh start God's mercies are new every morning But number two Shake off the wrongs That other people have done to you So number one, shake off your own sinful past The things that you've done in the past Those ungodly wicked sinful things That you're ashamed of Hey, don't just spend the rest of your life beating yourself up about it Confess, forsake, move on Forget it Forget the things that are behind Reach forth for the prize Of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus But number two, shake off those wrongs That other people have done to you The things that people did to you That were wrong That you didn't deserve But maybe they just did something bad to you And I think a wonderful example of this Is Joseph in Genesis chapter 50 Because of the fact that of course Joseph had been beaten And thrown in a pit By his brethren And then sold into slavery I mean this is a horrible thing That happened to Joseph He sold into slavery into a foreign country That spoke a foreign language Which is why Joseph, when he was pretending to be an Egyptian Used an interpreter In order to speak to his brethren He's shipped off to a foreign country Foreign language He spends time as a slave He spends time in prison Because his evil, malicious brethren Threw him into a pit Thought about murdering him And ultimately sold him into slavery And you know what? He was actually a good kid He was a good 17 year old kid And that's how he was treated by his brethren Now When Joseph finally Confronts his brethren after Decades have gone by, okay He at first Messes with them a little bit, okay That's to be expected, right? He messes with them a little bit But after messing with them a little bit He does not harm them He actually embraces them Blesses them, helps them And ultimately saves their lives And the lives of their families And saves their lives By bringing them all to Egypt Under Joseph's patronage And so Joseph is very good unto them And he forgives them And lets it go and moves on Well, in Genesis chapter 50 what happens is Their dad dies Okay, so Israel dies Jacob dies And when Jacob dies Joseph's brethren are thinking to themselves You know, Joseph is really gracious And forgiving to us But I wonder if he was just doing that Because of dad You know, was he just doing that Because he loved dad And he respected dad And now that dad's dead I wonder if Joseph's gonna pay us back Because you know, Joseph hasn't really ever Paid us back for what we did And they're thinking that maybe Joseph is gonna do something To pay them back Or take revenge, they're misjudging Joseph, they don't realize That Joseph is more godly than that Because he's a very forgiving person Which is a Christian virtue By the way, to be a forgiving person Who lets things go And you know, I feel like I've Preached about forgiveness so much But I just feel like no matter how much you preach about it It's just never enough Because a lot of times people just don't get it And it's so critical, it's so important Let things go But look what happens It says in verse 15 Of Genesis 50 The brethren saw that their father was dead They said, Joseph will peradventure hate us And will certainly Requite us all the evil which we did unto him And they sent a messenger Unto Joseph saying, thy father Did command before he died saying So shall you say unto Joseph Forgive I pray thee now the Trespass of thy brethren and their sin For they did unto thee evil And then now we're Done with the quote Okay, from Dad, and then they say Now we pray thee Forgive the trespass of the servants Of the God of thy father And Joseph wept when they spake unto him Now You know, I don't think that this quote From dad is necessarily legit It seems like a made up quote Oh by the way Before dad died, he said You need to forgive us, you know So the quote's a little bit Dubious here, okay And they're saying Forgive we pray thee The trespass of the servants of the God Of thy father Joseph wept When they spake unto him Look at verse 18 His brethren also went and fell down before his face And they said, behold we be thy servants And I think that Part of what's going on here is that maybe The air had never really been Fully cleared on this issue, you know It was kind of probably just understood Hey, Joseph really seems Like he's letting this go And he's treating us well But it was like maybe they hadn't just really Like brought it out in the open And just said, hey, we're really sorry For what we did, you know, we did Wrong, you know, so it's kind of being Explicitly brought out Into the open And the air is finally being cleared here Of this just kind of once and for all Like, look, we're sorry We deserve to be punished, but please Forgive us anyway And they said, behold we be thy servants They're basically just saying like Look, we owe you You know, we did you wrong How can we make this right And in verse 19 Joseph said to them, fear not For am I in the place of God But as for you, you thought Evil against me But God meant it unto good To bring to pass as it is this day To save much people alive Now therefore, fear ye not I will nourish you and your little ones I comforted them and spake kindly unto them Okay, so this is a beautiful picture Of forgiveness where Joseph says I'm not in the place of God I'm not gonna punish you I'm not here to take revenge Vengeance belongs to God Fear not, I'm gonna nourish you I'm gonna comfort you You meant it for evil, God meant it for good No harm, no foul, here we are I forgive you But I think one of the key things that we need To understand here Because like I said Based on this passage, it seems that the air Had not really been cleared up to this point And that this hadn't been Really fully You know, dealt with For all parties involved And yet, I think what's also Super clear is that Joseph Had already forgiven them It's not like Joseph's still mad And still bitter and he was kind of loading his gun And then they come in and say like Hey dad said to forgive us and we're really sorry And then he starts crying like puts the gun away He's like you're right I'm not gonna kill you guys He was already There I mean don't you think that's pretty obvious I mean for those of you who know the whole story And read the whole story Because he's already kind unto them He's already loving them and taking care of them Before this incident happens And they're the ones Who dream up this idea of Oh maybe Joseph's still mad at us Because they have a guilty conscience Because maybe they're the ones Who just haven't really been clear enough In their apologies to Joseph And come to him and really Made things right with him So they're having a guilty conscience But really Joseph's already let it go a long time ago It's like sometimes literally people have come to me and apologized About something and I'm just like I'm sorry I don't remember that I don't know what you're talking about And they're just like okay I guess we're good then And I'm like I guess so yeah I mean it's real easy to forgive stuff that you literally Don't even remember happening But they remember it because it's bothering them You know I feel like Joseph He'd already moved on He's already just living his life And he's just succeeding And by the way you know if anybody has an excuse To fail and be a loser It's Joseph It's like man I was sold into slavery I mean this guy doesn't exactly have white privilege does he You know I mean he starts out He's in slavery He's in prison He's falsely accused He doesn't speak the language He's going through all this stuff But instead of just becoming a complaining Whining loser He just succeeds everywhere he goes When he's in Potiphar's house He does a great job in Potiphar's house When he goes to prison Even in prison He's running the prison Everything's going great in the prison He's actually climbing the ladder And excelling even in the prison system Because he's not just sitting around And blaming other people It's not a coincidence that this guy Who is so super forgiving of his brethren Is the same guy who succeeds Everywhere he goes Because instead of sitting around and blaming other people And worrying about what they did He's just like you know what whatever I've just got to make the best of my situation I'm just going to shake off the beast And just feel no harm And that's what he did He just shakes it off People did these things but you know what Nuts to it I'm going to just do the best I can with what I got And then when they come to him He was affectionate toward them From day one When they're talking he has to go in the other room And start crying half the time We don't have time to read the whole Joseph story But he's getting emotional He loves them He is forgiving unto them You can go ahead and just be bitter And hang on Maybe 10 years ago 20 years ago 30 years ago But you know what you're the one who's going to end up being a loser If you just go through life Being bitter and holding grudges And just blaming people for stuff that happened Years and years ago Instead of just shaking off the beast And feeling no harm And then you're the one who's going to be better off I mean think about it If you shake off the beast You feel no harm If you let things go Don't give and forget If you move forward you're going to live a better life Okay But if you just hang on to all this bitterness And grudges It's going to eat you up And you're going to be the one that suffers the most If you spend a life that's all about being vindictive And getting revenge And everything Hey just leave that stuff in God's hands Vengeance belongs to God He will repay Avenge not your own selves the Bible says And that's why Joseph says here What am I in the place of God? No Look at Philippians chapter one In the New Testament Philippians chapter one This is one of those prison epistles Philippians chapter one While you're turning there I'm going to read you a very famous passage Ephesians 4 31 Let all bitterness and wrath And anger and clamor And evil speaking be put away from you With all malice The bitterness The wrath The anger all the things that you're so mad about From years ago All the bitter angry feelings that you have About all this stuff in the past He's saying put off that stuff And here's another word for putting it off Shake it off Shake that stuff off He says put away these things And be ye kind one to another Tender hearted Forgiving one another Look if God has forgiven us all of our trespasses Then shouldn't we be able to forgive people who trespass against us? You know we don't want to be like that servant In the story that Jesus tells Where his master forgives him this massive debt Then he goes out and finds some guy who owes him a couple bucks Takes him by the throat and says pay me what you owe Right? That's what it's like When we have been forgiven so many sins by God And then we won't forgive someone else For something that they did to us And we just keep bringing it up And we keep being bitter and angry And having all this wrath and malice Because someone did us wrong And look a lot of times people claim they were wrong They weren't even wronged But even if you were legitimately wronged I mean was Joseph legitimately wronged? Absolutely And yet he was forgiving Yet he's letting it go He moved on Why? Because it's years and years ago It's been years and years and years It's like you know he's already moved on with his life He's not just going to let that define him He's not just going to leave the beast attached to his hand And ten years later he just says Look at what this snake did to me Ehh Look what it bit me Like here's the thing If a snake bit me on the hand It'd be like if I was more interested in showing everyone Can you believe what this snake is doing to me right now? Can you believe? Look at this Somebody get out a phone And take a picture of this thing Let's get a video No, the smart thing to do would be to just get it off your hand And then just throw it in the fire Where it can just disappear and we just never see it Or hear about it again And you know what's funny is that it seems like the apostle Paul After he shakes off the beast and feels no harm It kind of just feels like He just keeps on just You know he's probably just roasting a marshmallow And just like everything's just fine You know he shook off the beast They're looking at him And it says they look at him for a great while And no harm comes to him So they're just watching him You know they're just like waiting for something to happen And he's just like Kumbaya You know he's singing the campfire songs He's roasting a hot dog He's roasting a marshmallow And they're like what in the world? But then other people are just Ehh Get rid of it Shake it off Move on So number one Your sinful past But number two What other people do to you To harm you Is something else that should be shaken off So you can feel no harm Look at Philippians chapter 1 verse 12 It says But I would you should understand brethren That the things which have happened unto me Have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel So that my bonds in Christ are manifest In all the palace and in all other places And many of the brethren in the Lord Waxing confident by my bonds Are much more bold to speak the word Without fear I mean talk about an optimistic guy He says hey I know you guys have heard about me Throwing in being thrown into prison Actually it's kind of good that I was thrown in prison Because now you know the gospel Is spreading and people are preaching more boldly And he's looking on the bright side He's not feeling sorry for himself He's letting it go He's moving on And in fact even the people That are actually You know holding him As a prisoner or Or you know that are Immediately responsible for his incarceration You know he's witnessing to them I mean think about the Philippian jailer The guy who's keeping him locked up He ends up Preaching the gospel to the Philippian jailer Getting him saved right And he talks about later in the book of Philippians How all the saints salute you Chiefly they that are of Caesar's household Right so even as he's Imprisoned by the Romans And shipped off to go be judged by Caesar He's getting people saved In Caesar's household Okay So the Bible says In Ephesians 4 as I said Put off the bitterness Be kind, forgiving Let it go, God forgave you You should forgive other people Another passage that is similar to this Is in Colossians 3 It says in Colossians 3 18 It says wives submit yourselves Under your own husbands As it is fit in the Lord Husbands love your wives And be not bitter against them So in this passage he gives just one quick Piece of advice to the husband One quick piece of advice to the wife It's not like the longer passage in Ephesians Where he goes into great detail about marriage It's sort of just a quick thing Of just Submit to your husbands as it is fit in the Lord You know just a quick little admonition Hey that's what you guys need to worry about You need to be submitted to your husbands And then he says to the husbands love your wives And be not bitter against them Right because love covers A multitude of sins Okay And love and forgiveness are Christian virtues He's saying don't be bitter against them Don't just be all upset And this is so important in marriage Because if you're married for a long time There's plenty of time for things to go wrong Right and if you're living with someone 365 days a year For 20, 30, 40 years You know at some point something's gonna go wrong Somebody's gonna say something wrong Somebody's gonna do something wrong And you've got to be able to forgive Or you can't stay married And this is why 75% of marriages will end in divorce Because people can't forgive It's because of the hardness of your heart That people are divorcing their wives Okay And so the idea here is That we should Forgive and love And not get bitter against Other people especially not getting bitter Against your wife okay And obviously wives shouldn't be bitter against their Husbands either but just he's specifically Giving that advice to husbands here Don't be bitter Don't hang on to the past About bad things you've experienced You know what I've noticed about our society There's a really bad trend Especially amongst the younger Generation of our society Is that everyone is a victim now Everybody's a victim They want to be a victim now And so it seems like everybody you talk to Is autistic now Or they have ADD Or OCD Or ODD or ADHD And nothing's their fault Because they've all been traumatized Or they all have neurological damage or whatever And just be like everybody's a victim There's a weird of just totally normal people saying That they're autistic you know If you're not Rain Man you're not autistic alright Just get over it man It's like everybody's autistic And people are saying to me like hey do you think you're autistic I'm like no I don't Oh cause you have this one little weird quirk or whatever News flash every human being Has weird quirks No I was literally I kid you not I was talking to one of these people That just I've been around this person But I've been around this person a lot And this person you wouldn't know them anyway I've been around this person a lot And this person was saying they were autistic And I just found this to be a totally normal person I'm like you're not autistic what are you talking about You're just a normal person no I'm autistic And then the same person like found out Some quirk that I had and is trying to tell me I think you're autistic too I'm like don't try to bring me into this You know what I mean I don't want to join the victim club Or the disabled club or something And look I understand that there are people That are legitimately disabled But you know it's kind of insulting to people that are actually Disabled when everybody just goes around Claiming to be disabled when they're not Because what about people that actually are Disabled and you're just like Doing it as a thing to be cool Like oh it's so cool Do we have a neurological disorder I'm like divergent or something I don't know They think they're like a sci-fi movie If they're divergent you know like Neurologically divergent Or you know or whatever like It makes them special or something Or everybody's been traumatized Right everybody's been Everybody's an abuse victim now Everybody's been abused and traumatized And has neurological damage And everybody I mean like I get all these ads just telling me How I need to have therapy and everything Who knows what I'm talking about Just constant ads like hey You can do it online and therapy and stuff You know here's an idea go to church Amen And look I'm not Saying that there aren't people out there Of course there are people out there Who really are of course Disabled or really do Have trauma Or you know Abuse or something in their life Obviously I'm not belittling those things Here's what I'm talking about I'm talking about this new Generation where it's just every Single person is just a victim now And wants to be a victim And then now they're doing these surveys On hey who here Identifies as some kind of an LGBTQIABCDEFG And they're just like It's like 10% of people or something Look I know there's a lot of fags out there But it's not 10% But what it is is that every little teenager Now is declaring themselves to be Bisexual they've never done it They're not a reprobate they're not desiring Strains flesh they're just trying to be cool Because they're so messed up in their head From the school system And Hollywood and Madison Avenue Pushing this stuff that it's like Ooh I can maybe I can be Divergent too I could be a pervert The ultimate diversion It's madness And let me tell you something It is a problem with this younger generation Where everybody's traumatized Everybody's been abused Everybody's handicapped It's like get over it And again I'm not talking about People that have had legitimate Problems and you know what's funny So everybody's everybody's been abused Everybody's parents abused them I grew up in an abusive Home okay so I looked up abuse In the bible I want to see like What does the bible say about abuse Because it seems like that word's just being thrown around About every little thing Right? You know your Your parents said something that wasn't nice to you Or something and you're an abuse victim now So I looked up abuse in the bible Let me just read for you every instance of the word Abuse in the bible okay Judges 19 Does that ring a bell? Judges 19 verse 25 But the men would not hearken him So the man took his concubine And brought her forth unto them And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning And when the day began to spring They let her go and of course It says then came the woman and the dawning of the day Fell down at the door of the man's house Of course she's dead right? She was abused She's being violated She's being gang whatevered And left you know She was abused Then I found the word abuse In first Samuel chapter 31 Where king Saul Is out fighting against the Philistines He gets wounded so bad That he believes that he can't recover He believes that he's mortally wounded And so he asks his armor bearer to kill him Quote, lest these uncircumcised come And thrust me through and abuse me But his armor bearer would not For he was so afraid And then we find the exact same scripture In first Chronicles 10.4 So those are two mentions of abuse Where Saul is worried That the Philistines, the enemy combatants Are literally going to Torture and kill him And mutilate his corpse And so he says I'm afraid they're going to abuse me Then of course there's the famous verse In first Corinthians 6.9 Abusers of themselves with mankind Which no matter how you define that Is some kind of fornication It's some kind of a A sexual act that's going on there Okay And then the only other mention of the word abuse Is first Corinthians 9.18 When Paul talks about not abusing his power in the gospel Abuse of power is a totally different You know kind of definition of abuse It's not talking about abusing a person Okay so look yeah of course There are people that are legitimately Abused like people who get raped Or people that get molested Or people who get actually You know because it doesn't have to use the word abuse But like for example the Bible talks about Servants being abused in the Old Testament Where they lose an eye Or get a tooth knocked out Or something right Or they get their tooth knocked out Or they get their eye broken or something You know that's abuse But you know But no everything's abuse right Well I got news for you Your parents disciplining you is not abuse Getting spanked by your parents is not abuse Okay The Bible says in Proverbs 13.24 He that spareth his rod Hated his son But he that loveth him Chaseneth him betimes The Bible says the parent who loves their child Chasens their child If you spare the rod We've always said You spare the rod you spoil the child The Bible says if you spare the rod you hate your son Okay And then you're going to sit there and whine And complain that you got Corporal punishment growing up as a kid Well just thank God that your parents didn't hate you They loved you They disciplined you And you know what my parents used corporal punishment on me My parents spanked me They disciplined me And I'm thankful for it It's a blessing to have parents that love you And correct you and chasten you The Bible also says in Proverbs 3 verse 11 My son Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord Neither be weary of his correction For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth And scourges every son whom he receiveth Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth Even as the son Excuse me even as the father The son in whom he delighteth Right? So in the New Testament this is quoted as Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth And scourges every son whom he receiveth In the Old Testament it's For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth Even as the father the son in whom he delighteth Right? So your parents Correcting you Disciplining you Chasing you Not sparing the rod Child abuse And by the way your parents yelling at you Is not abuse Now look, obviously yelling at your kids Is typically not the most effective Way to deal with them Okay? And usually It's not the best way to do things But you know what? There is a time and a place For yelling at people Now look, I don't think we should just go around yelling all the time Yelling at people all the time, but this idea is just like Hey it's wrong to ever yell at someone Do you have a chapter and verse for that? Smart mouth? Right? Because everybody is so smart now With all their little You should never yell Really? Because what verse is that? Because I'm noticing Jesus yelling at people You should never ever call anyone names ever Oh well Jesus blew that one Jesus is calling people Vipers, fools He's calling them serpents Foxes He's calling them all kinds of names But you should never do that Never just never write Says who? Your God now or something? Because last time I checked This big giant thick book With 31,000 some odd verses in it It has a whole bunch of rules in it And a whole bunch of principles and teachings in it But that's not one of them But you've got your little philosophy And then you just want to twist everything And everybody's abusive now And by the way Obviously I yell when I preach Why do I yell when I preach? Number one, I'm passionate about the material So I'm excited, I'm up here I'm loud because I'm excited But not only that I'm following the biblical example Where the Bible said, cry aloud Spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet Said, smite with the hand Stomp with the foot These are biblical commands Look at Jesus and the apostles It says he cried out when he preached They're yelling and preaching loud It's not because they don't love people It's because they do love people And they have an urgent message And they're passionate about it Right? It's the spirit of the Lord That fires people up To preach the word of God Oh, you know, that's abuse Literally, I kid you not, James White Literally said, Pastor Anderson Is up there yelling at his congregation Abusing his congregation That's a word that he used over and over again about me That I abuse my congregation By yelling at them I'm so sorry for all of the trauma That I'm causing you right now By yelling at you But here's the thing about that I know the doors don't swing both ways Because we're very fire safe They all only open outward But they open outward And that's really what you need in a situation like this If you need to go to your safe space There's a QT gas station by my house That says it's a safe place It's got a sign in the parking lot I don't know what that means, but it says, safe place It's a yellow diamond I don't know if kids Can just hang out there, I don't know what that means But there's a QT gas station And it has a yellow Diamond, safe place Go there and suck your thumb Or go to Thumbsucker Baptist Go to Recovering Fundamentalist Baptist Church And go whine about all your trauma That you experience Listening to loud Bible preaching Now look folks, I grew up And heard a bunch of yelling Loud, fire breathing, hellfire And damnation preaching And you know what it made me do? It made me live for God And here's the thing If you don't like it There are plenty of other churches that have the other kind of preaching Oh, this is abuse Right? And look, like I said Obviously, we should be slow to wrath We should not be constantly yelling There's a time, but you know what? There is a time and a place for yelling I'm sorry, but let me just say it There's a time and a place, yelling is not always wrong Oh, my parents yelled at me Quit pissing off your parents And they won't yell at you anymore And you know what? I was once a stupid teenager And I said to my brother When I was a teenager one time I said to him, I said, if Jesus Christ lived in this house He would get yelled at every day That's what I said to my brother And you know what? I believed that at the time And it was a stupid thing to believe Because you know what? Once I got into a Fundamental Baptist Church And started really reading my Bible And getting right with God You know what? There's a lot of things that I could do To be a better son There's a lot of things that I could do To honor my father and mother and to obey my parents And I just made a few slight little tweaks And started being a better child A better teenager And I mean my parents turned on a dime And they did not yell at me at all They were little I mean I can literally remember My dad walking up to me and just saying Steve, is there anything that we can do for you, son? Because he was just so happy That I was being have You know, that's not a word, but We used to joke about that Behaving, you know, my mom would tell us Behave, and we'd say I'm being have We'd split up behave It doesn't split like that It was a joke But you know what? Once I was behaving better You know, my parents were real pleased with me And that's what Romans 13 is all about Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power Do that which is good and thou should have praise of the same You know, but Or you can just sit around and say Well even Jesus would get yelled at in this house Right? Typical teenage mentality I mean I didn't just think that I said that to my brother out loud I said Jesus would get yelled at It wasn't true Because when I started acting a little more like Jesus I didn't get yelled at at all And Jesus probably would have never even got yelled at Maybe like once, you know The first time he did something or whatever But he never would have sinned And so obviously he was totally without sin And so here's the thing Did Jesus ever get yelled at Or did Jesus ever get spanked Or whatever Obviously Jesus didn't sin But you know what? I guarantee you that his parents Disciplined him in some way At some point Because of the fact that maybe he just did something And he didn't even know that it was a rule Wasn't a sin or whatever, right? You know what I mean? You know Jesus was tempted at all points Like as we are yet without sin I guarantee you there were times when he had to be corrected And receive correction Because for example, I'm sure he had to learn how to do stuff Even if he's totally without sin He still had to learn how to do something Be told no, this is the right way, this is the wrong way Don't tell me how to do it, I know everything It's not how he acted And you know what? It's pretty sad when a 50 year old man Is still whining about stuff that his parents Said to him 40 years ago Shake off the beast I mean by now, the serpent by now Is just, it's a literal skeleton The thing is just, it's 30 years old It's just like, it's just bones of a skeleton He's probably using rubber bands To keep it attached to his head Hey look what happened to me Did I ever tell you about the time my dad Said something stupid to me 30 years ago? Did I ever tell you about the time I got slapped Upside the head 50 years ago He's going to be in the nursing home Telling us, oh yeah 60 years ago My dad told me that I was an uncoordinated spaz Because I didn't catch a football Get over it Shake it off And look, I understand that there are people Who have actually been victims of actual violence Or sexual abuse And those things are terrible And I'm sorry and that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about how just everybody's a victim Because they got corporal punishment From their parents They got spanked or slapped in the face Or whatever And now they're just traumatized For the rest of their lives They're just now damaged because they got yelled at Or whatever, you know that's garbage You should be thankful that you have parents Who loved you and corrected you And brought you up in the nurture and admonition Of the Lord Not just claim all this stuff And you know everybody's got to go see a psychiatrist now To deal with all their crap You know what, here's the thing about that You know what, go ahead and go see a psychiatrist Go ahead and see a psychiatrist If you first are living for God And got the sin out of your life And you're living for God and you're still messed up in the head Then okay, maybe you need some professional help But you know what, when you're drinking And taking drugs And fornicating and partying You need a psychiatrist You need the Holy Ghost You need a psychiatrist Let me save you some money The faithful word app is cheaper Than that counseling app I don't care how cheap that counseling app is The faithful word sermons are free Here's your therapy session Get right with God and you'll be a lot happier Okay You know, oh I'm depressed Yet you're depressed because you're drinking You're depressed because you take drugs You're depressed because you're a fornicator You're depressed because you're committing adultery You're depressed because you're looking at pornography You're depressed because you're addicted to gambling or whatever Look, these are all things If you're doing any of these things You have no business going to counseling Or psychiatrist or therapist And then what is he? Tell me about your mother And you know what, that's what we used to do when we were kids This was the joke Any time anybody laid on a sofa If you were at anyone's house Or if they were at your house And you're laid on a sofa You'd walk up to them and say, tell me about your mother And it was the joke Because Sigmund Freud The father of modern psychology Had all these weird ideas Everything's your parents fault Right Everything's your mom's fault Everything's dad's fault No, it's your fault If you're living in sin, it's your fault And like I said If you get all the sin out of your life And you're actually living a clean And I'm not saying to be sinlessly perfect But you know what I mean You get these big sins out of your life And you're going to church If you're still messed up Then I'd still say, hey Now it's time to start going to the gym That'll help Once you've gotten morally right Now let's look at your nutrition Now let's get you going to the gym Now let's get you hanging around people And not on a video game all day You know Let's get you around some people socializing You know, there are a lot of stops along the way Before we need to go seek professional help And look, I'm not saying that people don't need professional There are some people obviously Who are at that point, okay I'm not saying that at all But what I'm saying is If you're a backslidden, ungodly person living in sin I'll tell you exactly what your problem is You're an ungodly Backslidden person who's living in sin That's what your problem is No drugs needed No prescription, no needles It's just, you know, it's called Take two of these and call me in the morning Now look, I've been A victim Of violence in my life And you know what's funny is that I was trying to think About the violence that I've been A victim of in my life And it was funny, I'm like sitting there and racking my brain And thinking about it Because these are things that I literally Never think about Because they don't matter to me Because they don't define me Because I don't care because I shook these things off a long time ago But only for the purposes of this sermon I sat down and thought about Like the most violent things That happened to me in my life, right And I was thinking back to when I was in seventh grade I was in I was 12 years old And if I had to estimate There were a lot of bullies There were a lot of bullies in the school It was a really bad school And we were put in a school It was seventh or twelfth grade So I'm like 12 and I'm around these 17, 18 Even 19 year old ghetto guys That would beat us up And bully us And when I say bully It's not the 2024 version of bullying It's like the 80s movie kind of bullying Okay, you know what I mean Like that kind of bullying And I remember that If I had to estimate I probably got kicked or kneed in the balls Sorry, pardon my French Probably about 40 times If I had to estimate How many times I got kicked Or kneed in the groin In that year of seventh grade It's probably about 40 times Okay But I got 12 kids so I must have felt no harm You know what I mean God is good But you know what I mean that's actually violent I mean look Somebody walking up to you and kicking you in the groin Or kneeding you in the groin That's one of the most painful things That happens when you're that age You know and people can get away with it Because it doesn't leave a mark or something But I mean it's pretty stinking painful Pretty violent, it's pretty bad You know it's just like Oh well now that's just my excuse You know I gotta go to therapy Because of getting kicked in the nuts 12 I'm 43 years old Who cares And look I'm only bringing up this story as a joke Okay It doesn't, it means nothing Okay, okay and then another So I was trying to think of another And by the way these guys would also, they'd rip the hair out of the back of our necks They'd grab hair Just rip hair, it was all red You know Look that was That was actually abusive The worst part And you know I almost forgot because I don't care Okay, who knows what a wedgie is Okay, now No, no you don't know what a wedgie is You think you know what a wedgie is Because here's what you think a wedgie is You think a wedgie is when somebody comes up behind you And pulls up on your underwear And then your underwear is kind of sticking out Oh man It's embarrassing You gotta go to the bathroom and fix it or whatever No let me tell you what a wedgie is When an 18 year old man Grabs the back of your underwear And lifts you off the ground And you are suspended between heaven and earth Like Absalom By your underwear That's a wedgie Okay But you know what It was 30 years ago Oh I'm traumatized I'm abused I'm a victim I usually go probably like 10 years at a time Without even thinking about 7th grade Unless I'm preparing sermons Where I have to talk about like Some of the things that can happen in a Christian school Or something you know That's pretty much the only time these things came up You know the first time I thought about this was literally When I thought about putting my kids in a Christian school When I was Young and newly married And then it's like then I started thinking about what Christian school was like and I'm like oh yeah that's right That was pretty bad That was a gnarly year in 7th grade or whatever But anyway you know I was thinking about another Another violent thing that I experienced That actually was more violent And way more violent and traumatic Than 7th grade believe it or not And that was In 2009 I was beaten And tasered by the police And so I got Tasered for 22 seconds 50,000 volts I had my face shoved in broken Glass I mean it was bad I thought I was going to die and let me tell you something That traumatized me because literally for A full month afterward I had nightmares Every night the police were just Killing me in my dreams a different way every night So I had nightmares for like a month Sometimes I'd be just the next Few days after it happened I'd just be going through my life And every once in a while I'd just kind of go like You know like just kind of feel like A little aftershock Just kind of yeah And you know After that happened I did a lot of Interviews for radio and TV For like one month because There were just so many requests I couldn't even do them all So I was literally just like okay I'm just going to schedule One per day So for like I think it was like a month I just did one per day For like a month and you know what at the end of that month I did I'm just like you know what I'm So tired of talking about this I'm so over it like It's over I want to just move on with my life Who cares And I just dropped it and then like After the court thing they're like hey Do you want to appeal this decision I'm like no Because I'm like I don't want to spend the rest of my life Talking about this like it's just I'm ready to just Move on to the next stage Of life I'm not just going to let This define me I'm that Guy who got beaten and Tasered by the police wrongfully or something You know and just let that Define me for the rest of my life Okay And you say well That's easy for you to say Pastor Anderson You got over it after a month Or two you know you got over it and you moved On you know I just Can't but you know what again You know God can help you get over these things You know But you've got to shake off the beast Though that's you've got to do your part You shake off the beast and then God will do the feel No harm part so my point Is look yeah you've been through Some stuff I've been through some stuff And I think that the stuff I brought up is actual That's actually legit stuff and maybe You've been through some legit stuff too okay Hey but at the end of the day though You know what there's no Benefit in just Hanging on to those things and just Letting them cling to you And letting them define you and using Them as an excuse For why you can't succeed Why you can't Live a godly life why can't You can't succeed Financially or spiritually Or in your relationships Or whatever you know whatever Happen and look everybody wants to blame their parents But maybe maybe our parents Could blame their parents Right so it's like it's like oh you want to blame Your parents yeah but it's their parents fault And It's not really their parents fault because it's their parents fault We could do this all the way back to Adam And then we could say by one man sin Entered into the world And death by sin and so death passed upon All men for that all of sin it's just It's just oh it's just my dad No it's his oh it's your mom Well it's probably her mom And then now let's talk about her mom And her mom it's stupid And there's no end to it and by the way There is not a person on this planet Who gets through life without Going through suffering I'm not going to get to my third point tonight Because I'm out of time but I have no Regrets because I think that what I'm saying to you tonight Is so important and Especially if you're a child Or a teenager or a young adult You need to hear this message Because your generation is Generation victim Generation snowflake Generation trauma Generation I was abused Generation my parents Generation whiner Okay Look Nobody's perfect Everybody's been through stuff We've all done bad stuff We've all had bad stuff happen to us Move on Go Forward Shake it off And feel no harm I'm trying to help you tonight I want you to feel no harm I don't feel any harm You know what I can honestly Say I'm going to go to bed tonight With no bitterness toward Anyone I'm going to go to bed tonight And put my head on my pillow And have no bitterness Toward anybody and just be happy as A little clam Sleeping in my bed And you're the one that's going to be yelling My parents My brother My sister You're only hurting yourself When you hang on to all this Grudge and bitterness And rancor Toward other people You know And by the way When you see yourself as a perpetual victim Well then everything's everybody else's fault You want to know the problem with things being other people's fault Is that you can't control other people So if everything's other people's fault Well then you can never fix anything about your life But if you see yourself as a perpetual victim Well then you can never fix anything about your life But if you start realizing Hey what can I do to change What can I do to fix things I'll tell you what I can do I can shake off the beast Now you're actually taking control of your own life You're actually taking control of your own destiny You're actually able to fix things Because you're saying what can I do I know I'm out of time But I just kind of don't care I'm sorry I confess I don't care Take control of your own life Take control of your own life You know it's sort of like when somebody says Hey you know you're less likely to get raped If you Don't walk down the street Dressed like a hoochie mama And if you don't go out drinking and partying in the middle of the night You're less likely to get raped How dare you You're condoning rape No, no Rapists are wicked and evil they should be put to death But here's the funny thing about that I can't control rapists I can't just be like Well there shouldn't be rapists in the world And then all the rapists are just gone It's just like I wish them away I wish them all away It doesn't do anything But you know what I can do Is I can make sure that my daughters dress right And that she's not Out partying at night That's actually something that we Can control You can actually control You can't control you can't just Wish that you know and I've even seen People that are so stupid they're like Well I'm just going to keep going out and drinking And dressing this way Because men shouldn't be raping everybody Well they shouldn't But they're out there And whether you like it or not They're out there So why don't you just take control of your own situation Okay And again Literally now and I know I'm going on a rabbit trail But I'm kind of In for a penny and in for a pound at this point And the thing this is what's funny Everybody's a rape victim now Too by the way Right you have a bunch of women going out And sleeping around And just opening their feet to everybody That passes by and they're so Drunk and high half the time Now they're starting to think maybe I was raped Because I was so drunk I don't even think I knew What was going on I didn't know who that guy was You know what? You're being a whore And you say I'm never coming back to this church Well I'm sorry that you're biblically illiterate But the Bible literally Says that if you're going to claim That someone raped you You have to have been screaming and yelling And crying out That's rape according to the Bible It's literally in the Bible Not just you know Oh I went to the party And just like withdrew my consent Like five seconds before it was over or something And here's And let me give some advice to you young men Here's how you never get Accused of rape You don't fornicate I've never been in danger Of raping a girl at a party Because I never had sex with a girl at a party Because I waited until I was Married to have sex What a concept Then you don't get accused of rape You don't have to fight To prove how consensual it was Because you have a marriage license to show that it was Consensual You know I mean There's witnesses and everything I mean you want to talk about You want to talk about an official consent It's marriage Is the best consent ever You know it's like you got it all on video Most of the time To have and to hold From this day forward you know what I mean It's like okay you know we all know What that hold means You know it's a little more than just Hold Your honor Right Here's how to solve This problem Of consent Consenting you know It's called marriage It's called keep sex inside of marriage where it belongs Right Or don't be like Someone who shall remain Unnamed But there's a sermon There might be a sermon coming In like November or something Depending on which way things go Now you're like Man who do we want to win now But the point is That you Can control What you do And control other people Right Take responsibility for your own life For your own actions If you've done wrong Confess it and forsake it God is ready to forgive His mercies are new every morning And the stuff that people have done to you Where you've been wronged or beat up Or kicked in the groin Or tasered Or whatever And you know what I can honestly tell you right now I prayed for all the guys who beat me and tasered me That God would be merciful to them And that they would be saved I prayed that if they were That if they were not saved that someone would give them the gospel And that they would be saved I didn't just be like Oh I hate them I hate the police I hate the border patrol No I was just like hey Forgive them for they know not what they do And you know what that's a quote from Jesus Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Thank you so much for this passage Lord Please help us to shake off the beast In our life Whether that's the sinful actions that we've done in the past That we're having trouble letting go of Lord help us to Confess and forsake those things Or Lord whether it's bad things That people did to us Or you know things that people said to us That were mean or mean things That people did to us Lord help us not to just let those things consume us Years or even decades later Help us to just shake off the beast And let you be the one who takes vengeance And just let vengeance Belong to you And not be vindictive and unforgiving And hateful Lord Help us to just have a peaceful Heart tonight and not have any Ranker toward anyone And in Jesus name we pray Amen Amen take your psalm please go to hymn number 306 Hymn number 306 Have thine own way Lord Have thine own way Thou art the modern I am the flame Hold me and make me Great And make me Great And make me Great And make me Great And make me Great And make me Great And make me After thy will After thy will While I am waiting While I am waiting Heal it and still Heal it and still Have thine own way Have thine own way Have thine own way Search me Search me and try Search me and try me Today Wider than Snow Lord Washing Us now As in thy Presence Humbly I Bow Have thine own Way Lord Have thine own Way Wounded and Wearing Help me I pray Power All power Surely Is mine Touch me And heal me Savior Divine Have thine own Way Lord Have thine Own way Hold o'er My knee Absolute Sway Fill with Thy Spirit Till all Shall see Christ only Always Living In me May good things not yours best Thank you for watching!