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Amen. Alright, well thank you everybody for being here and thank you Pastor Thompson for inviting me and I'm glad, glad to be here. If you don't mind, I want to just quickly just give some words about what Pastor Thompson had talked about as far as the fuel tank. We have a man down in Sacramento that we use to pick people up for church and someone siphoned, they drilled a hole in the fuel tank to siphon fuel out of it. And to buy a brand new tank in Sacramento is $1500. We paid like $3000 for the van so it's not really worth it for us. But they were able to find some used ones that are like $200 and one of the locations they found one was here in Portland. So I thought about going over there and getting it myself but I just, I didn't have time with when my flight came in and the rehearsal and then tonight and all that. So all we're asking is if there's anybody that could help us. You don't have to pay for anything, we'll pay for all of it. I just need someone to go pick it up and maybe take it to like a UPS or something and ship it down to us. We'll cover all the costs if someone just has like a truck or something that could help with that. If you could see Pastor Thompson after the service or you can talk to me about it. Or if there's anybody who's planning a trip down to Sacramento anytime soon that has a vehicle that can handle that, you know that'd be great too. But at the very least if someone could pick it up and ship it to us. If there's anybody that could do that that has like a truck or something we would really, really appreciate that. Thank you for being here. It's a great crowd for a Friday night and I'm really excited to be here and I'm excited about the wedding. And I've done all the weddings for the Thompson family up to now so not only am I excited about the wedding but I'm excited about the fact that they're running out of kids. So there's only one left after this and he's kind of ugly so we'll see how it goes. No I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Josh is the best looking one in the family. So that's good and that's good. This church is doing great. We're so proud of you and of course you know we miss you and we love the fact that we were able to play a part in planting this church. But I'm really glad you're here and I want you to look down. We're there in 2 Samuel chapter 16. I'd like you to look down at verse number 5. 2 Samuel chapter 16 and verse number 5. The Bible says, And when King David came to Bahirim, behold thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. He came forth and cursed still as he came. When we jump into the chapter here in 2 Samuel 16 just to give you a little bit of the context. We have David who's basically leaving town. He's running out of town because of the fact that Absalom, his son, has brought a rebellion against him. And David is now leaving. We know he's going to come back later victorious but he's leaving now with the threat of Absalom basically wanting to take over the kingdom. And he will take over the kingdom and wanting to kill him. And what we read here is that as David is leaving town, he's met by this man, if you look down at verse 5 again, whose name was Shimei. And Shimei is basically just there for one reason, to curse David as he goes. The Bible says he came forth and cursed still as he came. Shimei is basically someone whose entire life and ministry, the only thing we really see him do in scripture here, what he goes down in history as being known for, is for hating on David. He's hating on David even while David is fighting bigger battles, even while David is fighting bigger things. We have Shimei who's not really an important character. He's not really a character that we need to be too concerned with. But he's just there just to hate on David, just to curse David, just to criticize David, just to bring problems to David. And tonight what I want to do is I want to preach on the subject of these types of individuals. These individuals whose entire life and ministry is simply to be there to criticize, to hate, to kind of cause problems and division against those of us that are attempting to do something for God. Now I want to give you the title of the sermon tonight because I want you to know kind of what the sermon is about. But before I do that I want to give you a disclaimer. And I want to give you a disclaimer because this is not really the title of the sermon that I came up with. I came up with a title for the sermon tonight, but I was sharing, you know, kind of what I'm preaching about. Of course I always share it with my wife, but I was sharing it with some of the guys in our staff there in Sacramento. Specifically with Brother Oliver. Some of you guys know Brother Oliver, many of you. Now I was sharing with Brother Oliver. Brother Oliver convinced me to go with a different sermon title, all right? So I'm going to give you the sermon title, but I just want you to know that it was not my idea, it was Brother Oliver's sermon idea, sermon title idea. So if you don't like it, you can take it up with him. But the title of the sermon tonight is Haters Gonna Hate. Haters Gonna Hate. Now let me just say this, this title, it was kind of a compromise, all right? Because Brother Oliver's original sermon title that he was trying to get me to preach was Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game. But I'm not really sure what that means. So I didn't like that one. He also threw out as a possible option snitches get stitches, but I didn't like that one either. So we settled on Haters Gonna Hate. So please pray for Brother Oliver. He's coming around. He's coming around. I recently was able to convince him to quit wearing his do-rag to church. But I'm just kidding, of course. Brother Oliver's a great, great guy. But tonight I'm preaching on this subject of Haters Gonna Hate. Or if you want a more serious title, How to Deal with the Haters. Because the truth of the matter is, if you're part of a church like Sure Foundation Baptist Church or Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, or a church like the ones we fellowship with, you're going to deal with haters. You're going to deal with people whose entire life and ministry and all they're about in life is simply to criticize, to hate, to try to cast a dark shadow upon the things that we're doing. You know, I'm talking about people tonight like the punk Kyle's, right? I'm talking about like the Sebastian's. I'm talking about the Tyler Baker's and the Rick Martinez's. I'm talking about, you know, the David Dorkov's. I'm talking about the type of people who are just their whole life, their whole existence is simply to hate on those of us who are trying to accomplish things for God. And in this story we find that David had a hater and his name was Shimei. And I want to just share a few thoughts with you in regards to this, in regards to haters gonna hate, all right? So let's begin tonight, let's talk about what haters do. What is it that these haters do? And I want you to notice, look down at verse number 6 there, 2 Samuel 16 and verse 6, the Bible says this, and he casts stones at David. Why don't you notice that all he's doing, you know, Shimei is not leading a rebellion against David. Shimei is not even a threat to David. But when David is fighting other battles, when David is distracted with other people, here comes Shimei and he starts casting stones at David. Now here's what you need to understand. David is the leader. David is in charge. We understand that when you're the leader, when you're in charge, you're gonna have a target on your back. You're gonna be someone who's going to have criticism hurled at them. You're going to be someone who's going to have hate, you know, spewed at them. And we understand that that comes with the leadership. And, you know, for those of you young men who want to go into ministry one day, I would encourage you to think about this and to just kind of realize this and embrace this, that when you're in ministry, you live really in a glass house. You know, people are going to look at the things you do and the things you say. There's almost no decision you can make in ministry without having somebody criticize it or somebody tell you you're wrong or somebody tell you that they don't agree with what you're doing or saying or whatever it might be. We as leaders need to learn to live with that. David was the leader and he was casting stones. But I want you to notice, when we talk about what the haters do, I want you to notice that the Shimei not only was casting stones at David, fighting against David, hating on David, but I want you to notice that these haters will often cross lines of decency and not only hate on the leader, but then they'll also hate on the friends and on the family and on the followers and on the church members of the leaders. Notice that Shimei dies. Look at verse 6. And he cast stones at David and at, not just David, and at all the servants of King David and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. I want you to notice that the haters, they're not just going to cast stones at the leader. They're not just going to cast criticism at the leader. They're not just going to lie in gossip about the leader, but they're also going to lie in gossip about all the servants, about all the friends, about all the followers. They're going to cross lines of decency. See, the reason that these haters, they get on under our skin is not that they're necessarily because they're attacking us. If all they were doing was attacking us, you know, we wouldn't mind that. We'd be fine with that. We could take that. The issue is when they start casting stones at the church members, when they start lying and gossiping and criticizing. You know, those who are just simply there to follow and to be part of the church and to try to serve alongside us. But we need to understand that this is part of their game. This is part of their plan. So listen, Sure Foundation Baptist Church church member, when the Sebastian's or when the, you know, haters get thrown out of church and all of a sudden now this church has an enemy online. This church has an enemy on social media. Hey, don't be surprised when they start attacking you because they're not just going to throw stones at this man. They're going to throw stones at the whole group. They're going to try to fight against the whole group. These haters will cross lines of decency and they'll hate not just on the leader but on the friends and on the followers. But I want you to notice also not only do they cross these lines of decency, but haters will flat out lie about the people they're hating on. Notice verse 7, Now he's talking to David. He says, Now what's a man of Belial? A man of Belial or a son of Belial is a son of the devil. We're talking about someone who is a reprobate here. And here we have Shimei looking at David and saying, David, you're a man of Belial. You're a man of Satan. You're a son of the devil. You're a reprobate. Now was David a reprobate? Of course not. The Bible tells us that David was a man after God's own heart. The Bible tells us that David was a godly man. David was a man. Obviously he sinned and he did things he shouldn't have done, but this was a good man. But here we have the hater not only hating on David's friends and on his followers and on his servants, but we also have him lying about them. He's telling them that he's a man of Belial. Look at verse 8, Now is that true? Did David take the kingdom of the nation of Israel by hurting or by attacking the house of Saul? Did David, you know, in fact the opposite is true. The Bible says that David would not, you know, put his hand against the Lord's anointed. When Saul was attacking David and when David had the opportunities to be able to seek revenge and to be able to kill Saul, David chose not to. But here you've got the hater accusing him of the exact opposite. He's saying, you know, And behold, thou art taken in thy mischief because thou art a bloody man. None of that is true, but I want you to notice the third characteristic here of these haters. What is it that these haters do? Not only do haters cross a line of decency. They begin to hate on friends and on family, not just on the leader. Not only do haters flat out lie about the people they are hating. But I want you to notice, thirdly, that haters yoke up with other haters even when they have nothing in common. Notice what happens here. Look at verse 8. It's interesting. It's almost like, you know, the all-knowing almighty God wrote the word of God. Because we're looking at a story from, you know, thousands of years ago. And we see it played out, the same story played out today. Second Samuel 16, 8. And the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned. And the Lord, notice what he said. The Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom, thy son. Now here's the question I have. What does Shimei have to do with Absalom? I mean, what does Shimei and Absalom have in common? One is from the tribe of Benjamin. One is from the tribe of Judah. One is a descendant of Saul. One is a descendant of David. There is nothing that Absalom is doing that will further the agenda of Shimei. There is nothing that Shimei is doing that will further the agenda of Absalom. But yet you see Shimei here in some ways yoking up and he's now bringing up Absalom. He's using Absalom. He's, you know, joining himself up and yoking himself up with Absalom. And you say, well, what do these two people have in common? They have nothing in common except the fact that they both have the same enemy. They both hate David. And it's interesting because today, you know, isn't it interesting how it doesn't matter who we throw out of our churches and why we throw them out? They all end up being oneness? I mean, you get thrown out of church for being a child molester and the oneness, you know, Tyler Baker's trash can church is like, you're a child molester? Well, as long as you hate Pastor Anderson, come on in. As long as we have the same enemy, it doesn't matter, you know. It doesn't matter why you get kicked out of church. It doesn't matter what you're, as long as you've got a beef against David, you're welcome. But see, this is what the haters do. Their whole life is to hate. So when you have the same enemy as what they have, they're going to try to be your friend. And by the way, let me say this. The fact that these people, when we throw them out of our churches for railing, for heresy, for doing whatever it might be, the fact that they just immediately, instantly, you know, the same night are just commenting on the videos of these other losers, are just, you know, yoking up and emailing and befriending. Look, that ought to show you, that ought to justify, if it's not already justified, the reason these people got thrown out. Because let me explain something to you. You know, if I got thrown out of Verity Baptist Church, if there was a legitimate, and I'm not saying that these people have this. This is just a hypothetical. But if there was some legitimate reason why I got thrown out, some major misunderstanding, you know, something was taken out of context, and it just went, it just kind of got out of control, and I got thrown out of church, you think I'm going to go hang out with Tyler Baker? You think I'm going to go yoke up with some guy, I don't even know who he is, Timotheus? You think I'm going to go, you know, make videos with David Dorokoff? I couldn't make videos with David Dorokoff when he was on our side, much less now, you know. But you think I'm going to, you go, here's what I'm trying to tell you. See, it shows you the motive when you see who they go to and who they yoke up to. Look, I pray this never happens. But if Pastor Jimenez, you know, if I ever got in a fight with Pastor Thompson, and I mean, it got to the point where I'm just publicly, you know, just fighting with him. He's publicly fighting with me. You know, we're just, you know, going back and forth. If I ever started fighting with some of the other pastors in this movement, and you know, I pray that that never happens, and I'll try to make sure that never happens, right? If I ever started fighting with other pastors in the movement, just publicly, just saying, I'm against the new IFP, I'm sick and tired of people. Look, I'm not going to go be friends with Tyler Baker. I'm not going to go yoke up with these losers. Why? Because, see, why do they do it? Here's why they do it. Because they're haters. They don't really care what you're hating, as long as you're hating the same person they're hating. And see, the truth of the matter is that they're the sons of Belial. They're the ones that are pushing the agenda of Satan today. So they see a man of God trying to do something. Was David a perfect man? Of course not. Are any of the men that lead churches in our movement perfect? Of course not. But they see a man of God who's legitimately trying to do something for God, and they'll say, well, if you're yoking, if you're fighting them, I'm fighting them. Let's yoke up together. Let's be friends. You know, he starts siding with Absalom. You have nothing to do with Absalom, but these haters yoke up with other haters even, even when nothing in common. Let me show you one last, just kind of one last thing about these haters, what they do. Notice verse 13, 2 Samuel 16 and verse 13. 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel 16 verse 13. And as David and his men, notice what it says, went by the way. Shemaiah, notice this, went along on the hillside over against him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and cast dust. I want you to notice something, and here's what you need to understand. The haters are not going away. You say, well, you know, we threw them out of church two years ago. You know, two years from now, they're going to still be making videos. They're going to be casting stones as Shemaiah went along. They're following David. They went as he went. You know, he's not letting this go. He's following him along. And look, these haters, you need to just realize, once you get one, you know, once you get one, you're going to have a fan club for life. Their club's just going to grow. You know, and they're not going away. They're not going to forget. We're going to move on and forget about them. We're going to move on and fight other battles, and they're just going to always be there, just kind of following along, casting rocks, casting stones, throwing stones, casting dust. You know, this is what haters do. This is what they do. They hate on not just the leader, but on everyone that's associated with that leader. They flat out lie. They yoke up with other haters, even when they have nothing in common, and they are not going away. They're going to continue to go. So I want you to notice from this passage here that we learn what these haters do. And I want you to notice, not only because David's hater is a lot like our haters. You know, they have a lot of same characteristics. But I want you to notice, secondly tonight, not only what haters do, but I want you to notice who the haters are. Notice who they are. Look at verse 19, 2 Samuel 16 and verse 19. Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah unto the king. Notice what Abishai says. Abishai is on the side of David. He said, why should this, I want you to notice what he calls Shemiai. He says, why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? It's interesting because here we have Abishai who kind of tells us the type of person that Shemiai was. Notice Abishai doesn't say, hey, listen David, here we have Shemiai and here's what you need to know about Shemiai. Shemiai is a very successful businessman. Shemiai is a war hero. Shemiai leads your armies as a general. Shemiai, you know, he's doing great works for you or he's doing great works for God or Shemiai is a prophet. Here's someone that maybe we should listen to. You know, here we have Abishai saying, hey, we don't need to listen to Shemiai. You know why? Because he's a dead dog. Now what is it that he's saying when he says that he's a dead dog? Keep your place there in 2 Samuel 16. Go with me to the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter number 9. Let me just show you something real quickly. Ecclesiastes chapter number 9. If you open your Bible just right in the center, you're more than likely following the book of Psalms. Right after Psalms you have Proverbs and after Proverbs you have Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and I want you to look at verse number 4. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 4 says this, for to him that is joined to all the living there is hope. Now I want you to notice what this is Solomon writing, the book of Ecclesiastes, of course, the same man that God used to write the book of Proverbs. And here he kind of gives us a little bit of a wisdom statement or a little proverb. He says this, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. Now I don't know if you know this in the Bible. I brought this up recently at our church in Sacramento and I'm going to bring it up tonight. And I'm not trying to hurt your feelings if you're someone who is like this. But I don't know if you know this in the Bible, but in the Bible God always speaks of dogs in a negative way. Dogs are always bad. He calls the sodomites dogs. You know, and look up the word dog. If you have like a search engine for your Bible, look up the word dog in the Bible. Look up every reference and they're all going to be negative. And I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, okay? If it makes you feel any better, all dogs go to heaven, okay? That's fine. You know, if you want to believe that, that's great. But you know, God doesn't speak very well about dogs. In fact, Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 4, this is the most positive statement in the entire Bible that you're going to find about dogs. This is the most positive that God gets about dogs. Look, the best thing he says about a dog is this, a living dog is better than a dead lion. God says if you have to choose between a lion that was dead, the corpse of a lion, or a dog that is alive, he says, yeah, I guess you should pick the dog because a living dog is better than a dead lion. That's about as positive as God gets. But here's what's interesting. Abishai says about Shemiach, he's not even a living dog, he's a dead dog. He says this guy is worthless. He's saying, look, if you've got to pick between, if someone's giving you a gift and they say, here's your gift, I'm going to give you a dead lion or a dead dog, which one do you want? I'm taking the dead lion. Right? But a dead dog, I've got no use for a dead dog. I barely got a use for a live dog. But a dead dog, a dead dog is worthless. A dead dog is not needed. A dead dog doesn't bark when, you know, someone is in your backyard and shouldn't be there. A dead dog is not going to alert you when there's a problem. A dead dog is not going to wake you up when the house is on fire or whatever, you know, if you got lazy, I guess. You know, a dead dog is not going to do anything. A dead dog is worthless. And here we have Abishai saying, this man right here, this man that's criticizing you, this man that's hating on you, this man that's lying about you, David, this man, he's a dead dog. Here's what he's saying. He's a loser. He's worthless. Go to Acts, Acts chapter number 17 in the New Testament. You have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Acts chapter 17. I want you to understand this, that whenever Satan looks, whenever Satan looks to recruit, Whenever Satan looks to enlist or to recruit soldiers for his army, he always looks for the dead dogs. He always looks for the losers. He always looks, notice Acts 17, are you there? Look at verse 5. Acts 17, verse 5, notice what the Bible says. But the Jews, which believe not, moved with envy, notice what it says. Took unto them, when they were looking for guys to use as haters, notice what they found. They took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. Know what that means? Low lives. The baser sort, they said, they found the biggest low lives. They found the biggest losers. They found the biggest dead dog they could find and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. Here's what I want you to say. Not only can we learn from Shimei what haters do, but we can learn from Shimei who haters are. Who are the haters? The haters in this world are all losers. They're people that cannot, they cannot accomplish anything in life. They cannot get anything done in life. All they can do in life is hate on those who are attempting to do something for God. You know, they've never built a dog house. They've never rent a hot dog stand, but they want to tell us how we're running the church wrong. You know, and here's the funny thing. You know, and I don't know about here, I mean, Sebastian seemed like a pretty big loser to me. But, you know, at our church we had a whole group, we had a whole flock of losers we had to throw out all at once. And it was funny, you know, it's like birds of a feather flock together, no doubt. I mean, here we got grown men. We're not talking about, you know, we're talking about grown guys. The younger one was, you know, in his mid-twenties or something like that, but you had guys in their thirties, in their like fifties, you know, I think another one was also in their thirties. We had a whole group of four guys, all the guys that are hating on us, making videos against us, trying to make us look bad. All these four guys, unemployed. And you say, is there something wrong with being unemployed? There's nothing wrong with being unemployed, but there's something wrong with being chronically unemployed. When you've been unemployed for like over two years. When your job is to be unemployed, like that's what you do. You know, none of them are married. You know, they're all just, you know, doing nothing with life. And it's funny because, you know, I get up or like Pastor Anderson gets up and says, when you get thrown out of church, you know, you're living under the curse of God. And by the way, that's true. The Bible says in the context of that passage, when you get thrown out of church, he says, what you bind on earth that God will bind in heaven and what you loosen on earth, God will loosen in heaven. And I do believe that when we bind these people and throw them out of church that God says, you know what, I'm going to bind them too and I'm going to put the curse of God upon them. And these guys will make these videos and they'll laugh, ha ha ha. Pastor Anderson said that when I got thrown out of church, I'm now living under the curse of God. Ha ha ha ha. And I'm thinking to myself, you're in your mid-thirties. You can't find a girl to give you time of day. You've been unemployed for like three years now. You're accomplishing nothing in life and you don't think you're under the curse of God. You think you're under the blessing of God? I think you're the definition of the curse of God. I think if the phrase the curse of God was in the dictionary, your picture would be sitting next to it. I think you're living your life like this. Here's what I'm telling you. The haters, the haters, they're dead dogs. They're men of the base of sorts. They're the lower level. They are the losers in life. I was recently watching one of these videos where these guys were having a round table discussion. You know how like the pastors will have round table discussions and talk about things that matter, like the King James Bible and Saul's wedding and things like that? These guys, it was comical because they were having a round table discussion about, I don't know what they were, about us, you know, hating on us. I just watched a few minutes of it because I just wanted to see the beginning of it. You know, because usually when you have these round table discussions, you know, who's seen something like that online where, you know, where you have several men there or whatever? Usually you start by introducing yourselves, right? So let's say, can you introduce yourself? You know, if I was going to introduce myself, here's like something I would say. I would say, you know, I guess it would depend what we're talking about, but I might say something like, my name's Pastor Roger Jimenez. I'm the pastor of Verde Baptist Church in Sacramento, California. I've been serving there for eight years now. You know, the Lord has blessed our church. And depending on what we're talking about, if we're going to be discussing soul winning, I might talk about the fact that our church, the Lord has blessed us with the fact that we mobilize somewhere around 80 soul winners every week to go out in the community and knock doors, you know. If they were talking about maybe, if it was a certain doctrine like the King James Bible, I might say something along the lines of, you know, I've been blessed to be able to be a part of some of the documentaries that teach these things. You know, you usually when you introduce yourself, you're kind of giving your credentials, right? Why people should be listening to us, you know? Pastor Thompson, can you, we're going to talk about church planting. Can you introduce yourself? Well, my name's Pastor Aaron Thompson. You know, I planted a church in Vancouver, Washington with Verde Baptist Church. And after two years, it became an independent church. It's a thriving church. It's a successful church. You know, you hear that and you think, okay, here's why I want to listen to this guy talk about this subject, right? Or, you know, we started a church planting in Vancouver, the other Vancouver, the lesser Vancouver. But, you know, we started a church planting in Vancouver and, you know, whatever. You give your credentials. Well, we had the hater discussion panel and it was like, go around and introduce yourself. Hi, my name's Sebastian. I got thrown out of Verde Baptist Church. And then the other guy, hi, my name's so-so. I got thrown out of this, you know, Faithful Word Baptist Church, whatever it was. Hi, my name's so-so. I got thrown out of Verde Baptist Church, Sacramento. Mine was Vancouver, you know. Listen to me. When your only credential, when your only claim to fame, when the only thing that you've done in life that is worth people listening to you for is I got thrown out of church. You're a loser. You're a lewd fellow of the baser sort. You're a dead dog. You're not even a live dog that God doesn't even like. You're a dead dog. And you say, well, what do they say? You know, why do they say, well, I got thrown out of this church? Because they're trying to attract people that hate us. They're trying to attract all the other haters. And the only views they get are from all the other haters. Or from all the righteous people. I just want to laugh at them. But, you know, who are these haters? Who are these haters? These haters are losers. They're losers in life. But I want you to notice, secondly, not only are they losers, but they are cowards. 2 Samuel 19, go to chapter 19. Now, I'm not going to get up here like Tyler Baker and bash women, okay? I'm not going to sit here and say, they're little girls. I have more respect for little girls. They're little sissies. I actually have more respect for a sissy than these guys, you know? But I will say this, they're cowards. Because here's what's interesting. Shimei will fight David. Shimei will fight David as long as David is distracted with Absalom. See, Shimei will throw stones at David as long as he can keep his distance from David. Shimei will attack David as long as he knows that David is not going to attack him. But when David is done with Absalom, when David can put all of his attention on Shimei, when David actually confronts and comes face to face with Shimei, I want you to notice how Shimei responds. 2 Samuel 19, look at verse 18. And there went over a ferryboat to carry over the king's household. This is after Absalom has already died and David is on his way back. And to do what he thought good. And Shimei, the son of Geirah, this is the same guy that just a few chapters ago was throwing stones, was calling names, was throwing dust, was saying you're a son of Belial, was saying, you know, God is recompensing the blood of Saul on your hands. Now we have Shimei, the son of Geirah. He fell down before the king as he was come over Jordan, verse 19. And said unto the king, Let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely. The day that my Lord the king went out of Jerusalem and that the king should take it to his heart. Here's what I want to tell you. When David is on his way out and Shimei can keep his distance, and David is distracted with Absalom and David's got other things going on, Shimei is tough guy. Thou son of Belial, you know, you're a person of Belial. God is recompensing upon you the blood of Saul. But now that David is confronting, coming this way, not leaving, but coming back face to face, you know what Shimei does? I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely. Here's what I'm telling you. These haters, they're cowards. See, Tyler Baker can get up all he wants. Tyler Baker can get up and make all the videos about how we're all cowards. Pastor Anderson is a coward. Pastor Jimenez is a coward. We're little sissies. We're little girls. We're this and that. But look, we've all seen the video where Pastor Anderson is just railing into him when he confronted him, and he's sitting there like a whoop puppy. He's sitting there whimpering. He's sitting there whimpering. So here's what I'm telling you. You know, these guys, they'll make these videos, and they'll say, oh, Pastor Jimenez, he kicked me out through a text message because he was afraid to confront me. No, I kicked you out through a text message because you're a waste of my time. Well, he's afraid to confront. Well, here's the funny thing. Here's the funny thing. I did confront you. I did confront you. I did go to your meeting. I wasn't. I brought a witness. I've got the witness. There was other witnesses. I did confront you. You know, it's funny when these guys that we threw out, when I confronted them, the ringleader, the main brains of the operation the whole time would not look up. The other one, David Dorka, did not say a word. The other narcissist one, you know, the only time he spoke, the only time he spoke, he rose his hand, like waiting for me to give him permission. I said, yeah, I called on him. Go ahead. You can speak now. He started to say some stupid thing. I said, that's a stupid question. I just rebuked him. Didn't say a thing. Not a word. None of them. You know, so they go off. They go off and make their videos, and in their videos they're a tough guy. They're a tough guy. But it doesn't change the fact that you had your chance. Tyler, you had your chance to confront the heresy. You had your chance to rebuke us, to reprove us, and you sat there like a coward. And anything you say after that's not going to change. Any stories Shimei tells after that are not going to change. These guys are cowards. These guys are the baser sort. But I want you to notice if you're there in 2 Samuel, go back to chapter 16 and verse 9. We talked about who the haters are. And we talked about what the haters do. All of that was introduction. I hope that's okay. I want to give you four points tonight in regards to, and we won't, the introduction was probably as long if not longer than the rest of the sermon, right? So don't worry. But let's talk about just real quickly tonight how haters should be dealt with. How do we deal with these haters? Because we know that haters got to hate. We know that's what they're going to do. So what do we do? How do we deal with them? How do we deal with these haters? I want you to notice four things tonight, four things that David did when he was being hated on by Shimei. Number one tonight, if you'd like to write these statements down, number one. How do we deal with haters? Number one, refrain from responding. Refrain from responding. 2 Samuel 16, look at verse 9. You know, that's cool. I appreciate that. You know, that's not what David wanted. Verse 10. Notice what David says. So let him curse. So let him curse. See, the truth of the matter is that these haters are serving a purpose. These haters are serving a purpose. Pastor Anderson preached a great sermon at the Red Hot Preaching Conference about people that are trash. The trash people. The purpose of these people is that they are identifying for us all of the other trash people, the baser sort. They serve a purpose. So look, when they, and I'm not saying there's anything, look, I'm really, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with rebuking them. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with, you know, arguing with them or fighting with them. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with every once in a while making videos. You know, we all need comedy from time to time, you know, making videos. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them. But here's what I'm telling you. Realize that they're not going away. Realize that they're always going to be there. Because at some point you just kind of have to be done playing games, get back to the big boy work, get back to the real work, and just refrain. You see, David was telling, he was saying here, he was saying, we've got bigger fish to fry. We've got Absalom to deal with. We've got other things to do. So just go ahead and let them curse. Look at verse 11, last part of verse 11. Notice what he says. Let him alone and let him curse. And look, there comes a point where we just kind of have to block them, quit watching their videos, quit reading the comments, and just get back to work. And let them alone. So you say, well, how do I deal with the haters? How do I deal with the haters? Well, number one, refrain from responding. And realize this, a lot of these guys are narcissists. So the more attention we give them, we're feeding into them. There's one major narcissist I'm not naming tonight. I'm sure there's a video. He didn't name me because he's scared. You know, I didn't name you because I know the best way to mess with you is to not name you. Just sitting there. I mean, he's watching every sermon of all the pastors. You know, just waiting. Maybe today they'll name my name. I can make a video about it. You know, at some point we just have to refrain, refrain from responding. But secondly tonight, not only should we refrain from responding, but we should recognize that God will reward you for their cursing. Recognize that God will reward you for their cursing. One of the reasons I wanted to preach the sermon, there's a couple reasons. One reason is because actually Pastor Thompson was part of a discussion where they were going through talking about how to deal with people like this and I was watching it and listening to it and it got me a little fired up and I wanted to preach the sermon. There's another reason though I wanted to preach the sermon. The reason is because, you know, we just had, recently we had a new hater join my fan club. You know, and whenever a new hater joins I have to, I know about it because we send him a jacket, you know, and a little membership card. And, you know, and we get their fee, the fees of course, you know. But we had a new hater. We had a guy who had left our church and we knew he left upset. You know, he left and whatever. People leave upset. That's fine. No problem. Honestly. And look, the truth of the matter is when people leave, people leave our churches all the time. People come and go all the time. And look, if you leave not causing issues, not causing problems, we don't have a reason to hate on you or be mad at you. In fact, we don't want to do that because we're hoping you'll get right with God and come back. You know, we only call these people out when they're causing problems. When they're calling everybody, throwing their stones, lying, doing false accusations, trying to split the church, that's when we have to come up publicly and say, hey, this person needs to be marked and avoided. But we had an individual who left the church and they left the church and that's fine. No issue there. But, you know, recently they were getting ready. It's funny because, you know, they're so tough. But this guy literally on the last day, because he was moving away from California, on the last day, like they literally like loaded up the U-Haul truck. They've got nothing left and he's like, okay, I'll make the video now. You know, and they make this video against me. You know, they're interviewing this individual and he's saying these things and he's saying that. And you say, Pastor Mendez, does it bother you? And honestly, it doesn't bother me. This one bothered me a little bit and not because of me, but I'll be honest with you, it bothered me for my parents. And my parents are godly Christians. They're obviously older Christians. They raised me. They raised, you know, my family, independent formal Baptist. And my dad's on a mission strip right now in Mexico, soul winning and doing great things for God. You know, this family, here's what they won't tell you in the video when they're hating on us. And here's what happens. Here's what happens. People get backslidden and they don't have the character to say, you know, here's the truth of the matter. I got backslidden. So they need to find something to be mad about to justify why they leave. But here's what they don't tell you. Here's what they don't tell you. They don't tell you that when that family moved to Sacramento and, or not Sacramento, but to California, to the area to be part of our church, and they had no other family around. Their family was, you know, hundreds of miles away. What they don't tell you is that my mom and dad, I'm not talking about elderly couple in our church. I'm talking about Pastor Jimenez's parents invited that family over for Christmas Day with our family. With me, my wife, my children, my sister, my brother-in-law, my brother, my nieces and nephews. Not a church event. Not a church function. Our personal just family time when we're together and they're not calling me pastor and I'm not in ministry mode. You know, my parents invited this family over just because they felt bad that they don't have any family to be with for Christmas. And they, and my family took it a step, and I didn't ask them to do this. They did this on their own. I found out the day of that, oh, so and so is going to be here. My mom and dad invited them. They took it a step further. Our family bought them all Christmas gifts. Not, not ministry, the church went out and bought them. No, no. They went out, out of their own pockets, out of their own time. My wife went out, you know, when she knew they were going to be there, out of their own time, out of their own pockets and bought them Christmas gifts because they're going to be with us for Christmas day. You know, we're going to be opening up gifts. We don't want to make them feel left out. So we brought them into our family. We invited them into our personal family time. We brought them gifts and then here they are, you know, a year later after they get back to it and they're just bad mouthing the church, bad mouthing church people that all they ever did was love on them and help them and be with them. And you know, you say, does it bother you? You know, it bothers me not for me, but for them. And honestly, I'm hoping my parents watch all my sermons, but I'm hoping they're not watching tonight because I'm hoping they don't go and watch that video. Because I'm hoping that my parents wouldn't feel hurt or betrayed or stabbed in the back because some dead dog decided they don't want to just throw stones at me, but they want to throw stones at our family. And you say, pastor, does that bother you? Does it hurt you? Does it make you upset? You know, I try to remember that, and I try to recognize that God will record, that God will reward me, that God will reward you for their cursing. 2 Samuel 16, verse 12. Notice what David said. He said, it may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction and that the Lord will require me good for his cursing this day. You say, how do you deal with the haters? Well, you refrain from responding, but you also recognize that God will reward you. You recognize, like David, you say like David, that it may just be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, that the Lord will look on the hurt and the stabbing in the back and the lie, that God will look on that and that the Lord will require me good for his cursing, for his lies, for his backstabbing. See, the Bible says, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. The Bible says, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. The Bible says, you don't have to take it into your own hands. The Bible says, you don't have to always, you know, settle the score. You don't always have to balance it out. He says, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. See, how do you deal with the haters? Well, you refrain from responding. You recognize that God will reward you for their cursing. But number three, you remember who you are and you remember who they are. Second Samuel 19, look at verse 20. If you're there in chapter 16, just flip a few pages over. Second Samuel 19. Remember, David comes back. David comes back and he's in the kingdom now. Notice what the Bible says in verse 20, for thy servant doth know, this is the valiant Shimei, for thy servant doth know that I have sinned. Therefore, behold, I am come, the first this day of all the house of Joseph, to go down to meet my Lord the King. But Abishai the son of Zerah answered and said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord's anointed? And I want you to notice that these men are not on the same level of character as the men of God. David, who was legitimately being, you know, persecuted by Saul, refused to touch the Lord's anointed. This Shimei thought it was nothing wrong to curse the Lord's anointed. Verse 22, And David said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeriah, that ye should this day be adversaries unto me? Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? Now notice what David says. David says, For do not I know that I am this day king over Israel? David said, I don't need to hurt Shimei, I don't need to get revenge on Shimei, I don't need to get, you know, to settle the score, to even the balance here with Shimei, I don't need to do that. You say, Why not, David? David says, Because, he says, For do not I know that I am this day king over Israel? And you say, When you're dealing with the haters, you know, David said, I know who I am. I know my shortcomings, and I know the blessing of God. I know the position God has given me. I know the blessings and the influence that God has given me. David says, I am who I am, no matter what he says, and he is who he is, no matter what he says. So just remember, just remember who you are. You say, Why don't you have to deal with these haters? Why don't you have to deal with these losers? You know why? Because at the end of the day, because at the end of the day, I get to go home with a beautiful wife, with six wonderful children, with a wonderful, leading and pastoring a wonderful church family, with all sorts of friends all across the country and fellow pastors that are, that are friends. I get to live this life, and they go home, and they're still a dead dog. And they're still a basser's horn. And they're still all they've ever done and accomplished in life. See, I will, Lord willing, end my life one day with churches like Sure Foundation Baptist Church, all across the country, Lord willing. I will, Lord willing, one day, and it's not that I'm anything special. It's to God be the glory, but because we are human agents, we do end up having friendships and relationships, and I, Lord willing, will end up one day, you know, just like I have up here with Vancouver, Washington, a group of people that I could look to and, you know, look forward. When I'm coming up here, I'm looking forward to see my friends, looking forward to see my family. You guys, you know, love us because we invested in you, and we love you because you're a great fruit and reward of the work that we've done here. We're doing this. We did this with you, but we're doing this with Boise. We're developing friends and relationships with people in Boise, and we're doing it with Manila, and then, Lord willing, we'll do it somewhere else and somewhere else and somewhere else, and here's all I'm saying. Glory be to God that God has allowed me to have a position for as long as God desires to continue to bless and pat his hand upon our ministry, God has allowed me to be able to be who I am. Glory to God for that. And they are still who they are. No matter how many videos they make, no matter how many lies they tell, haters are hating haters. You say, how do you deal with it? Well, you remember who you are. David said, for do not I know that I am this day king over Israel? I remember learning this lesson. I don't know if I should go into this story. I'm going to run out of time here. I remember learning this lesson as a young man. I was working one of my first jobs, you know, I was 17, 18 years old, and I was working in like a, it was like a retail type thing where we were dealing, where it's actually selling things, and I was in a counter, one of the things we did was we did money orders. We would sell money orders. And I remember there was a guy that came in, and he was a big guy. You could tell he was like, hadn't showered in like weeks, and you know, just hadn't changed his clothes in weeks, you know, and then this and then that. And I remember he asked for a money order, and you know, I was supposed to charge him something. I didn't charge him. I literally overcharged them a quarter, by mistake, just you know, the rate had changed or whatever, and I hit the wrong button, and I overcharged them a quarter. And this guy got so angry. I mean literally like started like hitting things and cussing and yelling and talking about how I was trying to steal his quarter to the point, you know, and I'm like a 17-year-old kid, you know, and to the point where like the manager had to come out and like, you know, push me back and was telling this guy like, you got to get out of here and blah, blah, blah, and you know, this and that. And this guy got in his car, and we could see him in the parking lot, you know, he came out of the parking lot, and he was, you know, throwing stuff, and he was, and excuse me, I wasn't 17. I was 18 years old. I had just gotten married. That's what it was. And this guy was like kicking his car, and you know, his car was this beater wreck, you know, and this and that. Nothing wrong with that, okay? But he was doing this, you know, and I'm just sitting there, and I'm thinking to myself, like good night. Like I didn't mean, I wasn't trying to steal his fortunes. I really wasn't. And this is when we, you just, my wife and I just got married. We were 18 years old. We just got married, and I was driving this little Toyota Celica. It was my wife's car, all right, when we got married. But I was driving this little Toyota Celica, and actually the Toyota Celica was sitting next to this guy. It's good that he didn't know that was my car because it might have broke my window or something, but he's sitting there like yelling, and it's mad, and angry. I remember my boss took me aside, and this is not politically correct. I'm just telling you what he told me, and he said, he said, you know, he said, don't worry about that guy. And I said, okay. And he said, you know, here's the thing. That guy woke up this morning and probably had his wife, you know, throw him off the bed and said, you know, quit being a loser and go get a good job, you know, or whatever. And then he probably went to work, and, you know, at the fast food place he works or whatever, and he probably got fired and replaced by an 18-year-old just like you. You know, and he went over this whole as well. He's probably this, he's probably that. And he's like, you know, he comes in here, and he's yelling, and he's mad. It just makes him feel important. But he said, you know, when your shift is over, the guy said to me, he said, when your shift is over, you're going to get in that little nice Toyota Celica and drive to your beautiful, newly wedded, you know, bride, and you're going to be fine in life, and he's going to be who he is. So don't worry about it. And I remember thinking to myself, like, that's true. And sometimes I'm at Walmart, you know, and somebody like cuts me off or whatever. Sometimes I think to myself, I get to go home and be me, and you're still you. And sometimes when these haters hate on us, they lie about us, they turn people against us, they say things that aren't true, I think to myself, I get to go home and be me, and you're still you. So just remember, just remember who you are and who they are. Number four, quickly, I said number one, refrain from responding. Number two, recognize that God will reward you for their cursing. Number three, remember who you are and who they are. Number four, realize that there's coming a day when they will get what they deserve. Realize that there is coming a day when they will get what they deserve. Go to 1 Kings chapter number two, just real quickly, we're almost done. 1 Kings chapter number two. 1 Kings chapter number two. And I want you to notice verse number eight, 1 Kings chapter number two and verse number eight. 1 Kings chapter two and verse eight. Notice what the Bible says, and behold, thou. Now this is David speaking. He says, this is David at the end of his life and he's speaking to Solomon who is going to, his son who's going to take over the kingdom. He says, behold, thou has with the Shimei. Shimei has been with David to the end. And he says, thou has with the Shimei the son of Gira, a Benjamin of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at Jordan and I swear to him by the Lord saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. Now I want you to notice David swore to Shimei that he was not going to put him to death. But here's what's interesting. David swore that he was not going to put him to death. He didn't swear that someone else wasn't going to put him to death. Verse nine it says this, now therefore, this is what David is telling Solomon as he's taken over the kingdom. Hold him not guiltless, for thou art a wise man and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him, but his whorehead bring thou down to the grave with blood. So David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. Literally the last request before David dies. Skip down to verse 44. 1 Kings chapter 2 and verse 44. The king said, moreover to Shimei, this is Solomon now, thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father. The Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head. Verse 45 and King Solomon shall be blessed and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. So the king commanded Benaniah the son of Jehoiada which went out and fell upon him that he died and the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon. Go to Luke chapter 19 just real quickly. Matthew, Mark, Luke chapter 19. You say how do you deal with these haters when they're lying? When they're backstabbing? When they're hurting those who we love? How do you deal with it? Well you refrain from responding. You recognize that God will reward you for their cursing. You remember who you are in Christ and the blessings of God and who they are even in Belial and how their men of base are stored. They're the low lives. They are the dead dog. But you also realize that they will one day get what is coming. And here's what David had to realize. David had to realize in this kingdom, in this kingdom, Shimei is going to lie and steal and curse. He's going to bad mouth me in this kingdom. I'm always going to have Shimei. There's always going to be a Shimei. But David understood that in the next kingdom, that in the next kingdom Shimei will get what he deserves. So look, don't get too bent out of shape about the Tyler Bakers and the Rick Martinez. Don't get too bent out of shape about the punk Kyle's. Don't get too bent out of shape about, you know, the haters. Because in this kingdom, in this kingdom, in this time, in this time of our lives, we have to deal with them. They'll always be around. We've got to mess with them. But in the coming kingdom, when not Solomon, but the Lord Jesus Christ reigns on this earth, those haters are going to get what's coming to them. Luke 19 and verse 27, notice what the Bible says. Luke 19 and verse 27 says this, But those mine enemies, This is Jesus speaking during his millennial, what he will do during the millennial reign. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me. See, the millennial reign of Christ will not only be a time when we will be able to enjoy the greatness and the glory of God here upon the earth, but it will also be a time when God will balance the scales, when God will take his enemies and punish them. And here's what Jesus said. These guys are all a bunch of reprobate sons of Belial. They have what's coming to them. And, you know, in the unlikely sense, and I think most of these guys are reprobates, but, you know, just in case some guy who's actually saved gets wrapped up with them and becomes part of their fan club even while being saved, which I don't think is true because, you know, most of these guys, they end up, you know, hating on us, but then they embrace, you know, damnable heresies like oneness, which shows that they're not saved. You know, but just in case you say, well, what if there's a hater out there who's saved, who's not going to be thrown into, you know, hell, who's not going to receive damnation? What about them? Well, here's what I believe about them. Go back to 2 Samuel 19. You know, during the millennial reign, you know, when these guys who hate on us, these guys who lie about us, these guys who hurt you and lie about you as church people to try to provoke your pastor into getting upset, these guys who are attacking our friends and are attacking a family, you say, in case one of them is saved, which I don't think they are, but just in case one of them is saved, you say, what do you think is going to happen? Here's what I think is going to happen. At the millennial reign of Christ, I think that they're going to be assigned to me. Or to Pastor Anderson. Or to, you know, Pastor Thompson. And they're going to walk up to us. Let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me. Neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely. You say, what are you trying to say? Here's what I'm trying to say. They're going to get what's coming to them. So don't worry about it. Realize that they will get what they deserve. And I believe that most of them, if not all of them, and honestly, probably all of them, are going to split hell wide open. So don't worry about it. You say, why? Because look, haters are going to hate. This is what they do. This is all they do. They got nothing else to do. And the fact that they're hating on you, or on me, or on our church, or your church, or our ministry, or your ministry, or the things that we're involved in, shows that we must be accomplishing something great for God. That Satan has to get all his baser sort, you know, dead dog army to attack us. Because this is what they do. They do. Let's bow here at the Navajo to prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for your word. Thank you for the Bible. And Lord, thank you for the Bible. Even in matters like these, that are somewhat comical, we can find in the Bible that there's no new thing under the sun. We're dealing with lewd fellows of the baser sort. And so were the saints in the word of God. And they're doing the same thing to us that they were doing to them. And Lord, help us to just fight them when we need to fight them. Rebuke them when we need to rebuke them. And to just, you know, forget about them when it's time and to just move on. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to continue to just fight against the false doctrine. And when they are preaching false heresy, like oneness, when they're preaching stupid things like flat earth. Lord, help us to stand up and just rebuke those things and to keep our churches pure. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.